24HOURSOFNEVADA
Expedition Leader
Nice score on the Four Wheel Camper. I just read the build on Pirate that's posted. You guy's are making me think I should have gone Chevy instead of the Ford.
Jack's 2007 Chevy Build
- Thread starter locrwln
- Start date
southpaws3
Observer
WOW!! amazing on the conversion! great job great treking see you on the trails
locrwln
Expedition Leader
We think so. Can't wait to put it to use, hopefully this weekend.
Thank you, see you out there.
Jack
locrwln
Expedition Leader
Got some more mods done to the truck this weekend.
I was attempting to wire up the FWC, so I needed a "parking light" wire and a 12v hot wire for the interior lights and for a 12v supply for my Waeco refrigerator. I ordered a 3 port 12v to put inside and a seperate fuse block. Working out of town sometimes sucks, because I had no idea what GM had done for me...
Sunday morning my wife and I head out to the garage and begin wiring everything up. I had to re-do the wire on the camper side. No idea what the PO was thinking, but they had a 7 pin male plug with wire nuts to splice everything together and it was really hokey. I cleaned everything up and planned on using a different plug, but after working my way through everything, the 7 pin made the most sense.
I mounted the fuse block and began running wires. I crawled under the truck to route the wires and look for a place to tap into the parking lights. Well little did I know, but GM was way ahead of me. I noticed a wire loom zip tied up to the front bed mount on the driver's side. I pulled it down and realized that it was a "trailer" wiring harness, I looked in the owner's manual and found out that it was specifically for wiring up a cabover/5th wheel plug in the bed. So a 7 pin coupler made even more sense, GM even placed a hole in the corner to route the wires up through, gotta love it when the factory does the hard work for you.
Then the problem...I couldn't figure out why the 12v hot wire wouldn't show as being hot. The owner's manual was no help, so to the internet we went. Come to find out, I needed to install a 30amp fuse in the "stud #1" position under the hood. Monday morning I ran down to Napa and picked up the fuse and now we have power. Needless to say, I removed the auxillary fuse block (not needed right now, will add it back later).
Tuesday morning, I decided to add my new rear cab mounts. Owners complained of "beaming" with ex-cabs and crew-cab trucks, so GM designed some new rear cab mounts designed to help eliminate the problem. So for about $120 and with people reporting a much better ride, I wanted to give it a try. Took me about 30 minutes from the time I pulled it into the garage until I was done.
Stock bushing on the top with the new "improved" one on the bottom. Looking down on them, you can see a big difference.
Serious difference in shape.
Can't wait to give everything the test.
Jack
I was attempting to wire up the FWC, so I needed a "parking light" wire and a 12v hot wire for the interior lights and for a 12v supply for my Waeco refrigerator. I ordered a 3 port 12v to put inside and a seperate fuse block. Working out of town sometimes sucks, because I had no idea what GM had done for me...
Sunday morning my wife and I head out to the garage and begin wiring everything up. I had to re-do the wire on the camper side. No idea what the PO was thinking, but they had a 7 pin male plug with wire nuts to splice everything together and it was really hokey. I cleaned everything up and planned on using a different plug, but after working my way through everything, the 7 pin made the most sense.
I mounted the fuse block and began running wires. I crawled under the truck to route the wires and look for a place to tap into the parking lights. Well little did I know, but GM was way ahead of me. I noticed a wire loom zip tied up to the front bed mount on the driver's side. I pulled it down and realized that it was a "trailer" wiring harness, I looked in the owner's manual and found out that it was specifically for wiring up a cabover/5th wheel plug in the bed. So a 7 pin coupler made even more sense, GM even placed a hole in the corner to route the wires up through, gotta love it when the factory does the hard work for you.
Then the problem...I couldn't figure out why the 12v hot wire wouldn't show as being hot. The owner's manual was no help, so to the internet we went. Come to find out, I needed to install a 30amp fuse in the "stud #1" position under the hood. Monday morning I ran down to Napa and picked up the fuse and now we have power. Needless to say, I removed the auxillary fuse block (not needed right now, will add it back later).
