The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[monte0185]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

So I had some vacation time that I had to use before my service anniversary, so I plotted an idea that if sold, could be quite fun.

It worked. We loosely planned a camping/wandering trip and with that, set to loading the truck. Now, my boy has not been camping before and as a side note, he still sleeps with his light on in his room (I am opposed to this, but with my horrid work schedule for the past nine months or so, it left me on the phone at bedtime instead of there in person). Now, when I say sleeps with his light on, I don't mean a little bit, I mean we have planes circling asking for permission to land kind of light. So with that, we knew that we had some work cut out for us.

I got the truck loaded up on the Tuesday before the 4th of July weekend. We got out of town at about 0900 and we were on our way. We headed up to Poland Junction and took that across to where it meets up with FR261. A funny thing happened on the way to FR261 though. When you get past Poland the road gets rough and is basically one lane at that point. About 1/4mi in, we come around an uphill corner and are nose-to-nose with a Caterpillar D6R. Uh, this is not good. Where we sat, it was around 1/8mi worth of backing up to get to a point to turn around. I do not really like the sound of that, so I park it and walk up to talk with the operator. He says the road is open and give him a few to clear the area and we'll be able to pass. Sure enough, a few minutes pass and he runs it almost vertically up the side of the hill so we can pass. We finish Poland Road with no further excitement and meet up with FR261.



We take FR261 over to Seantor Highway and head North toward Prescott. Somewhere along the way, nature called and I found a nice scenic spot to take care of business:



We get into Prescott and find a place to eat lunch. We get out and find a museum that has a bunch of old mining equipment outside, so we wander around it and I explain to my boy what each piece is and how it worked and was used. We wander back to the truck and find some fuel then head north to AZ89A and take it toward Mingus Mountain/Jerome.

We turn off AZ89A about ten miles before Jerome and take FR104 over to FR413. Heading northeast on FR413 we start looking for a spot to camp. Not too far down the trail I saw a little two-track off the left side. We back up and head down the two-track. We get in a ways and find a tree fallen across the trail. It had been there awhile and a route around the tree was already present. I managed to get the Sub around it and we continued heading back into the sticks on this two-track. We got back in a ways and found a nice spot.



We started setting up our gear, but with burn restrictions there was no possibility of a campfire.



We stayed up for awhile then decided to retire to the truck. I put up the window coverings that I engineered and had my Mom manufacture. She used two layers of canvas (almost like denim in weight) and stitched magnets along the hems to make some really cool window coverings. This, and the fact we were in the middle of nowhere, made the inside of the truck very dark. We watched a John Deere show on the DVD player, then he laid down and I read him a couple stories. After those were done he got a little whiney when he realized the lights were going out. I told him a non-fiction story about an orange Suburban and how it came to be. He liked the story and was about out. When he woke up in the morning, I pointed out the fact that he slept with the light off and woke up alive!! (side note: he only uses a dim night light at home now--a positive effect of camping!!)

So I packed up the truck and we head out. We continue down FR413 in the same direction (toward Jerome) that we were headed when we found the two-track. Now I had run the road about ten years ago in another truck so I had an idea of what was coming, but I was in for a rude awakening once we got well into the switchbacks. It appears as though the road has not been maintained in many years. It was quite overgrown and very rough--mind you not too difficult, just rougher than hell, so no speed could be attained. We ran fourteen miles of this road in low range for speed control and several of those miles never saw the speedometer needle move off zero. It is a VERY NARROW shelf road. These pics do not do justice to the roughness or narrowness of the road.



In this one you can kind of see where the edge of the road is in relation to the center of the hood. (This is an extremely smooth part of the road, extremely smooth...)



