Wild and Free

Ain't that the truth!

Just got home and it was a great time! First day left Orlando headed to Coco beach ate on the end of the pier and then down to spend the first night at Fort Pierce. Second day headed south on A1A and stopped off for a bit to walk the beach at Boca Raton then headed to Key Largo for the second night, ate at Glass floored restaurant/bar called the Pilot house and marina. stayed the night at a beachfront hotel there and sat on the water front deck and enjoyed the lightening show. Next day off to Key West for 2 days, Blue Heaven was mentioned from my pontoon forum from several members ate breakfast there and liked it so much we had dinner there too the same day and a 3rd time just for another piece of the best key Lime pie in the world!!!! Stayed at a very nice B&B called La Pensione Inn there and went on a Fury Rum and Regea catamaran boat ride to a corral reef for snorkeling and Rum drinks for the ride back, best Bang for the buck while on Key West! Next day back up the keys towards The Ever Glades and it rained most of the way through the glades so we skipped the airboat ride and headed to Sanibel island and stayed the night at Island Inn and went shelling in the huge waves on the beach for a while the next day did it again and then did the guided Kayak tour through the Mangroves at Ding Darling NWR and went through the NWR info station but the road through the park is closed for the summer for repaving. Ate at the Island Cow and Island Pizza there both were good. Next night stayed at the Marriot on the mainland side of Sanibel with a top floor room overlooking the bay and towards Sanibel and again enjoyed the lightning and rain showers. Next day headed north on 41 and stopped for a walk on Venice Beach and on up to Tampa and on to Orlando for the last night at Universal City Walk eating at Margaritaville and early to bed to catch the early flight back home. Both myself and my better half definitely liked the SW gulf coast area the best and My wife especially loved Sanibel Island and wants to go back to that area again.

But unlike ethanol Biodiesel is actually good for our rigs and has benefits like added lubricity to fuel. At the last mine I worked at they did a year long experiment and found that 10% bio was the best bang for the buck all around before noticing a loss of power and fuel economy, it was easy to track when they burned 35-40K gallons every 24 hours.

Trying to find one under 100K would be almost impossible and in my mind why would you want to go backwards in power and drivability if adding power to a 12v.I was looking for the same quad cab 12v and did find several in the SD area with 120-150K but everyone who owns a quad cab 12v knows what they can scam out of them, the 2500's I was looking at were in the $15K range which is more than I will spend on a rig that's 15 years old and getting into the nickel and dime portion of its life.

Is it a dump trailer and do the sides come off or are they fixed? I guess some of my input must have rubbed off throwing out all the box trailer ideas.

Just funny how they portrayed the relationship between men and women, women are always about the emotions and feelings and men are always literal and obvious. I think every man on earth who has been with a woman for more than a week has been in a situation like this.I myself have been in this spot many times be it with girls friends I had before meeting my wife and definitely with my wife who come December will be my wife of 15 years and together for 20. We dated for 2.5 years and were engaged for another 2.5 years before the "I do". One can't rush into these things, someone once told us our dating and engagement duration alone was longer than most modern marriages last.

Does this remind you of anyone you know??????????? http://vimeo.com/66753575

Is there a new wood hauler in the Mopar family yard yet?

The sun is your friend in all situations or if it is overcast at least knowing where general east or west is can help a lot if you know where you were at when you realized you were in too deep..

Let me throw this at all. If you are familiar with the badlands of North Dakota you know we do not have woods and mountains like you western or eastern folks but what we do have is very deceiving steep hills and valleys with colorful clay buttes that go on for miles and can look identical and get one disorientated and god help you if it rains as this clay is super slimy and slippery and sticks to everything and builds up to boot.No land marks to pick in the distance as one looks like the next and no down hill for miles like mountains.:stuned:But hey, no bears, just lots of big cats....Bob and Cougar and lots of diamond back rattlers, elk, mule and white tailed deer, moose in some areas and big horn sheep as well as millions of prairie dogs and a lot of North American Bison and some Wild horses for company as well as all the usual little fur bearing critters.

Shouldn't be an issue, the diesel converters are a bit different than gassers.I just got done giving 2 stroke at 1 oz per gallon a try the last month on my 05 ran a gallon of oil through it and noticed zero benefit from it so will not be continuing it myself. Mine actually got louder seemed like it had more timing rattle with the oil added.

Where in MT are you stuck at? Sucks that you are on a move like that when it broke.MT to PA for a job, that is different in itself, seems everyone is coming our way to work the oil related jobs.

