Disaster/Emergency Response POV

[Machine]

Ah, yes. I'd like to think the 5.0 factored into that decision a bit when I was deciding on engines, but I had no idea about it at the time, so lucked out. I don't think the intercooler change is very difficult, but I haven't done any looking into it so don't know for sure.

 

[Machine]

A while ago, there was a question on the forum about how these Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T tires performed in the snow. Up to now I hadn't had a chance to test them, but we got some really nice snow over the past few weeks, so I just wanted to add a bit about winter/snow driving on these Mickey Thompsons now that I've been able to drive on them a bit in varying snow conditions. These tires are 3-peak rated and studdable, though mine are not studded at this time. Let's get into this!

First of all, I'll drive a reasonable speed on snowy roads- I'm not the type to drive down the 70 MPH expressway at 15MPH with my flashers on just because there's a hint of snow in the air so I feel like that gives these tires more of a fair and reasonable, slick-road performance test. And, especially while testing these tires, I will (safely and not in a way that risks other drivers or people's private property) push them a bit to see what they can and can't do. I'm not going crazy with them, but I think it's important to know the strengths and limitations of our vehicles and equipment, especially if we're going to be using them in more austere environments.

Jamming on the brakes at various speeds, these tires have given fairly good traction (and directional control) on slick roads, which is comforting. Obviously a safe following distance based on road conditions is still important, but it's comforting to know that they handle okay during braking. If it's a sheet of ice, that might be a different story.

I have noticed on rare occasion that there can be a bit of slippage on some tighter turns, but nothing that a bit of intelligent snow driving couldn't anticipate and/or avoid (as in, smooth braking to a reasonable speed ahead of a turn, smooth turning, et cetera). I can break them loose and get them to slide/drift turns, but they haven't yet gotten out of control, or gotten to a point (even when testing them in slick parking lots) where a bit of counter-steering was unable to regain proper direction. I have noticed occasional lateral slippage when accelerating up hills in 2WD. The back end just feels like it wants to get up the hill ahead of the front end, which is fun, but they can slip going up hills if accelerating too hard.

There is, as expected, better control in 4H and if the roads are slick, I often opt for 4H not out of concern for the truck slipping, but for some additional control should I need to get out of a bad situation where another vehicle is losing control.

Overall, these 3-peak rated tires work pretty well on the snowy, slushy and/or slick roads.

Now, in deeper snow, they're not invincible, but they do work well. I don't have a good place to test these with deep snow and another vehicle to help me get unstuck, so I haven't gone anywhere from which I can't self-rescue (so I feel like I haven't really done a good deep-snow test yet) but I have pushed them through unbroken 12"+ snow. In 2WD they do okay on mildly up-sloping roads with consistent speed, momentum and proper driving. Once you stop, they don't like to get going again, though this is expected with most any tire. (Oddly enough, I found that I had better traction backing up this particular snow-covered road than going forward up it, but that was probably a fluke.) For the test, I drove up the road in 2WD, stopped, then attempted to drive forward again. When unable to continue forward, I backed up for some additional momentum and continued on my way until I came to a hard left turn up a small hill, which was too much for the 2WD. (If this were an off-road trail where I wasn't going to risk damage to someone's property, I might've tried powering up and around this turn with momentum in 2WD, but I didn't want to risk it, so put it in 4H.) Once in 4WD, the tires had little issue getting up the hill/turn and otherwise handled well in the deeper snow.

Obviously pickups have lighter rear ends, but traction isn't always the best even with the additional weight of a SmartCap and Decked drawers on the back. I think the tires did pretty well overall, but I haven't had the chance to test the stock Grabbers in similar terrain, so can't say that the Mickey Thompsons are better or worse than stock.

If I had a second vehicle to rescue me, or if I just grew a pair and took the risk, I'd like to do some more extensive testing. But, for right now, I'm fairly confident in what these tires can do and how they perform in the snow.


UPDATE: Today I drove to the same snow-covered dirt road with the intention of running it again in 2WD the whole way only to find that it had been plowed. But, the road was slicker because it warmed up a bit yesterday so was a bit more icy today. I drove it anyway, and did it all in 2WD, including turning up that little hill and turning around in the deeper snow at the end of the road. I used a bit of momentum up that little hill, but not enough to carry me off the side of the road if I slid, so it was largely the tires that did the work, I'd say, but the momentum sure helped.