The road just grates on and on and on and on. I have to put the left side of the truck into the bushes/trees/manzanita/genereal vegetation to keep the right side tires (the wife's side BTW) on the trail. There were points where I was scraping the left side, right side and top simultaneously. It got to a point where we were taking on so much vegetation through the open windows on the left side that we rolled up the windows and cruised in A/C comfort for the rest of the trail. This is a long, painful trail, but it has some spectacular scenery. There is a point where you can see sixty miles in a 180* radius from one point. My favorite view of Jerome is also had from this trail:



The trail ends in Jerome, so at this point relief is felt because the end is near. Well, not quite. There is still over an hour of this lovely road to run yet. Somewhere along after this view, I am putting the left side of the truck into a bush and all of a sudden the steering wheel spins left and the truck stops. Uh, that can't be good. I back up, move right ever so slightly and head on down the trail looking for somewhere I can get out and inspect the damage. I find a spot and check it out. The chrome ring on the locking hub hit a rock. It appears as though there was no harm done. Driving down this trail is a constant sawing at the wheel, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.... Well, somewhere along that run I get the feeling that something with the steering is not right. It still works and we FINALLY get off that trail. It took so long that it is past lunch time so we head down the hill toward Cottonwood. Now that we are on pavement, I realize what is up. The steering wheel is at 11:00/5:00--not good. We stop to get some grub and when we get out, my boy looks at the excessively pinstriped/scratched truck and exclaims "The truck looks cool!! It looks like it has flames on it!!" I call a buddy of mine that we visited in January and he is around so we decide to head that way. We stop to pick up some food and I stay with the truck and start working on the drag link. I get it re-centered and we head up the hill.

We get to the forest road that my buddy lives on and I tell my boy to come up front. I have him sit on my lap and let him steer us along the FR to my friends place. He loved it!! We hang out there for the night and the next day we go out wandering around. We stop off at Blue Ridge Reservoir.



We head down by the dam and check out it and the spillway. We brought a fishing pole and tackle box for my boy, but the walls surrounding the lake are so steep that we couldn't find a trail down to the water.



We decide to spend another night up there. I brought a rifle with so I could teach my boy how to shoot. He did pretty good and actually put a few rounds into what he was aiming at. Not bad for a first time. We roasted some marshmallows over a grille and sacked out. We got up the next morning and putzed around trying to delay the inevitable departure. While we were doing that my buddy's wife said we need to stop at the Baker Butte fire lookout station. Sounds good. So we load up and head out. We stop off and check out the tower.



It is very neat up there. The map for spotting fires is extrememly cool in its simplicity. The lady has a very cool labrador and she answers all kinds of strange questions that I/we have. I have some pics off of the tower is anybody is interested in seeing them. We climb down from the tower and unfortuantely are on our way home. We get home without issue and unload the essential goods leaving the others for later when it cools off.

All in all it was a great trip. We had a load of fun. My boy got his first camping trip, first rifle use, first opeartion of a UTV, first roasted marshmallows and first driving of the Suburban. The truck ran great and other than the adjusting of the draglink had no issues at all.

This was the intended use of the Suburban from the time I bought it. It took a bunch of years, but it can finally be used for what it was built for--back country travel. Yay!!

I have ridden that trail from prescott over to jerome on 4-wheelers. It was alot of fun. We took an entire week and road all over the place there a few years back when my grandfather got remarried. It was alot of fun. Put about 500 miles on my 4-wheeler.

[monte0185]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Thanks!! We had alot of fun on this one despite getting such a late start. One of the most surprising aspects was after all of this trail running, highway to get there, highways coming back, in the end the gas gauge was showing just over 1/4 tank used. I couldn't believe it. I was going to fill up before we came home, but figured why bother as we were still well over 3/4 tank at that point.



Thanks!! No. In all of my/our haste to get out in the woods, I didn't take any--and it is kind of old-hat to us as I have been going there/seeing it for almost thiry years now so honestly I didn't evn think about it.

Here is some internet stuff on it:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_King,_Arizona



Thanks!! Yeah, I started that one first, but then I thought that I should do one here as I had been buying parts from guys over here and it was a more appropriate site for it anyways.

Went here too on my trip!! LOL I was so glad to see it too cause i was getting low on gas!!. Here a pic from my trip.

[monte0185]

Here is another pic of the general store.

[monte0185]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Thanks!! Yeah, it really is a nice drive. Alot of it is graded and smooth, but there is enough slow-speed to feel like you got out on a trail, but not so much you hate the road before you get to the end--not to mention the great scenery along the way.



This thing makes it easy to pick the "car guy" out of a crowd. Say there is a group of people standing in a parking lot. I light this thing up and the one dude whose head whips around to look--that's the car guy in the crowd. Even driving down the road, driving past people standing on the corner or at a bus stop--same thing. It's just a raggety old Suburban, until it starts up (or is heard running). The it is obvious that something is not right with it. My wife says she likes the strange looks and tilted heads this thing gets.



