rustyshakelford
Well-known member
As some of yall know we got our cyclone in Feb 2011. We have already been lucky enough to have some great times and meet some fun people! We recently got home from a last minute 1200 mile trip to see some of my brides family before the family member has surgery. Here is our adventure!
The Build Up:
DW calls me at work on a thursday and tells me she wants to go to Mississippi. I say, "ok"...crazy me! We have had our new truck for about 10 days this far. I still havent gotten the B&W installed or put any miles on it yet. They say not to tow for the first 500 miles, might be tough.
Friday comes around and I am at my part time job, I take the truck to the B&W installer and get it back arounf 6pm with no isses for once. So far so good. Still only have 330 miles on the truck. T-1 day to departure.
We decide to leave after my brothers graduation party on Saturday night. Trip is planned to leave sat night, come home on wednesday (easy enough right?). Well we take my truck to his graduation and then party, put 155 miles on the truck and a long full day with family and friends. When I had gotten home friday night I had loaded the trailer with everything we needed, just had to load the dogs. We get back home at 10 pm sat night.
The Departure:
We are loaded up and ready to hit the road at 10:30 pm and 485 miles on the truck. Close enought! We drive without incident to Jennings LA. Fuel is needed badly! Didnt have time to finish plumbing the AUX tank in the bed...really missed that thing. First tank average was about 9. Ouch. Duramax got 10-11. Station was closed but pumps worked...things are looking good so far. Back on the road. We arrive in Hammond LA around 3:30 am. This was my goal for the stopping point. We found a walmart (always wanted to try this, called ahead of time and nobody answered.) the lot had some other visitors along with a street sweeper. We found a place out of the way, started the genny, extended the slides and off to sleep at 4am.
Day 2 (Sunday):
I woke my lovely bride up at 7:30 and was ready for a shower and to hit the road. Her not so much. Got cleaned up and ready for breakfast. Found the local McDonalds...Quite an experience. Our order taker had a mouth full of gold. Very unique. I think she liked me, kept on eyeing me up. Lindsay knew she wasnt a threat so no jealous rage! Crisis avoided...its hard being so good looking in her eyes! Still dont have a coffee maker on the trailer but McD's handled that also!
Made out way to Jackson MS. Next fuel stop. On E again...becoming to common. Fill up at a kangaroo station. 8 something mpg. Ouch. Getting close now. Lindsay's grandma is cooking for us along with about half of Starkville MS, so we press on.
Were cooking along at a brisk pace along a highway when all of the sudden the traffic is at a sudden standstill. We get her shut down and I am wondering what in the world is going on. Come to find out, there is a police officer that is stopping traffic on a HIGHWAY to let church people out. Maybe couldve shut one lane down instead. For some reason I am very upset.
I go into a rant about what a slob the officer is (uniform was terrible. Clearly he doesnt care about a professional appearance. He shouldve been embarassed for the lack of attention to detail) 30 seconds later I ask DW why that bothered me so much. (in hindsight, that was the safest way for the church goers to cross, but I dont like having to slow down so quickly for something that isnt an emergency. I think the cop was the easy target because I cant get mad at the church goers since we shouldve been there)
Apparantly I need a nap, Im cranky!
Family Time:
We make it to our destination safely and do the family thing. We stayed at my wifes grandma's. She lives on 100 acres, im in heaven.
Well we stay for a couple days, Im on the tractor for about 10 hours mowing because the grass is to my chest. There are snakes everywhere...dont do them. DW's aunt and two cousins live on the property too. Love to ride four wheelers, I make them a ton of trails to ride. I enjoy being over here. Dogs have to be locked up when were not at the trailer due to grandmas dog being ugly to them. Added over 50 hrs to the genny. Love it, but it loves gasoline.
