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RE: Pick our flowers!
You have to remember that you live in the largest state in the union and yet you have less than 800,000 pop. AZ has around 6.5 million, UT has about 2.5 and NV has close to the same as UT.
Also there are by far more people traveling through these states than in AK. So like stated above if everybody picked the flowers there would be none left to reseed or for anybody else to see. It is a shame that it has gotten to this point but this big green marble we live on is becoming over populated and this is just the start of things you are not going to be able to do. Just look at all of the back country roads that have been closed in the past years. Before long you well be lucky if you can drive on a gravel road and not have to stay on the pavement all of the time. People have abused things and have not policed themselves so someone else if going to do it for them.
This is IMO
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Butch50
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05/21/12 01:32pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: Confessions of a new fiver owner
You have a great rig! Just remember that F-350 will turn the 5th real slow and not a good turn radius. Once it starts to go it's going. That is the only thing I dislike about my f-350.
Why would the F-350 be any different from any other 1 ton pickup?
Fords have leaf springs which limit turning radias..... I can uturn my dodge dully in my buddys u turn circle... ok maybe a little bit of a fib...I should try it though... lol On a serious note I can turn a lot tighter then he can, seen him 3 point on many occasions where I can just u turn.
Ford has not had leaf springs on the front since 2005. Also unless you have a Mega cab your Dodge with a quad cab and the Ford has a crew cab your are shorter. Another thing is if you both have short beds you are 6'3" bed and the Ford is 6'9". This may make some of the difference on the turning radius of the rig, but after all of that Ford does have a wide radius turn. On my 2011 it takes forever to turn but it is a LB crew cab so just about as long as you can get one, almost 23' in length. It fills one stall in my garage up.
To OP congrats on your new 5er, ENJOY and have fun.
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Butch50
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05/21/12 10:44am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: 10 years on the Truck Camper Forum
Been here since 06/29/2002 so coming up on 10 years next month.
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Butch50
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05/16/12 06:28pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Best truck to haul a triple slide Eagle Cap 1165?
When I had me AF1140 I used a 2006 Ford F550 with a pickup bed installed on it. Kind of like Mooney has his camper on. I had all kinds of extra capacity left over. If I was ever to go to a big camper again it would be the same setup or a Dodge 5500 with similar setup.
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Butch50
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05/15/12 09:00pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Adventurer Warranty Problems (What to do?)
Disco,
In my past business life I use to call people a lot and then I would follow it up with an email. I would state what had been discussed and asked them if my understanding was the same as theirs. If I got no response from them then this meant to me that I had a clear understanding of the dicussed issues and resolution. I even had to use it one time on my boss, sure glad I was leaving that job under him and was moving onto another job with a different boss in a different VP group. :D This way I got action a lot faster and still had the paper trails. There was a few times it came down to my email and no response from that person. I usually won and they tucked their tails.
You can also send email with a receipt requested when they open the email it well tell them that the sender requested a receipt and if they want to respond. There are other ways also send regular mail all of the info with a signature required and cc the same letter to someone else you know with a receipt required on their part also. Ask the other person to sign for the letter but do not open it, just put it in a safe place. This gives a cc of the orginal mail in the orginal envelope unopened. Make sure you keep your copies from the Post Office for the letters sent.
On emails you can also send them to another person with a BC (blind copy) so the orginal person doesn't know another person received the same email.
Just some suggestions.
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Butch50
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05/15/12 08:52pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Thank you all. I have my first PU Camper
The dry wt for the 1150 is 3458#. Am I missing something cuz that's alot of wt ( 5130#) over these dry wt ...
The 3458# are before you add the 595# mandatory options to it. Like electric jacks and many other items that Northwood requires and you have no choice. So take the 3458 + 595 = 4053# before batteries and propane and any other things you might have added as additional options, water and your food and personnal items.
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Butch50
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05/14/12 08:11am |
Truck Campers
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RE: AF 1150 Air conditioner question
How about making a deflector that fits between the shroud and the ceiling to direct the air coming out of the vents downward. Make it bigger than the little directional vents on the AC. Then during the day you can let it blow into the overhead to keep it cooled down before going to bed.
