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Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: Swapping to a Deep Transmission pan for my camper Hauler
What's the advantages of the cast aluminum pans over say the steel pans?
From B&M
Cast Aluminum Deep Pans- Chrysler - TF-A-727 & 518 (adds up to 4 qt.)
From Summitracing
Derale Cooling Products 14210 - 4 1/2" deep 5qt added Capacity Pan
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 07:13pm |
Truck Campers
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Swapping to a Deep Transmission pan for my camper Hauler
Okay, since the transmission in the old wagon needs to be drained and refilled again before the big haul with the Truck Camper later this year, I'm debating swapping to a deeper transmission pan (possibly one with cooling fins) in place of the stock pan.
But, before I start altering things, I do have some questions.
1.) Does having the extra fluid available in the pan put additional pressure strain on the transmission itself?
2.) What are some good brands/best prices for a replacement pan kits (complete with the riser to lower the pickup down deeper), preferably one with a drain plug.
For the record, this is the A518/46RH that was used behind the old TBI V8 360 Gas engine (Which I may do a rebuild on at some point in the future when I decide to pursue doing a 440-3 swap in).
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 06:43pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: leveling block ideas for duallys
I use 2 x 6,s,bevelled on one end.I hear you should always block both dually tires on the side to be raised,cant remember why??
If you don't yer transferring all of the load and sheer forces onto one rim.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 06:33pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: question on tire dry rot
Are your current tires a "P" type or an "LT". I find the P's tend to decay rather a bit quicker than the LT types, but I also run 10 ply tires in a Load Range E LT tire vs the little wheels that are on Toyotas.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 06:11pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: leveling block ideas for duallys
I've been using 2x6s cut into 12 and 18" lengths stacked on top of one another.
Lynx Levelers, which are basically giant plastic legos, work as well.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 06:09pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Continuous duty solenoid
I thought I could run one wire from the + post on my chassis battery thru the solenoid directly to the + posts on my deep cycle(coach) batteries and use a short wire from the - posts on the coach batteries directly to the frame nearby. Is my thinking flawed?
That was my original plan but after digging around a bit to see how the truck was wired I figured it was quite non-ideal. Remember charging power comes from the alternator, not the truck battery.
The wires to charge the battery are only #6 on my truck. The great big fat wires from the battery go to the starter, but only a small wire goes from the common power point to the battery. That adds extra drop. By going to the alternator output, I get more charge.
The wires from the frame to the block and the frame to battery negative are very small. The only large wire is from the block to the battery negative. A good return to the alternator is to connect to the block or the battery negative. Connecting to the frame adds the extra resistance of the puny ground wire. If you do want to use the frame as the return, add a fat jumper between the frame and the block.
Also, another good reason not to use the frame is Steel has a higher resistance to it naturally than Copper when it comes to conducting electricity.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 05:24pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Continuous duty solenoid
What kind of plugs did you settle on for connecting/disconnecting your camper and batteries from the rig?
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 04:38pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: City rules about overnighting...not happy
All I would like is a place to park if I do not need any services and that ain't to much to ask! Even in our enterprising society.
Well, we already have those :p. They're called "Rest Areas" and "Truck Stops" and there's a really nice App for locating those called "My DAT Trucker Services".
Since yer operating a Truck & Camper, you can actually fit in the automobile side of most Rest Areas (I know I do) using a single spot. usually if it looks like I might be blocking traffic I back into the parking spot.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 04:21pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: CAMPING IN WA $^^#**^
I see lots of Washington State parks open all year and a lot open around the first of March
Try this.....Washington State Parks Schedule
The problem is, he's taking a 40 foot MH WITH a trailer... NOT a TC. Spots for rigs like that are very few and far between. If was just the MH, wouldn't be so much of a problem. I mean, 40 feet is still a problem.
I can't take my toyhauler to hardly any improved campground because of its size.
