Preparation for Desert Trip VI

[rusty76]

Cool truck and looks like tons of fun.

[DirtyLarry]

Thx for the Link! been waisting all my Internet time at work streaming your vids!!! this is a sweet rig what parts of AZ you been through??

You bet. Some of those past desert trip GoPro videos are fun to watch to relive the trip. So far I’ve only been all over the North East corner of AZ from Flagstaff on up to Page and all around. Mainly the Arizona Strip/Grand Canyon back country area. Some time I would love to go further down into AZ to play in the desert where the big cactus grows. The desert is my favorite place on earth.

[Chevyrules]

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

It is that time of year again where the K10 gets a major look over and lots of maintenance performed in preparation for our annual 7-10 day off-road adventure trip to the Southwestern Desert someplace. This year the trip will happen a few months earlier (Leaving in late March) instead of the usual July (we have a baby girl on the way that is due in July ) and we are going a bit further on this trip than the usual Utah and Arizona trips we’ve done over the past few years. This year we are going to check out the Mojave Rd that run from just South of Laughlin, NV to Zzyzx, CA (pronounced "Zye - Zex"). The Mojave Rd is an old Indian trading route of about 130 miles of nothing but wide open desert and beautiful scenery with lot of old rustic ruins to check out. Really neat place rich in Southwestern history. Check it out! After that we are headed up to Death Valley for another 3 or 4 days of trail riding, camping, photography and what not. The entire trip should come in somewhere around 2,500 to 3,000 miles depending what all side trips we follow along the way.

As you can imagine this truck goes through tires about every 2 years and this time around I wanted a bit heavier load range of tire but there isn’t much on the market in the way of 315/75R16’s Load Range E’s so I settled upon a set of Fierce Attitudes Load Range E by Dunlop mounted on Desert Rat Rattler Moab STR aluminum wheels. The bad news is the new tires and wheels are a bit wide and badly interfere with the front fender flares under moderate articulation so that is something I need to work out yet. Might even order a set of Xenon flares and move these WARN’s to the Suburban. These WARN flares hang down pretty low and have often gotten in the way of the tires anyway. Also had to go through the NP205 transfercase last weekend to address some old noise issues I’ve been dealing with for the last few years. I wouldn’t mind upgrading the alternator to around a 150 to 200 AMP unit before we leave as well.

Last year’s trip was only 1,555 miles where the big beast delivered 11.72 MPH for the entire trip. Not too bad for a big block powered, 8,000 lb. rig with the aerodynamics of a drive in movie theater screen.

Because I am a picture wh0re, here are a few shots of the winter tires, old desert trip tires and the new Fierce Attitudes. I love the new tires and wheels!

Old All-Terrain tires on cheap black steel wheels used for long distance desert adventures. These now live on the Suburban


Winter tires used for CO mountain trips. Still have these for local trips.


New Fierce Attitude tires on Rattler Moab STR wheels. You can see Pikes Peak right under the transfercase. These pictures were taken in the open space next to my house this afternoon.




Another with Pikes Peak under the truck




You can rest assure I will have plenty of Mojave Rd and Death Valley trips when we get back in April!

what axels does it have

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by Chevyrules

what axels does it have

The usual….10.5” Corp 14 bolt full-floater in the rear and Dana 60 front. Some of the earlier pictures you will see a Dana 44 in the front. The Dana 60 is new as of this past winter.

[guzzo82chevy]

Just a lil hobby I been messing with! Absolutely love this truck hope too see it in action in the future!
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[guzzo82chevy]

Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[Oilbrnr]

I like those new flares, esp the way the side marker lights are done! Is there any cutting of the metal to fit them, or are they pure stick-ons?

Noticed that you mentioned synthetic rope for the rear, Sidewinder too? (speaking of, one is on CL here for $375, which seems a tad high)

One last question, you mentioned Flag in May, Overland Expo? I've seriously thought about attending, though I hope to have the K5 in pieces.

Hope you guys have a fun, safe trip!

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by guzzo82chevy

Posted via Mobile Device
Just a lil hobby I been messing with! Absolutely love this truck hope too see it in action in the future!

WOW! Great photo work Guzzo82chevy! That second one is stunning. I played with Instagram but can’t quite figure it out. Next time I need some photo work I’m PM you for sure. Saving your pics to Flickr! Thank you

Originally Posted by Oilbrnr

I like those new flares, esp the way the side marker lights are done! Is there any cutting of the metal to fit them, or are they pure stick-ons?

Noticed that you mentioned synthetic rope for the rear, Sidewinder too? (speaking of, one is on CL here for $375, which seems a tad high)

One last question, you mentioned Flag in May, Overland Expo? I've seriously thought about attending, though I hope to have the K5 in pieces.

