Morning ๐ This marks the 3rd (or is it 4th) outing in the 990 as a mobile office and 6th or 7th trip in it over all. I've driven some 1000+ miles now with it and can say that while I think I will get a sway bar and new shocks it's really quite decent to drive as is. the F350 SRW (6.4l PS Diesel Long Box Crew 4x4) seems to handle it very well.
This trip took me 84 miles from home and up over 4000 feet near Waterville WA and the climb up out of Wenatchee (up Badger Mountain rd) was a test on the cooling system with the tire up front. The Turbo's did get warm (moved past normal to about 3/4 of the way to 'yellow') and I could tell the power plant was hot but the gauges all read normal. There was just heat coming off the hood so it was clearly working! That's a good 4 mile climb of about 3000 feet in elevation gain with the camper and mill!
Once we got to the 'driveway' in it was another 3 or 4 miles of fairly uneven dirt road to crawl along. I must admit that this is where the heavy rear end really became noticeable and I cringed a bit here and there. With the air bags at 30psi the truck rides very good on the pavement but out in the rough country it's just not enough and the sway back and forth was starting to become something I didn't appreciate ๐ This folks, is where the dually would shine! I could tell but I made it in anyway though we did unhook the mill and let the customer pull it the last quarter mile due to some seriously tight spots that even he had to back and forth a little to get past with his little Nissan pickup! No way I was going to make it without major pucker factor.
With the truck setup and the mill dropped off I discovered the altitude change locked up the mill which has happened before. Woodmizer tells me it has something to do with the fuel system and not to fill it up when traveling. This time I had it just above 3/4s full and I guess it was too much. But an hour wait and it was running fine. Weird huh?
I put the orange 'don't bump your head here' floaties' up and didn't bump my head even once ๐
4000lbs of 'test your F350 with a camper' milling machine ๐ I really enjoy milling but have to admit that my hands don't always work well or hurt a fair bit due to arthritis so am taking a month or two off I think to see how that goes.
As I kicked on the generator to power up my compressor to clean off the mill after a log (and as I wouldn't be milling more that day anyway) I recorded the hours on the genset. 18.7! This is a camper that was brand new on April 1st of this year with ZERO hours on the genset. Yup, I use the genny a fair bit and love it!
Looking down from the AF Fox Landing at the control station of the mill. I load the logs and operate the sawmill from two places. Hydraulics on the right under the square and electronics on the left. It has 'simple set' which allows me to set two different board thicknesses that I can select and the mill 'remembers' where the last cut was at so when I come back to make another one I just hit the down switch and it goes to the next start location. It's a feature I LOVE!
Looking down the deck at a CANT (squared up log for milling).
Could only get to here on day one as the help left and the customer had to take them to town. So I chilled out in the camper and surfed the net (thanks to 2 bars of 4g). When the customer returned he said he wanted everything as wide as I could make it so I milled the rest of the 1 1/4" pine at 18" wide.
The next morning started off right with sunshine and coffee ๐ I woke up at 3:30am and then 5am and it was 55f inside the camper so I kicked on the heat and am loving the ability to set a temp and let it do the work while I go back to bed and let the stove get me some hot water for coffee ๐ Life is good with an Arctic Fox!
We got the mill going before 7am and finished up at noon 30. Then after packing up we headed back to the pavement 4 miles away. He pulled the mill out for me and the trip out was much better (the camper sets the rear end around 7600lbs as configured now and the tires are rated at 8160). With the stable loads and air bags it rides much better without the 400lbs tongue weight of the mill (due to the 3 foot extender) but it still rocked back and forth on the uneven road and once took a really big side movement! it was a tough one and I saw stuff fall in the camper. The oven door fell open discharging pots and pans on the floor but otherwise all was well and I was able to hook up the mill near the pavement and head out.
The trip down out of the mountains was uneventful but slow. I dropped into 3rd and then even 2nd to let the engine slow me down on the steep declines. No exhaust break in the 2010 as some suggested. Sorry, no matter what I did there was no exhaust break but the engine slowed me just fine.
