dieselfuel
Adventurer
sweet deal on the fridge! the truck is looking good man!
-1973 K5 - Project Canyonero
- Thread starter edlaffoon
- Start date
edlaffoon
Adventure Every Day
Thanks guys
Well I kinda screwed up the date on that Arizona post.... I mean ....er.... it was a test! lol
The original plan was for my brother and I to go on a 9 day trip that would include offroading and camping in 5 states centering around Overland Expo. Well the short of it is my brother pussed out on me and for now I have no definitive sidekick.
My wife wants to go, we have shortened the trip to 5-6 days but finding a sitter for our infant for that length of time is tough (both of our mothers are ill). So we will see.
Maybe it will just be me and this guy:
I guess the super secret trip to Arizona is why you bought the fridge? I look forward to hearing about that and seeing more updates and pics of your fine rig...
Well I kinda screwed up the date on that Arizona post.... I mean ....er.... it was a test! lol
The original plan was for my brother and I to go on a 9 day trip that would include offroading and camping in 5 states centering around Overland Expo. Well the short of it is my brother pussed out on me and for now I have no definitive sidekick.
My wife wants to go, we have shortened the trip to 5-6 days but finding a sitter for our infant for that length of time is tough (both of our mothers are ill). So we will see.
Maybe it will just be me and this guy:
David Harris
Expedition Leader
Cool truck and cool dog!
chilliwak
Expedition Leader
Thanks guys
Well I kinda screwed up the date on that Arizona post.... I mean ....er.... it was a test! lol
The original plan was for my brother and I to go on a 9 day trip that would include offroading and camping in 5 states centering around Overland Expo. Well the short of it is my brother pussed out on me and for now I have no definitive sidekick.
My wife wants to go, we have shortened the trip to 5-6 days but finding a sitter for our infant for that length of time is tough (both of our mothers are ill). So we will see.
Maybe it will just be me and this guy:
Well it looks like that golden retriever would enjoy the trip as much as anyone else. I say go for it and keep the fridge stocked with treats for you and the dog.....:wings:
BBslider001
Diesel Head
Thanks guys
Well I kinda screwed up the date on that Arizona post.... I mean ....er.... it was a test! lol
The original plan was for my brother and I to go on a 9 day trip that would include offroading and camping in 5 states centering around Overland Expo. Well the short of it is my brother pussed out on me and for now I have no definitive sidekick.
My wife wants to go, we have shortened the trip to 5-6 days but finding a sitter for our infant for that length of time is tough (both of our mothers are ill). So we will see.
Maybe it will just be me and this guy:
Or just take the new addition, meaning the infant, along for the ride. It would be great for you guys and the baby as well. My wife and I started camping about two months after my daughter was born and still do 3-4 trips a year. We have also traveled with her across country 3 times now, much to everybody else's dismay. It's certainly not super easy, but we made a promise to each other to not stop living when she was born. Rather than acclimate to her, we acclimated her to us, within reason of course. Think about the pioneer days not that long ago, when women had to strap little ones to their backs to get harvest time done or cattle worked. Ranch duties didn't stop. I am not saying you guys stopped living, and frankly, it's none of my business. I am just trying to encourage you to keep moving forward with life and your child will thank you. Our daughter is now 2 1/2 and asks when we are going camping at least every other day. If its not camping, it's wanting to know when we are going to the beach. We have spent the last 2 summers going to Sano all day, 3-4 times a week, with her in tow. My wife carried on her back in before she could walk, but now she tags along just fine. We live 4 blocks form the beach, so she sees it everyday, unless its raining like last week of course! God speed!
edlaffoon
Adventure Every Day
On that topic;
Some of you may have noticed that I went dark for a while after my last post... sorry about that. We have had a lot going on in the last few months.
I never made it to Overland Expo for a variety of reasons. Our beautiful baby girl, Emmylou Kay, was born January 25th of this year. She is doing very well. Two weeks after she was born my our older daughter Layla was accidentally bit by our family dog Bailion.
She had to have emergency plastic surgery etc etc. While it was most assuredly an honest mistake by an old half blind dog playing ball with her the dog is now gone living with my brother in law. Layla's skin graft has healed very well over the last 5 months and she will eventually look like nothing ever happened.
