I finally received the new windshield mount for my Garmin Dash Cam 35 (the adhesive is permanent, so I had to order a new mount for the new truck) and probed out various power sources to find the best place to install.
The 12v lead to the mirror is tied to the ACC/ON ignition positions, making it ideal for this application. I spliced a tee into it, along with a 5A inline fuse, and a 12V to 5V USB converter from Amazon that is tucked into the mirror housing. This allowed for a tidy, almost factory look.
Keystone ships the same Alpine floor plan with two designations – the 3730FB and the 3731FB. The former has a two-way RV refrigerator while the latter has a Samsung residential unit. We opted for the 3730FB, thinking it would be better for off-grid camping but eventually came to regret that decision. I’ve looked at converting the unit to fit a residential fridge for a while, but it’s a costly and laborious undertaking.
The included fridge is a Dometic RM1350, which is among the larger RV refrigerators available. It has panels that match the cabinets in the RV, though I didn’t get photos of them before removing it. It can run off of 120v or propane, but has some issues maintaining desired temperatures and we’ve had quite a few issues with it over the years.
Removed the doors and prepared to pull the unit
We purchased a GE GYE18JSLSS on sale for the fourth of July from Home Depot. It’s the only refrigerator I could find, anywhere, that fits in the space and has both a water dispenser and an ice maker.
New (left), old (right)
I had to remove quite a bit of trim and modify the cabinet a bit, but the new fridge fits well.
I still need to trim out the top of the refrigerator. I decided the easiest way to do this is a cellular blind that is custom fit for the opening, so one has been ordered in “chocolate” color.
I capped off the propane and ordered a Xantrex XM1000 inverter, which is what shipped with the 3731FB. I installed it up in the front basement and connected it to the existing battery, through a 150A inline fuse. I ran two runs of Romex 14/3 through the underbody from the breaker panel to the inverter, and teed off the “General” 15A circuit (which apparently powers the fridge) and added the inverter in the middle. The new output of the breaker is wired to the input of the inverter, then the output of the inverter is wired to the previous output of the breaker. This places the inverter inline, where it will provide inverter power when the input is dead, otherwise, it will pass the input through to the output.
I ran a braided steel water line from under the kitchen sink, into the cable tray of the slide, and up though the tube that held the old propane line. I wrapped the exposed area in some pipe insulation and used a Sharkbite fitting to tee off the cold connection and supply the unit with water.
I secured the base of the refrigerator to prevent it from rolling forward and then ran four metal rails side to side over the top of the fridge, which were spares from decommissioned servers. They should prevent the fridge from tipping forward and lock it into place. We test-towed the RV about ten miles, adding in a few fast(er) turns and a railroad crossing, and the refrigerator doesn’t appear to have moved any.
We now have a much larger fridge/freezer with filtered ice and water so we don’t need to carry tons of bottles of water with us on each trip. If we’re doing a lot of activities, we’ll go through a 24 pack or larger each day and the old fridge would struggle to catch up with room temp bottles constantly being added as cold ones were removed. The extra temperature stability, reduction in fire risk, and addition of filtered water/ice will be a nice improvement.
I received and installed both the aux tank/toolbox combo and the hitch adapter yesterday.
The aux tank is a gravity based unit that is intended to feed from the bottom of the tank directly into the fuel filler neck. I used that configuration on my old truck, but decided to modify it a bit on the new one. I ordered various fittings, a filter, a small 12V pump and solenoid. The solenoid I received was the wrong one, but after some testing it turns out the pump will not flow anything unless it is on, so it acts as one. Perfect.
I had to cut into the factory filler neck and install a tee. Unlike GM, Ram uses a metal filler neck with little working room so this was more of a task than anticipated. I ended up getting away with only one cut since the neck already fits into a boot at one end, and I made that cut using a raw hacksaw blade because I couldn’t fit the entire saw in there. I drilled a 3/4″ hole through the side of the bed to run the line from the tank through. This approach worked out fairly well because I was able to avoid getting debris into the fuel tank by cutting with the filler neck completely disconnected from the tank.
I plumbed the gravity feed at the bottom of the tank through the included ball valve, up into a hole I drilled in the back of the toolbox, and into the pump. Then I ran the pump output back out of the shroud and into a fuel filter/ water separator which I mounted on the side of the box. The output of the filter then runs into the tee in the filler neck. I added an external vent for the tank, which you can see sticking out the side.
