The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[mosesburb]

I guess things are getting a bit boring around this thread as I haven't been doing much except driving this thing lately. So, with that being the case, I will bore you some more with some fantastic pictures of my recent adventure. Actually they are not that fantastic, but hey, maybe it will inspire more people to get their tin in the wind as opposed to having their junk in the driveway.

On with the boredom!! Well, there was some spring break activity around the house so plans were made. Those plans quickly deteriorated as the plans were a bit ambitious for the time given to complete the adventure. I decided to put a plan together to see if some dirt could be put under the BFG's. Success was achieved.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, before the age of highways (or cars for that matter), there was a mining community called Jerome (yeah, the same one as before--what can I say, I like the town). In this town they mined copper. The only way for supplies to get into town and ore to get out was to pack it on mule/burros and haul it out. This is a very expensive way to transport ore (especially when copper prices drop). It was decided that a better way needed to be developed. The better way was a railroad. There was no easy way to get there though. That minor detail did not stop them from building one anyway. So, this railroad had to be narrow gauge because of the terrain it had to traverse. It is claimed that it was the crookedest railroad in the world when it was built--I have not verified this, but in the twelve miles right out of Jerome, there are 126 curves in it just right there, so I would say that it is a plausible statement. When finished it would run about thirty miles over to a town called Jerome Junction (now called Chino Valley) where it met up with the standard gauge railroad.

Sometime after the invention of the motor vehicle and improved road systems, this railroad was deemed obsolete as supplies were brough up through the valley instead of over the mountain (and there were smelters on site at this point), so the tracks were pulled up and it became just another dirt road. Well, this dirt road still exists today, and we ran it (again). The last trip to Jerome came into town from the east, this one comes in from the west.

Ok, enough of the blah, blah. Here are some pics.

The rail road starts out in high desert scrub and is basically just a long straight dirt road. After a while it strts gaining some altitude and starts bending and weaving more. It is a nice narrow shelf road once it hits the hills:



It continues on and there are several narrow cuts through hills/mountains:



Along the way, years ago, I found this thing that I guess would be best described as a culvert. It goes under the rail bed and is made of red rock monoliths.



The craftsmanship of this thing is gorgeous!! This was made to be functional--not aesthetically pleasing, but the men who built it crafted it in such a way that it is amazing to look at. This thing would be a steel tube today. This is all hand finished red rock:



This 45* bend in the abutment is on the downstream side of the culvert. I have no idea why it is there on the downstream side, but it gives an idea of the quality of workmanship involved:



This is the only one that I know of on the line, but it is so hard to find that there may be several more and I just never saw them. It is very well hidden and even knowing where it is, it is very difficult to re-find. Along the trail the color of the rock being driven over changes regularly. In the middle of this pic you can see the rock change from grey to red (right to left was the direction of travel at this point):



Somewhere along the way, my orange Suburban became camouflaged with its surroundings--kind of a rare occurence with an orange vehicle:



That pic was taken with my phone because at some point, in the middle of nowhere my phone goes off. I have a text message. It was the guy filling in for me at work texting me to say he hates the area that I work in and that I need to come back to work so he doesn't have to run it anymore. Well, being the comassionate person that I am, I began taking pics every few minutes and sending them to him. He did not see the humor in it that I did. Some people.

The limestone that was used in the smelter was quarried not too far from town on the railroad. This is near the quarry:



Gratuitous truck shot: (another phone pic)



Well, this gets us close to Jerome. I have pics (and stories) that continue on from here that I can post if anyone would like some additional boredom, but I am out of time for today.

[1985-GMC]

Yes please continue on with the "story" and pics! That is one of the reasons that makes this thread so cool so please carry on when you have time. I would love to some day go on trips and see cool places like this in my old trucks.

[MrBeast]

Diesel Burban Adventures, do you really need anything else?

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Id like more boredom..

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by MrBeast

Diesel Burban Adventures, do you really need anything else?

Some people would probably like more, but I am pretty content with it.

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Id like more boredom..

