C5500 TopKick 4x4 Crew Cab Build

[NeverEnough]

NeverEnough,
Man, probably the third time I have read t this thread and am always impressed. Every time I am at the San Rafeal Swell I always keepp an eye out for your rig.
I was wondering how your truck and overheating issues are going. I saw you said if you do not push it it does fine. Another thought regarding that issue could it be something as simple as the bumper blocking airflow? The reason I mention is because I budding of mine with a road armor bumper and a chevy 2500 hundred put an air dam in to help funnel air and his overheating issues went away.
THanks again

Thanks! I've been trying to get my "crew" out since Thanksgiving, but too much going on both at home and work. But we have a trip scheduled in a few weeks, so I've made another appointment to get the truck in for a deeper dive into the "loss of power" issue. The current theory is voltage drop between the ECM and MAF sensor, probably in the harness. One suspect is the brake controller wiring. Once we get the low voltage error cause isolated and corrected, work on improving the engine's performance can be considered. I can definitely "drive around it" at this point, but still want to get it fixed. There's not a lot can be done with the Topkicks to improve intake, and the options for cooling the exhaust are also limited.

We'll be bumping around south of Escalante later in April, doing some slots and dive into Coyote Gulch, along with a little trail riding on the bikes. If you're in the area, say hello!

 

[snipershot]

Thanks! I've been trying to get my "crew" out since Thanksgiving, but too much going on both at home and work. But we have a trip scheduled in a few weeks, so I've made another appointment to get the truck in for a deeper dive into the "loss of power" issue. The current theory is voltage drop between the ECM and MAF sensor, probably in the harness. One suspect is the brake controller wiring. Once we get the low voltage error cause isolated and corrected, work on improving the engine's performance can be considered. I can definitely "drive around it" at this point, but still want to get it fixed. There's not a lot can be done with the Topkicks to improve intake, and the options for cooling the exhaust are also limited.

We'll be bumping around south of Escalante later in April, doing some slots and dive into Coyote Gulch, along with a little trail riding on the bikes. If you're in the area, say hello!

What sort of emmissions are on the top kick? Do you have to smog in utah?

 

[NeverEnough]

What sort of emmissions are on the top kick? Do you have to smog in utah?

My rig is registered in Salt Lake County, so it requires an emmissions certificate as well as an annual safety inspection. We need all the help we can get with our air in the valley. Glad I don't sleep down here!

Got the rig and the family out for a trip this past week. Our original goal was to get a little further south, but we decided to hook up with some friends in the Swell instead. We've spent a lot of time there, but I think it would take a lifetime to see everything.

We loaded up the dirt bikes in the trailer on Sunday night (30 degrees and light snow!). I don't know if I've ever posted a shot of the inside of the trailer, and this isn't great, but it gives an idea of the layout. It has a "chopped V-nose" shape. There's a bathroom on the driver's side of the V-nose and a small galley on the passenger side, with a Smev range, 12V refrigerator, basin, and point-of-use electric water heater, as well as a pile of cabinet storage.

It also has a door at the front of the V-nose that lines up with the rear door of the camper. The cargo area can hold 6-7 bikes, depending on size. The floor, walls, and ceiling have embedded cargo tracking, which has been very handy for bikes, windsurfing gear, etc.

The Swell was great, as always. Sorry I forgot to take pictures of our campsite! We had great riding and hiking in the slots. My boys had never done the Little Wild Horse/ Bell Canyon loop, so we checked that one off the list.

We also did a 70 mile loop on the Behind the Reef trails down to Hidden Spendor and Muddy Creek.

Me and my family eating a late lunch on the banks of Muddy Creek at Hidden Splendor.

We also explored some of the newly designated motorcycle single track near Temple Mountain. Very technical, and very fun.

The rig worked great, but I've still got some little things to work out. I threw a breaker twice on my PV panels at peak generation. Both times we were out and about, so all I've got to go on is the logging on the Xantrex charge controller. If I can't tweak the configuration, I'll have to step up breaker sizing. I've also decided to add another 40 gallon fresh water tank (already have 110!). It's amazing how much water teenage female guests burn through in a desert camp over 5 days.

The truck drove fine, but I'm super careful about keeping it under 3000rpm.

 

[snipershot]

Redline, if I remember correctly is about 3500, at least it is for a lb7. Not sure about the lbz, but you can't over rev the motor, it has a limiter that will retard the motor to protect it, just a fyi. You do have a 6.6l duramax correct? If so, talk to Adrenaline Truck Performance out of Idaho, they are the best tuners for the duramax, and would be able to see if you are having any programming codes. Or try alligator Performance In northern Idaho, if ATP can't solve the problem over the phone.

