Chasing a dream

You might put spacers in the bumps now to limit their down travel but otherwise it's going to ride like a sxs now.

Why you still in nc?

I don’t leave this area till after Christmas. We wanted to spend the holidays with family before we left since we may not be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas next year. Plus time spent here is giving me time to find anything that needs be addressed and have help to do so (see above) before I truly hit the road.
 
So you just changed the springs or did Mac do some valving work too?

Just the springs. That was an all day affair getting those right. Valving is something that may come later but we had to start with the correct springs. Now that I’ve spent the day with him, I learned a boat load about coilovers and can make some adjustments myself and get it even better with the preload and secondary settings, as well as the adjustments on the remote reservoir for the high speed and low speed compression.
 
did you hit his whoops section?

Not super faster or anything but I did hit them at a pace that would mimic cruising along a trail with a pace to cover ground. I need a touch more pre load and turn up the rebound just a touch. All of which will happen after I get my new springs this week.
 
Now that I’ve spent the day with him, I learned a boat load about coilovers and can make some adjustments myself
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J/K that was a great days investment into education
 
My trip to Ivy Branch fell apart the night before I was supposed to leave. The few guys I was supposed to go with backed out, and then the last one left had to cancel also. I had literally just finished loading the buggy and hooking up to the camper when he canceled.
We decided to go to Good Evening Ranch instead since I know the owners well and it’s small enough to wheel alone without issue.

We had a blast, and I’m incredibly happy with the buggy. It works amazing and is everything I wanted it to be. The new seats fit well and the seat heaters will run you out!

I’m currently working on 2 more videos for the YT channel, one which will cover GER and what to expect for people who haven’t been. Not much wheeling action, but hopefully an enjoyable video for those interested.

Here’s some pics for now.

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Have you all looked at weboost setups so you have Wi-Fi in more places? Or the complete expensive way - starlink. I know a few that added weboost to their rv and it works really well.


I’ll need to look into weboost. Starlink has been considered but you must have a clear path, no trees, and in the summer months I’ll be seeking shady camp spots lol.

As for now I have a Wi-Fi router that accepts SIM cards from all major carriers, so I can look up who’s better in an area, ATT, Sprint, Verizon etc. and buy prepaid cards. We also have T Mobile home internet which is working really well where we are, and worked great at The Ranch. My wife was working, me and the kids were streaming, no issues. We also each have 25GB Verizon hotspots on our phones.
 
I’ll need to look into weboost. Starlink has been considered but you must have a clear path, no trees, and in the summer months I’ll be seeking shady camp spots lol.

As for now I have a Wi-Fi router that accepts SIM cards from all major carriers, so I can look up who’s better in an area, ATT, Sprint, Verizon etc. and buy prepaid cards. We also have T Mobile home internet which is working really well where we are, and worked great at The Ranch. My wife was working, me and the kids were streaming, no issues. We also each have 25GB Verizon hotspots on our phones.

Check out weboost for sure. Probably would come in handy for those places you have really weak signal or just a little far from it. Here is a buddies setup screen shots from brushy mountain where we get pretty bad service on all carriers, one without and one using it
 

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Little update. It’s now been 3 months in the camper, and we still love it. I know overall this isn’t a lot of time, but we are not burnt out or ready to kill each other. Actually, we spend more time as a family than ever. I also have a lot more alone time with the wife cause the kids have other full time friends they spend a lot of time with.
We are fixing to get some very cold weather, down in the teens. I am doing some preparations tomorrow and hope for the best. I was supposed to wheel again at Good Evening Ranch for New Years with my friends one last time before we leave but it’s supposed to be single digits there and my camper just can’t take that. I’m watching the weather close to see how that’s going to pan out.

Right after Christmas we are heading out. We are about to start recording a YT video about how we plan routes and stuff. I’ve gotten a lot of messages on FB and some comments on YouTube where people are genuinely interested in what we are doing, many have offered a place to camp for a few days and use of their shop along the way and that’s just awesome. That’s exactly the kind of community I’d hoped to start building.

It looks like I’ll be wheeling my way from here to Sand Hollow, hitting Windrock, Chocco, SMORR, Green Acres, and RMR along the way. By the time I get to Sand Hollow I’ll probably be looking for a place to throw my junk on a lift and give it some love lol.

Overall this local trial run has been going great. The real journey is about to start!

Pics just because.
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It looks like I’ll be wheeling my way from here to Sand Hollow, hitting Windrock, Chocco, SMORR, Green Acres, and RMR along the way. By the time I get to Sand Hollow I’ll probably be looking for a place to throw my junk on a lift and give it some love lol.

Overall this local trial run has been going great. The real journey is about to start!

This has been a nagging question for me. You're half way across the country...you have a catastrophic break. You do your best Derek impression and blow your LS or bend an axle tube, or who knows what. Wheeling is a focal point of all this. You just find a local shop and hope for the best? Have Summit deliver to the campground? Or are you down for the count until you loop back to a friendly lift???
 
This has been a nagging question for me. You're half way across the country...you have a catastrophic break. You do your best Derek impression and blow your LS or bend an axle tube, or who knows what. Wheeling is a focal point of all this. You just find a local shop and hope for the best? Have Summit deliver to the campground? Or are you down for the count until you loop back to a friendly lift???
I think you whip out your old buddy Benjaminz, post up on the netterwebz, and hope for the best. The offroad community does a decent job of taking care of their own.
 
I know some sailboats utilize small wood burning stoves for winter. Can you install one of those somewhere to get you through the harsher nights?

My personal experience with one of those stoves was in a 30’ (small cabin) sailboat.
 
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