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My experience with the 6.7 diesel is poor, I'm guessing there are aftermarket fixes for a lot of it but those aren't happening to a fleet vehicle. The fuel mileage on those is pretty bad on the highway too. The frame would probably be a huge step up however. I'm voting on getting a 6x6 line truck and building from there, you can take the bucket off the boom and stick antennas or something on there.
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Nov 8, 2022 14:57
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As someone that spent four years up in Ashland Wisconsin (which you likely went through on your way from Duluth!) And drove through the yupper a ton of times. It is insane how breathtaking it is and how empty it is unless you go up there. I had to drive overnight to go back home to Ohio when my grandfather was passing, got out at 1 am to take a piss because nothing was open at that point. Realized that I hadn't seen another vehicle for the last two hours and I could see 100 feet in front of me and past that was a wall of black. You get off route 2 (the south side) or route 13 (the north side) and it's desolate and just little log roads or vacation homes. Pass through tiny towns with a small grocer in someones house and then gone. Absolutely amazing place, beautiful in every way. Scary as hell to realize all that's around you is forest and deer. Especially at night. So goddamn lucky I never ran into a goddamn deer, especially in the 2010-2013 years when cell service was laughable up there. It's better but likely still garbage. After ten basically everything shut down. You could get gas in iron river, Marquette, and then struggle on to mackinaw so better fill up whenever you could. Oh and the goddamn blizzards as you reach the borders in the hills by god, got trapped in one on the way back in April one trip, so goddamn lucky my little neon made it through.
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Nov 8, 2022 15:12
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RIP Paul Walker posted:Am I correct in my recollection that you’re 100% opposed to selling donkey on to another private party? I imagine it’s worth a fair sum in its current state and with its documented history, which would make a new truck a bit more of a reasonable purchase. I would more or less. I'm a little late to that and should have sold it earlier this year. atm I'd expect to get 20-30 out of it. Earlier this year prices went nuts to that of around 50ish for these old things. With the camper on it anywhere between 70-120. Without aircon in the truck it's gonna take somewhat of a hit on sale. I'm down to a compressor bracket for the thing. I almost bought one yesterday but they sold the engine... Fidelitious posted:By the way, you can answer this or not as you desire but how do you fund this kind of thing? Did you build up beforehand and then go off on a year+ travel or are you somehow doing some kind of paid work off and on when possible during the travels? Year sabbatical. Built up savings in the before times. We allocated a slushfund for the build and for 12 months of travel. Marquette was in September and at month 10. Average monthly cost at $4200, Median at $3500, STdev at $2900. Truck operational costs around $1100/month, camping/gorbage/tourism/etc around $1400/mo, house parts/mtb parts around $1185/mo, and groceries at $600/mo. Camping skews heavily east of the continental divide as we were a lot more reliant on it rather than boondocking out west. Some months a lot more expensive than others. December was like $1300.. October being our record... Round two we're working out of it. Biggest change there is that we stay put during the work week where in 2021 we could just drive willy nilly on moment's notice. SpeedFreek posted:My experience with the 6.7 diesel is poor, I'm guessing there are aftermarket fixes for a lot of it but those aren't happening to a fleet vehicle. The fuel mileage on those is pretty bad on the highway too. The frame would probably be a huge step up however. What sorta issues are you experiencing? Probably can't get much worse than the 9mpg this sucker gets. There's a couple I've been watching for a while. To baseline something with airbrakes I'd reaaally like to have a shop or at least a cement pad for it. Something like a M1085 would work with a reagear and a isb swap. The camper would fit on its bed with no overhang. UCS Hellmaker posted:As someone that spent four years up in Ashland Wisconsin (which you likely went through on your way from Duluth!) And drove through the yupper a ton of times. It is insane how breathtaking it is and how empty it is unless you go up there. I had to drive overnight to go back home to Ohio when my grandfather was passing, got out at 1 am to take a piss because nothing was open at that point. Realized that I hadn't seen another vehicle for the last two hours and I could see 100 feet in front of me and past that was a wall of black. You get off route 2 (the south side) or route 13 (the north side) and it's desolate and just little log roads or vacation homes. Pass through tiny towns with a small grocer in someones house and then gone. Yes! I did pass through Ashland. Gorgeous area. All the great lakes towns rule. It's so pretty in this area too. It's kinda cool the old school hard rock on the western side of the up and Wisconsin then it gets real sandy towards the eastern side. The feel of this area is a lot different than it was in say Minnesota or the Dakotas. A lot more mountain town like. Laid back. Small knit communities, etc. One of the most favorite things about this trip and in general this lifestyle is being in areas so desolate the only thing around is nature itself. Definitely get the scary part, especially when things go sideways. Or something is rubbing against the rv at 2am. I'm also glad that this area wasn't strip mined. That would be bullshit.