Thanks!!

A buddy of mine had a BB mopar in his garage for a project he was working on and i came across this camaro real cheap so we got bored one weekend and yes there was beer involved but we got the bright idea to put the mopar motor in the camaro. Worked like a champ after some ingenuity and a welder. What was really fun was we would go to the memphis mopar meetings before they started and went in and ate and waited for them all to arrive. Once there was a big enough crowd we would go outside and start the camaro to leave and boy did we get alot of dirty looks and some colorful comments once they heard it start up with that oh so characteristic mopar starter wine. Seems to them that was some kind of sacraligious thing and we had commited a great sin. But hey it was well worth it!!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by monte0185

I have ridden that trail from prescott over to jerome on 4-wheelers. It was alot of fun. We took an entire week and road all over the place there a few years back when my grandfather got remarried. It was alot of fun. Put about 500 miles on my 4-wheeler.

Yeah, that trail would be much better suited to a four wheeler, or three wheeler or two wheeler for that matter. Lots of good scenery, but boy do you pay for it in an old straight axle Suburban. Definitely lots of great areas to explore up there.

[CowboyProtectionUnit]

Subscribed! Gonna be doing this on my 87 Crew Cab Dually here asap

[hgs_notes]

I hope you don't mind if I add some pics from my trip. Your tales of adventure and pics of the wild west scenery inspired me and brought back a lot of great memories. Ones I wanted to share with my kids.

We left southern Minnesota a couple weeks ago, headed west to Idaho for my brother in laws wedding. That trip has been made a dozen times over the years and is not included in my pics, except for one shot.


Most of the time out there was spent visiting family and shopping. BUT, I did manage to get a couple days away from that. My mother in law lives close to the St Anthony Sand Dunes, and she has a yamaha rhino, which we were able to take for a couple hours of playing in the sand.



Thats the Teton range back there...


We also hit the road and headed NW towards Salman, ID. Most of that drive looks like this...


But some of it looked more like this...


We were headed to an old mining area around the site of a ghost town called Gilmore. Just south of there are some of the original kilns used to make charcoal for the mines in the valley.


My old trucks were not ready for the trip so we had to "settle" for my wifes 2003 Yukon Denali XL.


We drove into Gilmore and looked at some of the old abaned buildings. Some of it is for sale at $3499 a lot. A few restless souls have found their little piece of heaven out there, but it is a long way from anything. Up the hill from Gilmore is some of the old mining camp, and we actually found one of the shafts right by the road up the hill.



We explored just a bit, not really equipped for spelunking. That's my son heading back to the truck.


We kept going uphill to Meadow Lake, which has a very nice state campground, but we just visited for the day. It's fed by run off from the small glaciers and snow pack up there. One my previous visit, it was early July and the lake was still frozen and there was 2 feet of snow in the campground. This time was much warmer.



My son wanted to get into the snow...


I hiked around the area and here are a few of the things that caught my eye...



Looking down at the lake...


We headed back down the hill and here is a view looking down on Gilmore.


I liked this comparison...



When we left Idaho for home, we decided to go through Yellowstone. Here's a couple shots from inside the park...






We left the park through the NE entrance to Cooke City, MT. A few miles out we came across this...


And a few miles later this honey colored bear...


And here's a few parting shots out the few hundred I took between there and Sheridan, WY...

[Dieselwrencher]

Very cool pics and what an awesome trip! You guys are killing me!

[mosesburb]

Holy cow!! What a great vacation!! My ONLY complaint is that the Denali in the pics SHOULD be some for of vintage Chevrolet/GMC truck. Your post actually saved a weekend for me. I got to looking through your pics and some of my other post and saw that the car show at Watson Lake was around this time last year. Did some searching and found it was this weekend!! Oof. Some quick planning was in order.

Luckily the Suburban remains roadworthy, so no major operations are necessary to get it ready to go. I think I forgot to service the fuel filter on the last oil change. I try to do it every other oil change, but I think I missed the last one. I changed it Thursday night and holy cow--what a difference in power!! It had been running a little weak lately, but I had wrongfully attributed it to the high temps we have and running the a/c and having the fan clutch engaged almost constantly (for a/c pressures, not engine temp).

