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CarForumPoster posted:Been to Cruces and ABQ several times. Cruces has/had a good hole-in-the-wall donut place called Bosa Donuts, worth getting if you're still there. Bosa Deez (Do)Nuts. ETA: such a shameful snype
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Jan 7, 2023 03:10
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builds character posted:You can’t say that without telling us the recipe! It's just a regular cheeseburger, with roasted Anaheim chiles on it. Make it and dress it like a regular cheeseburger. I prefer swiss or pepperjack on mine personally, and prefer to melt the cheese on top of the chiles (that way they don't fall out while I'm trying to eat it). Their menu is here, New Mexico style is what you're after. "Hatch" is just a specific type of Anaheim, grown in New Mexico. Bacon, sauteed mushrooms, and/or guacamole are all good with it. https://www.homesicktexan.com/green-chile-cheeseburgers/ this is just one example. They're tasty, Anaheims are very mild too (usually 500-1000 scoville, some get a little rowdy and get up to 2500). randomidiot fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Jan 7, 2023 |
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Jan 7, 2023 17:24
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STR posted:https://www.homesicktexan.com/green-chile-cheeseburgers/ this is just one example. They're tasty, Anaheims are very mild too (usually 500-1000 scoville, some get a little rowdy and get up to 2500). I've been using the carnita recipe off that site for years, I'll have to give those burgers a try. These ones - https://www.homesicktexan.com/carnitas-houston-style/ edit: too many threads open, sorry for the derail in this great thread NitroSpazzz fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Jan 8, 2023 |
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Jan 7, 2023 22:40
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recipe yields one carnita
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Jan 7, 2023 23:01
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NitroSpazzz posted:I've been using the carnita recipe off that site for years, I'll have to give those burgers a try. These ones - https://www.homesicktexan.com/carnitas-houston-style/ I've never thought of enchiladas verdes as having any filling except chicken. But these are the kind of enchiladas I grew up on. Very much a far west TX/New Mexico dish. Honestly I've never even looked at that website before - they had one of the better looking green chile cheeseburgers when I checked google. I'll have to give some of their stuff a try. sorry for the hijack CSB
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Jan 8, 2023 01:24
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Back in Arizona two years later.  Found a nice fixer upper. Probably half a mil if not more. Great views. panoramic views of the skies.  Camping spot?  After dollying the truck into position. Un level? nah. No cell reception? boo. Close to the road? oh hell no. Driving in I saw this little hill. Gonna fall back to it before the sun is gone. There's cell reception there at least.    Exploring the local washes there's not a lot going on here.   Few days later, running low on water so it's time to get moving again. What's this? Slower than a dolphin but not slower than a Unimog.   Nice mog. Way too new to be here but I like your style. Wilcox, AZ.  After chorin' we did a walk of the city, found a bbq joint and a spot for a margarita. This was one of the few areas on the road where we felt very out of place and unwelcome. Probably won't come back. The KOA was good. Little else though. Alfa? Is it running? do they wanna part with it? Inquiring minds wanna know. I need something to set the fleet reliability index that isn't the truck.  Interstate eight.  Hanging out near a test range for a few days.   It's cookie season again.  While here I spraybomed the fixes from NoDak. If the paint flakes off I have a tell for stress.   Checks pass this go round. I try to check the frame patches closely every week or two and check the front section every pre-trip. Cool Subaru camper doing what most jeeps won't. I wonder if they fulltime. Shouldnt have parked next to the highway though.  I N D I A N food. gently caress do I love some Indian. In house made, not some take out.  Then uhhh Thanksgiving 2021. 12lb bird in a tiny rv oven? It's totally possible. A bit of a project but it's possible. Ok it was a huge project. But so worth it.   The truck I should have bought. Rig Ideals. 
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Jan 8, 2023 18:11
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Indian food is fantastic and the ideal thing to do with left over roast chicken. Or that Thanksgiving turkey, stick the leftovers in a curry, better than the main roast. There was one of these things in the village over Christmas, not necessarily the same builder but the same base vehicle. Super cool if total overkill for driving up and down Swiss ski resort roads. https://www.motor1.com/news/577558/mercedes-atego-krug-expedition-project-rhino/ Also I can't help thinking €300k would get me a 911 and a LOT of hotel nights.
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Jan 8, 2023 19:48
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Based on previous posts, I will assume he is towing a trailer full of spare truck parts and a tiny machine shop behind the campercursedshitbox posted:The truck I should have bought. Rig Ideals.
