DRE's New FWC Project
- Thread starter elmo_4_vt
- Start date
elmo_4_vt
Explorer
Thanks for the input.... but I ended up with the Option 2 for now. My thinking was that a single row, 30" bar like this will still fit under the tube and look good. I was hoping I could have gotten a different set of dedicated fog lights, but these are DOT approved due to the special lenses that are on them and only come in this size (2 LEDs high), so it's probably still the best choice. If things change and I want to get the 2 row, 30" light bar, I can still do something different with these in the future.
I'm not sure if the 2 row 30" light bar will be that much better or brighter, but I'll have to do more research to see if they're worth it over the single row one that fits nicely. It's amazing how bright and clean the light is from these fog lights... Makes me really want to get the bar soon. Makes the stock head lights look very yellow.
Don
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Awesome build! Love the flatbed setup. Can I ask how much distance you ended up with between the cab and the bottom of the cab over? Setting up a flatbed and Hawk slide in, ended up with more distance than I wanted. I noticed that the flatbed does not have the Euro thane bumpers at the front of the camper? Do the bolts have any bushings for small movement? Did they put anything between the bed and camper?
Thanks,
Thanks,
elmo_4_vt
Explorer
I have about 3" between the cab and the bottom of the camper. Also, I DO have the bumpers on mine, I kept them about 0.5" behind the top box where my spare tire is. You can just barely see it in the picture below. For the bolts, no bushings at all. Drilled straight through the wooden floor of the camper and then through the aluminum flatbed. I put a 1/2" rubber "horse mat" down. Not sure if it was needed, but my reasoning was that it would provide a small amount of isolation as well as bring the slightly lower surface of the flat bed floor up, so the camper wasn't resting on the perimeter of framing of the camper.. In the second picture, it's hard to see, but there was a 1/4" difference between the deck and the outside metal. It also show the rubber material I used. I bought it from Tractor Supply around here, but any farm store should be able to get it.
lostfamilyof6
Observer
Very Nice build and some awesome ideas. Thanks for having us along for the ride.
elmo_4_vt
Explorer
Just a few pictures from recent outings. Took a week long trip to Acadia NP, the White Mountains in NH, and even hit up VT for two days on the way home. Everything worked out great and it was so nice to be on a longer trip. We could have easily kept going to another couple weeks. The issues we had: Truck sprung an oil leak when an O-ring on the high pressure oil system let go. $5 part and a $300 tow bill because I couldn't see where it was coming from. Turns out it wasn't leaking at idle. Once at the garage and we were able to get everything cleaned up, it was much easier to see and diagnose. Luckily, the garage let me in front a few other rigs they were working on and had me on my way in a few hours. Those o-rings will all need to be replace this winter. Only other issue is that we really missed having a fridge in the truck for cold drinks. It's always been in the plan to put my ARB 50qrt in the back of the truck, but time to work on the truck and get the seat modified didn't happen (since this year only came with a solid on piece seat). However, with all the issues trying to keep ice for cold drinks, I made the decision to get that done this weekend... It sort of happened.
First a few pictures from Acadia... Such a beautiful area. We could have spend another week there alone.
The sad tow... Lost 4 quarts of oil in a matter of 2 miles:
On the beach during low tide in Bar Harber:
One of the over looks on the "loop road":
No good pictures of the truck from the White Mountains, but we took one afternoon and took the cycle up the Auto Rd at Mt. Washington. Luckily we had good visibility. We had hiked it the day before and were in the clouds the second half with 50mph gusts.
At the half way point of Tuckerman's ravine trail.
Vermont was a good choice to wind the trip down. The campground we stayed at there split the drive home up nicely and was nice and relaxing. Spent all day in camp swimming in the lake just behind our site:
The only other thing new is that I finally had time to work the truck... Couldn't get the rear seat out to make the modifications to it (those bolts are a huge pain), but a new set of ratchet straps fixed that, at least temporarily.
Since I didn't spend much time there, I was able to put together the rear rack. Just need to get a trash bag to fill in the empty space and we should be all set. I'd been looking for a chance to play with the 80/20 alum. extrusion material for a while, so I decided to give it a shot here. Went together well, and seems very strong. Hopefully it will hold up.