I agree with Buzzcut1, we almost always have our ceiling fan on over the bed at night so in our past campers the air never bothered us. I did use the vent adjustment some.
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Butch50
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05/13/12 10:19am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Fuel Mileage
70 mph is my sweat spot with set up. My GT4088 turbo is making 15lbs of boost and EGTs are around 900 degrees.
I averaged about 13 mpg headed to my destination. Sadly with a severe head wind comping home I averaged about 9 mpg at 60mph.
My thinking when I had diesel trucks (6 different ones and all 3 brands + 1 Volvo class 7 converted from class 8 RV puller) were the closer I ran to 0# of boost (without lugging engine) the better my mileage was. More boost more fuel to accomplish work. If I slowed down my boost went down and mileage went up. Also I found less boost lower EGT at least that is the way it seemed to work on my diesels.
This is IMO
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Butch50
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05/11/12 10:33am |
Truck Campers
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RE: New Lance Fiberglass Front Cap
I spy with my little eye..
The damn roof joint that is still going to leak from using Dicor lap sealent!
They should mold an entire roof in fiberglass and get rid of leaking joints!
Gee kind of what Bigfoot and Northern Lite already do. :B
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Butch50
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05/09/12 04:17pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: I'm selling my brand new AF1150 and buying this!
I like his "Performance" sign exhaust deflector.
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Butch50
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05/04/12 08:41pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Should I go 3.73 or 4.10 with my Chevy 6.0?
I don't want to belabor this but again we are comparing older trucks with new ones.:? You don't have to let the trans hunt. I can manually select what gear I want my truck to stay in unless it pulls down. If I'm pulling a hill and the truck pulls down to 4th and it feels like it is going to pull the hill in 4th I can select 4th and it will not shift up. If the RPM isn't enough that the truck bogs I can select 3rd and back out of the gas a little and not run it at high RPMs. This is the way I work my truck and it works great. Also the newer trucks lock up the converter once you hit 2nd gear. So if I need to pull a hill in 2nd I can select 2nd and run at a higher RPM to keep it locked up. That is also what the Tow/Haul position is for on newer trucks. They hold the trans for higher RPMs before shifting up to stop this up and down shifting.
Take look at what nycsteve posted above. He has a NEWER gas job with a 4K camper and has not had any problems.
Now I haven't driven any of the GM products with the 6,0 gas so maybe it doesn't do as well as the Ford. I speaking from my experience with a 2011 Ford with the 6.2 and that is where nycsteve is also speaking from. All I can tell everybody here is that my 6.2 with 4.30 rear pull a 12K 5er and well pull it up hills without any problems. Sure I have to wind it up some but I use to do that on my 72 Ford F250 360 with my camper on it going up the back side of Eisenhower Tunnel from Dillion when I lived in CO back in the early 70s. I would pull it as far as I could in 4th and then shift to 3rd and then back out of it a little and let it hold for around 7 miles pull to the tunnel.
On the 1,900 miles I towed my 5er from MT to AR I ran overall right at 9.5 MPG on it. This is over Homestake, Bozeman Pass and a good pull out of Billings heading for Hardin, MT and many other good pulls through MT and WY. I have gotten as high as 17 MPG empty and very easy on the gas and slower speeds most 50 to 55 MPH. Not bad for almost 8K truck.
This is IMO and I think I have responded to it enough.
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Butch50
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05/04/12 01:57pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Is Chalet pricing in line with other manufacturers?
yup. that's lot of money. Even at the Penatagon. That's a least a hammer and a toilet seat:)
I'll see that and I'll raise you a roll of TP. (RV type of course).
To the OP,
These big campers are expensive. Price per space a TC is one of the most expensive RVs today. That $55K is about right for the MSRP. When I bought my new Okanagan 116ULT I thought that it was expensive but not by todays standards. Better have a big truck to haul one of those. I loaded my Okanagan on my 2002 Chevy Dmax dually EC 4X4 and took it to the scales and then went to the Ford dealer and ordered a new F550 with a pickup box conversion on it. It was to much for that year of Chevy dually.
