Rear Bumper Musical Chairs

 

I moved the spare more to the center which covers the backup camera in the center blue Ford oval decal. I found a new backup camera, but I needed to move it to the center of the original license plate location, so I moved the license plate to the passenger side swing arm.

At least this was relatively cheap, the license plate bracket and light were $40. The aftermarket backup camera from Rostra was $165. The only downside is the automatic tailgate lock doesn't work anymore. But I have to manually unlock the GFC window anyway, so no biggee.

the new backup camera

more photos, click here.

Jan 28th

I move the backup camera because the image was very hard to see.

Everything was super overexposed/washed out. I realized it was probably because the backup camera was shaded in the rear bumper recess.

Icon Stage 4 Ford Ranger suspension upgrade

 

 

When I got the truck new, I felt the suspension was a bit "floaty". Probably made that way to be comfortable, but as I added more and more weight to the truck, the truck sway and diving/lifting was pretty bad. The Icon Stage 4 upgrade fixed all that, and the truck handles great now.

I'll be updating the tires soon too. As you can see there's plenty of room, but I'm not going huge. the stock tires are 30.5", going to get 32" tires.

Making Duffel Bags, removing Drawer from Truck

 

 

 

I decided to repurpose the 2nd drawer of the truck into a junk drawer for the basement. Mostly, I wanted to save some weight and space in the truck. I think the drawer and enclosure is at least 75lbs. Bags weigh a lot less, and they make it easier to move stuff back and forth from the house, instead of leaving everything in the truck to freeze/roast.

Soon, I'll have a new blog post on a smaller drawer I'm going to make using an under bed plastic bin. The advantage of a plastic bin is that I can load it with food pantry stuff in the house and then carry out to the truck.

Ditto with a new blog post about making bags. More on that later. Never thought I'd learn to sew, but here we are. Surprisingly, woodworking and sewing overlap quite a bit. The ability to read plans, measure, draw lines, visualize stuff in your head, etc is very comparable. And now that I've made one bag, I plan on using 1/4" plywood scrap to make templates so I can cut the fabric panels and add chalk lines to the pieces more quickly, so it'll be easier to make more bags. In that case, my woodworking will actually directly benefit my sewing.

Here's the 2nd drawer I'm talking about. Now removed from the truck.

It's new home in the basement, by the walkout door to the backyard.

A lot of clutter is now more under control. Weed wacker line, rope, garden hose parts, and misc junk. Everyone needs some junk drawers.

Winter Time Heating Pads

 

On my Arizona trip we first drove West via i-90, leaving mass March 21st. We saw some downright chilly weather along the way. Low's in the single digits at night.

back in December 2022, I'd gotten these 12volt Facon pipe elbow heating pads and with some foamboard/reflectic, they worked great for keeping my water jugs from freezing, and keeping my batteries happy.

I remember we drove to Albany when there was a cold snap. When I started the drive the batteries were only like 5F, and the heat pads got them up to 30F in no time so they could start charging, like maybe 1 hour. Very happy with that.

 

New GFC locks and Adaptive Cruise fix (hopefully)

 

 

 

One of the reasons I bought the Ford Ranger was for its adaptive cruise. I really like it, it makes highway driving much more pleasant. The new winch bumper meant I had to relocate the adaptive cruise sensor from the bottom center of the OEM bumper to the upper corner of the radiator. I bought the addictive designs adaptive cruise relocation bracket, and BuiltEast installed it when they did the bumper installs. There are plenty of Ford's using this relocation bracket, so it's not dangerous to block 1 corner of the radiator I guess.

Since the relocation, it's "mostly" worked. The problem is half of the time I get an error message saying that the sensor is blocked, and then I can only use normal cruise (waaah!!! I know I'm being a big baby). The sensor is also part of the pre-collision assist system though, so it's better to make sure it works IMHO. Touch wood, since moving it 1.25" lower, per this slideshow, I'm not getting blocked sensor errors anymore. I think the problem was a screw in the FORD grille I bought. slideshow click here

Today I took advantage of the nice weather and swapped out the GFC's default southco c2 locks. 2 things I hated about the standard locks is that open button was also the lock core. So when you push your key in, half of the time, the button would be pressed enough to open the mechanism and the lever would get in the way of turning the key, so you'd have to close the lever again. I just learned to use both hands, one for the key, one to keep the lever down. still very annoying

the other issue is that the lock/key core is very succeptible to gunking up with dust or icing up in the winter. I'd already damaged the slot cover on one of the C2's on the tailgate, so I know it was doomed to jamming/icing up more than the other locks. Not being able to lock/open my tailgate is not something I wanted to deal with. The c5 locks have a weather cover that fixes the problem.

It cost me about $400 for the new locks, but the C5's are so nice it's worth it, the open button is separate from the key too, but it just works so much better. The locks don't feel "cheap" like the c2 locks did

Also, I've read on the GFC forum that the cheaper Southco C2 locks have broken for some people, so the $400 is insurance against a ruined trip. I open all 3 panels all the time. Both sides and the tailgate.

