• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

Camp life

I took a final drive to camp to finish closing up for the season. It's been a busy summer for us in terms of camping as we spent half the summer traveling with the fifth wheel and the other half at our seasonal campsite. The weather is still beautiful. It's 27 celcius today but later this week it's going to cool off. I have a scout camp this weekend and we're busy next so it's time. I ran rv antifreeze through everything and brought in the slides. Everything is closed up.

I brought out the sxs thinking that I was going to go hunting first but it was too hot and windy. This was a good test for the newly built fifth wheel flat deck trailer as I hauled both the golf cart and sxs home from camp. Hindsight is that I should have loaded the sxs first for better weight distribution. Oh well.
 

Attachments

  • 20251002_132929.jpg
    20251002_132929.jpg
    1.5 MB · Views: 117
  • 20251002_133038.jpg
    20251002_133038.jpg
    2 MB · Views: 108
So....it begins.

We're heading out in the morning for a 4hr drive to our annual fish camp for may long weekend (yes, us cannucks celebrate Victoria day) which is also the opening of walleye fishing. I still have to hook up my wife's expedition to the boat in the morning but I've been hauling butt all week getting ready for it. I tend to over prepare but I figure it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Extra water. Extra gas. Stuff to set up a kitchen outside and build a shelter to keep us out of the weather. We have the snowsuits packed right next to the shorts and flip flops.
20260514_204623.jpg
 
NorthernRedneck said:
So....it begins.

We're heading out in the morning for a 4hr drive to our annual fish camp for may long weekend (yes, us cannucks celebrate Victoria day) which is also the opening of walleye fishing. I still have to hook up my wife's expedition to the boat in the morning but I've been hauling butt all week getting ready for it. I tend to over prepare but I figure it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Extra water. Extra gas. Stuff to set up a kitchen outside and build a shelter to keep us out of the weather. We have the snowsuits packed right next to the shorts and flip flops. View attachment 205225
Click to expand...
You are never over prepared!! Hoping for pictures 🙂
 
We were loaded up and on the road by 11am on friday to drive 3.5 hrs northeast of where we now live to the place where I've been going every year for may long weekend fishing since I was a child.
20260515_093241.jpg20260514_204623.jpg
After a couple stops along the way for gas and to change a faulty ignition coil, we arrived at our usual spot. It's been a late spring up here and unfortunately we couldn't get into the regular spot. Beyond the snow was 4" of standing water on top of sandy clay. Not this year!

20260515_153133.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20260515_153905.jpg
    20260515_153905.jpg
    1.7 MB · Views: 18
I always have a plan B when coming up in case we run into this situation. Part of it is knowing the water system and knowing the area. In the spring time, the walleye travel up the lake and river system to the spawning beds way up the river. When there's still ice on the lake, we head to our secondary campsite which was dry and pretty much straight off the highway with a tree buffer in between. We got camp set up and enjoyed a nice campfire
 

Attachments

  • 20260515_173133.jpg
    20260515_173133.jpg
    3.7 MB · Views: 19
I did't get any pictures of the actual fishing as I was busy trying to keep the boat straight in the strong winds. We limited out in an hour the first day and in 45 minutes the second day. My mom and her bf were also up fishing with us but they stayed in her motorhome in a campground in town.20260517_091917.jpg20260517_074026.jpg20260517_073804.jpg20260517_073740.jpg
 
We HAD planned on staying until tuesday however sunday morning, I decided to go drive for cell service to check the weather. One quick look showed me all I needed to know. Rain and plus five celcius all day monday. Followed by....
Screenshot_20260517_101910_AccuWeather.jpg

Thanks but no thanks! We packed up Sunday afternoon and drove towards home an hour to our friends camp were we set up in their yard and had a fun night with them. The rain started in the middle of the night. I kept the truck connected to the fifth wheel and had only dropped the jacks to stabilize it so in the morning it was a quick get up and go in the rain. The drive home wasn't pleasant for me in the least as the truck engine was misfiring due to a bad coil. I had stopped on the way friday at the only ford dealership within 100km to pick up a coil on the way there but they were out of stock. I had my old ones sitting under the back seat so had to keep swapping them out to limp along. The issue with the truck is a couple of busted exhaust studs. Step on it in the hills and the turbo kicks in, overheats that coil and blows it prematurely. Because of the turbo in the ford 3.5l engine, it's an approximate 4k repair I'd been avoiding.

