Pickup Trucks

How to Care for Your Car’s Differential – Popular Mechanics

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Changing the differential oil—it’s one of the most-overlooked maintenance tasks on non-FWD light trucks, SUVs, and passenger cars. Because the differential is at the rear and under the car, it gets none of the star treatment that the engine up front does. However, if lubrication in the differential fails, you won’t be getting very far for very long. Fortunately, you only need to change this oil every 30,000 to 50,000 miles (as always, check your owner’s manual).

The differential is a component in all cars and is designed to compensate for the difference in distance the inner wheels and outer wheels travel as the car goes around a corner. In a rear-wheel-drive car, the differential has its own housing and lubrication, a thick, dark oil usually heavier than 80 weight. Front-drivers typically integrate the differential in the transmission housing and share the same fluid. The differential oil lubricates the ring and pinion gears that transfer power from the driveshaft to the wheel axles. If your car is fitted with a limited-slip differential, it also keeps all the moving parts in that assembly healthy. Changing this oil is just as important as changing your engine’s oil, and for the same reason. Metal-to-metal contact wears down surfaces and creates heat from friction, which inevitably weakens the gears and leads to failure. Checking and changing the differential oil in a light truck is actually pretty easy, and it’s only a bit more difficult in a car. In either case, this small procedure can save you a big headache down the road.

via How to Care for Your Car’s Differential – Popular Mechanics.

Shelby Raptor is a 575-horsepower off-road goliath

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For those who have cash to burn.

Shelby American has definitely proven itself when it comes to tuning the Ford Mustang – look no further than its new 1,200-horsepower Shelby 1000 – but now the Las Vegas tuner has turned to the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor.

The big change for this already high-performance off-road pickup is the addition of a supercharger atop Ford’s 6.2-liter V8, with spent gasses exiting through a Borla exhaust system. This improves the horsepower rating from a stock rating of 411 up to a shenanigan-ready 575. For a Shelby, the styling of this F-150 is very toned down, with only the company’s name etched into the Raptor’s digital mud to go along with custom wheels wrapped in 35-inch tires.

via Shelby Raptor is a 575-horsepower off-road goliath.

Why I’m Looking at Getting a Lift Kit for Big Red

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Ever since I got Big Red, I’ve wanted to get a lift kit to jack it up a few inches. Not super high, but something with a few more inches ground clearance, better road views, and just a higher ride.

2012 Chevy Silverado Z71 Custom

Not super high, but a few inches above where it is now. Simply said it rides much too low, and I think it would be fun to be a few degrees higher in the air.

2012 Chevrolet Silverado Z71 Crew Cab

Okay, maybe not that high. But I think it would be fun to jack up my truck. I work hard for a living, and should be able to get the toys I want. And it would be fun to e up high.

Low Clearance - Las Vegas, NV USA

The reality is, I am probably not going back to college net year. If can I save up my pennies for the 6 months or so, I can pay for the lift kit, installation, rims, tires, and possibly “real” bumpers for the truck, to replace those awful tissue paper ones. That would be fun in my book.

My Truck’s $1.50/kwh Electricity

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I was wondering about how expensive it is to generate electricity with my pickup truck to power my accessories in the evening compared to the 16 cents a killowatt hour electricity I have at home from National Grid (including the 1.8 cent a killowatt hour surcharge for wind-hydro power).

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Figuring…

The inverter and wiring has a maximum output of 800 watts. In an hour, it can produce up to 0.8 a kilowatt hours of electricty.

The truck battery has a reserve capacity of 120 minutes at 50 amps draw at 12 volts.

Gas is $2.75 a gallon. A Ford Ranger uses approximently 1/2 oz of gasoline per minute idle, and it takes 256 minutes or 4 hours, sixteen minutes idling per gallon.

Idle the truck 20 minutes an hour to keep the battery charged. That means each hour it uses 10 oz of gasoline, or 1/12 a gallon of gasoline.

Camping at Poliwog Pond

Adds up to…

About $1.50 a kWh for electricity. While it takes more then hour to produce that killowatt hour energy, that’s what the net cost is. It’s 10 times the cost of utility plant, but that’s to be expected.

A pickup truck’s engine and alternator is not designed as a dynamo to efficently generate electricity. The primary goal of the alternator is keep the battery charged up, and the battery is designed mostly to provide a high amperage output to the starter, to quickly spin a cold engine with significant resistance from congealed oil in the winter.

Alternators are at best 50-60% efficent at converting engine power to electricity, and that’s on top of an engine that is probably about 20% efficent at putting power to drive line. That means the entire system is about 10% efficent, far below the 30-40% that most utilities can create electricity at.

The Sound of Rain on the Truck Cap

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I normally am not a fan of rain when I am camping. I don’t like getting wet, and rain can put a damper in plans to go hiking. I worry about rain washing out the roads, or making the mud so deep and slippery the roads become impassable and I’m stuck on whatever truck trail I am currently on.

