Preparing my 4x4 for the holiday season!

[Hills Hoard]

I am in the process of preparing my 4x4 for our holiday season. Typically we go camping after Christmas for a week, then head to the other side of the state to stay at our families beach house for a week or 2.

So to deal with the heat better I decided to install a dual battery system and buy a portable fridge to keep food (beer) cool during transit and for while we are camping for long periods. I am tired of having to buy ice when we are away! I also decided to get a darker than legal tint (15%) on the windows and I somehow managed to convince the wife that a performance chip was required for better fuel economy on those long drives...hahah

The battery tray as a bastard to install, but Im glad I did it instead of paying good money for some apprentice to make a mess of it..

I went with a blue top optima battery for the extra terminals on top, otherwise I am told they are identical to the yellow top./.

I spent a day walking around different shops playing with Waeco, ARB, Evacool (sp) and Engel fridges.....In the end I had to agree with everything I had heard prior. The engel is a rock solid fridge. I almost bought an ARB, but in the end the plastic latch turned me off..This is a 40 lrt fridge.

Free transit bag!!

And finally the chip. Impressive torque, a lot less turbo lag and twice as much fun now!!..

I still have a bit more work to do on the battery system, but I have an RDO this thursday to complete and I will post more pics....

 

[bag of hammers]

I am in the process of preparing my 4x4 for our holiday season. Typically we go camping after Christmas for a week, then head to the other side of the state to stay at our families beach house for a week or 2.

So to deal with the heat better I decided to install a dual battery system and buy a portable fridge to keep food (beer) cool during transit and for while we are camping for long periods. I am tired of having to buy ice when we are away! I also decided to get a darker than legal tint (15%) on the windows and I somehow managed to convince the wife that a performance chip was required for better fuel economy on those long drives...hahah

Wow HH - it was -29 deg C here yesterday a.m. - about 30 feet of ice on the shoreline with ice mounds starting to build from wave action on the big lake. How's that for an interesting contrast..?

That fridge looks cool (no pun intended) - is that available over on this side of the ocean..? Traveling with my son (special diets) is always interesting.

 

[Hills Hoard]

Wow HH - it was -29 deg C here yesterday a.m. - about 30 feet of ice on the shoreline with ice mounds starting to build from wave action on the big lake. How's that for an interesting contrast..?

That fridge looks cool (no pun intended) - is that available over on this side of the ocean..? Traveling with my son (special diets) is always interesting.

Huge contrast! I love looking at the photos on here of all the snow! Its going to be 40 degrees here tomorrow...google is telling me that's 104 in your terms!

Yes, you should be able to get Engel fridge/Freezers there in Canada. Here is the US site http://engel-usa.com/ and i have seen them on Ebay.

 

[Highbeam]

I bet the truck is a nice small turbo diesel too. I wish we had such vehicles available here, we're coming around though. I drove a 7.3 liter diesel to work today, 8 miles, such a waste but still better economy than most on the road.

 

[bag of hammers]

HH - while you're sitting on the beach @ +40 deg C, think of taking a dip on my beach here @ -29 deg C (just watch out for the skim of ice forming out over the bay in pic #2)

 

[Hills Hoard]

I bet the truck is a nice small turbo diesel too. I wish we had such vehicles available here, we're coming around though. I drove a 7.3 liter diesel to work today, 8 miles, such a waste but still better economy than most on the road.

yep, its a 2.5 ltr 4 cyl turbo diesel....comes stock with just over 400 nm of torque and from memory 131 kw's....with the chip on the fun setting it is up around 190 kw's and will have stability control struggling for grip into 3rd gear if driven recklessly....very fun to drive off road...! So what was the 7.3 ltr in, a ford??......i bet it had a tonne of power!

HH - while you're sitting on the beach @ +40 deg C, think of taking a dip on my beach here @ -29 deg C (just watch out for the skim of ice forming out over the bay in pic #2)
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thats cold!! but looks beautiful..

 

[Highbeam]

So what was the 7.3 ltr in, a ford??......i bet it had a tonne of power!

Yes, a ford f350 4x4, the only way to get a diesel pickup for the last 30 years is to get a huge truck. It came with 265 HP and 550 ft-lbs of tq but with a "fun chip" and some other changes I am up an additional 100 HP. I use it for towing our RV trailer (caravan) or an equipment trailer with tractor.

I would love to own a small vehicle with a reliable 2.5 turbo diesel, the gas toyota pickups have always been very good for me.