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I don't see how the GMC IFS and Duramax quality are cons. The Duramax has proven to be a very reliable engine. Since about 2006 there really haven't been any "issues" with the engines. My own '05 has 214,000 miles on it and has been the most reliable truck I've ever owned. As for the IFS, I...

Here's my rig. I love the flatbed with storage boxes. My bed was customized a little by the builder. I have tie downs in the deck to attach the camper too. I have a second battery and a 3,000 watt inverter mounted in the compartments. I carry folding lawn chairs, gas grill, tools, spare fluids...

We had 2 POS 6.0s at work. Both with utility beds and ladder racks. They're always loaded and often towing. One was an '03. At about 130,000 it needed head gaskets. The bill was going to be over $4,000 to do just the one side if I remember correctly. We sold the truck for about $4,000 as is and...

I have a friend who bought one of the Chinese triple band mobiles. I'm not sure which one. After the third one failed he decided to quit bothering to send them back for replacement. I don't see any savings in a buying a $150 radio of dubious/ unknown quality and origin when you can buy a Yaesu...

10 meters is probably not the way to go. When it's open it goes around the world. When it's not open you're hard pressed to talk across the county. 10 meters is my favorite band but it is unpredictable and often not open. Particularly when the sun spot cycle is at a minimum. 40 meters or 75...

We have a diesel Transit at work. Just bought it last year. The boss insisted on a diesel van. Even though I've had terrible experiences with Fords this van was way better than a Sprinter or the Promaster. The idiot dealer told me Chevy quite making diesel vans or we may have had one of those...

If your building a trailer you might as well wire it for a real power system. Those no need to pay extra for a pre-packaged generic system. I'd install LED lights and a good battery bank. Maybe 2 6 volt golf cart batteries in series or an AGM if you want to put it inside. Add a fuse block and...

Obviously different radios, vehicles, and antenna mounting location. How about the antennas and mounts; also different? Essential you're comparing to completely different installation so I would expect them to be different. Antenna makes a huge difference as does the mounting location. Have you...

5 lb propane tank? I suspect it has at least one 20 lb tank, maybe even two. You should be able to run the refrigerator and stove for weeks on one 20 lb tank. The furnace can suck up lots of gas if it's really cold but you should still be good for several days. Northstar has a great reputation...

If you're going to permanently attach the camper to the truck, like with bolts thru the floor or something, then I guess you could use those points. If you want to be able to readily remove the camper so you can use the truck to haul things or just drive around without the camper I don't see it...

I would never consider putting the face out of sight. But I do like to tune around, scan, check the weather frequency, etc. If I need more power I'll turn it up. When I don't need the power I turn it back down. If nothing else consider this, if you're sitting on your mic and transmitting dead...

I've had poor results with Comet antennas. Not that they didn't work but they didn't hold up. Hitting one against a branch would break the little plastic loading coil. I have mostly run Diamond antenna for over 20 years. The one I use is the NR770HA. It has an all metal loading coil in the...

No "device" needed. Just 2 wires and a fuse. Hook the aux. battery to your main battery when the engine is running. Unhook when it's not running. You can automate that process if you want.

If you do mount on the fender consider getting an antenna with an elevated loading coil. If part of the antenna must be below any vehicle sheet metal it's best that at least the loading coil be above the vehicle sheet metal. A base loaded antenna would be the worst. One with a rigid mast, then a...

If you ground directly to the battery and the main negative cable to the vehicle comes loose then the entire vehicle will try to "ground" from your antenna mount, down the coax, thru the body of the radio, and thru it's negative lead. You don't want this to happen. A fuse in the negative lead...

I'd check with the manufacturer to see if it's okay to use the camper at all with it off the truck. Most campers it's fine but a few of the cheaper low end ones it's not. No offense but a Palomino is about as low end as they come. (I owned one.) As for it tipping over there's no issue. For some...

The 7900 is a great rig but it only does 1 band at a time. The 8800 will let you listen to 2 frequencies at once. Also, it will allow you to do cross-band repeat. Some people don't have a need for this feature. Others, like me, find it very convenient for extending the range of an HT. I use...

That's a cool little camper. Just curious, what does your whole rig weight with that in the bed?

In considering a radio for use on the Ham frequencies the first thing you'll need is a license. While there are plenty of Ham radio HT's I could recommend I don't think it's quite the answer you're looking for. If you're in a remote mountain area it's entirely possible that a little handheld...

The Yaesu lacks lighted buttons. That's about the only negative I can find with it. The Icom would be my pick of the three you mention. I really like the Kenwood except for one fatal flaw (for me). When in cross band repeat mode there is a time out timer set a 3 minutes and it can't be changed...