ben2go
Adventurer
Oh you're screwed now.We all have your number.Where's my phone? :jump:
AmboVan Restarted
- Thread starter hobietony
- Start date
Oh you're screwed now.We all have your number.Where's my phone? :jump:
steelheadbum
Adventurer
Rig looks baaad to the bone bro
Buck
The Redneck Mexican
2002 E350 7.3 PSD 4x4 8inch lift pop top conversion....
Buck
The Redneck Mexican
2002 E350 7.3 PSD 4x4 8inch lift pop top conversion....
Last edited:
BajaSportsmobile
Baja Ironman
Who is Bick?
hobietony
Explorer
Thanks for the offer, turns out my issues either happened close to home, or I could deal with my self. I'm saving your number though!
Many thanks
Good question
hobietony
Explorer
Using (and fixing) it again
Just got back from Galveston, and I see I day I left I wrote the following - "But it is all pretty much refinement at this point"
I suppose that is true, but I had to do a bit more on-road refining than I expected...
-
Got the airbags installed and all hooked up the week before we left, pretty easy since the airlines were mostly run, and the switch and gages have been installed for a couple years now
More on this in a bit.
-
Got about 1.5 hours out of Tucson, smelled coolant, checked it out, went back and had a new radiator put in - All metal this time, and able to be done by my usual guy, so could have been worse. The plastic tank on top had cracked, but not burst, so I could make it back.
-
Thought we might take the scenic route getting out there, but the initial delay kept us to I-10 for the rest of the trip. Slept just off the road in quarry/dirt processing area outside of Fort Stockton. Wide open West Texas, in the morning, the creosote bushes stretching out to the horizon looked like the ocean, nothing manmade to break it, pretty cool. Another 12 hours of freeway and fuel got us to Galveston with no further incidents
-
Just a few pics from the week -
Bit of Rain
Bit of Carnage
A few more
-
A bit more refining on the way home,
3 failed tires, 2 of them changed, and limping in on a damaged third.
-
Also lost pressure in one of the airbags while still in New Mexico, went to check it out, and found both bags had slipped off the floating base, one was punctured, and one was wedged all sideways. I didn't really notice anything until it failed, they were still applying pressure to the system, but not on the proper surfaces.
I'll need something a bit more positive to locate the bottoms of the bags over the axle, maybe some sort of raised ring? I'm sure the heavy loading is a factor.
-
Speaking of which, I took the van over a scale on the trip, fully loaded, trailer attached, full of water/fuel/etc. It is a bit more than I expected, although my expectations were only based on 'feel'.
The rig
The weights
:Wow1:
Just got back from Galveston, and I see I day I left I wrote the following - "But it is all pretty much refinement at this point"
I suppose that is true, but I had to do a bit more on-road refining than I expected...
-
Got the airbags installed and all hooked up the week before we left, pretty easy since the airlines were mostly run, and the switch and gages have been installed for a couple years now
More on this in a bit.
-
Got about 1.5 hours out of Tucson, smelled coolant, checked it out, went back and had a new radiator put in - All metal this time, and able to be done by my usual guy, so could have been worse. The plastic tank on top had cracked, but not burst, so I could make it back.
-
Thought we might take the scenic route getting out there, but the initial delay kept us to I-10 for the rest of the trip. Slept just off the road in quarry/dirt processing area outside of Fort Stockton. Wide open West Texas, in the morning, the creosote bushes stretching out to the horizon looked like the ocean, nothing manmade to break it, pretty cool. Another 12 hours of freeway and fuel got us to Galveston with no further incidents
-
Just a few pics from the week -
Bit of Rain
Bit of Carnage
A few more
-
A bit more refining on the way home,
3 failed tires, 2 of them changed, and limping in on a damaged third.
-
Also lost pressure in one of the airbags while still in New Mexico, went to check it out, and found both bags had slipped off the floating base, one was punctured, and one was wedged all sideways. I didn't really notice anything until it failed, they were still applying pressure to the system, but not on the proper surfaces.
I'll need something a bit more positive to locate the bottoms of the bags over the axle, maybe some sort of raised ring? I'm sure the heavy loading is a factor.
-
Speaking of which, I took the van over a scale on the trip, fully loaded, trailer attached, full of water/fuel/etc. It is a bit more than I expected, although my expectations were only based on 'feel'.
The rig
The weights
:Wow1:
Jeffh555
Observer
Mountainunicycler
Observer
Is the gutter mount the only thing supporting the weight of the roof rack? I'd like to do something similar (currently losing an entire compartment to the spare tire and jack) but not sure how to attach it...
hobietony
Explorer
So, something under 14k without the trailer - wasn't yours close to that?
So of the original 8 tires, 6 have been replaced so far, generally under warranty. I never covered the tires, they had long periods of inactivity, with periods of long hiway miles, or runs through some pretty rocky terrain, so I am hoping that the new ones will perform better with a better use pattern. I put the two remaining original tires on the front, because I can feel the failure start in the wheel, cant feel a thing if it happens on the rear. I expect the two on the front to fail soon, but Discount wont replace them until there is actually a problem. Vehicle weight is well within the stated capacity on the tires, so if the new ones start failing then I have another issue. Either way, I have a lot of new tires to wear through before I need to consider bigger wheels/some other option.
Is the gutter mount the only thing supporting the weight of the roof rack? I'd like to do something similar (currently losing an entire compartment to the spare tire and jack) but not sure how to attach it...
Check out post # 321 in this thread. It is partially cantilevered from the ambo box, most fasteners are in the ambo framing, I tried to drive as much load as possible into the box and not the gutters. Those gutter mounts were actually floating over the gutter before I clamped them down. (and of course, before any load was added to the rack)
hobietony
Explorer
And, just wanted to say that Chris has been great regarding the slipped bags, he is working on revising the lower mounts, using the base talked about a few posts up, and working out something fair for the bags themselves. I mean, we all know he is awesome, I'm just confirming it.
Ozrockrat
Expedition Leader
Yep pretty close to that. It only took 1 blowout with the E rated tires and I figured I wanted something with more safety margin. Oh and speaking of porky pigs. The ambo the color of snot is on its way.