Im mowing again and DW want to put the dogs up so she can ride horse's. She starts the genny, gets the A/C going and locks the dogs in the garage. We come back 3 hours later to a trailer thats 105 degrees. A/C is giving an error code of E2. Neither are working. Dogs are fine but hot, I start going thru the system to find the problem. Reset all breakers and that does the trick. A/C is back! According to dometic, we have to take it in for service
Long and short is we eat asian food for three suppers in a row bacause that is what the spoiled cousin wants. (I wanted some good southern food but maybe next time)
Trip Home:
I didnt want to drive all night again so we left about noon on Wednesday. Made decent time but was burning thru diesel like we owed it something. Make it south of Jackson on 55 and were needed fuel again. Wife points out a chevron so we exit and low and behold she hits a home run!:angel: They have a very nice dump station thats free and clean! We dump the tanks and treat them, I get some more diesel and off we go again!
There looks to be rain clouds in the path but couldnt be sure (been over 3 months since seeing any rain) Sure enought here it comes. Dogs are not happy campers. I am!
Well they stay pretty dry, we head on south. Then turn West on I-10! Making goos progess over the really long bridge west of baton rouge LA. Water is pretty high, get to the end of the bridge doing about 5 mph over the limit and there is a smokey! I tell DW, whoops. Here he comes. Well he speeds past us on the left and nails the car that was beside up when we crested the hill! HA HA...got lucky!
Lindsay has to be at work by 4am on thurs. I have to be back at 6am too. Im getting tired and around Beaumont I decide to pull over and catch an hour nap. its only 10:30 pm. Well one hour turns to two then i finally get up to make the final push home. DW is sleeping good so I leave the genny on and the dogs with her. It was an uneventful 1.5 hrs home. I get backed in the drive, wake her up and she showers for work. I finally go to bed. 3:30 am. Trip complete!
Thoughts on new Truck.
Worth every penny. It was a incredable improvement over the 2500 duramax. I honestly couldnt beleive the differance. It was alot more stable, and the exhaust brake works great. I could actually relax while driving instead of being tense for the entire trip like before.
The power was decent but the tranny is a far cry of the allison unfortionately. That is my main complain next to the poor fuel mileage. Hopefull it will get better. We now have 1800 miles on the truck. Fit and finish it great, and it rides better than the 2500 too.
sorry its so long, usually get this way!
brett
The Build Up:
DW calls me at work on a thursday and tells me she wants to go to Mississippi. I say, "ok"...crazy me! We have had our new truck for about 10 days this far. I still havent gotten the B&W installed or put any miles on it yet. They say not to tow for the first 500 miles, might be tough.
Friday comes around and I am at my part time job, I take the truck to the B&W installer and get it back arounf 6pm with no isses for once. So far so good. Still only have 330 miles on the truck. T-1 day to departure.
We decide to leave after my brothers graduation party on Saturday night. Trip is planned to leave sat night, come home on wednesday (easy enough right?). Well we take my truck to his graduation and then party, put 155 miles on the truck and a long full day with family and friends. When I had gotten home friday night I had loaded the trailer with everything we needed, just had to load the dogs. We get back home at 10 pm sat night.
The Departure:
We are loaded up and ready to hit the road at 10:30 pm and 485 miles on the truck. Close enought! We drive without incident to Jennings LA. Fuel is needed badly! Didnt have time to finish plumbing the AUX tank in the bed...really missed that thing. First tank average was about 9. Ouch. Duramax got 10-11. Station was closed but pumps worked...things are looking good so far. Back on the road. We arrive in Hammond LA around 3:30 am. This was my goal for the stopping point. We found a walmart (always wanted to try this, called ahead of time and nobody answered.) the lot had some other visitors along with a street sweeper. We found a place out of the way, started the genny, extended the slides and off to sleep at 4am.
Day 2 (Sunday):
I woke my lovely bride up at 7:30 and was ready for a shower and to hit the road. Her not so much. Got cleaned up and ready for breakfast. Found the local McDonalds...Quite an experience. Our order taker had a mouth full of gold. Very unique. I think she liked me, kept on eyeing me up. Lindsay knew she wasnt a threat so no jealous rage! Crisis avoided...its hard being so good looking in her eyes! Still dont have a coffee maker on the trailer but McD's handled that also!
