2021 RAM 3500 Tradesman | AEV Prospector | FWC Grandby

[ramblinChet]

This weekend was spent in the Moshannon State Forest and Quehanna Wild Area in Pennsylvania.

I spent the night near Shaggers Inn Pond and was woken up by woodpeckers pecking.


Once packed up and rolling I stopped by the ranger station for a map and dropped back into the woods to make my way up to Benezette to spend time at the Elk County Visitor Center. I met some other outdoors men and learned a bit about the habits of Pennsylvania Elk, how to call turkeys, etc. Did you know that Elk have two ivories in their mouth?

Heading east I took the opportunity to cross Bennett Branch/Sinnemahoning Creek which was around 2.0-2.5 feet deep with a nice rocky bottom.


Shortly thereafter I rolled into Driftwood to look around and then headed south-south-west deep into Quehanna Wild Area. The bridge is a three-span skewed Baltimore through truss erected in 1902.


My map showed a RESTRICTED AREA near the end of Reactor Road. Of course I drove to the location to investigate. What I found in the middle of the forest nearby was a secret government test facility used during the cold war to test nuclear-powered jet engines from 1955-1960. This was part of the "Atoms for Peace" program initiated by President Eisenhower in 1953.


Here is a massive steel door on the one side of the concrete bunker with some ominous graffiti. Yes, I went inside but it would have been nice to have a Geiger counter.

 

[ramblinChet]

This past weekend I spent four days and four nights out exercising my AEV Prospector. Here are some of the details - pay special attention to the lessons learned.

The evening before Thanksgiving we met and spent the night at Little Fort Campground up on the mountain east of Edinburg, Virginia. At one time was a rest stop for a stage coach line. My friend drives a Power Wagon and has a Four Wheel Pop-Up Camper also.


Early the next morning we decided to run a nearby Jeep Badge or Honor Trail named Peters Mill Run. It is an eight mile trail which takes 2-3 hours and can be completed in 2WD if you have a moderate level of skill off-road. My recommendation is to air down since this is never ending small rocks.


Lesson learned - Check latches on FWC at the end of trail. On the trail, I began to hear a light mechanical tap as my vehicle would roll side-to-side. I though it might be a suspension component that had become loose but at the end of the trail I found two FWC latches that had popped loose presumably during some mild flexing on the trail.


We hustled down to Harrisonburg, Virginia to enjoy a Thanksgiving lunch at a local restaurant. After a huge lunch, we continued south-south-east to Covington, Virginia to begin Section Three of the Mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route (MABDR). Section three is 193 miles long and is 90% off-road. We fueled-up in Covington and knocked out around fifty miles before we decided to look for a primitive camp spot and enjoy a good nights sleep.


It was my duty to navigate us through the mountains from Covington to Moorfield so I decided to not use any GPS, GAIA, etc. or even a paper map. It took me about fifteen minutes to snap thirty-six screen shots of intersections on the MABDR and use them to help guide us. Basically, we would be driving sort-of blind for an unknown distance knowing we we moving in a particular direction and we would memorize short sections and look for them such as: drive NE in general for a bit and look for a road that heads kinda north. If we turn SE immediately after we keep going until we find another road that leads SW, we ignore that one also. Oh, we are at an intersection and there is a 160 degree turn to north-north-west - that's our road. The battery in my nearly ten-year-old laptop is good for about an hour and I did not have the ability to recharge it on the road so I would flip the dimmed screen open for a second and close it again quickly to save energy. It ran out of power about 10-20 miles from the end but we made it anyway.


Lesson learned - Electronic Stability Control will engage during turns with tires aired-down to 18 PSI. For our second day on the trail we decided to use my Coyote Automatic Tire Deflators set to 20 PSI. The tires aired-down to within a few PSI and one adjustment came loose so it will be necessary to re-calibrate that one unit. While driving on a short curvy section of paved road at 20-30 MPH it felt as if the engine stumbled once, then ten seconds later, again. I quickly determined that during some of the turns the Electronic Stability Control was confused since the tires were at such a low pressure and the system was retarding the ignition and/or reducing fuel flow. Interestingly enough, even with the ESC turned off another light would illuminate and the system would still engage.


Here is a shot of my Longacre Racing pressure gauge which has proven to work very well. With the tires aired down we could normally drive 15-20 MPH over rocky sections that would only permit 5 MPH at a street pressure of 45 PSI. We both noticed the sharp lateral rolls we dampened which is valuable we the FWC in the bed.


Upon completing section three of the MABDR we continued north to meet other friends in at a campground in Maryland. Here I am driving my AEV Prospector over the privately owned Old Town Toll Bridge connecting Green Spring, West Virginia to Old Town, Maryland.


Bring $1.50 cash because that is all they can accept at the Old Town Toll Bridge. A few miles later we met friends at Fifteen Mile Campground and enjoyed an evening around a warm campfire.

 

[ramblinChet]

Here are some pictures from days three and four of our Thanksgiving adventure. Over four days we enjoyed around three hundred miles of trails in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

We camped at Fifteen Mile Creek Campground in Little Orleans, Maryland which is adjacent to Green Ridge State Forest. This is the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath.


We continued along the Mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discovery route up into Michaux State Forest in Pennsylvania and spent our final night at a primitive campsite in Dead Woman Hollow.


It was beautiful sleeping in the FWC Grandby one more night although I am looking forward to installing a heater within the next year for additional comfort.

 

[Todd780]

Oh yeah, a heat source would be a game changer. There was many nights this year we were thankful to have a furnace while camping.

