So when camping, you'll need to take out 2-3 car seats? I despise dealing with the car seats (except for the one booster seat) so I'd hate to have to do that as part of daily camping setup/takedown when overlanding.
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So when camping, you'll need to take out 2-3 car seats? I despise dealing with the car seats (except for the one booster seat) so I'd hate to have to do that as part of daily camping setup/takedown when overlanding.
- Thread starter
- #222
The 6-year olds are in boosters now, so just unbuckle one car seat and stack 2 boosters.
- Thread starter
- #223
I’d been stalking camp sites at big bend Texas for weeks, but everything was booked solid. Suddenly, there was a cancellation 1 week out - the weather dudes said highs of 55F and booked it. Sweet!
I hurried to finish up my sleeping platform, and started going through my rig-get-ready checklist. Ordered a few amazon things like an 18” hitch extension and new camping toilet. It was going to be a sweet New Year’s Eve!
2 days before the trip, highs had dropped to 50F... no problemo. We have a tendency to YOLO, so went ahead and packed a few things for a Colorado detour.
1 day before trip, high dropped to 40F.. hmmm, okay, but maybe I should buy a little propane heater just in case.
Day of trip, wake up at 6am, pack last minute items and load up the kids.....
After a few hours of driving, one of the kids needs to pee. Pull over to see that the rear was riding lowww. My 18” hitch extension had increased my tongue weight by (insert physics formula for mass * length... or something like that). I had done gone pissed off AHC for sure. Hadn’t noticed and difference in handling, dash showed Normal height, and wasn’t bottoming out. I tried to raise to Hi mode, but she wasn’t having it. I’m used to flashing up arrow and the lift doesn’t complete so it reverts back to showing N, but this time there was absolutely no flashing arrow at all.
Not a huge deal, but I begin to think about some things that could go wrong. Then I had my wife login to mud and send an sos message to @TeCKis300, and he was grateful enough to bust out of the Mud Matrix and give me a call. I remembered that he tows a monster airstream and knew he’d be able to put me at ease.
After another 3-4 hours of driving, we start hearing that it’s snowing at big bend??? Whatever, it’s sunny where we are. But then we start hitting traffic. And then it starts snowing on us.
Freak snow storm? Or weathermen suck?
Forget the AHC issues, it’s snowing!
(Keep in mind that my longest previous road trip with this beast (and all my bolt-ons) was 2 hours @ 150 miles.)
I text @grinchy about driving on ice, and he sends back some cryptic Project Manager style advice about driving like my grandmother is in the back seat holding a bowl of thanksgiving gravy. It was exactly what I needed to hear.
We got stuck in 4 hours of traffic, and called it quits after 13 hours of driving and booked a hotel room. We literally passed 10+ semi trucks that had driven off the road or had gotten stuck.
The next morning, after 30 minutes of leaving the hotel, we stop for a snow mountain picture and I Smelled burning rubber!
Forget the snow, the rig is going to blow up!
Let me tell you, there’s something about not having cell reception, and being 35 miles down a dirt road, with your entire family... I’ve never been so hyper aware of every little click/rattle/creak. It was the most nerve racking drive I had ever been on. But every mile down that dirt road, when my clicking wheel didn’t fall off and my RTT didn’t fly off, it became the most exhilarating dive I had ever been on!
We had to pass through mud & snow, but finally made it to the camp site!
I dropped down to 20psi on the dirt road, but never took AHC to comfort mode due to my rear basket.
Overnight Lows were in the high teens, and all 6 of us ended up sleeping in the ikamper (with 30 minute burts of propane heater).
After 2 nights of camping, we were just getting our groove on. But the entire park a was closing for some sort of hunting event.
No problem, we’ll head up to white sands NM and eventually CO.
Nope, NM is shuts down??
Start to head back home, when the wife had a crazy idea to bypass NM and drive to Lubbock (and then cut across to CO). Done!