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Jan 8, 2023 19:49
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drk posted:Based on previous posts, I will assume he is towing a trailer full of spare truck parts and a tiny machine shop behind the camper The camper really eats into the spare trailer tire storage. I assume they put actual tires on the trailer, but still.
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Jan 8, 2023 23:29
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That fuckers new enough it should have the best set of tools on board; a warranty. Something to be said about running hardware less than three decades old. Reminder that my set up is so old that Bush I was president when it was manufactured. It was built closer to the Apollo moon landing than from when it was built to today. Some of the cargo trailers have provisions to store the spare under the trailer, in between the crossmembers. Others offer a hatch from inside the trailer to store the spare in a well. Others still bolt it somewhere in the box. The Rhino owns. No hotel can park where its dead quiet. No bed is as comfortable as one's own. Though I can't argue an adventured out 911 shaming lowly rovers, jeeps, and land cruisers. Maybe the next build.
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Jan 8, 2023 23:38
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Back in Aridzona this go round I'm gonna stay at a couple varying campgrounds, some dry, some not. First stop is in Paradise Cove The spot I'm in has only partial so still running off solar but there's water/sewer. There's a lake here and a ton of hiking/mountain biking trails.  Unfortunately the spot is juuust obscured enough by trees to be annoying. The weekend crowds pretty loud here. Lotta contractor gennies and partying. Typical with being on the water. Random trail to the campgrounds.   At the marina, a rather nice sounding boat. They've rentals and party barges. Also a little restaurant.  After months of not riding and dealing with truck poo poo. I'm going riding.     Most of the trails here are fairly easy. Some are pretty steep and rocky. Below the dam it gets sandy and loose. This is the dam for the lake itself.    Series of bridges through a tunnel of trees below the dam  North side of the lake.  Some cacti that didn't make it.  It's always time for some kind of maintenance.  Random cooking projects. Garlic knots made of course from sourdough.  Mo Indian  And some post bike gorbage.  On leaving Lake Pleasant I pull up to the tank dump and start doing the normal routine. Guy pulls in next to us with a travel trailer and pulls the tank handles without hooking the stinky slinky up draining sewage onto the ground. He then takes the gently caress off when the sewage slows to a slow trickle. Now I understand all the rvs going by on the roads in the area leaving a snail trail. Weekenders. Absolutely gross. The next campground is a little more upmarket in Scottsdale at Mcdowell Mountain Park. Cool rig.  Decent spot at the end.   It makes an okay office I guess  Some warbird I didn't expect to see out and about. Sounded real good.  Sunsets in AZ are always super pretty.   There's as you guessed it, more mountainbiking out here.       This place is excellent. Come ride here sometime. Saw the first sworks mtbs of the entire trip here. Kinda like jeep bros but without the ducks and weirdness. I decided to visit a friend and do brunch in Fountain Hills. Good recovery ride from camp. It's about a 10 mile ride and mostly paved. Some moderate hills but mostly flat. On the way there a truck hauling a dump trailer tries to clip me blowing the entire 'recovery' part of the ride so gently caress it, turn the power on. I ride as close to the dirt as possible, in this section there was a solid 3' of shoulder. Guy came within 6" of tagging me with the trailer. Heart rate spiked like no other and took entirely too long to normalize.  Headed back after gorbage and coffee I'm getting this rhythmic vibration on the long climb out of town. This cues me using it as a metronome and driving harder. And the vibrations continue to intensify. I crest the hill and power start to power down the otherside and the bike is uhh something's wrong. I look down at the crank and the rear wheel is moving all over the place and banging into the frame. The frame that's basically akin to the camper in that its all composites and not suited to this kind of abuse.    https://i.imgur.com/UEF5PeW.mp4 Got a text from my spouse asking if I'd crashed since I abruptly stopped. Nope just blew shitbike up. Realizing that I'm gonna need to hike a bike 7 miles home I call my friend that's still nearby and asked if he'd be alright giving me a ride back. He obliged. These bike wheels are deliciously out of date and use a tapered spoke. The hub is full of parts no longer available. Its been slowly eating itself for a while. Maybe its time to upgrade the hub and keep the hoop. I'm leaving this park in the next day to go to another mtb park but without a bike now.
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Jan 13, 2023 16:52
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cursedshitbox posted:https://i.imgur.com/UEF5PeW.mp4 In the spirit of the truck, this is now the right time to replace your hub with a DT Swiss 350 or a Hope...
