Normally I'd start a thread to document my progress, but I'd like to keep it casual and figured I'd periodically dump some images in here. I recently used this forum to troubleshoot and fix my truck and that it's only fair to share my adventures.

Broken down at the gardens in Portland:


Broken down in east Portland:



Broken down in eastern Oregon:


Trying to stay cool in my little DIY bed camper:


Shower setup:


Mountain sunset:



Headed up to the high plains:


Recently installed mud/snow flaps can't wait to paint the topper:

 

@Xela , We are so very happy for your new found success in making your truck reliable. I had to laugh at the first couple of comments in your post regarding the pictures. We are fortunate enough to get up to the NW region of the country every couple to three years to visit friends and family as far NW as Seattle, but usually in north ID.

Thank you for sharing the pictures with us and if I could give two or three likes, I would do so.

Good luck to you in your travels and if you are ever in the north GA area of our great nation, look us up!

 

$2.85 a gallon and I would be filling up 45gallon drums. We are currently at $1.58 per litre for gasoline, and $1.54 for diesel. That’s just over $6.14 per gallon for gas, and $5.99 for diesel.

 

For more perspective (California, USA):

 

I stopped taking photos of the breakdowns as I was running out of photo room it was happening so often! I might be headed that way for the holidays, grew up in SC and would love to grab you an IPA if I pass through.

 

You know where to find us if you are in the SC upstate or near lake Hartwell.

Safe travels.

 

Wow.

Ive had more inquires and bookings for vegetable oil conversions in the last few months than I’ve had in the last couple of years.

I often spend more $$ on oil changes than I do on fuel and my truck makes 2.5x stock power.

 

There’s only a few parts (on the older models at least) that can go bad. 2 elements and a couple thermostats. Count the anode in there if you want. Elements are like $11 and thermostats around $25 each. We had hard water for years so I got very familiar with water heater cleaning and element changes. Too bad he didn’t have time to wait because we may have been able to help repair the old one.

We now have hard well water with iron. The extremely knowledgeable man at our local hardware store told me to remove the anode. I think this had to do with the iron causing a sulfur smell. I did not remove it at the time.

After a couple years we got a nice water softener system. It is wonderful! My repairs have basically stopped. Our appliances and faucets really love it too since they no longer get build up.

This is a Kinetico system which can only be professionally installed. Not because it’s hard, just because the company does not sell without installation. My wife had researched for which softener to get and wanted this one. It is pretty nice since it uses no electric and flushes based on usage instead of time. It only uses a bag of iron out salt about once every 6-8 weeks. The local business (40 minutes away) runs a salt delivery route through our area so the new bag is left on our porch for around $16.

To the point of my rambling…
During the professional installation they removed our anode. So my hardware guy was correct all along! Again, I think this depends on your particular application but just some food for thought.

 

Wow. For that price he might as well have gone tankless. I replaced my 60-gal back in 2018 with a Rheem RTGH-95DVLN-1.

 

Hmmm, I wonder if now is a good time to sell my biodiesel setup.

 

For even more perspective, these are gasoline prices in Singapore. 1 SGD = 0.74 USD. These prices are per liter.

 

Luckily you won't need to purchase as much gasoline if the gas powered chainsaws, trimmers, generators and leaf blowers become illegal.

I would have to choose between food or gasoline if our prices were that high in north GA. I do like a good cheeseburger... Just sayin...

Our property neighbor recently installed a nice filtration system on their well. Like yours, professional installation was required. It works well (pun intended), but they are on a different aquifer than we are and they needed a filtration system.

Our water is not like theirs even though the proximity is relatively close. We have a superior water quality and taste to what they do and we are grateful for that.

I had never heard of removing the anode rod from a water heater, but it isn't something that comes up in conversation much either. I am under the impression it is sacrificial and prolongs the life of the hard parts of a water heater. It certainly has done right by us, but just like our trucks, each application is a bit different.

I won't bore the FTE community with more chatter about anodes and well water. Thank you for your insight and sharing your experience Jason. I look forward to seeing your setup when we travel north from GA through your area one day.

 

I always seem to be in some type of hot water, so chatter about anodes and such is never boring.

I fitted not just one, but two full length (42" long, 3/4" thick) KA-90 (aluminum zinc alloy) anode rods in the 50 gallon water heater I installed a couple of years ago.

One in the hot water outlet, and one in the top port where the temperature and pressure relief valve was initially located, which I moved over to the side of the water heater, which was bored and threaded for the same purpose.

It is quite likely your well water is better, softer, and less mineral laden than our utility company provisioned brackish, corrosive, calcifying wet stuff that they market as "water".



Pressure temp guage combo, protected by a reverse angle port with cleanout screen on the hot side; captive air tank with quick release fill valve and pressure gauge (the remote fill valve hose is one of my kooky inventions) on the cold side, 3 way valves on both sides, to facilitate both tank drains and other servicing, automatic leak detection water shut off, automatic gas shut off, uninterruptible power supply battery back up for the gas and water shut off valves and flow and leak sensors (more hackery of mine, as the combination of all these features together does not exist on the market), pressure vacuum breaker on stand pipe, and double anode protection on a tank that was already warranted for 12 years.

That's how bad the water is around here.

 

This is the 'new normal' they've been telling us about.

 

Its part of paying your fair share.



‘Lets go Brandon!’