chacou
New member
First off, been lurking for about two or three years, so finally sharing with the community.
Context: We (wife, two young kids, dog, and I) used severance package from getting laid off last April due to Covid related layoffs at the tech/e-commerce company I worked for to buy a 2004 Ford Excursion, 6.0L Powerstroke. I know, "6.NO!", but a bunch of the issues had been addressed with service records such as EGR delete, HPOP, oil cooler, air flow, etc., and it was only a short drive away in CO. Springs, and only had ~166,000 miles, and most importantly captains chairs for the kids w/ a functioning DVD player and well inside our budget. Chris' Excursion build is an inspiration for sure, first thing I did after addressing some of the issues my Ford mechanic pointed out was to ditch the stock crossbars and put a Rhino Rack Pioneer Platform on the roof and a Tepui Autana 4 "ruggedized" RTT on top of that. It got us out and about to some new spots in Colorado and much more comfortable camping at our usual spots. However, we quickly discovered the #1 reported downside of the RTT is very true, once you secure and set up camp, you're more or less stuck. Kids want to go into town for ice cream, nope. Need to drive to a trailhead, nope. Pretty much all our camping friends have hard sided campers but either 1) never use the amenities they paid for, ie: interior kitchen, shower, toilet, etc. and/or 2) have plenty of space at their home to park and store the camper when not in use. We don't have much driveway/garage space, so having a 24' camper than can sleep 4 was out and we like to actually camp, ******** in the woods, cook in the open air, etc. Expedition trailers were my goal, small, lightweight, store all our gear so we can quickly hitch up and go and not fill up driveway. Aside, we're not doing any serious overlanding or wheeling, but we do like to explore forest service roads and get back off the beaten path, just not exactly Jeep trail intense. Mostly things that allow for mountain biking, hikes, fishing, sup, rock climbing, etc.
A good friend/neighbor is a hobbyist welder with all the toys, he's pretty good and happy to have any excuse to spend time in his shop. So, I had been considering building from something like a HF frame or finding something like an M1*. BUT, combing Craigslist yesterday I saw this custom built trailer for sale, I was first in line, and picked it up this morning.
It's 10' x 6' overall with a telescoping rack that the prior owner/builder had a Tepui tent on as well. He used it to haul his dirt bike and mountain bikes for camping but was going to build himself something enclosed. 6' x 4' bed, 4' tongue, rolling on 15" wheels and a 3000lbs Northern Tool Torsion axle. Very stoked and it's a great starting point. I'm very stoked on the burly steel frame, and that it is ready for telescoping action so we can use our tent's annex, on the Excursion roof it was too tall to use the annex, it also has a beefy 2" rear receiver, probably try out one of our many bike racks. I'm already envisioning camping and being able to use the Ex as a shuttle vehicle for big descents.
First things will be:
- Pull the wheels this weekend and grease the hubs, not making any noises on the drive back up the hill from Denver and feel fine now, but just want to be safe. He said they were last greased in 2018. Oh yeah, can't even notice this thing behind the Ex!
- Probably gas struts to assist with raising the RTT rack for camp, and lowering for drive. It sits about 5'5" off the ground all the way down and about 6'6" extended. Sits on coder pins in holes of the steel frame. So thinking something like 60lbs strut for each corner, but need to do my calculations. Following some other threads on here about doing this. Currently it does require two people working together or it binds, figure it's like couples therapy, gas struts would help, especially when the tent gets up there. Some of the electric actuator designs are intriguing as well. I'm an software engineer and enjoy solving these kinds of problems, so we'll see where this goes. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
- Replace the current tongue jack with a swing away just to get a bit more clearance up there.
- Add fixed stabilizing jacks to the corners, thinking something like the electric highway signs, or possibly something like up-side down bottle jacks. Taking suggestions
- Enclose the front "bucket" and wrap around to fenders to minimize road crap flying up on the deck.
- Move the spare tire and add a box/mount for propane tank and general crap for now but eventually some batteries/electrical bits on the tongue.