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Nov 8, 2022 17:26
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They're probably still working on getting a strip mine going. My 6.7 experience is between 8 to 8.5mpg, not liking keeping its oil in, replacing the "improved" turbo, and rides slightly worse than the last big ford I drove, a 55 F600. Did you decide against the northwoods or not decide on anything yet?
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Nov 8, 2022 18:11
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drk posted:Another question from a non-AI poster: CSB touched on this in that wonderful effortpost about frames, but the way the flatbed is mounted to the frame directly causes stress points when the vehicle is flexing over terrain off-road. Likewise, those forces are also being applied to the camper. I have a fascination with overland vehicles and most of the really hardcore ones have their flatbed or box mounted on a separate subframe that is attached to the vehicle chassis with a zero torsion mount configuration. These use only two points directly above the framerails that allow forward/backward tilting with one or more additional supports in line along the centerline of the vehicle allowing side to side pivoting so the load can move around over twisting framerails without that torsion being transferred through. Here's a video of one of those fancy German overland rigs getting assembled that shows off the pivot points. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa3MeqZQCHA This is a really weird one for having five total points due to its size, most overland truck builds use a three or four point configuration and you'll note the guy even calls it a three point, but the principle is pretty similar.
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Nov 8, 2022 21:12
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Subframe chat. These guys are out of LA and build upfit subframes for overland builds. It's a viable solution for the next frame. https://www.rvglobetrekker.com/all-sub-frames-components Sounds to me the 6.7 suffers like the little diesels do when worked hard. Western UP is possible but not as an only or first outpost due to the nature of the state's government and their stance on walking back human rights. First is probably going to be in Nevada since that's where he and I are married.
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Nov 8, 2022 22:18
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Marquette is a pretty nice area. Decent bike infrastructure, college and mountain town kinda vibes about it. This campground has a pretty decent trail network.    The cafe's brick oven is something I really wanna incorporate into the next build.  It's also adjacent to a frigid cold stream.  out on the patio is a super helpful bench that is Upper Peninsula shaped incase you forget. Real talk the routered woodoworking is pretty awesome.  Wandering away from the campground, giving the bike infrastructure a go. Bike lane that passes under the highway, also a waterway leading to the lake itself.   And the Ore Dock. If I wait here a few weeks the lake will freeze enough I can ride out to it.   The rear brake on his bike failed, so popping into the local cyclery they had a 3 week lead time. That's.. not gonna work with us. Just Avid Things. Cool waterway that's fall into disrepair.  How the gently caress has an old VW Thing not turned to dust here is beyond me.  Back at home, A little Ore Dock followed us.  Good news everyone. I have cultured a new starter.  This is a cold resistant high test little bugger. It tends to expand so much it overflows the jar if not pushes the lid off of it. Marquette at night  Why I like this town? This is why. Unions is how you get life improved for everybody.  From Marquette we camp out next to an old airstrip that is now a vehicle proving grounds. They also had a lot of missle launch sites back in the day here. I really wanted to do some all out sprints on the runway but that'd probably be frowned on by the company that leases the place.   Back in the day Japan donated some Red Pines that were planted here. This has caused some Matsutake mushrooms to grow which turn out are a delicacy in their homeland. He found a couple. To which I didn't try just in case he mis-classified them I needed to make an emergency run to the hospital. But turns out he was spore on and they were incredible. The trails here, a lot less interesting.  We moved the truck over to one of the launch pads out of the view of the test track.  He wanted to move the truck as the solar day was being partially obscured by the trees. And it wouldn't start. Not. For. poo poo. after several tries I jump in, and it starts right up. This loving old truck. It's a pretty normal thing for a DB2 pump to get cranky when it's hot/humid and low on fuel. The fuel thins out a little and the transfer section of the pump can't generate the pressures required for the engine to light off. But the engine's not hot, it's not hot out, and it's not low on fuel. Intermittent problems are some of the hardest to track down. It will reveal itself soon enough as a constant problem and that's when I'll start digging into it. This pump has been acting up for a good long while. It's probably the pump. And picked up new neighbors running their generator deep into the night.  They fortunately hosed off the next morning. I was also greeted to this. Yup. The new radiator is leaking. Back side of the top tank.  While parked here I'm gonna bang out an oil change cause the truck needs it and why not on a nice surface. I don't care so much about the engine but I care a lot about the turbo. It's a one off and sourcing another is troublesome. I don't trust a lube shop to do it right and not start the truck with a dry filter, or worse yet, getting the little metal foil seal dropped into the filter which would ruin an engine fast.      I stash the drain pan above the spare.  I start it up post oil change and uhhh. That's a lot more blue than it was before. It's also leaking a lot more, and oil consumption is creeping up. Probably the pump and it's broken timing advance. (It's probably not just the pump)  From here into The Mitt and onward to Pennsylvania.
