Midwest Krawlers grouped together and built an awesome lunch/hangout shelter then did some wheeling! Had a great wheeling trip earlier this month after an initial hiccup while loading up that was almost bad.
Excitement while trying to pack up
Hooked on to the trailer for the first time with the new (to me) 2015 Expedition for a wheeling trip the next day. Pull out of the shop to test the brakes real quick, 10ft later the trailer brakes locked up hard. Then the brake controller on dash starts smoking 😳 I had to run around back and unplug the trailer quick. Luckily it wasn’t on an incline because I forgot to put it in park, so I had to run back around and stop it from rolling.
Google it while I’m sitting there still astonished, only to find there are pages and pages of the 2015 Era F150 and Expeditions having factory brake controller failures just like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the first time this truck had ever been hooked to a trailer with brakes, I’m fairly certain it never hauled around anything but kids in its past life.
In hindsight, I didn’t need to take the dash this far apart. The trailer brake module pops out with some prying, I just didn’t want to go at it with a screwdriver so I stuck my hand around inside the dash to push from the back.
Shake my head then frantically search for an adapter available locally at a store that is still open at 8pm. Drive 25 minutes to the nearest TSC.
This dang almost 20 year old truck gets the snot beat out of it offroad then cruises down the highway super smooth and is arguably more reliable than my daily drivers.
I got this at TSC but it is almost half the price on Amazon. Would have ordered online if I didn’t need it for the next day. I think this particular adapter will hook a Tekonsha controller to any F150/Expedition that is 2011 or newer.
The Shelter Build
This new carport/shelter was built at the south end of the park near the old barn as a place to enjoy lunch and have a shady place to get away from the heat.
Video
Check out the video. 2.5 hours of work compressed down into 2 minutes!
Pictures
Wheeling!
If you were to give me no budget and spec out a truck of my dreams, it would likely look very similar to this.
I haven’t been able to get too many action pictures of our recent trips. Russ (SAS 4 runner below) and I have pretty similarly capable trucks and we just straight up cover some ground without too much drama (well, technically his is way more capable than mine but he has bald tires and his rear locker isn’t currently working. I think he leaves them that way as a handicap just to make me not feel too inferior 😛 ). It is a lot of fun.
It was dry this time so we were able to do a lot more trails without full throttle assaults like last time.
For some reason my GPS stopped working for a bit on the north end of the park.
Video
Here is a short video of a couple of trails from the day
Conclusion
Fun day was had by all and we now have another cool spot to hang out for lunch while at Krocks. Hope you enjoyed.
Now YOU, go outside and work on something (or go wheeling!).