Well, ya can't help that, if you want rustic, take a Truck Camper, otherwise, welcome to the world of privately owned RV Parks where giant rigs belong.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 04:08pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: CAMPING IN WA $^^#**^
Was looking for a Nat.Park in NW WA to go to in Feb or March, but no luck!! Almost wanted to say that this state sucks as far camping goes!, but didn't in the heading. Most parks are only open from May thru Sept. Also our favorite "boondocking camp" is unavailable do to a road washout in the Mt Baker Nat. Forest, (its a major road to many rec. sites & trails. This will be the 3rd summer that they havn't fixed this yet. Deception Pass Park is totally booked seems like forever. Don't really like to go to private RV parks, prefer more remote camping. I know I am whining, just frustrating I know in other states (of course with warmer climates) that parks are open longer. I know everyone will say that we have a budget crisis, ya ya, but seems like we all (or most of us) pay alot in taxes & everything gets reduced. Usually we take our camper in the summer months, but this time we need to pull our trailer & will be traveling with a 40ft motorhome, any ideas out there where we could go, (be nice). I know this should be listed in the camping areas, sorry, thanks
I never made any reservations at Deception when I went there in january of 2009, I just used one of the FCFS sites, however, it was also early January and COLD.
The only thing working at this time of the year at most WA SP's that do have any hook ups is the electric as it's rare if they have sewer and they shut the water off during the winter months with the exception of one faucet up at the dump station.
There's also Ft. Ebey, which was nice and when I was last there, practically empty.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 03:41pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Boondocking in eastern Oregon
"...because washboard can be smoothed out by simply going faster..."
Theoretically true in any wheeled vehicle.
It wasn't practically true for our 11,800 lb. small Class C on a ton-and-a-half E450 chassis (translation - very stiff in the rear) vehicle.
We couldn't get it smooth without probably ruining the interior experimenting enough to find out. We prefer slow to minimize damage if we're going to travel where SUV's, PU's, and TC's have to go fast to minimize damage.
Sure is nice once you get way out there in a Class C, though. Good A/C comfort, comfortable beds, showers, pizza from the oven if you wish, Internet, movies and/or star gazing in the evenings. Worth every jolt to get there. :)
You just need a Kelderman Air ride for that rig :). I weighted in at 10,900lbs when I went through there back in '09, but I had an air suspension on the rear (5000lb rated air springs running at 80PSI).
Until we slowed down, the ride was as smooth as silk, then it turned into a paint shaker.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 02:07pm |
Public Lands, Boondocking and Dry Camping
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RE: Boondocking in eastern Oregon
Wow, that looks like a great place for star-watching -- according to the Dark Sky maps, that area is one of the least light-polluted places in the country. Are there any mosquitoes out there, or is it too dry? A couple of years ago, we camped further west of there (not far from Crater Lake), on the night of the Perseid Meteor Shower (Aug. 11 every year). Conditions were perfect: very dark sky, no moon, nobody around -- just me, DW, and a billion starving mosquitoes.
After 10 minutes of blood donation, we gave up and went back into our trailer.
Next time we watch for meteors, it'll be someplace really dry.
Depends on what time of year. Around the lakes in the hatch seasons (May-July) you can get eaten alive, but august, september on into the later months, they're fairly low.
There's actually a USFS/BLM camp off of 140 where it intersects 395 that is actually pretty nice too (Actually had signs talking about hang gliding camps), but its not open desert like the Hart Lake area.
We went into and out of Plush only from the South. All of our routes into the Sunstone and private mines area were as my road photo shows, but with obscene amounts of 7-10 MPH washboard on these graveled roads.
After we got to where we drycamped, many smaller high desert dirt roads went everywhere. These would actually have been less bone rattling (but bumpier) to travel on - in that there was very little washboarding on them.
The IDEAL SETUP back there for extensive exploring and/or rockhounding out from an RV base camp - that we have been drooling over - would have been to tow in one of these extraordinary 4X4 personal offroad vehicles:
http://www.kubota.com/product/RTV500/RTV500.aspx
If it was just washboard, it wouldn't have been as bad, because washboard can be smoothed out by simply going faster, which is what I did on the main roads around 35-45mph, you're moving fast enough that the tires are skipping from top to top instead of catching the valleys, partly why you saw a lot of people not driving at 25mph.