So Saturday arrives and we head out. We went around the north side of town which bypasses Prescott Vally and Prescott. Much quicker, but I think it is a bit longer distance wise. It is high desert up there which is kind of strange as only a few miles to the south are pine trees and big mountains.

This is the scenery on the road around Prescott:



Nice views and nice road. So we got to the venue and the guy collecting the money seemed rather surprised that I was going to put the Sub into the show. On Sunday it costs the same to show as it does to park, but on Saturday it is twenty bucks more to enter it. I figured it was a small price to pay for premium parking, two free t-shirts, a bag full of free stuff and to see the look on the attendants faces when I pull my non-pretty truck into the show lane.

I pay my money and get around to where I am told to park. I pull up into the next available spot and notice that the guy parked next to me is an old customer of mine from a previous lifetime. I yell at him and we have a nice chat catching up on old times. The rig he brought is a '59 Napco. No body or sheetmetal so far. The frame is licensed and insured and he drives it as such (wouldn't expect anything less from him).





Ironically, there was a complete '58 or '59 Napco at the show also:



This was parked behind us. Exceptionally clean.



We were wandering around the swap area and found this thing. It is a '48 Spartan.



If I was into campground camping and on-road driving, I probably would have brought this thing home with me. It was super-cool inside, but I couldn't get a very good pic of it.



That is the center of the interior and what looks like a view straight through to the back window is actually a mirror reflecting the front view back at the camera. To the left of the mirror is an original looking GM Frigidaire refrigerator--so cool. The unit has no center hallway like most travel trailers have today. The center hallway goes side to side instead of fore and aft like modern units. This side of the center side to side hallway/kitchen is a large "living room" area. The color was really cool, but once again, it was difficult getting a pic.



The bedroom was in the back. There was a little damage to the right rear corner area where it looks like they found a low hanging tree limb, but other that that, this thing was cool.

Saw this thing here and at the last show we went to earlier this summer. It is an interesting homologation of an early/mid 80's F-700ish frame and other equipment into a crew cab with a bed that would make a Longhorn bed look positively short:



They used everything except the body from the Ford. Gauges, HVAC, steering column, everything. Kind of interesting how they put everything together.

We wandered down by the lake and found that the water level was higher this year. We were walking around the banks and saw a plethora of little critters in the water:



So, that covers the show. I have some pics of the return trip (minimal pavement!!) that I will post up if anybody is intersted in seeing them.

[Maxxd07]

I would love to see more of that sweet 68/ferd "thing"! That camper would have looked to shiny behind the burb anyways. lol Great pics BTW!

[Dieselwrencher]

That maroon C800 dually is awesome! Is it a gasser though?

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That maroon C800 dually is awesome! Is it a gasser though?

Looks like a cummins tag on the fender.

Moses, do you actually think anyone here would turn down the opportunity to see more pics of your trip? Glad you liked my pics and that it gave you the kick in the rear to get out there somewhere.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Maxxd07

I would love to see more of that sweet 68/ferd "thing"! That camper would have looked to shiny behind the burb anyways. lol Great pics BTW!

BUT(!!), keep in mind, if I was an on-road driving/campground camping kind of person, my truck would be straight and shiny too!!

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That maroon C800 dually is awesome! Is it a gasser though?

Nah, it's a Cummins. I think it is a P-pump 5.9B but I really didn't look to close so it may be an 8.3C. My first impression of it was super-hack, but after seeing it again, I am intrigued by some of the out-of-the-box thinking that went on during the building of it.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Looks like a cummins tag on the fender.

Moses, do you actually think anyone here would turn down the opportunity to see more pics of your trip? Glad you liked my pics and that it gave you the kick in the rear to get out there somewhere.

Not so much of a kick in the rear as a wake up call alerting me to the fact that I had a legitiment excuse to hit the road.

[mosesburb]

So we bailed out of the show around 1230 and headed over to the west end of town. I wanted to take a different way out of town, but I couldn't figure out what road I was looking for because nothing was marked on my map!! I bought a new DeLorme map because my old one had some mold growing in it (its been around for awhile). Well, the new one has all these pretty and colorful maps with half of the roads shown and hardly any of the ones left were marked. Friggin' POS. Wait, it is actually a friggin' expensive POS. Grrrr. So I pulled into a parking lot, cranked up the rear A/C crawled in back and got my 4" PVC tube out that has all of my 7.5' quadrangle maps in it.

