Got back from the Eastern Sierras last night around 10:00 PM. Not the smoothest trip I've been on. There is definitely a few things to take care of. One of my rear tie downs failed, the plastic coating on the cable is preventing the ferrel from adequately securing the cable. The cable is stainless steel and as soon as you strip the coating off the cable unravels and then it's impossible to get through the ferrel, so I've been forced to leave the coating on the cable. The off roading we did also settled the camper tighter against the front of the bed so I had to tighten both the front and rear tie downs. It's impossible for me to get the camper that tight against the front of the bed when I load the camper so this will be a issue each time heading out offroad so I think I'll rework the tiedowns. The front are fine so I'll leave those alone but I think I'll move the connection to the truck at the rear down to the bumper. I hate to have big long tiedowns but it seems like the best option now. I'm also quite frustrated with the impact having the roof down has had on the soft wall. There are creases that are of major concern. When looking at the soft wall from the inside when it's bright and sunny outside there are areas that clearly let more light through like the fabric has been compromised. I have some plans to hopefully mediate this, but not sure if it will work. I would recommend anyone planning to install a set of FWC's new lift panels to take the time to take some fine sandpaper to the corners around the edge of the panels. If you don't, expect premature wear on you softwall. I spent and hour easing the edges in the middle of the campground with the file in my son's multi-tool to limit the damage to my softwall. The weight of my roof is probably causing me some problems as well. I would guess it weights around 250 pounds, which it seems others probably have dealt with from the additional loads they put on their roof, but maybe not. I do know that I will be adding gas springs to help lift the roof for sure though. The icing on the cake was getting ready to head out to the Whoa Nellie Delli in Lee Vining for breakfast on our last day and noticing grease all of my inner fender well on the right side. Yep, tore the CV boot off 250 miles from home. My son and I managed to find enough supplies, thanks to the guys at the Shell Station, to pack in some new grease, clean the joint and then reattach the boot to the inner joint with duct tape and bailing wire, there isn't enough room to use a hose clamp. Amazingly, we drove 250 miles home and the barnyard fix stayed together.
On the bright side of things the truck handled the camper well. It started out feeling a little heavy and swaying more than I would like in the corners, but then while making a stop for a nature break for my son at lake Don Pedro, it dawned on me that I have to Kings with compression adjusters. I bumped up the compression damping 10 clicks and the handling was virtually like there was no load on the truck. So glad I paid the extra money for the adjustable compression damping. The truck and camper was also awesome offroad, just need to keep the CV boots in it.
In Camp
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Getting ready to tear out a CV boot but what a view.
The torn boot.
Here's our MacGiver Job on the CV boot.
![20130816_123912.jpg 20130816_123912.jpg](https://expeditionportal.com/forum/data/attachments/130/130733-cb3130165fc30f2534850b7819aa474e.jpg)
Headed back over Tioga checking the joint every half hour.
![SDIM0477.jpg SDIM0477.jpg](https://expeditionportal.com/forum/data/attachments/130/130735-603b77cf9dae22af192a5aee06819829.jpg)