Well I did post an update from our trip a couple months ago but it was a separate thread, so here's a link to it:
http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/for...rip-24937.html
Also made a few updates to the van over the past month or so... will post photos in next few days:
1. Swapped out the Aluminess front bumper (
for sale here) and Warn M12000 winch (
for sale here) for a Buckstop bumper and Warn M16Ti winch. Rationale for the Buckstop was better airflow for the 6.0's radiator, hopefully resulting in cooler temps. Haven't had any problems with overheating but I decided I was willing to spend the $ to prolong the engine's life. Rationale for the new winch is just that the Buckstop bumper is made for it, and my van is heavy as $#@%! So if/when I need it I think the extra power is a good idea. I went with the Aluminum upgrade on the bumper btw. TBD on the temp diffs, its cool in Phoenix right now and I just got it installed yesterday. I have to say the bumper seems very well built and I really like the look though.
2. Our little guy is 2 right now and out of the pack and play we used to put in the back. So We had some removable shelves made out of aluminum honeycomb and then carpeted. Nice and light, and we have two panels so we maintain the flexibility with how we want to outfit the van for each trip. He will sleep on top of the shelves while big sis sleeps above the driver in the pop top. Lots of space for gear above and below now!
3. Installed some blackout curtains from the top of the pop-top extending all the way down to the floor. This eliminates the need for us to put up any kind of shades on the windows up front, as well as keeps it nice and dark for our daughter to sleep if we turn the lights on in the pop top. I'll try to get some photos posted in the next few days.
4. To-date we were just working off of the stock ford dual-battery setup mounted on the frame on passenger side. We had some mornings where it was overcast (solar not helping) and very cold, and the van barely started after running our portable dometic 2-zone fridge all night. So we put in two more actual "house batteries"on the driver side frame to give us plenty of juice to not have to worry about that again.
5. Put in a cell phone booster,
link here. This is one of the few that had good reviews. Won't have a chance to test it for a while, we will see if it makes much of a difference. We were camping a couple months ago at the grand canyon and my wife hiked rim-to-rim-to-rim in a day (insane) and I had half a bar of service, so I didn't get her text saying she made it out safely at midnight until 6am the next day. Hoping a booster would have given me a couple bars to receive that text on time.
6. Installed
this little inclinometer/altimeter/tilt/level gauge on the dash. I don't like where it is right now but the gauge is pretty cool, includes your GPS coordinates as well. The only thing that I don't like so far is it seems like the level "zeroes out" every time you start the car. I think I must be missing something. As such, if your last stop before setting up camp was getting gas and were on a slope at the time, it wouldn't do you much good. I feel like I must be missing something, so I hope I can figure that out.