I figured out about where the road I was looking for was, but I did not want to waste time with a possible missed road, so I decided I would research it further and run it another day. We headed back into town and went down Senator Highway instead. It is kind of a run-of-the-mill deal anymore, but hey, it gets me out of town and on dirt to boot!! Anyways, the street that becomes Senator Highway is lined with old restored Victorian Era houses. Some really neat ones. Many of these were housing for mine executives for mines south of town.





So we get to the dirt. We head down Senator and come to the old Senator Mine. I asked my boy if he wanted to wander around and he did. I actually let him choose the order of events for the whole day. Now, I did reserve my veto power, but he made all the right choices so I did not have to use it. I have some pics of the mine area, but I think I am going to do something different with them so none of them for now. We took a little different route than ususal though. We turned on Walker Road. Now I had not been this far south on Walker Road (at least during the day) and we came across a little dam with a little lake behind it. I don't recall ever seeing that before. This area was pretty populated with cabins, so there is not too much to get out and see. Well, come to find out I missed a turn that I wanted to take and we ended up back in civilization. D'oh!! We pulled into another parking lot, cranked up the rear A/C and I went in back for some more quality time with my 7.5' quadrangle maps. I figured out that I missed a turn about six miles back. I offered two choices to my boy and he opted to go back (good choice).

So we head back down, find the road, turn on it and continue on. Around in there we found a trail (cough/cowpath/cough) that I had seen and wanted to check out. He thought that was a good idea. So we got some nice wheeling in on this two-track:







We were in there a ways and I decided we should turn around as the cowpath was getting narower--scraping both sides of the truck simultaneously--and it was getting later. Any problem at this time of day had the ability to turn into a situation before we knew it so I asked if we should head back to a more traveled trail. He thought that was a good idea.

So we are going down the trail and stop somewhere and while wandering around I found this guy:



Generic scenery:



Mines etc:



So this gets us back out to the highway. I get out and do a quick walk-around. Everything is cool so we boogie. We get down to Mayer and I ask him if he wants to run some more dirt. A resounding yes with a big smile (he thought we were on pavement for the rest of the ride home). I guess a little history is in order now. Once upon a time, many years ago, before I-17 connected Phoenix and Flagstaff, and before Hwy 69 met Hwy 79 (predacessor to I-17) in Cordes Junction, the Black Canyon Highway (dirt) ran through a town called Cordes. Well, when the realignment was approved and the highway moved, Cordes decided they needed to move also as they sold gas and food to travelers. So they pulled up stakes and moved to what is now Cordes Junction where I-17 meets Hwy 69. Well, the old road still exists--and what a great road it is. There are places where a raggety old Suburban can get up to highway speeds. Before long, we came into old Cordes:



That is the original gas station/store from the way-back. Pretty neat. The rest of the run was a high speed burn down through the Bumble Bee (an old stage coach stop) valley and around and over to I-17 where dirt is bid farewell and pavement is your future.

So we got back into town and stopped and got something to eat. While we were eating, I asked him what he wanted to do tonight. Car show?? I said sure and we ended up going to a local car show to finish the day. We had a blast.

[justcuz]

When you went around the north side did you go through Yarnell and hit 111 at Kirkland Junction? We went up that way earlier this month. Then came home through Prescott down 89 and got some serious thunder, lightning and rain. Once we hit the desert floor though it was around 110 to 113 all the way to Palm Springs. Our friends have a place above the golf course by the airport. Right close to Emory-Riddle College.
Keep up the travelogues, it is cool to see the Arizona high country!

[Dieselwrencher]

Very cool pics! My wife would love the houses on that high way. She probably would have been long gone at first sight of the lizard!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by justcuz

When you went around the north side did you go through Yarnell and hit 111 at Kirkland Junction? We went up that way earlier this month. Then came home through Prescott down 89 and got some serious thunder, lightning and rain. Once we hit the desert floor though it was around 110 to 113 all the way to Palm Springs. Our friends have a place above the golf course by the airport. Right close to Emory-Riddle College.
Keep up the travelogues, it is cool to see the Arizona high country!