Speaking of the forum, others figured out what parts I needed to order and the measurements for widening the holes. I just used that information. I did add my photos though, to better show the process. My way of giving back to the forum and improving the information there.

https://forum.gofastcampers.com/t/v2-broken-locks/14019/37

 

 

 

2022 Oct 22 Thurs-Monday ADK trip

 

 

Spent a couple days at my folks before going camping with my friend Jeff in the ADKs. 

Thursday was low key, drove from Belleville, via Lowville, thru Old Forge to Inlet NY and Limekiln campground. From there I entered the Moose River Plains after airing down my tires from 30psi to 20. The roads are in good shape, but there are protruding rocks, so airing down makes the ride more comfy.

Took about an hour to get to Wakely Dam from Limekiln, and Jeff had already found a primo site by the time I got there. We didn't move around, just stayed at that site over the weekend. On the drive in, I saw quite a few of the heavy duty hunter lodge kind of tents. The ones that almost look like buildings and have mini wood stoves in them. We heard the occasional gun shots around dawn and dusk from the hunters. Guessing it was muzzle load season for deer hunting. Usually just 1 shot at a time.

Thursday was cold, so we didn't hang outside that evening and I just turned in early after chit chatting in Jeff's van. Friday, Jeff and I went off to gather firewood from deadfall along Cedar road. Found some good hardwood branches and a long pine/spruce tree that I was able to haul out. My electric corded chainsaw cut it up and only took 4 amps hours off of Jeff's 12volt battery bank (half what it would take to boil 1 liter of water). So much more efficient than cutting by hand. Hauled it back to the site and split it up that afternoon.

Saturday morning, we hiked up Cellar Pond trail. Easy climb, and suprisingly warm when the Sun was on us. Jeff got some good drone footage up by the pond. That afternoon, I did the following short loop with my fat bike. The blue sections i was super slow. trying to navigate a very overgrown jeep trail. Oh and I forgot to turn my watch on when I first biked down to the NPT turnoff. I didn't get on the NPT trail part marked (No Motorized Vehicles). I know bikes aren't allowed there. I should have taken a photo of my legs after I finished. they got quite scratched up. I won't be biking that loop again, but I got a little lost last time, so I did it to redeem myself. Yay me? again you should see how scratched up my legs are. Sacrifice to the blood gods for my "victory" I suppose.

After I got back I setup the shower tent and tried Jeff's suggestion of heating the tent with the Planar Heater. That trick made for a very comfortable shower. It was at least mid 80's in the shower if not in the 90's (30C?) . More photos in the slideshow link above. It's definitely glamping. A comfortable shower when it's 50F/10C outside is voodoo type stuff to me, and I only used 3 liters of water. I did remember to flush the Geyser with some antifreeze before putting it away, seeing how it was dropping below freezing each night. The Geyser shower thing does have a pump to push the water through the sponge.

Sunday, Jeff wanted to go exploring by vehicle, but I wanted to do more biking/hiking, so he drove off to explore dirt roads north of Old Forge, and I stayed at camp and just did a down and back on my fat bike. Only 3.5 miles down and then back up. My drop post on my fat bike wasn't staying up. A mix of it being old and me still being too fat. Working on it. holding steady lately at 280, but I want to get down to 220 eventually. I hope to lose 20-30lbs before Spring hits. hard to do during Winter, but I'll try.

After the bike ride Sunday afternoon, I just enjoyed some reading and cuddled up to the Solo Stove, after I did another Geyser sponge shower. I did harvest a bucket of cold water from Cedar Lake for the shower on Sunday. Should have done that the day before too. I have a collapsible bucket and it was easy to do.

Monday we packed up in some cold drizzle and drove home through some heavy rain. In Warrensburgh NY, we stopped at Oscar's Smokehouse and got some high end bacon. I've not confirmed that myself yet, but I trust Jeff's opinion.

Btw the truck's adaptive cruise was glitchy this trip. Both going to my parents and on the way home, but I think i fixed it today. More on that later. But having no cruise at all about half the time was annoying, but not the end of the world either.

This was a really good camping trip. Happy to have gone.

GFC last build step

 

Forgot that I never blogged on the new 2nd drawer that I'd done before the vermont trip with Jeff, so mentioning now.

photos are here, click here

I may have also now completed the last updates to the GFC camper (until I redo stuff) . Added a little frame that should keep the duffel bags and tote bags from falling into the driver side of the truck when overlanding.

Used a truck tailgate net, and a couple more of the 12volt led lights. Also cleanedup some of the previous wiring near the driver side taillight, so the water wouldn't get to it.

updated the strap that I use to gently lower/raise the tailgate when I enter/leave the tent via the truck bed (usually do that when the weather is bad). and I added a few more bolts with 8mm roller skate bearings to help support the 2nd upper drawer when it's fully extended.

see photos here, click here