acefuture

51 minutes ago, BONES said:

Awesome thread. Awesome car(s). Hope to see you guys thanksgiving at Gordon’s, I’ll make sure to stop and introduce myself. Keep these up, top thread for sure. 

We'll be there! Come say whatsup

2 hours ago, Reece Pettersen said:

Some Go Pro footage of our run from roadrunner to swing set. @acefuture leading us on this nice Friday cruise!  

 

Can’t tell if the GoPro makes you looks slow, or I just am that slow… coulda sworn I saw 70 on the speedometer several times 😂

2 hours ago, Poule43 said:

A point of view from my buddy Joe Fb !!!

 

Watching those videos is pretty entertaining. They really help a ton of people in the dunes on these holiday weekends. No blame on them for getting the prices they do, but it wasn’t a justified cost for me. 

1 minute ago, EmpirE231 said:

sounds fun! any threads on the new car?

 

I haven't posted any. I haven't really done much to it since I bought it. Did all the necessities like: Motor oil, trans fluid, all new filters, CVs, Shock hardware, checked wiring, engine leakdown, etc. But not enough to justify a "build thread". It's a Cooley built 05 Alumicraft built for Guy Evans as a purpose built baja prerunner. Albins AGB, LS3 525, Fortin floaters, billet 2" hollows, on board air compressor, winch, redundant systems, dual spare racks and more. It was built with the sole intention of covering all of baja from Ensenada to La Paz and has done so many times. Got a front end redo in 2015 by Cooley and has kinda just sat since 2017. I'll drive it this season and then next season i'll pull it all apart and put some aesthetic touches on it of my own. But very very happy with it thus far, especially once I get this voltage gremlin worked out.

34 minutes ago, Whipsandshyt said:

Damm good lookin car sir and some awesome whips

 

To bad there are no evening shot with those whips lighting up camp???

I'll get some next trip!

Bringing back trip reports! I've been itching to drive my new to me car since I bought it before summer, but just about everyone in our group was out for halloween. Some of our gecko friends weren't getting in til Friday night or Saturday, and with the winds scheduled for Sunday I wanted to get in on Thursday and out on Saturday. So @Reece Pettersen and I decided to hook up the flatbeds, bring a tent, and go camp in the middle of nowhere. Keep it simple with tons of fuel, hot dogs & pb&j, and dune all day. Reece just finished the build of his new race car and threw a set of paddles on it, so we were both very eager to drive our new cars. We pulled into Gordon's Thursday afternoon and decided to go super deep. We were basically where sand highway meets the canal, and decided to call it home for the weekend. Pitched the tents and went duning. We tore up the virgin dunes from set 4 to test hill and back. Car ran well, but felt like it had some bad gas, so was popping and stuttering. I figured i'd just continue to run through it and I should be good. Had 35 fresh gallons in it and about 5 of older gas it in so thought it would run through. Watched the sunset and did a short night cruise and headed in to lead another buddy in. Deleted several adult soda pops at the fire and retreated to our Marriott accommodations around midnight. It was awesome being out that deep with no one in sight. 

Friday we woke up and went to the Diner to meet a buddy in the morning, then packed up for a full day of duning with no intentions to be back at any specific time. Full of 40 gallons of fuel, food and drinks we set out with the intentions of hanging in glamis. Hit the fast line we've done for years that flirts with the west side of the dunes and cooked our way up to the end of the closures on the Glamis side and jumped in once we were in the green zone. Crushed a good amount of great dunes up to RRE and then turned in to head to swing set. Drank a water and kept going. My car started to pop and sputter again so gave it a minute to try and blow through what seemed to be bad fuel, then continued the duning til we ended up at Olds. Once there I decided to pull fuel filters to see if I had something clogging them. Nada, looked perfect. Reece ran to Joe Fabs for me to see if he had a bosch pump, he did but was 4x the cost, and I said i'd rather drive sand highway home popping and sputtering than pay that price. I put it all back together and cruised around the Olds valley and noticed that when it was falling on it's face all of the gauges were dropping. Had to be a voltage issue. My voltmeter was still reading 14.2v so it was a bit confusing, but figured it was a ground problem. Checked all grounds and leads and everything looked great. I mentioned that I had replaced 1 of my two batteries because one of them died over summer, so we switched my battery switch to the good battery only instead of both, and it seemed to immediately solve it. Off we went to dig more trenches in the sand. The car felt like it wasn't getting all the power it wanted, but I was still blown away with the capability of the car. You can drive this thing through a brick wall and the wall would apologize. Ripped up a good section of the big dunes and ended up at the ledge. Hung there for quite some time catching up with some friends until way after sun down. Boogied back down towards RRE, bummed some gas off of @Nickc313 for my buddies car with a 12 gallon tank, and off we went back down south. Popped into the campground to say hello to some friends and ripped the open desert back to camp. Didn't get back to camp until 9:45pm. Spent over 12 hours in the dunes that day. Epic day.