My truck cap leaks. By at least one of the windows, the fiber glass has shrunk around the window — probably from my use of Sterno to heat the cap — and allowed water to leak in whenever it rains. The wet isn’t bad, but it does make it damp.

Campsite 21

The windows can’t be open when it rains — at least heavily — because of the slant to make the truck cap more aerodynamic. It gets humid under the cap, with no air flowing around to make up for the moist air I breathe out.

I worry about severe thunderstorms, as the I know laying in the steel truck bed, in a severe thunderstorm offers no protection from lightening, and the fiberglass would tear and shatter if a tree came down.

Through the Truck Cap Window

Yet, worst of all, it can be entrapping. There is relatively little room, especially with gear. I might have enough room to sleep in the truck cap, but it really isn’t big enough for doing any real living inside, with nowhere to stretch or move, without flipping down the tailgate.

Regardless, I kind of like the sound of rain on the truck cap. I can be loud, but it also is so soothing.

Why I Like Truck Camping

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Notes on the Re-Run for Saturday, June 9th.

— Andy

I have camped out plenty of times in the past in lean-tos and in tents in the wilderness. Yet, it’s not a regular thing, but more of an occasional thing. I much prefer camping out in my truck for the simple fact: I like having electricity.

Hillcross Farm Parcel now posted as State Forest

As I’ve noted in the past, my truck has a 800-watt inverter hooked up to the battery, which provides electricity for my clock radio and lighting. I usually bring a string of LED Christmas lights for charm, but then also have a desk lamp with a 9-watt florescent light (equivalent to a 40 watt incandescent), along with two other 26-watt florescent lamps (each equivalent to a 100 watt lights).

Tulip Beds

It turns out that those lamps put out a lot of light. When I hear a bump in the night, or just need to run outside, I can turn on the lamps, and instantly have a lot of light. While a florescent lamp the size of 100-watt incandescent bulb might not seem that bright, as in a large well-lit room, in a darkly lit woods, they are very bright.

Stone Table

I usually use just a well focused 40-watt equivalent florescent bulb in my desk lamp for reading in the woods. I find it hard to read with a flicker of my white gas lantern, which also tends to be dimmer then the electric light, especially after white gas lamp starts to run lower on fuel, and needs to be pumped up again.

Tailgate

Indeed, one my favorite things to do when camping is reading. It one of few places I can enjoy the quiet without the distractions that are normally around. I find to read at night for hours, I need a good source of light to do it without eye strain I get with a lantern.

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Electricity also powers my truck’s radio, along with a clock radio, chargers, and even a portable fan. It’s nice having music at night, and a fan to cool you. I like listening to the radio throughout the night, as it proves to be a good companion. You can get some of the strangest radio programs — right-wing christian talk shows — when your up in the woods.

Truck Bed at Night Camping

Some people will say camping in the back of a pickup truck, with half a dozen things plugged is not real camping. Yet, it provides enjoyment, and a chance to get away from it all, and still provide the light and power I need or at least want to have a night.

First Night in the Bed

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Notes on the Re-Run for Friday, May 4th.

— Andy

This is a re-run from April 27, 2009, camping out at my parents house last year. This past weekend I put the cap on my truck, and look forward to the spring.

— Andy

Last night was the first night of the year I spent sleeping out in the bed of my pickup truck. I have the cap on, the sleeping pads and bags back in, an it was a delightful 75 degrees out last night. The weather was amazing, the stars where great, and I built a big campfire in the back field a ways from my parents house.

I had forgotten the wonders of the night. Sitting out and listening to the spring peepers and creek flowing by. Watching the flames flicker in the campfire. Swatting the black flies. Wandering around the field, looking at the stars and the distant city lights. Tossing stones over the creek bank into the stream 10 feet below.

As the fire burned on, I took off my clothes in the warm springtime eve air. I hopped in the creek, illuminated by the campfire. It was so refreshing after a warm summer day, and it cleared my thoughts. I could hear the owl in the distance, and the water bubbling down and over the rocks. It was so wonderful. I got out of the creek, and up the bank, and quickly dried off with the warm air.

Camping

I sat and listened to some old Gunsmoke radio programs I had downloaded to my Mp3 player and on my truck’s radio. The hours ticked by and the moon rose. It was almost 1 AM when I climbed in the bed of my truck, turned out the florescent lead lamp, slammed shut the tailgate and went to bed. I looked up through the back window of the truck cap at the stars and closed my eyes to sounds of the crickets.

Morning came, and I awoke with the hot sun beating down on my truck cap. It certainly was bright and beautiful out. I heard the neighbor’s cows mooing to be milked, and the occasional neigh of sheep and squeal of geese and hogs. Morning had arrived once again. I folded up my sleeping bag and moved things from the cab of my truck back to the bed, fired up the truck, and off I went on this beautiful warm spring morning.