Ski Bum Truck V2.0, F450 Rough Road RV

java

Expedition Leader
One more little project down. I had a cab marker light out, I tend to find when one goes, they others are not are behind, so I picked up some cheap LED replacements.

New ones are pretty directional, but work fine.
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Not hugely different, new one is the closest bulb.
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Then went and got some more heater fuel. Not a bad spot to get it :)
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I got Jet A, which is basically kerosene with some anti gel additives and a little more refinement/water evacuation. Much much cheaper than kerosene too, no one has bulk around me and its $8 a gallon for little jugs.
 

java

Expedition Leader
Thanks guys, what a great weekend of skiing! 28" in the last 48 hours. It was soft and fluffy everywhere.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

java

Expedition Leader
A few more pics from the weekend.

The LED lights are great really really good. We missed a family of dear that I am not sure I would have seen otherwise. Driving in nuking snow was not an issue, gave a bit of a Star Wars hyperspace look going on.
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It was a good day for big sticks.
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Ski fun! It was amazing, 28" in 48 hours.
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Digging it out. Probably didnt need to, pulled right out just fine.
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Now for some battery usage. We arrived Friday night ~6pm ish, this was Sunday 8 am ish. Was down a little more before we left. Lots of heat use, no charging at all.
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(IIRC we were at 123AH used when we were packing up)
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With a 6.07A load on it.
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Im thinking the batteries may be a little tired? They were used. 12.3VDC seems low with that little of a draw on them.
 

HowardH

Adventurer
Great pics. Can you provide a bit more detail on your LED headlights? The headlights on my F450, compared to other headlights, to be polite SUCK. Looking for an upgrade.

Thx, Howard
 

java

Expedition Leader
Great pics. Can you provide a bit more detail on your LED headlights? The headlights on my F450, compared to other headlights, to be polite SUCK. Looking for an upgrade.

Thx, Howard

Hi Howard,

I have LED Aux driving lights, not headlights. They would blind the living poop out of anyone oncoming. They are Chinese ARB 9" knock offs. Really good for the price IMO.

But if you do find a good headlight replacement I am all ears!

These are the driving lights.
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HowardH

Adventurer
Ahhha...........got it. I will continue to look for headlight replacements. I will keep you posted. Please do the same.
 

Petrolburner

Explorer
I have LED Aux driving lights, not headlights. They would blind the living poop out of anyone oncoming.

Very true. I had a light bar mounted way up on the hightop of my last van, several feet above my line of sight. I could be blinding people miles away and not even know it. If you add driving lights, I highly suggest mounting them below your eyeballs so you see oncoming traffic before the lights get a chance to blind them. I'll be mounting my mega brights on my box van this way.
 

java

Expedition Leader
Very true. I had a light bar mounted way up on the hightop of my last van, several feet above my line of sight. I could be blinding people miles away and not even know it. If you add driving lights, I highly suggest mounting them below your eyeballs so you see oncoming traffic before the lights get a chance to blind them. I'll be mounting my mega brights on my box van this way.

IMO I hate them over head. It also lights up the dust and snow much more in your line of sight. The snow was coming down heavy enough last weekend that it was very well light up, but still just fine to see. I have had overhead lights on a previous car, they seemed to light it up way more. All that to say bumper lights are better IMO.
 

patoz

Expedition Leader
Back in the 80's (yeah I'm old), I was big into the off-road and 4WD Clubs. I had a 1979 F150 with 15x38's, winch, and the super cool fake bolt together roll bar mounted in the bed. One of the coolest looking things I did, but the worse thing as far as it actually working, was to mount two KC Highliters with the yellow smiley face covers on top of the roll bar. Those were awesome lights back in those days, and basically had aircraft landing bulbs in them.

However, the lights lit up the hood so bad you couldn't even see where you were going. I also had the Warn equivalent mounted on top of the front bumper on each side of the winch. The Warns are all stainless, much better quality, and I still have them. I quit using the KC's completely and used the Warns exclusively. I connected them to an additional high-beam foot switch (most of you won't even know what this is) so I could click them on and off as needed, without taking my hands off the steering wheel.

The moral of this story is: Lights on the roof = bad, lights on the front bumper below the line of sight = good!

If the lights or lightbar is being mounted far enough back above the cab (i.e. the patient module on an ambulance) to cast a shadow on the hood, you may be OK.
 

java

Expedition Leader
Far enough back to be shadowed does help, but I still like bumper lights better IMO.

And old guys are cool too :D
 

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