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Nov 9, 2022 21:16
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cursedshitbox posted:The cafe's brick oven is something I really wanna incorporate into the next build. Go on…. csb posted:Probably the pump 
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Nov 9, 2022 23:36
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cursedshitbox posted:Fargo does have a delicious sour scene. I bought em out. I'm really not a fruity sour guy at all, but one thing I'll give them is almost universally the world over, they have drat cool artwork.
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Nov 9, 2022 23:40
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When my in-laws visit this winter, I am gonna sit down with my FIL and show him this whole drat thread. He is gonna love it and then moan about his trailer and how he hates towing the drat thing and I'm gonna pounce and suggest a sprinter conversion.
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Nov 10, 2022 00:13
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Just... Do A Van. Don't be me. Unless he wants a big rear end bathroom, a big rear end bed, a big rear end fridge, and a big rear end oven, Just Do A Van. There's of course, Earthroamer.
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Nov 10, 2022 01:05
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cursedshitbox posted:Just... Do A Van. Ok, now I want an Earthroamer.
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Nov 10, 2022 07:49
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cursedshitbox posted:Marquette is a pretty nice area. Decent bike infrastructure, college and mountain town kinda vibes about it. Always loved Marquette, used to have family in the area, on our every other year visit. I think they moved to Duluth which has kind of similar vibes.
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Nov 10, 2022 11:03
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cursedshitbox posted:There's of course, Earthroamer. Holy gently caress the pre owned are $600k
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Nov 10, 2022 20:23
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NitroSpazzz posted:Always loved Marquette, used to have family in the area, on our every other year visit. I think they moved to Duluth which has kind of similar vibes. I really enjoyed the whole area, despite the fairly brief time there. tinned owl posted:Holy gently caress the pre owned are $600k But they're carbon fiber.
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Nov 10, 2022 23:38
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cursedshitbox posted:But they're carbon fiber. Does this have any benefit for longevity? I know your camper needed a *tiny* amount of remediation work  , would a carbon fibre build avoid this? otherwise, what are the benefits? Lighter or stronger than traditional builds?
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Nov 11, 2022 07:09
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slothrop posted:Does this have any benefit for longevity? I know your camper needed a *tiny* amount of remediation work My knowledge is only about its applications in super cars where it's about being lightweight (and also looking cool) but it is also extremely durable and can't rust of course.
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Nov 11, 2022 15:05
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slothrop posted:Does this have any benefit for longevity? I know your camper needed a *tiny* amount of remediation work
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Nov 11, 2022 15:35
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slothrop posted:Does this have any benefit for longevity? I know your camper needed a *tiny* amount of remediation work It all depends on build quality. Epoxy preg CF is crazy light and strong, but it doesn't handle impact or abuse well directly. If properly engineered, the impact and abuse will be directed toward inserts or machined sleeves, like on mountain bikes. The big benefit is that there's no wood to rot or delaminate. You could use fiberglass and foam (like high end boat builders) and have the same strength but 30% higher weight.
