The Northwest Adventure Truck

March 19, 2019March 19, 2019

Solar Install

Finally after two years of using the truck, the solar panel is going on! Its been planned for forever, but just was low on the list. However I want to be generator free (we don’t really ever use it) but long ski trips in one spot can sometimes find us needing a charge.

So I started to do some panel research. I already had a Victron MPPT controller, so I knew that having more panel voltage to the controller was a good thing (while keeping within its 75V/15amp spec). This led me to wanting to use a larger “home” style panel not the 100w 12V ones that everyone uses. For a couple reasons, better efficiency, more output voltage, and more isolation diodes in the panel. I ended up with a LG 365w Neon R panel. This is rated at 365W, and has a Vmax of 42.8v and Pmax of 10.8amps. Just what my controller should work well with. But its a BIG panel, 67″x40″, I have it centered on the roof, and have space for one more large one, or a handful if smaller ones.

Next comes mounting, not wanting more holes in the roof, I looked into glue on mounts. The Renogy ABS mounts seem to be well liked (here on Amazon) so I purchased a set. Now the glue part, I used Skiaflex 252, i spent a few days talking with a tech there…. They do not want the 252 used for solar panel bonding, and will make that very clear. But they will tell you which primers to use on the bare aluminum roof, and the ABS. However I was warned the ABS is hard to bond well to.

The install…. I needed the panel on before a 5 day trip with no driving, the issue is it was well below freezing. The Sikaflex wants to be installed warm…. The tech I talked to said it would cure eventually, just take a very very long time. So I got to work, I cranked the heat up inside the truck, opened the roof vent, fan on high and tarped off the roof with blankets and a tarp to get as much heat up there as I could.

Next I laid out the panel and where the mounting feet would go. I was unable to use the Renogy center mounts, the roof curves too much, so I used a piece of angle aluminum instead. The mount locations were marked and sanded with 150 grit on a sander, then cleaned with MEK and the primer applied.

With the prep all done it was a matter to getting the Sika evenly on the feet and setting the panel in the make sure the spacing was perfect. Then covering it all back up to let it set up over night.

The next day I pulled the panel back out, the feet were glued down, but it was going to take a week or more to fully cure. I did not want to risk the panel flying out!

So we then got to work on the cables for the power. One hole was needed in the roof, I used a cable entry gland (gland on Amazon) to cover it, and drilled one big hole…. I located it in the rear over the gear storage, so if it ever does leak hopefully its obvious and away from the living area. It was also glued down with the Sika 252.

For the power cables I went a bit overboard…. I ran 8 gauge wire That should give me plenty of room to add more panels later on as needed, and is the largest wire the controller could accept!

The production from the panel is quite good, even in overcast days. The higher voltage panel pays off, the charge controller is able to up the charge amperage considerably as the voltage is dropped to battery level.

I am excited to see how this does over the summer!

March 14, 2019March 14, 2019

Spare Tire Carrier.

With the new wheels and tires, we needed a new way to carry the spare. It no longer fits in the location where the stock one did. The exhaust is in the way.

The plan is to mount it to the drivers side rear door. That one does not get opened and closed as much, so adding the weight to the door is not a huge deal. The hinges on the door are super beefy, the same ones used on big refrigerator semi trailers, so I think they will take the extra 250lbs ok.

The basic plan is a “basket” the tire will sit in, with long legs that will spread the load across the panels that make up the door. It will get through bolted to the door, and the tire will get a couple ratchet straps to hold it in place.

I used 1×2 steel, .125 wall I believe. Some odd angles were needed to match the tire profile. A couple of gussets were added for strength.

Painted and ready to install on the door.

It was bolted in place with polyurethane sealant, and lots of bolts. Getting them all drilled and everything lining up with sealant everywhere was a fun project. You can see the lifting eye I added also in the picture below. This lets me hook a come along to a pulley for lifting the tire. Much better than trying to man handle it up there…..

Getting the tire up is still a chores, but the mount is solid and works very well!

March 12, 2019March 12, 2019

Insulating the Floor

Here is a lesson I learned, this being my first build. Insulate the floor!

Our old rig had no floor insulation, It was cold, even frosty in the mornings in winter. I had planned to add some under the floor, to fill the cavities between the tubing that makes up the floor. So I did not put anything other than a 1mm r.5 piece under the vinyl flooring…. Partly because I did not want different floor heights, but I had plenty of head room. I should have added 1/2″ at least under the flooring. that is my lesson. Once I did get around to insulating underneath it did not do a whole lot. The floor is steel and it just sucks the cold right through.