Tuesday morning, I decided to add my new rear cab mounts. Owners complained of "beaming" with ex-cabs and crew-cab trucks, so GM designed some new rear cab mounts designed to help eliminate the problem. So for about $120 and with people reporting a much better ride, I wanted to give it a try. Took me about 30 minutes from the time I pulled it into the garage until I was done.
Stock bushing on the top with the new "improved" one on the bottom. Looking down on them, you can see a big difference.
Serious difference in shape.
Can't wait to give everything the test.
Jack
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locrwln
Expedition Leader
My wife and I decided it would be nice to give the new camper an overnight try to figure out what worked and what we needed to improve. We have been up the road from Frenchman's Lake to Doyle (Northern California), but never explored the area or driven north towards Milford.
Sunday afternoon, we loaded up and headed out. We got past Frenchman's Lake and as we were headed north, we came across a road labeled Dixie Point Lookout and decided to give it a try. As you can imagine it was one of the many Firewatch Lookouts that scatter the Sierras. The road had been bladed otherwise the snow would still have been too deep.
On the way up, we found some Holly and Snow plants in bloom.
The watch tower
The views...
Jack
Sunday afternoon, we loaded up and headed out. We got past Frenchman's Lake and as we were headed north, we came across a road labeled Dixie Point Lookout and decided to give it a try. As you can imagine it was one of the many Firewatch Lookouts that scatter the Sierras. The road had been bladed otherwise the snow would still have been too deep.
On the way up, we found some Holly and Snow plants in bloom.
The watch tower
The views...
Jack
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locrwln
Expedition Leader
We headed back down the mountain and turned north and as it was getting later in the after noon, we decided to look for a place to camp and turned off one of the roads in the area and found a great one.
Had to cross the creek to get there.
Woke up Monday morning and as I was looking around camp, I spotted a buck with his antlers still growing and velveted. I couldn't get a picture because he kept moving in and out of the trees and the camera wouldn't pick it up.
We packed it up (which took all of about 10 minutes) and took another way out. We made it up and out to the main road. As we were making our way north, my wife spotted a bear. I skidded to a stop and got the camera out and was just able to get a picture of a beautiful cinnamon boar. He moved up the hill and we decided to leave him to his foraging.
Found a little fixer-up-er
The view out the front door.
We turned before making it to Milford and turned left and headed for Beckwourth on Hwy 70 and back home.
Everything worked great and we are really happy with it. Can't wait to give a longer test this coming weekend.
Jack
Had to cross the creek to get there.
Woke up Monday morning and as I was looking around camp, I spotted a buck with his antlers still growing and velveted. I couldn't get a picture because he kept moving in and out of the trees and the camera wouldn't pick it up.
We packed it up (which took all of about 10 minutes) and took another way out. We made it up and out to the main road. As we were making our way north, my wife spotted a bear. I skidded to a stop and got the camera out and was just able to get a picture of a beautiful cinnamon boar. He moved up the hill and we decided to leave him to his foraging.
Found a little fixer-up-er
The view out the front door.
We turned before making it to Milford and turned left and headed for Beckwourth on Hwy 70 and back home.
Everything worked great and we are really happy with it. Can't wait to give a longer test this coming weekend.
Jack
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locrwln
Expedition Leader
My wife helped me do some upgrades to the Chevy.
Before we had a failure in the back country, I decided to get proactive against any breakage. Off came the factory steering and on went the DMax Store's Kryptonite steering upgrade with Cognito Steering Support system. Replaced the pitman arm and idler arm as well. So the complete steering system has been replaced/upgraded.
I didn't get any pictures post install, I was too busy trying to get cleaned up and get it to the shop for an alignment.
Steering is really tight and feels totally different (truck had 84k on original parts).
Jack
Before we had a failure in the back country, I decided to get proactive against any breakage. Off came the factory steering and on went the DMax Store's Kryptonite steering upgrade with Cognito Steering Support system. Replaced the pitman arm and idler arm as well. So the complete steering system has been replaced/upgraded.
