Truck Mods – Life En Route

Live Oak Ridge COA

by James on October 12, 2017 Comment(s)

We spent a few days at Live Oak Ridge COA and had a wonderful time. It’s located on Lake Belton, about an hour north of here, so is easy to access for a weekend outing. We chose campsite 1, which ended up being perfect. It was easy to get into, had a great view of the lake, and a trail leading down to the waterfront. Even though the park was full, the waterfront below our site had very little traffic and we had it to ourselves the majority of the trip. The site itself had a very nice, crushed granite pit with a concrete slab in it for the firepit and ground grill, a second grill/smoker up on a stand, and a very large covered picnic table. We were able to set up our new Coleman canopy on the gravel and have plenty of room to move around. It’s definitely a place and site we will be returning to.

Just prior to leaving on this trip, I diagnosed my passenger battery as having failed and replaced both of the OE batteries on my truck with Northstar AGMs. The OE batteries should be covered under warranty, but the two Chevrolet dealers I have contacted about having them replaced have failed to call me back, even after two weeks of waiting. I’m going to have to just take them in and annoy them until I get replacements, it seems. I’d like to put them in the RV to expand the battery array for dry camping. Regarding the AGMs, they’re a much better choice for my power load and driving habits, and should last three times as long as the wet cell batteries that failed (first one dropped to ~6V with a 100A load, second drops to ~10V and which is pretty much failed; these left me stranded twice before I got around to testing and replacing them).

I just renewed the registration on both the truck and RV and am considering filing for Amateur Radio plates. They cost nothing, but will have my radio callsign on them, and you can use the same plate number on up to five or six vehicles (I don’t remember which) in the state of Texas. That means a single, easy to remember plate number for both the truck and RV that would ease the check-in process at most parks that require both.

Crutchfield Price Matching

Truck Mods

by James on September 2, 2017 Comment(s)

I spent an obnoxious amount of money on the Alpine X110-SLV system I installed in my truck about a month and a half ago. I detailed the install in my Goodbye CarPC, Hello Alpine X110-SLV post. I follow Alpine on Facebook, and on their wall today was a promotion for the X110-SLV selling for $1200 less than I spent.

I called Crutchfield, explained the situation, and they refunded the $1200 to me. Excellent customer service and an unexpected $1200 today!

Goodbye CarPC, Hello Alpine X110-SLV

by James on July 29, 2017 Comment(s)

This is unfortunately an example of “chasing good money after bad”. I’ve had CarPCs before, and they really work great in the right vehicle. Those vehicles, I now realize, are older ones that don’t rely on the head unit for the level of integration today’s cars do. In addition to losing things like HVAC visibility (not a huge deal), some of the steering wheel controls (Joycon wouldn’t recognize them), and various other small features, the biggest problem I ran into was the $249 Axxess GMOS-MOST-01 harness you have to use with any aftermarket head unit on these trucks kept dying. I was on my second one (first one replaced under warranty), and the third has began having issues with not coming on (have to cycle the ignition a few times) or spontaneously not producing sound. It’s out of warranty now, and needed replacement. To replace it means pulling apart and reassembling part of the dash. Some of the other issues I had were with Windows itself, like poor bluetooth reliability for hands-free calling even with BlueSoleil, the slow and/or non-existent development of applications like Centrafuse or CoPilot (and no support to lower music volume when NAV speaks). CarPCs have their place, but this truck isn’t one of them.

To install the CarPC, I had to cut away some of the interior of the dashboard; portions of it that were used to mount the factory radio components. Also I had sold off some of the factory components to make some of my money back on the CarPC install. Whatever I ended up replacing it with, I knew I’d have to deal with that mess during the install. And there aren’t really any options out there, all rely on the Axxess harness I’ve been having so many issues with. That is except for the Alpine Restyle series. They make highly integrated vehicle-specific factory replacement aftermarket units, but charge an arm and a leg for them.

I’ve had my eye on the Alpine X110-SRV for a while now, but they’re asking way too much at the retail asking price of $4,000. Even their special offer pricing of $2,499 seems extremely steep for what it is, but with the recent overheating issues and the inability to easily return to stock (I’d have to find components, go to a dealer, have them do the install because it would need to be programmed to the vehicle and I don’t have the equipment, etc) I finally broke down and bought it at the special offer price from Crutchfield. Note: I suspect they’ve permanently dropped the price to this, because it wasn’t selling at full MSRP. Or if not, they should consider it.

Anyway, I spent several hours today removing the CarPC and all the cables I ran all over for it, cleaning up some of the ham radio and dashcam cables, and installing the Alpine system. I love it so far, and the NAV has a commercial truck routing mode that I believe will work well for us with the RV. It comes with free HERE map updates, (it better for that price), and I updated the maps to Q1 2017 after the install was done. Both the install and the upgrade process was fairly painless. Of course, that’s partially attributable to the extensive experience gained from messing with the CarPC so much, and the ham installs. I can pull apart the interior pretty quickly now.

Due to the massive 10″ screen, and the controls it adds, I lost the mounting location for my Kenwood TM-D710G head, so I used some tape used for attaching molding to vehicles to stick it to the top of the new head unit. I also used that tape to keep a few components in place during the install, but I was surprisingly impressed with how well everything fit in the dash even after the modifications I had done.

I lose the ability to use CHRIP for programming my ham radios, and to use APRSISCE/32 to visualize APRS locations, but that’s about it. It even has OBDII and can provide additional gauges, engine codes, and such.

