IIRC the "O" on the stock gauge is around 200F in our truck, so right around where it should be. Ours does like to run hot tho, I mean if we manage to keep her above 210F she gets better MPG, 220F seems to be the magic for the 15-16MPG. Mind you the fuel consumption on this thing seems to be the same regardless of whether there is a camper in the bed or a small trailer on the bumper or nothing at all, kinda like a big-block gasser
Absolutely same with mine. I've never seen 15 - 16 but we did get 11.5 with the camper which I thought was great considering I get about 12.5 empty.
Installing an empty coolant filter would have introduced air in the cooling system obviously, but how fast that gets purged is anyone's guess. I can tell you tho that when our fan clutch got loose she'd overheat while just idling, I got caught in a rush hour slow-crawl once and every so often I had to get on the shoulder and giver her a short run to get the air flowing thru the rad and bring the temps back down. With the e-fans if the auto-switch is unplugged she will eventually hit 240F no problem if left idling, probably even more but I wasn't very comfortable pushing it. The fact that yours cools down properly at idle suggests to me that the fan clutch is doing its job, unlike ours. And opening the flush port cap is normal to cause spill of coolant, even if no air is present in the system it's still under pressure, over 10psi with the factory rad cap, that will make it spit at you. Leaving the overflow tank cap off is irrelevant tho, that cap doesn't fit tight and the tank itself is not pressurized, you could run with no cap at all there and all will be fine unless you go offroading and start sloshing all that coolant around (in which case it just spills everywhere thru the open neck and makes a mess).
Good info! Thanks!
Here's a not-so-random question, do you have an EGT gauge (pyrometer)? Natural ram-air cooling effect only works so well on our truck, if we try to go kinda fast (she tops out at 75-80mph due to gearing, yours can hit and maintain 90) she will heat up and require fans to run. EGT are running quite high there tho, basically she burns a lot of fuel to be able to move at that speed and all that heat gets transferred to the coolant and oil - with just one fan she will stabilize at around 215-220 on both the coolant and oil temp gauges, if both fans run she will eventually cool off but that's on flat lands, throw any respectable hill in the way and both fans have to run or she will overheat. So my point is, maybe your fan clutch is working decent enough to handle average EGTs like what you see at 45mph, but when you're trying to keep up with interstate traffic you're burning enough fuel to heat up the coolant more than the fan (or radiator) can keep up with. Which would also explain the lousy fuel economy... How fast were you going then?
Clarification...when I said it was the only gauge I had I meant engine temp gauge. I have a pyro, boost, and tranny gauges. And yes on the hills she can climb up to 1000, 1100 fairly quickly and you can also see the stock temp gauge climb with the pyro. Normally going down the other side the pyro of course drops back to 7 or 800 and the stock gauge follows suit. That is what was strange on this trip...the pyro would come down but the stock gauge would not. When it would crank over past "L" I would pull off and let it idle and within 3 minutes it would come right down to "N" - "O". Since it was our maiden voyage with the TC we didn't venture over 60. (which might also explain the great fuel mileage lol) Also normally in the past like when on hills pulling our old TT the pyro would climb and the stock temp gauge would climb and then you would hear the familiar roar of the fan which I wanting to say was lacking on this trip...
Regarding the tie-downs, we have a frame-mounted beam setup very similar to the Tork-Lift system (no spring loaded "Fastguns" tho). Stake pockets are not too strong, IMHO at least the front tie-downs need to be attached to the frame in some manner. Rears pretty much only hold the end from jumping up when you hit rough road, so they can be stake-pocketed, altho a strong bumper makes for better anchor points. How tight you get the turnbuckles, that's kind of a personal preference, we get the front ones tight enough to kinda wanna lift the end of the frame beams up a 'lil. Altho on the last trip they were apparently a bit on the loose side, and the camper had slid back by an inch or so. Rears don't need to be so tight tho, again it's more or less whatever you're comfortable with.
Great Info thanks! I was actually leaning towards at least beefing up the front with some type of frame mounted system as I imagined those anchor points did more of the work. This just confirms it! Luckily the camper did not slide in any direction as far as I can tell on this trip. Thanks!
Do keep in mind how your tie-down points are attached to the camper framework, ours are bolted across from the sides and cannot pull out like those that are just bolted in from the bottom are known to do, carriage bolts in shear beat lag bolts in tension any day IMHO.
Great thing about gutting and rebuilding this TC is I actually had to replace one of the anchor points so I got to see them up close and personal. They are carriage eyebolts through a 2x3 piece of wood. I beefed up with a large washer so very little chance of it ripping out.....hopefully.
And you should never see the tie-downs just flapping in the wind as you drive, small vibration is normal but anything excessive requires pulling over and tightening. Think of them as the strings on a musical instrument, and also remember that a longer string is more elastic and has more "give" to it than a short one (another reason to run frame-mounted anchor beams on the bottom end, makes the tie-downs twice as long when compared to the stake pocket anchors). Anyways, ours get hand tightened till there is zero slack in the chains, then add another full turn and lock them in with the jam nut, then try to spin out the end without the jam nut - it will usually only back out about 1/4" turn and the pull on the turn buckle will even up with the twist of the chain and she will stabilize there. Try that for the musical string action, if it passes you should be good to go.
Awesome analogy!! Thanks!! This is exactly the information I needed!!!
Oh, also consider modifying your truck bed in some manner that prevents the front and rear ends of the camper from sliding sideways, a set of simple angle brackets made of 2x2" angle iron a few inches long and bolted to the floor (one leg flat on floor, other leg straight up, camper wedges in between left and right brackets) makes a huge difference in stability and makes it somewhat easier on the tie-downs as now they only have to hold the camper from sliding off. And always put the camper all the way forward till it hits the bed wall, you may wanna build some bumpers on the lower front edge of the camper so they contact the bed wall near the floor before the camper's front wall contacts tho front top bed rail - there's nothing more annoying than a bed rail rubbing and squeaking on the camper wall. If you don't wanna modify the camper with permanent bumpers, laying a piece of 4x4 beam across the front of the bed before loading camper achieves the same effect
Again awesome info!! Definitely never thought of using angle brackets to help with the side to side action. I'm sure that also helps in getting the camper loaded evenly from side to side! As part of the rebuild I put a 2x4 up front (used as support for the platform step on the inside for getting into the bed) anyway I was thinking this would also double as a bumper for when putting into the bed of the truck but again because I'm a newbie we left space when putting the camper in the bed for this trip.....about 3 -4 inches to be exact. We weren't sure if it should be all the way snug or not so again great info!!! Thank you!
Edit: saw in your sig you have AutoMeters, what "vitals" do they monitor? At the least you'll need coolant and exhaust temperatures, oil pressure and temp are bonus but recommended. And with the E4OD, a transmission temp reading is great to have also. Boost I guess is standard with any turbo kit...
Oops I just saw this edit. I think I already answered above. Thank you again for the great information!!