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Jan 13, 2023 20:03
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Fun to see you in places familiar to me. I was actually considering doing a night of car camping on the test range just after Christmas but wasn't super feeling it when the day to do it came. It is funny to read the reviews of the camp sites there, they're either peaceful getaways or migrant gang war corridors depending on the reviews.
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Jan 13, 2023 20:03
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Rick posted:Fun to see you in places familiar to me. I was actually considering doing a night of car camping on the test range just after Christmas but wasn't super feeling it when the day to do it came. It is funny to read the reviews of the camp sites there, they're either peaceful getaways or migrant gang war corridors depending on the reviews. It was nice and quiet during the week. The weekend crew goes hard. Campgrounds and traveling will always have this kinda thing going on where the weekenders come out to party/connect/put work away/etc and they're not exactly adept at using the equipment and figure that everybody else around them is there to do the same thing which common courtesy goes outta the window. It's an anthropological experience to say the least. meltie posted:In the spirit of the truck, this is now the right time to replace your hub with a DT Swiss 350 or a Hope... Both would be a pro upgrade over an aging Easton X2 hub with basically no parts availability. I ran the dying hub for another 5 months or so running all around san diego. The whole bike got a good gothrough at the end of the trip. Never managed to blow the freehub up but it was starting to be a pain to set the derailleur to compensate for the wear in the freehub.
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Jan 15, 2023 16:59
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Rolling onto Usery park. But without the bike I can at least go hike.    Lotta trails. No hookups. Nice and quiet. I'd come back here. Shakshuka  Doing an inspection of the truck I found three cracks in the frame. Cross referencing photos this one has been here since I bought the truck in 2016 and its not propagating.  This thing has always been shithoused and I'm a moron that is too stubborn to call it quits. Over the rear axle where I had installed the airbags new cracks have formed somewhere after the respring in Portland and before the frame break in North Dakota. The flange is all twisted to clear the shocks so that they could be mounted further outboard for "ride quality". A pretty bold move coming from the morons at Ford. These are currently not propagating.  I8 is very boring.  It's so fuzzy i'm gonna diiiiieeee. KOA in Boulevard, CA. I highly recommend staying here.     As we get closer to San Diego, a small detour to play on the backroads of Mount Laguna. Excellent road for riding and driving. But maybe not with this thing.    In San Diego I found a bike shop to fix the wheel. Sorta. Staying at the SD RV Resort which is just off the Red line trolley. It provides an easy way into San Diego proper and back. Though it takes about an hour each way from out here.   Cool C4 neighbor.    With a much needed break from this old truck a lease was signed at an apartment in San Diego bringing the trip to its end. The vehicle is put into semi-ready to run condition then stored. A map of the 24 states and 14,261 miles that the vehicle drove.  LP metrics of the entire year.  Fuel economy information. A total consumption of 1554 gallons consumed at an average mpg of 9.40. Total cost of fuel was $5434.  With the vehicle unloaded from its duties of full time traveling it is now once again a weekender stripped down to the barest of functions. However it ends up sitting in storage for more than six months baking in the SoCal sun before seeing any use or maintenance. The time passed mostly not thinking about this truck or its camper but more on other projects. For 2022 the rig saw three major road trips before going back into full time duties late in the year. It got a chassis refit mid year from some actual pros. That surprise to no one, I broke again. Twice. I'm gonna take a little intermission on those updates to get the necessary trip information all sorted and uploaded cause well, starlink is a little slow uploading these huge rear end photos, I've been busy as gently caress, and hadn't gotten to it.
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Jan 16, 2023 23:37
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Jan 17, 2023 02:41
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Agreed. And request for the shakshuka recipe.
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Jan 17, 2023 04:18
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builds character posted:Agreed. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014721-shakshuka-with-feta Since this is sort of kinda related. Have a recipe for menemen too. I deviate from the recipe a bit on both. Get some urfa biber, harissa(the paste is delicious), sumac, and aleppo pepper. https://www.themediterraneandish.com/menemen-recipe/
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Jan 17, 2023 23:05
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cursedshitbox posted:https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014721-shakshuka-with-feta  Looks great, thanks!
