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Would appreciate a little advice. I have on 05 6.0L Excursion and pull a 30ft TT with it. I have replaced the coolant system, and have replaced the EGR and oil cooler. However, I am not satisfied with the temps hit while towing across West TX and the desert mountains. Anyone have any recommendations on how to reduce oil and coolant temperature further while towing?
Ordered a set of Goodyear Endurance tires today. Figured three years of gambling with the Trailer Kings was enough for me. A friend of mine lets me use his tire machine (provided I bring beer) to mount and balance, so that part will be cheap enough. Pics to follow...
We uncovered our TT yesterday and today I laid down two tubes of Dicor caulk on all the parts of the original caulking that had started to crack some, should be good to go for the season now! I still need to work with our family friend auto body guy to get the front cap resprayed where the clear coat has given up.
We are heading out to KY/TN next Friday for a Spring Break trip, first of the season and we are ready to go! Our son's girlfriend will be joining us for this trip so we are borrowing another kayak and I rearranged the roof rack crossbars today to carry all four kayaks, there will be 42' of boats on the roof! The typical circus act of loading/unloading the yaks should be even more fun to watch now!
Here's my camper about to head out on it's first trip behind the Excursion. It's about 39' with the rear rack folded down and weighs around 11k. I'm using a Reese Straight Line which did OK...little more sway than I thought there should have been but I may not have put enough tension on the trunnion bars. I may need to move the ball mount up one set of holes in the hitch extension as it's a little off level. I pulled it from Chatsworth, Ga to St Petersburg, Fl and back for my daughter's gymnastics meet. If she qualifies for regional competition, we'll be headed to Daytona Beach in April...otherwise just a few short weekend trips close to the house this year. I was surprised at how well the V-10 pulled it...well, once I got over the fear of sticking my foot in it on the hills and quit looking for the EGT gauge. I have to address transmission cooling though. Tranny was running in the 190° range driving back on relatively flat ground and ambient temps were pretty mild. That isn't going to cut it pulling a mountain on a 95° day.
EDIT: I should have added that I got 7.4 mpg average on this trip. I also discovered a dragging rear caliper so I hope fixing that will improve the mileage a little. Ordered new calipers, rotors, pads, hub bearings, and brake lines.
Last edited by loganj01; Mar 2, 2018 at 06:28 AM.
Reason: More info.
Still running the stock sized tires with those new 4.88s? I'll bet it pulled great!
Upgrading to a new 6.0 trans cooler will take care of those trans temp, the Tech Folder has a good how-to and Dorman makes a nice affordable version available from RockAuto, mine is sitting in the garage waiting. So far on our 35K+ towing miles the stock V-10 cooler has done well with only a few hill climbs over 200 degrees (205 peak temp) but I'm going to go with the 6.0 replacement just for insurance and some future Western mountain trips.
Take a trip to your nearest Cat Scales and get your actual weights and adjust the hitch there to ensure the best setup. Initial weigh is about $11 and additional trips over the scales are only $2 each on the same day. Their three pad scales make this a very easy and effective process.
Ordered a set of Goodyear Endurance tires today. Figured three years of gambling with the Trailer Kings was enough for me. A friend of mine lets me use his tire machine (provided I bring beer) to mount and balance, so that part will be cheap enough. Pics to follow...
I've been hearing lots of good things about these. Some people had bad luck with the old Goodyear Marathon, but I loved them. Hopefully the Endurance will help Goodyear climb back to the top spot for trailer tires. I have some 20 year old Marathons that I just run around town, but when I do replace them likely in the next year or so, it'll be with these.
Ordered a set of Goodyear Endurance tires today. Figured three years of gambling with the Trailer Kings was enough for me. A friend of mine lets me use his tire machine (provided I bring beer) to mount and balance, so that part will be cheap enough. Pics to follow...
Originally Posted by Sunline Fan
I've been hearing lots of good things about these. Some people had bad luck with the old Goodyear Marathon, but I loved them. Hopefully the Endurance will help Goodyear climb back to the top spot for trailer tires. I have some 20 year old Marathons that I just run around town, but when I do replace them likely in the next year or so, it'll be with these.
I've been SUPER happy with these from Taskmaster. I've had terrible tires from Goodyear on the boat trailer in the past. It was a bit tough to find Load Range D tires in my size that had a decent speed rating, as most places either didn't carry them or were constantly out. They've worn really well (almost not at all) and seem to be holding up to the sun and travel speeds (I do keep them covered when not in use). These are speed rating M (81MPH), but I think the ones I have are higher than that. Personally, I think that's the reason people have so many problems with trailer tires in general. I'll have to check my tread depth before I take out the camper the first time this year to see how they've worn and then go back to my notes to see how many miles I've put on them. It's somewhere in the 4,500 mile range if I had to guess.
The question is when to dewinterize. Less than a month until our first trip to Charleston. I am going to wait about 2 more weeks and then start the whole process of camping 2018!
So, went to check on the camper today, opened the door and noticed a wrinkle in the floor. First thought: water. Walk in, and there’s a giant crack across the floor. No water that I can detect, no mold, nothing. Anybody know what would cause this?? I did NOT need another project this spring.
The question is when to dewinterize. Less than a month until our first trip to Charleston. I am going to wait about 2 more weeks and then start the whole process of camping 2018!
This is what I use the handy dandy no-freeze setting on the campers thermostat for. I never winterize mine because the wife and I want to be able to hook up and take off any time we get a few days off together. We keep it stocked year round. Just have to grab clothes and meds and hook up.
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalytic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