This weekend we're taking a few days off and heading to Bristol TN for a college football game. More tailgating than camping, but should be fun.
Enjoy!
First a few pictures from Acadia... Such a beautiful area. We could have spend another week there alone.
The sad tow... Lost 4 quarts of oil in a matter of 2 miles:
On the beach during low tide in Bar Harber:
One of the over looks on the "loop road":
No good pictures of the truck from the White Mountains, but we took one afternoon and took the cycle up the Auto Rd at Mt. Washington. Luckily we had good visibility. We had hiked it the day before and were in the clouds the second half with 50mph gusts.
At the half way point of Tuckerman's ravine trail.
Vermont was a good choice to wind the trip down. The campground we stayed at there split the drive home up nicely and was nice and relaxing. Spent all day in camp swimming in the lake just behind our site:
The only other thing new is that I finally had time to work the truck... Couldn't get the rear seat out to make the modifications to it (those bolts are a huge pain), but a new set of ratchet straps fixed that, at least temporarily.
Since I didn't spend much time there, I was able to put together the rear rack. Just need to get a trash bag to fill in the empty space and we should be all set. I'd been looking for a chance to play with the 80/20 alum. extrusion material for a while, so I decided to give it a shot here. Went together well, and seems very strong. Hopefully it will hold up.
This weekend we're taking a few days off and heading to Bristol TN for a college football game. More tailgating than camping, but should be fun.
Enjoy!
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Looks like a great trip! Good time of year to come up this way.
Thats a drag about the oil lose issue and also my biggest fear on the 7.3. I think this winter I will be pulling and replacing most seals and oil lines that I can to help try and avoid that. Thanks for posting about the trip, enjoyed reading about it.
Thats a drag about the oil lose issue and also my biggest fear on the 7.3. I think this winter I will be pulling and replacing most seals and oil lines that I can to help try and avoid that. Thanks for posting about the trip, enjoyed reading about it.
elmo_4_vt
Explorer
Love that area of New Hampshire. We used to come and hike one of the trails or the AT in the Whites every year before my son was born, but it's been about 9 years since we were last there (son is just about 8). Very happy he's able to do that now and hope we can keep taking him to nice areas like this. On the hike, he was actually ahead of me almost the entire time.
The breakdown was definitely not a high point of the trip, but luckily it worked out OK. The biggest issue was no cell service. After I wasn't able to trouble shoot it myself, I had to unload the bike and ride 15 miles to get cell service, then wait for the tow truck to take him to my truck, then follow them the 40 miles back to their shop. Just took a lot of time. I'm happy I had the cycle with me to be able to do that. Otherwise it would have been a lot more difficult to coordinate things and probably would have swallowed up another day of vacation. As for the family, there was a nice stream behind our site, so at least they were happy playing around the campground.
Don
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gaap master
SE Expedition Society
Don - Great build! I hope you're enjoying it.
Curious about the new trailer...was that a custom order from Montrose? I followed your cargo trailer build thread closely, and I've been thinking about ordering a cargo trailer to use for both camping and hauling. I've been looking at a number of the custom cargo trailer websites, but I keep gravitating toward the aluminum versions (Intech, ATC, etc).
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Curious about the new trailer...was that a custom order from Montrose? I followed your cargo trailer build thread closely, and I've been thinking about ordering a cargo trailer to use for both camping and hauling. I've been looking at a number of the custom cargo trailer websites, but I keep gravitating toward the aluminum versions (Intech, ATC, etc).
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
elmo_4_vt
Explorer
Thanks! Definitely have been enjoying the truck and camper this year. Can't wait for next year when we can take it on even longer trips. So far we have two week long trips scheduled and one 2.5 week trip.
For the trailer, yes, it was a custom order from Montrose. They were really great to work with. I basically just send them a dimensioned drawing and they priced and built it right from that. I think he's built a few others recently based off of the same design, but he'll basically do anything you want. I have the drawing I used back in the thread if you're interested.
Don
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elmo_4_vt
Explorer
Thanks! The old one is still living in CO and hopefully making it's new owner happy.