 

[beo_tom]

A while ago, there was a question on the forum about how these Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T tires performed in the snow. Up to now I hadn't had a chance to test them, but we got some really nice snow over the past few weeks, so I just wanted to add a bit about winter/snow driving on these Mickey Thompsons now that I've been able to drive on them a bit in varying snow conditions. These tires are 3-peak rated and studdable, though mine are not studded at this time. Let's get into this!

First of all, I'll drive a reasonable speed on snowy roads- I'm not the type to drive down the 70 MPH expressway at 15MPH with my flashers on just because there's a hint of snow in the air so I feel like that gives these tires more of a fair and reasonable, slick-road performance test. And, especially while testing these tires, I will (safely and not in a way that risks other drivers or people's private property) push them a bit to see what they can and can't do. I'm not going crazy with them, but I think it's important to know the strengths and limitations of our vehicles and equipment, especially if we're going to be using them in more austere environments.

Jamming on the brakes at various speeds, these tires have given fairly good traction (and directional control) on slick roads, which is comforting. Obviously a safe following distance based on road conditions is still important, but it's comforting to know that they handle okay during braking. If it's a sheet of ice, that might be a different story.

I have noticed on rare occasion that there can be a bit of slippage on some tighter turns, but nothing that a bit of intelligent snow driving couldn't anticipate and/or avoid (as in, smooth braking to a reasonable speed ahead of a turn, smooth turning, et cetera). I can break them loose and get them to slide/drift turns, but they haven't yet gotten out of control, or gotten to a point (even when testing them in slick parking lots) where a bit of counter-steering was unable to regain proper direction. I have noticed occasional lateral slippage when accelerating up hills in 2WD. The back end just feels like it wants to get up the hill ahead of the front end, which is fun, but they can slip going up hills if accelerating too hard.

There is, as expected, better control in 4H and if the roads are slick, I often opt for 4H not out of concern for the truck slipping, but for some additional control should I need to get out of a bad situation where another vehicle is losing control.

Overall, these 3-peak rated tires work pretty well on the snowy, slushy and/or slick roads.

Now, in deeper snow, they're not invincible, but they do work well. I don't have a good place to test these with deep snow and another vehicle to help me get unstuck, so I haven't gone anywhere from which I can't self-rescue (so I feel like I haven't really done a good deep-snow test yet) but I have pushed them through unbroken 12"+ snow. In 2WD they do okay on mildly up-sloping roads with consistent speed, momentum and proper driving. Once you stop, they don't like to get going again, though this is expected with most any tire. (Oddly enough, I found that I had better traction backing up this particular snow-covered road than going forward up it, but that was probably a fluke.) For the test, I drove up the road in 2WD, stopped, then attempted to drive forward again. When unable to continue forward, I backed up for some additional momentum and continued on my way until I came to a hard left turn up a small hill, which was too much for the 2WD. (If this were an off-road trail where I wasn't going to risk damage to someone's property, I might've tried powering up and around this turn with momentum in 2WD, but I didn't want to risk it, so put it in 4H.) Once in 4WD, the tires had little issue getting up the hill/turn and otherwise handled well in the deeper snow.

Obviously pickups have lighter rear ends, but traction isn't always the best even with the additional weight of a SmartCap and Decked drawers on the back. I think the tires did pretty well overall, but I haven't had the chance to test the stock Grabbers in similar terrain, so can't say that the Mickey Thompsons are better or worse than stock.

If I had a second vehicle to rescue me, or if I just grew a pair and took the risk, I'd like to do some more extensive testing. But, for right now, I'm fairly confident in what these tires can do and how they perform in the snow.


UPDATE: Today I drove to the same snow-covered dirt road with the intention of running it again in 2WD the whole way only to find that it had been plowed. But, the road was slicker because it warmed up a bit yesterday so was a bit more icy today. I drove it anyway, and did it all in 2WD, including turning up that little hill and turning around in the deeper snow at the end of the road. I used a bit of momentum up that little hill, but not enough to carry me off the side of the road if I slid, so it was largely the tires that did the work, I'd say, but the momentum sure helped.

Very thorough, and insightful

 

[Machine]

Very thorough, and insightful

Thank you!

 

[Machine]

I've started to notice that I have a saggy rear end. I know it's a personal problem, and a public forum is probably no place to discuss it, but I'm going to anyway.

My rear end hangs low, my leaf springs are riding flat, and I don't really have that much weight in the bed of a truck that is supposed to have a towing package on it. Maybe they forgot that part.

Here's a photo of my (truck's) rear end:

That doesn't seem like the proper direction for the leaf springs to be bent.

