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Tag: Gear Reviews

  • Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Backpacking Boots III

  • by L
  • Posted on June 5, 2019June 5, 2019

Every time I wear my backpacking boots, I gush over how much I love them. Wanna find a great pair for yourself? Here’s one I fully stand behind!

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  • Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Backpacking Boots II

  • by L
  • Posted on June 16, 2018June 5, 2019

After a frustrating experience with my first pair of Danner boots, I tested a second Danner pair. Unfortunately, I’m still not impressed and here’s why.

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  • Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Backpacking Pack

  • by L
  • Posted on April 24, 2018June 5, 2019

The temperature is finally warming outside, which means I have an excuse to lug out my coveted Osprey Aura AG 65 pack. Here’s that review.

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  • Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Winter Beanie

  • by L
  • Posted on March 16, 2018June 5, 2019

I was on the hunt for a great winter hiking hat. On hikes where the temperature drops below freezing and camps in single digits, I wanted a hat that would allow me to enjoy the winter outdoors. Here’s my review on my hiking beanie.

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  • Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Backpacking Boots

  • by L
  • Posted on March 8, 2018June 5, 2019

Someone once told me leather boots are like a good relationship: They take a lotta work but they’re worth it so don’t give up on them easily. Knowing this commitment, I went in with patience and a positive attitude.  Sadly, that wasn’t enough to hold onto these backpacking boots.

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  • Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Winter Vest

  • by L
  • Posted on March 2, 2018June 5, 2019

This gear review will lead you to one item of clothing I am loving this winter: my down vest.

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  • Gear Reviews

Huge Gear Testing News

  • by L
  • Posted on January 26, 2018December 2, 2018

Here is a quick share about super exciting gear testing news!

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  • Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Base Layer

  • by L
  • Posted on January 17, 2018June 5, 2019

Winter hikes have some of the most magical views but to enjoy them, you’re going to need to dress warm and wear a base layer. Here’s that review!

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  • Gear Reviews

Gear Reviews: Pee Device

  • by L
  • Posted on January 15, 2018June 5, 2019

Let’s jump right in and call it what it is because it — in all of its glory — is a pee device for females, it is my appendage, it is my other best and will-not-hike-without purchase.

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  • Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Hydration Bladder

  • by L
  • Posted on January 13, 2018June 5, 2019

Let’s talk about one of the best hiking purchases I ever made: my hydration bladder.

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  • Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Hiking Socks

  • by L
  • Posted on January 9, 2018July 20, 2021

Next up on my Gear Review’s page is one item often overlooked: hiking socks.

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  • Gear Reviews

Gear Review: Hiking Boots

  • by L
  • Posted on January 7, 2018June 5, 2019

Here’s my first gear review on the most important hiking gear: your boots.

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  • Gear Reviews

Kicking off Gear Reviews

  • by L
  • Posted on January 5, 2018July 20, 2021

Check out my gear reviews page, which provides details on what I’ve learned the hard way and my honest opinion when it comes to hiking gear.

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America (6) Backpacking (7) Camping (16) Canada (8) Clark Cortez (33) Ecuador (5) England (17) Farming and Gardening (6) Featured (5) Fishing (5) Gear Reviews (16) Hiking (61) Honduras (7) Kayaking (5) Ly's Adventures (5) Multiple Sclerosis (33) RV Build (5) RV Life (8) Scuba Diving (8) Skydiving (3) Travel (40) Vintage RV Restoration (20)

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If you’ve been following us on YouTube, our 1965 If you’ve been following us on YouTube, our 1965 Clark Cortez motorhome’s squeaks and moans come as no surprise — From Day One, it sounded a combination of horror-movie-door squeals and the imaginary pain of a mechanical-animal if something awful happened to it. We felt confident replacing the front shocks with heavy duty ones would help — or even eliminate — the problem so we went for an upgrade. (NOTE: Our rear shocks were replaced earlier.)

What we found were two dead — and I do mean *dead* — original shocks. Lemme tell you how dead — When we took those suckers off, they *remained compressed.* For people that may start with zero mechanical knowledge (like me), this is equivalent to having a spring that remains tight… or a slinky that never stretches… or — well, I’ve run out of analogies. You’ll see the picture here. It was bad — actually beyond-bad bad because this compressed-shock situation could have led to torsion bar damage or even chassis cracking. Ouch.