Made out way to Jackson MS. Next fuel stop. On E again...becoming to common. Fill up at a kangaroo station. 8 something mpg. Ouch. Getting close now. Lindsay's grandma is cooking for us along with about half of Starkville MS, so we press on.
Were cooking along at a brisk pace along a highway when all of the sudden the traffic is at a sudden standstill. We get her shut down and I am wondering what in the world is going on. Come to find out, there is a police officer that is stopping traffic on a HIGHWAY to let church people out. Maybe couldve shut one lane down instead. For some reason I am very upset.
I go into a rant about what a slob the officer is (uniform was terrible. Clearly he doesnt care about a professional appearance. He shouldve been embarassed for the lack of attention to detail) 30 seconds later I ask DW why that bothered me so much. (in hindsight, that was the safest way for the church goers to cross, but I dont like having to slow down so quickly for something that isnt an emergency. I think the cop was the easy target because I cant get mad at the church goers since we shouldve been there) Apparantly I need a nap, Im cranky!
Family Time:
We make it to our destination safely and do the family thing. We stayed at my wifes grandma's. She lives on 100 acres, im in heaven.
Well we stay for a couple days, Im on the tractor for about 10 hours mowing because the grass is to my chest. There are snakes everywhere...dont do them. DW's aunt and two cousins live on the property too. Love to ride four wheelers, I make them a ton of trails to ride. I enjoy being over here. Dogs have to be locked up when were not at the trailer due to grandmas dog being ugly to them. Added over 50 hrs to the genny. Love it, but it loves gasoline.
Im mowing again and DW want to put the dogs up so she can ride horse's. She starts the genny, gets the A/C going and locks the dogs in the garage. We come back 3 hours later to a trailer thats 105 degrees. A/C is giving an error code of E2. Neither are working. Dogs are fine but hot, I start going thru the system to find the problem. Reset all breakers and that does the trick. A/C is back! According to dometic, we have to take it in for service
Long and short is we eat asian food for three suppers in a row bacause that is what the spoiled cousin wants. (I wanted some good southern food but maybe next time)
Trip Home:
I didnt want to drive all night again so we left about noon on Wednesday. Made decent time but was burning thru diesel like we owed it something. Make it south of Jackson on 55 and were needed fuel again. Wife points out a chevron so we exit and low and behold she hits a home run!:angel: They have a very nice dump station thats free and clean! We dump the tanks and treat them, I get some more diesel and off we go again!
There looks to be rain clouds in the path but couldnt be sure (been over 3 months since seeing any rain) Sure enought here it comes. Dogs are not happy campers
. I am!
Well they stay pretty dry, we head on south. Then turn West on I-10! Making goos progess over the really long bridge west of baton rouge LA. Water is pretty high, get to the end of the bridge doing about 5 mph over the limit and there is a smokey! I tell DW, whoops. Here he comes. Well he speeds past us on the left and nails the car that was beside up when we crested the hill! HA HA
...got lucky!Lindsay has to be at work by 4am on thurs. I have to be back at 6am too. Im getting tired and around Beaumont I decide to pull over and catch an hour nap. its only 10:30 pm. Well one hour turns to two then i finally get up to make the final push home. DW is sleeping good so I leave the genny on and the dogs with her. It was an uneventful 1.5 hrs home. I get backed in the drive, wake her up and she showers for work. I finally go to bed. 3:30 am. Trip complete!
Thoughts on new Truck.
Worth every penny. It was a incredable improvement over the 2500 duramax. I honestly couldnt beleive the differance. It was alot more stable, and the exhaust brake works great. I could actually relax while driving instead of being tense for the entire trip like before.
The power was decent but the tranny is a far cry of the allison unfortionately. That is my main complain next to the poor fuel mileage. Hopefull it will get better. We now have 1800 miles on the truck. Fit and finish it great, and it rides better than the 2500 too.
sorry its so long, usually get this way!
brett