Houston to Fort Stockton: 506 miles (13hrs)
FS to Presidio: 150
35 miles of dirt road to campsite (lost a shackle from the vibration, Prinsu fell off one of the spacers)
Campsite back to Fort Stockton: 185 miles
Fort Stockton to Lubbock TX: 225 miles
Lubbock to Pagosa Springs, Co: 465 miles
= 1,566 miles
I hurried to finish up my sleeping platform, and started going through my rig-get-ready checklist. Ordered a few amazon things like an 18” hitch extension and new camping toilet. It was going to be a sweet New Year’s Eve!
2 days before the trip, highs had dropped to 50F... no problemo. We have a tendency to YOLO, so went ahead and packed a few things for a Colorado detour.
1 day before trip, high dropped to 40F.. hmmm, okay, but maybe I should buy a little propane heater just in case.
Day of trip, wake up at 6am, pack last minute items and load up the kids.....
After a few hours of driving, one of the kids needs to pee. Pull over to see that the rear was riding lowww. My 18” hitch extension had increased my tongue weight by (insert physics formula for mass * length... or something like that). I had done gone pissed off AHC for sure. Hadn’t noticed and difference in handling, dash showed Normal height, and wasn’t bottoming out. I tried to raise to Hi mode, but she wasn’t having it. I’m used to flashing up arrow and the lift doesn’t complete so it reverts back to showing N, but this time there was absolutely no flashing arrow at all.
Not a huge deal, but I begin to think about some things that could go wrong. Then I had my wife login to mud and send an sos message to @TeCKis300, and he was grateful enough to bust out of the Mud Matrix and give me a call. I remembered that he tows a monster airstream and knew he’d be able to put me at ease.
After another 3-4 hours of driving, we start hearing that it’s snowing at big bend??? Whatever, it’s sunny where we are. But then we start hitting traffic. And then it starts snowing on us.
Freak snow storm? Or weathermen suck?
Forget the AHC issues, it’s snowing!
(Keep in mind that my longest previous road trip with this beast (and all my bolt-ons) was 2 hours @ 150 miles.)
I text @grinchy about driving on ice, and he sends back some cryptic Project Manager style advice about driving like my grandmother is in the back seat holding a bowl of thanksgiving gravy. It was exactly what I needed to hear.
We got stuck in 4 hours of traffic, and called it quits after 13 hours of driving and booked a hotel room. We literally passed 10+ semi trucks that had driven off the road or had gotten stuck.
The next morning, after 30 minutes of leaving the hotel, we stop for a snow mountain picture and I Smelled burning rubber!
Forget the snow, the rig is going to blow up!
Let me tell you, there’s something about not having cell reception, and being 35 miles down a dirt road, with your entire family... I’ve never been so hyper aware of every little click/rattle/creak. It was the most nerve racking drive I had ever been on. But every mile down that dirt road, when my clicking wheel didn’t fall off and my RTT didn’t fly off, it became the most exhilarating dive I had ever been on!
We had to pass through mud & snow, but finally made it to the camp site!
I dropped down to 20psi on the dirt road, but never took AHC to comfort mode due to my rear basket.
Overnight Lows were in the high teens, and all 6 of us ended up sleeping in the ikamper (with 30 minute burts of propane heater).
After 2 nights of camping, we were just getting our groove on. But the entire park a was closing for some sort of hunting event.
No problem, we’ll head up to white sands NM and eventually CO.
Nope, NM is shuts down??
Start to head back home, when the wife had a crazy idea to bypass NM and drive to Lubbock (and then cut across to CO). Done!
Houston to Fort Stockton: 506 miles (13hrs)
FS to Presidio: 150
35 miles of dirt road to campsite (lost a shackle from the vibration, Prinsu fell off one of the spacers)
Campsite back to Fort Stockton: 185 miles
Fort Stockton to Lubbock TX: 225 miles
Lubbock to Pagosa Springs, Co: 465 miles
= 1,566 miles
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- Thread starter
- #224
Pagosa didn’t seem like the nicest town, but all the kids cared about was the real snow (unlike the patchy snow/ice at Big Bend).
Next was an easy drive to Durango area where we found a cabin on some dude’s 135 acres. I really got to test out the KO2s on icy un-plowed roads. It was awesome!