Now the great news: We have two new front shocks, along with droplink bushings and bump stops — both of those rubber fellas were super cracked and brittle before. The even better news: Those squeaks/squeaks/moans of pain are now gone. And another plus: The shocks increased our ride height! (True story, despite belief from many.) Glory, glory hallelujah ⭐️ 
***
#suspension #shocks #monroeshocks #lift #moparnation #doityourself #diy #upgrade #restoration #clarkcortez #cortez #cortezmotorhome #1965 #1960s #rv #motorhome #campervan #campervanculture #classiccar #classiccarrestoration #vintagevehicles #oldcar #retrorides  #renovate #overhaul #vanlife #rvlife #englishbloke #americangirl #cargirl
Can you spot the snake?! Y’all know we’ve bee Can you spot the snake?!

Y’all know we’ve been focusing on our mechanical overhaul for our 1965 Clark Cortez motorhome restoration, and we’ve almost wrapped up our mechanical work — which is absolutely the most exciting hard-to-believe sentence that I’ve ever written here. But before I tell you what we are working on currently, we have lots to catch up on and now that it’s getting warmer, Andy’s and my thoughts mainly go back to this one mechanical job…

Back in April last year, we replaced the spark plugs on our steel beast. We were hoping this would solve our irregular starting problems while also allowing the Cortez to run better.

What we found was cracked, sooty, and oily spark plugs — good news because that means the culprit of problems — so we replaced them with beautiful clean ones… and that meant a test drive… which is when we found a much larger surprise inside our antique RV — a SNAKE!

The speed at which Andy and I literally propelled ourselves from our steel beast — let’s just say a fire couldn’t have moved us faster. Meanwhile, our harmless four-foot common black snake was more than happy to move in and not leave. Consistent move to eat? Yep. Shelter? Check. Zero threats or disturbances? Well, mostly.

Long story short, that sucker took some persuading to get out — and those ridiculous antics are totally in our YouTube video (link in bio). But here’s the craziest part: The truth is we had ANOTHER SNAKE move in after this guy escaped! So listen, if you’re one of those people posting about mice problems in RVs — Let’s just say we have ya covered. The solution is a snake… or two…
***
#crazyvideo #snake #snakes #snakesofinstagram #cantbelieveit #v8 #mopar #sparkplugs #engineservice #enginework #testdrive #dodgeengine #360la #vintagecampers #retrorides #antiquerv #antiquevehicle #classiccars #clarkcortez #motorhome #rv #camper #vanlife #restoration #overhaul
If you’ve been following our Cortez restoration If you’ve been following our Cortez restoration story here or on YT, you’ll know we’ve had problems getting our steel beast to reliably start. Andy has maintained swapping to EFI, or electronic fuel injection. Meanwhile, I’ve stubbornly stayed on the other side because EFI is costly and I’m not gonna be throwin’ more money at our lass unless I know fundamental parts of her are strong.

“What needs to be there so you change your mind?” he asked me one day.

“Her engine,” I answered. We’ve stupidly and blindly done all this work and don’t even know — for sure — if the engine is actually *good*.” See, the engine we have is not original. Instead of the factory inline-6, our girl’s was changed to a v8 at some point in her life — so it should be powerful… should be…

“Right,” Andy responded then immediately followed up with “We will do a compression test.”

This has been at the top of our list of Jobs to Do… but, well, y’all know how to goes when you restore an antique vehicle…

Needless to say, Andy and I made the journey to the farm with fingers crossed because, let’s be honest here, the last bit of news we wanted was that we needed to swap an engine.

Turns out, after a dry and wet compression test, our girl has a super strong, reliable engine!
…so now, talk to me about that EFI 😉
***
#engine #v8 #mopar #dodgeengine #360la #engineswap #compressiontest #compressiontester #antiquecar #vintagecar #classiccars #rarecar #antiquerv #vintagerv #retrorides #classicrv #rarerv #clarkcortez #clarkcortezmotorhome #1965 #1960s #rv #motorhome #camper #campervan #vwcamper #restoration #overhaul #vanlife #rvlife

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