Now, I have at most 500-600 pounds in the back at any given time, with the cap, the drawers, floor jack, recovery gear, et cetera. That's not a whole lot of weight considering the payload capacity should be much more than that.

I've asked the dealer about it and am awaiting a reply, but from what I've gathered talking to the fine people here on the forum, this isn't normal.

Icon makes a leaf spring kit (https://offroadalliance.com/products/icon-gen-1-raptor-multi-rate-rxt-leaf-pack-w-add-in-leaf/) which is tempting, but expensive.

More updates soon...

 

[Tremgineer]

hmm i wonder about this saggy rear end. have you had your truck on the scales to verify the weight?

 

[PNWTremor]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to start a thread detailing this build for anyone who is planning to do anything similar. I'll try to keep this updated as I can with images/details and reasons, but please understand progress may be slow as I don't have a large budget for this and it takes time to accumulate enough funds to buy components. If I could get help from companies to sponsor products, that would be great, but I have little to offer in return, so I don't think that's likely, which is fine. This is also my daily driver. Either way, I'll try to break the posts down by component to provide as much detail as possible without writing a novel each post. So let's get in to the basics of the what and why.

Background: I volunteer for 2 national, non-profit disaster response organizations comprised of veterans and first responders, and, based on previous deployments, I needed a truck more capable and reliable than my 240,000-mile 2001 Yukon (it did fine, but it had me worried when running emergent calls and doing welfare checks up in the hollers of Eastern Kentucky). So, lots of time and research led me to the F-150, and the Tremor, which seemed like a solid starting platform. My demands may differ from some, but the new truck needed to be capable of off-road driving, of course, to be able to reach people through mud and flood, needed good aftermarket options to increase it's capabilities, had to be spacious for kit and tools (I may do a post on my disaster loadout if people are interested), be able to tow our disaster trailer (the Yukon's air suspension quit working years ago and could barely handle a dual-axle trailer carrying one zero-turn mower...), tow hooks/winch mount for clearing debris from the road to allow others access. What really sold me on it though were the upfitter switches, so I didn't have to run wire everywhere (in the Yukon I was using whatever random wire (speaker wire) for power and long runs... an expedient job wiring everything, but not an appropriate and professional one...).

For my truck, it doesn't just need to get me from home to the disaster site; it needs to be an integral part of the team as my role vary from mucking out buildings to search and rescue to route clearing to emergent medical response. While I may off-road in it for fun, it's also to test its capabilities to better know what it can and can't do- or what I can and can't do...

So, my base truck is a 2023 402a F150 Tremor in Azure Grey with the 5.0L V8. From what I could tell, mechanics had fewer issues with the V8 than with the V6, so I went with it- it's not about the difference in sound for me.

Here are the upgrades that I'd like to add, which I think will be individual chapters/posts. These are largely practical upgrades. Some are already installed.

1. Drawer System (Installed, Decked, 2-drawer)
2. Topper/Cap (Installed, RSI SmartCap EVO-a)
3. Emergency/Off-road lights, siren and radio (Already own. Installed, just finishing up wiring- various brands and types.)
4. Suspension (Halo Lifts 2.5" front suspension with tapered Raptor rear blocks
5. Wheels/Tires (Method MR317 with 35" Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T)
6. Winch (As long as it's waterproof and reliable, any brand works)
7. Onboard air compressor (Reliability is key here too)
8. Undercarriage protection (steel/aluminum pan under the gas tank, for example, and filling in any gaps)
9. TBD???


That's about it for this post. I think the Tremor offers a lot, and while it may have been possible to buy a much-cheaper, more standard F150 and add suspension, undercarriage protection, wheels and the rest, there's something to be said for a very capable truck to come to you from the factory with the factory warranty. Or maybe we're buying an image, a feeling and a name... either way, the Tremor seems like a good truck to handle what I may need to throw at it.

Machine








View attachment 25115

Very cool build!

Have you thought about HAM Radio, or a combination of GMRS, CB mobile radios for coms?

I’m a volunteer badlands firefighter in the summers of Oregon and northern CA (really bad stuff) and having a radio is a must. I also hunt and spend a lot of time in the sticks of the cascades with no cell service.

My wife and a few buddies are now into it for similar reasons, I always have an ear. Knowing who’s around you and telling people where you are going is paramount. People go out into the woods and never come back (lol, serious).

My particular radio, all equipment for it, including the modified transiever let me listen to Airband, I can listen to and talk to EMS (and get in trouble), search and rescue which I have actually used before, buisness band radios, and much more. Most valuable tool imo.