Ditch the factory muffler and replace it with an FTE resonator and call it good.

Does it need to be on the rig in your area for emissions, if not pull it off completely and sell it to a salvage yard, converters are as good as gold now days with the material inside them being the prize.The converters on 3rd gens are the least restrictive part of the exhaust and if you are near stock isn't an issue at all.

Was a tandem axle truck with a 25' grain dump body and a tandem axle pup trailer with a 20' grain box, I was probably pretty nervous the first few time when I was a young lad, More so that I was going to loose an arm if the wheel slipped out of my hand with a full load of wheat pulling out of a soft field, was a 1970 IH with a straight piped 6-71 Detroit, 10 speed tranny and NO POWER STEERING It was a dump the clutch mash the go pedal and put the other foot on the dash and pull on the steering wheel as hard as I could and hope I didn't loose a grip or power out as it would have torn my arm off if it did. Man I was in heaven when we sold that truck and got a 1979 Mack, endless power compared to the old IH and power steering to boot.

I suppose if one starts out later in life with things like these brings out the extra cautious side of folks. I was driving semis and everything else with tires at 12 years old on the farm so It kind of second nature for me, hard to sit in someone else's shoes an imagine some things like this for me. The laws have changed a lot now but when I was 16 I could legally drive our farm semi without a CDL within 100 miles of home as long as it was for our farm use and not for hire.My wife is the same way, she has jumped in other peoples vehicles and backed in large boats at boat ramps over the years just to get them the heck out of others way so they don't make more people mad and cause damage to theirs or others rigs. Once they see how good she is at backing up our big pontoon they don't have a problem with it.One would be amazed at the looks of AWE and compliments she gets while maneuvering at the docks.

The wind is a killer of all deals, I see 10 mpg regularly while towing trailers due to 20-40 mph winds on a regular basis. We too have very long grades not as steep as you guys in the mountains but several miles long coupled with the winds kills any hopes and dreams of good mileage loaded or not with or without a trailer.Your story sounds like it was all due to beginners fright and overthinking it all.An old saying I love..............."Don't worry about the mule, just load the wagon". Quit worrying about the weights and everything else, a few hundred LBS is not going to matter. You didn't have a single number that would have needed the stop to cool things down you were in complete normal operating ranges on everything.

Why do you need 3/4" holes, when 1/2" is more than enough?

The one I used as a kid was not a tub style it was an open wheel drum style with rubber fingers but I suppose the one in the video would be a bit safer although I don't remember anyone getting hurt.

I would not weld to the frame, make the brackets bolt on and drill holes. You take the chance of making a week spot in the frame when welding to it and you have a spot where cracks could form. If you are bound and determined to weld on the frame weld length wise laterally with the frame and never never never ever weld vertically on a frame rail, that could be a potential breakage spot.

Its the same in my area also, used Cummins on car lots don't hang around long at all unless they are priced at near new.

Here is a link to live stream of power boat racing with things starting out with the first ever exhibition Pontoon racing event at Lake of the ozarks! Starts today at 12 noon central time. http://www.lakerace.com/ http-~~-//www.ustream.tv/channel/14506153 Remember last year saw a world record run of 112 MPH from a pontoon on Lake of the Ozarks.

For the price companies can crank out trailers for now days it is near impossible to build one yourself for less, they get the materials at a deeply discounted rate versus what you as a walk in customer can buy steel and components. I have checked into it as have others in the last few years. For what you have invested in your new Fusion you could have bought and converted several school buses into rvs though.

The more I read into your wants and needs a dump trailer or a 14 foot utility trailer for skid steer loaders would be a perfect match for you. something like this http://www.bismanonline.com/2013_sure_trac_st7210dod_b_070_0 Or these. http://www.kaufmantrailers.com/dump_trailers.php http://www.bigtextrailers.com/trailers/dumps.html http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=dump+trailers&qpvt=dump+trailers&FORM=IGRE http://www.pjtrailers.com/trailers.cfm#Dumps PJ dealers nearest you. http://www.pjtrailers.com/retail.cfm?results=dealers Just be carefull with whatever type you get, once word is out you have a nice bumper pull trailer everyone comes out of the wood work wanting to borrow it. Getting a gooseneck really cuts down the amount of folks that want to borrow one though as I now have 2, went from several bumper trailers to goosenecks now and the begging has all but stopped.

We can tell who is young and ambitious and wants to heave 100 lb++ logs up that high and deal with a trailer that is heavy and has a small payload area and has the most expensive tire on the planet on it. not to mention that military stuff is odd ball and hard to get parts for.