2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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I had a PM about some wheel adaptations.
Here are the close ups of the wheels.View attachment 777831
Here are the close ups of the wheels.View attachment 777831
New Build Begins- 2021 CV 515
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2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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Now back to some of the topics from our driver's ed experience. Item 1 was the getting the front differentials to engage and dissengage. The first head scratcher came up when we were trying to drop from 4H to 2wd and the front differential stayed engaged until we smacked a couple of pot holes. A litttle reading said that sometimes high elevation, very cold temps or high axel loads may cause difficulty. We had all three. The truck's user manual says you can go from 2wd to 4H or 4L with the tranny in drive but we found that to be hit or miss.
If we put the truck in neutral on a slope, set the parking break, (un)locked the hubs, popped the break and got rolling then we didnt get any hiccups when we tried to engage or disengage.
The 'once the truck is rolling' part became pretty critical though.
If we put the truck in neutral on a slope, set the parking break, (un)locked the hubs, popped the break and got rolling then we didnt get any hiccups when we tried to engage or disengage.
The 'once the truck is rolling' part became pretty critical though.
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2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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That takes us to item 2, being heavy. Our rig Wanda doesnt do well in soft stuff. Her rear wheel loads are about 7,300#. In SW Utah we were in 4H and slowly rolled onto some moist clay-like quick sand. You can see the front tire tracks that rolled right over it. The rear wheel... not so much. Stopped us dead in our tracks. I put the gas pedal through the floor and got barely enough rotation out of any tire to rock the truck back and forth a few inches. It's worth noting the other three tires were all fine. Notice how clean the top treads of the tire are......
Tried to drop it into 4L but when nothing would spin it's pretty hard to ge that rolling start (see discussion above) so no go there.
Tried to drop it into 4L but when nothing would spin it's pretty hard to ge that rolling start (see discussion above) so no go there.
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2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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During our extraction excercise I tried turning traction control off. I didnt realize that 'Stabilitrak' stayed engaged in 4H. It automatically disengages in 4L...if you can make the shift 
After the fact I figured out if you hold the traction control button down for about 10 seconds that will manually disengage Stabilitrak. Some other folks on the trail spent a lot of time tugging on the big girl and we were finally able to get some traction and get out of there.
It took a few hours to clean up our mess though. There is a 2' long shovel in there and it's not even the worst spot.
After the fact I figured out if you hold the traction control button down for about 10 seconds that will manually disengage Stabilitrak. Some other folks on the trail spent a lot of time tugging on the big girl and we were finally able to get some traction and get out of there.
It took a few hours to clean up our mess though. There is a 2' long shovel in there and it's not even the worst spot.
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2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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Not being able to get the tires spinning in the muck segways into Item 3.
We had quite a few 'The little engine that could' moments climbing up steep grade. A few times I thought we were going to be the big engine that couldn't. If we didnt carry 5 mph into some hard switch backs I feel pretty strongly that we wouldnt have been able to get moving off the line. Between that issue and the tires being frozen in the mud I'm starting to look into a gear ratio change. For those of you that may have some good insight or suggestions there I'd appreciate it as I'm quick to admit that doing chassis mods are something I'm not confident enough to self perform.
I'll get to the remaining 'lessons learned' a little later on.
We had quite a few 'The little engine that could' moments climbing up steep grade. A few times I thought we were going to be the big engine that couldn't. If we didnt carry 5 mph into some hard switch backs I feel pretty strongly that we wouldnt have been able to get moving off the line. Between that issue and the tires being frozen in the mud I'm starting to look into a gear ratio change. For those of you that may have some good insight or suggestions there I'd appreciate it as I'm quick to admit that doing chassis mods are something I'm not confident enough to self perform.
I'll get to the remaining 'lessons learned' a little later on.
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mog
Kodiak Buckaroo
I'm unsure if you need/want an 'extra' step for getting into your cab, but since you share a running board style with my Kodiak, I thought I would share my simple step. My running boards are 28 inches above the ground so doable for me, but a lower step would be nice.
Stock
I moved them farther apart so I would have room to add a swing-down step
These photos are from when I was building it, so the ends have been capped and there is a locking tab that pins the steps in either the up
or down position.
Down the lower step is 16 inches above the ground. So most of the time around town I leave it pinned down, and if planning on 'rough stuff' I can pin it up and just take a big step up to the running boards.
Stock
I moved them farther apart so I would have room to add a swing-down step
These photos are from when I was building it, so the ends have been capped and there is a locking tab that pins the steps in either the up
or down position.
Down the lower step is 16 inches above the ground. So most of the time around town I leave it pinned down, and if planning on 'rough stuff' I can pin it up and just take a big step up to the running boards.
2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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Thanks mog.
Considering I stand at a whopping 5'-7" a little step stool could come in handy.
Considering I stand at a whopping 5'-7" a little step stool could come in handy.
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2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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Item 4 of the learning curve was the block heater run time. I noticed a pretty 'clunky' start on one of the 20F mornings and started using the heater anytime the lows dropped below freezing. We arent using blankets or anything else except an anti-gel fuel additive.
I lost my notes on this one but I think the heater drew 750W. Considering I was shoveling snow of the roof panels a lot of days I stayed pretty focused on heater run time eating into our battery bank. When to power that up the heater became a little science experiment.
If I ran it for 25 minutes for every 10 degrees below freezing we seemed to do alright.
I lost my notes on this one but I think the heater drew 750W. Considering I was shoveling snow of the roof panels a lot of days I stayed pretty focused on heater run time eating into our battery bank. When to power that up the heater became a little science experiment.
If I ran it for 25 minutes for every 10 degrees below freezing we seemed to do alright.
2 bikes 2 brown dogs
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One morning I tried to get a little stingy on the heating time resulting in a really, ugly rough start. The check engine light came on and I got a "reduced engine power" warning message. I let the truck warm up and subsequent restarts were clean but the check engine light stayed on as did the reduced power mode which really sucks it with 6 tons of payload. Disconnecting the batteries got us back and going.
2 bikes 2 brown dogs
Active member
On the other end of the temperature spectrum we got a "reduced engine power" warning from running too hot. We were in Big Bend, air temps were in the mid 90's and we drove from the river up to Chisos Lodge (about 3,500' of gain if I remeber right). We stopped at most of the pull outs and if it was going to be brief we'de leave the engine running to keep the AC on for the dogs.
At one of the longer stops we shut everything down and after sitting for 15 minutes I started the truck and got a warning message that said something to the effect of 'High engine temp. Let engine idle. Reduced engine power mode.'
Reduced power wasnt cuting it on the steep grades so at the next pull out we just opened the hood and let it cool for a half hour. No battery reset necessary on this restart
That said, the impression I got was the truck was going to be happier if I left her idling in the heat than brief shutdowns so moving forward I'll do that until I'm flipping the hood back again
At one of the longer stops we shut everything down and after sitting for 15 minutes I started the truck and got a warning message that said something to the effect of 'High engine temp. Let engine idle. Reduced engine power mode.'
Reduced power wasnt cuting it on the steep grades so at the next pull out we just opened the hood and let it cool for a half hour. No battery reset necessary on this restart
That said, the impression I got was the truck was going to be happier if I left her idling in the heat than brief shutdowns so moving forward I'll do that until I'm flipping the hood back again
