What did you do to your SMB today?

[bolty]

I finally got around to setting up for a second spare tire in front. I had two trips to Death Valley with tire issues - one where I had to drive 120 miles to Nevada to get a spare and one, when I got a flat AND broke the wheel (a friend said "you're having too much fun!"), where I had to come home early because I had couldn't find a wheel in all of Ridgecrest that fits my SMB.

Aluminess has a front receiver hitch for not too much. I installed it but it did take more cutting that I had anticipated to get everything lined up.

For tires I 'upgraded' from Nitto Terra Grapplers to Cooper Discoverer ST Maxx's. Just in my experience the Nittos were great in sand and on the road and looked fine but only OK in snow and miserable in mud. More important, I got two flats in two separate Death Valley trips and I wasn't happy with that. If you're in the middle of the desert by yourself, you just don't want that kind of trouble.

When looking for a new tire I went heavier, i.e., more off-roadish with the Cooper ST Maxx's. I've taken a 1,000 mile snow trip with them and another big trip to Death Valley. Here's my take: I'm not a fan of the Maxx's road manners, tends to wander a bit, and I actually installed a steering stabilizer that helps that; I did get stuck in deep, off road snow but, honestly, that wasn't the tire's fault; mud is better than Nitto and I did feel really confident on hundreds of miles of rock and dirt in Death Valley - super strong.

Just as an fyi, no temperature problems with the front mount spare and I was checking.

Everything's a trade-off with tires but my thought was I got the van to go off-road not drive on a freeway so I'm happy. Happy Trails!

[gcvt]

Got my new one registered in my name, after a two-hour computer "delay" (aka "failure") at the SF DMV - not shocked. Total time = 4 hours.

[Gooseberry]

Ok so I tell everyone to check the ground connections when looking for power issues. So on the the last big trip the house battery seemed to not stay charged very long when parked. I figured it's just a bad agm battery and did a refresh with the charger I have and it seemed to work. Well I'm setting on Gooseberry Mesa last week in a snow storm and I'm seeing my gauge go from 12.7 to 12.3 then 11.4 then back up to random 12.?. So with nothing to do but watching it snow I decided to pull it apart and I found a nice clean ground that I could just move a little and when I did the voltage would drop. I cleaned it up and tightened the connection and guess what it's solid power again and I did not need to start the van the rest of the week.


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[rallypanam]

Originally Posted by bolty

Aluminess has a front receiver hitch for not too much.

You might want to touch base with them.. I asked them about it and I think they said it was very light duty, not designed to carry any real weight.. Maybe a bike rack.

The wheel and tire might stress it...

[hightechcoonass]

Removed boards and painted the rims.

[86Scotty]

Ooh, NICE! Looks much better, or should I say it makes you look about 20 years younger!

[accrete]

When we began dreaming of converting a van into a camper, the options were basically; 1) Sprinter with a high-top, or 2) Chevy/Ford and add a fiberglass high-top. Since we also wanted AWD if possible, we went with the Chevy AWD cargo van and had Van Specialties install the 24″ Fiberine fiberglass top. This gave us ~5’10” headroom after headlining/insulation/lighting was installed. The inside of the rig after 5 years of camping/daily use has faired well and looks new. The fiberglass top? Not so much. Even with washings and an occasional wax it was showing its age.

Last year during a fiberglass RV gathering we met a fellow traveler that swore by a product called Poliglow. It was not a polisher or wax, rather a chemical coating that would typically last about a year and then a simple reapply to bring back the shine. And shine it does. Following the easy instructions took our dull white fiberglass roof back to looking-as-new.



The prep is really the only hard work, and I faired well without any aches after an afternoon of scrubbing the oxidation off (using their Poli OX product) and then took about 2 hours the following day to actually apply the Poli Glow product. And as you can see from this un-retouched photo there is serious shine going on!

We got the complete kit with the Poli Prep, Glow, mitt, and scrubber and then added the OX to the order as we knew the surface was oxidized. Looking around at pricing you may find that ordering direct from PG will yield favorable prices.

I highly recommend this product to any whishing to breathe new life into old fiberglass. There are also several good videos online showing the simple application process for those in research mode.



: ) Thom

[pjpvi]

After 7 very satisfying years with my twin Deka 4D AGM batteries, they died a sudden death. From my searches, I did well to get 7 years.

I searched for a while to figure out what to replace them with since Deka isn't around any more (but was bought by another company - don't recall the name now) and contacted Peter at SMB. As always, Peter replied promptly and let me know that they now use Universal Brand UB4D AGM's. He said they are same quality as the Deka's, but after research, I decided to go with LifeLine. Much more expensive (I can get 2 - Lifelines for the price of 3 Universal's), but I really don't want to replace these often and hope to get another 7 years.

After ordering the batteries from Stored Energy Products they advised they needed to ship to business with forklift. Enter a local brewery that I know the owner of who agreed to take the shipment.

Essential to doing this job IMO is air ratchet and transmission jack. There is no way I could have done the job without those two items.

Removal was pretty easy. Installation was painful, but only due to trying to route cables in a fashion that allowed everything to tuck back in under the van.

Assuming I get another 7 years out of these and I still have the van then, I'll be 60 years old for the next time they are replaces. I will likely spend the money to have SMB swap them!

[TexGX]

Pulled The Yeti out to let the rain knock the dust off. Popped the top and ended up falling asleep in it. The rain hitting the roof just put me out. Pulled her back in and dried her off.

TexGX

[ridintall]

I had some custom bug screens made for the side and back doors. After years of getting by with Wal-Mart sourced screen and magnets I decided to get something a lot nicer and more functional.

These mount to a sliding track above the doors and are zippered down the middle. The rear screens are attached to the side with snaps. The side door screens are attached with velcro on the sides with the right portion also having magnets so I can use it with one door closed. They slide out of the way when not in use.

These were made on the spot for me and were a one off by the company. The first two folks I spoke to immediately said that they no longer make screens for campers but would be happy to sell me material to secure with magnets. After going that route for years I convinced them to take a quick look and after showing off my rig the guys on the production floor instantly fell in love with the van and "had to do it". They had them measured, sewed and mounted in just over 3 hours. I'm really happy with the way they turned out.