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I wound up going through Kansas and taking 40 — nicely scenic though I encountered real weather especially as I got into Utah. I did make the entire trip in 3 days as planned though I put in some very long hours to make that happen.
I’d definitely recommend the trip, but don’t intend to plan to cover that much ground in so little time in future.
I appreciate the info.
At the moment, wind speed and gustiness are my biggest concerns — do you think taking I-70 would mitigate either of these or is it not going to be materially different than I-80?
One route that intrigues me is taking 40 just outside of Denver to Salt Lake city since snow doesn’t look like it will be a factor when I’m passing through on the 27th. Though I’ll also be passing through late which makes taking 70 to Green River and refueling so I have enough to get the rest of the way in the safer move.
Just realized that I never reported back.
I’ve been using that cheapo gizmo ever since I posted and it work great. Truck thinks a trailer is attached and I get plenty of charge. The only caveat is that rough roads can shake it loose enough to break the connection but no problems with anything falling out so far.
I almost exclusively boondock.
I never carry more than 3 gallons (and only carry 1 if I know I’ll be near convenient water) — water is heavy and takes lots of space. I carry a water filter to help replenish supplies. In desert areas, conservation is necessary.
A paper town moistened with rubbing alcohol is a good substitute for showering as it kills bacteria that cause stench. Proper water sources like streams and lakes make life easier.
I use nothing.
That the bed gets dinged/scratched is no biggie. It’s a truck bed so who cares if I use it like a truck bed, and the camper doesn’t seem to care either (some minor scuffs, but nothing even vaguely like real damage). Once I tie things down, it doesn’t slide about and I go on some pretty rough trails.
I’ll give a shoutout to Capri Campers — I had one built for my Ranger. One of the many things they did for me was send a picture of the scale weight.
I don’t know exactly how they weighed it, but I don’t think it included the jacks which I don’t roll with. However, it seemed accurate when I went to the scales fully loaded with GF, dog, and gear.
My experience with them was one of the best customer service experiences I’ve had with any company. There are very few cabover options for midsize trucks, and I couldn’t be happier with what they delivered.
That sounds like a simple solution. Just googling around, I found this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FZTWVE4/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
If I can just plug something in rather than figuring out exactly what I need to place inline to fool the sensor, that’s a win for me. If it works, I’ll report back but otherwise I’ll just splice in a fake load
Battery voltage is good — and it’s also good at all the pins *except* the one that goes to the positive terminal in the battery.
After doing some poking around, I’ve discovered that standard installation for my connector is “upside down” explaining the weird pin behavior — but that my power problem is real and most likely because “smart connector” isn’t sensing a trailer and won’t send voltage down that line unless it senses brakes. I’ve found a number of guys griping on other forums about that.
I have to get some warranty work done anyway, so I’ll ask at Ford if they can do anything about that. If they can’t, I can redirect the running lights wire which delivers 12V to the battery. I’d lose the gems and need to run my lights, but I’m not sure if I care. I’d much rather be able to override the annoying behavior.
Another option is simply to route a wire from the positive terminal of the battery. Not sure if that would risk killing the battery when parked if I left the connector plugged in.
I think people are figuring out that less is more. I get questions literally on every trip.
Being able to go and park anywhere plus use it as an actual truck are all huge wins. If I had to do it all over, the only thing I’d do differently is have a small window cut near the bottom of the door and put a fresnel lens so I could see through the back and behind via my rear view mirror in addition to the sides though I worry that would be funny looking. Plus, I might mess the job up.
I wasn’t aware of how the safety mechanisms worked. My worry was a violent crash causing a break right by the tank valve (or even ejecting it) and then igniting. Like you, I think a tank breach is unlikely — those things are tough and it would take a truly weird hit to do that.
In my case, I’m all electric except gas and heat so there’s no need to be connected when rolling so at worst it’s an unnecessary step.
Since his rig operated without a problem for four years, I think it is reasonable to assume something changed, so the first step may be determining what changed and finding a way to stop that from happening in the future.
100% agreed. It’s possible that he just got unlucky — rodents can chew on wiring and even help bridge the gap, things can shift, moisture could have gotten in the wrong place. One less probable cause that I’d look into just in the hope of good news is that the short took place within something plugged in.
It’s a rotten problem to have. Anything relating to wire tracing when it’s not easily accessible is no fun.
If you have a three-way fridge, how about operating off propane? Then the amp draw in negligible.
I’d only have propane hooked up when stopped. If you get into an accident with propane connected, the results could be disastrous.
What kind/size fridge do you have? I have an electric Novacool 2.4 cf fridge — that thing takes very little juice. I have only a single battery that I charge via the outlet before I leave, I run it nonstop, and the 100 AH battery lasts 4-5 days before I need to recharge.
Increasing the ampacity of the wiring may be helpful or decreasing fuse size.
The problem needs to be identified and fixed before messing with either of these things. An arc or short (possibly resulting from damaged wiring or unlucky contact) strike me as good suspects.
The amount of current it took to fry everything is way more than should be passing through, so replacing parts without fixing the problem is setting up for anything between blown fuses and a much more dangerous problem.
If the fuse situation had been better, there would have been less (or maybe no) damage. But you’d still have a serious problem.
Thanks for the feedback — sounds like 100W portable will be the ticket for me.
Although my fridge is 12v only (no LPG), my electrical usage is low. However, I’m almost always in obscured conditions so 50W might not be enough.
I have a Zamp solar ready port on the exterior of my camper — my understanding is that they’ve reversed the polarity. However, their panels are enough more that I’m inclined to explore cheaper options
Kyle
I’m new to truck camping — have always been an on foot backcountry type. Gotta admit that not getting wet when you’re out in the cold for days is awfully nice.
