And then for the trip, I figured I would need something to keep gear dry and maybe slow down it running off while I am en route... enter the $40 20st Century topper from Craigslist. I had to replace the lock and fix the light.
And of course every good offroader has to have a hi-lift... well if I have something that big with me I will never need it so it is good insurance. It is such a natural place for it to be on top the wheel well but it NEVER stays there. I had been thinking about adding the bracket kit for a couple years, now I think I am going to get another bracket kit for my other truck too. It is so nice for it to have a home out of the way and it will be awesome when dealing with farm equipment instead of it wandering wherever it wants in the back of the truck. BTW the jack was my great-grandfather's farm jack and normally lives in my garage.
And it is carburetor and I don't have the budget at the moment for a FiTech so I did some googling on how to make a Edelbrock better offroad. There is a channel that lets fuel from one bowl run to the other bowl so off camber you have one bowl leaning out and the other flooding over. A quick fix for that is to insert a piece of fuel line.
They make spring loaded needles too but they sound like a pain to set and nobody seems that positive if they make much of a difference.
Snagged a $50 refurbished Garmin on Amazon for kind of a HUD if what is going on around me, also has a rudimentary compass and tells me the speed limit. While setting up for a car show I went the wrong way up a one way street (street was closed for the show) and it turned red and was freaking out I was going the wrong way. Kinda neat little thing for cheap.
Car show was featuring vintage campers so I took advantage of my setup with some old camping gear I had:
Ok, this is the 21st century, one 12v cigarette lighter probably won't cut it. So I drilled two holes in this knockout on the firewall and added two usb chargers and another 12v port. They are wired to come on with the key since they light up for as long as they have power. I still have the factory 12v cigarette lighter for constant power if I need to charge something when I am not in the truck. It is kinda neat the GPS comes on now when I start the truck.
Look ma, no wires! This is running off the 2.1a socket
And then I have the 1.0a USB port to charge my older GoPro which doesn't like the newer faster chargers.
Gear loadout so far. Spare tires (only one is pictured) and tool/spare parts tote in the front. Ground tent/ground cloth, air mattress/compressor and bedding in tote across the rear axle. Cooler with ice for drinks on the road/groceries, camp kitchen for once we get there and another tote with camp stuff I don't want running around the truck loose (like the camp stove) I have actually done a little bit of testing as I would much prefer to have the spare and tools at the back for when we are on the road but the truck rides much better with the heavy stuff between the axles. My FIL is going too, I hope he has room for the luggage, if not it can ride on top the totes.
So that is where it is at right now.
