#offroadrv – The Northwest Adventure Truck

November 9, 2018November 9, 2018

Rear Spring Pack Replacement.

Since we now have the air bags in the front, the rear needs help. The stock springs are way under rated for our weight, and the airbags work, but ride harsh. So I contacted a spring builder to make me a set of custom progressive leafs. Long story short, they made the first set the wrong size, and the second set with no lift…. I decided if you want it done right do it yourself.

So I set about with a plan. Take some parts of the OE spring packs to me a zero rate spring. Just adds height, no capacity or rate change.

New springs (V2) correct length this time, but no lift. My god are they heavy.

New Springs – Pretty but not quire right….

So after they were installed, we figured out they provided no lift. So I came up with a plan. Use the block and the anti wrap leaf from the OE pack to get some height.

The OE Springs got broken down giving me ~1.25″ of lift height.

Then came the fun of trying to jack up a big heavy truck, in my gravel driveway… (I had paid to have springs installed twice already, I had to DIY this time). Luckily my neighbor had a big pile of 4×4 chunks of various projects, so I was able to make cribbing to hold the truck up. It had to be held from the frame so I could remove the axle from the springs. The plan was to remove the Ubolts, lift the truck off the axle so I could roll it out of the way, install the new spring parts and the put the axle back.

Got one side in the air, Ubolts removed, and went to roll the axle out of the way. That’s when I was reminded I have a limited slip rear end. Can’t roll one side….. Enter ratchet straps, webbing a second jack and cursing.

I was able to just get it forward enough to get the center pins out. Once they were out I went to slip the parts in and the new center pins would not fit. The spring builder used a smaller pin than Ford. I had to drill through the entire spring pack for the larger centering pin. But it worked, and we got the new old bits in place.

Blocks under the new springs. New center pin in!

Then it was just reverse procedure to get the axle back to the correct place and lower the truck down onto it. Then repeat on the other side. Longer U bolts were made for both sides and we took it out the following weekend. Much better ride, still not much lift after it all settled in.

August 21, 2018

Air Bag Front Coil Replacement

In a quest for better ride, I have decided to ditch the front coils and go with a Kelderman air bag front end. This kit replaces the coil springs with an air bag, this gives infinite adjustment for load/weight and a supposed better ride.

The first hurdle is how to get the entire front end of the truck off the ground on a gravel driveway….. I have 6200lbs on my front axle, not a crazy amount, but enough to drive the wheels of my jack through a piece of 3/4″ plywood…. Trying again with no wood works, but now the jackstand has sunk. Eventually with some grading of my gravel driveway, two jacks and some jackstands and the front end is ready for work.

Next up, lower one of the jacks so the spring bits can be removed. Springs and the lower coil buckets are taken off. I hit a surface little rust with some zinc rust paint.

The upper bracket needs three holes drilled to hold it in place. The steel is thick and hard. Not a fun upside down drilling project, but take your time and its ok. If your doing this be very careful, there is a large wiring harness right above the upper area your drilling on both sides. Don’t hit it when you break through!

The brackets simply bolt in place of the coil, and the airbag is bolted between them. One long bolt holds the air bag to the lower mount seen looking awkward above.

All together with the air lines ran. I simply ran them up next to the battery on either side. Its just manual fill for now. I ended up around 80psi. You simply inflate the bags until they are 7.5-8.5″ tall. I went with 8″ which ends up about 1.5″ tall overall than stock.

At 80psi/8″ tall with the weight of the truck on it.

Front end of the truck is defiantly a little taller, the jury is still out on ride quality…. I need to play with pressures a bit. Overall no worse than before and 1.5″ taller.

June 20, 2018

Climbing Trip!

Since winter is long gone now, climbing has taken over the summer activities. So its off to the desert we go in search of rocks!

First visit was Frenchman Coulee in Vantage WA. It gets hot, get up early! But there are a TON of routes, lots of bolted, some really tall too.

Truck is super luxury climber camping…. Its really nice. We looped around across hwy 20 on the way home as it had just been opened. Great scenery.

Truck is chugging along great, its had its oil changed, fuel filters changed and gets 10mpg. All the time.

June 20, 2018

More little projects – LED storage lights and a 12V compressor.

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!

Made a new switch mount for the inverter and lights. Which somehow I have backwards…. Just remember on=off….

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.

I wires it with marine tinned wire, and a resetable circuit breaker.

March 24, 2018March 25, 2018

Air Bags – Adding a Remote Fill

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.

And here is what it looks like with 0 psi in them.

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.

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!

Fill valves above the trailer connection

January 29, 2018

Skifari 2018 – The Ultimate Ski Bum Road Trip

Skifari is a trip lead by a good friend of mine each year. We camp in a ski area parking lot, ski there during the day, then drive to the next one. Repeat for a week. It’s a great time and we had amazing snow all trip this year! We had 10 people in 6 rigs. We started at Mt Baker, then headed to Sasquatch BC, followed by two days at Whistler.

