stevo-mt
Member
Well, I made it to Anchorage at the beginning of the month and headed up to Fairbanks to finish out the season. My batteries and everything stayed topped off thanks to the solar panels and charge controller. My friend who lives out in the Bush even stayed in the truck for a week total off and on over the summer so it was nice to have somebody check in on the old girl. It fired right up and I cruised up to fairbanks! I've been living in the truck parked at my friends house here and will for the most of the month. Then October 1 its a 3500 mile adventure back down to Montana.
My neighbors walking by my window in King Salmon.
Denali, not shown Denali.
East of Cantwell
On the way from Fairbanks heading towards downtown Tok-yo.
I see someone else has an overly large expensive 4wd truck to go get groceries as well traveling through Fairbanks.... I was amazed of how large everything is on one of these earthroamers. They are pretty cool rigs. I look back at when I first started this project and had the opportunity to buy a bigger, more expensive truck. That thing looked so luxurious and I was slightly envious. I imagine that they were heading up the Dalton. That's pretty awesome. I hope to take my truck up it someday. Although having drove to Deadhorse last year it is kind of silly to think that you need such a vehicle to drive up the haul road. Regular pickups and semi's cruise up that thing all the time. It is some of the most gorgeous scenery around no doubt about it. It just doesn't require the crazy "overland" vehicle that many have the misconception you need. Really to go up to prudoe bay all you need is some extra spare tires, some fuel cans, and a good reliable vehicle... Rant over... When I went to Alaska industrial hardware and parked just like a normal vehicle in the parking lot with the M1010 it did make me appreciate that the shorter wheelbase has its practicality. For example, say you are going down a dirt road and you want to turn around. The m1010 does not care how wide the road is I can usually finagle it around like a normal pickup. A four door diesel that's 30 ft probably cant. Granted if I have to use the restroom I have to go to the bushes... Now rant over for serious. Those things are a work of art.
As far as productive work goes. I managed to organize and fit the 12ft zodiac into the rack on the back of the truck. My doing some organising inside the truck I managed to fit all of my other gear (which is a ton, winter, summer, fall, spring, packraft, backpacking, cooking, camping etc). It will be a fun ride home when my now fiance Jessica makes it to fairbanks and we have her two bags plus another cooler of salmon.
I decided after seeing my friends cool 4runner seat covers with MOLLE straps all over them that it would be a good solution for some organizing in the old truck. I ended up getting a few MOLLE Panels to put up in the truck in different areas. I also ended up turning my dash into a "tacticool" tactical dash. I put three strips of aluminum accross the dash and drilled mounted them equally spaced to match the molle straps size. Then I put some of the bags that strap on and snap in. I have a binoculars pouch, 3 waterbottle/coffee mug pouches, a cellphone pouch for jess, a general pouch, and room for my handheld radios.
I felt bad drilling into the clean chevy dash, but what the hey! It is a truck. If I wanted a new fancy nice truck I can't scratch I would have bought one!!!
Fun times. As far as the truck goes its running good. Here at low elevations it seems to have plenty of power. I can keep up with traffic cruising around town when needed. I think that my plan going forward for this winter will be getting the turbo on first thing. Followed by getting the camper and windows situated in the back. That will probably eat up most of my time I can spend on the truck. Going forward I'll start collecting parts to do a super heavy duty truck setup with the 4l80e and aftermarket transmission controller, heavy duty transfercase (I like what ORD has but I think I can build what I need easy enough), and maybe even a 6.5 td engine that is a bit better built for having a turbo. Keeping everything all mechanical still or at least stand alone electronics. There are ways to do a 4l80e with a manual valve body but I don't really know how well that would work out. Seems a little too complicated. By removing the time factor on having to have all of those mod's complete I can shop around and get exactly how I want and rebuilt over time. The truck will still be functional in the interim. I need to find my fiance a nice SUV for the west with 4wd. So that will be a project in itself too. Most likely a mitsubishi montero, isuzu trooper, or unlikely due to cost a 4runner. If a chevy trailblazer pops up that would be a nice rig too.
