Nice!
And creative reuse of the CUCV battery mount.
And creative reuse of the CUCV battery mount.
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.
I wish I had a place like that within an hour or two drive. I’d love to do something like that. Looks awesome.
We are pretty blessed to have stuff like that so close. My goal is to take advantage of that more often this summer. It's not too far to drive and the gain in elevation always makes the temps go down.
It's super dry out here this year already. There seemed to be a lot of snow this winter and most of our local reservoirs are pretty full but with very little rain we are super dry any where down lower where we consider the desert. Tons of gnats and powder dust in the swell already and almost no usual spring time greening up.
No green means less pollen for me. I'm ok with that. Only thing to deal with is the dust. Seeing how facemasks are all the rage now I'll use mine to cut the dust in the convoy. Since I've been doing all the map research I've been elected trail boss I may be staying up front and out of the dust plume.
I got a lot of maintenance done today plus repair that was really irritating. Stuck around at the shop after I closed it to use one of the lifts to change the oil, lube, rotate tires and nut and bolt the suspension. I did find the right rear upper shock bolt backed off part way and a rubber isolator for one of the exhaust mounts disappeared. Nothing remarkable though.
The annoying item was the passenger front fender. The upper rear bolt and bolt in the door jamb have backed off in the past and the fender starts itching the door and rattling. Considering the condition of the trail I did on back to back weekends I'm not surprised anything came loose. But it really had been getting worse to the point the dang thing was itching with it parked and the engine idling. I've got a higher threshold for squeaks and rattles than some but this was beyond my normal that was acceptable. Not having a welder at my house I got a message out to Ian and he said to swing by on the way and we'll tackle it. I could make it itch by pushing in on the fender now and the door was rubbing the back edge of the fender as it opened. Checking the bolts that have come loose in the past found they were tight. Looking down on the top inside edge of the fender near the hinge we could see the spot welds from the outer skin to the inner support had popped. The panels had spread apart so we decided to pull the fender to be able to access the area better to clean up and weld.
This is the only non-GM sheet metal panel on the truck. Larry noticed this way back at the beginning but at least it was in one piece then. Pulling the fender exposed even more problems. The inner panel had a couple of major cracks coming down from the inner support that had broken free of the outer panel. The whole area was floppy and was the exact source of the itching noise I was hearing. You can see the cracks in the pic below. Stinking junk panel.
Ian was able to spot weld the outer panel to the inner in about 3x more spots than the Taiwanese aftermarket sheet metal worker did over there. We drilled out the end of the cracks and stacked tack welds to stitch it back together.
We found more cracks in other areas and one of the captured nuts for the battery tray to the fender broke out too. This fender is fubar and really just needs to be chucked but that isn't gonna happen before the trip. We muscled it back into position to line up the bolts and screwed it back together. There were no more itch/squeak noises at all. It don't make noise if you push on it or if the engine is idling. The ride home was silent. Thank goodness because 2500 miles or so of it making noise might have had me loose my mind.
Tomorrow I need to repair a wire that was pinched under the battery and install an external speaker for the Ham radio. The radio is great, but having to run with the windows open had me straining to hear it going down the road. I plugged in the speaker and set it on the dash and tuned into one of the weather stations on the way to work this morning. I could be going 70mph with a window down and the stereo fairly up and actually had to turn the Ham radio down it was so loud.
Other than some cleanup it's ready to start packing gear and getting the food together to cook for the week. I'm beyond ready to go mentally.
The annoying item was the passenger front fender. The upper rear bolt and bolt in the door jamb have backed off in the past and the fender starts itching the door and rattling. Considering the condition of the trail I did on back to back weekends I'm not surprised anything came loose. But it really had been getting worse to the point the dang thing was itching with it parked and the engine idling. I've got a higher threshold for squeaks and rattles than some but this was beyond my normal that was acceptable. Not having a welder at my house I got a message out to Ian and he said to swing by on the way and we'll tackle it. I could make it itch by pushing in on the fender now and the door was rubbing the back edge of the fender as it opened. Checking the bolts that have come loose in the past found they were tight. Looking down on the top inside edge of the fender near the hinge we could see the spot welds from the outer skin to the inner support had popped. The panels had spread apart so we decided to pull the fender to be able to access the area better to clean up and weld.
This is the only non-GM sheet metal panel on the truck. Larry noticed this way back at the beginning but at least it was in one piece then. Pulling the fender exposed even more problems. The inner panel had a couple of major cracks coming down from the inner support that had broken free of the outer panel. The whole area was floppy and was the exact source of the itching noise I was hearing. You can see the cracks in the pic below. Stinking junk panel.
Ian was able to spot weld the outer panel to the inner in about 3x more spots than the Taiwanese aftermarket sheet metal worker did over there. We drilled out the end of the cracks and stacked tack welds to stitch it back together.
We found more cracks in other areas and one of the captured nuts for the battery tray to the fender broke out too. This fender is fubar and really just needs to be chucked but that isn't gonna happen before the trip. We muscled it back into position to line up the bolts and screwed it back together. There were no more itch/squeak noises at all. It don't make noise if you push on it or if the engine is idling. The ride home was silent. Thank goodness because 2500 miles or so of it making noise might have had me loose my mind.
Tomorrow I need to repair a wire that was pinched under the battery and install an external speaker for the Ham radio. The radio is great, but having to run with the windows open had me straining to hear it going down the road. I plugged in the speaker and set it on the dash and tuned into one of the weather stations on the way to work this morning. I could be going 70mph with a window down and the stereo fairly up and actually had to turn the Ham radio down it was so loud.
