Java's F450 'Rough Road' RV

WashingtonTaco said:
Noticed on a GXV FB post today that their rear discs are exposed on the the single rear wheels as well. Come up with any ideas yet?
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Thinking a "shark fin" bolted to the bottom on the Ubolt plate.

Gxv runs the same wheels on their brown smaller truck. With rear spacers.... Need to email them and see if they make them in house or have a source. Matches track width that way.
 
Finally spent the $$ on a good set of SAE rated lights I could run on the street. The beam and cutoff is impressive.

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I'm cheap, so I did not buy the $$ brackets that bolt right in.... Some scrap alu a vise and a hammer and drill, and I made some. Passenger side had different holes in the bumper.... Odd, but both are in place.
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And Ford is nice enough to use the same wiring harness in all their trucks, simple as ordering the headlight switch with the fog light function (at $30 whopping dollars for the OE part!), popping it in the dash, and connecting to the harness that is run to just above the drivers headlight.

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Done.
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PSA Pre fit your tire chains, these are supposed to fit, my tire size is on the bag, but I ahd to cut 8 links off and remove a cross bar.... Glad In tested them.

Amazing weekend though, We went to find snow, and find it we did! Forecast was way off, ~10" or so at least.

New Rigid's are awesome. Usable light, no one flashed me all weekend, and I can SEE!

The turn off the highway.
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Where we stopped for the night. I drove all the way up in 2wd, apparently I forgot to unlock the hubs last weekend, so I jumped out to lock them in when we hit snow and unlocked them.... No wonder the ass end was squirming around.

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Not a bad view to see in the morning. Snow firmed up over night and it took a fair bit of spinning to back out of there. Parking brake froze too (well the sensor/cable did, brake released, but chime chimed for miles.....)
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Went for a couple of COLD hikes.

Not doing the pass this time of year LOL
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Spotted a black bear in a tree....

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Then headed to a usual spot for the night. It was clear and COLD.

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Hmmmm I may have driven over my mud flap (reverse, ditch, yeah, i did remove it, it just flipped up backwards).... And broken a few clips for the flares in the past..... I guess more clearance is needed.
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What do you mean they dont fit? I have a grinder and sawzall!
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~1.5" of body lip and fender removed. Right where they bolt together (there are two sets of bolts), fender liner pushed back, flare re attached with sheet metal screws. Will need to repeat on other side....
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Waking up after what I can say was the strangest night I have had in awhile..... We rolled in just about 10pm, dumping wet snow, there was a group of three trucks there waiting for one more. I figured that would be the last people we would see of the night.... Nope, about 11pm the UTV's and trucks started coming by, going who knows where, and they didn't stop.... All night long until 5:30 am. I can imagine fueled by nothing more than meth and Bud Light. Yeah dont recommend that spot.

New tires smooth out the little bumps, big bumps are still bumpy. I averaged ~15 mph probably on this road.

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Made our way back down to the highway and headed up Mt Rainer for a little ski touring! First real long ish tour for us. Did just about 2500 vertical up.

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Great ski down!
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Tucked into a campground for the night. We were the only people there. It was quiet, thank god.
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Looking for input!

I want to bond a solar panel (well mounts) to my roof. The mounts and roof are bare Aluminum (well I have the ABS corner mounts, but reading is making me not want to use them due to ABS being hard to bond to). Panel is ~40lbs. Centered in roof.

Options:

Sika 252, its currently cold, it cure REALLY slow in cold (but I can deal with that). Sika does not want any of their products used in RV/Trailer/Vehicle bonding applications. Sika 252 Data
Tensile strength 435psi, elongation at break 400%, tensile lap strength 360psi

3m 5200, cure faster when cold, does not like UV (but the bond area is not exposed to UV?) does not bond to ALU as strongly. 5200 Data
Tensile 705psi, elongation 762%, overlap shear on Alu 393psi

Weldmount AT-6030, weld substitute structural acrylic. Fast cure, does not like low temps. Weldmount Data
Lap shear on alu 2800psi, elongation 100-125%,

Six10 Epoxy, not as flexible, slow cure (faster than 252) in cold six10 Data
Tensile 6440 psi, elongation 7.9%
 
Well my heat set up didnt work much without the panel in place. Roof was just above freezing.... Checked this morning and I think the air gap under the panel is helping, there was no frost at the back edge of the blankets!

Sand all the mounting areas, wipe with acetone, wipe with acetone and wipe with acetone. Apply primer, wait 15 mins for flash off.

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Panel set in place to figure out spacing. I could not use the center mounts(the palstic ones), too much curve in the roof. So I cut and pre drilled some alu angle.

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Bonded the entry gland in place also. I put it in the back over the "storage area" easy place to get wires in, and best possible spot to have a leak in the worst case scenario. Threw some heat packs on it to try to keep it warm.... Covered in a few towels.

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Blankets and tarped for the night, heat cranked inside and roof fan on :D

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Took these this morning, it appears my heating situation is working, although im sure my electricity bill will be lovely :D Pulled the blankets and tarp back yesterday, roof/panel/mounts were 45-50 degrees! And the sika is pretty set up.

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May have gone a little overkill on the wires, its 8ga....

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And a question..... Does it look like I may have a leak in the cab somewhere? That is condensed on the inside..... (remember the heat is on pretty high in there, but it hasn't rained in a week) I see that quite often on the inside, although not usually so much.

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That seems normal to me.. it doesn't take much to steam up a window. I've heard a old tale that a lady's hose sock filled with kitty litter laying on the dash solves this by absorbing the moisture.. but I've not tried it.
 
BushHead said:
That seems normal to me.. it doesn't take much to steam up a window. I've heard a old tale that a lady's hose sock filled with kitty litter laying on the dash solves this by absorbing the moisture.. but I've not tried it.
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Yeah normal when I am in the car for sure, but it hasn't been slept in since last weekend..... It may be residual moisture from then though and its just really cold out.
 
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