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2021 RAM 3500 Tradesman | AEV Prospector | FWC Grandby
- Thread starter ramblinChet
- Start date
ramblinChet
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No heater - I selected the shell model with plans to eventually install a heater that is ideal for my specific application. The heaters FWC uses are propane and I think they are fine for occasional use but they use a ton of fuel and propane is difficult to find compared to other fuel sources.
Just passing through State College after spending time out at Horse Shoe Pass
I believe you are correct - I remember stopping at vistas on Colerain Road and Pennsylvania Furnace Road. A few years ago I spent a good amount of time at Bald Eagle during the winter and just love that place - can't wait to spend more time there. Sounds like you had one heck of a trip on Friday.
ramblinChet
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Decided it was time to purchase a good tire repair kit so after a few hours of reading and watching reviews I purchased the ARB Heavy Duty Tire Repair Kit.
Here is a video which does a great job reviewing this specific kit:
Here is a video which does a great job reviewing this specific kit:
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Great kit. I have had one for many many years. Get a good set of pliers to go with it. Tough to get some of the nails out. My regular pliers sucked so I got out my Knipex pliers and they worked so well I ordered another set to carry in the truck.
I picked up a couple of Boulder Tools kids more recently. One to give away at a Jeep club raffle and one to keep in the Jeep. Or maybe it is the in the Truck and the ARB is is the Jeep....LOL
Rockcrawlindude
a rock crawlin’ dude
What are the Allen wrenches for?
Darkone
Well-Known Member
To replace the end on the tire tools it looks like.
Rockcrawlindude
a rock crawlin’ dude
I suppose you’re right. although, I don’t see replacements there. maybe they sell them separately.
ramblinChet
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Well that's funny...I just ordered my son an assortment of PB Swiss and Knipex for his birthday. You have exceptional taste!
It comes with two of the insertion tips, but only one reamer if I remember right.
ramblinChet
Drinks Alone
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Spent this weekend at Bald Eagle State Forest in Pennsylvania. Here are a few shots:
Good morning from atop Penn's Creek Mountain. Watching the sun climb up through the trees was amazing after a pitch-black night in the high 20s with no heater.
Squeezing through some tight passages on Henstep Valley Trail.
Swimming through the tall grass.
The conditions are so very different up on High Mountain. First snow of the year.
Dropping down into Poe Valley.
Good morning from atop Penn's Creek Mountain. Watching the sun climb up through the trees was amazing after a pitch-black night in the high 20s with no heater.
Squeezing through some tight passages on Henstep Valley Trail.
Swimming through the tall grass.
The conditions are so very different up on High Mountain. First snow of the year.
Dropping down into Poe Valley.
UglyViking
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Love the pictures. I'm eager to see what you end up doing in reference to a heater. Did you just bundle up?
ramblinChet
Drinks Alone
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Thanks. For a heater I am really leaning towards a diesel unit - probably an Eberspächer or Webasto unit. I have a Mountain Hardwear Phantom 4° F goose down bag from years ago and it has always kept me warm. If it's in the 20s or 30s I just open the bag and lay it over me - I don't even crawl in and zip it up.
We got out to Moshannon. 1600 feet nothing. 1800 feet the snow was laying on dead trees and bushes.
2300 feet and it was laying on the road.
The first pic has a weather tower in it. When I got out to take the pic you could see it clear then the snow came over the ridge.
Poe Paddy drive is fun...much more fun going up out of Poe Paddy SP. I use 4low on it just to save pressing on the brakes.
Did you run into any if the many trail rides going in today?
2300 feet and it was laying on the road.
The first pic has a weather tower in it. When I got out to take the pic you could see it clear then the snow came over the ridge.
Poe Paddy drive is fun...much more fun going up out of Poe Paddy SP. I use 4low on it just to save pressing on the brakes.
Did you run into any if the many trail rides going in today?
How does the camper like being switched with the branches?
One thing about BESF...the roads are wide...the branches and bushes sure do tighten things up
One thing about BESF...the roads are wide...the branches and bushes sure do tighten things up
ramblinChet
Drinks Alone
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I make an effort to minimize unnecessarily dragging branches down the side although it does leave some marks. It seem if you stay on the maintained roads there is a surplus of room but on some of the unmaintained ones things tighten up on occasion.
And I have driven down into and up out of Poe Paddy State Park several times over the years - mostly in my Jeep. I was traveling from west to east and after hitting the vistas up top decided to drop down in and see the tunnel before I departed.
I was just mearly stating it is funner going east to West. Going west to east it is just...let off brake slowly...bounce...back on the brake...repeat.
On Longwell Draft road...about the middle...my mirror found a tree trunk...that road is overgrown pretty good. And...well...LONG...just looking at bushes
And that was in February. Never been down it in Summer.
ramblinChet
Drinks Alone
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- 644
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This weekend was spent in the Moshannon State Forest and Quehanna Wild Area in Pennsylvania.
I spent the night near Shaggers Inn Pond and was woken up by woodpeckers pecking.
