The Mojave Road in a 1993 Suburban

[justcuz]

Others here on the board have done the Mojave Road. I have too but the last time was so many years ago (1978) I know stuff has changed. I got a call from one of my retired co-workers and was invited on their Mojave Road trip. I took about 30 seconds to say yes and the trip was on. I checked all the fluids on the Suburban, removed the 3rd seat, packed some food and drinks, threw in my sleeping bag and a warm coat and away I went.
I want to introduce the Suburban first though so you get an idea of what it is I am using on this trip. This is a 1993 Suburban I purchased used about 10 years ago. For some reason it came to me with GH front torsion bars 7161 lbs. capacity and the rest was standard Suburban chassis stuff. Over the years I have added an aluminum deep sump trans pan with a factory trailering package cooler, a Corvette servo in the transmission, 5 leaf rear springs with no overload and a 14 bolt semi-float rear axle. I also have 2004 wheels and 285/75x16 Yokohama Geolander AT tires and a set of Z71 Bilstein shocks Other wise this baby is as stock as the day it was manufactured. Except I found a set of leather seats on craigslist out of a 1999 and swapped them in.
First a little history of the Mojave Road courtesy of the Clampers.

[justcuz]

Next I want to introduce the Suburban and the traveling group.
1. My Suburban
2. Don's Jeep
3. Trans Jeep
4. Jeremy's Toyota

[justcuz]

We met at Avi Casino/Resort and got on the Mojave Road about 2 miles north of the Casino. We followed the road up a wash to the intersection of the Mojave Road and Highway 95. After crossing the road at about Mile 6 from the Colorado River we stopped at Granite Spring to view some petroglyphs and at Mile 11 was were at the California/Nevada State line

[justcuz]

The road has its first set of undulations. Then you come upon the Irwin Ranch and Fort Piute at Mile 23

[midnight rambler]

Nice, more please.

[justcuz]

More Fort Piute

[justcuz]

The Fort Piute Corral and a Tarantula found on the trail. It was a brown Tarantula and visible between Trans hand and Jeremy's foot

[justcuz]

Here is were we screwed up, we ended up on Cedar Canyon Rd. When we crossed Ivanpah/Goffs/Lanfair Rd. we were just 1/2 mile south of were we should have been. Basically we missed the Penny Can, Rock Springs and Government Holes...miles 40 through 56. But we went down Black Canyon Rd. and had a nice campsite at Hole in the Wall. We hiked around a loop at Hole in the Wall and hit the road. Cedar Canyon Rd. is fast. We covered a lot of ground in a really short period of time. At the intersection of the Kelso-Cima Rd. is the Clamper Momument and then on to Marl Springs.

[justcuz]

Right before you get to Marl Springs we found an old mine. It had a connecting vertical and horizontal shaft with some old ore cart rails still in place. So here is the mine and Marl Springs. Then on to the mailbox and across the desert toward Soda Dry Lake. By the Lava Beds the road is in Willow Wash. This is fast travelling through here with an occasional need to slow down. Way faster than some of the bumpy parts of the road

[justcuz]

Jeremy had to be to work on Wednesday we decided to cross Soda Lake, but cut off at Rasor Rd. to the 15 Freeway. He now lives in San Louis Obispo and needed 4 or 5 hours to drive home. We arrived a Travelers Momument at 4:30PM and it was 4 miles to Rasor Rd. from there. So here are the last of the pictures.
1.Travelling across the lake which has a couple of nasty drop offs which I almost missed because of dusty sunglasses, speed and my anti-lock brakes acting up.
2.Travelers Monument, basically you collect a rock and add it to the pile when you finish, there is a bronze plaque there that has a saying that is kept secret from all but attendees!
3.The Suburban with the CSU Desert Studies Center in the background at the end of ZZYZX Rd.
4.Looking back north across Soda Lake, from Travelers Monument.