Saturday we woke up and decided to find more virgin dunes in Gordon's. Reece found (knew of) a couple great lines through set 3 and 4 and we ended up at Patton with not a soul there for a good hour. My car once again was popping and sputtering, but after about 5 minutes of run time, it would wake back up and go. So now i'm thinking its a computer voltage issue. It seemed as though the computer wasn't getting the voltage it needed and was "re-learning" mapping and would all of sudden figure it out and the car would run. Frustrating the say the least. Duned a bit more and ran into some friends, so posted up and had lunch with them in one of the valleys. Tore up a handful more dunes and decided that after about 50+ gallons of fuel we had our fill and it was time to head. Drove back to camp, rolled the cars on the trailer and hit the road. Home at 7pm.

All in all it was an incredible way to start the season. Really fun going back to simple camping with the guys, no frills, no worries. Weather was warm during the day and perfect at night. Glamis was packed at the main sights and sounds, but the dunes were pretty much empty. PLENTY of virgin dunes out there. Dumped 70 gallons into the car and burned at least 2/3rds of it if not more. Although the car didn't perform the way i'd hoped, it was an absolute blast to be able to get to drive a car like this one with the capabilities it has. Truly mind blowing how well this car is built. Reeces new race car didn't have a single hiccup all weekend, and neither did our buddies Raw car. Can't wait to get the car dialed in and back in the sand box soon.

Call Dave at Kartek, he ordered me black ones, had them in about a week

Almost everything about that car says Dave at DD. From the bulkhead design, from arm double sheer pickups, rear shock towers, front upper and lower arms, rear arms, torsion tube mounts, and more. The ONLY thing that doesn't look like a DD is the removable section of the rear cage. If you told me this was a DD I would have zero doubt in my mind it was. Looks like a blast of a car

1 hour ago, Whipsandshyt said:

You can store it at my place but thats a bit far for you

Appreciate it! I have another opportunity in the area as well. Just seeing if there's any options closer. But thanks Jeff!

3 minutes ago, Drupanddown said:

First rule at fight club

1.2 million people camp in wash 6 on a holiday weekend. I don't think it's a secret

I was lucky enough to park my last few trailer/motorhomes in my elderly neighbors driveway, but that gig is up with a larger unit. I'll be picking up a 35' fifth wheel in the coming weeks and now need a place to store it. Being that I live by the beach, all storage lots around here are ridiculously expensive. I've looked into dunes edge, beach storage, and gordon's storage, but the lady and myself want to make upgrades to the unit throughout the season so leaving it in the desert doesn't make sense. 

Anyone have any other leads on viable parking solutions in the area? I don't mind driving a bit, but would like to keep it somewhat minimal. I'm in Costa Mesa 

5 hours ago, Drupanddown said:

Yes!! I thought this was my little secret very fun set of dunes with all types of options to mix up lines. I felt like last year the winds changed this area up quite a bit, but you can get to these fairly quick from the slums. 

3 hours ago, Rockwood said:

That Wash 10 run to Olds is pretty fun. Like an extended version of the dunes between 6 and Olds, except not covered in RZR bumps and whoops. 

Found this bowl back in there:

 

My dad and I call it the race track. Not the biggest dunes but you can absolutely fly through em. When it's blowing and everyone is at camp sitting on their thumbs we'll go run this set back and forth until we are damn near out of gas. 

This ones the most fun

Serious Question:

Anyone have a suggestion for a helmet? Right now i'm pretty locked on the Pyrotect with a standard HANS. Second option is the Simpson Dirt Devil Carbon with Simpson Hybrid HANS. But anyone else have any other input? Not a ton of options out there for helmets with fresh air unfortunately. 

This show was MUCH more impressive than past years. More cars this year than i've seen since rhinos became popular. Weddle was there, I chatted with them for awhile about their S5D which seems like a great transaxle. The standout seemed to be the use of the new Fortin transaxle with the paddle shift. Both Ponts new car and Dale Dondels Racer (with a big block in it) utilized this new unit. Really cool idea, It's a giant all billet unit which looks well built with a giant R&P. I snagged a new whip from Whips n Shyt, and a couple odds and ends for my car along with a couple $100 beers. We only had a few hours to spin through the show so didn't get to see everything, but there was a lot to see. Went with the intention of buying a couple new helmets and HANS devices, but it was such a cluster in PCI I couldn't even move and Rugged didn't bring any race helmets with them. So I walked out without them.

