Arizona Strip desert adventure trip preparation

[dammitmitchell]

i grew up in the desert and now im stuck in texas.. and YOU are making me envious of you for going to my home to play.... when i cant.. WWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
hahahha dude.. this is gonna be one hell of a cool trip for you!

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by dammitmitchell

i grew up in the desert and now im stuck in texas.. and YOU are making me envious of you for going to my home to play.... when i cant.. WWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
hahahha dude.. this is gonna be one hell of a cool trip for you!

I know what you are saying Mitchell. I lived in Detroit for 6 years and every time I heard or read of anything Colorado, or anything Southwest for that matter, I got home sick as hell. Michigan was a nice place to LEAVE!

[DirtyLarry]

Well, we are only 3 weeks away from heading out and we are getting pretty excited. Big blue is ready to go except to have the new tires installed. Waiting until after our test run this weekend before putting them on. Right now the Dodge Ramcharger is getting all the loose ends tied up.

Today I broke down and bought a SPOT. Not sure how many know of this cool little gadget but it is a GPS tracking and messenger. We looked at renting a satellite phone but for the price we figured we would go this route. Pretty cool tool and the wife will be happy she can spy on us via the web, which means no sneaking off to Vegas now

Check out SPOT

http://www.findmespot.com/en/

Below is a fine example of the tracking feature where you can create an online shared tracker for anybody to watch your progress. The link below is a real life blogger named Ara that travels about with is pitbull riding shot gun in a 3 wheeled BMW motorcycle. Check out his blog after his SPOT tracker link. I will create the same type of online tracker and post it before we leave.


http://share.findmespot.com/shared/f...Q4Nd93IHpePn0h

I envy this guy. One day, when I am independently wealthy or retired or just decide to run away, this is what I want to do, travel around like a nomad and eat like a king.

He has a great blog if you are into motorized travel, photography and like FOOD!

http://theoasisofmysoul.com/

[Oilbrnr]

Interesting device. I'm surprised it has enough cajones to uplink, especially with no external antenna.

[OldCreek]

Remember, you can always leave the SPOT in another vehicle and STILL sneak out to Vegas...

(or strap it to bunny rabbit)

[Yukon Jack]

Now that is pretty amazing - using the satellite photo to show the terrain is cool - can't wait for your trip - almost be like we're with you :-)

[DirtyLarry]

It should be pretty cool Yukon Jack, I imagine it should be pretty fun for you all to watch us like ants in an ant farm roaming around out there near the Grand Canyon.

Today we made our test trip up the mountains close to home. We are definitely glad we made this trip as we found some items on the trailer that need reinforcing. Also found we need more clearance between the tires and fenders so we have a lot of work to do in a short time before we leave.

Check out the Spot link. It is pretty cool how you can follow our footsteps the entire way on Google maps. We were not able to get all the way to the top as there was still too much snow pack on the cliffhanger shelf roads. It was even snowing up there today and it is June. Spot 19 is the highest we could make it.

Glad I have new tires going on this truck. Man, the bald Swampers that are on there now were certainly no help today in this snow. I had to bust out the winch until it over heated then had to get winched up a slick spot by a Bronco.

Here is the Spot map from today's trip. It is only viewable for 7 days. It is best to view this in Hybrid view.
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/f...qqKTCWRlFMiPRs

A few pics from today….

Nice balmy June day.




It doesn’t look bad but it is STEEP and slick!


Even jackknifed the trailer as the truck kept sliding backwards down the hill.












Headed home. This picture take near Spot 25

[Billhilly]

Great pictures Larry! Been watching this thread, and was going to chime in before you left. Even though I live in this South Pacific pardise, certainly am envious of you guys and your 'great' outdoors! Cool to be able to head offraod like that for two weeks. Round here you'd get wet feet after about two days.
Cool to be able to follow along. Look forward to the photos too. Have a great trip!

Bill.

[DirtyLarry]

Thanks Billhilly,

Wow! I wouldn’t have guessed someone on the other side of the world was interested following our journey. I’ll post up the new SPOT map link before we leave. Once the trip weblink is set up it expires in 7 days. Not sure why?? What if someone was going on an 8 day trip

Here are a couple videos from Saturday. Spinning all 4 tires and going nowhere fast. Bald Super Swampers get you nowhere with lockers or not especially when pulling the trailer that was weighted down with around 1,000 lbs of dead weight. That old Hickey Sidewinder winch is slow too…..even slower to cool off. In the second video the Bronco hidden in the trees is doing most of the winching while the Sidewinder cooled off.

YouTube - HPIM3157

Steep incline, with greasy mud and snow.

YouTube - HPIM3162

[DirtyLarry]

A couple more cool pictures my buddy emailed me.

How to apply mountain pin-striping.


On the way back down. I love this color of paint. It hides scratches and changes colors depending on lighting but somehow seems to always look clean even when dirty.


Easy part of trail.

[Billhilly]

The Interweb sure makes it easy, along with this message board, to watch whats going on on the other side of the world. Can't wait till I get to go off road camping with my truck. Till then, we watch you!

[dammitmitchell]

this is a mag shot right there!

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by dammitmitchell

this is a mag shot right there!

Yeah, I must say that is one of my favorite all time pictures also. My buddy's wife is pretty handy with a camera. Not too bad of an off-roader either being she piloted their Bronco all day and helped winch me up the incline!

[DirtyLarry]

It is getting down to the wire now. Got the new Q78s’ installed and the old ones mounted on some other old OEM wheels I had laying around so we can take a couple along for spares. Got all 8 mounted and balanced for a case of beer.

The trailer is fixed and starting to get loaded. Also had to get another deep cycle battery to run the front winch and power to the topper. I have gone through two Yellow Top Optima batteries in a year! To hell with Optima! Their local dealer is sucks and Optima’s customer service is worse. I got a big arse Interstate this time that created a few hours of fabrication to squeeze it in there. Oddly enough, I haven’t had a single issue with the Optima Red Top.

Fresh meat


Big Group 27 Interstate


Gas cans, we're gonna need alot of gas!


Partially loaded trailer


Topper getting loaded and resealed with fresh weather stripping.

[DirtyLarry]

Also had to do something about the drink holder situation in the cab. The cup holders in the center console are so shallow your drink falls over anytime you make turns or hit a bump. These bicycle holders fit the bill nicely.

[dammitmitchell]

IM SOOO JEALOUS!
good lookin build brother!

[Billhilly]

I'm ready to go!