First family road trip of 2014

Posted on 08 February 2014

Road trip…

First family road trip of 2014 was cold outside, but nice and cozy inside. We made a little impromptu trip to southwest Washington, and then into northwest Oregon this last week.

If you don’t care about trucks, towing or trailers…Sorry.

Ford F-450 with a Reese 24,000 pound fifth wheel hitch. 36’ fifth wheel weighing in pretty light at only ~12,500 pounds.

As expected, with max towing capacity rated at 24,700 pounds, the truck drove like there was nothing there. Only issue, was stopping 22,500 pounds of steel death on a dime, to avoid the masses of idiot drivers who pull in front of you and stomp on their brakes.

As for diesel, with trailer I was getting about 12.1 miles per gallon. Normally without a trailer, I average around 13.9 to 15 or 16 miles per gallon.

Post trip, I installed an 84 gallon auxiliary / transfer tank in the bed of the truck, giving me 120 gallons of diesel with a maximum range of around 1,700 miles on a single fill up.

Pictures…

Here, we’re making the customary and unfortunate routine investment in the oil industry.

F-450 with Fifth Wheel at gas station
 
Impressive 4 mile bridge to Astoria, Oregon over the Columbia River estuary.
 

WA brigde to OR over Columbia river

Cape Disappointment, south of Long Beach, WA — State parks this time of year are nearly empty, but you’d best bring some heat. See next picture.

F-450 with fifth wheel in state park campground

 The parks hose bibs had to bleed all night, made for a mess in the morning. Wind chill was around 4 degrees overnight.

State park water and ice

Apparently you can drive on the beach in Long Beach, WA. Something like 14 miles of drivable beach. Having never done it before, I now understand the appeal. Was a blast taking the family out and driving the beach.

F-450 King Ranch on Beach

Beach in the State park at Cape Disappointment. Of course, this particular night it was 28 degrees with 30 mile an hour winds.

Cape Disappointment WA State park beach

Enjoy.

~Moses


Responses are closed for this post.

Recent Posts

Tag Cloud

3D Printing Aanval App Apple Badger Mt. Beef book Calf Cattle Cows development Eclipse F-250 F-450 Flex Builder Ford Gaming Horse House Hunting IDS iPad iPhone John Deere King Ranch mac Moses Family Moses Ranch off-grid Offgrid Outback Property Ranch Reining Riding Security Snort Snow Storm Tractor Trailer Truck VFX Weather Xcode

Meta

Loyal Moses is proudly powered by WordPress and the SubtleFlux theme.

Copyright © Loyal Moses