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Nov 14, 2022 05:16
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sharkytm posted:It all depends on build quality. Epoxy preg CF is crazy light and strong, but it doesn't handle impact or abuse well directly. If properly engineered, the impact and abuse will be directed toward inserts or machined sleeves, like on mountain bikes. The big benefit is that there's no wood to rot or delaminate. You could use fiberglass and foam (like high end boat builders) and have the same strength but 30% higher weight. 1500lb is nothing to snooze at on one of these things. That's roughly the weight of this truck's bed. Having that gone would be h u g e. Given that ER has been at this for north of 20 years, they're not gonna roll out something that can't handle the abuse. Though I've yet to see any out there getting beat on. There's two or three companies that do a clamshell style build similar to some boats. Bigfoot and Northern Lite come to mind. The biggest issue with those is that they still have a wooden frame inside the clamshell structure, and well all facets of a rv can still leak. The early ones didn't have drainholes and would just fill up with water like a boat left uncovered and the drain plug left in rotting it out from the inside out. An alternative to this camper was actually a 2500 series bigfoot 10c3. I really wanted it but the back corner had whisky kissed a pole or tree or something damaging the main body all the way to the roof. That level of fiberglass repair/wood damage is far outside of what I wanted to do at the time. (lollmao). As we leave UP I walk along the rig on some mixed terrain to evaluate the movement of the frame. (The cab is mounted on polybushes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKZSbaAudlk Some alabama trashcan benz hauling more than any superduty ever.  Goon Meet at Nadmonks house and his soon to be nearby neighbor, Toplitzin. Top wasn't there yet but just bought the place and asked if we could thoroughly test it. Plumbing, good. Electrical in the barn a little hokey but it had a rv outlet. Sorta. That we set the Victron to pull a little less current on just to be safe.  The garage is juuust high enough to clear the truck. Proper garage, nice get. Helped pull some filthy carpet out in preparing for new flooring.  The morning we're in Nadmonk's driveway the flooring shows up so I get haha rain rides in his lightly modified turbo bmw to help unload flooring. It's a very stark contrast to my turbocharged slow as hell house.   Backroads leaving Nad's place. Should have stayed longer. Something for 2023. Goons own.  9,051 miles in. That's around 970 gallons of fuel. 3.5 gallons of coolant, 1.25 gallons of oil.  Nice looking tractor at the TA in Dexter, MI where we're staying for the night.  Travel Plaza in Mantua, Ohio. Ohio's turnpikes are some of the roughest roads since the Dakotas that broke the frame. Thoroughly testing these welds.  Where we had some cheap entertainment of watching old people try to back a toad for half an hour.  Also along this poo poo stretch of road was the gut experience that was Roy Rodgers. Good thing I carry a bathroom. Western PA and its tunnels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpq3ti12rW0 The further east we go, the more hostile places are about parking somewhere.  Horn Of Plenty. If you're ever in the area, eat there.  Near Hesstown, PA is the Lincoln Caverns. The tour guide while extremely knowledgeable had to dance around topics such as the relative age of some of the stalactites due to some more religious folk having contrasting opinions of such. It's a pretty awesome visit and they're relatively deep. They were also setting up for Halloween which was good fun. Edit: Full album here.     We're at the Raystown Lake Campground for a few days to meet his mom.   The visit with his mom went well. His step dad deals with class 8 trucks, dirt track racing, and such. After almost a year, the interior has held up surprisingly well to all the various conditions it has been subject to.    Since I'm not driving for a few days. Time to put this new sourdough to the test.     It's much much better than the last sourdough starter. cursedshitbox fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Nov 14, 2022 |
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Nov 14, 2022 17:45
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Saw this badly leaning camper today and immediately thought of this thread. picture doesnt quite capture just how far off she was
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Nov 15, 2022 02:31
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I think I have mentioned it, but if you find yourself along I64 in southern Indiana I have a shop with 50amp, water, sewer, and a 12k two poster if you need it.
