What did you do to your SMB today?

[BVerhulst]

Installed a Rhino Racks SunSeeker awning. With the Aluminess roof rack already in place, this took only the included brackets and about 15 minutes!

[TheLetterJ]

I finally sent my Fox 2.0 reservoir shocks to Agile for a revalve. I put a pair of their IFP's on the rear of my van earlier this year and it made a drastic improvement, fingers crossed that the fronts will have an equal improvement!

[gcvt]

^ You are going to be very happy when you get your shocks back from Agile

[arctictraveller]

Originally Posted by gcvt

^ You are going to be very happy when you get your shocks back from Agile

Yup, what he said........

[skoronesa]

I spent 4 hours last evening and half an hours this morning replacing my rear leaf spring shackle on the drivers side. Yesterday when driving I heard a gun shot go off in the back of my van. It was that loud when it broke. when the shackle broke the end of the leaf spring was free to rocket into the bottom of the floor in the back drivers side corner. How it didn't go through the floor is amazing, even more amazing is that you can barely tell from inside that something happened.

For those of you that might have to replace one of these shackles, DON'T!!! Just bring it to a mechanic. Surprisingly the only aspect that was easy about changing it was taking off the nuts. You can use the tire iron to do so and you will need that leverage. Mine came off rather easy, and lulled me into a false sense of "well, the nuts came off easy, this might not be so hard after all!".

The worst part is I will need to do the passenger side shackle before our next trip which might be thanksgiving.

[arctictraveller]

Yikes, your not the first one to have this happen, glad nothing bad happened. It sounds like regular inspection is a good idea. What exactly was the hard part?

[skoronesa]

Originally Posted by arctictraveller

Yikes, your not the first one to have this happen, glad nothing bad happened. It sounds like regular inspection is a good idea. What exactly was the hard part?

I spent a while trying to get the lower bolt out until I realized I could fit an angle grinder cut off wheel between the frame bracket and the shackle end to cut each end of the bolt off and the lower part just came out.

The upper bolt however took a lot more work. I ended up cutting the head off of the bolt and putting a length of 1-1/2" pipe over the threads sticking out with a big washer and then the nut, so when I tightened the nut it pulled the bolt and the inner bushing sleeve it was rusted to out of the rubber bushing.

After getting the center out I took a torch to the rubber bushing and managed to pull it out almost whole.

Getting the outer bushing sleeve out of the end of the leaf spring was difficult. I had to use a straight sawzall blade to make two lengthwise cuts on the inside and then use my beater to get it to start curling inward and then use channellocks to twist it inward and pull it out.

The hardest part was getting the new bushing in. Everything was clean and I greased it but it was a TOIGHT fit. Toight, like a toiger. I used a piece of 3/8" threaded rod and some washers to press it in, broke that, moved up to 1/2" rod, broke that. Luckily by that point it was in enough I could use the new grade 8 bolt to suck it in more.

Then with the bushing barely in the right place I had to try and get the new shackle on which didn't quite line up because the leaf spring was off center. A ratchet strap helped pull it over.

I will try to post pics later.

[Gooseberry]

I have always just put up with how thin my upper bunk padding is and I do like a stiff mattress but it’s stiff. So while I was at interbike this year one of the bike packing groups had Klymit gear and a double air pad. This got my interest and when he said the stuff sack is the air pump I was sold and ordered one.

Fast forward to last night when I was able to put in play and it’s awesome! The fit when inflated is just inside the crossbars and the length couple inches longer then my bunk. When you put up it does need to be folded in but I’m ok with the trade off. Not to self don’t try filling it using the deflate side and make sure it’s closed when using the inflate side just saying it works better that way.

I was going to redo my upper bunk but now it’s comfy.

https://www.klymit.com/double-v.html


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[geoffff]

Originally Posted by Gooseberry

I have always just put up with how thin my upper bunk padding is and I do like a stiff mattress but it’s stiff. So while I was at interbike this year one of the bike packing groups had Klymit gear and a double air pad. https://www.klymit.com/double-v.html

Awesome idea, thanks! I have a 2" memory foam pad I fold up under the middle (hanging) section of the penthouse bed, but even that isn't enough extra padding for me. And there's no room up there to store more padding up there if the roof is going to close properly.

That inflatable sounds like a great idea. I might use it in addition to my memory foam.

-- Geoff

[Twoxentrix]

Originally Posted by Gooseberry

I have always just put up with how thin my upper bunk padding is and I do like a stiff mattress but it’s stiff. So while I was at interbike this year one of the bike packing groups had Klymit gear and a double air pad. This got my interest and when he said the stuff sack is the air pump I was sold and ordered one.

Fast forward to last night when I was able to put in play and it’s awesome! The fit when inflated is just inside the crossbars and the length couple inches longer then my bunk. When you put up it does need to be folded in but I’m ok with the trade off. Not to self don’t try filling it using the deflate side and make sure it’s closed when using the inflate side just saying it works better that way.

I was going to redo my upper bunk but now it’s comfy.

https://www.klymit.com/double-v.html


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

So glad you shared this !!!!!!!!!!! I really enjoy the upper bunk as well, but even after replacing the original mat I find its uncomfortable for long periods of time so I've been experimenting. First with several styles of inflatable mattress's - Strike one, then using 2" Memory foam - Strike two, recently investigating Yoga mats....until now. Just ordered one myself (really like how compact it is).