At the customers home I saw some awesome furniture and stuff he makes out of wood! Wow, the guy is an artist and has Parkinson's that makes it hard for him to walk and speak but man he doesn't slow down!
All in all another successful trip
This trip took me 84 miles from home and up over 4000 feet near Waterville WA and the climb up out of Wenatchee (up Badger Mountain rd) was a test on the cooling system with the tire up front. The Turbo's did get warm (moved past normal to about 3/4 of the way to 'yellow') and I could tell the power plant was hot but the gauges all read normal. There was just heat coming off the hood so it was clearly working! That's a good 4 mile climb of about 3000 feet in elevation gain with the camper and mill!
Once we got to the 'driveway' in it was another 3 or 4 miles of fairly uneven dirt road to crawl along. I must admit that this is where the heavy rear end really became noticeable and I cringed a bit here and there. With the air bags at 30psi the truck rides very good on the pavement but out in the rough country it's just not enough and the sway back and forth was starting to become something I didn't appreciate ๐ This folks, is where the dually would shine! I could tell but I made it in anyway though we did unhook the mill and let the customer pull it the last quarter mile due to some seriously tight spots that even he had to back and forth a little to get past with his little Nissan pickup! No way I was going to make it without major pucker factor.
With the truck setup and the mill dropped off I discovered the altitude change locked up the mill which has happened before. Woodmizer tells me it has something to do with the fuel system and not to fill it up when traveling. This time I had it just above 3/4s full and I guess it was too much. But an hour wait and it was running fine. Weird huh?
I put the orange 'don't bump your head here' floaties' up and didn't bump my head even once ๐
4000lbs of 'test your F350 with a camper' milling machine ๐ I really enjoy milling but have to admit that my hands don't always work well or hurt a fair bit due to arthritis so am taking a month or two off I think to see how that goes.
As I kicked on the generator to power up my compressor to clean off the mill after a log (and as I wouldn't be milling more that day anyway) I recorded the hours on the genset. 18.7! This is a camper that was brand new on April 1st of this year with ZERO hours on the genset. Yup, I use the genny a fair bit and love it!
Looking down from the AF Fox Landing at the control station of the mill. I load the logs and operate the sawmill from two places. Hydraulics on the right under the square and electronics on the left. It has 'simple set' which allows me to set two different board thicknesses that I can select and the mill 'remembers' where the last cut was at so when I come back to make another one I just hit the down switch and it goes to the next start location. It's a feature I LOVE!
Looking down the deck at a CANT (squared up log for milling).
Could only get to here on day one as the help left and the customer had to take them to town. So I chilled out in the camper and surfed the net (thanks to 2 bars of 4g). When the customer returned he said he wanted everything as wide as I could make it so I milled the rest of the 1 1/4" pine at 18" wide.
The next morning started off right with sunshine and coffee ๐ I woke up at 3:30am and then 5am and it was 55f inside the camper so I kicked on the heat and am loving the ability to set a temp and let it do the work while I go back to bed and let the stove get me some hot water for coffee ๐ Life is good with an Arctic Fox!
We got the mill going before 7am and finished up at noon 30. Then after packing up we headed back to the pavement 4 miles away. He pulled the mill out for me and the trip out was much better (the camper sets the rear end around 7600lbs as configured now and the tires are rated at 8160). With the stable loads and air bags it rides much better without the 400lbs tongue weight of the mill (due to the 3 foot extender) but it still rocked back and forth on the uneven road and once took a really big side movement! it was a tough one and I saw stuff fall in the camper. The oven door fell open discharging pots and pans on the floor but otherwise all was well and I was able to hook up the mill near the pavement and head out.
The trip down out of the mountains was uneventful but slow. I dropped into 3rd and then even 2nd to let the engine slow me down on the steep declines. No exhaust break in the 2010 as some suggested. Sorry, no matter what I did there was no exhaust break but the engine slowed me just fine.
At the customers home I saw some awesome furniture and stuff he makes out of wood! Wow, the guy is an artist and has Parkinson's that makes it hard for him to walk and speak but man he doesn't slow down!
All in all another successful trip