I just got mine through State Farm for my new car. It was a breeze and they insured it for the price I asked. DM me for her contact, don't know if she wants it on a public forum

16 hours ago, wesinls said:

@acefuture was looking for one?

Thanks! We are definitely in the market. But we are looking to do a complete renovation on one, so looking in the $10k range. I have a line on one for even cheaper but it needs a lot of work. While this one isn't out of the ballpark of the current market, it's out of my price range. GLWTS though!

1 hour ago, Big_Daddy_Jp said:

I have a 2006 LE3505 that I had 3’ added from the factory when ordered. The axles were also flipped. I pulled it for many years with an 01 F250 7.3 SRW 4x4. I had a couple different lifts on the truck while I had it. The last lift was 9” with 38” Toyos on 20’s. You will see that the truck will pull all day long but the 3 speed trans will really hinder going faster. So don’t expect anything over 40mph up grades. Basically downshift from drive to 2nd and back out a little. It will hold there all day long but as soon as you shift back to drive it will fall on its face. As for towing, I used a B&W hitch. My super duty was a long bed so I had a non sliding hitch. My next truck I towed it with was an 01 Duramax 2500 short bed. It came with a sliding hitch but I never slid it. The front cap on these year trailers are way shorter so they won’t hit the cab when turning sharp. Lastly, my trailer fully loaded for a week trip to the desert was roughly 18k pounds. Truck pulled it just fine and stopping wasn’t bad either. Another thing to think of is the weight of a bedroom slide. I know your not looking for one to keep it cheaper but the added 1500lbs kept me from wanting one. Your building a good solid desert set up. Congrats!

Thanks for the real world input! I really like the truck so far. I can tell the Achilles heal of it is the 4 speed 4r100 though. It’ll pull my 6k boat up any grade at 65mph at 1400 revs. But it’s a dog for sure. Would love to have a 6 speed in it, but I know it’ll tow what I need it to where I need it to 

59 minutes ago, L.R.S. said:

Never owned a 5th wheel myself but we've transported 20+ in the last 3 years with my son's 06 Silverado short bed on 35's, my 2014 Silverado SRW long bed (three different 45' trailers for 6k miles through 10 states). Both trucks shared a Curt Q24 slider. Never needed the slider on my son's short bed. 2021 dually has the puck system and I picked up a B&W Companion that driops right in. Really happy with that hitch, one man operation. The Curt needs two dudes if its fully assembled to. 

I have half of a Companion if you can use it. Need to cut a hole in the bed or something, then there's a latch that is operated from the wheel well. Neighbor gave it to me but I'll never use it.

 

 

 

Thanks Jeff, I still think I'm going to go with the andersen because it's 4 pins to pull it out and it only weighs 40lbs. But I appreciate the offer

31 minutes ago, Realbadlarry said:

How's the trans in that ford?  John Woods is the guy... the motor will last forever... the  trans not so much... Airbags....a top of the line brake controller and you should be fine. Old 5ers are HEAVY...the newer stuff is much lighter. 

PO didn't know when it was rebuilt but it has a Reman tag on it without a date. So it's been rebuilt at some point. If it ever goes i'll replace it with one from CNC Fab. But it shift quick and solid and pulls my boat like nothing is behind it so I'm happy with it. Already has airbags, add a leaf, top dollar brake controller, and more. So the truck is ready to rock

Thanks guys for the input. Very helpful. Definitely has me leaning towards an LE3505

9 minutes ago, lincster said:

I still have my LE3505 Weekend Warrior.  I had it built in 2004 so they added 4' to the back.

I have 21' of true open cargo space.

Fits my sandrail (with paddles) no problem.

I have always towed with a long bed dually, so can't help you on a hitch with a short bed.

I do run the B&W 5th wheel hitch.

If you do get a Warrior, never use a gooseneck to tow it, it will tear apart the front end.  Has happened to 2 of my buddies.

I love my Warrior and has held up well.  

I am the original owner and take good care of it.

I had riggers and cross bracing added about 6 years ago as the wall sag was starting.

The guy that did it said he lifted the walls 1" to get it square again.

Anyway, I also run 16" LT tires.

I had a 2" spacer added when they built it so it will clear 235/75/16's.

I run 225/75/16s just for more breathing room.