Ok, if you insist;

So, as you approach Jerome, you come upon the piles of overburden removed from the mine when they switched from tunnel/shaft mining to open pit mining. This is a tiny mine in comparison to the massive behemoths in operation today down in Hayden and out in Globe, but it is still amazing to see the amount of material moved:



The buildings in the right corner of the hood belong to a former "suburb" of Jerome. Back in the mining days there were actually a few suburbs of Jerome. This one, like most, grew up around a mine shaft that was dug in search of the copper ore that is so prevalent in this area. Well, the copper mine failed, but only because they hit gold and silver instead of copper. Uh, whoops. So the town of Haynes Arizona was begun. After the mine played out, a few hearty individuals remained and opened the site as "The Ghost Town".



It is basically a giant collection of crap. It really must be experienced to be able to appreciate the broad depth of the collection. There is a massive collection of old, large trucks: (this is only a few of them)







There were quite a few International Harvesters in the collection. I'm not too knowedgable on the combines but there were a few pretty cool examples of Chicago's finest in there. This one was pretty cool and very complete:



There were sheds full of all kinds of stuff. One shed had loads of old chainsaws in it. On the floor, hanging from the rafters, on shelves:



Over in another corner were outboard motors. Here is just a few of them:



One building was set up to look like an old parts house:



Then there is the 10,154 cubic inch engine that powered a generator at another mining town. It was transported here (somehow) and can be started for your enjoyment for only ten bucks:



We wandered around here for awhile and then set a course for Jerome itself. It is only about a mile away at this point and if anyone is interested, I have some pics of that town too.

[MrBeast]

No, I cant take any more boredom, My brain has been overcome with the urge to get an old Dodge Power Wagon, Stuff a Cummins in it, and put a Old restored Lincoln Welder on the back.

Too many projects, must resist urge for more!

[Sequoyah]

Me and my wife were out there and stayed in the old hospital. Merkin and caduceus vineyards have a shop there in town too! It's Maynard James Keenan's venture into wine making. Fun town!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Very cool little town..

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by MrBeast

No, I cant take any more boredom, My brain has been overcome with the urge to get an old Dodge Power Wagon, Stuff a Cummins in it, and put a Old restored Lincoln Welder on the back.

Too many projects, must resist urge for more!

Why so much effort to resist. It is much easier to just go with it.

Originally Posted by Sequoyah

Me and my wife were out there and stayed in the old hospital. Merkin and caduceus vineyards have a shop there in town too! It's Maynard James Keenan's venture into wine making. Fun town!

Yeah, we actually had lunch up there. When I first started going up there it was all fenced off, no trespassing type stuff. We would sneak around checking out what was then, just a super-creepy old abandoned hospital. Then one time we were up there and there was activity around it. That is when they were starting the renovation. It kind of took some of the creepiness away from it, but man, what a neat place now with all the fancy woodwork and polished brass fixtures. Not like any hospital today, that's for sure.

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Very cool little town..

Yeah, it really is.

[mosesburb]

So we did finally head down the hill into Jerome. It's not every day that you see 1800rpm with 200* EGT:



So we got into Jerome and started looking for somewhere to eat. It was a Wednesday, but the place was still packed. We ended up heading up to the old UVCC company hospital that has been refurbished into a nice hotel and restaurant.



It is built at about the highest point in town so the views off of the balcony we ate on were magnificent.



That black stuff in the center of the picture down in the valley is in a town called Clarkdale. When the mine transitioned from tunnel/shaft mining to open pit, the mill had to be moved so UVCC created the company town of Clarkdale. The pile of black stuff is the slag pile from the new mill that was built down there. The two buildings that are at the right end of the pile are railroad buildings. There is an old roundhouse down there too. I have some old film pics but no digitals to post of that. It is kind of cool from a history buff standpoint.

So, just out of sight to the right of the picture is another mine. It was located at the bottom of town and was called the Little Daisy Mine. There is a state park in the old Douglas mansion on site, but for some reason it was closed that day. The coolest part of the mansion is the 3-d model that was built as part of litigation that shows all of the tunnels and shafts under the town. It is super cool, but no pics because they were closed.