 

[NeverEnough]

Redline, if I remember correctly is about 3500, at least it is for a lb7. Not sure about the lbz, but you can't over rev the motor, it has a limiter that will retard the motor to protect it, just a fyi. You do have a 6.6l duramax correct? If so, talk to Adrenaline Truck Performance out of Idaho, they are the best tuners for the duramax, and would be able to see if you are having any programming codes. Or try alligator Performance In northern Idaho, if ATP can't solve the problem over the phone.

My truck has the 6.6 LLY Duramax. I've isolated the error code (MAF sensor low voltage) and can make it happen on demand (engine under load 8-12 seconds above 3100 rpm). Suspected wiring harness issue. It's going into a local Salt Lake City shop on Thursday to spend a few days getting checked out. Thanks for the referrals. The guy at the shop mentioned an Idaho company that is the best for custom programs for the Duramax, I'll ask if it's the same place. I'd like to get this issue behind me so I can either finish up the suspension and interior mods to the truck or get a differend chassis.

 

[NeverEnough]

Engine Update

So I spent an hour driving up super-steep grades with John from G&R Diesel in Draper, UT this morning with the computer plugged in and stomping on it the whole time. She ran perfect.

It's still a little early to know for sure, but John did a little research and we tried two things:

1. He replaced the air intake tube/hose with a much sturdier and stiffer unit listed as a recommended upgrade by GM. The original evidently had a reputation for partially collapsing on itself when the engine got real hot, thereby restricting the air flow, and so on and so on. $80 part.

2. Replaced two engine mount spacers with thicker ones also recommended in an old TSB because of wiring harness clearance issues. $30 parts, but several hours of labor.

For the first time, the truck was able to hold 3100-3200 rpm without getting too hot or going into limp mode. It got up to 227 on the nastiest hill, and dropped immediately when the truck shifted as the climb backed off.

I'm hoping that the mystery has been solved. I'm going to hook up the trailer and push it over Parley's this coming week for a more brutal test, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If all goes well, I can proceed with suspension improvements, the crawl-through, and some interior cab improvements.

 

[NeverEnough]

Tight Squeeze

I have been anxious to put the Topkick fixes to a real world test and got my chance over the long weekend. I filled all the tanks, loaded the trailer with dirt bikes, and drove up I80 Parley's Canyon climb out of Salt Lake City last Friday in the heat of the day. The rig handled the grade just fine, engine temp reading below 230 and holding 3200 rpms on the steepest sections of the climb. So far so good!

We spent the weekend in a very remote ranch area, which also let me get into 4L a few times, as well as test how well the truck-bed liner works when squeezing through trees and shrubs. I'm happy to report that it works great. I always hated scratching up the gel coat on past rigs. Now I could care less about wacking trees. The roads never got real technical (though very steep in a few spots), but I was pushing some serious bush out of the way in many spots en route to our camp site.

We grabbed a spot by one of the small lakes for the weekend.

Best part of the weekend was when my youngest did his first complete fly rod solo (assemble, tie on, cast, set, and release) and caught a beauty.

He's not been into fishing or motorcycles until recently, prefering other hobbies. Our whole family appreciates Tull, so Jake decided to do a tribute pose to Ian Anderson with his fiddle.

I had a little time on this outing to monitor the PV inputs. I was pushing almost 50 amps a few times with mostly sunny skies, which means I've got to bump up two of my breakers to 60.

I also replaced all of my vinyl plank flooring with engineered wood planks. The vinyl was always a gamble for the radiant heat, and I discovered two weaknesses, one critical:

1) Any object that covers the floor for more than a few hours, like an air mattress, compounds the insulating charactaristics of the vinyl to the point where the adhesive reactivates. In some spots, it actuallly oozed up between the planks, making a series of small sticky messes- very hard to clean without ruining the floor surface.

2) The expansion and contraction of the planks, even when installed as a floating floor, cause "wavy" sections. It's just a cosmetic thing, but still not desirable.

The advantages of the vinyl were being waterproof and very tough. In the end, however, it just wasn't going to work. And the engineered woods performs far better with the radiant heat anyway.

 

[Ford Prefect]

Sounds like good information… Glad to hear you seem to have the bugs sorted.

Very glad to hear you're out using it! Have a great time in that well-deserved vehicle!

 

[NeverEnough]

Motorcycle lift

I've neglected to post pics of the motorcycle lift that is an "accessory" to the roll-out room support frame. It's pretty handy, easy to use, and configurable for big bike or two dirt bikes, and can be attached or removed in a few seconds.