But enough digging up bones. I wanted to drop a line here to let everyone know I'm still kicking like hell and will be back on the truck project this fall. In the meantime it's still faithfully serving as my daily and leaking like crazy all over Texas.
Oh and I bought a Harley...
superbuickguy
Explorer
oh wow, glad you're back.
edlaffoon
Adventure Every Day
Thanks guys.
I have a bunch to update here, get ready for lots of pictures of my kids…
Rear seats have eluded me for some time. It’s not the easiest thing to safely get into a K5. Sure I could have used factory K5 seats of the correct era but… well that is blah.
The fronts are out of a 2005ish Silverado. Some time ago a friend of mine was going to… *ahem*… “turn in” his 2005 Tahoe so he gave me the third row seats out of it for nothing. I really wanted to put these in the K5 but keep the functionality of the Tahoe where they fold forward and can be easily removed.
The first solution I had was to cut the floor out of a wrecked Tahoe and weld it into the K5. While I still believe this would be the correct way to do it there are infinite challenges involved there, and I’m not a huge fan of almost irreversible mods.
So I finally settled on using strut channel to bolt the factory Tahoe strikers (sourced on eBay) into the factory K5 seat holes.
I wish I had more photos of it but it really worked out great. I can take more pictures if there is interest.
Two tracks bolt into the floor and then the two track laying on the seats here bolt perpendicular to them. The seats then “snap” in. Sorry the truck is really dirty.
This was baby Emmylou’s first ride in the K5:
Speaking of here is Emmylou Kay
This allowed us to take a test run trip to Oklahoma back in October. The truck ran flawlessly this time (unlike limping into OKC on a bad distributer back in 2012) and was tons of fun to run around in the good weather. As usual Missy followed me in her car (no AC in the truck is hard on the baby).
Here are a few photos from that trip:
This was taken on Route 66 right outside Yukon, a place we call “The Shanty”.
This is why I love a tailgate; you can’t change a baby on the roadside with barn doors or a lift gate:
Emmylou’s first meeting with her great grandpa:
I have a bunch to update here, get ready for lots of pictures of my kids…
Rear seats have eluded me for some time. It’s not the easiest thing to safely get into a K5. Sure I could have used factory K5 seats of the correct era but… well that is blah.
The fronts are out of a 2005ish Silverado. Some time ago a friend of mine was going to… *ahem*… “turn in” his 2005 Tahoe so he gave me the third row seats out of it for nothing. I really wanted to put these in the K5 but keep the functionality of the Tahoe where they fold forward and can be easily removed.
The first solution I had was to cut the floor out of a wrecked Tahoe and weld it into the K5. While I still believe this would be the correct way to do it there are infinite challenges involved there, and I’m not a huge fan of almost irreversible mods.
So I finally settled on using strut channel to bolt the factory Tahoe strikers (sourced on eBay) into the factory K5 seat holes.
I wish I had more photos of it but it really worked out great. I can take more pictures if there is interest.
Two tracks bolt into the floor and then the two track laying on the seats here bolt perpendicular to them. The seats then “snap” in. Sorry the truck is really dirty.
This was baby Emmylou’s first ride in the K5:
Speaking of here is Emmylou Kay
This allowed us to take a test run trip to Oklahoma back in October. The truck ran flawlessly this time (unlike limping into OKC on a bad distributer back in 2012) and was tons of fun to run around in the good weather. As usual Missy followed me in her car (no AC in the truck is hard on the baby).
Here are a few photos from that trip:
This was taken on Route 66 right outside Yukon, a place we call “The Shanty”.
This is why I love a tailgate; you can’t change a baby on the roadside with barn doors or a lift gate:
Emmylou’s first meeting with her great grandpa:
edlaffoon
Adventure Every Day
What a crazy year it’s been. Around the time of that last post a lot has been going on. My wife who is 4 months pregnant with our third (it’s a boy!) was hit by a Tacoma in her X3 on her way to pick me up from the airport three weeks ago. Totaled her car (probably) and flipped the Tacoma into a third vehicle. She spent one night in the ER but is totally fine and so is the baby. Thank god our girls were not in the car.