One thing that was open that I have never seen open before was the old headframe on the Little Daisy Mine.



This is the car that transported men and material down to the tunnels:



If you look between the headframe on the left and the red headframe on the right there is a grey hill in the background. That is the United Verde Copper Company mine--the one that started as tunnel and shaft that became an open pit. I guess a bit of geologic history is in order now. Once upon a time, about a hundred million years ago (give or take a few), the valley that Jerome occupies the side of was formed by sea floor spreading deepunder an ocean. Well, some individual figured that some of the ore that they were mining at the UVCC mine had slid down into the valley when the rift valley was formed. He was right.



This facility has always been fenced off and locked up--until now. The gate was open so we wandered in. I was surprised to find that the shaft had a glass lid on it with high power lights pointing down.



It is a bit un-nerving standing there and looking between your feet and knowing that the next solid thing under your feet after the glass is 1900' down.



Gratuitous truck shot for good measure:



The building in the background is the Little Daisy Hotel. It was built to house the workers in the mine. Over thirty years ago (as long as I have been going to Jerome) this building was sold for scrap. It appears as though someone is renovating the place so maybe some day it will be a hotel again.

[jbclassix]

Awesome pictures man! Working in a gold mine in a historic mining district (and owning a burb) I really appreciate the pictures! Its cool to see stuff like that!

[justcuz]

Yep, the scenery, the history and the wide open spaces of the west make me realize I would have a tough time living east of the Mississippi River ever again.

The burb is looking like it needs some rocker panel love!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by justcuz

Yep, the scenery, the history and the wide open spaces of the west make me realize I would have a tough time living east of the Mississippi River ever again.

The burb is looking like it needs some rocker panel love!

Yeah, there is definitely some great scenery out here. So many people do not realize the best scenery can not be viewed from pavement.

The rockers are actually completely solid. This truck spent time in Arizona snow country where they use volcanic cinders instead of road salt. It works great in that it gives great traction, it doesn't rot the vehicle, but it does chip the paint. Believe it or not, there are just a boatload of tiny stone chips there that have minor surface rust in them. There is also a wear spot where the previous owners leg or foot dragged the sill and removed the paint but other than that, it's solid. It does look really bad in the pic there though. Maybe I should paint it-- naaaaah.

This is a closer pic, but it still really doesn't convey how solid the panel is. A few minutes with a D/A sander would take the paint and rust right off.



The only "real" rust is about three inches in front of the left rear tire, right below the lower trim. There are a couple tiny pinholes right there, but that is the only "real" rust that it has. If this thing had lived pretty much anywhere but here, the stone chips would have manifested into decomposition long, long ago, but here in the desert, this surface rust will last for many, many more years.

[justcuz]

Thanks for the explanation, you're right it looks worse than it actually is. Lots of interesting old trucks in that lot, even looked like there may have been an old Studebaker cab in there. The green cab by the yellow International dump with the Chevy pickup bed trailer next to it.

[1sik7t2]

American pickers should go there some time

Originally Posted by mosesburb

some people would probably like more, but i am pretty content with it.



Ok, if you insist;

so, as you approach jerome, you come upon the piles of overburden removed from the mine when they switched from tunnel/shaft mining to open pit mining. This is a tiny mine in comparison to the massive behemoths in operation today down in hayden and out in globe, but it is still amazing to see the amount of material moved:



the buildings in the right corner of the hood belong to a former "suburb" of jerome. Back in the mining days there were actually a few suburbs of jerome. This one, like most, grew up around a mine shaft that was dug in search of the copper ore that is so prevalent in this area. Well, the copper mine failed, but only because they hit gold and silver instead of copper. Uh, whoops. So the town of haynes arizona was begun. After the mine played out, a few hearty individuals remained and opened the site as "the ghost town".