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Jan 18, 2023 01:31
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Mid May 2022 we started talking about doing a quick weekend outing. Not too far from home, a couple hours or so. Mostly to just exercise the rig and also get some quiet time in away from the city. The idea is to go camp out at Cuyamaca Ranch State Park then kinda just go from there. Not a lot of planning. I'd found a lotta mountain biking to go do but turns out I needed a special permit to camp dispersed on Mt Laguna. That... wasn't ideal. Arriving to the camper for its 5 day trip. It's dusty and filthy. Largely nothing changed.   Switched everything on and it came right up like we'd left it yesterday. https://i.imgur.com/tnuBy3g.mp4 Washed it, drove it into town, loaded up our poo poo to go camping. Then off to some groceries on the way into the mountains. Saw this Turbo'd baja bug in the parkinglot. This is total god tier stuff. It's next to impossible to keep one running with stock parts. Someday I will build one that's electric.  Feeling cute, may delete later. More like lost. And can't find the spot.  Ah. There it is.  It's pretty shaded and probably about as unlevel as it gets. Good thing there's no longer a propane fridge onboard. This state park is pretty old so the spots are a bit tight. Max rig length here is 30 feet.   The truck climbs noticeably better when it's not hauling an extra thousand pounds of stuff. The cell coverage here is pretty decent.  Birbs!  Behind the park is some pretty decent hiking/biking trails.    For the trip I premade some meals we can reheat and keep it simple. Margaritas and Pizza.  Since I flubbed the permit and there's not a lot of other options. I drove over to Carrizo Badlands Overlook. Not sure where to camp, we parked just off the main road and went for a hike.    Yes, It's every bit as hot outside as it looks in the photos.  Our first idea was to drive down into the valley. But we did see some sxs/jeeps out there. And the road down is very steep with some ruts. Could roll the truck.     Eventually picking a spot on the outlook with the dinette window facing the above overlook.   Lunch  I'd picked up a replacement wheel for the mtb since the hub was dying. I didn't have the tools at home to swap wheels around and wasn't really feeling paying $50 to do what I could with tools I had on hand. The old hub never exploded but it was starting to shift like absolute trash. By now most of the consumables and a handful of non-consumables have been replaced. I'd been riding pretty regularly and using the apartment's gym bikes. Threw down a metric century on this bike and several other rides close to it. The hub did its time. I found a new old stock wheel with the same hoop but with an updated cassette. Cassettes and even XD drivers are available for it.  Good for another day. This was the first run of the new braking system too. Went from 160mm front/rear to 180. Noticeable improvement in braking force.   I'd been training and riding back and forth to the Velodrome in San Diego for classes there with the plan to race. This is more or less the month where I couldn't find a decentish bike local enough that I'd fit much less afford. I totally fell off the riding bandwagon for essentially the rest of the year. With it really muggy and hot out plus this and several other plans blowing up in my face it just cratered my motivation to ride. It's hot. Like north of 100F hot. Let's go back to the KOA in Boulevard for some A/C   Slithering up I8 with a leaky rad in 100F temps lolol. It doesn't run hot but it does make you warm in the process. https://i.imgur.com/HxxMuwL.mp4 Back in the 90s mom hit a chunk of disintegrated tire with her Olds and dented the fuel tank to the point it wouldn't pick fuel up anymore. This shop got us straightened out. I am surprised its still there.  Back at the KOA. Being that this campground is in the mountains its already much more pleasant than the desert valley was.   More birbs!  Turns out the riding here is pretty much limited to the koa grounds. Which is limited.  Burgs for dinner    From here It's back home and back to the grind. Getting dusted by a class-C  Have I ever mentioned how slow this thing is? And back to its slumber. But this time left in a semi-operational state with the server and minimal systems left life so that we can work on it from home. It's also starting to show some UV damage sitting in the elements. Shame.  Since we have no car or transport. The truck is an hour from home near the outskirts of town. It's a project to load/unload the vehicle. Overall the trip was fun and kind of a lot lower stress than the tail end of the full time life where the engine finally died. We were missing it but also not. The few days out reminded us of all the little things we never got around to fixing, and how some other aspects are still unfinished. For instance, the leaking radiator, or status of the solar/power systems. It's also down one of its two LTE networks now. It's not possible to camp in this for an extended time and work for a couple days from it. Sitting in storage it's slowly falling into maintenance debt with the extreme UV and thermal cycling its experiencing. The Fourth of July is about a month away and that's another weekend with some days off around it. Planning begins on the next trip. But this time with some minor improvements to the setup since we have about a month to roll them into service.
