More little things have been getting done. Just little projects as I can fit them in. We have been using the truck a lot!
First I added LED strips under the bed. It was always dark trying to find things down there. Its bright now!
LED strips under the bed.
Made a new switch mount for the inverter and lights. Which somehow I have backwards…. Just remember on=off….
Inverter and light switches
Then I installed a 12v compressor. This is for being able to air up the bags, the tires as needed and blow up floaty toys etc. Its a 100% duty cycle Puma, with a small one gallon tank.
Strapped in place by the back door.
I wires it with marine tinned wire, and a resetable circuit breaker.
The rear axle has helper air bags, they are great for heavy trucks! I generally run about 70 psi in them, this helps keep the rear end higher, and also off the overload springs. Makes for a better ride with a heavy rear end.
Here you can see the overload springs are not touching the perches with air in the bags.
With ~60 psi in them.
And here is what it looks like with 0 psi in them.
Zero psi, look at the upper spring.
But when they were installed, the fillers (the air valve like your tires) were installed right on top of the air bags. This meant climbing under the truck and sitting by the rear axle to fill or even just check pressures.
Lazy installer’s filler location
The fittings used are quick connect, so I deflated the bags, and went to work taking the valves off. I used DOT 1/4″ air line to extend them back to the back bumper. Much nicer to be able to check pressures and fill now!
Time to replace the front shocks to match the rear. Over big whoops in the road the front end would bounce a little so they are getting tired. I went with Bilstien 5100’s just like the rear end.
Old Vs New
Getting them out wasn’t too bad, getting the new ones in was harder…. Trying to collapse them enough to fit and hold them with zip ties.
New and shiny
No its not rusty, its red grit that Oregon DOT spreads everywhere in the winter. it works well and is very grippy, but man it makes a red mess.
Not enough miles on it to report how they work yet, but I will update it after a few thousand miles.
Sooo we needed a backup camera. I had an old phone I figured I would try use as a screen. So I ordered a Wifi transmitter and a camera. Good in theory, not so good behind a huge metal box.
But anyway, the camera and transmitter seem decent, the license plate light was tapped for power, and the camera is powered off the transmitter.
Camera and Transmitter
It was all installed in a tupperware for water proofness, and attached to the back bumper panel with VHB tape.
Now it works, if your behind the truck, not exactly ideal….. As soon as you move past the the back and down the side the signal just drops. Oh well, I guess I need to run wires….
Also a cell booster was installed. This works better! Definitely get better signal, but its still slow if the signal is weak. Also there is some interference with FM radio if its signal is weak also. The external antenna is close, but far enough per the install guide, but moving it further away may help. The unit is a WeBoost 4G-x, its in the glove box, and the internal antenna is above the rear view mirror.
So a wrap up of the first long trip we have done. 9 days, 2 states, 2 provinces, 3 people, two 100lb dogs. All worked pretty damn well. Truck eats up highway miles like a dream, drives really nice.
As always we come home with a list. Need to get clothes storage above the bed done. Getting under it all the time is a pain. Bed also needs a grab handle to help with lifting. Better seals are needed on the back doors. Back bumper needs to go. But all things we can tackle in time.
To start we headed from Seattle to Spokane. First night was in Riverside State park. It was hot, but the river was warm enough for careful swimming, there was a good current. Luckily we had a hook up site that night that allowed us to run our little portable AC unit.
Not a bad site.
Riverside state park
There is a little suspension bridge across the river so you can hike up and down both sides of the canyon.
Bridge across the river
Next two nights were spent in the Silverwood Theme park RV campground. It was clean, had hook ups, but exactly zero shade. It was very very hot. But the park was a lot of fun, and water slides are good for cooling off! We had never gone before and the kid loved it.
Silverwood Site
We got up at 4am to head up to Canada, it was a good 6 ish hour drive and we had a long hike we wanted to sneak in that afternoon. Off to the mountains!
Off to the Canadian Rockies!
We had planned to hike up to the plain of six glaciers above Lake Louise, but upon seeing the line to even get up to the lake we turned around and headed to the campground where we would stay that night. We promptly passed out for a nap. We made some lunch and headed back up later in the afternoon, luckily as we had hoped the crowds had cleared out a bit, we were able to park and head up on our hike.
It was gorgeous, dogs loved getting out of the truck and into the lake. There were quite a few avalanche chutes to cross with lots of snow left.
The next morning we headed up to Takkawa Falls. The second largest falls in Canada I believe. Again getting up very early has its advantages. There is one very tight set of switch backs in the road. Take notice of the directions on how to go up them.