Hope you guys have a fun, safe trip!

No sir. No cutting. You know I wouldn’t take a saw to virgin rust free OEM sheetmetal. If those were aftermarket Chinese fenders I might be tempted to use Bushwacker cutouts, but not with OEM metal. These stick on with ½ 3M tape and use screws where the original aluminum trim screwed into.

Nah, the Synthetic rope is only on the rear. The stupid rear winch broke again this summer so since the bumper had to be dropped and the winch had to be taken apart I figured it was as good as time as any to get rid of the wire rope. Might get some synthetic rope for the Sidewinder someday but I keep thinking about replacing the Sidewinder with a WARN bumper and bigger winch.

Yesiree, Overland Expo May 17-19 at Mormon Lake. You should come check it out if even for a day. Day passes are $15. We will easy to find parked in the front row by the showers/restrooms. Mosesburb, 1leglance, Bill and I. All the old Chevy's in a sea of Land Rovers and Toyota's are easy to find.

[guzzo82chevy]

Glad you liked the pics! Photoshop app on ipad is what I use! It's a pretty simple app
Posted via Mobile Device

[DirtyLarry]

WOW, What a day! Rode the old Chevy 827 miles today in a friggen snow storm, 8 hours of major wind storm and horrible interstates. We left around 6:45 AM in a snow storm where the roads were a total ice rink from home all the way to Raton, NM. Lost a lot of time going through that. Once we started rolling down the New Mexico side of Raton pass the sun was out, roads were dry, birds were chipping, palms trees sprouting….blah blah blah. That good travel weather lasted a whopping 40 some miles until we hit Springer, NM. From Springer to the practically the Arizona border the wind was atrocious. Talk about white knuckle driving for an entire day! Then I ran into an issue with the fuel gauge where it doesn’t seem to want to read proper fuel levels in either thank. I suspect some road deicer go into the dual tank switch valve connector and is causing resistance issues. I carry terminal cleaner in the tool cashe so I plan to clean up connections in the morning before we hit the Mojave Rd in hopes that fixes gauge woos.

Once we rolled into Arizona a few miles the wind slowed down some where I could crank up the road speed quite a bit. We were able to roll in the 80’s to upper 80’s until Flagstaff. After stopping in Flag for a bite to eat and driving all over to find a self-serve car wash (wanted to wash off the sticky liquid road deicer crap before it got dark) we were slowed down by the highway itself from Flag to Kingman. While the weather got better, I-40 from Flagstaff to Kingman is a chopped up mess. I think ole Gov. Brewer might want to make amends with the president in chief if only to get the dang interstate fixed! Good grief!

This will be the last you hear from me for a while as tonight is the only hotel planned for the week. Might get hotspot service at some point though.

First coffee return break: Trinidad, CO. After this snow BS I am even more anxious to get to the warm desert air!


Started making some decent time once we got in to AZ. The big old dog cruises and handles very well in the upper 80 MPH range


Beautiful sunset as on the way to Kingman


You can follow us along like watching ants in and ant farm via SPOT GPS

[Space Monkey]

I love this truck.

[bilfman]

Love the thread and truck. Can you phone my wife and take me and the dually next time?

[Zoomad75]

Got a text from Larry today at work. Photo of a yellow rubber duck named "Elvis" on the hood of big blue out in the Mojave desert. Something tells me there's a good story behind this. Not sure how the text got out in the middle of nowhere. Stay tuned....

[beamn7]

hehehe

[Space Monkey]

Thank you, Thank you very much.

[Greenlee]

Wow, checked out the Spot link on satellite view. That's pretty cool.
Posted via Mobile Device

[motornut]

looking forward to your great pics
those flairs look great,and no marker light issues cool

[MTCK]

Welcome home! Hope you had a chance to show the Jeeps what's what!

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by MTCK

Welcome home! Hope you had a chance to show the Jeeps what's what!

Thanks Marcus!

Yeah, we rolled back into Pueblo at straight up 7 PM Easter Sunday. It was definitely an epic trip that is for sure. The total miles from home and back came in at 2,435 miles in 8 days. 5 of the 8 days were spent entirely on trails with no pavement, services, etc. Just good ole desert back country trails. It was awesome!

We didn’t do as good as job as last year with getting fuel receipts but the MPG from what we do have looks to be right around 10-11 MPG. I also forgot to turn off the transfer pump last night coming home and pushed out almost a half tank of fuel on the highway as we were cruising along. You would think I would have smelled or saw it coming out….ah, nope! I was so pissed at myself for doing that.

