Rudolph felt like he wasn't running up to his full potential. After getting my T500 HPOP back from Joey (upgraded ) he ran better but not 100%. After replacing the magnet and later the whole IPR Rudolph is considerably stronger and now has a more stable idle

While in maintenance mode, he got an oil change and new fuel filters. During the oil change, I discovered that the o-ring on the dipstick tube was the cause of an age old 7.3 leak. It took 3 different o-rings but one finally popped in and stayed. Now my 7.3 doesn't leak oil and runs solid 22 years and 555K miles later

 

Caught this yesterday on Rudolph leaving the hardware store.

Today he got a new fuel filter and Dorman cap since the old one sprang a leak.

 

I can't let you have all the odometer fun!

I caught this the other day. Not gonna lie, I was ticked that I missed it roll over.

 

Installed my ham radio today (Kenwood TM-V71A). I haven't run the power yet, but I mounted the radio, drilled the roof for the NMO antenna base, and routed the coax.





I used an optical alignment jig to make sure the antenna was centered (I eyeballed it!)

I'm still not certain how I want to run the power and ground from the battery to the radio. I have the customer access pass-through wires, but power and ground doesn't seem like an appropriate use for them (kinda small gauge). So I'm not sure if I should drill a hole in the firewall, or cut through one of the existing grommets.boots.

 

Unless you’re experiencing some sort of weird ground loop, you can just ground to any bare metal on the chassis. Considering that’s just a 50w radio, you could just add-a-tap the 12+ from your cigarette lighter, simplifying installation all the way around. I highly doubt that lil ol’ radio will exceed the 20A fuse allocated to the cig lighter port.

 

Yeah, probably true, but I'm also planning to add a second radio (GMRS) as well as a circuit for a 12v refrigerator. I'm contemplating a fuse Blue Sea fuse block.

 

I got the Blue Sea 12 fuse block. Good stuff.

 

Today I did a lot with Dauntless, Drove out to my parents ranch where my 30 ft trailer has been parked, hooked up, loaded my Bobcat 3400 up, and towed it to a Bobcat dealer for repairs and dropped it off, about 50 miles away, then since i had the trailer on anyway, i drove to lowe's and got 35 T-Posts, 4 chain link gates, a load of 20 ft x 1 inch PVC pipe, misc hardware stuffs, and then dropped the trailer back at the parents ranch for the moment, next weekend it all gets towed out to my new ranch in progress to get started setting up everything i want to setup.

For the bobcat 3400, figured out the fuel pump is dying, sometimes it will crank and no start until you take something hard and beat the crap out of the pump, obviously faulty, the shift linkage is also jacked up, previous owner sold it to me for 3900 bucks because reverse was "blown out" and it had starting problems, well, a fuel pump, and some new linkage will fix that, i monkeyed with the shifter after i got it home the first time and low and behold when you put the shifter in the right "wrong" position, reverse actually works just fine....

 

Do you have it mounted in the cab or under the hood? How did you route the wires into the cab? If you have any photos I'd love to see them.

 

Today, I finished the installation of my ham radio.

I decided to take the simple route and use an Exacto knife to slice a hole in one of the existing wiring grommets. I chose the middle one because it seemed easiest.


The wires are wrapped in plastic loom both inside and outside.

The loom is then zip tied to the factory harness running beneath the cowl.
Battery connection

It's alive!

It's always on, so I just need to remember to turn it off after using it.

 

This is my 30 ft trailer that i use to haul stuff around, and get supplies for the ranch, it also brought home the Bobcat. I think that ride height is pretty good, even with all that trailer on there, the truck is not sagging or tilting back, etc, and NO it does not have airbags, etc... Just the leaf springs.

This picture was taken before the bobcat was loaded into the back of the trailer, so nothing is in the back causing the back of the truck to lift, or causing any weight on the truck to be reduced, on the contrary, there is about 1500 lbs of tools, solar panels, a predator generator, 2 of my old excursion brake rotor hubs im using as antenna bases, and about 4 sheets of 3/4 plywood all up in the front half of the trailer, mostly at the nose.

When i hook up the trailer, i get approximately 1/2 to 3/4 inch of drop at the hitch.

 

Here is a the same picture with a quick enhance on the color/gamma, as that was was kinda hard to see at least for me.

 

I learnt a trick yesterday. How to get oil off coolant.

 

Replace my bad alternator , belt, idler roller and tensioner (7.3 PSD) Just under 200K on those parts

 

Today Dauntless towed 9500 lbs about 50 miles, I took my 30 footer and got a load of 30 6'x20' pre-fab Fence Panels, plus 60 T posts, 4 gates, generator, and some associated hardware.

Trailer weighs about 4000 lbs empty, of course a 50 mph headwind the whole damn way to get the load, that was fun with the trailer acting like a parachute the whole way, it was much better once loaded, nice and grounded then. 100 ish miles round trip +/-, 50 each way...

Heaviest load the truck has had on it since the lift, hardly squatted at all, i should have taken a picture or two with it loaded, but i was hell bent on getting it unloaded before dark when it gets bitter cold, and i need the fencing stuff out of the trailer so i can go get the Bobcat back from the dealer once its fixed.