The design is very simple, consisting of a steel tube platform, epoxy-coated plywood deck, and fold-down side supports.

The side supports pin into the two support arms bolted to the main frame, allowing the platform to pivot as the frame is raised. The support arms can be mounted high (as shown) or about 18 inches lower on the frame. The high position allows for towing a boat, with plenty of clearance above the bow. The low position allows the back door to open fully (assuming nothing's on the cargo platform).

A pair of 2000lb ATV winches and a series of pulleys lift and lower the frame.

Using the pulleys allowed me to keep a straight line on the direction of pull, as well as keep the winches down low, which makes it easy to keep an eye on them and do any servicing without a ladder.

When the frame is fully retracted against the camper, the platform is pinned to the frame to lock it into place while in transit, and two DeStaco latches secure the upper frame to the camper for extra security.

It's been most handy for picking up the rig from the storage unit and bringing it home to load up the family, and vice versa.

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Ingenious design for the motorcycle lift!!

Good to see you and the family out using this!!

 

[NeverEnough]

Ingenious design for the motorcycle lift!!

Thanks, Pat! Here's few more shots of the lift from a recent weekend fishing/riding trip with a friend at Current Creek, UT. The platform can accommodate two large bikes:

The sides fold down for easy loading and unloading of the bikes from the platform.

Once unloaded, the rear support legs swivel and lock into position and the big slide room deloys.

I should've taken a few shots of the road getting into this camp site. The rig handled it just fine, but it was great to see the high clearance and subframe do their job.

 

[Overland Hadley]

Thanks for keeping the updates coming. I always enjoy seeing how it is going with your rig.

 

[NeverEnough]

Suspension

Took the rig to a infrequently-visited corner of Utah last week. The truck ran great, even in the heat of the day with a full load. Glad to be past the "limp mode" era. It was about 3.5 hours each way, mostly on pavement. While the ride isn't bad, I've decided to move forward with some primary suspension enhancements. I've been researching two "off the shelf" air suspension kits; one by Kelderman and the other by Link. The third option is to try a much less expensive "helper" air spring configuration first. Feedback from actual customers has been hard to find, though I did get a couple of replies from Topkick owners on the Dieselplace Fourm.

While the Kelderman is the only front and rear setup, I couldn't find any positive feeback. I did find several posts from Link users that indicated improved performance from their rear Topkick setup. Given the cost difference between the "helper" setup and the Link, I'm leaning towards trying that first, but spending a bit more for cab controls. The truck basically has three load configurations: without the camper (rare), with the camper, and with the camper and trailer.

I've also covered enough dirt by now to know that another 2" of clearance wouldn't hurt, but it's not that critical. I don't get much sway (low CG overall, thankfully) except when going through big dips at an angle. Any experience or advice would be appreciated.

Here's a few pics from the weekend. Notice how my awning is tweaked. It was almost dead calm when I extended it, but before I could lock the support legs into place, a freak dust devil blasted through- the odds that it would hit the only vehicle in probably a 50 mile radius!

We rode and fished (super secret spot!) for three days. Absolutely a blast.

 

[Jeep]

Gotta love the secret spots!

We had a freak gust of wind and not much of one at that catch the awning on our last RV, it blew all of the cast brackets apart and sent the tube high enough in the air to go right over the RV and the end of the awning tube pierced the roof skin on my truck, it missed a group of kids, mine included by about 3 feet.

If you don't mind, what does your rig weigh? Not including the trailer. Mine comes in at 18 959 pounds.

 

[NeverEnough]

Gotta love the secret spots!

We had a freak gust of wind and not much of one at that catch the awning on our last RV, it blew all of the cast brackets apart and sent the tube high enough in the air to go right over the RV and the end of the awning tube pierced the roof skin on my truck, it missed a group of kids, mine included by about 3 feet.

If you don't mind, what does your rig weigh? Not including the trailer. Mine comes in at 18 959 pounds.

Glad no one got hurt! That's scary.

I wish I ended up that light. Full tanks and a pair of bikes puts me at 23360, which is way more than I wanted, and over my GVR. It's one of the reasons I've looked at moving to a Class 6 chassis. I've been getting quotes on doing the axle/ driveline/suspension upgrades, but that still leaves me with a motor and tranny at the far upper end of its capability.

I've been keeping my eyes out for a deal on low miles Class 6, preferably an International DurastAr/Workstation or a Freightliner FL 80. Crew cab 4x4's are few and fAr between.