Enough rambling about nothing. They should make a moosegrin for alaska...:elkgrin:
My neighbors walking by my window in King Salmon.
Denali, not shown Denali.
East of Cantwell
On the way from Fairbanks heading towards downtown Tok-yo.
I see someone else has an overly large expensive 4wd truck to go get groceries as well traveling through Fairbanks.... I was amazed of how large everything is on one of these earthroamers. They are pretty cool rigs. I look back at when I first started this project and had the opportunity to buy a bigger, more expensive truck. That thing looked so luxurious and I was slightly envious. I imagine that they were heading up the Dalton. That's pretty awesome. I hope to take my truck up it someday. Although having drove to Deadhorse last year it is kind of silly to think that you need such a vehicle to drive up the haul road. Regular pickups and semi's cruise up that thing all the time. It is some of the most gorgeous scenery around no doubt about it. It just doesn't require the crazy "overland" vehicle that many have the misconception you need. Really to go up to prudoe bay all you need is some extra spare tires, some fuel cans, and a good reliable vehicle... Rant over... When I went to Alaska industrial hardware and parked just like a normal vehicle in the parking lot with the M1010 it did make me appreciate that the shorter wheelbase has its practicality. For example, say you are going down a dirt road and you want to turn around. The m1010 does not care how wide the road is I can usually finagle it around like a normal pickup. A four door diesel that's 30 ft probably cant. Granted if I have to use the restroom I have to go to the bushes... Now rant over for serious. Those things are a work of art.
As far as productive work goes. I managed to organize and fit the 12ft zodiac into the rack on the back of the truck. My doing some organising inside the truck I managed to fit all of my other gear (which is a ton, winter, summer, fall, spring, packraft, backpacking, cooking, camping etc). It will be a fun ride home when my now fiance Jessica makes it to fairbanks and we have her two bags plus another cooler of salmon.
I decided after seeing my friends cool 4runner seat covers with MOLLE straps all over them that it would be a good solution for some organizing in the old truck. I ended up getting a few MOLLE Panels to put up in the truck in different areas. I also ended up turning my dash into a "tacticool" tactical dash. I put three strips of aluminum accross the dash and drilled mounted them equally spaced to match the molle straps size. Then I put some of the bags that strap on and snap in. I have a binoculars pouch, 3 waterbottle/coffee mug pouches, a cellphone pouch for jess, a general pouch, and room for my handheld radios.
I felt bad drilling into the clean chevy dash, but what the hey! It is a truck. If I wanted a new fancy nice truck I can't scratch I would have bought one!!!
Fun times. As far as the truck goes its running good. Here at low elevations it seems to have plenty of power. I can keep up with traffic cruising around town when needed. I think that my plan going forward for this winter will be getting the turbo on first thing. Followed by getting the camper and windows situated in the back. That will probably eat up most of my time I can spend on the truck. Going forward I'll start collecting parts to do a super heavy duty truck setup with the 4l80e and aftermarket transmission controller, heavy duty transfercase (I like what ORD has but I think I can build what I need easy enough), and maybe even a 6.5 td engine that is a bit better built for having a turbo. Keeping everything all mechanical still or at least stand alone electronics. There are ways to do a 4l80e with a manual valve body but I don't really know how well that would work out. Seems a little too complicated. By removing the time factor on having to have all of those mod's complete I can shop around and get exactly how I want and rebuilt over time. The truck will still be functional in the interim. I need to find my fiance a nice SUV for the west with 4wd. So that will be a project in itself too. Most likely a mitsubishi montero, isuzu trooper, or unlikely due to cost a 4runner. If a chevy trailblazer pops up that would be a nice rig too.
Enough rambling about nothing. They should make a moosegrin for alaska...:elkgrin:
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