Wedge Life

I’ve been running kerosene in ours for the last few months. Gel point of kerosene is -40 vs +10 for diesel. You can pump it at some gas stations and it’s about the same price. I find it smells a little less too.

 

doe they still mark the pumps as #1 diesel? some locations did when i was a kid, know in the winter months my F350 would dump about a gallon of Kerosene and a quart of ATF in my tank, because it helped it not Gel

 

I’ve only seen it labeled as K-1 or 1-K. I didn’t even know it was a thing until I started looking for it. Now it’s become a bit of a game looking for it every time I fill up. Granted, I haven’t had a chance to look for it out west yet, just since we’ve been east of CO.

 

Typically can also find it in gallon jugs or 5 gal pails at places like Walmart or home improvement stores. For running portable kerosene heaters. K1 from a pump is outrageously expensive here in Maine, so I just buy a gallon at a time as needed. Plus theres no mess

 

Wife and I had a trip planned there! Then found out we were havin a baby. 4 years and 2 kids later, we still haven’t been out there

 

Oh that’s interesting. We’ve been paying about $5/gallon at the pump vs $10-15/gallon from the stores. The best part is going inside the station and asking for a half gallon of kerosene and seeing if they can actually ring that up.

 

Has anyone with a BAMF Drifter considered installing longer gas springs further aft? Looking at ours vs the Topo camper or Alucab, the Drifter’s springs are much shorter and much closer to the hinge point. I find the roof quite heavy and my wife can just barely lift it (and she’s pretty damn strong). The only downside I can think of is that it would cover some of the side windows but I don’t think that would bother us.

Drifter:


Topo:


Alu Cab:

 

You might just look for a heavier duty shock spring. Super Pacific sells one for theirs to lift more weight so I’m told.

 

As Ridgewalker said, you can just get higher-rated struts. *Assuming that nothing has changed since the very first batch of Drifters,* these are them. https://www.mcmaster.com/9416K54/
I'm maxed out with the 250 pounders at this point, haha.

 

Yeah I thought about that too. Did the 250 lb struts make a big difference?

 

Well, my reasoning for the increases has been adding weight on the roof. And yeah, it has made a ton of difference in handling that extra weight.
If you would NOT be doing it because of extra weight on the roof, then just be aware that increasing the rating would affect a few different aspects: it will lift the roof easier ***once you get it pushed up past the struts' fulcrum point*** (I'm sure that's the completely wrong terminology, haha), but it will also of course require more force to pull it back down when fully open, and there will also be more force at the opposite end of the roof travel pulling or holding the roof closed.
So for example, my roof is significantly more difficult to open the first 12-18 inches compared to when I first got it.

 

Thanks for the info. Yeah that’s a good point about closing it. This may just be the balance of having a roof you can stand on. Moving them aft would give them more leverage so I could potentially use lower force struts and keep the same lifting force. Hmm. Anyone know roughly how much the roof weighs?

 

I don’t, but you can probably make a good guess with the density of 1/8” thick 5052 aluminum, about 25’ or 1” square aluminum tubing and a sheet of ePanel.

 

Cabin trip with some homies. 6 tacos, 2 drifters, and an old Wildernest wedge lol.

 

Only worth doing if you already have a roof rack ..I had a cheapo..hooke roof rack I modified to fit with wedge camper ..it makes a great light bar that I never use ... fills the gap n looks good ..SERVES NO PRACTICAL FUNCTION

 

Gives you overland AF points though...

 

And that’s worth more than any practical function. Just like a 4Runner with a stack of MaxTrax mounted on top of the hood to reduce visibility.

 

Works for Marty's truck- why not yours?
https://images.app.goo.gl/PaBNjbBRvJ4p2jTPA

 

Anyone else using Packout?

 

No, I have Frontrunner Wolf Packs.