Ski Bum Truck V2.0, F450 Rough Road RV-Page 19| Builds and Project Cars forum |

crankwalk GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/31/17 5:11 p.m.

java230 said:
In reply to FooBag :

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

I had a set that shattered in the rear on the highway last winter. It was probably around that -20 mark or a little warmer. I just gave up on mud flaps altogether but the big thick rubber ones tend to work the best I have seen.

java230 SuperDork
10/31/17 7:19 p.m.

crankwalk said:
java230 said:
In reply to FooBag :

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

I had a set that shattered in the rear on the highway last winter. It was probably around that -20 mark or a little warmer. I just gave up on mud flaps altogether but the big thick rubber ones tend to work the best I have seen.

Of those same ones? I won't be that cold often, usually just a bit under freezing. 10 ish is about usual low.

crankwalk GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/31/17 10:24 p.m.

In reply to java230 :

They were polyethylene and looked the same but im not sure the brand. They were from ebay. The big ass rubber peterbilt ones get recycled a lot on buggys that are still road legal.

conesare2seconds Dork
10/31/17 10:29 p.m.

Digging the perimeter lights.

java230 SuperDork
11/1/17 10:18 a.m.

In reply to conesare2seconds :

Me too might have to do some around the back and other side too.....

Had a little free time and it wasn't raining, so I got some insulation done. I picked up a roll of EZ Cool, basically just 3/8" foil faced foam. Wont do much for sound deadening, but should help a little with heat. The carpet in the cab gets wet from condensation when the dog sleeps up there in the cold, so I wanted to get something under the carpet.

Not much from the factory.

Cut a chunk, lay it in, start bending, taping, cutting cursing. Cut it bigger than you think you need, it looses a lot of size when bending it around the contours. Don't forget the holes needed for bolts etc. I only pulled the back seat, front would be nice too, but I didn't have time to pull all the interior and trims out.

Floor in place.

Going up the wall. This was fun.... All the slots for the trim piece clips need to be cut. It really didn't want to go back on.

Then up the back wall. This was glued with super90, the rest has just been taped in place/held with the trims for the most part.

Also wrapped around the cab to box gasket. Not much insulation, but it should also trap some air there that will help a little. Seat ans trims back in now. Not sure what to do for wall covering, maybe carpet, maybe wood panel?

java230 SuperDork
11/12/17 6:15 p.m.

Another quick but fun weekend trip. Snow, snow and more snow!

Shout out to Stevens Pass ski area, they were letting people sled and not running them off like every other ski area around here. We stopped, had some lunch and did a bit of sledding.

Winter wonderland. We had to stop and push a couple of cars up/off the road and get them turned around. The guys on snowmobiles looked at us a little funny when we ran into them. But 4x4 works fine manually locking the hubs in (whew!)

Little lights are awesome, and actually kinda bright in the snow....

This happened too :D

And doggo wanted more snow balls.

java230 SuperDork
11/27/17 4:26 p.m.

My cushions finally came in! Sunbrella fabric, made to my measurements, I like them.

Petrolburner Dork
11/27/17 10:18 p.m.

Dinette looks awesome, what's the support under the table?

java230 SuperDork
11/27/17 10:23 p.m.

In reply to Petrolburner :

Thanks! A piece of steel tube, welded a plate to the top and bottom. Threaded the floor and just screwed to the bottom of the table.

java230 SuperDork
12/4/17 10:28 a.m.

It was a great weekend!!

The LED lights are [I]great[/I] really really good. We missed a family of dear that I am not sure I would have seen otherwise. Driving in nuking snow was not an issue, gave a bit of a Star Wars hyperspace look going on.

It was a good day for big sticks.

Ski fun! It was amazing, 28" in 48 hours.

Digging it out. Probably didnt need to, pulled right out just fine.

Now for some battery usage. We arrived Friday night ~6pm ish, this was Sunday 8 am ish. Was down a little more before we left. Lots of heat use, no charging at all.

(IIRC we were at 123AH used when we were packing up)

With a 6.07A load on it.

Im thinking the batteries may be a little tired? They were used. 12.3VDC seems low with that little of a draw on them.

Petrolburner Dork
12/4/17 5:15 p.m.

