CK5
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'91 K5 Four Wheel Camper
This is the build for my 1991 V1500 Blazer, AKA the K5.3. It started out life being sold to the U.S. Government with a 350 TBI/700r4/241 combo. 4 years with a 5.3/700r4 Combo and now moving to an 8.1L Vortec and NV4500 5-speed.
Better pop up big batch!
Instagram accounts:
Mine @Robzulian pretty sure if you are here you know my ride. (CO)
Larry @bigassgas8.1 you all know his ride (CO)
Ian @peein_ian83 (he probably won't post much) CUCV 8.1 Combo (CO)
Bill @bill.tiffany.92 Tacoma/RTT (CO)
Ron @capt_ron711 Crawlabago #2 (CO) *newb to the group
Don @wheelnwagon 16 Powerwagon/FWC camper combo (AZ)
Phil @landcruiserphil also bringing a Powerwagon *newb to the group (AZ)
Nick @noibns 3dr Cummins burb (AZ) he's probably only going to be along for the first couple of days.
Ty and Hugo that is coming out of CA aren't on the 'gram to track. Ty's got an 2500 cummins Ram with a Phoenix camper while Hugo is running a 4banger Tacoma.
The guy coming with the transit van got pulled back into work (a feeling I know all too well) but will probably meet up with Nick where ever he goes after leaving our group.
If everybody shows up it's going to be a BIG group on the trail. Bigger than we've ever had. But all are experienced wheelers with capable rigs that should be just fine on the trails we will head out on. Most if not all have made the move to GMRS radios too so for the first time we are going to actually be able to communicate from the front of the group to the back even if we spread out over a couple of miles to keep the dust eating to a minimum. Larry and I have extra Baofeng radios set up to run on GMRS just in case somebody needs one. Plus they should work good for spotting.
Speaking of Spotting, where we are going to be that is. Here's the link to Larry's GPS spot that's going to be leaving digital breadcrumbs on the web so we can find our way home or heaven forbid we actually need help.
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0v6Rlob93kMcaExIc8U5mRn378feiJhFQ
One more day of work and it's final pack time and beat feet early Saturday morning for a great ride through the rockies and into the red rocks of Utah.
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So far he's committed to the first couple of days. Then he's heading north east to parts unknown. But I'm looking forward to meeting him and seeing the legendary burb in the flesh. We've talked a lot digitally, be nice to put a face to the name.
Food and drinks are loaded. Had to go through my SD cards to make sure they were empty or else the laptop and computer would already be in the truck. Filled up the truck and rinsed the pterodactyl poop off the hood and the rest of the truck. To hell with that focking bird in my tree. Clothes are next and they will be the first in the truck in the morning. Time to get some sleep since Larry's pushing an early start.
Hard road day. @Capt Ron had his truck die right near Parachute CO as we were rolling into Montrose for fuel this morning. Plans moved into rescue mode and we boogied around the grand Mesa to get to Ron. Found him on the side of the road and pulled him to a safe place and started working on it.
A couple hours later we figured we have a broken wire in the factory injector harness where it goes under the upper plenum. The harness is original to the engine and cooked from years of use as a shuttle bus that probably had a lot of idle time. The best fix is to replace the harness but that wasn't happening today. Ron didn't want us to be held up any longer and told us to mush on. We made sure we got him into town safe and he's got AAA coming tomorrow to haul him home. We are all bummed out for sure.
So we hauled ass from there to get to camp in Green River. Hanging out now.
A couple hours later we figured we have a broken wire in the factory injector harness where it goes under the upper plenum. The harness is original to the engine and cooked from years of use as a shuttle bus that probably had a lot of idle time. The best fix is to replace the harness but that wasn't happening today. Ron didn't want us to be held up any longer and told us to mush on. We made sure we got him into town safe and he's got AAA coming tomorrow to haul him home. We are all bummed out for sure.
So we hauled ass from there to get to camp in Green River. Hanging out now.
red EOD
1/2 ton status
Wiring isn't exactly fun to diagnose
I will say this the ride into Utah was no picnic. Hellish headwind and wanting to pull in before dark had us hauling major a$$. Buried the speedo in mine. Needle stops at the trip reset shaft. GPS had me cooking at 90 for a while. Poor little 5.3 was wound up tight tach'd out in 3rd due to the headwind.
Thankfully no wind at the KOA. Had beers for dinner, hung out and talked with everyone and took a shower. Chilling in the camper now.
Thankfully no wind at the KOA. Had beers for dinner, hung out and talked with everyone and took a shower. Chilling in the camper now.
How well do these camper rigs handle at 90MPH? My stepside had no problem cruising at the top of the speedometer (aside from taking several miles to get up to speed
). But the worn out K5 got shaky above 55 and started getting dicey at 70. I'm not willing to take the burb to 85 without at least adding in a sway bar for the curves.Good on ya for bringing 55MPH rigs into the modern era.
