The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[Dieselwrencher]

What other way to come home from a vacation would there be? It definitely sounds like you had another awesome trip!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Sounds like a great trip! Thats a lot to take in. Im glad to hear the Burb ran so well.

Thanks!! It was a great trip and the Sub never missed a beat.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

What other way to come home from a vacation would there be? It definitely sounds like you had another awesome trip!

No kidding. That truck hates my guts. It definitely was an awesome trip though.

[mosesburb]

So, I am way behind on posting anything of our travels and/or vehicle mods/repairs form the last year or so. I am real tempted to post recent things, but if I do that, I know myself well enough to know I'm not going to go back and post the skipped stuff. So instead of regaling you with pics of our trip last month, you are getting stale pictures from a little over a year ago. Not much either of us can do about it, so let's see if we can enjoy the ride. We had a fantastic time, hopefully you will enjoy the Readers Digest version.

As usual, the only plan for sure was I had a cabin paid for the next night (Sunday). Other than that, it's on-the-fly navigation. So we departed on a Saturday late morning for points north of us. Before we got to Flagstaff, I am reminded why I hate traveling on weekends. [SOAPBOX] Weekend warriors with their minimally maintained equipment that they are not familiar with handling-wise, driving like they have to get to the forest or lake before it closes. Safety is of no concern whatsoever. It's one thing if it is what you do regularly and know how your equipment reacts in specific situations, but to throw a trailer on and hit the left lane with the hammer down is extraordinarily dangerous--to you, your vehicle occupants, people around you, first responders who have to come deal with your situation, and highway patrol who have to deal with the rest of the drivers on the road trying to keep them away from you. I'm not trying to sound holier than thou, I'm not perfect, but I also know to respect the limits of my equipment. I try to do a thorough pre-trip before moving each day, if not possible, I will do a solid walk around at a minimum. The safety of my passengers and equipment is worth the few minutes that it takes. Oftentimes, when we hit a coffee shop for my wife, I'll do a pre-trip while she's getting her coffee. Works out well. I see the results of poor equipment maintenance (smoked wheel bearings on the trailer on the side of the road), I see the results of driver inexperience (driving like the trailer is set up for 1g turns and road track style braking by following way too close), I've seen the results of combinations of that, plus others, all too often. It saddens me when I see it as I can empathize with the occupants because I have the same goal--go somewhere and have fun. A few minutes ago they were not thinking about being in a tow truck heading to some strange town for repairs (best case scenario) or a helicopter heading to some distant trauma center hoping to survive. Things can go wrong in an instant. SOMETIMES there is no preventing them. By keeping equipment maintained and using it in a reasonable manner can give you the best chance of minimizing the possibility or at least minimize the effects of things going wrong. I really hate seeing things like this:



Did an overloaded tire blow out?? Did the vehicle ahead of it stop too quickly to react?? Did some other weekend highway hot rodder cut him off?? I don't know. The ONLY things I do know is they are not in their vehicle heading to their fun weekend destination anymore and seeing their gear spread out on the side of the road saddens me enough to include all of this in MY travel thread hoping to help prevent someone else from going through a scenario like this. [/SOAPBOX]

So my boy had lamented to me a couple times recently that he had never seen the Grand Canyon. There's a reason he hadn't seen it. I really don't like going there (to the south rim). That got me to thinking of a possible solution to his problem. The north rim would be a great solution. None of us had been there before, it is much higher in elevation, and it is reportedly much more scenic than the south rim. Win, win, win. Here we go!!

On our way there, we pass the south end of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument overlooking House Rock Valley:



So we arrive up on the Kaibab Plateau and navigate our way out to an area where we set up camp right on the edge of the canyon. Seriously. Don't take too many steps out of the truck or you will experience a rapid loss of altitude. We set up camp and then rode our bikes around for awhile before dinner:



The aforementioned altitude difference; 8300' (+/-) lends itself to much colder (not cooler, colder...) temps. The first thing I realized is when I was packing and sweating my ass off in 105F+ temperatures earlier that day, I forgot to pack a jacket. It is an easy thing to do while pouring sweat and it isn't the first time I've done it. Ugh. Easy enough. Wear a blanket while sitting in front of the fire. So we ate dinner and headed into the truck for our first night on some new sleep pads I had recently gotten. It wasn't long after getting in the truck that we realized its getting colder and more uncomfortable. No worries. I grabbed the Webasto heater key fob and hit the heat button and in just a couple minutes we had a nice warm breeze filling the truck. We all slept well and the new sleep pads passed the test very well.

