Category: Ford

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The Eclipse (Post #650) 4/12/2024

Unless you just crawled out from under a rock or came down from a cave in the mountains you probably know there was an eclipse on April 8th, 2024. I told Mr. Fisher and our newest add on Mark Obermiller that we had to go see it. So…we did.

Let’s talk a little about comms first. All three of us got our GMRS licenses prior to the trip. Mr. Fisher splurged and bought several radios.

First was the Midland GXT1000X3VP4

My personal experience with it? Battery life A-. We used them while we were driving for 6 hours. The knock on it was the battery life indicator showed full, right up to the moment it died. That’s pretty disappointing. Sound quality, B-, they were scratchy at the beginning of each transmission. We didn’t really test how many “far’s” it would work but a mile they seemed to work okay. Three pack for $99.00(US). That’s an inexpensive option.

The Second was the Rugged GMR-2 Plus

Mr. Fisher used this one when his other died. It took him a bit to program and his main complaint was getting it setup. We also were broadcasting on Channel 19 privacy 19. But on this radio the display showed channel 19 privacy 10. Not sure about that. Two for $150.00(US)

We’ll have more to say about these and others as we get further into GMRS. Almost all the options for GMRS radios are made in China. There are some made in Japan.

I did fiddle-fart around a little bit and didn’t bother to secure a campsite. Thankfully my friends at Fort Towson were hosting a Eclipse Watch Party. They consider me family, mostly because I visit them with my 1820-1840 Cherokee living history presentation.

We started out on Saturday morning. Mr. Fisher had plotted our route and I fell in behind him and Mark. Our first stop was Lexington Wildlife Management Area. This is a public hunting and fishing area in Slaughterville, Oklahoma. If you watch my videos, you may have seen a sign in my shoppe. Look for it next time. I have a creepy Slaughterville story, so ask me some time we are around a campfire.

We saw some fun stuff along the way including this moderate sized snapping turtle. Which apparently I can’t add a photo of right now. Thanks Google Photos, good work.

Big Snapping Turtle
About a foot across the shell.
Big Snapping Turtle
About a foot across the shell.
Big Snapping Turtle
About a foot across the shell.

We drove around visited the Lake. My camera didn’t record while we were at the lake. Bummer cause we had some fun stuff to say.

Mr. Fisher’s remainder of his route had us weaving through to the Atoka Wildlife Management Area.

The wind was blowing pretty hard 20-25mph with gusts to 30mph. We looked around a bit to find a campsite. We started where you see above but also went down to the lake shore but the site was too windy. With Mr. Fisher and Mark in tents, that wasn’t ideal. I went around to the opposite side of the lake but there wasn’t a suitable site over there either. We’ll be back to this site another time.

We setup camp and had some delicious sirloin steak, fried potatoes, and yeast rolls. Dessert was cookies. We had some adult beverages and started a small fire. We were expecting storms and they did not disappoint. We had a nice gust front hit us and then the rain started. I ducked into the F150 and they to their tents.

We rode out the weather which turned out to not be all that impressive. Considering I’ve slept through two near misses with tornadoes, once outside Kansas City dressed for 1750s living history where I slept in a wickiup and the second I was in the back of the Big White Bus at American Horse Lake, this one barely rates mention.

It was my turn to lead so I used Gaia to map out a route. I didn’t have as much trouble mapping as I did when I tried to use the PC. At this point, if it doesn’t get better I’ll probably cancel. I need to try the Overland Bound app.

We had a mostly uneventful second leg. That is until we were traversing what we call a “jog” in the road. This one made a right and then an immediate left all on a 10% or greater grade. There were some brick-sized rocks. Mark must have caught one just right because it separated and cut the tread on one of his Wrangler SR tires. Not necessarily rated for “trail” running but I didn’t think they would fail.

Without a spare we got back on the pavement to avoid another incident. We didn’t have another tire and it was a Sunday so better safe than sorry.

We arrived at Fort Towson and setup came while I found my friends and said hello. We cooked dinner and got setup for the night. They had a nice spread and we had some delicious food. Homemade cinnamon rolls really finished the night off right.