No, we didn't get that far west (or south). I like going that way though. I like pulling that hill north of Wilhoit then looking back over Peeples Valley. What a great view. You were just a fuzz north of where the car show was a couple weeks ago. It is at the north end of the round granite boulder area you drove through to get to your friends place. I could have gotten you out of the area on dirt if you wanted the scenic route.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Very cool pics! My wife would love the houses on that high way. She probably would have been long gone at first sight of the lizard!

My wife and I have drooled over those houses for years. We would park at the bottom of the hilll and walk up one side and down the other and talk to the people that were out.

The lizard is probably only about three inches long and very easy to miss. The only reason I saw it was because I noticed something move in the vicinity. So, with that, I'm guessing your wife would not have appreciated this:



We caught up to this guy on the road Saturday. Gopher snake. Non-venemous, but I guess it will give you a nasty infection if you let it bite you. We put a bunch of miles on dirt last weekend and I have some super-fantastic pictures of our adventures, but I am waiting on a photo-edit program to arrive before I post them up. It's gonna be cool.

[justcuz]

I got a kick out of driving through Skull Valley! Went by the store and 2 old guys sitting outside jawing. Real Americana there!
Drove around Prescott a lot, went by Willow and Watson lakes. Looked at houses and lot out on the east side of town overlooking Willow Lake. Saw the old stuff downtown, including the historical homes. Just west and south of Emory Riddle in that rocky area they are building some new high end homes in there. Looks very exclusive.
I think we left just before the car show. Had to come back to work. I wanted to go to Jerome, but my guests wanted me to see Prescott and the surrounding area, so I will save it for next trip.
I had a nice time sitting on their patio looking out across the valley toward Prescott and Thumb Butte. I think the new section of 89 is what runs through there now and ends up in town by the indian casino up on the hill.
The casino looks down on the old Veterans Hospital complex and the road that runs past Watson Lake. A few kayakers were on the lake when we drove up to the top where the bandstand is and some clouds came rolling in and we had a thunderstorm and rain shower. Was fun watching the boaters try to find some cover and get out of the middle of the lake. Nice area out there, but seems to be growing fast.
Reminds me of my city, Rancho Cucamonga. 27 years ago it was 53 square miles with a population of 26,000. The lemon, orange and avacado trees outnumbered the people. Now a lot of the groves are gone and the population is close to 130,000. If I move, it will be somewhere where urban sprall is unknown. That probably puts me in nortern Wyoming or someplace like that.
I love the Arizona high country though, very beautiful.

[mosesburb]

So I kidnapped my machinist a couple weekends ago. It wasn't as difficult this time as I had my door gunner with me. We dragged him up to a very scenic trail so as not to be located by some super-secret detection equipment. Shortly after hitting dirt we came upon this guy:



He was stretched across the road and my machinist being a friend to all snakes (the reptilian sort--not the greasy-human type), he got out to guide it off the roadway. The snake did not appreciate the assistance, but eventually understood it was best, but not before taking a swipe at him.



So, off we go. One snake saved and we are only a couple miles in on the dirt. We passed an area that i had mentally marked for future exploration. I found a good place to park and we started looking around. I had never really done much looking at this area before, other than looking at it as we drove by. It appeared to be a mine dump, but I couldn't see a mine around. Well, come to find out there was more up the hill from where we were. We got up to about the third "level" and we found some foundations of some type of processing buildings:





We could only guess at what they were as much of the supporting evidence had been scrapped or back-filled. Kind of neat wandering around looking and guessing though. Once we got up to the upper level of the workings we found a road. Sweet. We *thought* we were on a trail the way we went up, but come to find out we were not. The road goes this way and that way. How about that way.



It led over to a tunnel. There was some good air moving out of the tunnel and it appeared dry so we checked it out a little way.



The floor was dry, but it was sticky. Strange. Kind of like in front of the soda fountains at the Kwik-E-Mart. Not enough for your shoes to pick up mud, but enough to feel the adhesion to the soles of your shoes. A little further in:



I like the colors in this pic:



So off we go. We end up over on Senator Highway and we head up towards Senator Mine. On the way we stop at this area. I have heard it referred to as Maxton's Store, but of the pics that I have seen of Maxton's Store, this doesn't look like it. So with that, who knows. Here is a bit of what we saw: Better be careful on the stairs (or what's left of them)



Walls at the back of the structure:



Remnants of an oven maybe?? Shelves??