Lift Pump Finally Installed

Truck Mods

by James on April 29, 2017 Comment(s)

After much delay, I finally have the lift pump installed. The install took about three hours, including drilling the frame and mounting, running fuel lines, running electrical, and bleeding the air out of the lines afterwards. With the aux tank I’m running, I’m going to feel a lot more comfortable with the extra filtration and water separator.

PureFlow AirDog II-4G 2015 and up Chevy Duramax DF-165-4G Fuel Pump

Waterless Wash and Welding Project

by James on March 21, 2017 Comment(s)

My truck doesn’t fit through automatic car washes anymore. With the suspension it is over 7′ tall, and with the antennas it would be a huge hassle anyway. I’d have to remove them all. I’m not a big fan of the car wash bays, or washing in my driveway, because all of the water around here is really hard and leaves to bad spotting, even if instantly dried. So I decided to try some waterless car wash that I found with good reviews, and see how it turned out.

Waterless Car Wash Wax Kit 144 oz. Aircraft Quality Wash Wax for your Car RV & Boat. Guaranteed Best Waterless Wash on the Market

I washed the truck in the dark, so I wasn’t able to see the results until morning. It took forever to go over the truck with two rags (one wet, one dry), panel by panel, and get into all the grooves of the side steps, bumpers, and wheels, but the result I found this morning seemed worth it. The truck hadn’t been washed in at least six months, and started yesterday as a shade of greenish brown from all of the pollen and dirt it had collected.

The same company also makes interior products for plastic and leather care, which I purchased and will be trying out today. I ran out of time to address the interior of the truck yesterday.

Since I’m done with the house, and starting to work on welding projects again, I decided to take up adding a winch to my front bumper. When I purchased it, I went back and forth several times between the winch and non-winch version, but ultimately chose the one without to save a couple hundred dollars on the bumper, several hundred on the winch, and a 150lbs or so from the front of the truck. I didn’t have the front suspension mods at the time and I was concerned it would pull the front down too far in addition to the heavy bumper. It’s one of the few decisions on this truck I’ve regretted. I decided that, instead of swapping the bumper out, I’m going to fabricate a custom winch mount onto the existing bumper. I’m going to start by cutting out the expanded steel where the license plate is, and mounting the winch roller there. I’ll fabricate mounts for the winch behind the bumper and wire it all up. The winch I am looking at is one of the least expensive heavy models on the market, a Smittybilt X2o Gen2 15,500. I’m not buying it yet, but waiting for a good deal or sale to come up.

Smittybilt (97515) X2O Waterproof Winch - 15500 lb. Load Capacity

I’m not sure where I’m going to move the license plate, but might end up using a receiver mount for it.

One other truck-related thing I’m waiting to buy is an Airdog lift pump. Specifically, the A6SABC413 model. It does smaller micron fuel filtering, fuel/water separation, prolongs the life of the problematic CP4 pump and (less of an issue) injectors on these trucks, and keeps rail pressure consistent which reduces turbo lag, all without a tune. It retails for $739, but I saw it for $600 or so on Black Friday, and have been regretting ever since not grabbing one at that price. It’s something I want to get before the truck has too many miles on it, because it is well proven to reduce fuel system wear on these trucks and that is known to be a problem.

PureFlow AirDog II-4G 2015 and up Chevy Duramax DF-165-4G Fuel Pump

Antennas Mounted

by James on February 24, 2017 Comment(s)

All HF TX issues resolved!

Headache Rack In

by James on February 23, 2017 Comment(s)

Finally received the headache rack yesterday and did some preliminary work to mount the antennas. I am awaiting on some carriage bolts for the other two, but the Tarheel is in place. I need to see how far it cuts into my turning angle with the trailer, but it should be okay. The antenna is tuned to 80M in this case, so usually it would be a lot lower – with the top of the clear surround probably even with the top of the rack. I still have to install the 13″ light bar, CB, and scanner antennas.

Tarheel Antenna Mount

by James on January 7, 2017 Comment(s)

The antenna mount I was using was just a stud through some angle iron I mounted to the bed of the truck. It worked well for a while, but I found I had to continually tighten it, and when I went to this last weekend it broke. It couldn’t stand up to the stress of supporting the Tarheel, and the 6′ whip I used to run probably exaggerated the issue.

As you can see, it was just a stud supporting the antenna.

I decided to decouple the connection from supporting the antenna, and finally bought the overpriced Tarheel MT1S mount at $114. I considered fabricating something comparable in my garage, but don’t have all the right tools, which is something I hope to alleviate in the future. Once the part arrived I tried to used the built in holes with #10 self tapping screws to secure it to the angle iron. Those screws broke, and the drill bits I had broke as well when trying to drill them out. Instead of breaking more expensive bits, I found some #14 self tapping screws left over from another project, and used three of them to anchor it by creating new holes, in addition to the one successful #10 screw. I hope I never have to remove this antenna and bar, because the truck bed probably is a mess underneath from all the holes used to mount and ground these antennas.

Properly secured using the Tarheel MT1S mount.

Herculined Tailgate

Truck Mods

by James on December 23, 2016 Comment(s)

If I had more time, I would sand down a couple of the runs and redo them. Maybe later. But without further ado:

Updates

Truck Mods

by James on December 23, 2016 Comment(s)

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.

Category Archives