We were tasked with parking duty. We had a good time and welcomed everyone. I shared some fort history to those who hadn’t researched it themselves. All in all we parked around 75-100 cars and roughly 375 people came to watch.

The clouds were sparse early but built up more and more as the day went on. It was looking like we weren’t going to see the eclipse. But just as one of the guest said the parting of the clouds would occur and just in time.

There are no words to describe the eclipse. It was in the top 5 events I’ve ever attended. The light right before the eclipse was eerie. It was like an old Argon street light. Such a special event. Seeing the ring, seeing the solar prominence, it getting dark right in the middle of the day. Birds stopped singing, a tree frog croaked, basically nature thought it was night. I said “so cool” about a dozen times during my video. Like I said, there were no words.

The fort staff set off a cannon during the totality.

They say the next one is in August of 2045. I’ll be 80 years old. The path will go right through Oklahoma. If I’m still residing in Newcastle, I’ll only need to drive 75 miles to be in the center of the totality.

I hope you enjoy the video. I know it is a bit long, but it was a big weekend.

Like and subscribe to the blog and the YouTube channel if you see fit. I would really appreciate it.

I have a Patreon account setup if you would like to help with the cost of keeping this website up. Okierover Patreon.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering (of F150-ing if your Land Rover is in a shoppe).

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Southwest Oklahoma Expedition – January 2021 Part 2 (Post #591) 2/2/2021

If you missed Part 1, jump over to that post and catch up (the link is after the break). Or don’t, this is still a free country, more or less, depending on who you ask. What follows is Day 2 of the Great Southwest Oklahoma Expedition! See there, this trip just got more awesome the more we drove!

Continue reading “Southwest Oklahoma Expedition – January 2021 Part 2 (Post #591) 2/2/2021”
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Now That’s a D Ring (Post #512) 9/21/2014

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I ran up to O’Reilly’s to get oil and a Wix filter for an oil change. In the parking lot I saw this D ring on a Dodge Cummings truck. Silly I know, but fun.

I am switching to 10w40. I know, I know,  you always used Castrol 20w50. 20 50 is probably too heavy. Winter is coming so I’m gonna add run lighter oil and see how that goes.

Richard our Web programmer for RedDirtRovers.com recently had to part with his Range Rover. He just happened to find an original set of carpets in his garage. There was even a set of rubber mats.

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The mats are much nicer than my old set. Thanks so much Richard.

I picked up a Taurus from a friend. It needs some work but will make a good daily driver for someone. I’ll be sorting out the parts I need this week.

It looks like Charlie Blankenship’s Sports and Classics will get the transmission rebuild. He gave me a good price for the total job. I need to get the funds together. The Taurus will be my transport while the Big White Bus is in the shoppe.

Thanks for reading and Happy  Rovering

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Garage Day: Titanium Hitch and His New to Him Ford (Post #383) 8/27/2013

Another Saturday, another Garage Day. Wrenching on a old truck with your best friends in the middle of rural farm country is as American as America gets. This time the patient was Titanium Hitch’s 1998 F-150. According to TH the truck had been running pretty rough. It was in bad need of a tune up.

What started out to be an oil change, a brake job, and to investigate the rough running, became an all day ordeal. When we talk about project creep, this project not only crept, it grew as it did. What finally happened was a plug change, oil change, brake fluid change, two O2 sensors replaced, air filter change, and a final sorting out of the sound system problems from the last garage day.

First, the good news, the truck did not need brakes. The pads were deemed to be in satisfactory condition. So TH is going to shelf the pads he bought for another time. The brake fluid was sucked out with a syringe, fresh oil replaced. Then the nipples all got a turn as the bad fluid was evacuated from the lines.

This went exceedingly well with three pseudo-mechanics working on it. +EGD was at the wheels while I filled the reservoir. TH was relegated to pumping. The instructions were pretty tough to follow. Pump the pedal and say when he was pumping. This took a few tries to get perfected. But as with most things TH finally became an expert peddle pusher.

On to the O2 sensors. A lively debate was had betwixt the three of us regarding how many O2 sensors an F150 had. We quickly found what we later learned were the upstream sensors. Only through a parts search did we find out that it had a set for downstream as well. Well hoity-toity for them! We all were surprised and our theories of why it could only have two, like a Land Rover were dashed on the rocks of our hubris.