Backing up the switch backs
You have to back up them in larger vehicles, even full size truck have trouble with the turns. Early morning was good, no one else even on the road heading up.
We had breakfast in the parking lot then it was a quick hike to the falls, pretty amazing, especially how far the mist went.
Takakkaw Falls
Beautiful views were everywhere, even just the drive back down. Sun just starting to hit the mountains in the distance.
We headed further north to out next destination, Wabasso campground. But on the way we stopped for a hike up the Athabasca Glacier.
More amazing views along the way
The glacier walk was very cool, but its amazing how fast its disappearing. They loose around 20′ of thickness each year. The visitor center seen in the very back of the second picture, by the green, was built in the early 1900’s and was right at the toe of the glacier at that time.
Athabasca GlacierRapidly Melting away
It was a fun hike out and back, we took a guided tour and quite enjoyed it. IT was pretty cool to walk on hundreds of feet of ice, looking down into the crevasses, and just felling it under your feet. Definitely worthwhile.
Our campground for the night was Wabasso, we had a great spot right on the river. It was in the “tent only” loop, but this site is weird and only allows truck/van campers. Not much tent room and lots of roots, so I guess they just decided to do that. One thing to note is the road to Wabasso is terrible, its very old asphalt that is pot holed badly down the outsides. Just be aware of many people driving up the middle.
Wabasso, on the river
We bought a firewood permit here, the Canada Parks have a permit for all you can burn fire wood, $8 at the time. They have dump truck sized piles around the campground. However it was the last fire of the trip due to burn bans.
Beautiful sunset on the river next to our site
We again arose early to head out to our next destination, and hopefully avoid the crowds. We were headed for the hike up the Edith Cavell glacier, but upon arrival to the road up it was gated….. Little did we know that permits were now required. We headed up the road to the nearby ski area, and found a pull out for breakfast. We did some quick googling which lead us to find out permits are issued at the visitor center in Jasper at 8am daily. Being that we got an early start we still had plenty of time to head to town and get a permit. When we arrived at the visitor center there was quite the line already forming. But we ended up getting a permit for 11am and headed back towards the campground. The only other issue was the road was limited to 21 feet in length vehicles, we are a little over that, but no one said anything. With careful driving we made it just fine. There are a few very tight turns and the road is narrow, but it didn’t cause any issues.
Since we had some time to kill before out 11am slot to head up we stopped by Athabasca Falls. These waterfalls are scattered everywhere it seems! But this one was pretty neat. It had carved a very deep trench through the rocks.
Athabasca FallsGorge carved by the falls
Then it was our time to head up to the Edith Cavell Glacier. Like I mentioned the road has restrictions on length, but after driving it I think it’s not a big issue. It seems to me that it’s almost more to keep the drivers who are not super comfortable in their rental RV’s off. Its pretty tight.
Sadly the meadows above the glacier were closed due to a mommy Grizzly having cubs and being aggressive, but the glacier was still amazing.
Edith Cavell Glacier
We hung around for a bit, climbed up the ridge line and took lots of pics. We even got to see a chunk of the glacier break off and come tumbling down, it was very cool and faster than I could get a picture.
The view from the parking lot makes you feel small!
We had a nice lunch here, there was a great breeze blowing through the truck with the windows open and we were in no rush. Not a bad place to hang out. We headed back down the twisty road and spent another night in the Wabasso campground.
We headed out the next morning, leaving the Banff and Jasper parks behind. We headed back to BC and for Wellsgrey Provincial park. There we had a campground reservation way inside the park.
Along the way we stopped and hiked up towards Mt Robson. The hike up to the lakes was much further than I had anticipated, so sadly we didn’t make it all the way. There were lots of people heading up to camp at the lakes towards the base of the mountain. It was still nice to get out of the truck and walk for a couple of hours.
Mt Robson
We made another quick detour as I saw a little spur road that looked like it went down to the river we were driving along. Sure enough it did, but someone had beaten us down there. It would have been a nice spot for lunch, but we took a few pics and left the others to the spot.
Just off the highway
Like I mentioned our camp site was a fair ways inside the park. What I didn’t know if the road was gravel…. But BC parks has done a GREAT job keeping the road up, it been very very well soaked in magnesium chloride, a dust control and bonding agent, it was smooth and we left almost no dust going 40mph down the road.
We did however start to notice some smoke off in the distance. Not enough to smell it, but it was definitely there. This turned out to be the start of a very bad series of fires for the area.