I was hoping to head out to CO and meet up with the new owner and go camping later this year, but it doesn't look like it's going to work out. Instead we'll be heading back to Maine and then into Nova Scotia for 2 weeks.
Also, while I'm on here, I'll add a couple pictures and updates to the camper and from her(Helen's) last trip in April:
Added another solar panel. Got a "grape solar" 160W panel from Amazon for a good price. Because I already had the one, it was a easy as splicing the wires and mounting the same way. The only hard part was finding a source for the "Z" formed alum. With the single panel, we would slowly draw the batteries down over a weekend if we weren't in good sun, meaning that we'd start at ~13.2 on a Friday, and Sunday we'd be in the 11's. Going up a little each day, but not quite making it up to where we were the night before. You loose a lot of efficiency when they are flat on a roof and not being pointed at the sun, and when you have ANY shadow on them. With the new setup, we haven't had a day yet were we didn't get back into the 13's for both the truck and camper, even when raining.
Added an additional jug for water, mainly to have something on board from which to fill and transfer to the truck. Also works well for a water supply while cooking outside of the truck:
For the trip in April, we headed down the Outter Banks and spent a few days there camping in small towns and on the beach in Cape Lookout National Seashore before heading into the mountains:
The trip down trough the OBX on 3 separate ferry rides:
Short video of the truck rocking on the small ferry over to Cape Lookout:
The Crew:
Set up on the beach:
Water was cold, but doable for short periods:
Made for a tired pup:
The amount of Shells on this beach was amazing. This was about half of what we found.
Heading off of the island:
Then a few nights in West Virginia in the mountains playing with motorcycles:
And part of the long clean up once we got home. Still finding sand everywhere. Camping ON the beach is definitely different. Not sure I'd want to do it for more than a few days at a time, but at least the camper makes it a bit easier.
I was hoping to head out to CO and meet up with the new owner and go camping later this year, but it doesn't look like it's going to work out. Instead we'll be heading back to Maine and then into Nova Scotia for 2 weeks.
Also, while I'm on here, I'll add a couple pictures and updates to the camper and from her(Helen's) last trip in April:
Added another solar panel. Got a "grape solar" 160W panel from Amazon for a good price. Because I already had the one, it was a easy as splicing the wires and mounting the same way. The only hard part was finding a source for the "Z" formed alum. With the single panel, we would slowly draw the batteries down over a weekend if we weren't in good sun, meaning that we'd start at ~13.2 on a Friday, and Sunday we'd be in the 11's. Going up a little each day, but not quite making it up to where we were the night before. You loose a lot of efficiency when they are flat on a roof and not being pointed at the sun, and when you have ANY shadow on them. With the new setup, we haven't had a day yet were we didn't get back into the 13's for both the truck and camper, even when raining.
Added an additional jug for water, mainly to have something on board from which to fill and transfer to the truck. Also works well for a water supply while cooking outside of the truck:
For the trip in April, we headed down the Outter Banks and spent a few days there camping in small towns and on the beach in Cape Lookout National Seashore before heading into the mountains:
The trip down trough the OBX on 3 separate ferry rides:
Short video of the truck rocking on the small ferry over to Cape Lookout:
The Crew:
Set up on the beach:
Water was cold, but doable for short periods:
Made for a tired pup:
The amount of Shells on this beach was amazing. This was about half of what we found.
Heading off of the island:
Then a few nights in West Virginia in the mountains playing with motorcycles:
And part of the long clean up once we got home. Still finding sand everywhere. Camping ON the beach is definitely different. Not sure I'd want to do it for more than a few days at a time, but at least the camper makes it a bit easier.
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elmo_4_vt
Explorer
Aired down to 25 front, 28 rear and it worked very well. BTW, it takes a surprising amount of time to air down from 60, haha. Only got bogged once, and it was when I was pulling this guy out of a soft spot without his truck running (electrical issue fried the starter), and only bogged when the auto downshifted and started spinning all 4. A couple back and forths and I got to harder sand. Most say you can go down to 20 or so without any issues with load range E and that much weight.
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