Burt, The Old Man With friends Daryl and Donna

With the last couple of weekends being dedicated to working on the truck, it was time to get out and enjoy it.

With my first couple plans foiled by either weather, fires, or traffic it came down to just a quick overnight and exploring some local trails that seem to be forgotten.

Nothing super special but a few roads that just barely seem to be around based on the MVUM maps and OnX.

This area seemed to have a big rainstorm in the last few days resulting in some heavy rutting and a good amount of off camber. Reminding me that my driver seat has less and less foam in it, and zero support to the side.
We did have to cut a couple trees out of the way as well. likely due to the wind storm we had the night before.

With a couple overhanging trees I don't think many truck can still fit down here. Anything taller than the cab would hit, even my Ham antenna at 7' tapped a couple of trees.

Nor would you wanna be any taller since it was a constant side hill on the driver side.
The New suspension felt great, I really like how well is soaks up the embedded rocks compared to the previous set up. I air down a bit less than usual to 12 instead of 8-9psi. and it felt way better than before.

Areas that were more open were much more over grown and I think only see a vehicle a couple dozen times a year during hunting season.

A few miles later we found a nice patch of grass to make camp.

First night in the RTT of the year. Its been busy this year so we have only really made time for the big trips in Daryl up until lately.

Cooked up one of out favorites, Spam fried rice. Its easy, quick and makes a lot of food.

The weather couldn't have been better, high 50s and zero wind. Cool enough to put the mosquitos away and let us hang out by the firepit.

The next morning I more or less forgot to take pictures on the trail but we spent the morning on a couple hardered section of trails, that were more or less just rock gardens, nothing super hard, but a couple skid plate hits.

On the way out we came across an ATV that had run out of gas. Since we were only out for a night I didn't fill my Jerry, but just was using it to fill in the space in the holder with the water can. But I offered to pull him out, he was very thankful and I towed him a couple miles back to his truck.

And with that we headed home from a quick weekend away.

 

nice to see burt out and about!

hows the ole ford been treating you so far?

 

Its good, I drove it this morning as I am messing around with the tune on the truck to try to reduce the EGT I see up hills.
I plan to put the Banks Intercooler on the truck as well as the BulletProof Diesel Cooling system upgrade with the 7.3 fan, bigger water pump and probably swap in an aluminium radiator at some point just to make sure the truck stays cool and as a good prep for Alaska next year.

 

Is that one of the engines that benefits from more boost to reduce EGT? I know some of the older Toyota diesels the easiest fix for overfueled high EGT was just more boost.

 

very nice man! are you guys planning to go to dead horse? if so that will be an awesome trip!

me and a buddy have been wanting to do it for yeeears now! but never had the money nor time to do it sadly! (that and with me swapping trucks so often as late i dont have a truck for it lmao)

 

More boost does help and the EGT as most affected by RPM. This truck has the most issues at highway speeds on the passes here in Colorado, If the truck stays in 5th ~2100rpm at 70 the EGT can get above 1300℉ easily, If I get the struck to drop into 4th around 2600Rpm that EGT will drop to 1150℉. Its done that regardless of the tune, Stock +75HP +50HP Tow etc. I think it comes down to airflow. So going to the larger Intercooler and larger piping seems to see a 150-200℉ drop at all Rpm.
I run around 8 psi on the highway cruising, and at WOT I can hit around 32psi, but the sweet spot it around 15-22 in most situations and most hills.

 

The Plan is all the way to Prudhoe Bay and be up in Alaska and Canada for 6 weeks going all over Alaska and the Yukon territory.

 

On Tuesday I had the day off so I decided to remake the exhaust from the CAT back, I had noticed some rattling at low rpm with high loads and high rpm with low loads. I had a

$75 DynoMax 17741 Exhaust Muffler for Toyota Tacoma

DynoMax 17741 that I bought earlier in the year and decided to pick up a 2.5'' exhaust pipe kit. I had ordered a new O2 sensor mount but it got delayed and so I reused the one from the old exhaust.
This did solve my High RPM Rattle but it looks like the Low RPM is coming from the CAT, so I have a new one on the way to be here next week.

I didn't end up taking too make pictures but doing the exhaust was actually pretty fun.


With the lack of a spare underneath I just make it go straight back for now. This might change in the future.


I also picked up a set of 5 285/70R17 Falken M/T that are brand new for $100 from a Jeep that took them off.

I plan to Grab another set of OEM Wheels, and swap them between Donna and Burt for trips requiring a more aggressive tire.