What did you do to your SMB today?

[joey2cool]

First three months of ownership (ok, so I'm not as handy as some of you all are):

1. Completed 12V wiring system schematic diagram and posted on this forum (under electrical systems topic). Includes functional check-out, SMB West review, and component specification research.

2. Completed pure water and grey water system schematic diagram. Posted pure water on this forum. Includes component specification research, drain, fill, and operation.

3. Installed reflector strips (silver on silver van) on the opening edge of every door ($6).

4. Purchased portable 200 watt 10 amp inverter ($30; great deal on Black & Decker at Target), ten foot 12V 10 amp extension cord ($8 at Radio Shack), 12V 120 psi portable air compressor ($20 from Bell at Sears), four portable water-proof white LED mini-lamps for ambience ($8), magnetic clip-on LED light for reading ($6).

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5. Installed felt pads over gaucho bracket areas rubbing up against sides of leather cushion.

6. Installed two small rubber feet on one end of a refrigerator veggie container that fits in bottom of 3 cf Norcold refrigerator. This holds a 22 oz. bottle of beer or wine and keeps it from rolling around. The rubber feet lift the front end just enough to allow its flared lip to clear the shelf on the frig door.

7. Organized a few gear bags for quick getta-way (biking, hiking, over-nighters).

8. Installed chrome DEER HORNS on front grill ($10 from Bell at Schucks). This, and a wee bit slower drive, is a cheap substitute for an Aluminess bumper...

Camped 17 nights. Topped off 9.9 gallon propane tank once, just to check it out - only got one gallon in it. Also bathed the van a few times (best way to get to know every nook and cranny).

[woodbee]

I recently changed out my stock transmission fluid pan with a Mag-Hytec cast aluminum pan. It hangs down one inch lower then the stock pan and holds just under eight quarts more fluid. The transmission temps. are lower but I won't know for sure how much lower until I can travel in outside temps. in the mid 90s.
I will update when I have more information.
Here are the pictures of the change.

Woody

[woodbee]

It seemed like every time I used the awning, the front awning bracket would bend just enough to where the passenger door would rub on it. So I built a new bracket out of 1/8" x 3" flat steel plate and added a 3/16" x 1/2" x 3/4" angle to clamp onto the gutter and bolt to the bracket. Any place the bracket touches the van paint I used two thicknesses of 10 mil. tape.











Then I modified the middle and rear brackets by removing the welded clip on the back that hooked onto the gutter and added the same angle clip as I put on the front bracket. The awning is much sturdier.

Woody

[Greggd]

Great idea Woody , we have to be careful as well when opening the passenger side door to prevent scratching . This is one of the projects I had planned for the future and you just provided the necessary reason to do so . Note if you carry the correct sized Nut Driver in a handy place and get in the habit of checking and snugging up your Well Nut's on your bracket's after a drive on dirt or pavement you shouldn't have the issue's that others have had . We have a little over one quarter of our total mileage on unpaved surface's without a single issue on our awning except some mild scratch's from Mesquite
and Tamarack tree's on trips . We use our Awning all of the time Rain or Shine and wouldn't be without it . Be sure to check their Web Sight for some very useful accessories .
Greggde

[scatter]

Crawled under the rig after getting back from putting 8,000 miles on an Alaska trip. Everything looked good, but I noticed a little lateral movement at the front of the rear driveshaft. Also, the T-case was about 1/2 qt. low. I dropped the front of the rear drive shaft and put a wrench on the yoke coming out of the rear of the T-case. Supposed to have 150 ft-lb of torque and it had loosened to 20 ft-lb. Tightened it up and all lateral movement is gone. That slight movement probably accounted for losing some fluid out of the T-case. That nut was tight when I left on the trip.
Crawl under your rigs boys and girls and give a look at everything after every trip. The harder you use 'em, the more you need to check things.