Durango/Purgatory area
Next was an easy drive to Durango area where we found a cabin on some dude’s 135 acres. I really got to test out the KO2s on icy un-plowed roads. It was awesome!
Durango/Purgatory area
It’s not an adventure without the threat of inclement weather, getting stuck, or a malfunction!
A garmin inreach or similar would be a great peace of mind to add to your load out.
A garmin inreach or similar would be a great peace of mind to add to your load out.
Sounds like a fun time! Looks like you got your money's worth from the hitch basket.
Bummer about the vibration - did all that stuff shake loose on aired down tires?
Bummer about the vibration - did all that stuff shake loose on aired down tires?
- Thread starter
- #228
Great idea! When my last company was purchased, there was an Enron-type free for all on non-data bearing devices. I got myself an Iridium Sat phone, but unfortunately you have to prepay minutes at $1/min, they expire, and I forgot to pack it
Lesson learned.Maybe I was going too fast at 30mph, but the worst parts were long stretches of ripples that looked to be from a dozer track. One of my shackles fell off, and one of my roof rack spacers got knocked out of alignment. Now there’s a new creaking sound from up top
I started a new thread about the smell, but unsure what it was. Could have been tire or parking brake, but hasn’t happened again.
The AHC is definitely overloaded, but still semi-functional. I can feel it drop into fast low mode at 62+mph, but it won’t raise to Hi even after I unload the basket. However, everything goes back to normal If I shut it off and restart without any gear in the basket.
how much weight is in the basket?
Epic trip and I'm living vicariously through your photos! Gotta give props to your wife for being a partner in such an adventure! It's giving me lots of thoughts about how I can add to the rig to car camp without the trailer in tow. Now if only my wife could agree.
AHC is constant height up to a certain payload. Beyond that, it will be best effort and resorts to putting excess load on the coil springs. Much like a normal suspension would, which manifests with some lower ride height. It's not necessarily an error state, rather what it falls back on when the hydraulic pressure exceeds a certain threshold.
And that stock threshold is pretty darn high, from my experience, somewhere in the 2000lb+ rear axle load region before it gives up holding constant height. Note that the whole payload of the LX is rated at 1385lbs, so the AHC system has some serious payload margin built in. That's stock. With a sensor lift taking load off the coil springs, that may reduce constant height payload capacity to a degree. Which is why I use 30mm coil spacers to expand payload capacity and compensate for a sensor lift.
The basket is an interesting thing. Because it's cantilevered, it's not only adding it's static weight to the rear axle. It's also transferring some weight that would be on the front axle, to the rear axle. So if the basket was say 200lbs, I wouldn't be surprised that it translates to something like 400 lbs additional on the rear.
Pretty incredible test that @radman put his rig through. I'd say it passed with flying colors!
More mods... airbags anyone?
forum.ih8mud.com
This is awesome!
But what about the burning rubber?? And AHC resolved itself?? Can't leave us hanging like that...
AHC is constant height up to a certain payload. Beyond that, it will be best effort and resorts to putting excess load on the coil springs. Much like a normal suspension would, which manifests with some lower ride height. It's not necessarily an error state, rather what it falls back on when the hydraulic pressure exceeds a certain threshold.
And that stock threshold is pretty darn high, from my experience, somewhere in the 2000lb+ rear axle load region before it gives up holding constant height. Note that the whole payload of the LX is rated at 1385lbs, so the AHC system has some serious payload margin built in. That's stock. With a sensor lift taking load off the coil springs, that may reduce constant height payload capacity to a degree. Which is why I use 30mm coil spacers to expand payload capacity and compensate for a sensor lift.
The basket is an interesting thing. Because it's cantilevered, it's not only adding it's static weight to the rear axle. It's also transferring some weight that would be on the front axle, to the rear axle. So if the basket was say 200lbs, I wouldn't be surprised that it translates to something like 400 lbs additional on the rear.
Pretty incredible test that @radman put his rig through. I'd say it passed with flying colors!
More mods... airbags anyone?