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Jan 30, 2023 23:15
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I've been wondering the difference between using it as a weekender versus full timing - I saw you mentioned 1000 pounds lighter, is that by ditching some of the fulltime stuff you're hauling like 3D printer etc? Could this basic setup still work for weekending if it was in non-ancient-abused-farm-truck form, or are you still pushing the limits?
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Jan 31, 2023 00:16
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hey, i'm sure this has been asked and answered a million times, but what's the tl;dr on the power situation? are you running solar cells/batteries?
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Jan 31, 2023 09:19
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cursedshitbox posted:Saw this Turbo'd baja bug in the parkinglot. This is total god tier stuff. It's next to impossible to keep one running with stock parts. Someday I will build one that's electric.  Hmm that seems like an ideal solution to my wife wanting an old beetle, baja not turbo because lol I don't hate myself that much. EV would be even better.
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Jan 31, 2023 12:50
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BuckyDoneGun posted:I've been wondering the difference between using it as a weekender versus full timing - I saw you mentioned 1000 pounds lighter, is that by ditching some of the fulltime stuff you're hauling like 3D printer etc? Could this basic setup still work for weekending if it was in non-ancient-abused-farm-truck form, or are you still pushing the limits? That's what I also thought at the time that it could still be a pretty decent weekender. With 90% of all our stuff removed there's an endless amount of onboard space. In the next update we'll see why despite being a stripped down weekend getaway camper, it's not up for that task as it was parked. Also, It's not as light as it could be.  armpit_enjoyer posted:hey, i'm sure this has been asked and answered a million times, but what's the tl;dr on the power situation? are you running solar cells/batteries? Here's a graphic I put together to show the flow of the power system. There's 900W of solar and 3) 100Ah batteries comprising a 3.6kWh battery array.  Schematic:  There's no alternator charging and during the summer the system is good for around 5kWh solar yield per day. Winter is less than half that at the solstice. The system has been running +/- since July 2020. NitroSpazzz posted:
If you can get one with a subie or ecotec swap they're good. Acura v6es are also a riot in one of these.
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Jan 31, 2023 16:50
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July 4th weekend, Joshua Tree National Park. Specifically, gonna start at Black Rock Canyon then layover at Ryan's campground. Grab the rig out of mothballs. Drive into town, pile our junk in it.  A visual aid to how much garlic your recipes should be using.  All set up for a night at Black Rock Canyon.  But with some new hardware onboard.  Just a single night here. With partial LTE service and an evening to try and bed in the new upgrades and integrate them into the existing vehicle. Since the vehicle is just a weekender the billing is set for time of use rather than monthly. The other upgrade is this thing I've been working on for about a month.  It's an off-the-shelf E-ink device from Adafruit with a Esp32 running some python I put together using an example project. It points to a socket server the camper runs that's written in rust and yeets out the particulars of the solar/imu systems. (eventually inverter and weather) I didn't have the time to print the housings. A fun portable.  And full integration with the rv.  3 days at Ryans. There's no cell or data coverage here. Though starlink works.   Nearby is some ruins that can be hiked to in about 10 minutes.    The remains of a mill.    Random engine. Looks like it was set up as a stationary mechanical power source.    JTNP is really pretty. If you've never visited, do it someday. It's quite pricey to buy near the park, if I had the means, I would.   As dusk falls I notice something odd with the rock formations.  People out free climbing on the rocks. That's gonna be a hard-no from me.   Camp quisine.  Peesha and a cheese stick batch. Stuffed crust detroit style sourdough.  At the end of the third day here the internet and new monitoring systems are proving to be working better than expected. We decide to extend the stay to the weekend and try some remote working while boondocking. This will better provide data for the duty cycle of the solar/power systems with running the new satellite system and also running workstations.
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Feb 6, 2023 19:40
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You camped next to a restroom. My mother would have approved. Joshua Tree: Someday.
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Feb 7, 2023 07:19
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cursedshitbox posted:People out free climbing on the rocks. That's gonna be a hard-no from me. JTree is world famous for its climbing tho, although it doesn't have to be free climbing (no rope). It's not the most beginner friendly as almost all the easy stuff was developed early on and thus being trad (place your own gear). It is, however, exceedingly beautiful.
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Feb 7, 2023 11:01
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cursedshitbox posted:
Out of all the wisdom that’s been dropped here, this is easily the most profound.