We rode the bikes some more the next morning. Fantastic views are everywhere:



After riding a while we loaded up in the truck and started wandering a bit further. Gratuitous truck shot:



We entered Grand Canyon National Park in the middle of nowhere. There was no attendant to take our money at this entrance:



We wandered around the area a bit and then headed out of the area with the North Rim Visitor Center as our destination. I had reserved a cabin for the night figuring it would be a good second night stop to see the developed north rim area and camp in one of the old CCC cabins. The cabin was neat, but the bed was junk. I woke up at about 0200 and was tempted to travel all the way out to the truck to retrieve my sleep pads to sleep on the floor. I didn't, but I should have.... A funny side note; the cabins are not near the parking area. There is a golf cart shuttle service that you can use to haul your stuff to the cabins or vice versa. On our trip to the truck the kid that was driving was regaling us with the story of how he has had three concussions (he might have been 20 y/o??). One was an impressive fall, another was a beating he took for his brother and then something else for the third one. Good stuff. Better than the typical "where are you heading" BS. So we got to the truck and he parked the cart close to the truck and a normal swingout would have hit it. He was going to move the cart but I stopped him and showed him the foldable swingout and how it would clear with plenty of room. He was impressed and proclaimed to my boy that I was a genius. Ever since then I have reminded my boy that I am a genius on multiple occasions because Kid Concussion said so. Fun times.

There are some great views to be had from the trails around the lodge as well:



We even went out to check out the sunset that evening:



So that concludes our second day of travel and our only scheduled stop for the trip. The only other item to be scheduled is meeting up with someone somewhere sometime. I know who we're meeting, but we have no idea when or where. Stay tuned for more adventure. There may be delays in posting along the way. Feel free to throw electronic stones my way if you feel they are not being posted quickly enough. It may speed things up, then again, I may catch them and throw them back. One never knows. One thing I do know is some good times are in store.

[ryanroo]

As always, great pics, fun stories.

[hgs_notes]

Spectacular views as always. Rapid loss of altitude, excellent phrasing. I'm just guessing, but are you a veteran? Sometimes your choice of words reminds me of those days.

Speaking of forgetting things, it's not always what you forgot to bring, but in my case, forgot to remove. I was in Seattle last week for work. Spent an evening with an old navy buddy doing stand up paddling, which is something he loves. I haven't been out on the water in a while participating in anything fun, and forgot to take my glasses off. First of 3 falls into the water and my fairly new $500 glasses were about 30' under lake unions surface. My spares were in MN.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by ryanroo

As always, great pics, fun stories.

Glad you like them. Finish your hooptie so you can participate too!!

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Spectacular views as always. Rapid loss of altitude, excellent phrasing. I'm just guessing, but are you a veteran? Sometimes your choice of words reminds me of those days.

Nope, not a veteran.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Speaking of forgetting things, it's not always what you forgot to bring, but in my case, forgot to remove. I was in Seattle last week for work. Spent an evening with an old navy buddy doing stand up paddling, which is something he loves. I haven't been out on the water in a while participating in anything fun, and forgot to take my glasses off. First of 3 falls into the water and my fairly new $500 glasses were about 30' under lake unions surface. My spares were in MN.

D'oh!

[lower50's]

That sounds like a ton of fun. You are right the north rim is way more scenic. We where at the south 2 years ago on our way home from Phoenix, spent about an hour and left. Is it paved or dirt roads to where you went?

[Dieselwrencher]

More very awesome pics and nice writing! I think you should write a traveler's series book as guides to places you've been. You may make some pesos to buy fuel to go on other trips? I haven't been to either part of the Grand Canyon. If I ever get in that area, I'll be calling you first though. Don't want to waste time on no good views when you know where all the good places are. Haha

[piratexpress1369a]

Great pictures as always ...safe travels

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by lower50's

That sounds like a ton of fun. You are right the north rim is way more scenic. We where at the south 2 years ago on our way home from Phoenix, spent about an hour and left. Is it paved or dirt roads to where you went?

