Snowy
Well-known member
Alright prepare yourselves for some redneck shit
This morning I added some more D rings, added the tread plate I took off that goes on the frame and put that in front of the deck so there's a place to stand above the little stairs, and changed the oil and oil filters. One of the fuel filters requires a special wrench and I didn't feel like making that so just did the oil filters, which were a bitch in and of themselves. The engine plus filters took 9 gallons, quite a bit less than I was expecting from my brief googling.
The air bags also decided to deflate themselves last night, I don't know if the deck weight was enough to make them fully squish after removing the 5th wheel plate? But full bump rubs the boards by an inch or so.
I was worried I had fucked an air line or bag from the welding but after firing the truck up it raised up fine. The lowering actually helped a lot when loading the camper since the back end drops like 6-7", without that we couldn't get the camper on with how low the roof is under the covered parking.
With the camper mounted in a "normal" orientation, we decided we didn't like it and flipped it around. This involved using the buggy and it's winch and slowly pivoting it around which worked great!
Introducing the most retarded thing you'll see today hahaha
It is extra specialbut it's all in the name of convenience. Having it mounted with the overhang forward would make the rear (with the door) overhang the back by at least a foot. That'd make getting into it a pain, and while not necessarily sketchy for rigging it, also not the greatest setup. With it flipped around, now the little stairs turns into an easy access to the door, and we also have some "deck space" right outside the door. This is actually by far the nicest entry to the camper we've ever had, and much nicer for our dogs.
Ironically none of the D rings I put in actually lined up with any hard points on the camper, so I used the open tube end at the front of the deck and the U bolts at the rear bumper to strap it down. We pulled the camper to the back so it sits against the 1.5" lip created by the 2x6 rear beam and the planks. By far the most secured it's ever been too! The camper also has ample room from the exhaust stack. We ended up strapping the paddle board where the camper wheel well is on one side and then the propane tank on the other side.
This thing has so much storage room compared to what I'm used to it's insane. There's a gear tunnel under the sleeper which we stuffed chairs, umbrellas, RCs, tool boxes, and more into. Plus there's storage boxes under the deck which I barely even touched and just threw some chains and straps and jumper cables into. What would be carrying way less, and yet still overflowing into the truck or the camper before, is now tons of extra space left over!
It looks so derpy, I love it hahahaif there was a trailer behind it it would look a lot better I think. Idk how many trips we'll do with just the camper, this is really a test drive and the wife hasn't really ridden in it.
Regardless, today we drove down near Kingsman to a relatives place. This was the first proper drive through a city, and right away at the Virgin River Gorge I got hit with the stop and go traffic and holy shit did I butcher downshifting. I've already gotten a lot better just today, but that initial going from 10th gear to a near-stop but still rolling and trying to figure out what fucking gear it wanted utterly wrecked me, so much to the point I came to a full stop to get into 3rd and put the hazards on. I'm sure the semi behind me thought I was a total retardbut downshifting is where I have problems. And I can downshift fine, but having to go through 7 gears in a few seconds isn't a thing, and since 5th gear is good for about 7mph I was getting confused. Long story short, 10th is good for 40+, 6-9 are good for anything over 7mph, and if I need 4th or 5th then I'm absolutely crawling.
BESIDES THAT. Truck did absolutely great. It actually rides really well imo after riding in it for another 4 hours. It's easy to drive (besides near stopping), and we cruised at the speed limit the whole way and got 9.5mpg. Maybe to some that's bad, to me that's what my little Toyota would get or worse and we would've filled up three times. In this we used about 12% of the tank
Also the squad (dogs) were totally happy. The white one hates half the vehicles we own, but she likes the semi, the Hilux, and the FJ40 for some reason. The squad got food and water, a huge bed, and were happy as clams the whole way.
No real plans for this trip, we're kind of angling for Lake Havasu and see where we go. Somewhere warmer and hopefully with water
Next week the semi build will continue! It needs to get the buggy mounted on the back ASAP to redeem the comments I've gotten about this configuration
You’ll find your rhythm on downshifting with time. I ran both our 10 speeds over for fuel and to look them over for any unreported issues yesterday. The one with city gears felt like a glove since it’s the one I drive the most often when I have to pinch hit driving, but I couldn’t find a gear in town to save my life in the taller geared highway truck since everything was off a gear from my muscle memory.
Check the inflation chart on the super singles but I don’t think you can take them too much lower since the steel belts in them will flex and blowout in a hurry if you go below minimum. Way less forgiving to low tire pressure than a normal car or pickup tire.