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Feb 8, 2023 15:33
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bolind posted:JTree is world famous for its climbing tho, although it doesn't have to be free climbing (no rope). Climbing is fine! It's.. yeah I'll stick to the ground. I am far too clumsy for such sports. Agreed. It's gorgeous out there. Lots of equestrian trails as well if that's your thing. Bit light on the mountainbiking though. E: VVV Nice snipe! I knew someone would figure it out
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Feb 8, 2023 17:52
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I think I have identified that engine, 1920s Studebaker Big 6. https://classiccars.com/listings/view/897974/1923-studebaker-big-6-sport-phaeton-for-sale-in-lithia-springs-georgia-30122
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Feb 8, 2023 17:52
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The long week! Cue a three and a half hour drive on fire roads Stopped in this pull out for lunch and to check in on work.     The above shots as seen from below.  And the turnoff for camp. It looks less sketchy than it is. 4wd is a must.  I took the left line. Too far to the left and its nearly a dropoff which can roll a tall fat truck like mine. Too close to the right and risk tree contact. Take the right line and risk dragging and possibly getting stuck. Parked and looking for a spot to set up camp.  huh, that's a lot more twist from the camper than usual.   I dont have photos. This is where I discovered that the bed had pulled away from the subframe. A good solid half an inch. This is where I find out that the bed is not just under compression, but also tension. Which is probably what killed the frame. Camp. The best I could do to get * solar * internet * and relatively level.  It's a bit of a dropoff out back.  View from the bunk is pretty decent. Sometimes this pain in the rear end window is worth having.  There's a bit of hiking and a little biking around. Otherwise it's mostly 4wd/sxs trails. Remains of a cabin    View towards Salton Sea  Steep climb towards a radio tower. I got pretty gassed over 8000' asl    Pulling down decent solar while fully charging despite the extra loads.  Putting together a game plan post trip to get some of the hassles fixed. I think its time to fix this radiator.  Took a couple shots of the bed and measurements to submit to a fabricator.  This is the front of the bed. The subframe c channel is cut and the horizontal member is just kinda fixed to the vertical of the subframe.    I missed this at the time. but.  Headed out.   I took the 'right' line leaving. Note the rear bumper is higher than the hood's leading edge.  It's a still from this video. Next is to hire a fabricator to fix the bed, get the radiator fixed, knock out a buncha maintenance. Mild spoiler because when this trip went down we didn't know it yet. Found a 50+ acre piece of dirt with water in the sierras in my price range. Gonna prep the rig and go look at it.
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Feb 10, 2023 18:02
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Fixing this broken old farmtruck volume #27182818284. Today's docket is sending the rad out for repair, an oil change, and a rebuild of the bed corner's structure. Lots of jockeying and using lyfts to get around. Because gently caress pulling this dumb rear end radiator or trying to repair it myself without a shop. It's over 100lb of brass. The shop made some noise about repairing it. Wanted to sell me a plastic tank upgraded radiator for $900 or a recore at $1400. The recore would be fine. It's not time for that yet though. Remind you, I bought this rad a year ago.  They fixed it successfully. At a little under half the price of the recore. The shiny black paint makes it worth it, right?  Not wanting to rely on ride shares since I have no other ride than this dumb truck. A Generic LS (4.3) powered whitebox van full of junk appears for misdeeds.  Oil change: done.  Some reminders to show where the reinforcement work needs to be applied.  The proposed fixed developed in collaboration with a welder.  Welding day arrives. I'm out prepping the truck and notice this. Upper flange. Driver's side. Maybe 3" towards the rear axle from the lower flange break in North Dakota. Nearly 14 thousand miles later.  See the side crack jutting towards the fish plate? This fucker. At least it stopped at a small hole in the frame where it is technically relieved. This truck is going to embark on a 1300 mile trip in two days. This... needs to be done today. The welder is fine adding this to the list. Old Chevs working on old Fords. 454/400 power. It's a pretty sweet old truck that he got for a song.   Passenger reinforcement.  Driver's side reinforcement.  Patch plate welded over the frame crack, without dropping the tank or fuel lines. Dudes a beast. He's a vet not much older than I that's done a lot of offroad/industrial/heavy duty fabrication/repair. Anything this old frame can throw at him he's seen before.  He finished up the primary work early, and was open to making some extra bucks. Tackled the cracks from the airbag mounts and the ooold crack over the FL spring. Cue TIG on an old farm truck. High brow work for an old piece of poo poo frame. [   Reinforcement plates added to the 2nd back crossmember on the bed.  The toolboxes are in the way, and welded on. Making access to this part of the bed particularly difficult. (this is why the passenger side toolbox is still bent. I gotta pound that out eventually...) I'm gonna book him for future frame work. He also said if I can break it, he'll fix it. Guy clearly doesn't know.. we broke it  With this the truck is ready for its big dumb outing to a remote piece of dirt. The day after this work I submitted the paperwork to buy out my lease at greystar starting the process of going back to full time with this old truck. 2022 brought things that weren't on our bingo card, and nothing went according to plan, so might as well spend a fraction of the costs traveling rather than just run in place.
