Towing/ Camping /Trailers

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Almost done. Just needs lights and a tag:

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I have done zero on mine since before crawl. Cleaning the garage and storage room has taken a ton of time and I'm not done yet. I saw stuff today I have not seen for 12 years.
Could not decide between sand blast or aircraft stripper. My cheap ass won out, so I need to go buy some paint stripper and start getting nasty. Maybe Jace wants to earn some cash during the holiday?

Great job PMC! You, Ron and Nolen are great inspiration.
 
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The Ham dominos are starting to fall...slippery slope...first, it's overlanding, then it's fellow nerds in distant places, then aliens, then this board goes dormant due to the ham chatter, then you grow pony tails and move back in with your parents and only come out of the basement for meatloaf...be careful fellas...

for the record, I had the pony tail and lived with my parents when I got my license, neither one is the case any longer.

I believe the unofficial TLCA freq is 146.460 MHz, but it doesn't really matter as long as you are all TX'ing and RX'ing on the same freq. That's called simplex mode (direct radio to radio). Not likely that anyone is going to hear y'all that ain't looking for you. It's when you go through a repeater that you open yourself up to scrutiny.

I got one of those hand mic deals and it didn't work, probably a lemon. But the $20 mag mount antenna is totally worth it. The rechargeables that come in these radios will likely last you all week, but if you're worried you can find a battery eliminator on Amz too. It's a cig plug on one end and replaces the battery pack on the other end.

The TLCA for some reason seems to have adopted 146.460 as the simplex frequency on trails that the NorCal crew has been using for a long time. The alternate frequency seems to be 146.400 in the event that 146.460 is in use. Out here, there are a few simplex nets that appear on that frequency and when someone's running 100 watts from a base station with a monster antenna, it'll clobber car to car quite easily.

Totally agree that the mag mount is worth it from a performance standpoint, baofeng antennas are a compromise - basically just decent enough to not melt the radio. The antenna posted earlier in the thread seems decent enough, and has the lofty accomplishment of having both a choking hazard warning and a prop 65 warning too. Can honestly say I've not seen that before on an antenna. That antenna, due to its size, will have performance fall off drastically outside the ham band. Dual band antennas are very narrow banded, so I would not expect that antenna to give as good of performance on a random GMRS frequency in the 462 MHz range as I would expect on a ham simplex frequency such as 446.025.

Grab a couple. The failure rate has been pretty high.

If you want to why I'm sure we could get @wagon4wd to elaborate...he just loves these little s*** radios.

:bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang:

You can even run over that radio in Hot Springs and it'll still work! We have tested them! lol

having had one apart, I can say that I'm shocked by that.

Given that this thread seems to have more of an overlanding slant, HTs really only work for car to car. I end up lots of places where in addition to having no cell service, a trip back to pavement can easily exceed 60 miles, nevermind how far town is from that point. Because of this, I have mobile radios instead of handhelds in the wheeling rigs. That and a repeater book can generally get you a hold of someone who can pass along pertinent information to someone who can do something about it if the need arises - you'd be surprised how far a mobile with a decent antenna can go. Another thing to think about, I tend to use UHF on the trail instead of VHF. First, UHF tends to penetrate the vehicle better, so groups that have a few people with HTs will generally find better performance on UHF than VHF. HT antennas are also more efficient on UHF than VHF. Second, my fridge puts out noise that comes in pretty hot on VHF when the compressor is running. I've seen this from the new vintage ARB fridges as well as mine. It will get into an HT, so it's not in the power line. I suppose I'll figure this out some day.
 
I have done zero on mine since before crawl. Cleaning the garage and storage room has taken a ton of time and I'm not done yet. I saw stuff today I have not seen for 12 years.
Could not decide between sand blast or aircraft stripper. My cheap ass won out, so I need to go buy some paint stripper and start getting nasty. Maybe Jace wants to earn some cash during the holiday?

Great job PMC! You, Ron and Nolen are great inspiration.

Thank you. Hopefully you will see this before you log on again next month :) One thing you might want to look at is a product called "Rust Kutter" that they only sell (as far as I can tell) at tractor supply. Not only does it convert/treat rust on exposed metal, but it strips paint as well. 2 birds; 1 stone. You are still going to have to get a respirator and sand, because some of that stuff is caked on their 3 or 4 layers deep, but it will make quicker work of it.

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Great tech PMC! Rust Kutter it is. What gloves won't melt?

Give me some specs for a good respirator please.

And FYI, I am the original web wheeler and rarely miss Mud for a day unless I'm at the Crawl!
 
I used the spray bottle of the product that you can get at tractor supply. If you buy the bigger jug just dump it in spray bottle. Douse it on there pretty good. As far as gloves go, just get the thick nitrile gloves from any big box in case you get any over spray on your hands.

Let it soak for a while and when the paint starts to peel up, get after it with a chisel. It takes a couple of days for the chemical reaction to convert the rust and kill it. It will turn white-ish on the bare rust when its done with its magic. You can sand it down when it its done for a smooth surface to paint or you can re-apply if needed (only in really bad areas).

The respirator I use (and it works really well) is this 3M (Lowe's next to the hard hats and safety glasses).

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P.S. I'm happy to come help when you decide to dig in. If you end up taking the tub off to work on the frame, it's easier with an extra set of hands.
 

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