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Nov 15, 2022 02:41
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Test. Gimmie a second. e: Ah ha! I have not shared this here. My grandfather was a man of habit. One of these habits was buying 7.3l Fords and beating the brakes off them. All 250s, all blue, every one with helper springs and extra fuel tanks. After retirement, during the spring he'd deliver bumper-pull travel trailers and gooseneck race car trailers with them, summer was blocked out for vacationing with a slide-in, autumn for fixing what broke, come winter the truck got laid up in favor of the previous one for plow duty. They'd look nice for a few years, slowly get rusted out, then become the town plow. Blade up front and the rear bumper replaced with a log as counter balance. An endless cycle of crusty blue smokestacks, working away the whole time. This dude learned to drive on a Model T tractor conversion on it's last legs. That taught him the trucks were disposable, made to be used and used up. The 7.3's stood up to that like an Amish horse. "Fuuuck. Alright. Last thing I'll do for you though." After the brick noses were gone, he got a 6.0 F-250. This did not appreciate the same rough handling. It lasted though, long enough for the following: When the man passed, his three daughters had to dispose of the estate's property, insitu. Swear to God, he'd trailered all six broken brick-noses from Iowa to Minnesota, just in case. They were sitting there in the back yard of the cabin, along with every slide-in and travel trailer he'd ever owned. Point being, an old Iowa farmboy is looking down on your endeavors approvingly, with a side of, "Ya'know, ya could..." madeintaipei fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Nov 15, 2022 |
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Nov 15, 2022 02:55
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rdb posted:if you find yourself along I64 in southern Indiana Goondolences.
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Nov 15, 2022 03:56
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rdb posted:I think I have mentioned it, but if you find yourself along I64 in southern Indiana I have a shop with 50amp, water, sewer, and a 12k two poster if you need it. I did stay the night in Siberia, IN... If I roll through the area again I'll surely let you know. The campground there is pretty nice. drk posted:Saw this badly leaning camper today and immediately thought of this thread. picture doesnt quite capture just how far off she was I see buckling in the siding where the overhang meets the front jack. Also the bed belt lines are no longer matched to the truck. That whole thing is falling in on itself. madeintaipei posted:
Lmao loving love it. I too had a six liter back in the day and worked on them professionally. They'll get there faster when they run, but the old 7.3 will actually get there. These trucks were built in a time of sliderules and maybes. Throw em away when you're done and get a new one, they're cheap. Everything now is engineered to wear at roughly the same time and when the engine is done, the rest of the truck is done. Just as disposable, however nowhere near as cheap. The old poo poo like this? The engine would continue to miserably rattle long after the rest of the vehicle has fallen apart. Which I say. They really crammed 7.3s in there and don't really make it easy on anybody that is replacing the engine after the fact. It's really apparent that by the time the engine dies the truck should be crushed into something else.
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Nov 15, 2022 17:00
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rdb posted:I think I have mentioned it, but if you find yourself along I64 in southern Indiana I have a shop with 50amp, water, sewer, and a 12k two poster if you need it. I have no cool accommodations in Detroit but would ride MTBs and have a beer if you come through again. 
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Nov 16, 2022 14:42
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Hell yeah let's beer and or bike it. More gorgeous PA scenery. My spouse grew up here, so we had visit since we were basically around the corner.  The next campground is at French Creek State Park. They also rent out yurts.   There's a cool old coal furnace nearby, numerous trails, and some waterways.     This is what remains of the furnace.   However the waterwheel is beautifully preserved and it's operational.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnH7zCJbQ30 There's still some hotwork being done here but not on the scale like it once was. It's more a hobbyist thing now.  The electric blower is c h e a t i n g.  Shame that this was basically shut down for the season. It would have been a blast to fire this thing. There's various forms lying around for casting. New pans? Don't mind if I do!   Here's an ancient vise.  And what I think is ingots.  A random cannon that probably saw war.  The coal sheds here have a distinct smell.  A view of the whole complex and water wheel.  With numerous living quarters and a storefront nearby.  In the store front is some of Hopewell's products though they are not taking new orders.   The MTB trails? Rocky. As. gently caress.   I pop in near Philly to visit a degenerate that owns a rover. The rover might run but it definitely isn't gonna hit on all 8. It ate a valve spring or someshit long ago and well there's a twin turbo awd vw rally grocery getter around. I didn't get a chance to poke at it. We'll put a LS in it next time I'm in the neighborhood. Was too busy playing with mini excavators and tractors this time.  And to bang out some maintenance before trying to beat the incoming snowfall that's going to fall on the rockies any day now. Driveline maintenance. Someday I'll replace this joint with an easy to grease unit.  The roof took some hits since PA doesn't really trim the tree line back from the roads. Eternabond is our friend.   Draining the ever growing pool of oil forming under the turbo.  With maintenance caught up we're gonna take 64 to 70 and try and outrun the snow. I get 5 miles away to get some coffee for the road. And the truck won't start. Stone. Dead. Cranks but no fuel. Fuel pressure is there. Lift pump is working. Transfer valves and supply side is working. Filters aren't clogged. Shutdown solenoid is actuating. Spins over at an acceptable speed. But there is nobody home. I resort to pouring iced water on the injection pump. Also no dice. When the pumps wear out the tolerances between the parts increase. Temperature exacerbates this issue. Pouring cold water on the pump is a stop gap. I let it sit for 10 ish minutes. It finally lights off after nearly killing the batteries. I like a total moron, chose to continue west rather than turn around to the stocked shop 5 miles from where I just broke down. I should also point out that the oil pressure gauge is now reading almost nil, especially under boost. I don't know if its the sender, the cluster with its flexible pcb, or the engine itself dying. The oil pump is good for 18.3GPM so surely it's not the pump. There's so much leakage going on it definitely has to have pressure. The turbo would self immolate quickly without any kind of oil, and so far its fine. This is fine. It's just an old truck with a dying injection pump. That is currently backordered at the moment. Everything is fine.
