Ski Bum Truck V2.0, F450 Rough Road RV

Took the truck to the dump station near me, one 10' hose is just enough for that spot!

Need to make a 45 adapter thing for the cleanout, hose is too stiff to get in and down enough.

ANDDDD got it stuck in the damn driveway again.... buried the front axle. Got it out... Its parked on the other side of the driveway now... The good news is it might have a posi rear end. I had two holes at the back wheels. (it had a gear shop tag on the keys when i got it too)

And built a drawer. May have gone overboard with the pocket screws...

Lots of storage there.

And took a trip up to Whistler to finish off the season

Can you spot the munchkin?

A little bit more whenever i get a free minute!

Pantry drawer done

Battery monitor and T stat mounted.

High quality work man!

Petrolburner wrote: High quality work man!

Thanks! Its been fun so far. Lots of learning.

Little work yesterday between rain showers.

Added support tabs for the lights.

Drilled lots of holes, mounted. Need 3 longer bolts....

I think this is really going to bother me.... Middle one is a single I bought from a different mfg. Mount was a little different height, but I didn't realize it was thinner as well. Ugh

Huh not seeing any differense in the size of the lights. The one on the left does look like the surround is orange instead of red.

I also hope those are for the back roads and not the street. We have enough douchebags running around blinding other drivers around here.

Sorry not saying you are one of the previously mentioned truckers. Just tired of all the self absorbed twits in the Seattle area is all.

In reply to brad131a4:

It's the depth of the lights, the middle one is inset. The diameter is the same on them.

And yes back roads only. I drive to ski areas a lot on Friday nights and elk and deer are everywhere... They are also stupid bright

I see sooo many light bars on these days, it's terrible.

java230 wrote: In reply to grover: No need to feel like a killjoy! I post to get opinions, I really am making it up as I go... I am looking at a skid, will help with keeping stuff from packing up on the front side from going over the top too. Tell me about your blowouts, I've had two and it was just sidewalls both times.

In the rv we've got 8r19.5 tires which are really skinny but have are something like 20 ply. Regardless, the worst blowout had the entire tire just fall apart. It took out the storage compartment directly behind the tire, and I don't believe that I drove more than it took me to stop. We were only moving at 60 when it happened but it was pretty crazy the damage. Even more impressive in terms of blowouts- on the same trip we were pulling out of portland maine and headed north towing the odyssey with a tow dolly. The tow dolly tire blewout and folded the steel wheel well of the dolly. This was fairly thick steel, and it just folded it in half. I came away impressed with the possible damage from tire blowouts.

Hey Java, I can't remember reading this- but are you going to go with a tankless propane water heater? I've been thinking about switching out the one on our rv since the tank on the regular one is only about 8 gallons.

Oh yea I get the backwoods driving thing. I've had a few encounters with those critters on a few occasions myself. Luckly most have been in the day time as I haven't had big lights on one of my cars for over 30 yrs.

They did save me from hitting a Moose once at 2:30 am driving around Flathead Lake headed to Whitefish.

In reply to grover:

Yep, hopefully I'll have it in in the next couple weeks.... It's a suburban 60k btu model.

In reply to brad131a4:

Yeah big lights are handy at times. There are serious elk down by Crystal mountain. Lots of twisty windy around whitefish, my best tank of gas ever was over there, late at night, having to go slow because you can't see poop on those roads.

I bought a end of the year new snowboard setup last month, I will have to meet up with you guys at one of the local places this next fall!

Wow its almost a legitimate RV!

In reply to LifeIsStout:

Most definately!! You cant miss our truck

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

Getting closer! Lots and lots to do still

can't wait to hear how the water heater works, I think i'll let you test it before I buy it.

In reply to grover:

Sounds like a plan, they are designed to fit in the existing openings too. I'll let you know how it goes.

On the tankless heaters the only thing I worked out was the tempature range. Some of them will slow down the flow if the water coming in is to cold for the rise you are asking for. Gas or propane are the only way to go. The electric ones use way to much electricity to be very efficient from my calculations. This was for a house so it might be different in your RV.

In reply to brad131a4:

Nope your right, mine is a 60k btu propane. Electric eats crazy amounts of power.

The complaints I have read are, the temp fluctuates with flow, cold water in the line has to get purged before the hot comes. And you need 1/2 gallon per minute minimum to activate the burner.

but heck, i'm very doubtful that any of my faucets or the shower in my rv pulls more than a half gallon a minute. My Rv does have a bathtub that i've never used, because 8 gallon water heater.

grover wrote: but heck, i'm very doubtful that any of my faucets or the shower in my rv pulls more than a half gallon a minute. My Rv does have a bathtub that i've never used, because 8 gallon water heater.

They should .5GPM is nothing.... They are likely 1.5GPM, thats pretty standard in rv and boat world, houses now are 2.5 limited.

java230 wrote:

grover wrote: but heck, i'm very doubtful that any of my faucets or the shower in my rv pulls more than a half gallon a minute. My Rv does have a bathtub that i've never used, because 8 gallon water heater.

They should .5GPM is nothing.... They are likely 1.5GPM, thats pretty standard in rv and boat world, houses now are 2.5 limited.

good to know. thanks!

Well since you're doing your own plumbing you could use house fixtures and not have to worry. Never have to much of a issue with other things running when showering. The washer will sometimes make it kind of wonky on the flow but only for a few seconds.

Talked to a few plumbers at work and they say to fight that issue is to run manifolds for the hot and cold with each fixture getting it's own feed. They showed me a few that they use and it was interesting.

Was a big square with a bunch of 1/2 stubs on oneside and a 3/4 feed on the other side. They say it makes the water flow from both sides and minimizes any pressure drops.

Looked like you could make one for hot and cold fairly easily with a torch and a bunch of 3/4 pipe and fittings.

In reply to brad131a4:

I am using a "house" faucet for the sink, but I may add a flow limiter to it I want to preserve my water supply. Only other hot outlet will be the outdoor shower.

Manifold is an interesting idea. Allows easy isolation of things to.

Worked on the propane tank some more.

A load of undercoating on it. Thats some nasty E36 M3.

Also got a big rig mud flap, I think it should work well. Gotta do some hacking, but it looks like I can anchor across the top, and at the bottom outside corner to the body.

Then added a deck plate to the back side of the tool box on the passenger side so I can get to the gas valve.

Tried to get to one of our regular spots. Ran into 8-10" of wet sloppy snow that was more than we wanted to try to get through solo.

Oh well. There is a nice quite CG close by

Snow wasn't far off.

This was a first long stretch of gravel we had done, not too bad on the smoother sections but the pot holed areas were brutal. Like 10mph crawl at best, otherwise I thought I would break the truck. This has me thinking about wheels/tires/lift/springs etc. Ill take any input here....

A couple things, these are G rated tires (IIRC!) 14 ply sidewalls. Great on the highway, fine on smooth gravel, ouch in potholes. Has anyone had experience going from a 19.5 tire to a 20" LT? Or too a less load rated 19.5?

Or will a spring change (kelderman airbags in the front?) make more of a difference? It felt like it was front end for the worst of it....