Driving across the Lake I hit a drop off at too high a speed. I tried to slow a little but my anti lock brakes have been acting up. It seems that the anti lock system does not like rough surfaces and when I stepped on the brake it went to the floor with no braking action whatsoever. I had to pump the brakes to get them to work. I've had this happen with my 2000 Suburban also on washboard roads, weird. As a result of this my ice chest went upside down, dumped it s contents in my rear cargo area and threw my 2 50cal. ammo cans full of camping gear topsy turvy too! I am real lucky none of that stuff hit my side glass! I am now thinking about some aircraft cargo netting to cover my camping stuff in the rear of the Suburban when off-roading. I figure I can hold it down with carabineers clipped to the tie downs in the cargo compartment. I am thinking about the 1" webbing type cargo nets you see used on military and cargo planes. If anyone has any other ideas or knows where I can find some of this netting I would like to hear from you.
Nick, my dash rattled and cracked some more but did not end up on my lap, so the plastic fantastic survived!

[justcuz]

I missed the Frog gathering around the mailbox vicinity. My wife collects frogs and gave me a couple to leave there. I came home with them so now I have to go back in the spring and leave them there. We saw the bus and the station wagon but did not take photos. We covered this in 2 days and did not see it all. There is a reason that 3 days is recommended, however well planned I still think you can do it in 2. We got late starts both mornings, after 10 AM and had to stop the first night a 5:30 because it got dark at 6:00 PM. Leaving by 8:00 AM during a part of the year when it stays light until 7:00 PM 2 days would be easy. Of course we were traveling fairly light and doing 50 MPH or more on the smooth stuff! My Suburban has the big fuel tank and I used about 1/4 tank during this trip. You do not need to have a high end 4wd to do this trip. The 2 Jeeps had 37" tires, coilovers electric lockers and other stuff. The Toyota had 32" BFG all terrains and a suspension kit with a different upper A arm. Everyone but me had a winch. My 14 bolt has a modified LSD. I removed the Gov-Lock flyweight and cam and installed extra frictions and spacers in the carrier. It makes for a pretty tight LSD for off -road use. I used low range once while going over a nasty section of uphill road, the rest of the time I was in 4 wheel high except for a short stretch of pavement. Some say you can do this in a 2wd vehicle that is well prepped. I would only try it in a 2wd if it had a granny gear transmission and a locker. In the old days you could have probably done it in a pre-runner, but since the National Parks Service took over the preserve, maintenance on the road is nil. The Park Service also stopped free range cattle ranch leases on the land so now the mesquite and other brush is getting thick. This is good and bad, good for soil retention during high rain events since most of this road is on some type of alluvial plain, bad for dry seasons as the elevation and monsoon season will get lightning strikes that may burn thousands of acres. All in all if you have never done this trip, I would recommend it. I will probably make it an annual trip from now on since I believe the Parks service will leave the road neglected. If sections become impassible due to erosion, like the one rough pass, they will not allow a bypass and the road will be shut down. This is sad because the Mojave Indians used the trail (at that time) to get to the coast and trade with the Gabrielino Indians and the Chumash Tribe also. This history pre-dates the white man and it is amazing to drive across this road and imagine the Indians walking this entire distance.

[dragginmetal]

Sounds like some good times. Pretty cool story. Thanks for sharing.

[DirtyLarry]

Very cool! The Mojave Rd is a great trip so rich in history. Somehow we missed the mine you found but we did find the Frog collection. One of them even whistled if you cast a shadow over it.



Couple favorites from our trip.


This was our campsite the first night just up behind Ft. Puite near the corral. Little Elvis was our guide for the week

[justcuz]

Larry how far is the Frog Collection from the mailbox?
Is on the same side of the road?
Everybody was crossing their fingers this trip. Seems like every trip I go on with this group it rains when I go with them. It did not rain this trip so the spell was broken however the tent campers got zero sleep at Hole In The Wall because of the wind! I was snug in the Suburban and the wind rocking it did wake me up a couple times.
A Couple more pictures of the vehicles at the mine just before Marl Springs.

