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RE: helwig or roadmaster sway bar on dodge DRW
Will these sway bars install OK with mt Firestone airbags? they seem to attach to the axle right were my airbags are located.
Thanks
Ron W.
I'm running a Hellwig/Firestone Riderite combo succesfully. Of course mines a second gen so yours might be different.
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Ugly1
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09/08/10 10:10am |
Truck Campers
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RE: helwig or roadmaster sway bar on dodge DRW
I have the Helwig cause I'm cheap. It was a huge improvement with my setup. I've been very happy with it.
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Ugly1
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09/07/10 04:08pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Looking to add a Camper and Pull a boat with my Dodge CTD
My friend did the same sway bar & airbag upgrade on his ¾ ton truck. He tried to haul a large camper with slide and boat as the OP was thinking. It doesn't work.
That's why I included my weight estimates for comparison. My camper size/truck is in my sig. Also the fact that the sway bar took me from uncomfortable to comfortable leads me to believe I'm not all that far from pushing the envelope myself. With the mods I've added though I'd be comfortable taking this setup on a very long distance trip...not through Canada though unfortunately it would seem.
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Ugly1
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09/06/10 12:29am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Looking to add a Camper and Pull a boat with my Dodge CTD
as you can see it sort of puts to rest all the false arguments that end up with the wheels, tires etc being the determining factor.
At least for Canadians anyway. ;) It does make things simpler. Kinda too bad in a way too though when the difference between a one ton and 3/4 ton boils down to a few inexpensive and half competent end user replaceable parts and the authorities still insist requiring the work be done by the more expensive certified shops.
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Ugly1
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09/06/10 12:19am |
Truck Campers
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RE: This Is A Gag (But The Message Isn't)
Amazon is one of the worst w/ the shady tactics in my experience. Click on the specials only to discover, that is if you happen to be paranoid to be paying attention, somehow they forgot to give you the special price (that you clicked on) and are now charging full price. In fact they make it such an involved process to actually get the advertised sale price it's likely only an occasional computer PHD can pull it off. Grrr.
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Ugly1
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09/05/10 03:13pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Looking to add a Camper and Pull a boat with my Dodge CTD
If you stick to the 3/4 ton I recomend a rear sway bar and some beefier springs or airbags. I did that to mine have comfortably towed about ~2500lbs worth of trailer with my ~3500lb loaded camper. It's a very pleasant ride with that setup. At first I did not have the rear sway bar and even without the towed weight it was a scary ride. The sway bar made all the difference for me. Of course I never even tried it without the airbags.
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Ugly1
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09/04/10 11:50pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: TC trip to OlyPenn and Vancouver Island - suggestions?
Maybe too far south for you but we like camping on the beach at Grayland.
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Ugly1
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09/03/10 02:08pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: The Redneckabago!
As capable as a Pickup in that regard. Problem in Australia they restrict you to 110kph(70mph) in all states of Australia, although in the Northern Territory you can hit 85mph.
Those in the photos look vaguely similar to alot of the light duty commercial vehicles you see around here. Sure they'll technically do 80 alright but you may want to wear a kidney belt if you plan to do that very often, especially unloaded or only partially loaded. I suppose an airide could do alot to solve that problem though.
We also have the ~110kph limits in place, but there are certain wide open places the authorities tend to pay less attention to those who would push it.
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Ugly1
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09/03/10 12:14am |
Truck Campers
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RE: The Redneckabago!
Looking at your rig, the top heavy nature of it, would be a problem in extreme off road. Also conventional TC's are not that waterproof.
Haha true! My setup would not be my first choice for anything much more extreme than those water crossing photos you posted. Then again the goal of our setup is more for a comfy dirt bike base camp allowing access to slightly more trailheads than trying to be an expedition vehicle. A conscious tradeoff I made that I'm happy with. A more offroad competent version would have been easy enough to accomplish if that had been the goal.
At about 3.5' (~ 1 meter) and deeper crossings I would need to start worrying about water in the camper cabin. It hasn't been a limiting factor for us yet. LOL! Anything much deeper than that and it'd be leaking in like a sieve. That doesn't necessarily mean I couldn't keep going though just that my floor would be wet. A wet floor would not be good though. Some of the electronics are mounted at floor level. From your photos it would appear I'd still have dry floor after those particular crossings however.
Off camber, low clearance overhead objects are conditions it looks like those vehicles would definitely have the advantage as compared to my rig. Of course I'm sure I'd rather not be driving one of those offroad expedition rigs down the interstate at 80mph if it is even possible. Something my setup does quite handily and regularly.
It'd be interesting to have an RV obstacle course to see which type of vehicles excell at what and what the weaknesses are in each case.
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Ugly1
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09/02/10 06:59pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: The Redneckabago!
ibelooker - I like it!
