Walter, an okay daily and an okay offroader

[cjpett]

Got back from camping a couple of days ago but couldn't post because I was busy unpacking and cleaning up Walter and my teardrop. I was a little worried about the transmission, but it was fine. I went with a group of 6 so even if something happened I figured I'd be alright. We went up to Deadman Hill Road close to Red Feather. It's a nice place because it's far enough away not to bother anybody but still close enough to a town where we can get help pretty quickly if something happens.

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The spot we chose was fantastic. It was spacious, secluded, and had a cliff that overlooked a valley. The cliff was a bit of a mistake though, because when it got windy, it got windy. The second day was a strange combination of fun and miserable. We decided to go up Kelly Flats because it was just a half-hour away. Kelly was a ton of fun. We had a some rain on the way there which led to one dumb idea and one dirty truck.

See, when I see a large puddle, my brain kind of goes into monkey mode. So when I saw my buddy fly through the large puddle in front of him, I decided to follow suit. Walter did not like this. Fun Fact: Going through a large puddle with an unprotected intake will kill the engine. It took a minute, but Walter started back up and ran fine-ish the rest of the trip. The only problem was that some gunk got in the battery terminals. This is a picture of the engine bay at the car wash after the trip.

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Kelly is no joke. This was my first time doing Heart Attack Hill instead of the bypass. It really pushed my offroading skills and Walter's articulation. He got Flexy.

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The Milestar Patagonia's are fantastic. This whole bit is gonna sound like a sponsorship piece but I promise it isn't. These tires are absolutely incredible. They were quiet on the road up to the camp, and on the trail they gripped as well as the BFGoodrich KM3 M/Ts my friend was using for about 500 dollars less. I dropped it to 20psi, but they could definitely go lower if they need to. I've seen people drop them to 5 without bead lockers, which is absolutely insane.

The new CB was also fantastic. I liked the way it looked, I liked the way it felt, and it sounded great. I've ordered a more permanent, less double-sided tape-based solution for mounting it. My one gripe with it is that was a little plasticky. I might exchange it for a Cobra that seems pretty much identical except for more metal and NOAA weather alerts.

We were going to stay for another day but it started raining pretty bad and none of our camps are really waterproof. Nothing gets you going quicker than water leaking onto your head from the roof of your homemade camper.

All said it was a good time. I figured out some things that I want to do to make Walter slightly more better or slightly more worse depending on how you look at it.

 

[GrimsterGMC]

Got back from camping a couple of days ago but couldn't post because I was busy unpacking and cleaning up Walter and my teardrop. I was a little worried about the transmission, but it was fine. I went with a group of 6 so even if something happened I figured I'd be alright. We went up to Deadman Hill Road close to Red Feather. It's a nice place because it's far enough away not to bother anybody but still close enough to a town where we can get help pretty quickly if something happens.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

The spot we chose was fantastic. It was spacious, secluded, and had a cliff that overlooked a valley. The cliff was a bit of a mistake though, because when it got windy, it got windy. The second day was a strange combination of fun and miserable. We decided to go up Kelly Flats because it was just a half-hour away. Kelly was a ton of fun. We had a some rain on the way there which led to one dumb idea and one dirty truck.

See, when I see a large puddle, my brain kind of goes into monkey mode. So when I saw my buddy fly through the large puddle in front of him, I decided to follow suit. Walter did not like this. Fun Fact: Going through a large puddle with an unprotected intake will kill the engine. It took a minute, but Walter started back up and ran fine-ish the rest of the trip. The only problem was that some gunk got in the battery terminals. This is a picture of the engine bay at the car wash after the trip.

You must be registered for see images attach

Kelly is no joke. This was my first time doing Heart Attack Hill instead of the bypass. It really pushed my offroading skills and Walter's articulation. He got Flexy.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

The Milestar Patagonia's are fantastic. This whole bit is gonna sound like a sponsorship piece but I promise it isn't. These tires are absolutely incredible. They were quiet on the road up to the camp, and on the trail they gripped as well as the BFGoodrich KM3 M/Ts my friend was using for about 500 dollars less. I dropped it to 20psi, but they could definitely go lower if they need to. I've seen people drop them to 5 without bead lockers, which is absolutely insane.

