New Build Begins- 2021 CV 515

[2 bikes 2 brown dogs]

That said, I have yet to tie the habitat glycol heater into the engine coolant system so I still have to run the air heater in the habitat when we are driving. This fall I will add a heat exchanger between the two systems so I can steal heat from the truck while driving. (I dont want to risk a leak in the habitat system putting the engine at risk).
My plan will be to set the Timberline system to have a hot water demand using the 120V element and not the diesel furnace. That 'request' for electrical heat will keep the habitat's circulation pump running on it's side of the new heat exchanger but I can shut the breaker off to the 120v element and not waste batteries. The hydronic system doesnt seem to time out so the hope is that I'll steal enough heat to keep the camper above 45F 'for free'.
On the engine's side of things I'm going to tap in at the heater core.
I'm also going to put things in place so use the timberline furnace as a block heater. I plan to install a new circulation pump on the engine's side of the heat exchanger that I'll switch on for preheating. Also on the engine's side of the loop I'm also going to put in a solenoid that will stay closed for a 'summer mode'. The desire here is to lessen the engine heat that enters the habitat side of things unless it's cold.

 

[2 bikes 2 brown dogs]

There was one point of the trip where we got hit with 8' of snow over three days. Lots of fun stuff happened that week but it's safe to say the tire chains came out. We are using Super Z Cable Chains. When the roads improved and the chains came off I noticed that the cables had cut into the tires. There were numerous places in the middle of the tire where the cable kind of grated itself into the top of the tread and a few places where the edge tread was cut off. A few pics of the damage are here but note that the tires have seen about 6k miles so the damage has been sanded down a bit. I dont have much experience with chains and thought now would be a good time to solicit some advice. Is what I'm seeing here normal wear and tear or damage from something not being right?
I avoided V bars mainly because of storage issues. Also I got some advice once that recommended the cables for the majority of the time. He carried both and said if we could only carry one use the cables but if you get into a place where you need the V bars they'll save your @$$. Considering we still wont have exterior gear boxes until next spring I'll be rocking these cables this winter regardless BUT that doesnt mean we couldnt change it up in the future. We will be buying new tires this fall regardless so it seems appropriate to rethink the whole shebang.

 

[2 bikes 2 brown dogs]

 

[2 bikes 2 brown dogs]

 

[2 bikes 2 brown dogs]

As for the next set of tires I've been pretty happy with the Continental MPT81's. Unless the tire compound is soft and might cause some problems in the future I'd probably stay that route. In putting new ones on I was going to take the opportunity to put in a tire pressure and temperature monitoring system. I'm actually more interested in the temperature monitoring and it looking like ContiConnect pressure check is the only real option. I think that the sensor is glued to the inside so figuring it out before the tire swap seems prudent. I cant find any pricing info on the system and would appreciate any insight as I can always buy some valve stem pressure caps.