My July vacation is over and it is back to the daily grind. I took my Arctic Fox 865 and diesel 2011 F-250 on a cross country road trip and loved it from start to finish.
The first leg was from Washington state to Ohio, on Lake Erie for some quality time with 700 of my closest friends. I Wal-Mart or Cabela's camped the entire way and that was great. I overnighted in Sheridan Wyoming and the wally world had at least two dozen campers of all types and truckers parked there. It was close to everything and just off the freeway. It was my first Wal-Mart experience and it was perfectly pleasant.
Until now I have boon docked for the most part or stayed in state parks, so this was the first extended trip cross country. It went off without a hitch. According to several regulars on this board I should have been killed instantly when using an SRW truck at it's GVWR, that did not happen. My tires did not explode when driven at their max rated capacity, not did my factory wheels fracture and fail.
Probably the worst part of the trip was I-90 in South Dakota, it was all concrete in an endless stream of tilted and cracked slabs and the constant "Clunk, Ka-clunk" of the road about drove me buggy after 300 miles. I ground thru about 500 miles that day just to get away from the misery in one day and relaxed in another Wal-Mart well off the beaten path in Minnesota.
Being heavy and in a SRW truck it was a little tippy on some off camber corners and entrances. The wind had an effect with a high profile but even that was not completely terrible. A day of head winds in western North Dakota and eastern Montana made for terrible fuel mileage and a nearly constant right turn but other than that I have no complaints.
My wife flew east and we took a week to drive home together on highway 2. That was very nice. We drove up through Michigan and visited Mackinaw Island for a day. We stayed at Mill Creek RV park which looks to have over 2,000 spots and was practically full. Then we went thru the UP and spent a day in Duluth and Superior which was actually pretty awesome. They have a couple of ship museums, the Richard Ira Bong WWII museum and a train museum to visit. Ten miles west of town you are back in the middle of nowhere.
Highway 2 thru North Dakota is nearly all four lane with median, there were times we were the only truck for miles and we rarely saw more than a few cars on the road unless we were near a larger city or town. Once you hit Montana that is not a problem, no large anything and two lane road the rest of the way to Washington.
We stopped at a couple of dinosaur museums, a few sporting goods stores to inquire about the local hunting and fishing and then made our way below Glacier Park to Kalispell. Montana had a lot of nice folks and we spent the last night of the trip in a city park in Libby Montana. The volunteer fireman's park offers TC sized spots, no hookups and a dump station for $10 bucks a night. Rosauer's grocery is next door for coffee and breakfast goodies before you drive off.
If I knew how to post a picture to here I would give it a try. I have airbags, Rancho 9000XLs and upper Stable Loads on my truck, factory 18" Michelin take offs from a Lariat. My registered weight is 12K and I was under that. I typically loaded 2/3rds water and dumped blk/gray water every couple of days or when available. Nothing broke, nothing got particularly hot. Tire temps were fine, even after hours of driving and not one tire lost more than a pound or two of air. The airbags did leak down a tad and made the ride spongy. When set up the rear of the truck is about 1.5" lower than empty and the Stable loads contact the springs about 50%, everything rides fine, no squeaks.
We liked the trip from start to finish, this was very positive. I was in two different violent thunderstorms and far happier than if I had been in a tent. When you want lunch, pulling over and sitting down for a nice lunch in my own kitchen was awesome. Same goes for potty breaks and sight-seeing. Fitting in a regular parking spot is super cool as well, it made visiting Babe the Blue Ox and Stormy Kromer hat factory a snap.
It was a great way to spend time off.