Short story is we will be probably replacing the BMW with a much more capable off road vehicle. It will probably be a 5th Gen 4Runner Limited… but more on that in another thread at a later time.
Picture of Missy's X3 after the wreck:
The guys who hit her (his fault) subsequently rolled his Taco:
Needless to say I’m ready to put a bullet in 2014 come 12/31.
In the meantime we had the chance to get away and spent Christmas out at the lake. It was a ton of fun and got into the low 30’s at night. It’s the first chance I’ve had to pack the truck for a trip with the whole family and really see how the fridge and some of the other gear would work out for us long term.
Got the truck loaded up and ready to go on the 23rd.
Crazy sunset that night
Any ways here is a photo of the gear that is labeled. I really like everything that I have ended up using although I’ve been debating moving to a different oven. The Camp Chef oven is nice but it’s large and flakey about lighting. It could be an issue with the regulator, regardless the only other real option is a camp partner/dutch oven combo witch would almost require a wood fire to use the oven. I love dutch ovens but gas is just too easy.
Missy always insists on helping in spite of being quite pregnant. I have to say she’s really come around to become a real outdoorswoman, a stark contrast to when we met. I also have to say that after a decade of HARD use and abuse mostly at the hands of airlines the Pelican 1510’s have been the best value of all gear I’ve ever owned. The Maxpedition Falcon II has been one of Missy’s favorite bags as well.
Here is one of my favorite new toys: Dereelight Xsearcher/Nighmaster (also pictured is my Nitecore SR7 Revenger)
I really regret not getting out the DSLR to get better shots of the Xsearcher at night. At around $100 everybody should add one to their gear list. This thins will throw a 3‘ wide ultra-hot spot 500 yards. It is absolutely CRAZY. You can google it to see what I’m talking about.
A really terrible iphone beam shot:
A night shot of the campsite set up:
This was also the first opotunity I had to drive in a really dark “off road” type environment and really test the Truck Lite headlight / eBay light bar combo. I have to say I could not be happier. I’ve used them a lot over the last year (the K5 is still my daily driver) but it’s just different on an unlit road with no one within 20 miles. You can stop and look around a bit you know?
Again these photos are terrible iphone photos but they capture it pretty well. All of this is right after sunset.
Unlit campsite with iphone flash on:
Iphone flash off, unlit campsite:
Truck Lite LED headlights (low beam):
Truck Lite LED headlights (brights/High & Low):
Truck Lite LED headlights on high, with eBay 20” light bar on:
I don’t know why in the world you would need more light than that. It’s a crazy amount of light over stock much less my old halogen headlight/KC Hilite combo.
Here is my disclaimer; I’m a big believer in buying local when you can and buying American when you can’t. there is no doubt in my mind that these Chinese lights hurt companies like Rigid Industries to a degree, but I also think RI hurts themselves with their insane prices. The same thing goes for companies like Yeti etc, some of this stuff is really cool but REALLY overpriced.
Rigid Industries stuff is great, but when my house is spending $400 a month on milk and diapers I cannot justify buying a $600 20” bar when I can get the same thing at 1/5th the price. So far this light has never let me down and probably never will.
Ok rant over.
Here are a couple shots of the truck with the lights all on:
All in all we had a really fun trip albeit short at just 3 days. It was a good opportunity to test gear for my growing family and begin re-planning for some big trips I have planned in 2016/2017. My observations:
1) I need a RTT very badly. It also has to have a vestibule for the kidos to sleep in. Be on the lookout for an update in the next year that will show how I accomplish this with a folding roofed truck.
2) I need a new suspension. I need more spring rate and will be looking into air as well.
3) This fridge is HUGE lol. Probably too big but that is better than too small in this case. At the end of the day I really like it and will never use ice again.
4) A trailer is in my future for sure.
5) A third row is in my future for sure. I will accomplish this the same way I did the second row. I may end up with the first ever 9 seat K5.
6) More torque is needed. This will eventually be done with a bigger engine but in the meantime I will be adding a new set of cams and possible heads to the 5.7.
The RTT is the biggest thing at the moment I think. Almost ¼ of my gear in the truck is tent related. That is a lot of space and visibility lost.
That’s it for now.