We got pretty lucky with vehicle issues again this with nothing major to speak of. As I posted the first night out from the hotel, I thought I had an issue with the fuel gauge. As it turned out the 6.5L diesel lift pump I recently installed to serve as a fuel transfer pump to move fuel from the RH to the LH tank (main tank with fuel pump) was allowing fuel to move to the LH on its own without running the pump. It must have been just pressure building up in the tank pushing the fuel to the LH side. For the longest time I though the gauge was reading backward or just inaccurate. I even rewired the fuel gauge circuit from the switch valve to the main harness near the starter motor in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Bullhead City. That turned out to be a waste of time. Then once on the Mojave Rd as we made our way through a twisty wash the truck suddenly died. This happened a couple years ago too so the first place I looked was the issue again this time. The circuit from the fuel pump relay to the fuel pump pulled apart at the weather pack connector on the back side of the engine. I extended the circuit by a few inches to avoid that from happening again but need to do a proper repair now that I am home. Luckily that was only a quick 10 minute trail-side repair to get it going again.

Other than that the only other odd thing that happened was the rear axle overheated on me twice. I could feel the truck laboring like it was pulling a hard load so I stopped to take a look underneath and my nose and eyes discovered gear oil pushing out of the vent tube while oil was getting baked on the exhaust. This was on the main paved road in Death Valley as we were headed to the Race Track trail head. It happened again a few days later as we were crawling out of Death Valley headed to Beatty, NV on the highway. Oddly, when I checked the fluid level it was fine but then again, I do over fill these a bit by tilting the axle when I fill them up. The plan is to find a larger rear cover then move to synthetic oil. I’ve never had a rear axle overheat on my ever before. Very odd feeling. The steep 8% grades with elevations going from -200 ft. to close to 7,000 ft within a half hour of driving probably also contributed to the oil getting pushed out. Still odd how it noticeably loaded the engine like dragging sled. Plan to pull everything apart and inspect the wheels bearings for signs of being overheated.

We got over a thousand pictures, tons of GoPro’s and videos being uploaded now. Once they are all loaded I’ll start posting them up.

Stay tuned!

[ladderback66]

Wow Larry am I ever jealous! I am from the praries of Canada and no opertunity for me to do a trip like that! Sound like a blast. Enjoy! Make sure you post alot of pictures when you get back!

[guzzo82chevy]

Glad you made it home Safely! sounds like the trip was a blast! hope to see Pics real soon!

[DirtyLarry]

Alas, pictures and videos are almost loaded and time to start telling the story.

Day 1: Saturday, March 23nd – Getting there
Goal: Pueblo, CO to Kingman, AZ - 827 Miles

Originally we planned to roll out of Pueblo around 5:30 AM to meet my friend, Bill, on the Southside of town. With his cancellation we decided to leave a bit later. We also knew there was a winter storm brewing but Pueblo County on South to the New Mexico border was supposed to be spared until later in the day on that Saturday. Uh! WRONG! As it turned out it started snowing at my house around 5 AM. It wasn’t a major snow, just enough to make the roads slicker than hell plus the wind made it an almost complete whiteout at times. From home to the New Mexico side of Raton Pass we were only able to roll at 35 to 40 MPH most of the time. Once headed down the New Mexico side of Raton Pass the roads were dry, the sun was out, warmth filled the cab with sunshine blasting through the windows, birds were chirping, etc. Life was good so we thought.

Well that good travel weather only lasted for about 40 miles until we hit Springer, NM. For the next 325 miles From Springer all the way to Gallup, NM was like driving in hurricane force winds. The few Semi’s that were actually on the road were driving way below speed limit with their hazards on, many semi’s and high profile vehicles were pulled off on the side of the road. There was so much dust and dirt in the air visibility was just as bad as the whiteout snow storm we had just left in Colorado. Incidentally we heard they closed I-25 South near Trinidad after we passed through. Lucky for us!

From Gallup to Flagstaff the wind subsided enough to bring the speed up into the 80-87 MPH range until just outside of Flagstaff where I-40 turns into a total piece of crap. I-40 from there onto CA is junk! If there is any reason at all AZ Gov. Jan Brewer should learn to get along with the feds, it would be for the sake of getting their Interstates fixed.

We were losing daylight fast so I wanted to hit up a car wash in Flagstaff to clean off the road deicer crap we got in CO before we got into Kingman plus I thought the road deicer was wreaking havoc on the dual tank switch valve. Ah, man….I played hell finding a coin car wash in Flag. I finally found the world’s worst car wash next to a Sonic someplace in Flag. This poor excuse of a car wash didn’t even have a bill exchanger so I had to go to Sonic to get change. Of course, the kids at Sonic said their manager won’t allow them to give change because people come over there from the car wash all the time for change. I told him we were coming over for dinner once I was done, and basically begged for quarters like some crack whore. He gave in and hesitantly exchanged a few dollars for me. Then the car wash itself sucked. I could pee harder than the water pressure then the scrub brush broke as I was using it. What a joke! At least I got the deicer poop off. For those that may live in Flag probably now which exact car wash this is. After that time waster we made it into Kingman around 9ish and crashed at the Hampton Inn.