[scatter]

Well, these are a little late in posting, but earlier in the year I finally got around to fixing a few things that have bugging me. I’ll post them separately here to make the search option work better.
First off, I added a coolant filter as has been posted elsewhere. I got the units from dieselsite.com. While I was cutting coolant hoses I also added the heater bypass kit. The bypass really does cool down the incoming vent air. No more heated air, but just what’s coming in from the outside. Only hassle is when you want to heat up the vent air, or don’t want full (and I mean FULL) cold AC, you have to flip the switch and turn off the bypass. Not a big deal there. Anyway, easy installation and I put my coolant filter up under the passenger side of the front bumper.

I noticed that when I cut into the heater hoses when installing the bypass valve, that there was casting sand in the low spot. When I changed the filter a few days ago, I cut it open and there was a bunch of sand in it too. This is not good and is one of the major reasons for the Ford EGR failure due to the plugging of the oil cooler by casting sand. I probably won’t need to change the filter very often anymore, but getting that sand out of the system is a good thing.

[scatter]

Next project was to add an external transmission filter from dieselsite.com
Easy installation and you can’t have your transmission too clean. Every Ford I’ve had over the past twenty years has needed trans work at the 40-50k range. Hoping to not have to go thru that expense with the SMB. The filter fit real well mounted to the cross member between the fuel tank and the transfer case and the included hoses fit perfect.





Those of you with the SMB mounted extreme air compressor will have to find a different filter mounting location. I also got the optional pressure gage which will indicate when the filter needs changing.

[scatter]

Since I added my awning, I’ve had several occasions where tree branches have gotten caught between the awning and the van roof. I finally added a branch deflector and it works great.



I made it out of ¼” rod. It fits perfectly in the slot that’s in the rear top of the awning.



I then drilled a hole in the top of the slot and into the rod to hold the rod in place with a little screw.



The other end is just flattened out and I drilled thru the rain gutter and fastened it there with a small machine screw. Bending ¼” rod to the shape you want is a piece of pie. A side benefit is that it does add a little stabilization to the awning too.

[scatter]

Next project was to do something about the swing out galley and the way it rattles and eventually bends the little hinge pins where it hangs on the door. In my way of thinking, there is just too much weight in the galley when it’s empty, let alone with stuff in it. I’ve had to remove the galley and straighten the hinge pins twice. There has also been a problem (mentioned elsewhere on this Forum) where the rear side door keeps unlatching at the top when driving on rough roads.
Well, maybe this isn’t the best solution, but it works. I got a floor lock from HTC products (800-624-2027) and use it to support the front of the galley when driving.



I added two 1/4” bolts to existing holes in the floor lock so they stick out to be inserted into the matching holes I drilled in the base of the galley and into it’s frame. I also added a small metal plate to reinforce the holes.



I now insert the two bolts on the floor lock into the holes in the galley and push down the floor lock lever.







It lifts the front of the galley (adjustable height) and takes a lot of weight off the hinge pins. After many miles of washboard road, no more bent pins and the van door hasn’t unlatched once.

[scatter]

The last project I did before the summer traveling fun began was to extend the air scoop I made that fastens under the Aluminess bumper to funnel more air to the radiator. The original scoop worked pretty good, but I was noticing that there weren't many bugs getting caught in the screen I had in there. At the suggestion of skywagon (thanks Bill) I did some road testing and found out that with the front of the scoop back aways (I thot that looked better) the air coming off of the flat front of the bumper was mostly bypassing the scoop.
Well, I added longer sides and bottom the the scoop and brought it out to the front of the bumper.



I must say, lots more air going into this version. The bugs stack up on the screen, so I know there's more air going in there, and I have noticed more cooling. Mostly to the transmission but it helps the engine too. It's pretty rare that I see over 200 degrees on the trans temp and the electric fan doesn't come on as much. It still does come on though....
So, bottom line is that I'm happy with the extended scoop. I'm even getting used to the looks of it.