 

[ramblinChet]

OK, I have been thinking for months about how to mount my four MAXTRAX in a secure location while still being able to retrieve them quickly. The roof was a consideration although most all of the area will be occupied by solar panels and even more weight on top of a pop-up is not a good thing. In the future there should be a rear swing-away tire carrier module for my AEV rear bumper but it may not provide for securely mounting MAXTRAX.

Here is the Trax-Clamp manufactured by Quick Pitch in South Africa:

This will bolt on to the side of my FWC and will accept all four MAXTRAX


Here is the lever which captures two or four MAXTRAX and can also be locked


Pop the lever open and seconds later MAXTRAX are available to use - no ratchet straps, bolts, etc.

 

[sumnrfam]

OK, I have been thinking for months about how to mount my four MAXTRAX in a secure location while still being able to retrieve them quickly. The roof was a consideration although most all of the area will be occupied by solar panels and even more weight on top of a pop-up is not a good thing. In the future there should be a rear swing-away tire carrier module for my AEV rear bumper but it may not provide for securely mounting MAXTRAX.

Here is the Trax-Clamp manufactured by Quick Pitch in South Africa:

This will bolt on to the side of my FWC and will accept all four MAXTRAX
View attachment 695305

Here is the lever which captures two or four MAXTRAX and can also be locked
View attachment 695306

Pop the lever open and seconds later MAXTRAX are available to use - no ratchet straps, bolts, etc.

@ramblinChet ,, Chet that mount looks awesome! Thanks for sharing the details.. Quick question,, it looks like only 2 Maxtrax in the photos,, but it will still close and lock with 4 right?,, Also, you might have another mounting option, and be able to keep them off the side of the camper and out of reach of branches etc.. You might be able to mount vertically on the back wall left of the door? ,, probably enough vertical framework there with some through bolts and backing plates,,, Might be a clean option ;-)

 

[UglyViking]

Pretty slick idea. I guess it makes sense if you're using them all the time to have quick access to them. I wonder how hard it is to get them back into the little mount once there is dirt/snow/mud packed into them? Not for nothing but at 20lbs and $220 (with discount) more than the standard mounts, well I think you gotta really want something custom to justify that sorta spend, or you have to be pulling them out all the time. I don't know your usage, so not judging just point it out.

 

[ramblinChet]

@sumnrfam - it can be adjusted for two or four. I would really prefer to mount them on the back where you discussed but they will prevent the rear door from opening and locking in place. Of course I will check to verify once everything arrives but it looks like no joy right now.

@UglyViking - I had these in my Jeep and they were a PITA to pull out so I rarely used them to level the rig, bridging, etc. With this set up I suspect I will use them much more often for a variety of tasks. And as a single man with a harem of girls, money has never been a concern.

 

[Tex68w]

Seen those used on a few builds before, mostly on 70 Series Troopy's, a very expensive but very nice product indeed, so long as you don't mind them plastered on the side. As an alternative, I think I would have saved some dough here and used the standard MaxTrax mounts and if you wanted a solid plate to mount them to you could use the Prinsu roof rack plate.

 

[sumnrfam]

@sumnrfam - it can be adjusted for two or four. I would really prefer to mount them on the back where you discussed but they will prevent the rear door from opening and locking in place. Of course I will check to verify once everything arrives but it looks like no joy right now.

@UglyViking - I had these in my Jeep and they were a PITA to pull out so I rarely used them to level the rig, bridging, etc. With this set up I suspect I will use them much more often for a variety of tasks. And as a single man with a harem of girls, money has never been a concern.

Roger that ;-),, similarly I had to re-sort the locking mech on our Eagle based on the way I had fabbed up brackets for the 5# propane tanks on the jack brackets,, Once I had a solid fix it never seemed in the way,,

Looking forward to seeing the progress,, Great looking rig,

 

[Todd780]

In the future there should be a rear swing-away tire carrier module for my AEV rear bumper but it may not provide for securely mounting MAXTRAX.

Is AEV coming out with a swing away?

The Trax-Clamp looks pretty slick!

 

[ramblinChet]

Is AEV coming out with a swing away?

That's affirmative. My best guess is we may see something in late 2022 but most likely sometime in 2023 - hopefully early. Even though the rear bumper was designed as a modular assembly which will accept upgrade components such as this there is still final engineering and design to complete, then months of OEM testing and finally initial production. I suspect we will see something that will easily hold a 41" tire and hopefully more. If there is enough room back there it would be awesome to see a dual-swing away with a tire one one side and storage box on the other but that's a long shot.

 

[ExpoMike]

OK, I have been thinking for months about how to mount my four MAXTRAX in a secure location while still being able to retrieve them quickly. The roof was a consideration although most all of the area will be occupied by solar panels and even more weight on top of a pop-up is not a good thing. In the future there should be a rear swing-away tire carrier module for my AEV rear bumper but it may not provide for securely mounting MAXTRAX.

Here is the Trax-Clamp manufactured by Quick Pitch in South Africa:

This will bolt on to the side of my FWC and will accept all four MAXTRAX

Do you have a link for these, as I cannot find them on their website?

 

[ramblinChet]

Do you have a link for these, as I cannot find them on their website?

I purchased them through BunduTecUSA which had them in stock. I met them at OXE and actually visited their facility when visiting Iowa - great folks!

Quick Pitch Trax-Clamp

This is something even cooler you might be interested in also...

Quick Pitch Trax-Tab

 

[ramblinChet]

Here is a tool that will solve a few common issues for me at various times. It will be used to help me step in or out of my camper. It will also help me unlock and lock the clasps on my FWC - right now I stand on the door sill or the rear bumper. This will also serve as a nice seat inside the camper when the top is still closed. Of course, it can be used as an extra seat around the campfire also. My friend had an older Rubbermaid unit he let me borrow and it was great but unfortunately they stopped making those a decade or so ago.