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Nov 16, 2022 18:41
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cursedshitbox posted:Everything is fine. At least it’s not raining.
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Nov 16, 2022 19:08
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builds character posted:At least it’s not snowing.
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Nov 16, 2022 19:48
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Gosh you guys can't read. Both rain and snow will fix the pump!
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Nov 17, 2022 13:02
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cursedshitbox posted:I pop in near Philly to visit a degenerate that owns a rover. The rover might run but it definitely isn't gonna hit on all 8. It ate a valve spring or someshit long ago and well there's a twin turbo awd vw rally grocery getter around. I didn't get a chance to poke at it. We'll put a LS in it next time I'm in the neighborhood. Was too busy playing with mini excavators and tractors this time. I forgot where this stop was in the timeline, I think any future donk issues were brought on by proximity to that rover.
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Nov 17, 2022 13:43
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I can see the coming storm of pain dear God.
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Nov 17, 2022 14:50
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All this truck knows is pain. Fwiw the 9" Hella 4000 Rally lights on the front of donk came from cageapalooza(caged buggy of a disco) and later the red disco I sent away on a rollback almost a decade ago. It's gonna be a little dicky if from that alone. Laid over for the night at a KOA in Willamsport, MD. Stay there if you're ever passing through. Their cafe is pretty good. West Virginia is loving gorgeous.   WV Road Train  Camping at the I64WB rest stop in Hurrican WV I find a subaru in its natural state. It did not sound all that great when they started it.  But to be fair. My poo poo isn't doing too hot itself. Or rather. It's too hot. It's making too much heat for a given power output. What's all this mean? I'll go into detail about the pump in the next post. But basically think of it like a vacuum/mechanical advance on a primitive automotive gas engine distributor. As rpm/load increases it needs to advance the timing accordingly. It has failed. And we're running static timing only. Except the timing is not advanced enough to pull weight. The result is heat. Lots of heat. Fuel economy is still pretty consistent despite such. Indiana.  Actually this a beautiful campground. If you're ever stuck in Indiana. Stay here. It's the Indian-Celina lakes campground in Siberia. Wide Load that I tailed forever for I didn't have passing power any longer. Running 70mph or better is outta the question as its running 220-225F. That's nearly 30F hotter than it should be.  Unlike this drat Ram 2500 doing 85 pulling a ten ton toyhauler.  The arch of Saint Louis!  And the Transportation Museum in Saint Louis   some AMXs parked next to me.  And while in Saint Louis, gotta get the gorbage.  
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Nov 20, 2022 02:34
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As my late good friend (a resident of Morgantown and part-time geology instructor at WVU) used to tell me: "West Virginia is beautiful; the towns are ugly."
