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I haven’t posted much in a while, because my RV and truck related projects came to a halt as I got everything close to where I wanted it.

Still, a few things remain. I need to rebuild the RO manifold so that it doesn’t leak. And I need to check all the plumbing, because I didn’t really believe it was going to get into the 20s here, and thus failed to winterize the RV properly. Hopefully I won’t go find a puddled mess from broken lines when I get there. Honestly, I doubt it. It didn’t stay in the 20s that long.

My tailgate has been bothering me since the day I tried to paint it black, so I threw on the first coat of Herculiner today.  It’s basically bedliner in a can. I’m waiting for the first coat to set up before doing a second, but it looks good so far. I used various grades of sandpaper to knock most of the surface down to clean, uncoated aluminum, but in the end gave up on some of the nooks and crannies and hoped for the best. Due to the design it isn’t really possible to get sandpaper into some areas. It’s a candidate for sandblasting. You are supposed to wait until it is dry to the touch between coats, and the first coat has been on for one hour. It says it may take up to four to reach that point, so I’m not too concerned that it isn’t there yet. While I was waiting for it to dry I also dropped the hitch back down, so the trailer will ride level on trip we’re taking for the end of the year.

I also pulled the CarPC today to replace the left control panel that was broken when I received it, remount it so that it looks better and has less obstructing the buttons, and move the USB hub behind the glove box into a new glove box. I had to modify the hinge on the original glove box, by removing excess plastic, to make the USB hub fit behind it. The hinge eventually failed, causing it to droop. I found a new box on Ebay for fairly cheap and did a better job of installing it than I did the first time around. As a bonus, the USB hub is easily accessible now and I was able to add another USB keyboard (Logitech K400) that stores perfectly in the odd shaped cavity along the center console. Last, I replaced the Verizon USB modem with a JetPack wired in the center console, so that I won’t get an obnoxious pop-up every time I turn on the truck. As a bonus to that, we can use that hotspot for laptops and such.

I’m kicking myself for not buying one of the Airdog 4G lift pumps for my truck when they were on special for Black Friday, and again for Christmas. I intended to buy one but sat on it too long, because even with the specials they are over $600 and there is quite a bit of work involved. It’s the one mod for the engine I think I will do, as it is unlikely to actually void the warranty since it doesn’t open up the engine or require an ECU flash. It’ll help keep the CP4 from grenading and help with the dead pedal these trucks have.