Great trip and glad the pig did very well this time. Amazing mileage!
Checked out fuel receipts and I was a bit off, first stop DARBY MT ,16 GAL second stop DELL, MT, 10 GAL and my last fuel stop was in EDEN, ID, 13 GAL So I bought 39 Gallons of fuel not the 30 I was thinking so probably closer to 22MPH average.
Some of the changes we made for this trip to our camping setup made a big difference.
I bought an electric chainsaw the Milwaukee M18 FUEL, we used this every day to cut firewood and only used one battery. I believe this will go on every camping trip from now on.
I used to use a Toughbook with a few different mapping software installed and recently I’ve been using a Samsung tablet with OsmAnd+ mapping software, this is our second longer off road trip using this and it worked very well for both of them. I loaded the first half of this trip beforehand and we decided to follow
@scrappdaddy for the second half to Yellowstone so we transferred his paper map information to the tablet and used it to keep him honest. I will retire the Toughbook and rely on the tablet from now on.
We have always carried a SAT phone in the glove box to use in case of emergency and sometime last year they bumped my bill up to over $1000.00, I’m willing to pay that if it was my only option but it got me looking into something that better suites our needs and could save some money. Days before we left for this trip I ordered a Garmin InReach Mini and spent an hour or two learning to use it, this thing is awesome and we had a blast sending our daughter regular updates with our location and she was having just as much fun following along. I wish I could have spent a little more time learning how to use it and took advantage of more of the built-in options but so far I’m really pleased with this little unit.
I’ve been wanting to try a refrigerator for a few years now but it’s hard to justify and Mrs. J Mack was adamant that after I bought the 4 expensive ice chest I had to have we were going to use one of them. I was bouncing between the Dometic CFX3 35 and the CFX3 45 for several days and settled on the 45, I bought a 45 and a week later I got an E-mail saying the unit they told me was in stock ready to ship was not available, after a few phone calls checking my options they agreed to sell me a Dometic CFX3 55IM they had in stock for the same $$$. I am really happy I ended up with the larger unit and my wife and I both think it’s easier to load and unload than the 45 Yetti, I don’t ever see us going back to standard ice now and my wife used the term “game changer” for the first time in her life. My only regret is not doing this sooner.
The new
LiFePO battery worked perfect and I like having the peace of mind of knowing I have an extra 60Ah in a small lightweight package if needed.
We have been using some old Coleman sleeping bags we bought somewhere around the time we got married and again Mrs. J Mack didn’t see a need to upgrade and pretty much just told me NO. I end up with a bunch of Cabela’s bucks every year and try to spend them on camping gear we wouldn’t normally buy as a way of sneaking in cool stuff and be able to tell the Mrs. it was free and keep a straight face. My wife says the Mummy bags make her feel claustrophobic and trying to find something that packs small and keeps you warm that’s not the “Mummy style” was a bit of a challenge, I found the Kelty Galactic 30 DriDown Sleeping Bag and it was reasonably inexpensive so I ordered two for this trip, we both agree we’ve never slept better camping and feel like these new bags are a big part of that. Time will tell if these cheap bags will hold up but for now I’m sold.
Things I wish I had on this trip that I bought for the next trip.
Now that I have a chain saw I was wanting to split some of the rounds and really don’t like the idea of carrying an AX just for this, I was looking at some of the guys that use a large Bowe knife for splitting wood and may also try that at some point but I bought a GEDORE OX 41-1000 Twisted Aluminum Splitting Wedge to try for now, it won’t take up much room or add much weight to our camping gear so I’m hoping it will work for us.
One of my dogs found a gut pile or something similar and must have eaten the entire thing before starting her poop every hour on the hour for two days deal she had in the middle of this trip, we quickly ran out of plastic bags to pick it up and had to borrow a shovel several times to bury it, again not something I want to devote a ton of space to so I ordered a small VSMPO Titanium Shovel to try.
Like everything else part of the fun of camping for me is using the gear we buy and thinking of ways to improve and this trip was a success for all the new camping gear.
@PabloCruise, hope that helps.
?? Did you air down or is that rear tire not doing good ???