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Nov 20, 2022 05:09
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That's a pretty cool stop, we've hit it on our yearly drive through the area. Fun fact Saint Louis is almost exactly the halfway point between Knoxville TN and Omaha NE. Breaks up an otherwise lovely flat boring drive a little bit. The train station hotel is kind of a cool, if touristy, place to stay during non-covid times https://www.stlouisunionstation.com/PainterofCrap posted:As my late good friend (a resident of Morgantown and part-time geology instructor at WVU) used to tell me:
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Nov 20, 2022 12:52
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Indian Celina lake is my county, one zip code over. I am like right on the edge of that township. For all the bad rap Indiana gets I find this place at the very least beautiful in its own way and the people here have been kind to me. I like german ridge campground a little bit more, the trails are better. And if your ever really brave the hollers of eastern KY are something else as well. Anywhere the elk roam. But I am 6’6”, straight and white so ymmv. rdb fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Nov 20, 2022 |
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Nov 20, 2022 14:56
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PainterofCrap posted:As my late good friend (a resident of Morgantown and part-time geology instructor at WVU) used to tell me: I always say that "West Virginia is a good place to be from". I grew up there, so I'm speaking from firsthand experience. I wish I could have moved my family's property somewhere else. 8 acres of woods, ridge, and fields with great soil and decent weather...
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Nov 20, 2022 15:24
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PainterofCrap posted:As my late good friend (a resident of Morgantown and part-time geology instructor at WVU) used to tell me: 
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Nov 20, 2022 18:05
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I kinda dig the abandoned building aspect for urbex. Buuuut I might be an outlier there. I'll have to roll through German Ridge next time, that's a little bit of a drive off the freeway and we had a snowstorm in the rockies to beat. This is another sidetrack tech post where instead of an update you all get some institutional knowledge that's going to become increasingly important over the next few weeks. How do diesels work? How does mechanical injection pumps work? Carburetor principles. AKA loving magic. That's how. But no, not really. If you're not familiar this is your standard diesel thermodynamic model. It's similar to how a gasser works in a way but it's also vastly different. With compression ratios anywhere between 15-22:1 there's no need for a spark plug. The air is heated beyond the autoignition point of diesel through the forces of compression alone. Where in a gasser your spark plug would fire near tdc for the power cycle, it is now replaced with your fuel source that operates for the same reason. https://i.imgur.com/96q9Qrs.mp4 You with me? Awesome. In a gasser timing is very important for the power output and efficiency of the engine. In some cases it'll even ruin the engine itself if it is too far advanced. Diesels care about this sorta thing too. However, they're also a lot more robust. Too far advanced or non advanced and it'll lead to wasted fuel, smoke, high exhaust gas temps, damaged glowplugs if it has them. There's a bit of a technology divide with more modern engines. Cars are going through this now with port injected being the old way and direct injection being the new hot thing on the block. Smaller engines went through a phase where they were indirectly injected. Saved on fuel system development costs. Made for a (smoggier) but more efficient engine. It packaged smaller. It's quieter in operation which is important to customers with discerning ears. Not that any of us could tell.  This Old Farm Truck is of the Indirect variety. Dirt rear end simple. With a compression ratio of 21.5:1 it'll run on nearly anything but water. Do not give it water. The engines of this era used what's called a poppet valve for an injector. no electronic controls. Just a mechanical pintle and a preset spring.  It stays closed until the pump sends high pressure fuel its way that overcomes the spring force and forces the pintle open. The leak off line is there as a return and to smooth out any water hammer like effects that you'd see in a house. The pintle/spring and delivery valve can be quite harsh and this is its damper. Still with me here? No? oh well. We're doing this anyway and can't stop won't stop. I'm going to ignore unit injectors and focus on the rotary pump since that's what this truck has. It has a rotary element like a distributor does for an old car. Each injector has its own line. Every line is carefully routed to not have excessive lengths than its adjacent cylinders or else it'd cause timing issues with the fuel pulses. This is the Roosa Master DB2 injection pump. There's a lotta poo poo going on here. Don't worry, it's not that difficult.  Fuel enters at #3 and travels between 3-6 then jumping to number 11. The rest of the system controls how much and when  (#12 the inset is an air bleed for the head) An exploded view.  And its hydraulic diagram. It's fairly simple, not to worry.  Let's start where fuel enters the system. The Transfer pump. Fuel comes in from the right. Pressurized, and leaves to the left. It comes with a built in pressure regulator that you see above. It's a rotary vane style pump. This is a major wear item in the db2. It's not the high pressure delivery pump but rather the supply pump for it. It requires a lift pump from the fuel tank to feed the transfer pump.  