Weekend recap:
I packed up the truck Friday morning and left by 11:15am. Got to Barstow two and a half hours later and calculated I got a true 11.5mpg, which is an increase from the 10 I was previously getting. The gearing in the rear axle isn't ideal for mpg (5.29s put it at 2750 RPM at 70mph). Temps and oil pressure were solid the whole way up, and power was insane. Passing while going uphill is easily done with little throttle input and no downshifting. It's seriously such a different truck.
Anyways, after unpacking the truck, setting up the tent, air mattress, and sleeping bag, I said my hellos to everyone. My wife ended up staying home, since her back is still sore from getting rear ended a couple weeks back. We both decided bouncing around the desert wouldn't be the best thing for her. I also was nervous about the new motor and didn't want her experiencing a 3hr AAA ride home. Instead, my cousin drove up to ride along with me. He arrived and we BSed a bit before hopping in the truck and taking dirt to Barstow Del Taco for dinner with Andrew and Lauren. After dinner we cruised back and crashed pretty early.
It was 35 degrees overnight, so I turned on my Mr.Buddy heater inside the tent, putting a small bubble in the air mattress. Well, that bubble eventually popped, meaning we were sleeping on the ground that night. Anyways, we signed in for the clean up event, rallied a group together, and went looking for trash. The truck was running awesome, but wasn't cooling well. I had to stop quite a few times with the hood open to bring temps back down. We were climbing hills and putting a pretty good load on the truck, but it was still a pain. Definitely have air in the system, and need bigger fans. Aside from that, we kept filling trash bags, loading up truck beds, and made two runs back to the dumpsters. In a few hours, about 400 volunteers filled 11 roll off dumpsters. Unfortunately, it doesn't even feel like we made a dent in the trash that's out there.
Once everything settled down, mostly everyone was rallied together to do a flag run in honor of Veterans Day. It was just a slow cruise, and I decided to sit it out due to going slow and my cooling issues. Instead, a small group of us went over to the Wash Jump. I got out with my handheld radio to watch my friends jump, and call for when the runway is clear of vehicles and safe to jump. More trucks started to come and participate, including a trophy truck, which was insane to see and hear. He was hauling the mail and sending it. I eventually passed the radio off to a friend and got in my truck to hit it a few times. I was very surprised how well my truck took crossing the bottom, but lining up for the right trail at speed was a challenge, so I didn't leave the takeoff with as much speed as I wanted each time, but a couple of them felt decent
I was making my way back from my second or third jump when my truck made the most AWFUL squeal. I thought I had spun a bearing. Thank God I had just forgotten to tighten the inspection plate over the torque converter, so it was barely hanging on and grinding on the flexplate. Took off the last bolt holding it on and no more noise! Kept jumping for as long as we were able to see with the sun going down and heavy dust.
Went back to camp for dinner, hung around the fire, and then knocked out on the lumpy desert floor due to my now fully deflated air mattress. It wasn't as cold as the previous night, but I had a lump under my back so sleeping was rough. After tossing and turning, I decided it's time to finally upgrade my camping game. I got home around 10am, and by 1pm my wife and I were driving away with a new-to-us pop up camper - a 2002 Coleman Santa Fe. We had been looking for a while and trying to decide what route to go in terms of camping upgrades - do we get a cab over for the Silverado? It's only a 1500, so we'd be limited to ultralite models which are expensive and most don't have a bathroom, and I'd need to buy a trailer to haul the prerunner, which is an added expense, spot in the driveway, and would definitely be too much for the 1500 to handle with the camper in the bed. Do we sell the 1500 and get a small class C? I'd still need to get a trailer for towing the prerunner, and that entire setup was largely out of our budget. The small pop up camper can easily be towed by the prerunner, especially with the new drivetrain, or I can tow it with the 1500 if it's not an offroading trip. I'll still add the rooftop tent to the prerunner for point-to-point trips. Overall, we're stoked. We cleaned all the surfaces when we brought it home, and, while it's not perfect, the blemishes it has are not detrimental, and we got it for a great price from a young family who made a ton of memories in it. I'm already planning on extending the tongue to add room for mounting a dirtbike on the front, giving it a bit of a lift and some wider tires.
All in all, an awesome weekend, and successful first trip with the new drivetrain!
