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Got Truck !

21 Saturday Mar 2015

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the beast

Got Truck

Sometimes you just know when you’re on the right path. It’s when you can simply speak the words and everything seems to just fall into place. It’s as if the whole universe has aligned with you and your purpose. You are amazed, surprised and almost sure it is meant to be, all at the same time.
After doing more research and speaking to several truck salesman and RVers, Mayo and I still felt confused about the best truck for us. I had a comment on my blog and the reader said “In his opinion we should get a 2500 or ¾ ton truck with a 6.0 liter V8 engine.” I was totally in agreement with him, I felt it would be safer to have a more sturdy and powerful truck than to have a light weight truck. Mayo and I talked it over and she said “Let’s do it,..let’s stop over thinking it and get a ¾ ton truck.
We began looking for a truck online, going back to the dealerships that we had visited once before. We placed our 2000 Volkswagen Eurovan on Craigslist, knowing that we would no longer need it once we are on the road and hoping to barter or trade it for a truck.
The very next day we had two replies. One guy wanted a vintage van that he could recondition. The second response was a guy who didn’t have a truck but wanted to buy the van at asking price. I agreed to sell the van, but selling him the van would leave us in need of some form of transportation. Mayo remember a truck she saw a month ago at a local dealership that we thought would be perfect for us. We went back to that dealership and that truck was still there,.. and on sale! We decided to give it a test drive and to have our mechanic look it over. It drove great and our mechanic couldn’t find anything wrong with it. He said “this truck at this price, with such low mileage, is great deal, I would go for it Ajani.” I was a little worried about going thru the process of financing a truck because I thought we would be without a vehicle while waiting for all our information to be verified. I guess I’m old school….
When we got home I called the guy who wanted to purchase the van to set up a time for him to pick it up, and minutes after hanging up with him the dealership called me. We were approved.

our truck,.. da Beast

Within a 3 day span we sold our van and bought our ¾ ton truck. It’s a Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD with a 6.0 liter V8 engine and a 410 rear axle. Mayo calls it, “The Beast”, because it will not fits in our garage and she needs a boost up to get in it. It has the ability to pull a trailer twice the size of our trailer. The gas mileage isn’t great,we get 14 mpg and that’s without towing, but we love the space in it and the power. Our plans are to pull our trailer to a location and ride our bikes as much as possible anyway, so the mileage isn’t that much of an issue. The main thing is being safe and having the right truck for towing.
We are getting antsy now. We can wait to hook up our trailer and get on the road. We made plans to head out the first week of May. We are going to hit Florida first to see Mayo’s family and friends. Then we’re getting on the road to everywhere.
Look out America the Eagledoves are coming and we have no idea what we are doing or where we will be going, but we are doing it anyway and plan to have fun learning as we go. Happiness is in the adventures, the joy is in the journey. Hope to see you on the road soon.

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Size Does Matter

22 Sunday Feb 2015

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Size Does Matter

It’s seems crazy to think that things you’ve done all your life may make little to no sense at all. Its all customs and traditions handed down from generation to generation. We follow them because,.. well just because. Mayo and I were discussing dinner and how we would prepare and shop for food while traveling. I remembered as a child, my mom would shop for the week and sometimes for the month. We would get so excited to unpack the bags of grocery and stock the cupboards with food. When I moved out on my own, I would shop for a week at a time. I’d buy canned goods, boxed goods and pack my freezer with meat and frozen veggies. Hey, its my upbringing. You’ve got to be prepared and plan ahead.
For the past 30 or more years, Mayo, not only had to shop and prepare wonderful meal for weeks at a time. She also had to shop for a family of four or more. This means bigger packages, bigger storage spaces and a big supermarket for that one stop shopping.. Our way of life teaches us that this is the normal way to live and the normal way to shop for food. Its all well and fine, if you have a 12 by 12 feet kitchen with plenty of cabinets, a huge refrigerator and a chest freezer. But we are downsizing to a 3 by 6 feet kitchen with a refrigerator no bigger than the cooler I use when I’d go fishing. At first we thought of ways to store more, and how to create more space. Maybe we could steal space from the closet or maybe we can store some in the truck.
Then it hit me,.. why do we need to store food anyway? Again, it’s our upbringing. In many countries in Europe and around the world, people shop daily for the food they plan to eat that day. Its their custom to stop at the farmers market to get fresh veggies and bread on their way home. This not only ensures them that their food is fresh, but it also helps the local farmers and businesses. Mayo and I realized that not only do we need to downsize our home, we needed to downsize our way of thinking. Because, as we are finding out, size does matter.
We began to look into our cupboards to see what we had that we really didn’t need in there. Man, were we ever surprised. Not only did we have enough food for the month, we still had some canned goods and frozen meat from last month. We also found that some of that food had a shelf life of up to 6 or more months. Some of these foods, you could fix in under two minutes. I don’t know why they would need a 6 month shelf life if you can cook them in under two minutes. I also don’t know how it can be label fresh if it is stored for weeks. We began to wonder if any of our store bought food was really fresh. Its label fresh, even if its shipped from South America by boat and then by truck. The time it takes to pick it, inspected it, package it and ship it across the country, is a matter of weeks. Not to mention the unpronounceable and unhealthy ingredients in it to keep it from rotting for 6 months.
We discovered that not having space was going to be a gift, not a curse. That we had to shop small and shopping small would mean shopping fresh. We plan to visit local farmers markets, buy only local and organic veggies. We will shop at Co-Ops and local small businesses buying only what we can eat fresh in a day or two. We plan to pick fresh veggies from small local community gardens and stop by local farms for fresh eggs, honey and milk. We also plan to help folks plant their gardens as we travel. We love the idea of bartering and hope to trade our labor, farming experience and gardening knowledge for a place to park our camper for a few days.
Who knew living small would have the added benefits of eating well and living healthy. Its true size does matter and this time,.. small is a good thing.