Trip Summary


100 miles of this caca was no way to start a vacation


First coffee return break near Trinidad, CO


Making good time between Gallup, NM and Flagstaff, AZ. The old pig actually flies down the interstate quite nicely.



Somewhere between Flagstaff and Kingman on I-40


Next up…. Starting the Mojave Rd

[DirtyLarry]

Day 2: Sunday, March 24th – Mojave Rd
Goal: Enjoy the Mojave Rd for 2 nights and 3 days


I forgot to mention in the last post that as we approached Kingman I received a text from one of my buddy’s driving up from Camarillo, CA that was supposed to meet us the next day in Bullhead City where he was sick and wouldn’t be able to make for the Mojave Rd portion of the trip but hoped to meet us in Baker, CA on the way to Death Valley a few days later. With that, only 2 of the original 6 vehicles that confirmed to make this weeklong journey only made it.

After checking out of the hotel in Kingman we rolled into Bullhead City where we met up with my high school buddy, Ty, in a 2005 Cummins powered Dodge Ram in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Ty drove up from San Diego the night before and his brother actually few into met him in San Diego from New York City to play in the desert with us for the week. The Mojave and Death Valley are going to be quite the change for dude that has lived in New York City for the past 12 years! No Starbucks out here mister! While we were grabbing last minute things at Wal-Mart I rewired the fuel gauge circuit from the switch valve to the connector near the starter. The old circuit had a sketchy looking spice that I suspected road deicer got into causing resistance issues resulting in the gauge problems.

In the end that turned out to be a waste of time to make this repair as I later discovered the 6.5L diesel lift pump that I was using as a fuel transfer pump was allowing fuel to move from the Aux RH tank to the Main LH tank all by itself. At the end of the day, I never had a fuel gauge problem at all….just fuel levels moving on their own. Now that I am home, I plan to ditch the center mount transfer pump all together and add a TBI tank, sending unit and pump on the RH side to use as a transfer pump. People are probably wondering why I use a transfer pump in the first place, but with the 8.1L the return line is too large (3/8) for the fuel tank switch valve (5/16) where the valve restricts the fuel as it returns though the valve causing the head pressure to run around 100 psi. Pollock doesn't make a switch valve for 3/8 return lines. Little LS engines with the small return line do not have that issue. The big block L18 is a different animal with a huge return line.

So now with us topped off with supplies and fuel we were at the Mojave Rd trailhead right at the Colorado River on the Ft. Mojave Indian reservation. This is where the original Mojave trail the Indians used hundreds of years ago to haul goods back and forth from the Colorado River to the Pacific Ocean. That is a long haul just to trade some corn for sea shells!

Bon voyage! The Colorado River marks the beginning of the Mojave Rd


This trips adventure mascot was looking pretty happy to finally be on the trail


About an hour to hour and a half the trail finally crosses from NV to CA. No California welcoming center out here. AZ, NV and CA are all very close together in this part of the desert.


I felt like a Mexican coyote smuggling the yellow rubber ducky into California through the back door. First time my truck has been to CA that I know of.


Some neat old buildings scattered about. This was probably on old mining camp


Fort Piute 24 miles into the Mojave Rd


Neat Barrel Cactus along the way


See that road wayyy out there on the horizon. That is the road we’ve been following and will follow for the next couple days.


Fort Piute


The ruins of Fort Piute. The park service has done some rebuilding so it is not 100% original. The lady in the orange is my mother-in-law and copilot. Odd to bring a MIL but FIL and my wife are not into the outdoors stuff but she is. She is a good camp chef and spotter too. She never complained once all week. Quite the trooper!


Check out all of these barrel cactus. They were all concentrated in this one area.


Camp site 1 on the Mojave Rd. This night I felt a cold or something coming on as I could not get warm. More on that debacle later. At this point we are about 25 miles into the Mojave Rd with around 115 miles yet to go.




What kind of friend would place a rubber snake in your tent? ME!




Little Elvis was impressed with the campsite





This spot in the Mojave doesn’t look much different from where I live in Colorado


The Fort Piute ruins in the pictures above are just on the other side of that hill


More later….

[ladderback66]

Thanks for the update! Keep them coming!

[MTCK]

Awesome write up and pics so far!
Posted via Mobile Device