Lumpskie's Prospector (Diesel Power Wagon) Build

[gimmie11s]

Pretty rad, congrats!

 

[Lumpskie]

I took the tent out on quick shake down trip... here's a quick report.

First off... with a family of 4... we don't pack as light as we used to.

Gratefully, the tent packed down pretty small into a tote so it didn't take up too much space.

The route to our campsite took us over roughly 50 miles of unpaved forest service roads. The route had great views as it hugged the Reservoir.

What is nice about this tent is that, at 50 lbs, I didn't even notice it in the truck bed. I've had roof top tents and bombing around curves or traversing side hills made the rig feel a little unsettled and top heavy... another win.

After about an hour and a half, we found a great spot. It was on a little peninsula with water on both sides.

We even had to bald eagles flying over our head. (I know... the picture looks like crows)

We set the tent up in about 5 minutes, which I was happy with. Here are a few shots showing the cool spot

 

[flan]

Looks beautiful. Was that NH?

 

[Lumpskie]

We relaxed and the children played.

The water was crazy clear

The dog was living her best life

The evening was awesome too

Soon, it was time to turn in. We set the kids up on a bunk bed... the space was pretty good.

The wind break piece that attaches to the truck bumper worked out pretty well too.

This whole approach let my wife go crazy with our bed. We had layers of moving blanket, sleeping back and a 4" memory foam mattress topper... really comfortable bed in the truck bed!

Everybody slept well. The next morning, I we cooked breakfast over the fire.

Then we got ready to head home. Here are a few more parting shots before we tore the tent down.

This kids (and adults) love the windows:

These forged stakes are a total win... really strong:

Ok... so I covered the positives... here are some things I didn't like.

1. I'd rather have zippers than ties to close the doors and attach the wind break. It would be much easier to get a fully closed, bug proof barrier.
2. Right now, the tent needs the truck to be fully sealed. I'd like to make a design change to make this a stand alone tent which interfaces with the truck. That way, I could pull away for the day and return... backing in and reattaching.
3. I used cheap pine wood for the frame. I'd like to replace that with either hard wood or (better yet) aluminum.
4. The thing I'm most excited about... I want to add a wood stove jack for late fall and winter camping!

More to come, once I get the time!

 

[Lumpskie]

Looks beautiful. Was that NH?

That is over in western Montana.

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

Awesome tent. Awesome trip.

 

[Lumpskie]

I am thinking I might want to replace my stock Laramie fog lamps with some Diode Dynamics SS3 pods. (I want to use their DOT wide fog pattern, so I can run them on the street) One thing that I noticed is that my fogs turn off when my high beams go on. Another thing that I noticed is that there are 2 beams to my stock fogs. 1 shines forward and 1 shines out to the side. In corners, I noticed that the side shining beam will turn on when my highbeams are on. It seems like that would be odd behavior with any fog lamp, other than stock.

Have any of you performed this swap? Would I need to use Alpha BOD or similar to get aftermarket fog lamps to work properly?

Thanks for the help,

 

[G Mcpherson]

With the Alpha OBD App you can change the settings so the Fog Lamps will stay on with high beams. The DD SS3 should be plug and go.

 

[Darkone]

Under 25mph the fog lights turn on when you make a turn. As far as I know they are just one single light that illuminates. No the swap will be plug and play as far as getting the lights to work the same as factory, but to get them to come on with high beams will require Alfa OBD.

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

I am thinking I might want to replace my stock Laramie fog lamps with some Diode Dynamics SS3 pods. (I want to use their DOT wide fog pattern, so I can run them on the street) One thing that I noticed is that my fogs turn off when my high beams go on. Another thing that I noticed is that there are 2 beams to my stock fogs. 1 shines forward and 1 shines out to the side. In corners, I noticed that the side shining beam will turn on when my highbeams are on. It seems like that would be odd behavior with any fog lamp, other than stock.

Have any of you performed this swap? Would I need to use Alpha BOD or similar to get aftermarket fog lamps to work properly?

Thanks for the help,

I feel like @el_barto did this but I may be thinking of the wrong person

 

[brodon]

Very cool build and awesome to see you actually put it to use.

 

[UglyViking]

As others have said, my understanding is that the whole fog light turns on and off, and that they are not individual. I know that if you do the swap they maintain that factory function, I actually don't know if there is a way to turn them off, but I've not looked hard.

 

[Lumpskie]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Sounds like I should get Alpha OBD and play around with it. (It would be nice to just leave even the stock fogs on all the time)

 

[Lumpskie]

One more random question for you guys...

I keep my keys in my front pocket. When working in the garage, I seem to hit the panic button on my key fob (and give myself a mild heart attack) when I squate down, on a fairly regular basis. I almost want to remove the panic button all together... Has this every happened to any of you?

 

[G Mcpherson]

You can disable it with Alpha. I used to do that all the time when working with them in my pocket.

 

[Lumpskie]

You can disable it with Alpha. I used to do that all the time when working with them in my pocket.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one. Where's the right place to buy Alpha OBD?

EDIT:

Here?

AlfaOBD

 

[G Mcpherson]

Yes. Also an MX + and Bypass cable.

 

[Lumpskie]

Yes. Also an MX + and Bypass cable.

I didn't seem them listed on the website... where do you suggest buying them?

 

[Darkone]

@Jimmy07 might be able to help with the bypass cable.

MX+ Amazon
Here is where I bought mine, but it’s went up in price since I bought mine.

 

[G Mcpherson]

Security Module Bypass - KaodTech​

https://www.kaodtech.com › product-page › security-mod.