I’d consider myself an amateur radio expert, if you ever want some ideas I can get you hooked up.

 

[Machine]

hmm i wonder about this saggy rear end. have you had your truck on the scales to verify the weight?

I haven't, no. I probably should.

That said, I know the weights of the cap (240 Lbs-(basically 220 Lbs plus estimating 20Lbs for lights and peripherals), Decked drawers (Empty wt: 208 Lbs) and jack (80 Lbs) for a total of 528 Lbs. Estimating even 100 Lbs on top of that (recovery gear et cetera, which is not likely 100 Lbs and is not always in there) gets me to a max of 628 Lbs, so I estimate about 600 Lbs or less normally. Now, I could be wrong in my estimation, but if I am, it's by 10s of pounds, not 100s. Even if I'm 100Lbs off and I'm running 700 Lbs, it should still be less than the rated weight, I would think, especially with the tow package.

All that said, there may just be enough weight on it chronically to weigh it down.

 

[Machine]

Very cool build!

Have you thought about HAM Radio, or a combination of GMRS, CB mobile radios for coms?

I’m a volunteer badlands firefighter in the summers of Oregon and northern CA (really bad stuff) and having a radio is a must. I also hunt and spend a lot of times in the sticks of the cascades with no cell service.

My wife and a few buddies are now into it for similar reasons, I always have an ear. Knowing who’s around you and telling people where you are going is paramount. People go out into the woods and never come back (lol, serious).

I’d consider myself an amateur radio expert, if you ever want some ideas I can get you hooked up.

Thanks!

Badland firefighter, that's awesome! As a fellow first responder, I really appreciate the job you all do.

I am working on the Ham license. I've had to hold off on the test for a bit (no time to study as I'm studying for other tests) but I do have a GMRS license currently and am part of the local radio club. I could also borrow my Dad's handheld CBs from the 60s or 70 (still love those radios) but some of the other guys on my team run Baofengs, so that's what I run as well (I know they're nowhere even remotely close to HF capability, and once I get the Ham license, I'd consider upgrading equipment), but I do have several handhelds and a mobile unit in the truck.


I've used radios for years (still have my childhood walkie talkie ) but am certainly no expert by any means and would definitely love to hear some ideas! With what I do in disaster response and the places we may go, I'm all about learning as much as I can about comms, and eventually building out a functional setup, so yes, please!

 

[PNWTremor]

Thanks!

Badland firefighter, that's awesome! As a fellow first responder, I really appreciate the job you all do.

I am working on the Ham license. I've had to hold off on the test for a bit (no time to study as I'm studying for other tests) but I do have a GMRS license currently and am part of the local radio club. I could also borrow my Dad's handheld CBs from the 60s or 70 (still love those radios) but some of the other guys on my team run Baofengs, so that's what I run as well (I know they're nowhere even remotely close to HF capability, and once I get the Ham license, I'd consider upgrading equipment), but I do have several handhelds and a mobile unit in the truck.


I've used radios for years (still have my childhood walkie talkie ) but am certainly no expert by any means and would definitely love to hear some ideas! With what I do in disaster response and the places we may go, I'm all about learning as much as I can about comms, and eventually building out a functional setup, so yes, please!

Firefighting is really fun when you’re not being chased by a ground fire . I have atleast 2 fire blankets in my truck. I wish I could show you pictures of how bad it gets here in the summer. Fire mitigation is so important.

Get that HAM license! It’s worth it, GMRS is so entry level and only gives you access to a fixed number of channels (FCC changes the frequency allocations every so often). My radio (Yeasu FTM400XDR - MARS modded) can do FRS/GMRS/MURS and everything else in the analog VHF/UHF space except airband tx.

Send me a dm if you ever get into it!

 

[Rabidtastic]

Oh damn I figured you'd be all into some comms. Figured yall would at least use APRS for location tracking when you're out in the field.

 

[Machine]

Oh damn I figured you'd be all into some comms. Figured yall would at least use APRS for location tracking when you're out in the field.

Depends on what group I'm with.

Largely, with my primary team in Kentucky we stick together all the time. If we do have to split up for some reason, we're in a small geographic area so we can find each other pretty well and know where the other members of the team are (generally...). We're also all pretty capable of, and equipped for, survival on our own or as small units. Nobody else keeps track of us.

In some places we hook into the local system and use their comms, ArcGis and other mapping/locating/comms stuff. So far, even without cell service and across small distances in multiple disaster theaters, we haven't had issues (yet...).