Campsite in Wellsgrey
Nice little campground, right on the river. Lots and lots of mosquitos though. They would flock to the window screens whenever we were inside. We whipped up some dutch oven break and a batch of chili.
The lake just a quick hike from the campground was very beautiful. There is a portage your able to take small boats and canoes through, and many many boat in campsites along the lake. It would be a lot of fun to come back for. The smoke is starting to make an appearance giving the orange glow to the evening. The lake was very cold though, even being very warm out it was not more than you wanted to put your feet in.
Falls at the end of the lake
A crazy storm wind and lighting storm rolled through that evening, just enough huge drops to leave lots of marks in the dust on the truck, and make us run to get the EZ up out in time for it to stop. The lighting was cool, right overhead and all around, but short-lived. It was a nice last night, a little cooler and lots of little trails around the campground.
We awoke the next morning to smoke. The wind and lightning had started lots and lots of fires around the area. When we got radio service it said 174 fires, and they were evacuating the town we were driving through.
Before we left Wellsgrey park we stopped at a few waterfalls. You would never know they were there from driving by, it all seems reasonably flat, but wow there were some amazing ones!
First was Helmcken Falls, wow was not expecting that. The area is volcanic rock, and the streams/rivers have carved huge channels into the ground. It was a quick walk from the parking lot and insanely beautiful with huge canyon.
Helmcken Falls
We then drove a few more miles down the road to the next stop, Dawson Falls. This one was wide and not nearly as tall.
Dawson Falls
And lastly, just before leaving the park was Spahats falls. Not as grand as Helmcken, but wow that was a deep Canyon. It just dropped off. Very cool to see the way the water can carve through basalt.
Spahats Falls
After find the amazing amount of falls tucked away in this park, those were just scratching the surface really, we pointed the truck south and headed home.
Smoke
Sadly the smoke was our view for a few hundred miles. It didn’t clear up until we were back to Kamloops. But the drive home was uneventful .
So all in all 1600 miles, truck worked great, we were all tired, and it was a great little trip.
While washing your hair in the sink does work, yes we tried it!, an outdoor shower has always been in the plan. I was originally going to use a standard “RV” shower, but the cutout needed was huge, and it really wasn’t very nicely made.
So I had seen a “shower port” before at some point so I went googling. The one I wanted was a Bullfinch unit. Its really slick, the hose plugs into the unit, and then it is used to adjust the temperature as well. It only requires a 2 3/8″ hole, and has a tiny mixing valve built in. The shower head is also a dish washer style where when you release the button the water stops. Should help with water usage!
Bullfinch Shower point
The shower was installed right above the intake/exhaust for the water heater, not ideal location, but it was about the only spot it fit nicely. With the cover closed it sticks out about 1/2″, the cover has a gasket to keep road grime out too.
Shower installed and closed
When you hook the hose up, the water is automatically connected. just adjust the temperature and its ready to go.
Hooked up
And it works! It actually shoots water a long ways….
It works!
I teed into the water lines near the sink, it is supplied both hot and cold. Eventually I will likely add valves to be able to turn it off and drain it for the winter. I’m still a little worried it might freeze, the valve is in the wall basically. One thing to note is that the Bullfinch uses metric fittings! They are Whale fittings, a common push to connect fitting used in Europe. I found them locally at a marine supply store, not hard to find.
Interior connections.
And that’s it for the shower! I need to make a mat to stand on, but it should work nicely for upcoming trips.
Well as we are packing up in the rain for a long weekend, I see what looks like a window leaking…. Its dripping from inside the frame. I looked at the caulk all around the window, nothing seems out of place. Maybe it was running down the body lines, so I smeared more goop on those spots. Didn’t seem to do much but nothing else I could find.
So off we went, we spent the weekend at the Northwest Overland Rally, great fun, lots of friends we don’t see too often and a nice weekend away. Even if camping in a grass field with 1500 other people isn’t our norm.
Our spotFriday morning before all the people showed up.
It rained a bit thursday night and Friday morning, but no real leaks.
After we got home I climbed on the roof to look up there. Sure enough the factory sealant had cracked right along the joint from the corner extrusion to the roof sheet metal. Damn. It was actually leaking down inside the body channels and just coming out where it hit the window!
Cracks!
You can just see the dark colored straight lines in the picture above, those are the cracks. They are all the way around…. Luckily there is some butyl in between the corner and roof that has seemed to keep it sealed in most places.
Bad.
It was cracked very badly across the front, luckily there is a large strip of butyl here, so no leaks I could find. But it was not adhered at all, this whole section peeled up.