it is basically a giant collection of crap. It really must be experienced to be able to appreciate the broad depth of the collection. There is a massive collection of old, large trucks: (this is only a few of them)







there were quite a few international harvesters in the collection. I'm not too knowedgable on the combines but there were a few pretty cool examples of chicago's finest in there. This one was pretty cool and very complete:



there were sheds full of all kinds of stuff. One shed had loads of old chainsaws in it. On the floor, hanging from the rafters, on shelves:



over in another corner were outboard motors. Here is just a few of them:



one building was set up to look like an old parts house:



then there is the 10,154 cubic inch engine that powered a generator at another mining town. It was transported here (somehow) and can be started for your enjoyment for only ten bucks:



we wandered around here for awhile and then set a course for jerome itself. It is only about a mile away at this point and if anyone is interested, i have some pics of that town too.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by 1sik7t2

American pickers should go there some time

It would be a fun show there, but I bet the old timer wouldn't sell anything. Just a hunch though. The collection seems way too diverse to have any of it be for sale. I could be wrong though.

The pics really do not do the size of the collection any justice whatsoever--seriously. It is enourmous. Everything wedged into any available space. It actually takes away from some of the visual impact of the collection just because it is so crampt. Absolutely amazing collection though. I could probably spend a few weeks in there just checking the stuff out. Very cool.

[Dinos63]

wow what agreat build thread, and moose you i love your work and this truck nice job!!

[hgs_notes]

Your stories here rival the DED ones in 4 Wheel & Off Road or the Border to Border series in Four Wheeler. Several years ago my brother in law and I took a few days to get out of town. He's in Idaho Falls (my wifes home town) and had a late 80's full size Bronco. We picked up a Delorme map book and chose a route, then tried to follow it as close as possible. We headed north to the St Anthony Sand Dunes, very cool place to get side tracked, then headed west through the sage brush back country, we came across an old sheep herder, basque spanish I believe, who was living in the covered wagon out with his sheep, miles from any town. We continued, on until we hit the next paved road, at least 50 miles, and headed up to the old mining towns there. One is below Meadow Lake, the old town of Gilmore, ID. We actually camped out on the remaining floor of an old miners cabin. The walls were gone, but it was solid and flat, unlike the rest of the mountain side. We could not use the campground at the lake side because it was still buried in snow. Nevermind that it was July 6th, we had to hike our way to the lake, which was still froze over except for a ring around the shoreline about 10 ft wide. I wish I had taken pictures, but I can still see it clearly in my mind.

Our adventure still far from over, we headed south through the range, followed gullies til the end, nearly burned out the front rotors going downhill for about a full mile and a trail that may have existed several decades before, climbed buttes and followed creeks and streams nearly to the sources. It was an amazing trip that I'll never forget.

When we got home, we were visited my wifes great grandmother and telling her about the trip. She told us her dad worked the mine when she was a little girl, about 6 then, and they lived in that mine camp we stayed at. Hows that for a bit of family history?

The bro-in-law and I did another trip a few years later going west of town into the DOE site that was also an excellent adventure in his late 80's chevy truck. I have a few pics of that trip.

Once my Jimmy is road worthy again, I told my wife I want to take a road trip with our son. This is the kind of thing I really want to share with him. My wife thinks I woldn't want to leave MN, but she's wrong. I love it out west. When we plan trips out to visit her family, I look forward to it more than her. Next one is late july this year for a wedding. I can't wait, even thogh the Jimmy will stay home and the Denali will take us there in comfort. The bro-in-law now has a mid 80's Blazer. I need to start working on him now to take a day or 2 for us to hit the hills again. If not him, my other bro-in-law has a ford super duty that he is not afraid of getting dirty, and it will haul his atv also. Man I love it out there.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Dinos63

wow what agreat build thread, and moose you i love your work and this truck nice job!!

Thanks man!!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Your stories here rival the DED ones in 4 Wheel & Off Road or the Border to Border series in Four Wheeler.

Thanks!! Yeah, this thread has kind of morphed from a build into a repository for my vacation photos. Oh, well. Hopefully it will get some people out from behind their computers and get them behind the wheel. I have always been a photo nut and now that digital cameras are around and I don't have to buy film and pay processing fees to see the pics, I have just gotten that much worse. That, and now I have a place to put them.