But back to the floor insulation. I just the same type of closed cell spray foam, this time a DIY kit. It was messy, very very messy. I taped off the frame rails and down, covered the axle, drive shafts etc, then got into a big tyvek suit and put Vaseline over any exposed skin…. And got to spraying on my back. Not a fun task.

The underside did get well covered. It looks like a badly frosted cake, but should be pretty well insulated, its about 2″ thick most everywhere. I think the biggest benefit we will see from this is that the heat from the drivetrain will not come up through in the summer keeping it cooler. It got warm pretty quick once we parked.

March 8, 2019March 8, 2019

LED Fog Lights

The headlights on this truck have never been great, a good friend of mine has a set of the Rigid SAE rated fog lights on his truck, color me impressed. Good light throw, amazing cut off line so you wont blind other drivers and SAE rating makes them legal to use on the road. These are the lights, not cheap but a great light.

Since my truck did not come with the factory fog lights, there is a plastic panel in their place. Easily removed from behind the bumper. With that out of the way we can bend some aluminum flat stock to make brackets. Simply bent to match the OE holes and painted black.

The wiring is very straight forward, luckily Ford did put the wires for the fog lights in! They are terminated right above the drivers side head light. Grey plug, not connected to anything. Wired to that harness all you need in the headlight switch that comes int he fog light equipped trucks. Luckily its a cheap and easy to get part here!

The output is GREAT on these, and no one flashes me when driving.

March 8, 2019March 8, 2019

Winter Fun and a True Four Season Camper.

We have been having a great winter! Lots of skiing, some snow shoeing and lots and lots of night in the truck. We have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t, and what it takes to build a true four season truck.

Winter tips!

Leave a roof vent open, I know it seems counter intuitive to let the heat out, but you need to get the moisture out. snow, wet feet and breathing put a lot of moisture into the air.

If your doing a DIY build, run all the water lines inside of the living area. Yes it may use up a little valuable space, but it wont freeze as easily! I have one pipe that runs across the crawl through area, if it gets under 5 or so it sometimes freezes. Luckily the heater can be aimed at it and it thaws out quick.

No Buddy Heaters. Unvented propane heaters put off a lot of moisture as part of the combustion gasses. See the part above about moisture 🙂

We use towels on the floor, kicking you shoes off only does so much it seems…. The towels catch the rest of the snow as it melts…. They can be swapped out as they get wet and dried at home or hung up.

Don’t use your awning….. (as temping as it is!)Yeah rain turned to snow at Mt Baker and the awning died that night….

Deep snow and a nice campfire above Stevens Pass

March 8, 2019March 8, 2019

Super singles – Ditching the dualies.

The factory F450’s came with 19.5″ wheels and dualies in the rear. Great for heavy loads, not great for mud and snow. It sticks between the duals and creates one big tire. The factory wheels are also a 6″ wide wheel, no room to go to a larger tire either.

So, super singles! A single wheel and tire in the rear, that is larger, but also has a weight rating to carry the load. I found a set of Huchinson wheels that were designed for a armored vehicle. Unfortunately they still use the 19.5″ commercial tires, but the price was right and its a good tire size for our truck. Any bigger and it would take a lift and a lot of cutting. The good news is they are aluminum and beadlocks! Which means we can air down if needed, unlike the factory wheels.

Once the ordeal of having them shipped was done (the got lost…. multiple times) and they were on the back of my truck I was excited! Then reality hit, they are big. Its only a “couple inches” on paper but man are they huge.

The new tires are a bit over 35″ tall, the original ones are about 32″. Does not seem like much on paper, but looks like a lot in person. But it should work.

They fit in the back! The singles replace the “outer” dual. This makes the track width a little different front to rear, but it has not seemed to cause any issues.

The front are a bit tighter fit…. They rub at the back of the wheel well.

A little grinder work and a heat gun on the inner fenders and they fit much better. The drivers side still rubs a little, but not much and long term I will likely fit different fender flares in the front that make much more space.

Overall they are very nice, not a huge ride improvement on the road as the tires are still quite stiff, but they roll over little bumps and rock off road better. I was worried about losing some stability in the back, side winds especially, but there have been no issues at all yet. It drives nearly exactly the same.

November 9, 2018March 15, 2019

Vinyl Removal!

Finally the time has come. Less race ‘Merica truck! We have devised a plan. Remove the blue.

This was a nightmare project. Hours with a heat gun, and scrubbing glue off. I posted on IG half way through and a vinyl installer suggested a product, Rapid Remover. If your ever removing vinyl or stubborn glue from sticker buy some. It’s a miracle. The second side took me a little over 2 hours, where I spent DAYS on the first side.

