I’m really not a procrastinator (as long as you don’t ask Kris) but with schedules the way they are it seems like some things just get put off until the last minute out of necessity.
Grand Talley came with a residential refrigerator which is a FANTASTIC upgrade to our old one offering better cooling and is no joke: twice the size. The drawback is tho that just as a regular household refrigerator works, this one runs only on AC (Alternating Current) with no option for battery or propane alternatives. Thankfully the builders at Grand Design added an inverter to the system which takes 12 volts from our battery and converts it to 120VAC for use by the refrigerator while we are underway. That way the refrigerator stays on while we are driving down the road and our ice cream stays hard and the kiddo’s milk doesn’t spoil. The battery that its connected to unfortunately will only last a couple hours before it’s depleted so I doubled up the capacity up there by wiring a second battery in parallel to the first. This project only took me a half hour or so since I had the battery as well as wiring from previous projects. Easy peazy.
Next up was a quick and dirty baby gate since we wanted to try Ethan sleeping in the upper bunk of the bunk house. I merely took an existing bedrail we had in the garage, modified it slightly and screwed to the plywood under the mattress. Done.
The final project was a little more in depth and due to supply back-logs, it didn’t arrive until the day before we left for New York. Yikes! The stock fuel tank in the truck was minuscule at 26 gallons and we found while going to Florida that it really limited our drive days because not only did we need to stop for kid related breaks, but then we also needed to plan for fuel stops… and sometimes that equated to two different locations adding an hour or more to our drive day. Add in to that equation the highest ever diesel fuel prices the country has ever seen and we were at the mercy of whatever the local fueling station or truck stop pricing was.
Enter the S&B replacement tank! S&B has been building aftermarket fuel tanks for a couple decades and their current lineup supporting Super Duty diesel trucks is phenomenal. After my usual due diligence, I didn’t hesitate to purchase one, but their stock was unfortunately back ordered and it finally showed up in our driveway the day before we were destined to leave. Not only was I reluctant to get a project of this magnitude underway with less then 24 hours to departure, but the box also appeared like it had been run over by a train. The delivery guy allowed me to open the box before accepting it and despite its appearance, all the parts were present so I went ahead and took it.
After significant debate with Kris, we decided that yes… I should go for it even though the stakes were high (if for some reason I couldn’t complete the job… we wouldn’t be able to leave for NY). I read and re-read the installation book and watched all the recommended install videos which all agreed it would be a 2 hour job. I guess that’s a 2 hour job for someone with a lift and helping hands… because it took me about 5 hours to do it by myself in the dark on the drive way pavement. With the job finally complete at nearly 11 o’clock at night, I put a few gallons in and was relieved everything worked as designed as I headed for the filling station for its first ever huge fill up… 56 GALLONS!
Around $300 later, the tank was full and we were ready to go. What a relief! With all the stress and heartache over the install it really paid off. The truck range now even when towing is about 600 miles which gives us the ability to skip entire regions that have expensive gas (Like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts). We drove the entire way from Maryland to upstate New York on one tank of fuel… it was awesome.