Peeled and sanded.
I ended up taking a grinder and going all the way around, grinding the middle of the existing sealant to expose fresh stuff to bond to, and to get the cracks out.
Ground down
I will be adding a second layer of polyurethane caulking, Sikaflex 1a specifically, over the existing stuff. It doesn’t bond well to bare aluminum, so a coat of Sika 260 primer was brushed over it. Before that, a scrub brush, acetone and lots of rags were used to get everything as clean as possible.
Not many pics, its sticky messy work, but 8 tubes were used to cover the seams. It was troweled and finger smooshed around. Hopefully sealing and thick and flexible enough to last a few more years.
Sika smeared on
This will take a few days to cure, but I think it should work well. Hopefully it bonds to the existing stuff and gives me a long life flexible seal.
Electrical never ends. So many little things that take soooooo much time.
But I got to installing the inverter/charger. Its a 1250w inverter and a 55 amp charger. The inverter is a little smaller than I would have liked, but it was cheap and used, and the charge is well size for my generator and keeping wire size down. The charger should only draw about 5 amps at 120V Ac, so that means I can use a standard 15amp cord and plug, easy.
The inverter charger gets installed. It will have a 1/0 cable running through a 200 amp breaker and then to the battery bank. Making 120V AC takes a ton of amps at 12V DC.
Inverter charger installed.
For my shore power connection, I had planned to use the drivers side tool box. So I needed to run a power cable from there to the inverter. I used flextite electrical conduit for this. It protects the wire and keeps it dry.
Conduit for the wire
I ran the power cable through the conduit, its the male end of the same extension cord I used to wire the truck, I have about 25′ left, that should be enough to hook up to most hookups or get the generator a ways away. I also pulled a pair of 8 gauge wires for my solar connection.
Inside the tool box
It all rolls up nicely inside the tool box.
Solar! Yes I am excited. I have two panels and a PWM charger on the roof of our old truck. They always topped the batteries up a little, but never charged all the way. They were always dirty too…
For the new truck I am going to try a portable panel. I can park in the shade and have the panels in the sun, throw it on the hood etc. I went with a folding 100W panel, its very thin and light weight, it should be easy to store, this was one of my concerns with a portable one.
Thin!Opened
I opted to spend the little extra money for the MPPT controller, I went with a Victron, having only the one panel I wanted the extra efficiency I could get using it. I will do some tests to see how the panel actually puts out compared to its ratings.
Now that we are using the truck, we really should have a way to monitor the batteries. Now I know most people just use voltage gauges, but it’s really not a very good gauge of whats really happening. A much better solution is to use a shunt.
A shunt is basically a large bus bar, with a known voltage drop across it. You connect all the negative sides of your loads and charger to one side, and your battery negative to the other, and it can measure the amps drawn into and out of the batteries because of the tiny voltage drop across the shunt. They use the negative side simply because its safe to have exposed negative posts, the exact same could be done with the positive side.
Shunt is the big brass piece
I had to make up some cables, I am using 2/0 marine cabling, its tinned thin stranded wire, crimp lugs on the ends and adhesive heat shrink tubing. It makes for very nice cables!
Battery cable
Meter Head
The meter is quite nice. You tell it how many amp hours your battery bank is and it tells you your percentage left. It can also show current amp draw, high lowest, deepest discharge etc. Its a nice unit. It all hook up with a piece of cat5 cable and RJ 45 jacks.
Installed
I installed it in the end of our tall cabinet, next to the thermostat. I’m really happy with this product. I originally was going to use a Xantrex unit, but this one is far simpler to set up and was less money as well!
After a few trips of driving the truck, it was obvious the rear shocks were not doing what they were supposed to. It bounced after every whoop and bump in the road, even just on pavement. To the point of launching things off horizontal surfaces. The truck does have 107k on it now, and the shocks do look original.
So a new set was ordered. I settled on Bilstein 5100 series shocks. They are a good quality monotube, that don’t cost a fortune.
I crawled under, wiggled my way into a sitting position and got to work. Luckily the old ones came right out (one upside of having an oil leak I guess, not much rust). They collapsed completely by hand and didn’t rebound at all. Definitely garbage at this point.
Dead ShocksNew goodies!
The new ones went in fine, they were much harder to get in place, as what do you know they had a gas charge and wanted to extend themselves with much force! But with a little help from my wife and a floor jack both sides were in place.
Driving is MUCH better, so much so I want to do the fronts too, as you can feel them bounce a little now that the rear end is controlled. A good upgrade, especially to old worn out shocks.