The new CB was also fantastic. I liked the way it looked, I liked the way it felt, and it sounded great. I've ordered a more permanent, less double-sided tape-based solution for mounting it. My one gripe with it is that was a little plasticky. I might exchange it for a Cobra that seems pretty much identical except for more metal and NOAA weather alerts.

We were going to stay for another day but it started raining pretty bad and none of our camps are really waterproof. Nothing gets you going quicker than water leaking onto your head from the roof of your homemade camper.

All said it was a good time. I figured out some things that I want to do to make Walter slightly more better or slightly more worse depending on how you look at it.

That looked like a lot of fun, great to see some pics of these trucks in action and how they hold up under stress.

 

[cjpett]

Haven't been doing much with the truck the past week. I graduated from high school at the end of May so the past couple weeks have been a bit crazy. Between working and camping and going to grad parties, I haven't had much time to work on Walter. I did manage a junkyard run, but all I pulled was a glovebox and a bunch of radios.

The reason I pulled all those radios was so I could get back to working on my radio project. I've decided to go in an almost entirely different direction that will look better and be more usable. I found out that trying to fit a touchscreen and 12 buttons into a 1.5 din space is really difficult.

I decided to make an almost entirely custom Raspberry Pi based radio that offers Android Auto, GPS, Bluetooth, and possibly a backup camera, all while fitting into the stock 1.5 din pocket, using the stock mounting system, and looking about as stock as you can get for a guy trying to stick a touchscreen into his 20-year-old pickup truck with mediocre CAD skills and an even worse understanding of electronics diagrams. Yeah, I am seriously over my head on this one.

Turns out I was right, I was way over my head on this one, so I got rid of a couple of my original goals.
1. I will no longer be fitting everything into the stock 1.5 pocket
2. I will probably end up not using the stock mounting system, depending on how things go together.

My new plan is to use the radio pocket of the dash for a 7.9" touchscreen and possibly a couple of buttons and use the pocket under the climate control for the volume knob and the rest of the buttons, as well as a USB port, AUX and whatever else I would like to put there. This will give me plenty of space for everything and make the touchscreen more usable. The 5" screen I was planning on using is just way too small to realistically use in a car.

I am also going to make a thread specifically for the project so that I don't accidentally hijack this one with it. It'll also let me go into further depth and sort of log the progress of this project. I'll link it here when I make it, but it might be a minute

 

[cjpett]

Oh boy it's been a couple of months. I'm not dead and neither is Walter, at least not yet. We haven't been doing to much. We hit a trail the last week of June, went camping in August, ran into the back of a Dodge, and and hit a couple of other trails.

Last week of June some friends and I went up the T-33 crash site trail. It was rough. I would say it was the same amount of difficulty as Kelly Flats, execpt instead of worrying about falling off a cliff, we were worried about hitting trees. There were a couple of hard parts, we bent the bed on one of my friend's trucks and I got a new bend in the running boards.

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We went camping in the middle of august, we down the same road as last time, just about 5 miles further in. We did a little off-roading, but nothing special. I didn't bring the Teardrop this time, I like bringing it but sometimes it just becomes a hassle. As always, it was pretty, and as always, it was loads of fun. I didn't grab any pictures of the camp spot, I only got this one picture of the truck kind of close to it.

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End of August I got into a bit of a fender-bender. A guy crossed the street and made 3 cars stop coming down a huge hill and Walter just didn't have the stop in him. Fortunately everyone was okay. I hit the back of a 2010s era Dodge truck. I bent up his bumper and tailgate, and it bent the grill guard, bumper, it broke one of my KC daylighters, and cracked up the grill. The guy I hit never pulled over after I hit him, I probably followed him for 5 miles before I gave up. I don't have any pictures of the damage, so just imagine the picture above with the right daylighter missing.

I finally got to fixing up the front end a little on Monday. I stole a couple off that bar I bought a few months ago and put them on. I haven't wired them yet, but I think they look pretty good. You can pretty clearly see the bend in the grill guard. I'm thinking I'll tie that to the back of a truck or something and just back up a little to try and fix it. What could go wrong?