What the Truck

14 Saturday Feb 2015

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What The Truck

I know, I’m a guy so I should know a little about trucks. The key words here is “ a little”. I had always been a car kind of guy. I have had a few vans in my day. One van I used for work and my second van I used mainly for camping and to carry my dogs on trips.
My wife and I are now looking for a truck. We’ve tried pulling our trailer with a 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 and a 2003 GMC Envoy, both of these could pull it but they struggle up hills. At first we thought ”let’s trade the travel trailer in for a smaller one that our Envoy can pull. Then we thought “ let’s get a truck big enough to pull the trailer”. We finally decided that since we plan to spend a great deal of time in the trailer, we should get a light weight but roomy trailer and a truck big enough to pull it with ease. Easy to decide but totally confusing to do.
First we had to figure out the weight of the trailer. We have a Coachman Captiva, it weights 5300 pounds empty and is 28 feet long. It has a good bit of space inside if you are camping a week or two, but to spend months in it,.. hmm I don’t know. We found a 2014 Forest River Salem Travel Trailer, that with the bump out living room space, would be easy to live in long term. Its overall length is 33 feet and it weighs 6,355 pounds empty. Mayo loves the floor plan and the rear end kitchen space. I’m a bit concerned about campsite availability for a trailer this size, but we both love it. Mayo and I both agreed that we would stay with something similar to this size and weight,.. or smaller.
After you figure out the weight of the trailer, you must then add the weight of all the things you will load in it. You must also add the weight of your propane tanks, fresh water tank, gray water tanks, and batteries. This is the total weight of your trailer. Since our Salem trailer maximum cargo weight is 1,327 lbs our total weight should never exceed 7,682 pounds.
This means we now need to find a truck that can pull at its very least 7,700 pounds. But wait, there’s more,..lol. We’ll need to add the weight of all passengers and any cargo in the truck, to the weight of the trailer. This will give us the total weight that the truck must be able to pull with ease…
Well before breakfast I weigh about 189 lbs, Mayo’s about 110 dripping wet with rocks in her pockets, so that’s another 299 lbs. Our canoe, which we will never leave home without, weighs 80 pounds. So I’m thinking we now need a truck that can pull at least 8,100 and that’s if we never put anything or anyone else in it.
Here’s the tricky part. Finding a truck salesman that will tell you the truth about what their trucks can pull or the gas mileage of any f-250 or 2500 truck. If you go to a Ford dealer they will tell you every truck on their lot can pull that weight. It’s the same at the Chevy dealership , Dodge dealership or a used car dealership. They will all tell you this and this may very well be the truth. On a clear sunny day when the breezy is prefect and the ground is completely flat for miles in every direction, any truck can pull this weight. But I’m looking for a truck that can pull this weight plus up hill in all direction through the snow and rain, (although I never plan to tow in the snow or rain), and yet gets good gas mileage. Am I asking too much,.. ahh,.. maybe?
Well when I can’t get the answers from the dealerships, I go to my one true source of information,… Mayo. As always, the Google gypsy queen researched until we were sure of what truck to get for the job of pulling our trailer. The 2015 GMC Sierra 1500 double cab truck, with a 5.3liter Ecotec3 V8 engine and a 26 gallon gas tank. Its towing capacity with a 3.42 rear axle is 9,600 pounds, but I’m looking for the 3.73 rear axles because its towing capacity leaps to11,200 pounds. They both get 16 miles per gallon city and 22 highway.
As I see it now, We have the right truck and the perfect trailer for our journey all we need now is some small miracle to enable us to afford them. Oh well,.. if nothing else I know more about trucks now.IMG_8600