Heck, even a StarLink would be better than what we have now, and some members don't even have Baofengs... but we do try, as much as possible, to stick together. Usually if there's a member leaving the group, so far it's been me running off to do medical stuff.

Everything we do is volunteer, so much of the funding is out-of-pocket or through donations. Thus, affording a complete comms setup, even for just 2 or 3 of our primary rigs, is difficult. We really do need to do better on comms though. I've thought that for years, and it's so important, but we have so many other things we need, and it's hard to use donated money to provide mobile stations for POVs, as nice as that would be.

But yeah, we could do better.

On the other hand, the medical team I'm on here in PA has P25 and team radios (government funding helps a LOT). Not that we use them enough (didn't use them at the Butler Trump rally when we really should've, and actually needed them to find other members of our team when all cell service went to crap after the assassination attempt... I think every member needs to be equipped with a radio... but I digress.)

 

[Machine]

Firefighting is really fun when you’re not being chased by a ground fire . I have atleast 2 fire blankets in my truck. I wish I could show you pictures of how bad it gets here in the summer. Fire mitigation is so important.

Get that HAM license! It’s worth it, GMRS is so entry level and only gives you access to a fixed number of channels (FCC changes the frequency allocations every so often). My radio (Yeasu FTM400XDR - MARS modded) can do FRS/GMRS/MURS and everything else in the analog VHF/UHF space except airband tx.

Send me a dm if you ever get into it!

I'd love to see that!


I plan to get the license as soon as I can, then move up to at least Technician ASAP after that. The next General test at our local club is coming up in March, but I need to skip that one, so probably next quarter I'll be able to do it. I'll look into the Yeasu, thanks!

The only issue is that the other members don't necessarily have Ham licenses, and while some would get it, I don't know if the rest would. At least we'd have one or two, though.

 

[Machine]

One of the issues I've had is that the winch, a Warn Zeon 12S Platinum, has a little green rocker switch on it that supposedly powers the wireless receiver for the wireless winch control. This switch has had a tendency to shut itself off (due to road vibrations, as far as I can tell) which means it's not something I can rely on using if I get stuck or need to get someone else unstuck. I had used some electrical tape to hold the switch "on", which seemed to have variable success, but when I went under the truck today (after a loooooong time of not looking at it) and removed the skid plate, I saw that the switch was in the "on" position. This was good news, but I need to address this because it's hard to access the switch with the hidden winch mount and the skid plate on (kinda have to reach in from the wheel well and feel around, which isn't very comfy and certainly not ideal if your front end is buried in mud, water, or both and you discover that you need to turn it on.)

I had considered hot gluing the switch "on" but there are problems with that, as well as problems with leaving it on 24/7. From what I gather, that switch, being directly connected to the battery, if left on all the time can drain the battery, which is obviously a concern. With all this in mind, I could put a cut off switch on the hot wire and mount this switch in the cab or somewhere easily accessible in the engine compartment or down beside the winch in the bumper, which is a reasonable option. Or I could go with the Warn winch control box relocation kit (PN 92193) for $264 (probably could get this cheaper but still have to spend money when I don't have money to spend.

While relocating the control box feels like a good option (gets it up and out of the risk of water incursion), I'd likely have to remove the winch (might be possible to access and remove the control box by simply removing the skid plate, but access wouldn't be as easy...). I'm not a fan of re-doing all that work again and I certainly don't have time to do it right now. This might be the best long-term solution, although I'd then have to find a place to mount the control box in the engine compartment, which is kind of a pain as well, but I'm sure I could fabricate something.

So, at this point, I'm in the debating and weighing options stage and I'll update this once I have some decisions made. (If anyone has experience with this, or thoughts, I'd love to hear them- what did you do, where did you relocate/mount the control box?)

Now, if you look above the Warn logo, up and to the right on the control box housing you'll see a tiny bit of green (not the green near the mounting feet, nor the green on that super-professionally-wired white wire). That little bit of green that you can see is part of the super advanced quantum-nano AI electrical tape system that I'm using to keep the Warn's wireless rocker switch in the "on" position. (DARPA/DEVGRU and even NASA could learn a thing or two from me here, jus sayin'.)

This was the Before photo, buuuut I didn't get an After photo to show my improvement. While the electrical tape seemed to work okay-ish, I wanted something more reliable until I can move the control head, so I spent a few seconds debating the global ramifications, then pulled off the electrical tape and replaced it with some Gorilla tape. I know, brilliant! A visionary! Nobel Prize for Scientific Advancement here I come. I hope it works...