Hondo Garage's New Thing

Black bears aka fat raccoons

 

Nice!

Buttttt, I want to live in bear country. Time for me to put on the big boy pants and have a talk with the wife. BRB.

 

Lots of black bears around where I live; I encounter them a couple times a year or so on my mountain bike, and they always run from me. It’s grizzly behavior that I’m more unfamiliar with.

I hang my food backpacking, but we’ll be on a two week trip after picking up the GFC, mostly dispersed camping. That’s a lot of food to hang.

 

Thanks!

 

I don’t live in bear country (Ohio) but when we traveled out and camped we used either bear boxes if available or locked the GFC up with our food inside either a dry bag or Dometic fridge. (Probably not the best idea)
Also we have procrastinated about buying bear spray for the last few years only because we don’t travel out to bear country too often but it’s in my wish list for sure.
Also bells on the dog are a great idea. Something I never thought of.
When we hiked and slept we packed a gun. Always in the same places so we knew where it was at all times. Either in the waistband, cab of truck or in the tent.
We didn’t dump any grease or throw out any food at camp.
I’ve read numerous times that bear spray is more affective than a firearm in an attack.

That being said we dispersed camped outside of the Tetons last week and there was a Grizzly standing 3-400 yards down the hill from camp when we pulled in.

 

For the grizzly experts.
Do grizzlies prowl around at night or are they mostly a danger in daytime?
Is frozen food safe in your freezer or can they smell it anyway?

 

It would be great if you could set up a virtual fence, like ones used to keep your dog on your property, that would be effective enough to discourage grizzlies.

 

Until it got trapped inside with you

 

I've heard people have been using portable electric fences with good results, but an electric fence didn't keep a black bear out of my beehives last year. There was scraping all around it on the ground, and it eventually said eff it, and went through. Five hives full of honey was worth the momentary shock.

 

The time stamp on my photo from the Grizzly in the Tetons was 6:23pm.

 

I live around blacks and browns and as long as you aren’t being a slob they typically will not come anywhere near your camp, especially in less travelled/populated areas where they haven’t been trained that humans mean easy food.

 

I had to scroll up to see what you were talkin bout...this almost seemed like a racist comment.

 

Haha, I guess if that’s what someone’s looking for it could be taken that way. I didn’t even consider that aspect of it when posting.

 

I have a GFC on order and need to make sure the electric box installed in the bed of my Tacoma does not interfere with where the space frame brackets connect to the bed. Could someone with a GFC on a Tacoma 3rd gen DCSB measure the locations where the space frame brackets connect to the passenger side bed rail. Thanks.

 

I have a access cab long bed and my bracket is right where your box is....

 

That doesn’t look like it will work where it is now, you’ll have to move it. The bracket is 4” from the end of the bed rail.

 

Thanks to both Trouttaco and you. I was afraid I would need to move it. How many brackets are there on the SB and the spacing would be helpful?

 

@rajacat9 i don’t suppose I could request a couple more measurements?

I was wondering if you could tell me the width of the underside of the bed at the cab end (I.e between the frame), and potentially the height of the underside of the bed from the rails (guessing it’s about 2” above the cab roof?). I’m building a unit that goes to the roof in the back corner and need to work out the angle the back needs to be.

Also is anyone storing a spare wheel on the roof of their GFC? Primary spare is under the truck and I don’t want the second spare in the back. The only tow hitch gate for the F150 covers the rear camera so that leaves the roof. Not sure if it’ll be too heavy though (32” P tire on a steel rim). Wondering if the front rack GFC we’re playing with a few months ago may be an option for this too?

 

Sorry, I meant on a rack. Wondering if the weight would be too much to leave it up there when it's open.