Here’s my new Ranger combined with a Capri Retreat which is optimized for ski and coastal trips which is what I mostly do. Totally lux — have been using it every chance I get. Not visible in the interior pic is the ski closet.
I kind of suspected that might be the case. This is a pretty obvious thing to try, and it seems like you’d see people doing this in the wild if it worked.
Good incentive to drive slower. Driving through Idaho and Montana against stiff headwinds on 80mph highways was not enjoyable. Control was good enough, but I would have strongly preferred a more scenic and slower route but my GF wasn’t keen on adding a few hours each way to an already long drive.
Kyle,
This is off the wall, but we are also trying to figure out how to carry a kayak with us and have seen arrangements like this on a number of motorhomes and have been trying to figure out if there is a way to fab one that would connect to the hitch on our truck and the camper roof.I’ve seen this used successfully on RVs. Not an option for me since my boat is 17′ long.
The one concern I’d have about putting one on a relatively short TC is that if you have much boat sticking out, the aerodynamic forces could be massive. Also, this setup would be heavy if weight is a concern.
Another half-baked idea is one pulley suspended from the two racks right at the edge of the roof. This would need a ladder of just the right length to act as a ramp of sorts to avoid scraping the side of the camper. You would hoist it right up to the edge, lock it off with a yachting or climbing cam lock, climb up the ladder to push it over the edge onto the rack and secure it.
If it was me I would have those racks much further apart otherwise I would worry greatly if the bow wasn’t tied off and that would entail more fussing.This gives me a potentially easy low tech idea — just tie a rope to the bow that goes through the front rack and use that to pull/steady the boat as I walk it up a ladder on the back of the camper.
Tying the ends of the boat will be no problem — no way I’d want to transport anything this long any other way. I currently just clip carabiners on small pull lines off the bow and the stern and they’re held nice and firm with a lines with ratchets.
The only issue with this is it requires a lot of ladder moving — up the side to run the rope, up the back to move the boat, and two more positions along the side to secure the boat and secure the tie down line off the bow.
Maybe when I sell my company I will have more time???
Funny that you mention that.
I ran a company for a few years and quit to become a happy working stiff.
I loved the work and the customers. The legal, financial, compliance, and subcontracting issues that took most of my time, not so much.
Now I have a much easier ride that gives me more access to the outdoors than anyone I know. We literally have National Geographic quality stuff for a day trip 🙂
Booze does not mix well in most of the day time activities. More than once I have packed up and left.
Agreed. I’m out there because I like to feel connected with everything. In the day, I might take a nip to celebrate achieving a particularly special objective but few things reach that level.
But things happen. Earlier this year, we got caught in a massive storm that dumped 48″ (4 feet) of snow on us so we were holed up 7 miles from the road. We wound up rescuing a couple guys on snow machines who wound up having to spend the night with us. Was nice to have something to share. When we finally got back to the parking lot a couple days later, neither it nor the road were drivable.
On a more serious note regarding emergency gear. In my experience, Gorilla tape is superior to duct tape in every respect. Stronger, works fine when wet, much more abrasion resistant, not susceptible to gunking up if you leave it around. Vaseline is great for wounds and blisters and makes a great fire starter as well when combined with cotton. The electrical tape that others have already listed is a superior way to bandage wounds — works when wet, doesn’t get torn up so easily, and is handy for repairs. I also think there’s no substitute for a proper headlamp. I carry a Personal Locator Beacon as well. It is cheaper than a satellite communicator, requires no subscription, is fully waterproof, and can send out a signal in conditions where a satellite connection can’t be made.
CalTopo that others recommend is great.
For digital, I’d strongly recommend the phone app Backcountry Navigator (which can info from a number of sources including CalTopo).
If you download the maps for the area where you’re traveling, you do not need a connection to use Backcountry Navigator. You can use it for free, but I’d recommend plunking down the $15 for the pro version.
I looked into bed and roof systems as it’s way lighter and cheaper. However, the majority of our camping is in subfreezing temps and we frequently get buried in snow (a good thing because that keeps you warm and protected from the wind). The in bed and on roof systems don’t offer enough advantages over our regular tents which are engineered for alpine expeditions where conditions can get severe.
The reason we like the TC route is that once you and/or your gear get wet, you’re hosed. The TC offers a way to sleep much more comfortably at the trailhead the night before and the night returning, and holing up if you get snowed in is more fun. Also, I paddle in the ocean year ’round, and the weather is really wet/stormy in the winter. This made a small hardshell equipped with a propane heater attractive.
I really would have loved to make a truck with more payload capacity work. But they’re just too big for some areas plus I live in a city where a full size is nearly impossible to park.
Thanks everyone for the ideas.
After doing some reading, my inclination at this point is to pick up the camper with my stock setup, take it easy, and proceed from there.
Although this is going on a 1/2 ton, the camper is light. It’s primary purpose is to serve as a base for backcountry camping (i.e. sleep in it the night before and the night returning), so it’s a fairly minimal setup without heavy stuff like water, roof mount units, a bunch of gear we can’t carry on our backs, etc.
BTW, one thing you guys might find funny is I didn’t know until fairly recently that campers were heated. I’ve slept snug as a bug in a rug in below zero temps in my dug in double walled tent feeling sorry for the poor souls stuck in freezing boxes exposed to the wind. I still probably wouldn’t know except a nice guy in a TC invited me and my GF out of the -5°F to share some whiskey a few years ago when he saw us moving through a parking lot.
As someone who has camped extensively in these areas (albeit as a backcountry traveler on foot), I’d emphasize the advice in the article to check in ranger station.
In general, anyone who observes leave no trace practices will find they can do anything within reason. It’s highly worthwhile to call up whoever maintains or works in the area — I even do this for areas I know well as conditions can change rapidly which can cause new opportunities/challenges to pop up quickly.
