CANCELED: Dirty Bacon's Great American Adventure

[DirtyBacon04]

I'm really wanting to have the battery/fridge setup ready before the trip, but I'm not even close to trusting myself. I might just buy the parts and hold on to them until I make it back west and then Roadie can help me.
The RTT, laptop, and storage area will definitely be ready

[mikekey]

Date has been set!!!

Whenever the first day of next years FL Keys Lobster trip is, will be my departure date! So most likely Aug 4-5, 2015.
Gettin nervous! My savings should be right where I want them, now the challenge is getting the truck ready and building the experience I'll need!

Sound awesome. Our date is set.

[Trail X]

Why wouldn't you trust yourself to do some wiring? Worst case, you blow a fuse (just make sure you have a fuse in there!).

Mike, is that your trailer / home? You need to post up some info man, I've missed hearing from you lately.

[Karo]

I agree with James. Looks like a Airstream trailer?

[DirtyBacon04]

No thread hijacking here, Karo. I will smite you...

On another note, I've read several "Top 10 Offroading places" list and a couple of them had "Ocala Nat Forest" as #3 (Ocala NF is right here in central FL and I've wheeled it several times) Seeing that kind of discredited the value of that list.

A very shortened list thus far (in no order)

-Rubicon Trail (Holy Grail)
-Moab, Utah (deserves it's own list)
-Ouray, Colorado (San Juan Nat Forest)
-Mendocino Nat. Forest, Nor Cal
-Whipsaw Trail, British Columbia
-Grand Canyon/Monument Valley, Utah/Arizona
-Death Valley
-NW Corner of AZ (7,600 sq miles)
-St. George, UT toward Canyon overlook at Tuweep Point
-N from Tuweep to Hwy 67 @ Jacob's Lake. To North Rim (closed in winter)
-Continue E to Marble Canyon

[mikekey]

It's funny you mention Ocala. I think it's some sort of native florida thing. My friend Paul here is a native. Has a lifted Jeep, and says the jeep club wheels there alot. But he also seems to think this state has amazing camping and hiking????? Right..... 90% humidity, misquotes and flat terrain. I don't get it either.

[DirtyBacon04]

I'm wanting to get a handheld gps. Any of the avid hikers out there have any recomendations?

I was looking at Garmin eTrex 20

[Trail X]

Just curious, but why wouldn't you just use your cell phone? Most all of them now have GPS antennas that are as good as handheld ones. I'm sure you can find a decent app that allows downloading of maps. Just a thought... probably cheaper. If you're worried about battery, get some of those lipstick battery backups. I have one for the occasional battery emergency.

[DirtyBacon04]

hmm, i hadn't considered it. I figured the GPS tracking on a dedicated device would be better than the stuff in the cell phone.

[TBYODA]

The GPS in today's cell phones are really accurate. Here a example.
I am working in my home office today and I am about 10-15 away from the blue dot. Hey look google got a pic of my TB, last I looked it was my work truck. Hehe.

The only issue I see is when you are off the grid and could run in to the possibility of not having the off line map down loaded because we're exploring. At least if you got a way to mark a way point and log tracks you can follow that. Beside I am a fan of redundancy.

[DirtyBacon04]

well i dont care too much about the google earth map. Just general waypoint/compass/breadcrumb use. Before anyone jumps in on the matter; yes, I have a regular compass and am relearning the skills of tracking with map/compass.

I've even entertained the idea of finding a nice area. Parking/hiding the truck and wander off into the great unknown on foot for several days. Blazing a trail (no pun intended), building bush shelters, hunting food, etc. Then navigate back to the truck. It'll be a way of testing myself and only using GPS as a last resort. Oooohh I'm getting all giddy just thinkin about it.

[Trail X]

If you go into airplane mode, you can save a lot of battery, and you can still receive GPS signal. I'd still bring along a big extra battery if I was going to use it as the GPS device. I imagine you can search the app store, but here's one in particular that seems pretty decent: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ails&hl=en

BTW, you should drive up for TECORE 11, it will be a good time for you to test some of your equipment out in an area that you're not familiar with.

[mikekey]

I've even entertained the idea of finding a nice area. Parking/hiding the truck and wander off into the great unknown on foot for several days. Blazing a trail (no pun intended), building bush shelters, hunting food, etc. Then navigate back to the truck. It'll be a way of testing myself and only using GPS as a last resort. Oooohh I'm getting all giddy just thinkin about it.

Night time Orienteering! It's fun.

One of the coolest things I've done was trying to find my way back to camp in the dark under the moonlight.

Good skill to have.

[DirtyBacon04]

We should arrange a meet out in Richloam or Ocala and test our skills. Once it cools down, that is.

[djthumper]

I'm wanting to get a handheld gps. Any of the avid hikers out there have any recomendations?

I was looking at Garmin eTrex 20

The Etrex 20 is a nice GPS I actually have the Extrex 30 that I use for S&R

[DirtyBacon04]

Looking at getting the ARB 37qt fridge. If I'm feeling fancy, I might spring for the sliding platform... then again, probably don't need to spend another $300+ on the platform, which won't be mission essential.

ARB 37 qt fridge

[Trail X]

In my opinion, if you configure your space right, the slider is unnecessary. Mine is set up very well for me, great access, and no slider to break or to raise the frig and make it hard to see in. Why arb? Check out the edgestar models, you can potentially save yourself some moolah.

[DirtyBacon04]

ARB fridges have some features that I like. Solid, recessed handles/tie down points, easily removable lid, plus i like the 37 qt size, too. ARB one has a drain plug at the bottom too, making it easy to hose out if something spills. The rounded edges are less likely to damage upholstery.
But I hadn't seen Edgestar before. Still in the running, but it's only about $100 cheaper, after ARB's rebate.

[DirtyBacon04]

here's what I'll need y'alls opinion for sure. i'm not a big computer enthusiast and I'm sure I'll start a bunch of shit between the "Dells" and the "HPs" or whatever. So try to keep it calm.
I'm wanting either a Toughbook or Durabook (or something of the like) I want something with a full keyboard, do tablets. Then there's the decision of operating system. My current computer (one i've had for 8 years) is still running Windows XP... Apparently, that's old. Even my computer is telling me to get a new computer...
Any advice is appreciated.

[TBYODA]

For a "new" PC that is non-apple notebook you got two OS choices Win 7 or 8. Apple has no rugged notebook. Window 7 is much improve version of windows and you will have the shortest learning curve. Windows 8 has been designed with a touch screen and table in mind. It is also marketed at the average non-techie consumer but has steep learning curve IMO. You might find a pc with a version of Linux but I think for you it would be a no go.

I'd suggest you look for a notebook with a CPU with a minimum of a i5 processor (i7 better), 8 gig's of ram (16gig better) and 128 SSD drive, no old mechanical drives to fail on the trail/road from vibrations. Having a Toughbook at work the touch screen is handy in the car. This is a must, a backup USB drive min 500GB or 1TB for all your pictures and videos. Stay with drive sizes that are sold in most notebooks because there are more out in the market thus more reliable.

I like what James did with the MS surface because you get the best of both worlds, notebook and tablet with MS OS, thin and light.