This truck came with six upfitter switches. I decided to use Aux 1 to power the pump through an inline 5A fuse.
When I push the Aux 1 button, power is provided to the pump and the fuel is pulled from the aux tank, pushed through a filter, and then into the main tank. Since this is only a 2A pump I didn’t use a relay. It took about 10 minutes to go from half a tank to 3/4 tank watching the factory fuel gauge last night. Since there is no automatic cutoff and I removed the restrictive check valve (ball) from the tee included with the installation kit, there is a risk of overflowing if I don’t keep an eye on it while filling – but as far as I know, that is the only downside to this approach. I really like the flexibility of it and the fact that I’m able to properly filter the fuel and separate water from it before moving it to the main tank.
The hitch dropped in with little adjustment and should be ready to tow with.
For many years, I’ve known we were heavily overloaded when trailering our fifth wheel. I chased good money after bad, and spent near five figures strengthening up the suspension, wheels, and tires on my Chevrolet 2500HD to handle the load. And it did great, but in the end was still overweight if you looked at the legal numbers.
While that wasn’t a problem occasionally hobbling to various corners of the state we live in, it has kept us from visiting a handful of places. For example, the idea of going down the twisty entrance to Palo Duro Canyon in possibly inclement conditions had me worried about the stability of the rig, and kept us from spending Christmas there last year. It may not have been a real concern, but it’s a perceived concern, and enough to sideline us.
Another concern is just the legality of it – we were around 2,000lbs over GVWR on any given trip, possibly a touch more. If we were to ever be involved in an accident where insurance companies order weights, it could result in denial of coverage. Or possibly, depending on the state, legal issues. Ultimately this concern kept us close to home.
The 2015 Chevrolet 2500HD LTZ D/A I spent so much money and time on.
Realizing these concerns, and that we’re going to be going through many states and covering a lot of distance, we decided to at least test drive a few DRW trucks. I had some pretty major reservations about this because of all the money and time I had invested into my Chevrolet – that truck was everything I wanted in a truck, for the most part – and what I considered the best compromise of all things – off road capability, towing capability, and comfort.
Moving to a DRW means starting over with a clean slate, and potentially losing a lot of ability to leave the beaten path. It means having to learn how to maneuver an extra couple feet of truck with a sizable increase in width. It means a lot of things I really didn’t want to entertain for many years, leading up to the test drive. But the moment I jumped in and drove a black Ram Laramie Longhorn off a dealer lot for a test drive, I realized it was the right thing to do.
After driving that vehicle, we test drove a few others. We didn’t go looking for the Longhorn edition, but rather a trim level under it. Unfortunately after driving the Longhorn, the trim we went to look at felt cheap and undesirable by comparison. Then we went and drove a fully loaded, top of the line Chevrolet equivalent and left severely unimpressed. The new Ram they released for 2019 is just head and shoulders above its competition.
The black tester I mentioned didn’t have all the features we wanted, so we began working with the dealer to find another that checked off all the boxes. When they found one but we couldn’t agree on price, we started shopping around with some other dealers. In the end we drove a little over an hour away to pick up a Pearl White Laramie Longhorn 3500 DRW with the new 1000lb-ft Cummins HO and AISIN transmission options. It had all the other packages we wanted – Towing Technology Group, Safety group, 12″ Infotainment with upgraded sound, fifth wheel prep, all terrain tires – and a few things we weren’t shopping for, like a sunroof.
When we drove to the dealer, I was under the impression that the truck was white. I really didn’t want a white truck – I associate them with fleet trucks and, while that isn’t necessarily a bad thing – for what they are asking ($$$$$) I didn’t really want a truck that looked like part of a fleet. We sought out and bought a white truck with body-colored bumpers and door handles for Kelly because we thought it was the most feminine looking color combination on those trucks and avoided the fleet look thanks to the bumpers, and I thought that maybe the body colored bumpers would do the same here. Much to my surprise, the truck isn’t actually white, but a light cream color, which looks really nice.
Laramie Longhorn includes saddle leather seating and upholstery and wood trim. One thing I found is that the trim on the steering wheel is slippery and could use some thatching or texture for those of us who palm the wheel during tight turns.We looked into it, but there isn’t an option to configure a truck with the bells and whistles we wanted without leather. We found the Longhorn seating to be much more comfortable than the Laramie.
