Smoking 9/25/21 – 9/26/21

We had a few things going on with some more truck upgrades and additional storage for camper usage. First was to add a fuel can and secure it to the camper ladder. It is just a 1 gallon can for the generator. I used a Torklift Lock and Load tray that was on the front hitch before. Now with storage in the camper for the generator I did not have a place to put additional fuel for it. I wanted to store the fuel out of the way but still be convenient to get to. So mounting it on the ladder was ideal. Also, having it mounted in a way so usage of the ladder was still available. I feel it turned out to be just what I wanted.

Next thing was to get a portable smoker and a rack to carry it for those trips we are just hanging out at camp and want to smoke up some meat. A smoker big enough to do a turkey was needed as well.

We went back and forth on a smoker brand and ended up with a Treager Junior. We have had a couple issues with the smoker but I must say, Treager customer service is very good and they sent parts to fix the issues. I know, parts for something brand new…just my luck.

I then bought another rack for the front hitch on the truck. The hitch seems to be of good quality and worked as expected on carrying the smoker.

We then went to my mothers home in northern Idaho for a night with the camper, to see how the rack and smoker would do. The rack did great and as mentioned we had some issues with the smoker but we did get it to work and do a great job smoking a tri tip roast. Dinner was great and visiting my mom and her husband was especially nice.

Another thing we ended up doing was upgrading the rear suspension for the truck. This camper is pretty heavy and we wanted to beef things up so the suspension on the truck was not being maxed out. Our ride before the upgrade was okay but knew things could be helped some.

We ended up getting some Timberens put on and also did a rear spring pack upgrade of heavier duty springs. The job was done at Pohl Springs in Spokane Washington. So far things seem to be great with the new suspension.

We have a short vacation coming up and will be doing a good amount of traveling with many miles of gravel roads so that will be a great test of just how we like the new suspension. Of course the truck will ride pretty darn stiff without weight on the bed but for us that is not a big deal. We only use the truck about 10 percent of the time without the camper on it. It is not a daily driver truck.