However, the northern roads turn into something more akin to a trail as they are washed out and torn up.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 01:36pm |
Public Lands, Boondocking and Dry Camping
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RE: City rules about overnighting...not happy
Here ya go, a website with a resource on RV Unfriendly towns :). Not the biggest resource, but it's one. There was a thread that had more in General Forums here, but I can't find it.
http://rvunfriendly.com/
Here's some more:
http://gypsyjournal.net/Unfriendly.html
This is a great big MS Streets map of RV Unfriendly towns.
http://msstreets.com/2011/04/12/poi-megafile-rv-unfriendly/
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 11:12am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Introduction and some ideas on extra water storage
But most TCs are heavier on the rear axle, so what Joe shows might be a better option for carrying water to move that weight forward, and away from you.
That's actually partly why I travel with that barrel always full when possible, as the camper removes about 200-300 lbs from the front axle, which the barrel gives back at 255lbs fully filled.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 11:08am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Boondocking in eastern Oregon
It took some doing, but here's a recreation of the route I took from Plush to Dust Devil and back to Hwy 395.
We studied the Garmin and paper maps first and decided not to approach from the North like your Google Maps route shows you did. We came in from the South, after going around the South End of Lake Abert.
Yer reading the map backwards.
A is the spot we started at, which is Plush. D is where we got back onto the Highway again. If you get very far off of Hogback or Flagstaff the roads deteriorate really fast.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 11:00am |
Public Lands, Boondocking and Dry Camping
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RE: So what did you do to your Truck Camper today?
Finished mounting the new to me Atwood electric jacks on the S&S yesterday.
I still need to get you those pictures of exterior wiring of the jacks :).
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 10:57am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Continuous duty solenoid
So, doing that, yer likely close to mine, so, nothing less than 6 gauge AWG, though 4 gauge would be better, especially if you're goal is to get effective charging from the truck alternator.
I've got plenty of 10 gauge stranded wire already on hand. Would it be OK to run two of these wires together to come up with an equivalent 4 gauge wire. I read today on a wire gauge site where using 2 wires with the same diameter together would equate to one wire with 6 gauge numbers smaller. If this is correct, my two 10's would result in a 4 gauge wire. Make sense?
You're just going to have a mess + extra resistance because of trying to bond multiple ends together.
In my experience, 2 x 10 gauge wires = 60 amps of capacity which is closer to 6 gauge wire vs 4.
Ok... I know, big quotation there. but let's put this into perspective---
Very VERY few of the members on this board even HAVE an extra charging system. They plug the pigtail into the truck and go. This guy is on a budget. The FACTORY charge system in ANY new truck is max'd out at 30 amps running a single 10ga wire. Older trucks were 20amp.
You would be totally fine to run your double 10ga wire, which would be DOUBLE of ANY factory system. Those don't melt wires, those don't constantly pop fuses. Run a 50a ANL fuse(or preferably self-resetting breaker) through 2 runs of 10ga.
While I myself am running 4ga through a much heavier set of disconnects, you will be fine. Nothing will melt, nothing will smoke, and you'll charge at almost twice the rate of all the guys running factory charge circuits---which is about 95% of all members here.
Now, if you have a couple hundred bucks for that much copper, fuses, connectors, and solenoid, go for 4 gauge.
They also at 36' of total loop wire don't charge a battery very well either on single 10 gauge. The other problem he'll run into with anything other than a single lead is that it won't join up to a standard RV plug worth stink.
Since he'll already have to go to a larger plug of some kind to accommodate anything larger than a single 10 gauge lead, he's already half way to going to a proper charging circuit to begin with.
At which point, why half-ass something rather than save yer money an extra week and do it right the first time.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 10:51am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Boondocking in eastern Oregon
They must have regraveled that road, there was little gravel and what was there was beaten into the alkali soil back when I went through there in 2009, I wound up creeping along in 4 lo to get back out to Hwy 395 over by Abert Lake for part of the run.
Did you find yourself a "watermelon"? Those are the more rare Red Sun Stones. The white sunstones are a dime a dozen, good if you tumble them for making bracelets but not much market value in them otherwise.