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Feb 13, 2023 19:28
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cursedshitbox posted:I'm gonna book him for future frame work. He also said if I can break it, he'll fix it. Guy clearly doesn't know.. You just put some pictures in my head that I can't get rid of. 
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Feb 14, 2023 03:20
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Those camping photos make me so jealous. It's the middle of winter here, and last week we had tons of snow and extremely heavy winds. (Which poses an interesting question: how would the truck hold up in winter conditions? Having to devote plenty of energy to heating and less solar output aside, how would, say, a -10, -15 degree centigrade cold affect the frame and welding and stuff?)
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Feb 16, 2023 18:02
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armpit_enjoyer posted:Those camping photos make me so jealous. It's the middle of winter here, and last week we had tons of snow and extremely heavy winds. I've done those temps a couple times dry camping and a few more on hookups. Furnace runs a bit more, some ice on the windows, that sorta stuff. Those temps aren't really cold enough to embrittle the frame more than it already is. With the placement of the power systems the batteries or internal plumbing have yet to freeze. The upcoming posts will have some snow camping content. When setting out (roughly two months after this post takes place) I subjected the camper to all kinds of snow camping. We didn't really get to do it in 2021 as we doubted the truck's cold starting ability. The new engine fixed that. A night in Beaumont, CA on hookups to fill the fresh water tank for the ensuring trip.  With a dinner of snags and whatever i could throw in the pan  Then comes the onslaught of driving across the hot desert in a hot airconditionless truck with no insulation at the top of 4th gear for hours.  Fuel. This sucker doesn't miss a fuel station.  The paved road gives way to a wash with a primitive unmaintained road.  It goes on for what feels like forever.  Up and over some obstacles. Dragging the spare. Contacting the holding tanks. I'll pull the spare for the way out.  And of course. I have no photos for this. So you get a wall of words. The truck is configured in camper mode, so it's pretty light right now. The road is off camber but in a bad way. Driver's side high at the entrance of the obstacle, Passenger side high at the exit; and there's a cut through the road from a washout where it's extremely narrow with a steep dropoff. To cross the washout is to cut to the left, pushing the truck more offcamber, near to its rollover point, then bump to the right, forward some straight as possible over the washout, then bump back left, so that the front end crosses the obstacle and is twisted opposite of the rear axle. This ensures that if the rearend slips, the vehicle will resist rolling with the pressure placed on the chassis. This is putting the maximum amount of stress on the chassis. My husband spots while I drive. Ahead and to the left, where I'm not going to go and where if I roll, the vehicle won't roll on him. Trucks in 4L-2nd gear. I line this shot up several times and I have the heebie jeebies about it. Tried committing once. The front left wheel lifted and the truck canted to the right way more than I would have wanted. I back down. Backed up a little more. Lined it up by turning the nose more into the small hill prior to the obstacle. And sent it. The truck felt like it was gonna roll. But it makes it. The LSD and mountain of on-boost-torque pushed the heavy vehicle across. He said the FL wheel was four feet in the air above the cut from the wash. Mind you those are nearly 40" tall tires. I couldn't see but I could certainly feel something unpleasant going on down below as the vehicle responded to the terrain it was subjected to. After crossing, I take 5 to check my pants and the truck over. Nothing looks out of place though I did find some seat cushion wedged firmly where it shouldn't be. We continue onwards.  So far, the truck seems okay.  I pull up to where the land is, some 15 maybe 20 miles from a paved road. and wtf?  Ah well that was a buzzkill.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgzPcCqduC4 They turned out to be pretty cool. Came to explore the abandoned mine. They were a little surprised to see a camper parked next to their vehicles. They had no idea the place was for sale.  This is the road in. There's a second in the wash, but roads in a wash are only temprorary. This one would need a PE in order to properly fix with pilings. Buying this piece of dirt is effectively dead with this.   What looked fairly flat on google earth/maps. Proved this to be the only flat spot capable of putting a shed on.     There's a small well head here, still wet, and with water rights.      A look downward at where we started this morning.  Well, that's a bust. So we leave. We get back to sketch jank the crossing. And park it. This time, we get out the shovel and tools. And build up the road. Three hours later, crossed with out any issues.   