- Some tie down points for bins/tarp.
Eventually:
- Water tanks
- Deep cycle batteries and solar panel, lights
- More enclosed storage
- Cut off the torsion axel and add some spacers to give it a bit of a lift. Maybe look into coil/damper or leafs for suspension. I'm not too familiar with torsion axel suspension and it doesn't seem like it would be that burly one rougher or washboard forest roads. Thoughts? Just did some reading and it sounds like torsion axles are a slight improvement over leaf springs, and I don't think I have the space or want to go high enough for coil/damper, so maybe just add like a 1" spacer or just beefier wheels/tires, the hubs are 5 x 4.5 so need to do some more research there.
- Replace the tires, possibly wheels too, they're ok condition, but something a bit larger and more beefy would be nice, but I also don't want to increase the ride height too much as I've read on here about having too high center of gravity.
Ex mods:
- DIY pressurized solar shower on the Excursion's Pioneer Platform and possibly other goodies since the tent can be moved off of it!
- A/T tires, the General Grabber HTS the previous guy had just put on, so it's hard to change out tires that are just fine. But something more aggressive is really what I want, and where we live I'd have more piece of mind having something with the snowflake
- new shocks/springs, the current ones are just about shot and I've been putting it off since my mech suggested it
- Bluetooth/Android Head unit, and I'd like to figure out a hack to either use a Plexus or similar media server on the truck to replace the DVD player. Although it is kinda fun sitting in the back watching old Seinfeld episodes while warming up between ski runs
- HD alternator, we did have the alternator go on us just outside Crested Butte and got a O'Reilly replacement in a pinch. I've got my eye on a Mean Green HD though, and then just keep the O'Reilly as my backup
- front and rear bumper; I'd love to follow Chris' lead and love the idea of that dual swing arm Buckstop Bumper to get the spare out of the truck
- new slider bars, ditch the running boards. plastic on the top is an ACL tear waiting to happen in the snow
So many ideas on here, and just very excited about this! If you've read all that, thanks! I tend to ramble, but hopefully future updates will be much much more brief.
Context: We (wife, two young kids, dog, and I) used severance package from getting laid off last April due to Covid related layoffs at the tech/e-commerce company I worked for to buy a 2004 Ford Excursion, 6.0L Powerstroke. I know, "6.NO!", but a bunch of the issues had been addressed with service records such as EGR delete, HPOP, oil cooler, air flow, etc., and it was only a short drive away in CO. Springs, and only had ~166,000 miles, and most importantly captains chairs for the kids w/ a functioning DVD player and well inside our budget. Chris' Excursion build is an inspiration for sure, first thing I did after addressing some of the issues my Ford mechanic pointed out was to ditch the stock crossbars and put a Rhino Rack Pioneer Platform on the roof and a Tepui Autana 4 "ruggedized" RTT on top of that. It got us out and about to some new spots in Colorado and much more comfortable camping at our usual spots. However, we quickly discovered the #1 reported downside of the RTT is very true, once you secure and set up camp, you're more or less stuck. Kids want to go into town for ice cream, nope. Need to drive to a trailhead, nope. Pretty much all our camping friends have hard sided campers but either 1) never use the amenities they paid for, ie: interior kitchen, shower, toilet, etc. and/or 2) have plenty of space at their home to park and store the camper when not in use. We don't have much driveway/garage space, so having a 24' camper than can sleep 4 was out and we like to actually camp, ******** in the woods, cook in the open air, etc. Expedition trailers were my goal, small, lightweight, store all our gear so we can quickly hitch up and go and not fill up driveway. Aside, we're not doing any serious overlanding or wheeling, but we do like to explore forest service roads and get back off the beaten path, just not exactly Jeep trail intense. Mostly things that allow for mountain biking, hikes, fishing, sup, rock climbing, etc.
A good friend/neighbor is a hobbyist welder with all the toys, he's pretty good and happy to have any excuse to spend time in his shop. So, I had been considering building from something like a HF frame or finding something like an M1*. BUT, combing Craigslist yesterday I saw this custom built trailer for sale, I was first in line, and picked it up this morning.
