Lady Godiva: 2017 Ram 3500 CCLB Build

[Adventurous]

Did you return your Salta HDs? Or did you or are you going to be selling them?

Luckily the company I bought them through had to drop ship from AEV, who happens to be out of stock on flat black wheels at the moment, so it never made it beyond the order stage.

 

[valleythunder]

Beautiful photography, love your work!

 

[Adventurous]

Pic dump from our time in Oregon. In no particular order and I apologize in advance for so many waterfalls; the state is chock full of them.

 

[Adventurous]

And the rest of California.

 

[Adventurous]

California Pt. 2







And the man behind the lens in front of the lens.

 

[Adventurous]

The ole girl is about to get a facelift! AEV front bumper on order so I can install when we are back in Colorado next month. Was almost tempted to go with the Trailready, but didnt want to add the additional weight or profile.

Here's to hoping we don't need the additional protection, but considering we saw, no joke, at least a deer carcass every mile when driving through Wisconsin, the extra bit of steel up front can't hurt.

 

[dieselgeek]

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing.

 

[Adventurous]

Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing.

Thanks! Now that we are back in the US with a little break ahead, I'll try to upload some more. With 10K+ pictures over the past 10 months it's a lot to get through.

 

[Regcabguy]

The ole girl is about to get a facelift! AEV front bumper on order so I can install when we are back in Colorado next month. Was almost tempted to go with the Trailready, but didnt want to add the additional weight or profile.

Here's to hoping we don't need the additional protection, but considering we saw, no joke, at least a deer carcass every mile when driving through Wisconsin, the extra bit of steel up front can't hurt.

Beautiful eye for composure! breathtaking photos.

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

Came across this while researching my next build! Excellent write up and info!

 

[Adventurous]

Well, our trip has been over for a while now, I've just been too busy doing home renovations so we have a place to live.

Final stats:
1 year, 1.5 months
42 states
4 provinces
8 border crossings
34K miles driven
1 flat tire
0 accidents
0 traffic citations
3 roadkills (all birds, oddly)
15.3 mpg avg

The wife and I have relocated to Boston, MA, which is a bit of a culture shock compared to Colorado. I'd wager our overlanding adventures will be evolving to suit, as the lack of National Forest and public lands to roam out this way is practically nil. Sigh.

Still have a pile of pictures to upload, and some mods to document, but I'll hopefully catch up in good time.

 

[Adventurous]

We sold the wife's car when we moved from Colorado, and ended up picking up a loaded Mazda CX-5 for here on this side of the country. Gotta say I'm a bit envious of a few of the comforts such as the leather interior and, more importantly, the backup camera/blind spot monitors. There's enough traffic in these parts, and people drive like complete dickbags, that the higher profile of the truck means I have huge blindspots that little cars like to sit in. I'll have to remedy that later, but today I decided to take the leather envy.

On a whim, I picked up a leather steering wheel cover kit off of Amazon. What it lacked in price, at $12, it more than makes up for in labor installing. Granted some of this was the result of the stitching pattern I chose to use, but I figured I might as well invest the time and do it right.

Before:



During:



And After:



Now, for those attempting something similar, I highly recommend buying or grabbing a little tool like this:



It really, really helps when pulling the stitches tight and will likely save you much finger pain. The stitches need to be pulled really tight in order to close up the gaps in the cover, and this helps get you there. Also, grab a quality spool of waxed thread, as the wax will help lock the stitches in place and keep the stitching moving smoothly.

Nothing huge, just one of those little creature comforts that helps to improve the tactile feel of one of the only pieces of the truck that interacts with your body.

 

[ttengineer]

As far as the leather kit goes, I’m looking at possibly doing the same on an old ‘99 Tahoe I’m restoring for my son that I’ve had since I was 16, would it not have been easier to remove all the trim from the wheel first?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Adventurous]

As far as the leather kit goes, I’m looking at possibly doing the same on an old ‘99 Tahoe I’m restoring for my son that I’ve had since I was 16, would it not have been easier to remove all the trim from the wheel first?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

In my opinion, no, you would not save any headache removing the trim from the steering wheel. In most places the trim is far enough inboard that it never got in the way.

 

[Adventurous]

Was going through some of our pictures, and figured I'd share a few from the later portion of our travels. Some WA, but mostly Banff and Jasper NPs. We went to an Overland Rally in the middle there somewhere, but oddly I have 0 pictures from that.

DSC_3300 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

DSC_3690 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

DSC_3591_HDR_1 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

DSC_3517 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

DSC_3838 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

DSC_3781 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

DSC_3892 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

DSC_3910 by Tim Souza, on Flickr

DSC_3997_HDR by Tim Souza, on Flickr



As you may be able to tell, I have a thing for B&W.