I didn't get any pictures post install, I was too busy trying to get cleaned up and get it to the shop for an alignment.
Steering is really tight and feels totally different (truck had 84k on original parts).
Jack
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locrwln
Expedition Leader
Wow, that's a seriously beefy upgraded steering setup!
Nice truck and FWC.
Yes it is. I felt every bit of it lifting it into place.
Thanks.
Jack
the blue bus
New member
love all the scenery and trails you have taken pics on. new truck looks good too. sounds like you have a good plan as well h2s look good on em
1stDeuce
Explorer
Jack, I'm about to set out on a quest to improve the survivability of my truck... Starting with the trans crossmember that hangs down. Mine is more or less mashed at the frame rails, and looks to be bowed up in the middle too. All happened before the truck was mine, but I figure that's the first weak spot. Next on the list will be a center skid for the front/middle, probably just back to the new trans crossmember. The plastic and aluminum skidplates on my truck have seen better days, and that big Allison pan is right there waiting to be dented...
I'll try to chronicle my efforts, and if all goes well, perhaps I can even make some extras available to other GM guys. I really don't want to lift my truck much more than I've already done with bags and torsion cranking, so I'll improve what I can and go from there. Thus far, the rear diff is the biggest hangup, but I don't really want to go bigger than 285's, excepting 255/85's if I can find some I like when my 285's wear out.
Keep up the posts, you're inspiring!!
Chris
I'll try to chronicle my efforts, and if all goes well, perhaps I can even make some extras available to other GM guys. I really don't want to lift my truck much more than I've already done with bags and torsion cranking, so I'll improve what I can and go from there. Thus far, the rear diff is the biggest hangup, but I don't really want to go bigger than 285's, excepting 255/85's if I can find some I like when my 285's wear out.
Keep up the posts, you're inspiring!!
Chris
bob91yj
Resident **************
I spent a week in Baja last April covering 1200 miles/800 of them off road. One of the couples on the trip were in a Chevy Dmax with the Kryptonite steering upgrade (among others), I was amazed at the pounding that truck took. I dare say it got a worse beating than I'd ever put mine through. Only failure on the truck was one of the locating pins for the upper A arm eccentric adjuster broke off when a nut backed off and the A arm got loose.
Kryptonite upgrade is on my list!
Kryptonite upgrade is on my list!
locrwln
Expedition Leader
Thanks, looking forward to adding more scenery/trails to the list.
I hope so, that is my plan to eliminate as many of the "weak" items as possible.
Looking forward to what you come up with. I was thinking I would emulate XXX Traction's center skid plate they use for their SAS kit. It will cover the vunerable stuff and make the belly flat, which is awesome, just gotta get the sliders built, gas tank bought and installed and of course the lift installed to ensure the belly pan won't interfere in any way with the lift, which it shouldn't considering the t-bars remain is their stock location, you know the "list.":sombrero:
That is awesome on the failure (or lack of). We have done many trips like that in the past with my landcruiser, in fact we did a 1200 miler last year in Northern Nevada with about 700 of it off road, so this truck will see pretty much the same action.
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to Sam from Samco Fabrication here in Reno, he was the builder for Rod Hall's H2 Baja racers a couple of years ago and he said that for the upper arms they used to take the rubber bushings out of the upper a-arms, burn the rubber off of the metal serrated inner sleeve, drill out the poly bushings and use the factory metal insert instead of the one the poly bushings come with. That kept the front upper a-arms from loosening during the races. He said the stock rubber would wear out and the poly bushings/inner sleeve would loosen up and create problems, but after they figured out to use the factory inner sleeve with the poly outer portion, they would last pretty much the entire season. So when I reach that point, I plan on doing the same thing. Sam did warn me that drilling the poly out was a pain. Again, just going off of what he told me, I haven't looked at anything too closely yet, but I at least have an idea.
Jack