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Full time wheeling & Travel

In other news, it's worth mentioning that I found out about this forum (mentioned in my first post) because of an episode I heard on a podcast called Wheeling, Wine & Whiskey. While out at Trail Hero I actually had a chance to be on the very same podcast.


wheelingwineandwhiskey.com

Ep. 230: Talton_off_road, On-the-Road, Full Time RV Life!

Jason met up with the Talton family while he was down at Trail Hero! The whole family sat down to tell their epic and life changing decision to sell their home and everything in it, to hit the road…
wheelingwineandwhiskey.com wheelingwineandwhiskey.com


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TaltonOffRoad said:
I dropped it off today at Pure Diesel in Kernersville, NC. I expect to hear from them some time later next week. Based on the amount of oil coming out the exhaust I do not expect any good news.
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Understandable there for sure on oil out of the exhaust.
 
Verdict is in. Truck has a hole in the #4 piston from injector failure. $15k for a long block or $20K for a drop in. Obviously rounded numbers.

Yesterday I was in a 4 car pile up coming back from Harlan with my buggy, and my home boy in the passenger seat. I was car number 4 and there was no where to go, it all happened so fast.
Now I've lost the best pickup I've ever owned and fully planned on giving to my son. It had 440k all original miles on it.

I'm so frustrated with it all I just want to say screw it. screw YouTube, screw all this. Just put my head down and go back to work and live a normal life.

However, I'm back home with my family safely, and for that I truly thank the Living God for mine and everyone else's safety. God is good folks.
 
Damn, that sucks. Glad yall are alright.

How did the buggy fair in the accident?

From a guy sitting at the office for another mundane day of work, I say stick out the travel life as long as you can make it work. :beer:
 
TaltonOffRoad said:
Verdict is in. Truck has a hole in the #4 piston from injector failure. $15k for a long block or $20K for a drop in. Obviously rounded numbers.

Yesterday I was in a 4 car pile up coming back from Harlan with my buggy, and my home boy in the passenger seat. I was car number 4 and there was no where to go, it all happened so fast.
Now I've lost the best pickup I've ever owned and fully planned on giving to my son. It had 440k all original miles on it.

I'm so frustrated with it all I just want to say screw it. screw YouTube, screw all this. Just put my head down and go back to work and live a normal life.

However, I'm back home with my family safely, and for that I truly thank the Living God for mine and everyone else's safety. God is good folks.
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That stinks on the verdict and price tag for the Kodiak repairs and icing on the crap cake of the wreck on the way home. Least y'all were both safe and the buggy and trailer were alright overall.

Couple of more unfortunate events and you'll be able to write/star in a bad country song. :lmao:

Considering the recent string of luck, it's totally understandable to be frustrated with it all, but on behalf of all the "normal life" folks living vicariously through y'alls travels, we don't want y'all to go back to "normal life" anytime soon.
 
The buggy stayed strapped and in place. I’m slightly concerned the rear axle was bent in the accident.

They troopers let me unload the buggy and use it to move the trailer and drag the truck back up and load it all onto friends that came to the rescue with a trailer.
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TaltonOffRoad said:
Buggy. But I don't know for sure. It was kinda the least of my worries at the time. I don't even have my buggy now, it went to a friends house.
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Understandable on least of worries. If the axle is bent due to the accident and tie down method, that's definitely a testament to tying it down correctly/"that ain't going anywhere."
 
TaltonOffRoad said:
Replace the motor and cry about the price.
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Understandable there for sure. Hard/nearly impossible to find the perfect setup to do what all y'all need it to carry between buggy, family, dogs, and camper.

I’m not well versed in the Duramax platform, but is it pretty common to kill a piston when an injector fails? Is there a way to “bulletproof” it so it doesn’t happen again in the future?
 
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ridered3 said:
Understandable there for sure. Hard/nearly impossible to find the perfect setup to do what all y'all need it to carry between buggy, family, dogs, and camper.

I’m not well versed in the Duramax platform, but is it pretty common to kill a piston when an injector fails? Is there a way to “bulletproof” it so it doesn’t happen again in the future?
Click to expand...

Yes and no….

Apparently I had all the warning signs of failing injectors and didn’t know it.

