Ski Bum Truck V2.0, F450 Rough Road RV

Well reverse lights are fixed..... Entire wiring harness and all connections have been checked. Went through the fuses for a third time (there are 4 in two different fuse blocks related to the lights....) and found a blown one. I think I was reading the numbering/labeling wrong, half the fuses are sideways which makes things weird.

Anyway they work! Not very bright though, I will probably add a cheap 20" bar I have back there.

So last project for last night, try to fix the broken license plate light, no idea how it got so beat but it was cracked and about to fall off. Looked like ABS plastic so a little abs glue and some mek and hopefully it will be workable.

Finished up the backup light project. 

Finally bought a riv nut tool, where have these been all my life?! No more trying to hold a box wrench on the back side for me!

Cheap Amazon light bar. Tied to the trailer reverse light circuit. Just clears the license plate light, and the door latches.

More light!

What size Rivnuts?

In reply to Petrolburner :

for a 1/4-20

A storm was headed through Friday night which was supposed to bring snow. So what did we do? Pack up and go looking for it!

Off the highway and headed up for more altitude

Found the snow line, so we parked and called it a spot for the night. Whipped up some tasty dinner and had a nice little fire. A couple went by just as we were headed inside for dinner, just after dark. Driving a 4x4 early 80's Toyota Chinook camper, say hi if your on here! Looked awesome

Woke up to 3" of new stuff! So pretty.

Kids and dog had a good time.

No drama heading down in the morning, we were a little worried as its pretty steep. I had grabbed some chains on the way home from work, but first gear idled us down the hill safely.

Now the interesting parts..... 4x4 doesn't work.... At least the hubs wont lock in with vacuum as they are supposed to. So I started tracing vac lines. So far they all look good, but I did find a dead seal.... I cant for the life of me figure out what this part is called.

Its this seal at the end of the axle tube. I dont think it has anything to do with the vacuum system as that's all in the hub. Looks like a bitch to get everything out to change it......

That's an axle seal, just keeps gear lube inside the axle AFAIK, also doesn't look bad to me. Unless you mean you have play there, google seems to indicate you have a needle bearing in there that supports the axle shaft. I think (I've only had a D60 apart once and that was a dodge) it's serviced by pulling the brake rotor off, unbolting the hub from the spindle, and sliding out the entire heavy as E36 M3 hub/axle/ujoint/axle assembly, ideally a 2 man job. 

In reply to BrokenYugo :

My Googling tells me it's just a dust seal. The axle seals are inside at the diff.

This one has a little bellows that connects the two sides, that part is gone.... A lot of stuff has to come out to get to it... 

According to a friend who has a Ford the part that actuates the hubs is called an IWE and they fail quite often. They use vacuum to lock and unlock the hubs.

In reply to NGTD :

Yes apparently the seals go bad often.... Ugh. At least I can manually lock them, but man shift on the fly would have been nice. I'll see if I can find the leak still. Spyntec makes some nice replacements, get rid of the unit bearings too. 

you have manual locking hubs?

I've never seen manual hubs that can lock manual and automatically?

'shift of the fly' would relate to the T case, not the hubs, I believe.

onemanarmy said:

you have manual locking hubs?

I've never seen manual hubs that can lock manual and automatically?

'shift of the fly' would relate to the T case, not the hubs, I believe.

They are both, "auto" and "locked". Ford has a vacuum system that will lock them when in auto, aparently is doesn't work very well. Any tiny vac leak, hub seals, lines etc and they dont work any more.

Rally car guys, do ikea mud flaps hold up in the snow or do they crack easy?

In reply to java230 :

As in, flexible cutting boards?  They explode when rocks hit them, do not recommend.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

I believe those are the ones. Rally armour ones any better? Looking for a bit more coverage in the front, both sides of the cab and the front of the box were super muddy

In reply to java230 :

They are, although having used various Rally Armor, Sparco, IKEA, and PepVanceZone products as mud flaps I have arrived back at using heavy rubber ones so that I don't have to replace them quarterly any more.  These are what I use now, you need to mount them with big washers so they don't tear. The more expensive Rally Armor ones are probably also fine but for the price I can have a lot of rubber ones.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Huh, I bought those same ones for my trailer, was unimpressed! I tore them off multiple times, even with washers. Generally from backing into things though.

I am looking for something a bit stiffer I can hang off the fender a couple inches. Those seem like they would just flop

In reply to java230 :

Backing over them will always take them off!  I think we have very different problems, mainly I need my flaps to get the berkeley out of the way when rocks hit them instead of getting perforated- maybe some of the other guys will chime in.  What about solid "splash guards" as opposed to flaps?

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Well I wasn't backing over them, just shoving them into bushes backwards.....

But yes, a splash Shield is what I need, however the stiff plastic oe ones got pulled off after a couple trips through a snowbank. That's why I was thinking more flexible would be good.

java230 said:

onemanarmy said:

you have manual locking hubs?

I've never seen manual hubs that can lock manual and automatically?

'shift of the fly' would relate to the T case, not the hubs, I believe.

They are both, "auto" and "locked". Ford has a vacuum system that will lock them when in auto, aparently is doesn't work very well. Any tiny vac leak, hub seals, lines etc and they dont work any more.

I'd probably rip those out and bolt on old-school manual hubs, along with anything else vacuum operated. The way the universe intended. I have an intense dislike for complicated 4WD systems.  There should be a special place in hell for the crew that developed the axle-disconnect system used on modern Dodges. If I had kept my Cummins, replacing that was on the short-list of upgrades - a couple of companies offer new axles and manual hub assemblies to convert the Dodge front axle into a traditional full manual set-up.

In reply to Ian F :

Yes Spyntec makes new hubs that are both manual and get rid of the unit bearings. But they are $$$$, SOTF is really nice when its dumping down snow and you dont have to pull over and flip hubs.

You can preemptively lock the hubs and shift the T case as needed, it just costs some fuel to keep the front driveline spinning all the time. A lot of stick axle Jeeps didn't (don't? I've not been under a newer Wrangler) have any axle disconnect system, the stub axles went straight to the u joints. 

In reply to BrokenYugo :

Yeah I get terrible MPG's as it is, so every bit helps. But I can jump out and lock them in as needed, just means I cant drive in slippers 

I made mud flaps for my rallycross car out of poly semi mud flaps, these specifically.. They're rigid enough that you can have them protrude out past the fenders; see the picture below. They're held up just fine during our winter rallycross events, seeing temperatures down to about 15*. I think these are the droids you're looking for. 

In reply to FooBag :

Oh! Perfect, says good down to -20. Might be the winner!

Decided to do a little "camp light" project. Sometimes I hate having the bright outdoor lights on, so I did some little puddle lights along the bottom edge of the truck. Enough light to find the stairs, but not be overly bright.

Start with cheap marker lights, they mount in a 3/4" hole.

Bottom flange that runs around the truck is ~1.25", works great, drill a 3/4" hole.

Pop in the rubber ring first, them slip the light in it.

One cheap light up switch from Amazon, still need to make the bracket.... Apparently I am out of large angle alum. 

And done. Camera makes it a little brighter than it is, but they don't shine in your eyes, and give enough light to find the stairs etc.