Good luck
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Butch50
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05/04/12 12:29pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Should I go 3.73 or 4.10 with my Chevy 6.0?
My bad I meant Homestake Pass, for some reason I always want to call it Pipestone. Pipestone rec area is on Homestake Pass.
You are comparing a 7 year old truck with a 4 speed auto to a new truck with an improved engine and a 6 speed auto. On the FTE site they had a pull using 4 different trucks. 2 of them were 2011 Fords, one was a Power Stroke and the other was a 6.2 with 4.30 rear. There was very little difference in the speed at the top of the hill between the 2 of them. I'll see if I can find the link and post it on here.
I know in the past my gas engines did not preform like this new engine does and that is the reason I had diesels. Like I stated I pull a 12,000# 5er. My rating for a 5er is 14,800#, a 6.7 diesel with the same truck is 15,700# with either 3.31 or 3.55 rear axle . Less than 1,000#. I know the gas is going to work harder but that is the way they are built for higher reving
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Butch50
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05/03/12 06:47pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Lesson learned, the hard way...
Good advice but even more so if you have someone else do the install for you. There very few that I trust more than myself. It makes it even worse when you pay someone to do it and they mess it.
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Butch50
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05/03/12 04:05pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Should I go 3.73 or 4.10 with my Chevy 6.0?
4.10s and an extra set of rear tires, your gear figure is 500lbs low, average gear weight is closer to 1000lbs and any paper camper weight figure is usually wrong, so figure your total wet weight in at 5000lbs before ya even add the tongue weight of a boat trailer, which will be another 500lbs.
To be honest, if it was available, I'd get a Chevy that had the 454 in it vs the small block 6.0L if I was moving big loads with a gas engine in the size range yer talking about.
Also, be prepared for max freeway speed of 55 mph, and around 30mph going over grades.
Oh come on don't scare the guy.:( I tow a 12,000# AF 27-5L 5th wheel with my F350 4X4 CC SRW LB with a 6.2 and I can travel 65 MPH with no problem and I'm in 6th gear most of the time. I have gone over mountain passes in Montana and yes I went slower but when I had my diesels I went slower also. I pulled Pipestone pass right out of Butte, MT and I ran right at 40 MPH right up to the top and it is a steady climb. On some of the corners going up I was actually exceeding the recommend speed for the corner. Now I know the 6.0 might not have as much omph as mine but if he it can't travel at 65 MPH on the freeway I'd be very surprised.
He is looking at a NL and they weigh every camper when it comes off the line with all of the acc that were installed by them. The NL 10'2 CDSE is almost loaded with every option that you can install as factory standard about the only thing not is a generator. The dry weight on it is 2980#. So when he looks at a wet weight with some of his gear (if he watches it) should be able to keep it around 4,000#. I use to own a 10'2" CD but before they had the Special Edition and it was well under 3,000# dry. 4,000# is what Truck Camper Magazine came up with wet weight and 500# of gear on the 10'2" CDSE.
Now one thing I do agree with is that the tonque weight extended back from the bumper is going to have a negative action on his rear axle and well most likely be over the tire rating on the rear axle. A 5,000# boat is going to have at least 500# of tonque weight and if he is looking at a NL that is 10' long that is going to put the hitch point at least 2' back, that is the part I wouldn't like.
This is IMO
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Butch50
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05/03/12 03:14pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Camper on lifted truck
Thanks guys,
I am not a serious offroader. When I mean boondocking, I mean old logging roads or forest service roads that go way far back. I don't do rock crawling and my truck is my baby. I mainly want a hard side because I would feel safer in Alaska and just all around.
