Well its been a minute. Ive been busy with a thousand projects this summer. Thankfully a lot of them involve the Blazer. We've taken it camping a couple times since Expo and Ive been able to slowly chip away at the endless to-do list even though Im in Flagstaff and all my tools are in Phoenix now.
Testing out the new bumpers bike rack holding ability when offroad. Passed with flying colors.
Tomorrow Im planning to drive to Ridgway Colorado for a huge party that my buddy throws every year and Im hoping to take the Blazer instead of the RV. Should be a trip. Nothing spikes my anxiety like the thought of driving 5 hours across an Indian Reservation with no cell service in a 45 year old truck with completely donated organs(drivetrain) that I installed myself.
Ive done a ton of maintenance and mods to the Blazer to get it ready for longer trips like this. I installed a 250 watt solar panel, basic MPPT controller and inverter. This allows me to run the fridge for a couple days without worrying about anything and also use the Starlink when Im remote. I also installed powered fans in the holes where there used to be two basic vents. We've been getting a ton of rain in Flagstaff this summer, thankfully. But This resulted in the bed being wet one morning when the truck had just been sitting parked in front of the house. I took this as a sign that it was time to reseal the roof and I wasnt going to spend the time to reseal crappy passive vents so I installed fans. Running the wiring through the ceiling was a slight pain but nothing too bad.
Also mounted a jerry can onto the back bumper, you know, for the overlander cred. It was actually supposed to be two cans but the mounts I bought were some Amazon crap and theres no easy way to link them together and mount them on the bumper the way I built it. This fall Ill probably build a new mount for two cans. One is good enough to get me an extra ~50 miles of range so thats fine.
Since Im running a cat things get pretty hot under the driver side of the truck which is where the wiring harness runs for everything in the rear of the truck. This resulted in my wire loom starting to melt. Initially I just wrapped it in heat shield and called it good but I recently I started to smell melting plastic again so I relocated the wire harness to the outside of the frame rail. Its tucked up underneath so you cant see it unless you lay on the ground and look up at it.
When I was under there I noticed I had a busted exhaust isolator and this turned into a whole day project. My exhaust install was sub-par from the beginning so this was long overdue. I noticed some cracked welds at a few joints in the pipes which I think was a result of too much movement in the exhaust. Thankfully I had brought the good welder up from Phoenix for another project Im starting so I was able to get this taken care of quickly. Its now solid, my muffler is like an extra skid plate at this point!
Speaking of other projects, in case you didnt catch it in my thread in the Pop-Up-Campers forum on here. I managed to score another "Blazer" Four Wheel Camper!! I now own 2 of the ~1000 of these that were ever made. This one is going to be for sale after I restore it. In fact, it already has a lot of interest. Ive already gotten it stripped down to the aluminum frame and skin. We were able to park in the garage for all of about 6 days hahaha. If you want to follow along Im documenting it on CK5 and Expedition Portal
here. I will also be documenting it on the new Darlington Adventures Youtube channel. Ive never done anything like this before so it should be interesting.
Darlington Adventures on Youtube
www.roadmasterinc.com
