The Tortuga Truck is a symphony of systems all working together to create a great adventure vehicle. Batteries, voltage converters, winches, generators, refrigerators, bilge pumps — all working as a system of systems, orchestrated in the signal purpose to go one more mile down the road.

One of the stand-out features of the Tortuga Truck when I bought it was the “Hydralift” on the back. Designed as a 1,000-pound motorcycle lift, the primary purpose for the “Hydralift” on the Tortuga is not hauling a motorcycle, but hauling the spare tire. The Tortuga Truck runs on Continental 445/65 R 22.5 tires, each weighing in at 300 pounds. Changing a 300 pound tire out in the middle of nowhere can make the adventure a little less fun. The Hydralift makes the chore just a little less burdensome by placing the tire on the ground where it can be rolled into position for replacement.

Since the Tortuga Truck does not have a motorcycle, and the tire weighs “only” 300 pounds, that meant there was 700 pounds of capability that was not being used. What could it be used for? The answer was simple “storage”.  What better place to put all that recovery vehicle equipment that is rolling around in the bath tub, or the camp fire logs that are scuffing the cabin floor? All that must have stuff could go in the back, BUT IN WHAT?

The answer came on a stroll through Home Deport.  There it was — a bright orange construction site tool box.  It was perfect — the right size, secure and ORANGE!  With just a little design and welding, the box was placed into position where the motorcycle would have been.  Perfect! Well, almost.

All that “just in case stuff” that you might need fit nicely in the box with room to spare. For six months there were no problems at all, until it happened.

On an adventure at Padre Island National Seashore, there were flood and high tide warnings along the coast.  As the surge came in and chanced the Tortuga Truck up the dunes, the surge would then quickly retreat back to the sea, leaving numerous bumpy channels crossing the path of the Tortuga Truck as we traveled back to civilization.

The tire and the box full of might-need stuff bouncing on the back of the truck was more that the weld at the upper pivot could bear and the weld broke.

Team Tortuga was fortunate and the fail was not catastrophic, we instead noticed that the construction box was tilted to the rear by more than 20 degrees and stopped to inspect.  Upon inspection, we identified the problem: a broken weld on the upper pivot arm right behind the spare tire. We were fortunate it didn’t happen 60 miles down the beach or at 60 miles an hour — we caught the problem just as we got back to civilization.  After unloading the box and placing everything back into the bath tub or the cabin floor, we used ratchet straps to ensure that the construction box was not unintentionally dropped off in the middle of the Interstate. Then we started to limp our way back to the Toy Box (The Home of the Tortuga Truck).

A call to Smitty’s Welding and RV was made and that became the first stop, even before going home.   After about 30 minutes of pondering, a concept was developed  to use the lift for the tire and add boxes to the frame, in hopes to get recovery tools out of the bath tub once again.

The Tortuga Truck was in the shop for a week and the entire design and construction was first class.  The tire that was once perpendicular to the back wall of the cabin was now parallel.  Not only was the tire parallel it was mounted as close as possible to the pivot point on the truck chassis. This will eliminate much of the bouncing that caused the failure of the pivot point with the construction box mounted. The Hydralift now only has the tire to lift so it should easily go for an extended period of time, even in bumpy conditions, without breaking a weld.

But what about storage? Big Black boxes!

L-shaped frames were hand crafted and bolted to the chassis of the truck, then boxes bolted on each side. On the right side is a 36-inch box, and on the left a 24-inch box.  While there is not as much storage as the big orange construction box, it is easier to get to (lower) while still being out of the way (won’t impact the ground clearance)  With this design there were 10 inches of space behind the storage boxes and the frame. The folks at Smitty’s placed heavy wire grill work in the bottom of the frame for carrying fire wood… An awesome final touch.

Smitty’s Welding and RV, Welding design artists.. great job as always.