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by justcuz

Larry how far is the Frog Collection from the mailbox?
Is on the same side of the road?

Ah, heck…the frog collection was only 10 to 25 ft. behind the mailbox but it was hidden behind some bushes. We wouldn’t have found it either had one of the guys in our party not walk back that way to relieve himself. We also missed a really cool slot canyon I read about on Expo Portal that is just past Soda Lake somewhere near Razor Rd. We also exited at Razor Rd, I mentioned ZZxyxx in a different thread, but it was actually Razor were we got off then headed up to Death Valley for a few more days. Ha, did you try to use that POS air compressor at that worn down gas station at Razor road and I-15? I carry an air compressor but I figured it would be quicker to use theirs instead of unpack mine... What a waste of time! Even their water spigot wouldn’t work

[justcuz]

I did not even air down on this trip! Jeremy did in his Toyota and the air hose end was cut off, at the Shell station. Luckily he had a little mini compressor that ran off his lighter to air up before he hit the highway. There are literally hundreds of mines out there. I really would have rather gone down through Afton Canyon and got out at Dunn Rd. It would have been pushing it on time and daylight had we done that. Jeremy needed to hit the road and he had the longest drive. I can go back up there and drive from Afton Canyon up through Soda Lake to Kelbaker Rd. in about 4 hours from my house. Another 2 hours back home. So in less than 8 hours I can go back and see that portion easily. Alta Loma to Barstow 1 hour. Barstow to Afton Canyon 30 min. Afton Canyon through Soda Lake to Kelbaker Rd. 2 to 3 hours tops. Baker home to Alta Loma, roughly 2 hours. Kind of a day trip!

[DirtyLarry]

Airing down sure takes the chop out of those rough roads also takes the high frequency vibrations of your rig to keep metal fatigue at bay. Little things like exhaust hangers break on roads like that where just airing down makes a huge difference. The added traction of airing down is just a bonus.

I didn’t realize there was that many miles out there. No surprise I guess though knowing how much mining went on out there back in the day. We actually tried to cut through the California State University Desert Study Center and tour the place due to the interesting history behind the facility but the gate just off of Soda Lake was closed. I would sure love to go back to that area someday.

Here is a SPOT Adventure link to our trip. You can zoom on the Mojave Rd and see where all we went. It was a blast.

[1leglance]

Great write up and sounds like you really blasted down the trail...I understand why when you are short on time but it always seems like I could use another day or two no matter how long I am in the dirt

Looks like a good mix of friends and glad your hard impact didn't hurt the burb, food can be replaced so much easier than parts.

[justcuz]

Larry,

Thanks for the tips on airing down, I just did not have a reliable way to air back up and as you know neither does the service stations out there!

Lance,

We only blasted the smooth stuff and sadly it was because we had a time constraint. Left to my own devices I would have had a topo map for the area and explored a lot more. The Suburban has some new squeaks, I'm sure some spray lube will fix them. I try to brake before any holes and let off before so the front end can rise back up to full height before the hole. The bump stops were frequently used and the ball joints got all the grease squeezed out of them, but it seemed to track well on the way home. It felt a little down on power. A quick blow out of the air cleaner restored the power level. I am still cleaning and letting the rear compartment dry out. The interior is done, next to the undercarriage, engine compartment and finally a good wash and wax.
How was your birthday weekend with Nick?

[Corts60]

That looks like an awesome trip Chris! I don't see my self owning a 4x4 in the near future but that trip would be something I'm into.

[Blue97]

Cool pics, living out here it makes it easy to hit the trails.....

[justcuz]

Originally Posted by Corts60

That looks like an awesome trip Chris! I don't see my self owning a 4x4 in the near future but that trip would be something I'm into.

Cort,
Your next purchase should be a square body diesel suburban.
I would love to come up to Oregon and spend some time doing some back woods exploring.
There is another member who visits your threads and lives in Oregon who can join us. He installed a LS engine in his square body Suburban.