AF,
If you are worried about bears in AK than maybe best not to go into the woods at all :B
All joking aside if I put a popup on my stock height F350 4X4 it would be right at 7' to the area that the fabric starts at. Now you are talking about another 4 to 6" for lift so the fabric in your side would be right at 7'6" or so. Now I know they have big bears in AK and I use to live in NW Montana (born and raised there) where we had big bears also but I'm here to tell you if that big of bear wants into your camper I don't care if it is a fabric side or hard side he is coming in. Most black/brown bears are not going to be able to reach that height. They well just tear your back door off. The main thing is keeping a clean camp and camper. Don't store food inside that has high smell value to it as a bear well smell it miles away and be coming to visit.
As a kid growing up in MT (this was just a short ways from Glacier Park) I use to camping in a tent all of the time and never worried about it. I grew up on a ranch and every since I can remember us kids would go out and play in the woods. This was in grizzly country and none of us kids ever got hurt by any bear. Now when there were spottings of bears in the area then we had to stay a little closer to the house (but not much :W)
My opinion is if you want to lift your truck and bigger tire I would strongly suggest a popup.
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Butch50
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05/02/12 02:58pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: New Vision's and Michelin tires!
Looking good, thumbs up. Where did you end up getting them at? I know it wasn't Rickson Wheel. With zero offset do they stick very far out the side of your truck? I have read where they may stick out past the fenders and require fender flares. Does it look like you well need to do this so they don't throw up everything onto your truck?
Good decision going with 19.5, now go and enjoy your camper and don't sweat it. Looks like trip time to me. :B
Oh by the way red trucks are the best looking trucks on the road IMO.:W My present truck is a royal red metalic,darker red than yours BUT still red.
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Butch50
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05/01/12 04:05pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: What size Camper can I carry
Wow, I'm amazed that the door sticker and the weight of your truck come so close to the GVWR of 13,300# Your cargo capacity is 4920 and your scale weight is front 4920 and rear is 3520 for a total of 8440. 8440 from 13,300 is 4860#. Only 60# difference that is great, Ford was pretty close on it. Where you in the truck when you weighed it?
That is a heavy camper and your truck should handle it with maybe a few mods. You well be over the GVWR on the truck. As stated before you should send a PM to twomaineiacs and talk to them about the handling of the truck as they have pretty the same setup.
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Butch50
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05/01/12 03:37pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Should I go 3.73 or 4.10 with my Chevy 6.0?
Is it a SRW or a DRW truck? That TC is way too much for a SRW I believe. I would weigh the truck and then see what you have.
Frank
Frank,
One thing you have to remember is these new SRW Chevy and Ford trucks can have a GVWR of over 11,000# not like your Dodge with a 9,900 GVWR the same as my 2006 3500 Dodge had with a diesel. My 6.2 truck has a GVWR of 11,200#. This is 1300# more than my Dodge and my 6.2 engine is sure lighter than my Cummins was.
The heaviest NL is the 10-2 CDSE and the dry weight on it is 2970 and this is with almost every option the NL offeres but it is standard on the CD unit. About the only additional is the generator. NL weighs every unit when it leave their lot and puts this weight in the cupboard. I use to own a 10-2 CD and know that I didn't overload my 2002 Chevy EC 4X4 Dmax/Allison and it had a 11,400# GVWR. This unit is less than 300# more than your unit but it already has the AC on it with side, rear awnings, electric jacks, dual pane windows,TV and DVD, microwave oven.
He may have to go with 19.5 as you did on yours.
This is IMO
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Butch50
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04/30/12 01:39pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Should I go 3.73 or 4.10 with my Chevy 6.0?
I don't have a Chevy but I do have a Ford with the 6.2 and 6 speed auto with the 4.30 gears. I ordered mine that way. I don't believe that mileage suffers that much with the new 6 speed autos. I have gotten as high as 17 MPG on my truck. It was slower speeds most of the time under 65 MPH and easy on the throttle. I pull a 12,000# 5er with it and it has plenty of power and before anybody looks at my profile and sez I live in flat land (have only been living down here for about 8 months) I use to live in MT and that is where I ordered my truck. So I have pulled the 5er in the mountains and it does fine with it.
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Butch50
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04/30/12 01:31pm |
Truck Campers
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