Well prior to the side of the road incidence I posted earlier I:
- Greased the drive train
- did BG EPR and MOA again, seems to keep everything in pretty great shape (I got my 7,500 mile oil analysis back from Blackstone and it looked great)
- Also test ATF, I'll probably post that in the relevant thread. Did a drain and fill on this one, but even though I had a new transmission bolt to replace the old I strip the hole too much and didnt have a tap on hand so I need to get one. I couldnt get the new one in at all so I put the old in and put FIPG all around it and tightened as much as I could. Its not holding and not leaking so I'll probably just leave it till next oil change.
- Also did two cans of BG44K in the gas tank after EPR and the oil change. I get horrible gas mileage and I think all you who post these 400 mile on one tank post are liars. But I got a noticeable improvement on the way home fully loaded with a solid 13.67 mpg! I'm usually at like 12 with bumper, awning, couple boxes of gear on the roof, plus a cooler, plus water tank, plus five humans in the car....it tends to be heavy.
After the infamous side of the road and tow of shame to friends garage we ended up redoing the wheel bearings on the drivers side and putting in a new cv axle and new snap ring which I luckily had sitting in the garage and my brother-in-law drove down to us. Which now between the greased drive train and hub flange/new cv the R-N-D clunk is pretty much gone. Front diff bushing still needs replacing but eh.
Anyways arrived at our campsite in South Carolina at midnight instead 3 pm, whole place was flooded and had to drive up next to the dune/beach access point, which ended up being a pretty killer spot. All my photos are of kids and not the car so this is literally the only photo that works for this forum. Pretty good trip considering I went beach camping 3 kids (4yo, 3yo, and 9 month old). Borrowed some blow-up paddle-boards from a friend and blew em up with the air compressor, might be my next toy.
- Also going to recommend a 3 gadgets/toys (I finally got some unemployment money from when our plant had to shut down due to Rona back in April)
1) 11 inch dewalt jobsite fan, I run it off 2x of their 6ah batteries and bring a charger along to run off my solar/AGM, over friday-monday I used 1 battery and it moves a serious amount of air. plus if you have their chainsaw, their flex volt 20v/60v can run this fan or your chainsaw which can be space saver.
2) IDK why but we've always had crummy beach towels that come from who knows where, they just show up, they weigh 20 lbs, and stick to sand like duct tape. So I finally got a set of turkish towels and they really save a beach trip, light weight, store small, dry fast, and sand does not stick to them, theyre excellent for rubbing sand off of kids too.
3) I got 2x JBL charge 4 bluetooth speakers, 20 hr battery life, they pair for a stereo sound, and water proof. Used them all weekend to blast tiki music to complete the ambiance. highly recommend.
3.5) I built a pvc pressurized water tank on the side and it was great. So nice to rinse kids off before getting in the car or tent. Got really warm in the summer sun. We went down to Florida after South Carolina and were at a beach with no showers and used it (it was warmer than our homes shower, which was actually not great).
Crossed 512,000 (officially, speedometers been off due to tires for a while) miles on the truck. This was the 3rd Virginia-Florida trip this year, and there's still two more to go.
Went ahead and cleaned the MAF sensor and Throttle Body (gunked up pretty good) as well.
. Had to elongate the mounting holes on my ARB bar (and sand and paint the unprotected area) but the big light still doesn't have enough clearance to allow proper aiming. The top of the light is touching the top bar and the lights are still pointed down!
