The Tiny House Tundra had it's maiden voyage this weekend...to the Overland Expo!! Great times!
The truck did brilliantly, it was flat through corners and rode great on both pavement and dirt.
Although it was pretty windy on the trip from Sonoita to Flagstaff the truck was super stable. A bit of a relief as I wasn't sure how it would do in full value cross winds.
I weighed the rig before the trip and with 38.5 gallons of fuel it tipped the scales at 7840 pounds. Add 40 gallons of water, two occupants, camp chairs and table, chow and beverages, tools etc.. and it should have put us right around 8700 pounds.
We averaged 65 mph and 10.5 mpg. There were a few spots where the wind died and the truck was quite happy in 6th at just over 80mph. When the wind picked up I needed to slow down to 65-70 mph to keep it in 6th. The best recorded mileage was 11.7 mpg and the worst 10.4, not bad considering how tall it is.
Luckily while at OEX I had the chance to speak with Issac from Norweld, after looking at the bed we determined that it should be have been installed lower. I'm pretty sure it's the first Norweld Tundra bed install and it has been a bit of a science project.
The bed can come down 1.75" as it sits, if I switch to a shallower rear drawer or lower the spare tire winch I should be able to drop it around 4".
Another minor mistake to be rectifed is the bed brackets were welded to the bed, whereas according to Norweld they should have been bolted to the bed. Bolting the bed together allows for a bit more frame flex, when welded the frame can really only flex immediately behind the cab.
I'm not really looking forward to pulling everything apart and grinding the welds off but the end result will be well worth it. Any reduction in height will make ingress and egress in the camper easier and more importantly it will lower the COG and improve the aerodynamics. After grinding all the welds off and determining how low the bed can go the reassembly should be pretty painless.
Lots of fun at OEX!! Really great catching up with old friends and making new ones. Not to mention all the amazing vehicles and kit.
More soon