Other than some cleanup it's ready to start packing gear and getting the food together to cook for the week. I'm beyond ready to go mentally.
Knocked out a lot of little things today. Swapped out the rubber exhaust mount with a spare I had and squared up the tailpipe while I was under there. Shot some paint on the fender where we welded it yesterday. Also repaired the wire that got pinched under the battery. I mounted the external speaker to the roof for the ham radio.
One thing that's got to be annoying on trips is cord management. There are so many things that ends up getting plugged in while I'm out it becomes to be madness with cords getting tangled with everything. I consolidated some. While cell coverage hangs in I typically run Pandora via Bluetooth to the stereo. But when we get out of range I switch over to an Ipod. I got to thinking about it and since I use my Ipad for the navigation I could kill two birds with one stone. Plug in the Ipad to the stereo and I still have tunes and it keeps it charged so I don't have to run a cord into the console. The GPS receiver has to stay on the dash and normally I need to plug it in after a few hours so I just hid the cord under the dash mat and pulled the end up through the defroster hole. The remote monitor for the ARB fridge has been plugged into a 12v outlet in the ashtray door, but the cord still got in the way. So I plugged it into the 12v outlet in the console and set the monitor in the cubby with the CB for easy access.
It may not sound like much but it slims down what needs to be plugged in by a bunch. Anything else that requires power is things like the gopros, bluetooth speaker, ect and those can be plugged in to charge inside the console or back in the camper where I have extra USB ports to plug into. It will go a long way to keeping my sanity.
I also put a trampstamp on the back door too. (on the truck sickos, I know how that statement could be confusing)
Tools got organized and put where they need to be. I got a few other items to prep before packing but I'm down to just that now. Other than washing the truck.
One thing that's got to be annoying on trips is cord management. There are so many things that ends up getting plugged in while I'm out it becomes to be madness with cords getting tangled with everything. I consolidated some. While cell coverage hangs in I typically run Pandora via Bluetooth to the stereo. But when we get out of range I switch over to an Ipod. I got to thinking about it and since I use my Ipad for the navigation I could kill two birds with one stone. Plug in the Ipad to the stereo and I still have tunes and it keeps it charged so I don't have to run a cord into the console. The GPS receiver has to stay on the dash and normally I need to plug it in after a few hours so I just hid the cord under the dash mat and pulled the end up through the defroster hole. The remote monitor for the ARB fridge has been plugged into a 12v outlet in the ashtray door, but the cord still got in the way. So I plugged it into the 12v outlet in the console and set the monitor in the cubby with the CB for easy access.
It may not sound like much but it slims down what needs to be plugged in by a bunch. Anything else that requires power is things like the gopros, bluetooth speaker, ect and those can be plugged in to charge inside the console or back in the camper where I have extra USB ports to plug into. It will go a long way to keeping my sanity.
I also put a trampstamp on the back door too. (on the truck sickos, I know how that statement could be confusing)
Tools got organized and put where they need to be. I got a few other items to prep before packing but I'm down to just that now. Other than washing the truck.
Too funny, I was doing the cable shuffle today also. Fortunately I do not have to deal with a lot of those gadgets yet but I hope to get dragged into the 21st century soon. I still have not figured out a good place for my Big Ass Gas Garage sticker, I'm not sure if I am a tramp stamp kinda guy.
Ummm yea.. I'm so stealing that idea.I found a spot.
I can already feel the extra HP the sticker gives. You'll feel it too.
Packing begins tonight. Departure in one day, 17 hours and 5 minutes as of this post.
I'll be reposting the link to Larry's spot page to track our whereabouts. I'll also link our IG pages as it's easy to post quickly. Depending on coverage I might go live if I can. Getting excited.
I'll be reposting the link to Larry's spot page to track our whereabouts. I'll also link our IG pages as it's easy to post quickly. Depending on coverage I might go live if I can. Getting excited.
And 17 seconds.
Did you post a plan on where you guys are headed yet? I'm gonna head to Green River tomorrow and hang out at the beach.
Plan is always in flux.
But right now most of us are camping at the koa in green river sat night. Sunday morning we are headed about 30 miles west on I-70 and getting off to a dirt road and hitting fix it pass. We will camp on the north end of that trail wherever we find a spot. Connect with Eva conover trail Monday morning to head back south to I-70 and hook up with the eagle canyon trail to pass under the twin I-70 bridges.
After that it's wide open. Camp where we find a big enough place park the tribe. Lather, rinse repeat for the next days.
What time you shooting for being in Green River? I'm not sure how late we will be there. Going down with friends to a place called Swaseys beach.
By my numbers 3ish in the afternoon. Meeting Capt Ron in junction noonish, grabbing a bite to eat for lunch and hauling ass from there. That's only an hour and a half from junction but it depends on what we do for lunch.
We've learned to plan out the target zone, a couple of trails to start on and then wing it. I've got miles of trails mapped out for possible changes or detours.This is why I love these trips.
Previous trips have taught the group rigid plans tend to get thrown out the window within a couple of days due to breakage, weather, or human factors. So planning beyond the first couple of days is not needed.
I did get the chuckwagon box re-organized and repacked with gear for cooking. Windows have been cleaned in and out with a fresh layer of Rain-x applied. Will be loading the rest tomorrow.