Once packed up and rolling I stopped by the ranger station for a map and dropped back into the woods to make my way up to Benezette to spend time at the Elk County Visitor Center. I met some other outdoors men and learned a bit about the habits of Pennsylvania Elk, how to call turkeys, etc. Did you know that Elk have two ivories in their mouth?
Heading east I took the opportunity to cross Bennett Branch/Sinnemahoning Creek which was around 2.0-2.5 feet deep with a nice rocky bottom.
Shortly thereafter I rolled into Driftwood to look around and then headed south-south-west deep into Quehanna Wild Area. The bridge is a three-span skewed Baltimore through truss erected in 1902.
My map showed a RESTRICTED AREA near the end of Reactor Road. Of course I drove to the location to investigate. What I found in the middle of the forest nearby was a secret government test facility used during the cold war to test nuclear-powered jet engines from 1955-1960. This was part of the "Atoms for Peace" program initiated by President Eisenhower in 1953.
Here is a massive steel door on the one side of the concrete bunker with some ominous graffiti. Yes, I went inside but it would have been nice to have a Geiger counter.
I spent the night near Shaggers Inn Pond and was woken up by woodpeckers pecking.
Once packed up and rolling I stopped by the ranger station for a map and dropped back into the woods to make my way up to Benezette to spend time at the Elk County Visitor Center. I met some other outdoors men and learned a bit about the habits of Pennsylvania Elk, how to call turkeys, etc. Did you know that Elk have two ivories in their mouth?
Heading east I took the opportunity to cross Bennett Branch/Sinnemahoning Creek which was around 2.0-2.5 feet deep with a nice rocky bottom.
Shortly thereafter I rolled into Driftwood to look around and then headed south-south-west deep into Quehanna Wild Area. The bridge is a three-span skewed Baltimore through truss erected in 1902.
My map showed a RESTRICTED AREA near the end of Reactor Road. Of course I drove to the location to investigate. What I found in the middle of the forest nearby was a secret government test facility used during the cold war to test nuclear-powered jet engines from 1955-1960. This was part of the "Atoms for Peace" program initiated by President Eisenhower in 1953.
Here is a massive steel door on the one side of the concrete bunker with some ominous graffiti. Yes, I went inside but it would have been nice to have a Geiger counter.
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The reason the Quehanna Wild Area has this intersting shape is because south of the reactor area is where they tested the jet engines. The theory was if one broke away from the mounts it would only travel with in the distance of the fenced area.
Lots of cool history in the Moshannon SF and Quehanna WA.
All of my plans for adventure got sidetracked this weekend. You were just minutes from Rodge Road in Elk SF that is my next area to scout. There are supposedly some motorized campsites along it that no one seems to know anything about.
pabucketlist.com
And this monster was just taken from the area.
www.outdoorlife.com
Lots of cool history in the Moshannon SF and Quehanna WA.
All of my plans for adventure got sidetracked this weekend. You were just minutes from Rodge Road in Elk SF that is my next area to scout. There are supposedly some motorized campsites along it that no one seems to know anything about.
Exploring the Ridge Road Vistas in the Elk State Forest
The most scenic state forest road in Pennsylvania!
pabucketlist.com
And this monster was just taken from the area.
Pennsylvania Public Land Hunter Kills a Massive 205-Inch Drop-Tine Buck
It took over four years for Pennsylvania bowhunter John Raubenstrauch to figure out a monster public-land buck. This year, he finally did.
www.outdoorlife.com
ramblinChet
Drinks Alone
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This past weekend I spent four days and four nights out exercising my AEV Prospector. Here are some of the details - pay special attention to the lessons learned.
The evening before Thanksgiving we met and spent the night at Little Fort Campground up on the mountain east of Edinburg, Virginia. At one time was a rest stop for a stage coach line. My friend drives a Power Wagon and has a Four Wheel Pop-Up Camper also.
Early the next morning we decided to run a nearby Jeep Badge or Honor Trail named Peters Mill Run. It is an eight mile trail which takes 2-3 hours and can be completed in 2WD if you have a moderate level of skill off-road. My recommendation is to air down since this is never ending small rocks.
Lesson learned - Check latches on FWC at the end of trail. On the trail, I began to hear a light mechanical tap as my vehicle would roll side-to-side. I though it might be a suspension component that had become loose but at the end of the trail I found two FWC latches that had popped loose presumably during some mild flexing on the trail.
We hustled down to Harrisonburg, Virginia to enjoy a Thanksgiving lunch at a local restaurant. After a huge lunch, we continued south-south-east to Covington, Virginia to begin Section Three of the Mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route (MABDR). Section three is 193 miles long and is 90% off-road. We fueled-up in Covington and knocked out around fifty miles before we decided to look for a primitive camp spot and enjoy a good nights sleep.
It was my duty to navigate us through the mountains from Covington to Moorfield so I decided to not use any GPS, GAIA, etc. or even a paper map. It took me about fifteen minutes to snap thirty-six screen shots of intersections on the MABDR and use them to help guide us. Basically, we would be driving sort-of blind for an unknown distance knowing we we moving in a particular direction and we would memorize short sections and look for them such as: drive NE in general for a bit and look for a road that heads kinda north. If we turn SE immediately after we keep going until we find another road that leads SW, we ignore that one also. Oh, we are at an intersection and there is a 160 degree turn to north-north-west - that's our road. The battery in my nearly ten-year-old laptop is good for about an hour and I did not have the ability to recharge it on the road so I would flip the dimmed screen open for a second and close it again quickly to save energy. It ran out of power about 10-20 miles from the end but we made it anyway.
