There’s a review on that site saying they are useless because they shake too muchHere's a Bearmach one.
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Diving in Head First!
- Thread starter yabanja
- Start date
yabanja
Explorer
Thanks for the heads up. Was about to pull the trigger.
Allan
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
yabanja
Explorer
It's a funny thing. I got Fido on the road six years ago and the to do list is still over 50 items long! I have checked a couple of things off the list lately.
My drivers seat was getting a bit worn so I fabricated some brackets to mount an old Recaro seat I had laying around. It ended up lowering my drivers position as well as greatly increasing under leg and lateral support. I look forward to the next trip to see what it does for drivers fatigue. Sakshi wants me to keep the passenger seat as it is so we can still carry 3 people in a pinch but I suspect her view on the subject will change after a few miles in the new seat.
My drivers seat was getting a bit worn so I fabricated some brackets to mount an old Recaro seat I had laying around. It ended up lowering my drivers position as well as greatly increasing under leg and lateral support. I look forward to the next trip to see what it does for drivers fatigue. Sakshi wants me to keep the passenger seat as it is so we can still carry 3 people in a pinch but I suspect her view on the subject will change after a few miles in the new seat.
yabanja
Explorer
I am also still striving to improve the ride quality. My original design for Fido was flawed(as some of you pointed out from the first) in that it had too much cantilevered weight which was causing porpoising over bumps. One of the main causes of this was my spare tire hanging way off the back. I have been stewing over this for quite a while and finally moved forward with a plan. I cut my subframe forward to just behind the mounting bracket for the box. This required shortening the storage bed compartment for the batteries and roof lift motor. I moved the lift motor forward nearly two feet and was able to move the tire forward about a foot and a half. I also greatly simplified the tire mounting and lowered it so it is directly on the truck frame and not hanging from the camper body. I ended up cutting off about a hundred pounds of steel along with moving the remaining weight forward. The net result is a marked improvement in ride quality. I told sakshi on the latest trip that I think this is about as good as it is going to get! I also found a surplus ammo container which fits perfectly between the frame rails under the tire and is filled with all my truck spares-hoses, belts, bearings, ujoints, etc.....
I’ve got a Stratos and my wife still insists she likes the OE double passenger seat. My Stratos base is worn out, I need to repair it.
yabanja
Explorer
I just bought my third set of tires for Fido. All have been 37". The first set were BFG AT2 which were over an inch out of round and vibrated horribly. Ditched them after 5000 miles for the cheapest tires I could find. The second set were super cheap PRO COMP AT. They were ok but felt vague at speed on gravel and weren't great in the soft stuff. I got 25,000 miles out of them. The latest set is the Yokohama Geolander X-AT. These tires are half way between a Mud Terrain and an All Terrain. They have big lugs at the cost of no snow rating. So far they seem pretty great. We took them on about 50 miles of dirt last weekend. They were very nice at speed, and as expected had great mud grip. Surprisingly they are pretty much silent on the freeway. I expect they will get pretty noisy as the lugs wear but we will see. 
billiebob
Well-known member
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One thing I found was watch for tread separation.... we bought from a local retailer and he does the rotations, winter summer change overs for free so he always spotted the separation and Yokohama has fabulous warranties so the replacement tires were painless. But watch for it.
Great tires, we have had several sets of winter grips for the Jeeps and Subarus.
One thing I found was watch for tread separation.... we bought from a local retailer and he does the rotations, winter summer change overs for free so he always spotted the separation and Yokohama has fabulous warranties so the replacement tires were painless. But watch for it.
yabanja
Explorer
Great tires, we have had several sets of winter grips for the Jeeps and Subarus.
One thing I found was watch for tread separation.... we bought from a local retailer and he does the rotations, winter summer change overs for free so he always spotted the separation and Yokohama has fabulous warranties so the replacement tires were painless. But watch for it.
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Will keep an eye out. Thank you for the tip!
yabanja
Explorer
We recently commissioned one of my favorite artists to do a digital drawing of Fido. Really pleased with the results! Check out his other work on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/dsalni.drawn/
yabanja
Explorer
Well this is exciting. The latest generation of smart LifePO4 batteries with built in heaters finally solved my primary concern-cold weather charging. So I have made the investment to move forward. We don't use a lot of juice in Fido. Just LED lights, the engel fridge, and in cold weather the Dometic Propane furnace. I have thus far gotten by with a simple battery isolator from national luna and a single deep cycle lead acid battery and 90 watt deployable solar panel. After seven years our interstate battery was in need of replacement so it was a good time to make the plunge. This setup will have twice the usable reserve capacity(maybe more) and if they are to be believed the battery should last the lifetime of the vehicle. Having a proper DC to DC charger should make a big difference as well. After I ditch the Lead battery and 1978 vintage 110/12v converter we will be nearly 50 pounds ahead! In any case I am excited to get it up and running. We are planning to head out in Fido for several months this winter. FINALLY!
chris_the_wrench
Fixer & Builder of Things
yabanja
Explorer
The initial plan is to utilize all the existing wiring and mount the battery outside. If it doesn't perform well we will move it inside.
Allan
yabanja
Explorer
Well we went from 100 degree temps to Freezing in about six weeks. So much for Fall. Took advantage of a nice day to build a bracket to mount the max tracks. Happy with how it turned out. It will be nice to have more space free in the storage box. I may build a hinged aluminum cover on a piano hinge at a later date just to hide them from prying eyes. The Kryptonite chain lock will have to do for now.