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I also finished the radio, ish. It still has a lot of problems. It kinda sucks ass. There is no audio in the passenger side, the whole thing is pretty slow, the screen is crooked, and there are still no buttons. I don't know when I'll get back to working on that, I got pretty burnt out with it, but I still think it'd be cool to get working. I will probably do the write up once I figure those issues out, but that will probably be a while.

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That's all that's been happening. I did a lot less than I had hoped, No roll bar, no Fall Guy truck, no upper light bar. I will probably update this later, when I start doing things again, but don't hold your breath.

 

[GrimsterGMC]

I like your comment about straightening your brush bar "what could go wrong?" as that has been the opening line to so many long and interesting stories shared between mates standing around a workshop recalling past adventures.

 

[Orpedcrow]

Glad you and Walter aren’t ded. Maybe too much Ram and not enough Dodge…

There’s your dad joke for the day.

 

[cjpett]

Little angry because I just wrote a decent amount and then refreshed the page and lost everything

We just wrapped up sprinkler blowouts for the year. I call it the 5 weeks of hell because it's 5 weeks of sprinklers and driving and listening to an Isuzu diesel rattle away. Walter did great, these trucks are excellent at towing. There was one issue that I ran into a couple of times. I would start the truck, and it would do fine for a couple of seconds, and then it would die. Then I would start it again and I'd have to keep the RPM high and shift into drive in order to keep the truck from dying. I think it has something to do with hauling the compressor because it hasn't happened recently.

I decided to wrap up a few projects before it gets cold. Some are big, some are small. Yesterday I worked mostly on getting the toolbox mounted and fixing up the HiLift jack. For as long as it's been in there the toolbox has been held in place by some screws. The screws aren't like bolted in or anything, they're just there. A couple of times it's come loose offroading and would just slide around the bed. Anyways. Because I had no mounting hardware I had to improvise. I decided to use some drywall anchors and big washers to keep it in. The ones I bought are 1/4in, the biggest I could find at the Home Depot. I think they'll be alright because they're rated for like 115 pounds. It's not a perfect solution, but it is a solution.

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I also got some work done on the HiLift jack. It's from the 80s I think, and it has been used a lot when it was on my Grandpa's farm. I bought a rebuild kit for like 10 bucks and watched a YouTube video to fix it up. It was really easy. I sprayed everything with WD40 to clean it up and it was working like new. I considered painting it, but I kinda like the old weathered look of it than I do fresh paint. Another thing I did was fix the bend in the I beam. It wasn't all that bad, but it was noticeable enough and made it harder to keep the bar from rattling. So I ran it over with Walter and it straightened out with no problems. I'm thinking about designing a couple of things to 3D print mount on the jack so it can do more than look pretty. I'm thinking a gear box or cup holders or something.

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I decided to take the bug shield off. One of the mounts was broken from hitting the Dodge, and it was flapping around pretty badly so I pulled it off. I don't know how to feel about it. I think I might not be used to it, so I'm giving it some time before I get a new one, but I think the bug shield really gave the truck a mean look. I might try and fix the old one, but if they're cheap enough I'll just get a new one.

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The biggest thing to happen is a new tailgate. Well, "new". I found it at the Pick'n'Pull. It isn't in the best shape, actually, it's in worse shape than the old one, but I sprayed the back with some bed liner and put the plastic cover and it looks fine. There's some surface rust and it's missing some paint, but it's not dented and there aren't holes in it so I'm happy. I'm gonna find/buy a decal for it and it'll be like new.

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Tomorrow I'm gonna try and unbend the grill guard. I'm going to use an advanced technique called "being stupid", so we'll see how that goes. I also bought a new turn signal stock so I'll finally have hazard lights, and if I have time I'll install that too.

 

[cjpett]

December: I should update that thread its been a minute
January: I should update that thread its been a minute
Febuary: I should update that thread its been a minute
March: I should update that thread its been a minute
April: I should update that thread its been a minute
May: I should update that thread its been a minute
June: I should update that thread its been a minute
July: I should update that thread its been a minute

Took some time but I'm back. I'll fill in what all has changed in the past 6 months or so. It really isn't much.