Heading up to Baker after work for the first night got very interesting. It was dumping snow, and they had not run the upper area at all that day. 6-8″ of snow were on the road. Once we were ~1/2 a mile from the upper lot, we came across a small slide that was covering the road to a ski area. I stopped to see how deep and packed it was to see if we could cross. As soon as I got back in the car and touched the gas the truck followed the crown of the road sliding right into the snow bank. We were stuck, right in an avalanche Chute. I dug the side of the truck out and used the maxtrax under one front and one rear wheel. I was able to pull forward a bit, but it still was sliding along the snow bank. Luckily we were traveling with friends who were able to winch us back to the center of the road. But we were still slipping all over trying to move. I started to put on chains and a second slide released and hit the truck. Luckily we had a lookout watching the hill and took off running when it let go. Scary as hell bit we made it out ok minus a few buried tools…. We got very lucky that it was a small slide.

Feverishly working to get out of the slide area

That’s all we got for pictures, we were working as fast as possible, and once the second slide let go I just hit the gas back down the hill, one chain halfway on…

But we made it back down to the main lot and parked, it was almost midnight at that point. We had a tiny fire, a couple beers and crashed.

Baker had good snow, 10-12 ish inches overnight, pretty damn light, but not compared to the upcoming days.

After skiing Baker we headed North, crossing the border up into BC and parking at Sasquatch mountain. Its a little 3 chair place, but there was no one there and the snow was the lightest fluffy pow you can imagine. It was great for the kid, she usually has trouble in pow, as shes ~55lbs, she just gets stopped, but it was so light she could keep moving relatively easily!

The whole Skifari gang parked at Sasquatch

Next we headed to Whistler. Long drive day, but not too bad. There are always a couple on skifari. We stayed at the Riverside RV park. Whistler is VERY anti camping in their lots, so this was the next best thing. Close to the upper village and parking at blackcomb mid station worked awesome. We would roll out at 7 and have breakfast up there.

Some fun trees at whistler.

A normal Skifari evening, a nice little fire, a few beers and great friends to chat with. Such a great time.

Great friends great snow, great trip.

January 22, 2018

New front shocks!

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.

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.

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.

January 18, 2018January 18, 2018

Mt Bachelor

Let me start with Mt Bachelor is awesome for ski bumming! They park you right in front of the parking lot, close to the lifts, have a 24 hour bathroom, and showers! You have to pay for the showers, but still they are nice. Its $20 a night to stay there.

Ski conditions weren’t great, but we made the best of our time. Went to town, did some climbing and a day of tubing too. Bend is great for visiting lots of breweries!

Freezing rain made for short evenings outside, and icy days of skiing, but its still better than working!

The drive down and back was uneventful, I try to keep the truck at 68 or less. It will go faster, but 68 is ~2250 RPM’s, which is getting up there, and it sucks down more gas the faster you go. Two passes past Mt Hood had some snow, but nothing terrible and we made the drive in a day.

December 24, 2017December 30, 2017

Finishing off the back door.

I have been putting off trimming and skiing the back door for a while….. But now that its good and cold, the door and frame sweat, a lot.

So I got a dry day and got to work. First a layer of foam board was spray glued to the door. Its 1″ thick and R 5.

Next layer was a sheet of 1/4″ ply glued to the insulation. The glue was supposed to be temporary, but it holding well so far, I may add a few screws later.

This left me with covering the metal frame that goes around the back door. Its steel, and goes all the way through to the outside, so its cold and it sweats. I look a couple of scraps of the 1″ foam and cut it down to 1/2″ thick. This was glued to the steel to create a thermal break. Plywood is not very insulating, so a gap between the wood and metal is needed.

aNext I cut a piece of 1/2″ ply to cover the frame, and overlap the door. I am putting a gasket on it to keep the moisture vapor from getting behind it and sealing the space.

Really cleaned up the inside, its not just an aluminum door anymore. And no more dripping on the bed! That’s the last big wall piece that was left to do.

December 8, 2017

Mt Baker Pow weekend!

What a weekend! 28″ in 48 hours, light and fluffy and everything!

We headed up Friday night, there was a storm rolling through that was dumping snow up north. So naturally we chased it!

Heading up at night the LED driving lights are a life saver. Missed a family of deer…. glad I could see them. It was absolutely dumping snow.

We made it in time to get up to white salmon before the gates closed. Its nice to be able to be so much closer to the lift. We backed into the snowbank and settled in for some dinner.

It was really coming down Friday night, we walked around outside for a bit, but went to bed pretty early. The morning brought lots of fresh snow. About 8″ overnight.

It was a good day for big sticks! Soft and deep everywhere and just continued to come down all day. A great day of skiing. We all crashed early.

The weather cleared up after a few more inches over night. Woke up to clearing sky’s. The snow was so good we decided to ski Sunday too.

Dug out the plow berm that was in front of the truck, and headed for home Sunday afternoon. It was a great weekend of skiing and the truck worked awesome.