Awesome thanks for the real world input. The cross bracing is what I would do immediately after buying it. I've done a ton of research as to how to jack it, where to weld the gussets and cross braces, etc. My truck is on a 4" lift with 37s and airbags, so I may need to flip the axles or add spacers as well so upgrading to truck tires would be on my list of to do's. Obviously you are towing with a long bed dually, so not a good comparison, but how does it tow in cross winds? My bumper pull with my half ton was absolutely western to tow in anything over 25mph. Towed it once in gusts over 60 and told myself I would never do it again.

1 hour ago, Grease Monkey said:

Even in the used market a good 15 year old Toy hauler 5th wheel is going to be in the 22-27K Range.  Now this is with slides and in good condition.   Im still sold on the Monaco Dune Chaser toy haulers.  Solid built with good slide out tracks and motors.  No wall sag issues. Built like a coach.

I've found quite a few that I have my eye on in the $15k range. The LE models with no slides is what I'm after. The less things that can break the better. I'll take a look at Dune Chasers!

24 minutes ago, basketcase said:

This might be up your alley.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1404776046442278/permalink/3423774904542372/?sale_post_id=3423774904542372&mibextid=Nif5oz

On the 7.3 f350, are you talking the older diesel or newer gaser?

I have a 2006 33' Thor vortex.  Had a 2011 f250 shortbed with the BW companion that mounted to their gooseneck turnover ball system. The BW companion was fully adjustable so I could adjust height and back. I ended up back all the way and mid height. 

Recently upgraded trucks that has the puck system.  Had to get a different BW. It didn't have as many adjustments. Only pulled trailer around town but seems to clear just fine. 

I toyed with sliders.. but didn't like setups or complexity that seemd to go with them. I looked also at gooseneck to pintle setups. I didn't like that either. Have a buddy that loves this setup with his 40' WW. 

Jonathan

It's a 00 diesel, single wheel. Thanks for the info and the link. I'm not too keen on a slider either

23 minutes ago, Orange_R said:

We had an 08 SLC3705 with 2 slides. Our 2001 F350 4x with a stock unchipped 7.3 towed it fine. The wall issues in many of the used WW rigs have been addressed or can be easily(Jim's still the man) As Erk said, they still pull around $30k. Especially for ones that have already been upgraded. Gearbox rigs had their own set of issues with unrepairable wall delamination, plus they were heavier than the WW which is already on the high side. I miss our WW and whish I wouldn't have sold it.

Mines chipped with a tow/fuel mileage tune on it currently. The SLCs are a nice rig, but I'm looking for an LE with no slides. In rough shape is fine, because we are planning on making tons of updates to it anyways. What did you load in the WW? At 10k unloaded, with my car at ~3300lbs, and all the other junk, i'll easily be at 15k quick

So I've gone through the gamut of sleeping arrangements from sleeping on a flatbed in a sleeping bag, to a 17' toy hauler, to a 26' bumper pull, to a Class C motorhome and flatbed. All have served their purpose. But now I'm on to a fifth wheel. Last season the Class C and flatbed worked fantastic, the ease of use and load times were great, no changing tires and the girls could use the bathroom on the ride out. But it was too small, and when I had to the chance to buy my new-to-me car, I sold it to make the deal happen since the misses and I were already talking about upsizing. 

I bought a 7.3 F350 just recently that is heavily outfitted for towing. I'm not looking to get into an insurance argument over GVWRs in this thread, so spare me please. But now i'm looking at fifth wheels. If it were up to me I would buy a race car trailer with living quarters. 20' garage with a place to sleep would be great. The lady doesn't agree... So I have my eyes set on two trailers: Either a weekend warrior LE3305 or 3505, or a gearbox 335. Both would fit my car (ideally with paddles on for the gearbox at 89" width with paddles, 16' long). The weekend warrior obviously has its wall sag issues, so I would address that by welding in gussets. The gearbox has had a known delam problem. So both have their quirks. But the nice part is I can pick one up for around $15k. 

What say you? Who has used either and what did you like/dislike? Any other models I'm over looking? I have no interest in going to buy a new unit, or spending more just to have to change tires again. 

Edit: In addition, For those who have towed above trailers with shortbeds; what hitch did you use? I'm thinking of going with a rail mount andersen since my rig doesn't have a gooseneck in it at the moment. 

I used volvo spare donuts, redrilled them for hubs, not the adapters. So it gained me about 2" on both sides since I removed the adapters 

Carling is the best I've used but DAMN are they expensive. I just wired my boat with some amazon ones. They feel pretty good, but I don't know if I completely trust them so I wired in a few redundant carling switches for the bilge just in case