K5 Camper. My offroad home away from home.

[zoomad75]

Bummer…but glad to hear it’ll be back soon. ?

They don’t break if you don’t drive them. It was a used trans. It’s a roll of the dice sometimes.

I will admit the exhaust routing Larry pushed for was money. We didn’t have to touch the exhaust to remove the trans. Can’t wait to get the trans back in. I miss the pull from 3rd through 4th.

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

? True!

 

[nitro_rat]

Holley makes a drop in LED now that looks like a regular sealed beam for what it it’s worth…

 

[zoomad75]

I picked up the transmission today. They built the unit with the early low gear ratio in the later style wrapper. Fresh synchros, new bearings throughout. Anything it needed it got during the rebuild. We tossed my core on the cart and he asked if I wanted to see inside. Hell yes, I do! We rolled it into the shop and he pulled the shift tower off the main housing. It was a little anti-climactic. No major carnage like chewed-up gears. The input gear had some knicks in it, but the issue really came in with the loose input shaft/gear and how it interfaces with the direct drive (4th gear) synchro. Makes total sense when you see it apart, but the 4th gear synchro is first in line from the input. You could see as the input shaft wobbled in any direction it was putting tension on the synchro. Which explains why the thing was popping out of fourth when I let off the throttle. The change of torque on the line would cause the input to wobble and the synchro would let go.

There was more damage from the garbage getting run through it, but I didn't stick around to witness the rest of the autopsy.

 

[zoomad75]

Getting the band back together. Taking advantage of the long weekend to revise the front suspension and fix the cracked frame around the steering box mounts.


Desert trip prep is in full swing at the bigassgas garage. The pile of parts is big.


Did a test run in the driveway of my new mattress too. The Exped megamat duo so far is exceeding the expectations. Many said it was great. I can say last night I really got a good nights rest in the camper. Normally I toss and turn dealing with pressure points from the stock foam garbage that was from 1982 or a backpacking style sleeping pad. This thing is the ticket so far.

 

[zoomad75]

Lots of work was completed. I’ll hit the highlights. Fresh softride front springs are in. Fresh steering gear with the welded in frame brace repair is completed. Fresh steering stabilizer and new Bilstein shocks out back with ORD upper mount braces. We were able to jamb the inside of a freshly picked junkyard oem fender to replace the one I chewed up last year.

The fender got what I now am calling the “Larry mod” done to the upper rear bracket on the fender. This fender is the third I’ve installed on this side and two on the other. Common point of failure has been that bracket that is spot welded on breaks and allows the fender to bang against the cowl and door on rough roads. It is just about one of the most annoying sounds you can deal with. Plus this last time it fatigued sheet metal in the door jamb where the rear fender bolt goes and caused it to crack. Which lead to the captured but no longer being captured.

This weekend I got a bunch done to install an ARB twin air compressor too.












The old compressor:

The bracket is a generic battery tray that we added the lower strap to add another mount.




The twin fell right in. A couple minor tweaks was all it needed to fit perfectly.


I cleaned it up and fogged it satin black to blend in.

Continued….

 

[zoomad75]

The compressor bracket fits right in the unused corner well.





I’ve got some wiring supplies coming in to finish the install. Plumbing is already done from the original setup. Just need to put a 90 degree elbow on it and a quick disconnect.

 

[zoomad75]

I completed the compressor install. Wired in to my existing junction blocks on the fender. But the positive block was fed with a 14ga wire with only a 20amp inline fuse. Had to upgrade. So I got a roll of 6ga cable, ends and a new hydraulic crimper and upgraded the fed the junction block with a 60 amp resettable circuit breaker.

I have to say the crimper is the ticket for large gauge cable connections. Works so good.

I love using the crimper for sure.

Since the compressor is really close to the battery I shortened the main ARB power harness by almost half. You can see the resettable breakers below. The second breaker is for the next upgrade, feeding the 6ga cable to the camper over the lighter wire I had in there.

The plumbing was pretty simple as I already had a tank and airline from the old compressor system I had in there. I did purge some extra stuff I had on the 3 gallon tank under the radiator in the process to reduce leak points. I put a quick disconnect fitting at the compressor incase there was a failure of anything downstream I can still hook up my air hose for the tires directly to the compressor itself. I like redundancy.

Proof is in the action though. The compressor is equipped with a pressure switch that cuts out at 150psi. It took under 3 minutes to fill the tank and hit the 150psi shut off point. I used a lower setting pressure switch on the old system that cut out at 125 psi and rarely hit that point to shut off.

 

[zoomad75]

Time to prep for Desert trip ‘22. The truck needs a clean out from doing the compressor install. Swap in a shorter park brake cable and maybe get the camper circuit upgraded.

The rest will be organize the gear and pack.

I head to Larry’s Friday after work. Departure is Sunday after. Getting wound up to go.

 

[zoomad75]

Prep is done. I leave to head down to Larry’s after breakfast.

The truck has a functioning parking break with the correct intermediate cable installed. (Kinda important with a stick) Last week my tach decided to go off the rails so I put in a new one. Did the cleanup an reorganization to the truck/camper last night. It’s packed and ready to fly.

Cook box pelican case got some extra organizational help with a Molle panel and bags. New stainless cooking gear too.



and stacked.


Full travel mode engaged.


I added a bump step to aid getting in and out. If trails get hard enough to drag it the step can pull out


New rev counter. I did swap in a led bulb to match the rest of the gauges


I’ll scoop up some supplies in the way down I need but it’s otherwise ready to go. Desert Trip ‘22 Fuel Cost be damned departs early tomorrow.

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Have fun! I‘ll follow on SPOT.

 

[zoomad75]

My InReach link:

https://share.garmin.com/NB5FE

 

[zoomad75]

Trip completed. Report coming, but a few teasers....

It was one for the books for sure. Great trip. Nobody's truck tried to rip itself in half either.

 

[zoomad75]

Full trip report here:Desert Trip 2022