Following you guys on Instagram. 
Yeah we were down there all day hanging out at the beach. It was super windy when we go to town at like 11 but not bad up the canyon at the beach.
Honestly, if it wasn't for the constant wind blowing at 40mph+ the entire way west of the Colorado State line it would have been just fine. But it was the winds that made it sketchy in the curves.How well do these camper rigs handle at 90MPH? My stepside had no problem cruising at the top of the speedometer (aside from taking several miles to get up to speed
Good on ya for bringing 55MPH rigs into the modern era.
Larry has burned through the same section of I-70 to I-15 doing 90 in his last year. The wind slowed us, but we were in a hurry and we had hit the "damn the torpedoes full speed ahead" point of the ride. So I was flat footing the 5.3 and that was in 3rd gear when the winds were coming from the front.
The speedo wouldn't read past 85, but the GPS running on my iPad had me topped out at 90. Had it not been for the wind it would have been fine. Fuel mileage be damned of course but it was pretty steady when the wind let up. But all three squares are running factory sway bars with ORD disconnect kits so it's no surprise they felt ok to us.
Getting into the trip itself, it was one for the books. We logged a ton of miles off road with a lot of folks as first. Managing a group of 10 rigs on any long distance off highway adventure is a challenge. Even with everyone on GMRS radios. Day one on the trail we ended up with a couple of lost sheep in power wagons that misunderstood a radio transmission and made a wrong turn onto the devil's racetrack. Needless to say hours were lost in the regroup effort.
Without going into greater detail that I'll save for the full blown trip report we had a ball with both the big group and the smaller one that stuck it out together. As it was we overcame some serious adversity when we had a major failure on Larry's truck coming back out of the Maze overlook trail in Canyonlands.
Good news is Larry didn't get hurt, the truck was given a hell of a temporary repair with scabbing supplies off of another truck and using our buddy Ty's Dodge Cummins truck to tow it up the Flint trail switchbacks to get out. I've climbed many tight switchbacks in my day but these rank right up there in tightness (3 pt turns with a K5 wheelbase) and steep climbs in between with loose rocks thrown in for good measure. Ty yanked the K10 up the trail with only power coming from the front diff on the K10 to save stress on the repairs we made. Larry was able to drive it slowly out from past the ranger station 40 miles to the highway where another buddy had come from home with Larry's power wagon and a trailer. We've made it to a campground in west Grand Junction late in the day so we didn't have to attack the mountain passes in the dark.
It's going to take me a little bit to really condense down what went all week into a full blown trail report. I can say this as expected, plans went out the window after day 2 on the trail. I didn't highlight any particular trail to hit because we've always run into issues due to logistics but others decided to take a different path. But sheer size of the group caused some to have a problem following the leader.
It's 1:00am at this point and Larry and I polished off the last of my beer at the picnic table in the campsite.
Rolling out of junction now.
We made it back to Larry's place a little after 4:00 today. His truck is safe in the garage in one piece, which is something we thought might not happen two days ago.
Prior to a full blown write up here are some pics to get a idea of where we went.
First day on trail airdown spot.
Pics from Fix it Pass:
Larry's home on wheels.
Nick's family truckster and Hugo's yota above him.
Future arch in the making. Just wait a few hundred years.
Poser shot.
Working down the trail.
Ian's monster 8.1/4500 powered CUCV. Its a rocket sled on the street.
Lunch spot on Fix it Pass. Quite a diverse group.
First day on trail airdown spot.
Pics from Fix it Pass:
Larry's home on wheels.
Nick's family truckster and Hugo's yota above him.
Future arch in the making. Just wait a few hundred years.
Poser shot.
Working down the trail.
Ian's monster 8.1/4500 powered CUCV. Its a rocket sled on the street.
Lunch spot on Fix it Pass. Quite a diverse group.
Day 2 pics.. Eva Conover trail and Eagle Canyon.
The initial climb up on Eva Conover trail. I was standing at the top looking down and it does not give the perspective of the steepness of this climb.
Looking back down on the canyon we climbed out of.
At the bottom of Eagle Canyon just approaching the twin bridges for I-70.
That's way up there for sure.
We ate lunch in the shade created by the westbound bridge.
Eagle Canyon Arch.
The group lined up while we checked out Swasy's cabin.
The initial climb up on Eva Conover trail. I was standing at the top looking down and it does not give the perspective of the steepness of this climb.
Looking back down on the canyon we climbed out of.
At the bottom of Eagle Canyon just approaching the twin bridges for I-70.
That's way up there for sure.
We ate lunch in the shade created by the westbound bridge.
Eagle Canyon Arch.
The group lined up while we checked out Swasy's cabin.