Lots of glue got left behind, I started use Acetone to scrub it off on this side.

Cutting along the lines we want to keep and peeling the blue off. Just keep going…… Rapid Remover works great, spray it on, wait 60 seconds, use a bondo spreader or similar to scrape the glue off. Just turns them to rubbery boogers.

Much better! A bit more subtle…. Sorta.

I even got carried away, I pulled the chunk out that I cut out for the door (yes I still had it….) And peeled the vinyl back off. Then tried to stick it back to the door. That was a fun experiment. It’s wrinkly, but looks good from 20 feet.

November 9, 2018November 9, 2018

Rear Spring Pack Replacement.

Since we now have the air bags in the front, the rear needs help. The stock springs are way under rated for our weight, and the airbags work, but ride harsh. So I contacted a spring builder to make me a set of custom progressive leafs. Long story short, they made the first set the wrong size, and the second set with no lift…. I decided if you want it done right do it yourself.

So I set about with a plan. Take some parts of the OE spring packs to me a zero rate spring. Just adds height, no capacity or rate change.

New springs (V2) correct length this time, but no lift. My god are they heavy.

New Springs – Pretty but not quire right….

So after they were installed, we figured out they provided no lift. So I came up with a plan. Use the block and the anti wrap leaf from the OE pack to get some height.

The OE Springs got broken down giving me ~1.25″ of lift height.

Then came the fun of trying to jack up a big heavy truck, in my gravel driveway… (I had paid to have springs installed twice already, I had to DIY this time). Luckily my neighbor had a big pile of 4×4 chunks of various projects, so I was able to make cribbing to hold the truck up. It had to be held from the frame so I could remove the axle from the springs. The plan was to remove the Ubolts, lift the truck off the axle so I could roll it out of the way, install the new spring parts and the put the axle back.

Got one side in the air, Ubolts removed, and went to roll the axle out of the way. That’s when I was reminded I have a limited slip rear end. Can’t roll one side….. Enter ratchet straps, webbing a second jack and cursing.

I was able to just get it forward enough to get the center pins out. Once they were out I went to slip the parts in and the new center pins would not fit. The spring builder used a smaller pin than Ford. I had to drill through the entire spring pack for the larger centering pin. But it worked, and we got the new old bits in place.

Blocks under the new springs. New center pin in!

Then it was just reverse procedure to get the axle back to the correct place and lower the truck down onto it. Then repeat on the other side. Longer U bolts were made for both sides and we took it out the following weekend. Much better ride, still not much lift after it all settled in.

August 21, 2018

Air Bag Front Coil Replacement

In a quest for better ride, I have decided to ditch the front coils and go with a Kelderman air bag front end. This kit replaces the coil springs with an air bag, this gives infinite adjustment for load/weight and a supposed better ride.

The first hurdle is how to get the entire front end of the truck off the ground on a gravel driveway….. I have 6200lbs on my front axle, not a crazy amount, but enough to drive the wheels of my jack through a piece of 3/4″ plywood…. Trying again with no wood works, but now the jackstand has sunk. Eventually with some grading of my gravel driveway, two jacks and some jackstands and the front end is ready for work.

Next up, lower one of the jacks so the spring bits can be removed. Springs and the lower coil buckets are taken off. I hit a surface little rust with some zinc rust paint.

The upper bracket needs three holes drilled to hold it in place. The steel is thick and hard. Not a fun upside down drilling project, but take your time and its ok. If your doing this be very careful, there is a large wiring harness right above the upper area your drilling on both sides. Don’t hit it when you break through!

The brackets simply bolt in place of the coil, and the airbag is bolted between them. One long bolt holds the air bag to the lower mount seen looking awkward above.

All together with the air lines ran. I simply ran them up next to the battery on either side. Its just manual fill for now. I ended up around 80psi. You simply inflate the bags until they are 7.5-8.5″ tall. I went with 8″ which ends up about 1.5″ tall overall than stock.

At 80psi/8″ tall with the weight of the truck on it.

Front end of the truck is defiantly a little taller, the jury is still out on ride quality…. I need to play with pressures a bit. Overall no worse than before and 1.5″ taller.

June 20, 2018

Climbing Trip!

Since winter is long gone now, climbing has taken over the summer activities. So its off to the desert we go in search of rocks!

First visit was Frenchman Coulee in Vantage WA. It gets hot, get up early! But there are a TON of routes, lots of bolted, some really tall too.

Truck is super luxury climber camping…. Its really nice. We looped around across hwy 20 on the way home as it had just been opened. Great scenery.

Truck is chugging along great, its had its oil changed, fuel filters changed and gets 10mpg. All the time.