Camping Rig

"Longtime Lurker" (longtimelurker26) 06/21/2018 at 22:18 • Filed to: Ford, Longbed, Camper, Boat, Towing

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My parents went on their annual fishing trip all last week, this is the camper a 1976 Ford F250.

Mmm Creamsicle

Supercab, Longbed, it has a 460ci 4bbl V8, Automatic transmission, and Rwd.

They’ve had it for 29 years, it’s kind of rough around the edges but always a tough reliable and cheap truck.

That camper on the back is a late ‘90s Coachmen 10 footer that they bought a few years ago after the old camper rotted away. This truck is the primary tow vehicle of their boat, a 16.5' 1993 Lowe aluminum fishing boat with a 40hp Mariner.

Unfortunately, while not ruining the trip there was 1 major problem and minor problem.

The minor problem being that on their 2005 Chevrolet Venture that my brother drove up to the lake for use to move the boat around the campground and run trips into town the receiver hitch became so packed with Silty dirt we couldn’t remover the drawbar after.

After hitting with my 1.5lb dead-blow didn’t work, I went for more “ Persuasion” so I went and bought a Fiskars 8lb sledge, this made the hitting much easier I was able to confirm that the drawbar was not seized by pushing it further in, but hitting it in every other direction ( the drawbar was bending) still wouldn’t allow it to slide out. The receiver did have a hole in the front of the tube for smashing the drawbar out there was not enough swing room under the van to make that work. Next step was tying a ratchet strap to the hitch on my Ranger, which showed me that my parking brake is not engaging (Separate post in future) with tension on the drawbar, hitting it up made it pop free.

The major problem being that they launched the boat Sunday, it ran perfectly, then at night it was very windy causing big waves. Monday the boat was very hard to start, but eventually got running with no problems for the rest of the day. When they went to use it again Wedensday it wouldn’t start again. Dad tried to start for so long the battery died, nothing would work to get the boat running. The boat sat unused for the rest of the week. We suspect water either got to the motor wetting something that shouldn’t get wet, or the gas got water in it. We are going to try to get it to a marine mechanic over the weekend. (Update to follow in future post)

4kc > Longtime Lurker 06/22/2018 at 00:15

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Patriotic

Longtime Lurker > 4kc 06/22/2018 at 00:24

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Sorry actually Canadian!

gmctavish needs more space > Longtime Lurker 06/22/2018 at 02:29

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Few things make me happy like an honest old vehicle still plugging along