Short story is we will be probably replacing the BMW with a much more capable off road vehicle. It will probably be a 5th Gen 4Runner Limited… but more on that in another thread at a later time.
Picture of Missy's X3 after the wreck:
The guys who hit her (his fault) subsequently rolled his Taco:
Needless to say I’m ready to put a bullet in 2014 come 12/31.
In the meantime we had the chance to get away and spent Christmas out at the lake. It was a ton of fun and got into the low 30’s at night. It’s the first chance I’ve had to pack the truck for a trip with the whole family and really see how the fridge and some of the other gear would work out for us long term.
Got the truck loaded up and ready to go on the 23rd.
Crazy sunset that night
Any ways here is a photo of the gear that is labeled. I really like everything that I have ended up using although I’ve been debating moving to a different oven. The Camp Chef oven is nice but it’s large and flakey about lighting. It could be an issue with the regulator, regardless the only other real option is a camp partner/dutch oven combo witch would almost require a wood fire to use the oven. I love dutch ovens but gas is just too easy.
Missy always insists on helping in spite of being quite pregnant. I have to say she’s really come around to become a real outdoorswoman, a stark contrast to when we met. I also have to say that after a decade of HARD use and abuse mostly at the hands of airlines the Pelican 1510’s have been the best value of all gear I’ve ever owned. The Maxpedition Falcon II has been one of Missy’s favorite bags as well.
Here is one of my favorite new toys: Dereelight Xsearcher/Nighmaster (also pictured is my Nitecore SR7 Revenger)
I really regret not getting out the DSLR to get better shots of the Xsearcher at night. At around $100 everybody should add one to their gear list. This thins will throw a 3‘ wide ultra-hot spot 500 yards. It is absolutely CRAZY. You can google it to see what I’m talking about.
A really terrible iphone beam shot:
A night shot of the campsite set up:
This was also the first opotunity I had to drive in a really dark “off road” type environment and really test the Truck Lite headlight / eBay light bar combo. I have to say I could not be happier. I’ve used them a lot over the last year (the K5 is still my daily driver) but it’s just different on an unlit road with no one within 20 miles. You can stop and look around a bit you know?
Again these photos are terrible iphone photos but they capture it pretty well. All of this is right after sunset.
Unlit campsite with iphone flash on:
Iphone flash off, unlit campsite:
Truck Lite LED headlights (low beam):
Truck Lite LED headlights (brights/High & Low):
Truck Lite LED headlights on high, with eBay 20” light bar on:
I don’t know why in the world you would need more light than that. It’s a crazy amount of light over stock much less my old halogen headlight/KC Hilite combo.
Here is my disclaimer; I’m a big believer in buying local when you can and buying American when you can’t. there is no doubt in my mind that these Chinese lights hurt companies like Rigid Industries to a degree, but I also think RI hurts themselves with their insane prices. The same thing goes for companies like Yeti etc, some of this stuff is really cool but REALLY overpriced.
Rigid Industries stuff is great, but when my house is spending $400 a month on milk and diapers I cannot justify buying a $600 20” bar when I can get the same thing at 1/5th the price. So far this light has never let me down and probably never will.
Ok rant over.
Here are a couple shots of the truck with the lights all on:
All in all we had a really fun trip albeit short at just 3 days. It was a good opportunity to test gear for my growing family and begin re-planning for some big trips I have planned in 2016/2017. My observations:
1) I need a RTT very badly. It also has to have a vestibule for the kidos to sleep in. Be on the lookout for an update in the next year that will show how I accomplish this with a folding roofed truck.
2) I need a new suspension. I need more spring rate and will be looking into air as well.
3) This fridge is HUGE lol. Probably too big but that is better than too small in this case. At the end of the day I really like it and will never use ice again.
4) A trailer is in my future for sure.
5) A third row is in my future for sure. I will accomplish this the same way I did the second row. I may end up with the first ever 9 seat K5.
6) More torque is needed. This will eventually be done with a bigger engine but in the meantime I will be adding a new set of cams and possible heads to the 5.7.
The RTT is the biggest thing at the moment I think. Almost ¼ of my gear in the truck is tent related. That is a lot of space and visibility lost.
That’s it for now.
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