mar29 Wed GFC tent fix day!!!
just having breakfast at mcD’s. the bozeman walmart was tough to sleep in but i have my ear plug system down.
Right ear gets a foam ear plug because I sleep on that ear. Left ear (which hears better) gets a reusable ear plug, which deadens noise better, but is uncomfortable to sleep on; it’s like a hard plastic with silicone. Finally, I also add the single ear muff over the left ear, because it was loud at the Walmart. The previous night at the Crkr barrel, I didn’t need the ear muff.
It probably all sounds ridiculous but l quickly fell asleep with a semi idling 20ft away.
I ran the heater again last night, set to ¼ its power. Temps were down to 18F this morning, but I was toasty. In the morning, I crank it to max while I pack everything up. It’s an attempt to burn off any carbon buildup from running on low all night. The heater doesn’t cycle on/off btw. just runs steady. With the cold, it cools down quickly for packing up. If i were camping, sometimes I stick the heater’s warm air hose into the reflectix bag I made for the water pig (it’s a nemo foot pump water sprayer I use for rinsing dishes, it looks like a little piggy) just to add some heat to the water.
speaking off, I’ve had the fridge unplugged. temps aren’t >freezing. so I’ve had the dc heater pads plugged in for my drinking water jug. I kind of like that system. makes use of the 12v socket either way.
time to wrap up and head back to Jeff at Walmart.
mar 29 9a.m. MT GFC
actually been here since 8:15. got the skibox off the camper and they’ve taken it over to their workshop to work on. Just hanging out in the lounge, just me, Jeff’s out in his bunker, aka van.
James Fonnesbeck
i met the President/owner of Expedition One when I stopped by. I’d asked if I could talk to someone who could walk me through the best practices for maintaining the swing arms, and out comes the owner, kind of cool!. Seems like they have at least 30-50 workers, so it’s not nothing.
anyway, he talked me through it all, and the main thing I need to do is add anti-seize on the bearing caps, they’re made of different metal than the swing arm. I also showed me how I use my feet to close the tire arm, and he laughed and said that’s perfectly fine and how they were designed to be closed.
cool guy , similar age to me. less white in his ginger beard, but similar. The young lady thought I was related.
James talked through a lot. the maintenance details I won’t bore you with, The general advice that was good was that I drive slow when offroad, which I do because I’m a nervous nellie anyway. <25mph He said a lot of his customers that have had problems is just because they were driving way too fast on rough roads. Like doing 45mph on a forest road hit a hard bump and swing arm breaks lose and damages their vehicle when it whips around. I don’t own a desert baja truck, so I need to drive accordingly. Totally agree
for my own recollectioun..
unthread the washer end caps on each arm upper and lower. apply antiseize to threads. pack chamber with marine grade grease, close up. check 2x year.
in the stop bolt, frequently squirt in PB Blaster.
watch for wearing on the bushing stop, but i have the newer, more expensive polyurethane ones and it’ll prob last forever
Thursday. Idaho Falls to exped one then moab
Made it to the expedition one store around 10:30 AM. . Going to ask them how to maintain and lubricate the rear swing arms on my rear bumper.
Met the owner
12:30- maverick truck stop south of Salt Lake City
let it snow!
taking a break at the truck stop. it’s been snowing pretty good the whole drive today. now the snow is the large floofy stuff, temps around 33F, no accumulation on the roads, ok visibility for driving, but can’t see the mountains in the distance. I’ll have to come back to see Idaho and Utah, because I didn’t see much on today’s drive. The visibility is only about ¼ of a mile. We’ve been lucky with weather so far, not complaining. Traffic is still moving.
Heading to CrkrB at Provo
winter storm is going to be bad until tomorrow morning over the two mountain passes we’d have to go through to get to Moab.
So….we’re just going to do the 30 min drive to the CB at Provo and wait it out.
we’ve got plenty of time. no need to risk anything
mar 29 wed 5p.m. MT Idaho Falls, Idaho
Truck is fixed!!! They had it done around 11:30, and I had the ski box back and we hit the road by noon.
What were the fixes? basically there are 4 pairs of holes on each side now, ~5/16” diameter. They resealed the white plastic roof insert, and on the bottom tent corners they glued on little fabric covers over each corner, on the tent’s outside. Before, there was a glued seam there, and if it started to come apart, you’d get a lot of water in that way because the water likes to trickle down the corners
so touch wood, tent will be bone dry now, except for the condensation I give off breathing, which is a lot.
A couple of young gentlemen did the fixes and they were very curious about my truck build, but then I started talking geek and I lost them. I asked Charlie if what I just said sounded like “wa wah wa wah wah wah” (literally made those sounds) and he laughed and said yeah. So I apologized and said the electrical stuff isn’t that hard, it just takes time to learn it.
had a beautiful drive through Western Yellowstone this afternoon, heading south. Snow was so high it covered the speed limit signs. I just put on some music and croaked along as best I could. About 90% over the cold I picked up. Love me some Mucinex. Good stuff. Wasn’t a bad cold at all, just very snotty.
Should be a warmer sleep tonight. A low of 32, instead of 18, I’ll probably just leave the heater in the truck tonight. It was a champ the last two nights. made for very comfortable sleeping in very cold conditions. did confirm from the local GFC guys the area got 3ft dumped on them since Saturday, and yesterday/Tuesday was the first day people were out and about since the snow hit. Tomorrow we hit Expedition One (my bumper place), and then we head further south towards proper BLM land and real camping.
want. idaho falls down to the orange arrow bottom right. mostly blue track line, the other lines are other tracks, ignore them