Being a rotary vane, we've all seen them before. Air injection (smog) pumps, air conditioning system vacuum pumps, diesel supplemental vacuum pumps, all use the same style of pump.  The rotary vanes and their swept surface are the wear item. Side view of the same system.  The thin plate and regulator also make up the viscosity compensation system. The orifice allows leakage of fuel to return to the inlet side of the pump. Flow through this orifice is unaffected by viscosity changes. Biasing pressure exerted on the backside of the piston is determined by the leakage past the designed clearance of the piston in the regulator bore and the pressure drop through the orifice. With cold fuel, there's little leakage. With hot fuel, leakage increases. Fuel pressure in the spring cavity increases also. The increase in pressure helps the regulating spring. This is the drive shaft with the transfer pump at the very end and the all speed mechanical advance with the high pressure plunger assembly at the other end.  From here fuel makes its way to the head. Here it is pumped to the required 1700PSI pressure and primed as the rotor spins. When the rotor gets to the the required cylinder passage fuel is then sent into the delivery valve that meters the start/stop operation of the injection sequence, then it makes its way to the injector where it can get on with business.  The rotor assembly with the all speed mechanical advance and transfer pump relative pressures.  The high pressure charging cycle. As the rotor spins there's two passages in the rotor that registers with the charging annulus. Fuel from the transfer pump controlled by the metering valve flows into the pumping chamber forcing the plungers apart. The plungers move proportional to the fuel required for injection on the next cycle. The 'high pressure' circuit with the delivery valve and discharge fitting. The delivery valve is designed to create a sharp cutoff between injection pressure and not injection pressure. It reduces residual leakage which can lead to smoke, high egt, poor fuel consumption, etc.  When injection starts, the delivery valve moved slightly out of its bore and adds the volume of its displacement section "A" to the delivery valve spring chamber. #12 in the above inset is a bleed valve. Basically this is its operation is to bleed the head.  The all speed mechanical advance. This is its circuit feeding with transfer pump fuel on the left and housing pressure to the right.  The purpose here is to provide a mechanical timing advance based on rpm and status of load. The plunger assembly at the bottom does all the brain work while the rotor does the gruntwork.  The transfer pump pressure has to overcome the nearby spring and the dynamic injection loading on the cam in order to change the cam's position. The reed valve prevents the cam from returning to its non advanced position during injection by trapping fuel in the piston chamber. This bore is a wear item. Fuel will leak down and the advance gets rather lazy if at all operational. The leaf spring is known for cracking at high miles and the rollers can also wear adding to the advance failing to work properly. And a map of its operation. The trimmer screw is for fine tuning the advance start movement.  Externally there's an adjustable cam that also can be adjusted to fine tune the advance map.  A test to see if the advance is working is while idling, pull on this large rocker arm. If the engine's note does not change, the advance is non functional. Then the governor. The governor's job is to maintain the desired engine speed within a preset range under a variety of load conditions.  This one like most any other governor relies on centripetal forces working on the flyweights. As the weights are tipped outward they move the thrust plate agains the governor arm which pivots on the knife edge of the pivot shaft which rotates the metering valve. The forces on the governor arm caused by the weights is balanced by the governor spring which is controlled by the foot throttle.  As load is reduced and engine speed increases the weights rotate the metering valve clockwise to reduce fuel. This limits the speed increase to a value determined by the governor spring and the foot throttle. As load is increased and engine speed decreases the metering valve will rotate anticlockwise to increase fuel. You now know more than most people about an obsolete technology nobody cares about. I glossed over some bits and pieces as they're minor players compared to the rockstars that have gone out and partied too hard on gritty farm fuels. This is relevant because the truck will intermittently not start hot, the advance fails the arm test, the cold idle advance seems to also be broken, and it has a weird running issue right at 2100rpm where if the governor is held solid, the engine speed will wander high then sag back down slowly like a lean condition on a gasser. Sources/further reading: http://www.stanadyne.com/dealerportal/ssi/english/Product%20Manual/99834.pdf https://radionerds.com/images/f/f4/Stanadyne_db2_operation_and_instructions_manuals.pdf cursedshitbox fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Nov 24, 2022 |
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Nov 23, 2022 19:41
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| # ? May 11, 2024 20:41 |
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I am so glad I can just plug a laptop into anything I'm working on. Also that reads like the scene from the Martian when they're explaining how the habs airlock was glued together.
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Nov 24, 2022 00:38
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