For the best fuel mileage when towing a heavy trailer all over the country, we’ve decided to leave the front and rear bumpers of the truck, and the suspension and tires alone for the time being. I expect that in the future I’ll go back to body-color-matched Ranch Hand bumpers and the 255/80/17 tires, which are the largest that will fit without requiring a lift. That will not happen until the factory tires wear out – one of the reasons I chose this truck is because it came with the optional, hard to find, all-terrain tires instead of the common highway tires they order on all of these.
A must have is another auxiliary fuel tank/ toolbox combo. I had a RDS 51 gallon tank in chrome on my old truck, and ordered the 60 gallon version in black for this one. I decided to change the way I hook it into the truck, and will be using one of the upfitter switches in the dash to power an electric pump. No more getting out of the truck to manually mess with a ball valve. That should be shipping this week.
I’ve had roll-up tonneau covers on my last few trucks, but that interfered with the toolbox lid on my old truck. Instead of dealing with that interference again, I shopped around and ended up ordering the Fold-A-Cover G4 Elite. It’s a hard cover consisting of four panels that can be opened from either end of the truck bed, and folds up flat enough over the toolbox to tow a fifth wheel with. It’ll be really nice to have a locking bed for storing valuable equipment.
I really hate dealer advertising on vehicles, so I removed the rear mud flaps from the truck that had dealer logos on them. I was going to remove the logos but couldn’t get them off with acetone, paint thinner, heat gun, or a razor, and marred up the finish a bit too much when attempting 220-grid sandpaper. They felt cheap anyway, so I decided to order the RAM logo ones from the Mopar accessory store. They should be a nice upgrade.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how this truck handles the RV but have to wait for an adapter plate to come in so I can put my hitch in it. After doing a lot of research, I decided to keep the Sidewinder pinbox active for the turning radius improvements even though it is no longer necessary to make 90° turns.
This new truck is really exciting to us and we’re happy we did it. Even if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, it gives us peace of mind – I no longer have to worry about weights or the legal gray area I was messing with. And having a DRW/long bed opens up all sorts of possibilities for us in the future that weren’t on the table with the SRW we traded.
We’ve been slowly inching towards a long-term goal of ours, which is to full-time in the RV for a while while we are “young”.
We purchased our first home back in January 2014 – a small, 1345 sq ft fixer-upper on a “large” (1/4 acre, which is much smaller than we actually want) lot that was at the bottom of the price bracket for our area – and put a lot of time and effort into making it into what it is today. I’m probably a bit biased in saying this, but I believe it to currently be among the nicest houses in our neighborhood. Five years later, we’re looking to get out of our starter home and build (not buy, unless we find something absolutely perfect) our forever home. We have a long list of goals for that home, and need to accumulate quite a bit of money for it. One of the easiest ways to save that cash is to sell this house at a profit and travel in the RV for a while, which perfectly meshes with our goal to do so while we are still in our 30s.
We’ve had a lot of people start conversations with us while traveling. Most of them are lead by the fact that we’re younger than most RVers, especially those who show up in a rig like ours. Many of those conversations were with elderly couples traveling across the country, and almost all of them mention something along the lines of “we wish we did this when we were your age… we could have enjoyed it more”. Being that I work 100% remotely, we see no reason to let the opportunity pass us by.
We’re not exactly sure when we’ll sell the house and move into the RV for a while, but at this point it is likely sooner rather than later. We’re moving forward on various projects – fixing up the house, modifying the RV – so that we can get a move on this. Maybe as soon as the end of this year.
One of our major concerns with our three dogs and traveling, is that an RV without air conditioning will heat up quicker than a larger and better insulated house will. Our RV is equipped with an Onan QG5500 generator, but as it was installed had to be started manually. We don’t want to come back to the RV one day to find the dogs overheated and suffering related effects.
Back in September 2016, I ordered an Onan EC-30 which is an automatic controller that integrates with the generator to switch on automatically if needed by the HVAC system. It wasn’t cheap – $328 – but the install wasn’t straightforward and I started it a couple times, but never completed it due to trouble with snaking wires through the walls and RV basement to get it working.
I decided to tackle it again on Saturday and actually finished it.