It's 10' x 6' overall with a telescoping rack that the prior owner/builder had a Tepui tent on as well. He used it to haul his dirt bike and mountain bikes for camping but was going to build himself something enclosed. 6' x 4' bed, 4' tongue, rolling on 15" wheels and a 3000lbs Northern Tool Torsion axle. Very stoked and it's a great starting point. I'm very stoked on the burly steel frame, and that it is ready for telescoping action so we can use our tent's annex, on the Excursion roof it was too tall to use the annex, it also has a beefy 2" rear receiver, probably try out one of our many bike racks. I'm already envisioning camping and being able to use the Ex as a shuttle vehicle for big descents.
First things will be:
- Pull the wheels this weekend and grease the hubs, not making any noises on the drive back up the hill from Denver and feel fine now, but just want to be safe. He said they were last greased in 2018. Oh yeah, can't even notice this thing behind the Ex!
- Probably gas struts to assist with raising the RTT rack for camp, and lowering for drive. It sits about 5'5" off the ground all the way down and about 6'6" extended. Sits on coder pins in holes of the steel frame. So thinking something like 60lbs strut for each corner, but need to do my calculations. Following some other threads on here about doing this. Currently it does require two people working together or it binds, figure it's like couples therapy, gas struts would help, especially when the tent gets up there. Some of the electric actuator designs are intriguing as well. I'm an software engineer and enjoy solving these kinds of problems, so we'll see where this goes. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
- Replace the current tongue jack with a swing away just to get a bit more clearance up there.
- Add fixed stabilizing jacks to the corners, thinking something like the electric highway signs, or possibly something like up-side down bottle jacks. Taking suggestions
- Enclose the front "bucket" and wrap around to fenders to minimize road crap flying up on the deck.
- Move the spare tire and add a box/mount for propane tank and general crap for now but eventually some batteries/electrical bits on the tongue.
- Some tie down points for bins/tarp.
Eventually:
- Water tanks
- Deep cycle batteries and solar panel, lights
- More enclosed storage
- Cut off the torsion axel and add some spacers to give it a bit of a lift. Maybe look into coil/damper or leafs for suspension. I'm not too familiar with torsion axel suspension and it doesn't seem like it would be that burly one rougher or washboard forest roads. Thoughts? Just did some reading and it sounds like torsion axles are a slight improvement over leaf springs, and I don't think I have the space or want to go high enough for coil/damper, so maybe just add like a 1" spacer or just beefier wheels/tires, the hubs are 5 x 4.5 so need to do some more research there.
- Replace the tires, possibly wheels too, they're ok condition, but something a bit larger and more beefy would be nice, but I also don't want to increase the ride height too much as I've read on here about having too high center of gravity.
Ex mods:
- DIY pressurized solar shower on the Excursion's Pioneer Platform and possibly other goodies since the tent can be moved off of it!
- A/T tires, the General Grabber HTS the previous guy had just put on, so it's hard to change out tires that are just fine. But something more aggressive is really what I want, and where we live I'd have more piece of mind having something with the snowflake
- new shocks/springs, the current ones are just about shot and I've been putting it off since my mech suggested it
- Bluetooth/Android Head unit, and I'd like to figure out a hack to either use a Plexus or similar media server on the truck to replace the DVD player. Although it is kinda fun sitting in the back watching old Seinfeld episodes while warming up between ski runs
- HD alternator, we did have the alternator go on us just outside Crested Butte and got a O'Reilly replacement in a pinch. I've got my eye on a Mean Green HD though, and then just keep the O'Reilly as my backup
- front and rear bumper; I'd love to follow Chris' lead and love the idea of that dual swing arm Buckstop Bumper to get the spare out of the truck
- new slider bars, ditch the running boards. plastic on the top is an ACL tear waiting to happen in the snow
So many ideas on here, and just very excited about this! If you've read all that, thanks! I tend to ramble, but hopefully future updates will be much much more brief.
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