The codes that were being thrown were thought to be related to the downstream sensors. I’m still a little fuzzy on this but I went with it. Besides the down stream sensors looked to be the easiest to remove. Yeah right!

The driver’s side came out with out much of a problem.
The passenger side was…welded …frozen …rusted WELDFROZTED in.

A great many attempts were made with a great many tool configurations.

We first cut the lead so we could use a deep socket,

We then attempted to sawz-all the sensor,
Then a propane torch was tried,

Then the sensor was cut into pieces with a large bolt cutter,
Finally a socket with a large cheater bar was used to tear the threads off. To get the cheater bar in to play the truck had to be lifted up to the maximum height of 5 ton jack stands. I was quite worried about this, as one mistake and the state’s insurance agencies would be writing a bunch of checks to happy sad widows.

I’m surprised I don’t have a picture of the end result of the sensor. But suffice to say brute force won the day. You can well imagine that the threads were trashed. EGD remembered to grab a tap in the correct size when we went to the parts store to spend some more of TH’s beer money hard earned pay on auto parts. EGD managed to get a few threads cut back into the sensor port and the second was installed. The front sensors were looking pretty bad as well. They were probably WELDFROZTED in as well. None of us wanted to find out. Another problem for another day.
Next was plugs. We should have guessed we’d have problems. The first plug fell apart as the lead was being pulled from it. You can see the center conductor out of its plug in the following picture a long with what was left of the O2 sensor on the right side.
Half the plugs we pulled came apart in one manner or other. After examination of the plugs it was easy to say they were the originals. This was evident by checking what was left of the anodes for spark gap. The plugs were so badly eaten away and the gaps so large I was surprised the truck ran at all. One of the gaps measured .1000. Yes… point 1 thousands. The actual factory plug gap should have been .0560. Two of the plugs measured .0900. I didn’t measure the rest. I hope you can see the ends and how badly eaten away they were in the picture.

I gapped all the plugs with a feeler gauge and they were installed. At some point here a lively debate broke out about the parts we had just picked up. The replacement O2 sensors did not have the correct key on them. It looked to me what little key was there was half-heartedly cut off/ground down.

We looked at the existing up and down stream plugs for comparison. Then we compared them with the one upstream sensor which we could actually reach with out being a contortionist, the passenger side. Sure enough the replacements didn’t match any of the OEM ends. We installed them anyway, trusting that the AutoZone guy gave us the right parts and they were labeled correctly in the boxes.

The oil change was completed in short order. The truck was two quarts low on oil as well. The black stuff that was serving as oil didn’t even fill the five quart jug of the replacement oil.

I had to bail out before the speakers were addressed. I waited long enough until I got to hear the engine with all the new bits. They gave me the honor of firing her up. She roared into life and idled like she was meant to. I’m going to guess she gets 3-4 miles more per gallon of petrol.

About an hour after I got home I got a panicked call from TH asking if there was something I could think of that might have made her run poorly. Seems when TH tried to drive home although idle was good, any application of throttle caused coughing and choking and a poor running motor. It was probably dropping to “limp mode”.

I remembered I had pulled the passenger side O2 lead, but I hadn’t reconnected it. I relayed that and he was off to check it and indeed it was still disconnected. It was reconnected and he made it home.

I talked to TH the following Monday and he told me she was still running rough. During the Garage Day festivities we had had a lively discussion about the Air Idler Valve. If it was half as bad as the other parts, it most likely really needed a good cleaning if not an out right replacement.

It was fun to hang out with my old mates and swap stories and wrench a little in the sub-Saharan African hot Saturday in Oklahoma. I wouldn’t have rather been anywhere else, well perhaps in my pool with Mrs. Okierover, but I got that too so I was a winner all the way around.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Garage Day – August 2013 (Post #377) 8/14/2013

My good friend and resident evil scientist the +Evil German Dude (EGD) announced we were having a Garage Day at his house this past Saturday. For once I didn’t have anything Land Rover related for him to assist me with. I’m sure he and the former Titanium Hitch were quite surprised as we normally have something to do on the Range Rover. They both liked the Big White Bus’s new stance on fresh springs. I had to call it to their attention, but they responded with friendly comments after looking her over.