Kind of interesting trying to figure out what the remnants are and what they were used for back in the day. Kind of like modern day, or recent past archaeology.

I am in the process of figuring out some new camera equipment. As I get it figured out, the quality of pictures should inprove. So until then, we all suffer. Anyways, this takes us to about the half-way point of our trip. I have some more to load yet, but sorting through them is taking some time as I shot about 300 pics on this trip as opposed to probably 70ish on the last one.

[hgs_notes]

Neat stuff there. I gotta talk the wife into moving back out west once the kids are out of the house.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Neat stuff there. I gotta talk the wife into moving back out west once the kids are out of the house.

Change the locks and move out. By the time they get in and figure out you are gone, you'll be halfway here.

[Junkpyl]

Just stumbled onto your thread. First off I have to say SWEET BURB! Second, your making me homesick with all the pictures I have practically the same pics of Jerome in my computer, it was always one of my favorite places for a quick getaway. One of these days we may move back to AZ but I dunno. Time will tell I s'pose. Keep up the great work on your Suburban, I wouldn't change a thing on it except that dent in the front if you found an original match fender. Original paint Rocks

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Junkpyl

Just stumbled onto your thread. First off I have to say SWEET BURB! Second, your making me homesick with all the pictures I have practically the same pics of Jerome in my computer, it was always one of my favorite places for a quick getaway. One of these days we may move back to AZ but I dunno. Time will tell I s'pose. Keep up the great work on your Suburban, I wouldn't change a thing on it except that dent in the front if you found an original match fender. Original paint Rocks

Thanks!! Yeah, I have been searching for an origianl paint, orange fender for many years. They are not very available I guess. It really doesn't bother me too much as it is on the passenger side. I have thought about trying to fix it, but that is about as far as I get with it.

[mosesburb]

We interrupt your regularly scheduled trail photos for some actual fab work.

So, we didn't go wheeling this weekend. I was planning on it, but the weatherman said it was going to rain. It didn't. It was a bit cooler, so I decided to work on the transfer case skid plate that I have been casually fabricating for a little while now. I have been carfully choosing trails we traverse because there was nothing protecting the bottom of the transfer case. Now I am not very concerned about the case itself because it is cast iron and heavy, but I am very concerned about the aluminum housing on the transmission that it mounts to. The case will take a good hit, but the aluminum housing is extremely delicate in comparison. So, with that, I decided long ago that a skid plate would be necessary before running trails with sharp drop-offs or bigger rocks so as not to destroy the fragile aluminum.

So what to do about a skid plate?? I had looked at many factory applications as possible donors, but none really fit the bill. Most were around 1/4" thick aluminum. That would probably work ok if I had another crossmember to support the rear of the aluminum skid. I really didn't want another crossmember, so I started envisioning other options. I ended up with some 1/2" plate. I figured it fit the whole theme of this light-weight, high-speed project. I started laying out the steel to see how it would work.

I put a couple four inch wide pieces side by side and welded them together. Then I took a couple pieces about one inch long and wleded them on the ends at a slight angle upward. I also welded a tab on one side to act as both a mounting point and a spacer to keep the plates where they need to be.



Then I ground a nice gradual radius on the ends of the plate. I also drilled and tapped a couple holes in the plate on the right side so the mounting hardware could come in from the top and not create a point of possible hang-up below. I tapped them to 1/2"-20 and used a couple of those gnarly International tractor crossmember bolts. It keeps the whole light-weight theme going.



I added another little "wing" to it to keep the left edge of the case covered. I painted it and installed it and it ended up looking somehting like this:



In this pic you can see the ends of the mounting bolts that are ground fluch on the toward the leading edge of the plate:




It doesn't need a jack to be installed, but it would probably help. Hopefully it offers enough protection to keep the aluminum housing on the trans intact after an encounter with a rock.

I do have several more pictures from our last adventure, but I haven't loaded them yet. I figured I'd post these up in the mean time to prove I actually do something other than just drive it.

[CowboyProtectionUnit]

very nice!