We were there in August of 2010. No 4 LOW required, but plenty of 8-10 MPH to keep from rattling everything out of the cupboards!
We found some watermelon, but it was our first time looking for Sunstone so we were very happy to find plenty of white and yellow. We collect for personal use only, so market values are not a consideration.
P.S. We had a great sandwich in that little restaurant in Plush. That little green valley and lake that Plush is close to is real eye candy way out there in the outback. We hope to get back there for more exploring:
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd1/tpgnsc/IMG_7400.jpg height=480 width=640
If you get off the main thoroughfare at all, some of those roads turn into jeep trails mighty quick, something I learned the hard way.
It took some doing, but here's a recreation of the route I took from Plush to Dust Devil and back to Hwy 395.
The Dust Devil Run
The roads didn't really need 4-lo in terms of traction, I use it to keep sharp control of the vehicles momentum to keep the camper from being rattled to death.
After the time and money spent wandering around and the Dust Devil mines, we had planned to eat at the Cowboy Dinner Tree in Silver Lake, but never did.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 01:17am |
Public Lands, Boondocking and Dry Camping
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RE: Why aren't there more truck camper bloggers out there?
Mike,
Lots of full-timers blog, because they have little else to do. They rehearse their travels with photos and commentary but very little on the technical side since they depend on their on-the-road service folks to deal with that. I subscribed to one online full-timer blog but have since dropped the subscription. The layout was bi-monthly and just covered their latest visits and restaurants and RV resorts they discovered. That's not our style of camping.
TCM website survives because of Gordon and Angela's zeal and willingness to travel a bunch and interview folks often. They seem committed to twice a week articles. That sells advertizing and keeps folks interested. Lately, the seem more willing to be more critical of flaws the see in the campers and equipment they review. They do it in good humor and it keeps readers and advertizers smiling. It seems to be their full-time job and my hat's off to them. They are filling a needed niche.
Your blog survives on content and your arctiles on mods and trips. You keep it up too. I wouldn't have the stamina.
Best,
Bill
I think Bill hit the nail on the head. It's probably because there are very few who full-time in a truck camper.
Yes, this is accurate, there are very few, and while I consider myself to be one of that very few, I also don't "full-time" in the classic sense (i.e. retired, traveling around regularly), more that I work full-time on contract, then inbetween contracts if money allows I travel somewhere.
...The reason some of us created blogs is that over time things are lost and easily forgotten in the depths of posts made on a forum. Also, on a lot of forums, if a topic sits long enough it becomes locked or possibly even deleted...
Matt does have a good point here.
I do keep some links to some of my more interesting threads in my profile so I don't lose them, but that is still only a medium term solution.
Steve.
The only caveat to that is the forum subscription system limits how many of your subscriptions you can still access after so long, even if you're still subscribed after they get so old, you can't easily pull them up anymore.
I've got subscriptions dating back to 2003-2004 still that I'd have to delete alot of newer subscriptions to access.
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JoeChiOhki
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02/09/12 12:12am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Introduction and some ideas on extra water storage
I would guess that every truck camper owner that sucessfully boondocks is a master at water conservation.... and extends the useful capacity/life of their holding tanks to a week or 10 days
Nope, some of us just mastered the problem :). I have 30 gallons of mobile grey water capacity that I can bring with me and the means to transport 30 gallons of fresh water back.
I've got a little pump rigged up that pumps the grey water up into the tank while it lays in the bed of the truck for transporting, and the fresh tank on the front.
Since the farthest into boondocking I go is to dispersed camping, which around here usually means there's a slightly improved BLM campground nearby with a fresh water well and someplace to dispose of grey water (Those little sink traps you see for tent campers have worked great as a dumping site for 30 gallons of grey water from a truck bed via a drain hose (One lucky soul gets to sit and hold the elbow on the drain hose over the trap) ).
If I was to truly go far from everything, the chuckwagon would be getting towed along and onboard it would be around a 100-150 gallons of fresh water and an onboard set of grey tanks, solving the water issue and increasing my firewood supply immensely :).
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JoeChiOhki
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02/08/12 09:59pm |
Truck Campers
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