Lesson learned - Electronic Stability Control will engage during turns with tires aired-down to 18 PSI. For our second day on the trail we decided to use my Coyote Automatic Tire Deflators set to 20 PSI. The tires aired-down to within a few PSI and one adjustment came loose so it will be necessary to re-calibrate that one unit. While driving on a short curvy section of paved road at 20-30 MPH it felt as if the engine stumbled once, then ten seconds later, again. I quickly determined that during some of the turns the Electronic Stability Control was confused since the tires were at such a low pressure and the system was retarding the ignition and/or reducing fuel flow. Interestingly enough, even with the ESC turned off another light would illuminate and the system would still engage.
Here is a shot of my Longacre Racing pressure gauge which has proven to work very well. With the tires aired down we could normally drive 15-20 MPH over rocky sections that would only permit 5 MPH at a street pressure of 45 PSI. We both noticed the sharp lateral rolls we dampened which is valuable we the FWC in the bed.
Upon completing section three of the MABDR we continued north to meet other friends in at a campground in Maryland. Here I am driving my AEV Prospector over the privately owned Old Town Toll Bridge connecting Green Spring, West Virginia to Old Town, Maryland.
Bring $1.50 cash because that is all they can accept at the Old Town Toll Bridge. A few miles later we met friends at Fifteen Mile Campground and enjoyed an evening around a warm campfire.
The evening before Thanksgiving we met and spent the night at Little Fort Campground up on the mountain east of Edinburg, Virginia. At one time was a rest stop for a stage coach line. My friend drives a Power Wagon and has a Four Wheel Pop-Up Camper also.
Early the next morning we decided to run a nearby Jeep Badge or Honor Trail named Peters Mill Run. It is an eight mile trail which takes 2-3 hours and can be completed in 2WD if you have a moderate level of skill off-road. My recommendation is to air down since this is never ending small rocks.
Lesson learned - Check latches on FWC at the end of trail. On the trail, I began to hear a light mechanical tap as my vehicle would roll side-to-side. I though it might be a suspension component that had become loose but at the end of the trail I found two FWC latches that had popped loose presumably during some mild flexing on the trail.
We hustled down to Harrisonburg, Virginia to enjoy a Thanksgiving lunch at a local restaurant. After a huge lunch, we continued south-south-east to Covington, Virginia to begin Section Three of the Mid-Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route (MABDR). Section three is 193 miles long and is 90% off-road. We fueled-up in Covington and knocked out around fifty miles before we decided to look for a primitive camp spot and enjoy a good nights sleep.
It was my duty to navigate us through the mountains from Covington to Moorfield so I decided to not use any GPS, GAIA, etc. or even a paper map. It took me about fifteen minutes to snap thirty-six screen shots of intersections on the MABDR and use them to help guide us. Basically, we would be driving sort-of blind for an unknown distance knowing we we moving in a particular direction and we would memorize short sections and look for them such as: drive NE in general for a bit and look for a road that heads kinda north. If we turn SE immediately after we keep going until we find another road that leads SW, we ignore that one also. Oh, we are at an intersection and there is a 160 degree turn to north-north-west - that's our road. The battery in my nearly ten-year-old laptop is good for about an hour and I did not have the ability to recharge it on the road so I would flip the dimmed screen open for a second and close it again quickly to save energy. It ran out of power about 10-20 miles from the end but we made it anyway.
Lesson learned - Electronic Stability Control will engage during turns with tires aired-down to 18 PSI. For our second day on the trail we decided to use my Coyote Automatic Tire Deflators set to 20 PSI. The tires aired-down to within a few PSI and one adjustment came loose so it will be necessary to re-calibrate that one unit. While driving on a short curvy section of paved road at 20-30 MPH it felt as if the engine stumbled once, then ten seconds later, again. I quickly determined that during some of the turns the Electronic Stability Control was confused since the tires were at such a low pressure and the system was retarding the ignition and/or reducing fuel flow. Interestingly enough, even with the ESC turned off another light would illuminate and the system would still engage.
Here is a shot of my Longacre Racing pressure gauge which has proven to work very well. With the tires aired down we could normally drive 15-20 MPH over rocky sections that would only permit 5 MPH at a street pressure of 45 PSI. We both noticed the sharp lateral rolls we dampened which is valuable we the FWC in the bed.
Upon completing section three of the MABDR we continued north to meet other friends in at a campground in Maryland. Here I am driving my AEV Prospector over the privately owned Old Town Toll Bridge connecting Green Spring, West Virginia to Old Town, Maryland.
Bring $1.50 cash because that is all they can accept at the Old Town Toll Bridge. A few miles later we met friends at Fifteen Mile Campground and enjoyed an evening around a warm campfire.
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