Wow! That killer looking creation in your sig looks to be fairly capable too. I don't know if I could resist the urge to black it out and run swampers etc. per that sweet chev in the x4mr movies though. ;) Nice job on that thing.
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Ugly1
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09/02/10 03:21pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: The Redneckabago!
It is a case of function over form. Unlike normal TC's these rigs can go where they cannot.
Dunno. I'd at least go for either of those. I don't see why I couldn't make it through that stuff. Not that thse aren't totally cool.
http://i637.photobucket.com/albums/uu91/Ugly_mofo/DSC00094.jpg
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Ugly1
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09/02/10 12:24pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Younger gereration truck camper owners
I bought my first RV, a rotted out old Nomad 24' trailer, so I could live in it down at the university when in my early 20's. Did that, lived in high style rfelative to my dorm dwelling peers and even saved some money that year. Towed it up dirtbiking a couple times after graduation before it finally turned to dust and was hooked on RV'ng for life I think. 15 years of plotting and money earning later I finally pulled the trigger on what I would consider the ultimate rolling moto cabin and it turns out it's a truck camper pulling a enclosed cargo trailer. Seriously considered the toy hauler approach but you can't tow a boat on non moto weekends. Truck campers seem to be my best ticket to ride, at least here in the US. I love mine. Honestly though I think anyone with an RV that isn't already retired is somewhat of a novelty especially if that RV happens to be an actual rolling camping RV and not just another meth lab in some run down trailer park.
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Ugly1
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08/14/10 12:24pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: False reading on black water
Ever since I started adding about a half a bottle of pinesol and doing a bit of travelling before dumping for slosh effect, mines been working perfectly.
Edit: oh yeah it smells good too. Those RV black tank chemicals I used to buy have nothing on good ole pinesol.
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Ugly1
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08/07/10 02:32pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Spark plg question
Every since my MPG is running 6.6 mpg not pulling anything and 5.9 to 6.1 pulling the toad....Any tips will be appreciated. I need my milage back.
Since it got hot once you oughta check each cylinders compression just to rule out the possiblity of a blown head gasket, warped/cracked heads IMO.
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Ugly1
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07/05/10 10:26pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Spark plg question
Don't know if those 460's are mass air flow type guel injection like my old F150 w/ the 5.0L. If they are you have to clean the little sensor in the air flow meter occasionaly. It's really easy to do if you have some time and tools.
Also good looking spark plugs are not always still good I've found. What can happen is contamination eventually works it's way between the center electrode and the surrounding insulator and can act as a short to the outer electrode. When this happens the electrodes can appear to be shiny clean and you still wont get good spark. I had to pay the dealer to teach me that lesson once. Stubborn me was to cheap to change out the clean looking plugs that were responsible for some pretty horrible misfiring. So I got to pay the dealer ~ 100X to do the job I could have easily done. At less than a couple bucks each for some nice new autolites I change them regularly now.
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Ugly1
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07/05/10 10:19pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: CB radios
Lots of truckers still chattin. For me it's just one more back up plan I can use in a tight spot. Often there aren't cell towers where I want to go. Channel 9 (CB band) is still considered an emergency channel. Lot's of ham's still practicing as well.
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Ugly1
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07/04/10 10:42am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Onan 2500 (LP fuel) - Starting trouble at 8000 ft Elevation
You're likely running too rich at the higher altitude. There is actually two mixture screws to fiddle with on your model (aka same base "KV" model as mine and I'm looking at the factory service manual). There is an idle mixture screw near the top of the carb and a main mixture screw toward the bottom. The procedure for setting mixture is a bit involved and to complex for me to relay here. I'd definitely recomend getting a copy of the service manual and following it's procedure to avoid ending up in the weeds.
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Ugly1
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06/25/10 11:46am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Onan Parts
The nearby Cummins dealer/service center is where I go. Those might be more common than onan shops since there are many working big rigs which rely on them. I believe Onan is a sub company of Cummins but not for sure on that. I know that the parts desk guy at the Cummins place emailed me factory Onan service manual when I was asking him about some connector pinouts.
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Ugly1
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06/23/10 11:58am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Replacing old thermostat with a digital one (with pictures)
Wrace,
I don't know what the naming conventions of the various switch types are but on the south end in Tukwilla there is a store called Supertronix which has a pretty good selection of many switch types that could be used for the job.
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Ugly1
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06/23/10 11:52am |
Tech Issues
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RE: electrical short...
IMHO using a meter for this kind of task is a pain-in-the-butt.
No more so than your trouble light method if you use the beeping ohmeter like was recomended. Mine makes a beeping noise when you find a hard short. A blind person could use it in this mode.
Plus when the problem turns out to be a wire to wire short and the trouble light is completely useless the ohmeter is still on the job yielding useful data for the troubleshooting task.
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Ugly1
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06/22/10 08:07pm |
Tech Issues
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