It supports integrating with the HVAC system so that it will only turn on the generator when the thermostat requests it, but I realized halfway through the install that I don’t have a $60 module for the HVAC system that is needed. Additionally, even if I had that module, I would have to fish a cable from the rear AC on top of the roof for the install, through about 20′ of ceiling, then down a wall, which makes for a lot of work. I’m saving it here – Dometic part number 3109311.005 – in case I ever decide to do it. I would probably have to pull the AC unit completely off and fish the cables into the ceiling from the roof with the unit removed.
In lieu of using HVAC control, I configured it to start the generator on shore power loss. This required tapping into the shore power feed before the transfer switch, but was a much easier task compared to the above. So as it actually works:
If shore power is lost, start the generator
If shore power is restored, stop the generator (or stop after a min run time of 10min has been met)
Ultimately it’s a lot of money and a lot of time to perform a very simple task. But it’s worth it for the peace of mind when we are leaving the dogs in the RV for longer periods of times on our outings. This last week, we made multiple grocery store runs and trail runs without the dogs – something we’ve avoided in the past. Lake Georgetown has pretty stable power and we’ve been there several times, so we weren’t too concerned about that, but this will increase our comfort in leaving them in the rig when we’re elsewhere.
I changed the oil in my truck last week, and began to panic when I started it up, checked the oil pressure gauge, and saw it pegged at 120PSI (the highest the gauge goes). I immediately shut it down, configured a PID on my Insight CTS2 monitor for oil pressure PSI, and started it back up – to find it reading 0PSI through the ECU. Again, I shut it down to prevent damage, but at this point suspected a bad sending unit. I checked the oil filter and it had oil in it, telling me oil was flowing, and the that accompanied with the fact that there weren’t any weird sounds gave me a little peace of mind. I unplugged the sending unit and the gauge, which was pegged at 120PSI dropped to 0PSI, so I ordered a new one.
Old unit – dirt in the threads is from after it was removed and I sat it on the ground.
Repacing the sending unit corrected the issue. It’s really odd that it happened to fail when I changed the oil. It is out of the way of anything I was doing and shouldn’t have been touched, and I check my gauges constantly so it wasn’t broken for long. Maybe just a scary coincidence.
I’m doing solo trail runs that are 14+ miles every weekend, and climbing. In the next few weeks I’m planning to complete a 26.9 mile loop I’ve had my eyes on. As my runs are getting longer and temperatures are going up, I’m going to have to start carrying more. In order to get used to carrying a load, I’ve been packing as if I’m planning 25+ miles for my 14+ mile runs. Here is an example of what I might take:
I’ve made a few adjustments since this photo was taken, but it’s fairly similar. The biggest change I’ve made is how I’m packing things – for example, the vacuum sealed change of clothes is now pressed into a flat rectangle because it fits better than a ball.
Salomon Adv Skin 12 pack
500ml soft flask with vFuel (200 calories)
500ml soft flask with water
1.5L reservoir with water
MSR Trailshot water filter
Ziploc bag with vFuel pouches – 200 calories per anticipated hour + spare
Ziploc bag with Larabar/Clif bars – may be subbed with the above
QuiFit fuel storage/ funnel (stores Saltsticks, used to load vFuel into soft flasks)
ThinkSport SPF50+ sunscreen
Garmin Fenix 5X+ watch (worn on wrist)
Garmin HRM-Tri (worn)
Garmin InReach Mini
Ziploc bag personal hygiene/ first-aid kit (this kit that I transferred into the bag, and added K-tape and wet wipes to)
Emergency poncho
Mylar blanket
Spare tee, running tights, and socks in a vacuum sealer bag
Headlamp (model varies depending on plans)
Sunglasses (model varies depending on plans)
Headphones (model varies depending on plans)
Hat (model varies depending on plans)
Spare buffs/ layers (varies depending on plans)
Socks (worn, Injinji Ultra Run No Show or DT Vertex No Show ULC)
Altra Superior 4.0 shoes
With a little over 400 miles on my Salomon Ultra Pros, I decided to try something else this time around and ordered a pair of Altra Superior 4.0s with Nathan Quick Laces to add to my rotation. I love them so far.
Fueling has been a major issue for me as nothing really settles well. I ended up ordering a ton of snacks and making a few homemade things, and am trying to incorporate them into shorter runs to test. The goal is to consume just over 200 calories per hour of activity. vFuel works, sort of – it’s basically sugar water – but after a few hours I have trouble keeping it down. It’s also going to get expensive fast.