We won't be having issues with that truck anymore. It did the same thing for us last year on our trip out to BC and back. I ended up on the side of the highway changing coils then as well. I've had the truck Since 2018 when I bought it at 65k a yr old. It now has 220k on it. My wife was the one who suggested that we buy a new truck. So after we got home, I got to work searching. I went into it with an open mind exploring all 3 big brands that sell 3/4 tons as we both agreed that an upgrade in size would be beneficial looking forward if we want to change fifth wheel campers in the future. The one we currently have is halfton towable being 6900lbs dry. My f150 is rated for 12,500 and does a great job pulling it when the coils aren't acting up. I spent the day yesterday going to dealerships testing new and nearly new 3/4 ton trucks. The 2024 f250 with only 34k on the odometer is the leading candidate currently as it's 25k less in price vs new.
20260519_100137.jpg
 
m1west said:
Sounds more like an electrical issue, bad or incorrectly gapped spark plugs will cause premature coil failure. When was the last time you changed the plugs.
Click to expand...

Changed out all the coils and plugs within the last 20000km. All gapped correctly when installed. It's a ford thing. My brother has a 16 f150 with the same engine and only 135000km on it and recently blew his first coil. His truck has the same issue as mine. Busted exhaust studs. I actually got a quote to get both sides changed and because of the turbo, the price was up over 3k just for a backyard mechanic to do it. (the guy is actually a head ford tech at the local dealership who does them on the side as well.) So at the dealership would have been ridiculous. Plus it has the typical ford cam phaser rattle on startup. Been doing that 100000km. What's the saying? If it has tits or tires, it's gonna give you issues eventually. Plus, the water pump was starting to sweat. It was at that point
 
  • Like
Reactions: Doc
You might consider not getting that engine again, my old frontier has 256000 miles of getting the piss beat out of it everyday and abused twice a day. In those 265,000 miles, I did a clutch and a rear diff, engine is still going strong.
 
The f250 has the 6.8l gas. I've read good reviews on it so far. Ford apparently admitted bad exhaust manifold bolts on the 15-21 model 3.5l engine. The rest of my f150...no complaints. It's been a good solid truck but has the issues with the exhaust studs and coils blowing.
 
I know on a diesel application most switch to a two or three piece exhaust manifold to stop manifold bolt failure. When the engine is worked hard the exhaust manifold grows longer and shears the bolts off, the manifold in pieces allow them to slip, preventing the bolt failure. So I would say the root cause is the engine having to work too hard to get the job done, therefor over heating the manifold.
 
It's official. We have listed our seasonal camp for sale. Our plan is to sell camp and look for a bigger fifth wheel camper to travel with. The fifth wheel we have currently is alright for weekend trecks and though it did great last summer on our trip to BC and back, we want something without bunks, a double living room slide as well as a bedroom slide. We have our eyes on a few nicer ones for sale bit first have to sell this one. 20260605_122612.jpg
 
NorthernRedneck said:
It's official. We have listed our seasonal camp for sale. Our plan is to sell camp and look for a bigger fifth wheel camper to travel with. The fifth wheel we have currently is alright for weekend trecks and though it did great last summer on our trip to BC and back, we want something without bunks, a double living room slide as well as a bedroom slide. We have our eyes on a few nicer ones for sale bit first have to sell this one. View attachment 206128
Click to expand...
The official start to a new chapter in life!!😉
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top