Inadequate alternator

The main goal of the day was to install a new alternator in EGD’s F-250 Super Truck 4×4 Beast. If you have been a frequent reader you know every thing EGD touches must be modified. His Chevy 1500 was highly modified. I could write an entire blog post listing the changes he made to the 1500. His F-250 is well on its way to being heavily modified.

EGD and the Former Titanium Hitch

More after the jump….

Today’s modification was to be a nuclear power reactor. He has the need to power small cities and in case of a disaster provide power to his evil lair. Sadly the Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied his permit for a mobile nuclear power reactor. They said his design was sound and the schematics were first rate. They just did not feel he rated one.

Beefy.

So he picked the next best thing and contacted the Russian’s for one of theirs installed a DC Power Engineering alternator. At maximum revolutions this monster will put out 300 amps. At idle it puts out 190 amps. Compare that to a stock Land Rover alternator and its 100 amps at max output. They will send it to you polished or one of 11 colors. Impressive.

Size comparison. New on the left and old on right.

The task was a simple one if you were content with using the existing wiring. But EGD is an evil mad scientist, so you know there has to be enhancements. First was replacing the cables to 1 aught. Yes, you read that correctly…1 aught. He is fond of his power conduit mechanisms. Three hundred amps is a lot, and to run it through stock wire is just silly.

One aught cable and in-line voltmeter.

He also installed an in-line volt meter. This is cool enough to warrant install on my Big White Bus. I will have to investigate this option further. One of my pet peeves about my Land Rover is the apparently inadequate wiring. Lots of Land Rover owners outfit their rigs with wenches winches, lots of lights, refrigerators,…etc. These are all power hungry devices in which dual batteries and beefy alternators are just the prescription to get the needed amperage to the devices. EGD’s beastly F-250 is no exception.

Installed.

The former Titanium Hitch and I mostly handed EGD tools and offered the “extra hand” every mechanic, at one time in their life, wishes God had given them. Working with EGD on his rigs over the years is truly entertaining. I’ve never seen him come up against something he hasn’t all ready anticipated.

His work is meticulous, precise, and clean. I have learned a lot from him over the last decade. I told the former Titanium Hitch that when I work on my Range Rover I think about what EGD would say if he saw my work. You’ve no doubt seen the W.W.J.D.? (What Would Jesus Do) and the many variations over the years. My own is W.W.E.G.D.D?

EGD then decided to manipulate the worldwide price of a barrel of crude by doing an oil change in the big diesel. The behemoth uses 13 quarts of oil. Since I have the smallest beer belly of the group, I was elected to ride the creeper under the truck to empty the oil. EGD has made this a simple process by installing a Fumoto valve. No more guessing which wrench you need. No more getting oil on your hands removing the plug. Easy peasy.

Once EGD was done with the alternator installation and oil change was completed, we had a great dinner of roast potatoes, hot dogs, and grilled vegetables prepared by EGB (Evil German Bitch). I know what you’re thinking. But I assure you that’s her own moniker, she picked it out. That’s even how I have them in my phone. She is a superb cook and I always love eating at their house.

After chow time was over, Titanium Hitch told us about the sound system woes in his newly acquired late nineties Ford F-150. The after market sound system had been butchered. EGD was keen to sort out his problems.

I fetched tools while EGD started extracting the radio from the dash. I was also tasked to find a wiring diagram for Ford pickups on the interwebs. That was no real challenge and I was back to handing them tools.

We found the problem, a blown speaker. The others were not in good nick and it was suggested he replace them all. Replacing them was a job for another day.

So we wrapped it all up. I said my goodbyes and headed home with a detour to drop the used oil off at JagGuy’s garage where he will undoubtedly use it in his Bobbed-Duece.

I received an email from an Art of Manliness reader who told me the visited link color on my OkieRover.com website was virtually unreadable in low light. So I swapped it to a red for high contrast.
Thanks Shawn.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering

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