Seems fine to me. Fridge was running too I'm sure.

java230 SuperDork
12/5/17 10:37 a.m.

Petrolburner said:
Seems fine to me. Fridge was running too I'm sure.

Yeah the 6 amp load was the fridge and maxxfan running. Hope its ok. Batteries were cold too. Seemed to be sitting ~12.4 ish wo load.

Enyar Dork
12/5/17 11:13 a.m.

I hate you.

java230 SuperDork
12/5/17 4:35 p.m.

In reply to Enyar :

What no snow in FL?

java230 SuperDork
1/2/18 11:57 a.m.

Just spent a week in the truck, doing this. Snow kinda sucked, but good family time and fun none the less.

Everything worked damn well, need another gas strut on the bed, and some upper cabinets.... And it doesn't charge very well on the generator. Good news is we have enough batteries to not really need it. Went to town once on day 3 and that topped us up enough.

But before we left I had some last minute things to do, as always....Has to get the back door insulated and skinned. The bare aluminum sweated A LOT.

So, out comes the spray adhesive, and a piece of 1" foam.

Then more adhesive and plywood. May need to add some screws later, but its been good for 750 miles so far.

Then without cutting yourself too badly with a razor blade, cut the 1" foam to 1/2"... The frame around the door is steel, it wraps from inside to outside, so I needed a bit of a thermal break there. So 1/2" of foam was glued to the steel.

Then the piece of trim goes on.

And the final bit was to add a bulb seal, keeps the fine dust out, and hopefully most of the water vapor from our breath in.

Ian F MegaDork
1/2/18 12:04 p.m.

That's awesome. I'm sure everyone else in the parking lot was looking at the truck with envy.

crankwalk GRM+ Memberand Dork
1/2/18 1:39 p.m.

That's great that you are getting to use it for it's intended purpose. I love that you go up skiing and it's all white and then when you are working on the truck to insulate it, you have all the green grass and nice weather to do it in. Convenient!

java230 SuperDork
1/2/18 2:00 p.m.

In reply to Ian F :

There were a ton of RV's that showed up for the weekend actually! But I did get quite a few nice rig comments.

In reply to crankwalk :

Yep I was taking advantage of the good weather, it actually snowed the next day too. Its been raining enough that I hadn't found time to work on the back doors.

java230 SuperDork
1/14/18 10:05 p.m.

Floors are cold, really cold. So before the last trip I bought some cheap carpet and cut it to fit the kitchen/eating area. Had to lift the fridge a bit to clear it. I spray glued foam floating floor backing to it so it doesn't scratch up the vinyl flooring. That way it can be popped out for summer. I also didn't do any in front of the door, that way wet boots don't just soak it.

Then I added a drain for the hot water heater. It has a valve it uses when it gets close to freezing to release pressure I guess. Good to know..... It dumped a lot of water out onto the floor. (you can see my ghetto vinyl tube in the carpet pic) now its a proper drain, down through the floor.

Drill big old hole.

Make up the fitting and measure the piece of pipe needed. I am using PEX, its awesome.

And wala, water goes out the bottom of the truck!

Also got the Ham radio nearly installed. Just need to finish running power..... Picked up a cheap ft7900

For as big as the truck is, there is no where on the dash to put a damn remote face plate! I settled on this, its low, not going to be adjustable while driving, but should work ok.

Also added a second gas strut to the bed, it wouldn't stay open when we stacked all the stuff on it that end up on horizontal surfaces....

java230 SuperDork
1/18/18 10:01 a.m.

I think I do well with deadlines..... My wife mentioned that the microwave would be a nice luxury to have. So Microwave it is. Inverter will run it, barely. Pulls ~85 amps, microwave makes odd noises, but it works!

So I made a little shelf for it to sit on, drilled small recesses for the feet of the microwave, hopefully that keeps it in place enough. Flipping the grey water lug sideways made enough room under the sink for it to fit.

Need to zip tie the power wire up out of the way, but it shares the 120V plug with the fridge. Should work well.

Also got the water pump switch installed. For some stupid reason I can't get the "on" position when the LED is up, but I didn't power the LED anyway.... Tucked out of the way where it wont get bumped on or off.