Lighten that load. Recovery gear, snow chains, flatbed decking....

[IdaSHO]

Do you need the over cap rack to support the camper? I can't remember but think you used to use it without. Chopping that down will save quite a bit of weight.

It doesnt need it at all for support. That rack is intended for long term stowage for light items.
I'm thinking weathertight boxes for seasonal clothing/gear. And all in, as memory serves the entire cab-over rack section weighs less than 65#

Its primarily 12ga sheet, fabbed into custom I-beams, a bit of thinwall rectangular box tubing, and some expanded metal.

 

[IdaSHO]

And thank you for the comments all.
I appreciate all of it.

 

[driveby]

I get the deck plating removal. But how often when you travel now, have you felt the need to remove the habitat? I get it at home when duty calls etc. But 500 -> 5000 miles from home? Could you not simply just remove the decking and use nothing while the habitat is on? Seems the least amount of hassle for the potential use of being home and needing a flat deck... Would a simple sheet metal armour skin on the bottom of the habitat not provide equal protection from rocks/gravel etc being tossed up to the empty holes left by the decking? Winch is up front, you take heavy steel wire off the front, and in front of the axle no less, how much leverage did you just push onto the rear? I suppose if you did decking removal and synth rope you could come out even. How much more stuff will you have with you full time, enough to worry about the weight savings of ~300lbs? It's not immaterial I grant you, but I wonder if you're chasing pennies and leaving dollars on the table as it were. You know your machine today, you know it works. You're about to leave the safety of your workshop, helpers and suppliers and roam into the unknown. A little extra weight with more confidence in your machine, maybe that's the right compromise?

 

[IdaSHO]

Perhaps. Thats why the discussion.

As far as removal, part of the interest in loosing some weight is to make room for more weight
Currently we do not haul the camper jacks with us. Full timing, Id love to.

Removing the camper for a few weeks at a time would be great, for a variety of reasons.
Freeing up the truck is one of them. It would be significantly less usefull when freed up, if it didnt have a bed surface.
Major truck service/repair is another one.

 

[simple]

I imagine that the utility of the bed with camper removed doesn't need to be all that heavy duty if your just talking about exploring around. What about using 1/16" or 1/8" aluminum skin? The 1/16" might get a little rumpled but if it is fastened well it should support walking on it and whatever other things you might carry on an errand or paddle board trip to a lake or whatever. I bet 1/16" full sheet would provide plenty of stiffness in tension to keep the frame of your flatbed from tweaking.

Getting older, how much do you want to chain up a truck and pull winch line to get somewhere? My thought process would be to use the winch for emergency use. Chaining up all 4 is ************ and makes sense for a specific adventure. I guess it depends where you will be mainly traveling. If your doing a loop around the country and are thinking you might want them at some point it doesn't seem like an equitable tradeoff. If your spending a great deal of time in snowy mountains than it makes sense.

 

[simple]

Could you get away with an 8000lb winch and a snatch block? You could store some extra length of synthetic rope. A little bulky but weights nothing. More dual purpose than a 30' tug strap.

I keep 100' of 1/8" Amsteel rope in my day pack. Weighs 1/2# with minimum strength of 2300#.

 

[IdaSHO]

Could you get away with an 8000lb winch and a snatch block? You could store some extra length of synthetic rope. A little bulky but weights nothing. More dual purpose than a 30' tug strap.

I keep 100' of 1/8" Amsteel rope in my day pack. Weighs 1/2# with minimum strength of 2300#.

We operate almost exclusively in the PNW, and a bunch in winter, so some sort of traction aids like chains is not only required by law at times, but a good fall back when actually needed.

We weigh near 12k lbs. While Id love to think a smaller winch than what have might save a good deal of weight, the reality is that a smaller winch simply doesnt look to. Our Smittybuilt x2o 15,500 winch weighs 150# 50# of that is the 7/16” x 100’ wire rope. The same x2o 8000lb winch weighs 100# with 98’ of synthetic. So once equipped with 7/16 synthetic, the bigger winch will weigh just 15-20# or so more.

 

[ITTOG]

I don't know much about the tire socks because the first time I ever saw them was a few days ago. I can tell you I saw four vehicles, with them and none of them were moving. The tires were spinning, but there was no movement of the vehicles. Later I talked to a guy who said he had some and thought they were worthless. He went back to chains.