M4wd&Fabrications

low coolant light on way down.  added coolant

low coolant light on way back home.  added coolant. 


dipsticks normal.  looking like there are some 1/2" steam lines along pass fender with various plastic tees and clamps.  reservoir top seam also noted coolant wet. 

no active leaks found hot running.  leak must be very slow or pressure/load based. 


no repeated EGT weirdness.  new EGT probe / harness / gage sitting in box in dash pocket. 

Noticed a noise/skip in 4x4 when i got the truck just a hair stuck this week.


I pulled the front diff cover and all looks ok, oil was brand new looking

i dont see any front drive shaft or front axle ujoint play


Transfer case fluid was about 1/2" below fill plug, and was brown / smelled burnt ATF


changed that with the only thing documented, 70$ for 2 quarts mopar Tcase fluid for 44-47 case. 
im thinking the chain is worn and stretched and slips under load?  does it in 4 low and 4 high idling with some ebrake applied at random times. 

just remembered to look at your history on that chain skip noise. I overshot 2h for 4h last night moving from tank dump to the shop, and was in 4x4 on pavement with camper on. seems bad. sounded bad. I think I need to check the unknown history probably junkyard used case on my truck for similar chain wear.

8 yrs ago i could have answered that, as i was one of the group leads for reliability estimations lol 


that proprietary knowledge has been round bin filed. 

1.8 gallons is the tank capacity on the diesel heater. it was left on during the day once, and ran out during the last night of this trip. If I pretend those are equivalent, it's about 3 nights at around freezing without the ability to actually cycle the heater.

I did get another diesel heater controller to see if I can get on/off working, but I apparently didn't leave the wiring free on the backside of the cabinet to be able to pull it out and plug it in.

two showers and 4 days, had plenty of water left when we got home.

Left propane on the same tank as the second half of the 10 day trip, still have some left. ran propane furnace for a couple hours too. Will be interesting to see how much I put in those tanks when I get them filled.

Ran an 18qt cooker on inverter all day cooking chili, that is almost as much draw as airconditioning. it would draw about 115 amps from the batteries when heating. No issues, and I think I was at 35% at the end of the day. Didn't get out the IR camera to look at all connections but I might use that cooker for a load test. I did heat up something in the microwave for a minute at the same time - worked fine, saw 140s. I am wired to handle 400 amps, I think the batteries will supply 100 or 150 each.

If the remote start on the truck worked so I could fire it from the camper if needed, I would list the generator for sale. I would add more solar (800w) before I would add more battery (450ah). IIRC I was able to pull about 1.8 - 1.9 kwh per day, with no shading and sunny mornings and partly to mostly cloudy afternoons. I'll have to check the graphs and and see if I was clipping with the single charge controller. Midsummer it would clip a bit, not sure if I should in late October. I think the Victron stores those logs for quite a while so I can look later.

The Renogy battery shunt gave good numbers under heavy load on the way down, but the next day when charging it fell behind and read well below what the BMS were telling me. It did the same sitting in the shop for a month, Renogy was showing 60ish but batteries were above 80%. Bus cabling is working perfectly, batteries always read within a percent of each other by BMS.

I think for the winter I may try to discharge to 80% and hit the battery disconnect. I would solicit opinions on that if anyone has any...

If engine fails test/deemed defective and replaced under warranty with new engine, the factory warranty remains original length.

If engine passes testing, warranty upgraded to 10yr/150k.

So... seems like life expectancy is 150k minimum.