Turning west back to Hwy395, Pacific Gaslighting and Extortion has set the state on fire yet again.  Nope. Back behind the mountain range. Found this nice spot. And it's going to rain?  Solar was good at least.  Oh. It's properly raining. If we'd stayed another day at the piece of dirt we'd be so screwed by the wash out.  After the clouds cleared, went on a short bike ride.  Hookups near June Lake. Gorgeous area. I'd like to come back and ride the trails sometime.  I mean. Just look at it.   Pretty sweet house perched on rocks.  KOA near home. Ball game going on and there's no way I was getting near my apartment. I think this person with the goldwing is much, much smarter than I.  Then again, maybe these people have it better figured out. Can't go wrong with a 8V92.  BBQ time.  This can art rules.  Pulling back up at the apartment with all the other 4wd owners out doing their thing.  one of these things is not like the other~ How'd the truck do? Toyos are chunking after two years. About the same as a BFG-KM2. It's... kind of annoying. I'll add that to my list of poo poo to check into.  The fender got into the door at some point. (poly bush cab + the lower fender bolts aren't there due to the rock rails)  The little blobs of tig the welder did where the airbag mounts are? haha ineffectual. These... sections are going to be ridiculously hard to weld properly.  Which, I'm bringing the welder out for another round. To reinforce the poo poo out of the frame. To prevent further breakage, and to facilitate towing. With some other upgrades of course. Sounds familiar? We're about where things were when the thread first started. Only about 7 months ago.
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Feb 16, 2023 19:06
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Abandon mines continue to be my nirvana. I still have the "Warning: Abandoned Mines" sign you sent me.
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Feb 16, 2023 19:38
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This is a great thread, thank you for writing it up and taking lots of pictures for us 
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Feb 16, 2023 20:15
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I am completely sold on Hwy-395 for my annual trips to and from Oregon. It is such a scenic drive compared to 99 or I5 and I don't have the patience to do the coast any more. Wondering where that abandoned mine was you were looking at. Reminds me of the areas north of Joshua Tree towards Tehachape n such.
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Feb 16, 2023 22:03
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CommieGIR posted:Abandon mines continue to be my nirvana. saaame. he really wants to buy an old mine. I am fine with this. That sign if I remember right, goes to a mine that is no longer accessible. It has been foamed/blown in several years ago now. We didn't get a chance to crawl into this one. Partly preparation. Partly time. We were there barely overnight. It was a lot more popular and busy than I would have liked. BlackMK4 posted:This is a great thread, thank you for writing it up and taking lots of pictures for us  Half this is documentation for photogrammetry, meshes, texture generation, or the like. The other half is to document interesting things while traveling. I've kept track of most of the adventures post 2010 or so.I am debating ending this thread when the thread gets to the F350's replacement. It might be a little early to bring this up though. El Jebus posted:I am completely sold on Hwy-395 for my annual trips to and from Oregon. It is such a scenic drive compared to 99 or I5 and I don't have the patience to do the coast any more. Wondering where that abandoned mine was you were looking at. Reminds me of the areas north of Joshua Tree towards Tehachape n such. It is one of my favorite places out west bar none. I am actively looking for dirt to buy along 395. Either side of 395, but on the eastern side of 395 anything between 395 and 95. South of Lake Tahoe, north of Ridgecrest. I've been tracking a wildcard of 100+ acres in the Mohave, but they still want too much for it given climate change. This mine lies somewhere in the Sierras in a triangle between Bridgeport, Benton, and Luning. iirc at an ASL of 7000'. It definitely would see snow in the winter. This one is pretty intact and un-pilfered so I'm being a little cagey about its exact location.
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Feb 16, 2023 22:46
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Yeah, I don't need specifics and am not looking to poach, so vagueness is fine and encouraged! My partner and I joke about moving north east of Salton all the time but we just like living near people now (Coachella valley). We both grew up in pretty rural Oregon and visit during the fires (our parents visit us in the winter so we've all become snowbirds in a way). Definitely looking forward to seeing where you end up and what happens next!
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Feb 16, 2023 22:54
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