Adding Airbags to AHC
Picture is probably too subtle to show but it's part of the why - adding airbags creates the ability to level the vehicle side to side and front to back for backcountry car camping. In the pic, I have the right side jacked up 2" with about 25 PSI in the right rear bag. Secondly, while AHC has...
forum.ih8mud.com
- Thread starter
- #231
Pagosa Springs —> Durango —> Silverton —> Ouray —> Crested Butte = 260 miles
driving on the ”million dollar highway” was unreal. The views, drop offs, switchbacks, and tunnels were amazing to drive. Talk about white knuckle driving... I probably missed a lot of the good parts since I was so focused on the road.
The wife had a teacher conference call, so we dropped her off at a coffee shop in Ouray and went exploring up some dirt roads.
Ouray to Crested Butte was a lot more tame, but we lost sunlight and came dangerously close to hitting a deer crossing the road.
the monster adapt light bar is “illegal” to use on road, but I started blasting it if there were no cars in sight. It’s like taking a bazooka to a knife fight...
Crested Butte is freaking cold. The first morning the dash showed -6F, and i had a whole new set of noises come along with the cold start.
The leather around the parking brake was like cardboard, the steering lock solenoid sounded like a dying cat when it disengaged, and there was a weird whirring sound from the engine for about 30 seconds (but some quick searches told me that these are all normal).
We have one night left in CB, and then we have another big decision to make.
We can head to Lake Tahoe (family there and a free place to stay) (but we’ll be 24-30 hrs from Houston), we start heading home via Amarillo or Lubbock (8hrs), or find one more place in CO like Colorado Springs, Creed, or South Fork. Any ideas?
Ouray
Mt. Crested Butte
Silverton
Crested Butte -6!
driving on the ”million dollar highway” was unreal. The views, drop offs, switchbacks, and tunnels were amazing to drive. Talk about white knuckle driving... I probably missed a lot of the good parts since I was so focused on the road.
The wife had a teacher conference call, so we dropped her off at a coffee shop in Ouray and went exploring up some dirt roads.
Ouray to Crested Butte was a lot more tame, but we lost sunlight and came dangerously close to hitting a deer crossing the road.
the monster adapt light bar is “illegal” to use on road, but I started blasting it if there were no cars in sight. It’s like taking a bazooka to a knife fight...
Crested Butte is freaking cold. The first morning the dash showed -6F, and i had a whole new set of noises come along with the cold start.
The leather around the parking brake was like cardboard, the steering lock solenoid sounded like a dying cat when it disengaged, and there was a weird whirring sound from the engine for about 30 seconds (but some quick searches told me that these are all normal).
We have one night left in CB, and then we have another big decision to make.
We can head to Lake Tahoe (family there and a free place to stay) (but we’ll be 24-30 hrs from Houston), we start heading home via Amarillo or Lubbock (8hrs), or find one more place in CO like Colorado Springs, Creed, or South Fork. Any ideas?
Ouray
Mt. Crested Butte
Silverton
Crested Butte -6!
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Super excited to get to see you putting this beast to good use!
I think that building in your Silverton photo is of the old Montanya whiskey tasting room...sad to see it replaced by a café. Fun memories on that roof-top.
What a trip though; keep the photos coming! Wish I could say that drive back to Houston will be as exciting.
Tahoe without a doubt. It's practically in your backyard now.
Wow! Great trip. Why not head southwest to Arches/CanyonLands (Main loop closed) or even Escalante (Even Further West) and head down to flagstaff before going back east. Slight departure, but nothing like Tahoe.
Awesome adventure!
- Thread starter
- #239
Just. Can’t do it. The drive home would take 3+ days.
Haven’t used the RTT since We left Texas
This was my original dilemma: Had we planned a CO trip, I would have brought the roof cargo box instead of the RTT and left the crazy cantilevering basket at home.
Been seeking out cabins and vrbos.
i think we’ve decided to hit up Breck for a few days. Or Vail, or copper mountain?
Traveling during the CoCo has been a little odd. Seems like the towns themselves don’t really matter and it’s been more about the house/weather we can find. (Crested Butte was a ghost town)