It never really “rolled coal” but over the last few months I’d notice it was smoking a little more than normal getting up and moving. Then noticed in the evening if I had headlights behind me that I had a haze even when it wasn’t under heavy load/throttle. But I didn’t think too much of it. I chalked it up to being at higher elevation in Colorado. Man I sure miss Colorado 😩

Anyways, while I was dealing with all the stupid fan clutch shenanigans, I was also not paying attention to failing injectors. Which probably also wasn’t helping the cooling issues I suppose 🤔.
The LB7 is known for crappy injectors, but by now certainly 99.9% of them have all been replaced with the ones that solve the common failure. As the case with mine, it’s already had the motor replaced once with a Jasper.
I was told the motor had roughly 33k on it when I bought the truck, but there was no paperwork to prove that and the seller was telling me what he was told. I think he’d put roughly 8k of those miles himself. He was honest and up front about that, and the price was great.
When it blew up I called Jasper with that serial number on the block to see if it was under warranty. It was not, as it was sold in 2015. I asked if they had any idea how many miles was on the vehicle it was sold for and they said no.

So in reality, I have no idea how many miles are truly on the engine that blew up. It was originally a landscaping truck, I have no idea how it was treated before me and the previous owner. I have no idea if the replacement motor also had the injectors replaced at the same time in 2015.
I personally have ran that thing up to 235°+ a dozen times. Also, when I first got it I didn’t have an egt gauge and knowing what I know now there’s no telling how high I was getting them back then cause I was an idiot and lugging it up long mountain grades 🤦‍♂️
I also ran it out of fuel. Twice.

I have no idea why it blew up 🤷‍♂️


So, as much as the cost of a new motor with upgraded injectors is to swallow, I will have a lot more peace of mind moving forward now. And a warranty. And paperwork.
 
TaltonOffRoad said:
Yes and no….

Apparently I had all the warning signs of failing injectors and didn’t know it.

It never really “rolled coal” but over the last few months I’d notice it was smoking a little more than normal getting up and moving. Then noticed in the evening if I had headlights behind me that I had a haze even when it wasn’t under heavy load/throttle. But I didn’t think too much of it. I chalked it up to being at higher elevation in Colorado. Man I sure miss Colorado 😩

Anyways, while I was dealing with all the stupid fan clutch shenanigans, I was also not paying attention to failing injectors. Which probably also wasn’t helping the cooling issues I suppose 🤔.
The LB7 is known for crappy injectors, but by now certainly 99.9% of them have all been replaced with the ones that solve the common failure. As the case with mine, it’s already had the motor replaced once with a Jasper.
I was told the motor had roughly 33k on it when I bought the truck, but there was no paperwork to prove that and the seller was telling me what he was told. I think he’d put roughly 8k of those miles himself. He was honest and up front about that, and the price was great.
When it blew up I called Jasper with that serial number on the block to see if it was under warranty. It was not, as it was sold in 2015. I asked if they had any idea how many miles was on the vehicle it was sold for and they said no.

So in reality, I have no idea how many miles are truly on the engine that blew up. It was originally a landscaping truck, I have no idea how it was treated before me and the previous owner. I have no idea if the replacement motor also had the injectors replaced at the same time in 2015.
I personally have ran that thing up to 235°+ a dozen times. Also, when I first got it I didn’t have an egt gauge and knowing what I know now there’s no telling how high I was getting them back then cause I was an idiot and lugging it up long mountain grades 🤦‍♂️
I also ran it out of fuel. Twice.

I have no idea why it blew up 🤷‍♂️


So, as much as the cost of a new motor with upgraded injectors is to swallow, I will have a lot more peace of mind moving forward now. And a warranty. And paperwork.
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Enlightening info all around and while painful in the cost front, definitely understandable on the route you’ve chosen to fix what you’ve got since it does what you need it to do.
 
TaltonOffRoad any updates on the truck rebuild?

Saw a random video on the socialists medias last night of a similar Kodiak to yours (same body style, crew cab, flatbed) pulling a gooseneck with two trucks on the back that got a stuck injector and melted down the piston. Unfortunately it made me think of y’all.
 
i had an injector hang on my 01 duramax. it sounded like shit at idle. i was on my way to Colorado. about 1.5 hrs to Amarillo, called a friend and he said run it. so i hit it with some fuel treatment and rolled. about halfway across the top of New Mexico it freed up. i drove it another 50k before i did a set.
 
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