Above is a small array of foods I measured and sorted to test out tomorrow. vFuel again, but Lousisville Vegan Jerky Smokey Carolina BBQ, Happy Belly Tropical Trail Mix, a couple varieties of Clif bars, and a homemade miso rice ball – all roughly carved into half hour servings (a little over 100 calories per bag, with the exception of vFuel at 200c).
Another part of my stash, though I don’t take pickles or potato chips with me because they don’t travel too well. I usually get insatiable cravings for salt and vinegar after long runs, which is tied to salt and potassium loss through sweating – which is why I’m going to add SaltStick to my in-run nutrition this week.
With spring/summer coming quickly, I’ve been working to get the truck, RV and boat ready to go. The RV has leaking hydraulics that are probably covered under warranty, so I’m opting to have them take care of it. Someone is supposed to take a look at it on Thursday.
The RV itself has sat pretty nose-high since we added the sidewinder pinbox and 35″ tires to the truck, so I picked up a new hitch. The old was a B&W Patriot 16K:
I bought the BW Patriot due to its reputation and compatibility with the Sidewinder. In most ways, it has not lived up to the hype. Minimal vertical adjustment, the ride isn’t anything to write home about, the jaws and head don’t come anywhere near the quality of the BD3 it replaced, an incredibly wide swing for the handle that happens to interfere with my toolbox and keep me from getting the jaws completely open half the time, and the fact that it likes to stick if you don’t have the trailer perfect for unhitching, leaves me unimpressed.
When looking for a replacement, I wanted to return to a Binkley style hitch head with automatic latching, a short throw handle, and a much lower minimum height. The Curt A16 hitch meets all the requirements, and is notably less expensive than the Patriot when purchased through Amazon. I ordered it and had it to my door in two days, and listed the Patriot on Craigslist for more than I paid for the Curt (OBO, so hoping to break even).
All the fluid changes are due on the truck – so this weekend I might go invest a couple hundred bucks in fluids and swap them out. I already purchased all of the applicable filters. And my cracked windshield is supposed to be replaced today or tomorrow by a local glass company that is going to come out – for only $279+tax.
We listed the boat for sell on Craigslist, just as a feeler, and will play that by ear. In the mean time we’re going to take it out and enjoy it a few times. Maybe we’ll keep it, maybe we won’t.
We haven’t had much to post about lately, as we’ve been getting through the holidays and getting back into the groove of normal life. Things have been both dull and busy – a lot of monotonous catching up to do, mainly, with a few short memories sprinkled in, like spending new years with some great friends of ours from out of town.
Kelly’s ankle is healing up nicely and she’s back to riding regularly and starting to jog again, and I’m still working to tick off at least 24 miles per week.
My running coach has been after me to start foam rolling and focusing on recovery for a while. We have all the gear required for foam rolling, which consists of a few foam cylinders in different sizes and some lacrosse balls. Despite my best attempts, I can’t seem to make a routine of it. You have to get on the floor, or maybe a mat or blanket, and roll around while supporting yourself and manipulating your body to put pressure on sore areas – something that can be a substantial and time consuming, not to mention painful, workout itself.
Roll Recovery makes an alternative solution that accomplishes the same thing. Touted as a “self-massage tool [that] takes the extra effort out of an intense foam rolling session“, it basically is a vice that you clamp your limbs into move along the length of them. It doesn’t address the last complaint I made about foam rolling – the pain, possibly even being worse – but does a great job of reducing the effort and time required.
The R8 seems to have a cult following and a lot of obsessed users, so I figured I’d try it for myself. So far, I’ve found I pick it up when idle throughout the day and use it while watching TV or even listening to phone calls (meetings). That sure beats blocking out a 45min window to toss around on the floor while being able to concentrate on nothing else. Kelly is making similar habits with it.
We also picked up the R3 and their stretch mat. The R3 is a foot roller, specifically designed to address plantar fasciitis, something I’ve recently began to experience, and the mat is a gimmicky number that gives you a platform you can stretch on without falling off of – something that may work for Kelly, but doesn’t seem to work for my 6’0″ frame. Despite that it may be a tad too small for me, and that I don’t mind sitting on the ground most of the time, it seems perfect for throwing in the truck and taking to the lake or trailhead with me.
To date, as you probably assume, I haven’t been great about massage or rolling or recovery. I don’t have enough previous recovery experience to compare with, but what I can say is that my run yesterday (after two days of using the R8) was one of the best ones I’ve experienced in a while.
