Very cool!

Doug very nice. Looks good. I use the same truck and a wd hitch makes a world of difference. You'll also want to repack the bearings and get a spare. What is that trailer 18'?

And check those bearings often.
Or else you might find yourself tearing into one, all the way down to the inner bearing race which has now welded itself to the spindle.
All on the side of a mountain road.....

Twice...or was that two blowouts? Regardless, shitty traveling.





http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/200 ... ewresearch

i think its 18, it may be a 20 its got a dovetail too, i need to measure it. but for 1000 bucks with fresh bearings and all working lights and brakes i wasn't too concerned about a possible two extra feet

One bearing.
Two blowouts.
One fucked up fender.


It was a great trip though.

Hey Doug, it looks like you have room to pop a small tent on the front of the trailer with the jeep still on it.

hell yeah i could i could get an atv and squeeze it up front too....

I've thought about putting one of those roof top tents ont he front of my trailer and building a frame around it that the buggy could park on top of. Thats a good deal on the trailer. I carry extra bearings with me. I'd still check the grease.

I always mount a spindle onto the tongue. Then mount everything onto it as if it were underneath the trailer. That way you not only have a spare set of bearings and a spare tire, but you also have a spindle too in case you need it.

The one that got away.

My wife found this picture while looking for some old pictures.

I like the shit outta that, Matt.
454?

And about 4mpg...

I like it too!

About 10 - 12 mpg. Anything over 70 it would drop to around 8.

No it wasn't. Had a warmed up 350. Freaking thing had more smog crap on it than you would believe. Took it all off. Got the heads ported and polished. Headers. Edelbrock carb. Bored .20 over. Basically just slightly more than a good hone job. Oversized pistons and a good valve job.

It was loaded up too. AC, power windows.

I loved that thing. I had to replace the rockers on it. Nobody would pull out in front of me. Those tires were 33's.

We used to travel in it when we only had 2 kids. Didn't mattter what we had we could fit it. I measured it once and is was around 20' long with the grill guard. Used to take forever to wax.

I really wish I had it back. I'd put a 454 in it and tow with it.

In the background you can see my 88 Bronco. Now that thing would fly.

My truck, my Jeep.......borrowed trailer.(baby steps)



05 2wd, 5.3 3.73's.
Averaged 11mpg on the WF trip with the cruise on 70.
I'm pretty pleased with it.

Did you do anything special with your 5.3 truck Hale?
I'll be borrowing my father in laws longbed std cab 2wd 5.3 1500. It has the 3.42s and no trans cooler or receiver. I was going to do a trans cooler, brake controller and basci receiver and call it good.

It's got a factory trans cooler. The only thing special I did was push the tow/haul button.

I did use a weight distributing hitch too.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go WD hitch.
Is the factoy trans cooler alright? I fonf the whole kit with the lines for like $90, but it looks awfully small.
I think I'm going to stick a 10K B&M cooler on it and call it good.
It helps that it's standard cab 2wd, its pretty light for a half ton.

If you don't do the WD hitch, you could always add airbags.

it's not his truck. Airbags would stay with the truck, but a WD hitch comes out of the receiver and goes home with you.

What better way to thank your father in law for making you a beautiful wife and mother, than by installing airbags on his truck for him?





edit: On second thought, it may be more fitting to just go ahead an slash his tires....

I'll do a WD hitch once I own my own trailer. Probably going to be borrowing a trailer this summer, and I don't want to do the install on a trailer that's not mine.
I don't think it will be that big a deal. The truck hasn't reached pig status yet.

On the one I used, the brackets on the tongue, just clamp on. It's not a permanent install.

Almost are all like that. Nothing left behind on the trailer if you remove it other than a scuff or two from the clamping bolts.

I would definitely recommend the WD hitch for towing a vehicle, even on a 3/4 ton. You can get by without, if you're careful with your tongue weight, but it'll be much more stabile and therefore less stressful with one...



I just reviewed this thread and noticed that I had hosted my pics on the now defunct MWXJ picture site, so here are some working pics.

The original tow vehicle



Had the 460, with a Banks kit, 6mpg towing or not. So a trip to Moab and back with gas at $3/g would be about $1300, plus an average of $30/night for full hook-up campsites.

That's why I switched to the van.



That one was a '95, 7.3 PSD, 10-12 mpg towing. Hit 180k coming back from Moab in '05..



It was starting to need some little things here and there, and I needed a dependable work truck, so I got the '06 with the 6.0 PSD. This one gets about one more mpg towing