There will be a little tech back in here soon--just to break up the monotony of my travel pics, but then (hopefully) it will be back to some trail photos.

Cool story about your grandma there. You mention DOE, as in Dept of Engergy??

[hgs_notes]

Yep, Dept of Energy. Big nuclear site just west of Idaho Falls on the snake river plateau. I was training for the nuclear navy out there when I met my future wife a couple decades ago. My brother in law worked construction out there for years, but there are not many projects lately and had to change jobs. There are 3 buttes on the south end of the site and we trucked up to the top of the biggest one. There is a road (sorta) and some kind of observation building up there with a small radio tower. You can see for dozens of miles in all directions. I made a panaramic view photo montage using 4x6 pics taped together. Now I have a sony dcs-hx5 which I think is one of the best point and shoots outthere. Panaramic photos are as easy as pushing a button, and I can take burst shots of my kids activities at 10 frames/sec at 10x optical zoom. And it does HD video that I can plug directly into my TV, which was cool when we went to the drag races in Brainerd last year. Amazing how far these little machines have come.

After I wrote the story above, I emailed my brothers in law and at least one will be taking some time to get into the back country with me. I can not wait.

[mosesburb]

That sounds cool!! You mention your panoramic shots being made with taped together 4x6 prints. I have one sitting on my coffee table right now just like that of Jerome that I made probably fifteen years ago. Low tech?? Yes. Cool?? Definitely. I did a little looking at the camera you mention and it sounds very cool. Might have to look closer at the new crop of cameras out there now.

[mosesburb]

Well, after a post trip inspection some time ago I found an issue that required attention. Evidently when I made my lower hose fitting on the motor it was too close to the frame rail. This situaton was made worse when I built my transmission crossmember and raised the rear of the engine up a fuzz (scientific measurement right there). I believe that this, coupled with everything settling in created the condition that left the lower hose resting on the frame rail. It was not a situation that required immediate attention, but it also was not going to provide a very good service life if it was not addressed.

Sounds like fun. Let's go!!

This is what it looked like without the inner fenderwell:



This is what was happening to the hose assembly:



There is no real damage per se, but my concern was that dirt and stones would get trapped between the hose an frame rail and work holes into the hose. If you look close you can see some starting already.

Ok, so that's great, but what to do. There is not much room there with the frame rail, a/c compressor, inner fenderwell and belt right there. I figured pipe is smaller in o.d. than hose, but not flexible. Hmm, this could work. I bought a mandrel u-bend from Lefthander Chassis.



I pulled my water inlet fitting off the motor and ground out my previous hose fitting. There is a stub of .188 wall tubing welded into the flange I made that I put the thinner tubing that forms the hose fitting into. It makes the whole thing way bunches stronger (scientific quantity).

So, I got to trying to figure out an angle for the nipple, a direction to point it, an elevation that will clear everything, but still leave me with the longest hose possible. I got it figured out and welded it up and also welded a hose retention bead on the end of it. I think I ended up with everything I needed, but the lower hose is shorter than I would have liked.



So, with such a short hose, I was a bit nervous about the tubing that makes the hose nipple. Even though it is piloted into the .188 wall tube that is in the 3/8" plate that forms the flange, I was still a bit apprehensive about the possibility of a problem so I figured out a little supoport bracket that sits out toward the hose end.



I blew a coat of paint on it and put it back together. It clears everything very well and seems to be fine so far with the shorter hose. While I had the system down for modification, I decided to do a coolant service. I drained the green coolant that I had in there and went back in with the red Rotella ELC (Extended Life Coolant). I flushed the green out and everything in the cooling system looked brand new still. My only issue with the old coolant was it started smelling funky. Not terrible funky, just funky. I absolutely despise red coolant for some reason, but this is the stuff that the truck dealerships that I deal with use, so if it is good enough for them, I decided to give it a try. We'll see.

[hgs_notes]

I think your moto is "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing so well it could survive an IED explosion.

[ERASER5]

It seems that you share my motto. "There is no such thing as over kill. Only open fire! and gotta reload!"