The advanced technique called "being stupid" went well. I wrapped a tow strap around the guard and hooked it to the bumper of the work truck. I put Walter in reverse and just tapped the throttle until it was straightened out.

I bought the cheapest turn signal stock I could find because I'm cheap as hell and threw in the truck. It works really well for like 15 bucks or whatever it was and my hazards work again which is great.

Throughout January and Febuary I worked on building a headache rack. It was a really fun project and my first attempt at welding. It turned out pretty good, but the way I mounted it isn't great. Someday I'll fix it, but not today.

Remember how I said I was cheap? That was a lie. I'm not cheap, I just have different priorites. Those priorities include Hella lights and covers.

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They also include a 2004 Buick Century. Yeah, good ole Walter started to get a little tough doing a hour of city driving every day. I parked Walter in storage for a while.

Since May I haven't really gotten much time with the truck. Between work and other stuff I've just been busy. I've taken it out for random runs to the recycling center and dump but thats about it.

This Sunday I finally pulled it out so I could get it ready for a little camp trip. I messed around with the CB radio and got all that sorted.

When I got in it to take it back to storage bad things happened. I noticed the gauge cluster wasn't working and then when I got it on the road I noticed that there was no 3rd gear. I got it back to storage and spent until last night looking at new transmissions. I know the way I've been treating that 4L60E that it would go out at any moment. I picked the truck up again and did your basic troubleshooting, like checking fuses and whatnot.

It was a fuse. It was a tiny little 10 Amp fuse for the gauge cluster. I was getting ready to drop $2000+ on a 700r4 and new intake system for a fuse that had blown.

I wanna work on Walter more and make this truck how I want it, but right now I don't really have the time, money, or motivation. I'll try and update this a little more as I go, hopefully it won't be another 7 months.

 

[GrimsterGMC]

December: I should update that thread its been a minute
January: I should update that thread its been a minute
Febuary: I should update that thread its been a minute
March: I should update that thread its been a minute
April: I should update that thread its been a minute
May: I should update that thread its been a minute
June: I should update that thread its been a minute
July: I should update that thread its been a minute

Took some time but I'm back. I'll fill in what all has changed in the past 6 months or so. It really isn't much.

The advanced technique called "being stupid" went well. I wrapped a tow strap around the guard and hooked it to the bumper of the work truck. I put Walter in reverse and just tapped the throttle until it was straightened out.

I bought the cheapest turn signal stock I could find because I'm cheap as hell and threw in the truck. It works really well for like 15 bucks or whatever it was and my hazards work again which is great.

Throughout January and Febuary I worked on building a headache rack. It was a really fun project and my first attempt at welding. It turned out pretty good, but the way I mounted it isn't great. Someday I'll fix it, but not today.

Remember how I said I was cheap? That was a lie. I'm not cheap, I just have different priorites. Those priorities include Hella lights and covers.

You must be registered for see images attach

They also include a 2004 Buick Century. Yeah, good ole Walter started to get a little tough doing a hour of city driving every day. I parked Walter in storage for a while.

Since May I haven't really gotten much time with the truck. Between work and other stuff I've just been busy. I've taken it out for random runs to the recycling center and dump but thats about it.

This Sunday I finally pulled it out so I could get it ready for a little camp trip. I messed around with the CB radio and got all that sorted.

When I got in it to take it back to storage bad things happened. I noticed the gauge cluster wasn't working and then when I got it on the road I noticed that there was no 3rd gear. I got it back to storage and spent until last night looking at new transmissions. I know the way I've been treating that 4L60E that it would go out at any moment. I picked the truck up again and did your basic troubleshooting, like checking fuses and whatnot.

It was a fuse. It was a tiny little 10 Amp fuse for the gauge cluster. I was getting ready to drop $2000+ on a 700r4 and new intake system for a fuse that had blown.

I wanna work on Walter more and make this truck how I want it, but right now I don't really have the time, money, or motivation. I'll try and update this a little more as I go, hopefully it won't be another 7 months.

Mate, I am in the same position right now, I have a shelf full of parts just waiting to go into my truck but no time to even look at it. Just have to be patient I suppose, it will happen eventually.