The road to the lodge is paved and the roads to where we camped are dirt.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

More very awesome pics and nice writing! I think you should write a traveler's series book as guides to places you've been. You may make some pesos to buy fuel to go on other trips? I haven't been to either part of the Grand Canyon. If I ever get in that area, I'll be calling you first though. Don't want to waste time on no good views when you know where all the good places are. Haha

Thanks!! Unfortunately pesos don't exchange into many dollars, so for now, I'll stick to tormenting you guys here with my tales.

Originally Posted by piratexpress1369a

Great pictures as always ...safe travels

Thanks!!

[mosesburb]

So the next morning we pack up and load our stuff back into the truck and head north out of the park. We decided to head up to Zion and see the sights.



Shortly after entering we saw a gigantic petrified sand dune:



A neat little tunnel in the sandstone:



I like the red pavement. It doesn't detract from the scenery surrounding it.

Further down the road is a very cool, long tunnel. It has windows along the way. Once upon a time you could stop and look out the windows, but not anymore. It is quite difficult to take pictures out he windows while moving through a dark tunnel at speed, but I got a couple: (this is running east to west)



Next one:



Next:



This is looking back toward the tunnel and the hole in the wall is the second window I think:



Great views are everywhere:



So, the majority of the sights to see are in Zion Canyon. Unfortunately, the popularity of the park creates a problem with vehicular traffic, so all personal vehicles are banned from traveling up the canyon. In lieu of personal vehicles, a shuttle is offered. The shuttle runs very frequently so you don't wait long to catch one when you are done at a particular stop. The one drawback of the shuttle is the vehicles used have very visually restrictive interiors. There is so much to see, but the bus itself blocks a bunch of the scenery. You can't roll down the window and stick your head out either. Kind of a drag. There are many stops along the way to get out and explore.

Generic scenery:



Generic scenery:



This one is cool. Water flows through the porous sandstone and when it hits an impermeable layer, it will oftentimes end up flowing out of the side of a vertical wall like this:



You can hike up to it and actually go behind the curtain of water:



It is almost impossible to see in the pic this size, but there is a climber just below the top of the face. The picture does no justice to the height of the cliff:



Blah, blah:



Blah, blah, beautiful scenery, blah, blah:



So we rode the shuttle back to the truck and decided to check out another entrance, Kolob Canyon, of Zion over on the west side of Dixie Mountain. This requires leaving the park and travelling quite a ways over near Cedar City.

They have different speed limits in Utah:



So we did:



It was getting late, so we decided to get a room in Cedar City and head into Kolob the next morning.

[lower50's]

I'm loving your adventure with no agenda, That's the way we love traveling as well. The scenery is just amazing you don't need to blaa blaa the pics I enjoy looking at new places. 13 years ago I drove through Ceder city on my way home from Santa Monica driving a 1986 Nissan pre runner I bought. 2500mi trip.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

A neat little tunnel in the sandstone:

First thought...roadrunner cartoons

Originally Posted by mosesburb

So we did:

I like the rear A/C label. Is that OEM? I've seen a few burbs with the rear air in junkyards but never looked at the dash to find that.

I could see the climber, which helps give perspective to how high that was. Incredible.

[Dieselwrencher]

That tunnel is so cool. That climber is out of his mind.

Thanks for posting these pics. Those are some amazing views. I bet the ol burb was singing right along at 80.

[Average Joe]

Once again thank you for sharing your journey with us. It brought back lots of good memories of a similar trip I did in '93. After visiting my brother in SoCal, we headed across the Mojave desert and camped in the Hualapai? mountains before heading into the Grand Canyon via the south rim. From there we went on to Zion and Bryce Canyon before breaking a ball joint in Capitol Reef NP.

Fortunatly for us, me and a couple buddies from high school, we got a tow into the mighty town of Loa, Utah. Parts were three days out so the shop owner, who was also the tow truck driver as well as the local deacon, put us up on his backyard trampoline. Three days later our ball joint came in and the shop owner was kind enough to press it in the control arm of my VW bug for us. We assembled the car, eyeballing the alighnment, and got the heck outta Utah. Long haired fellers with Grateful Dead stickers on a beat up VW kinda put the locals on edge I think. Lol.

We ended up going through CO, WY, MT, and ID before making it home on three cylinders. Shot a cross threaded plug out 150 miles from home and limped on into town, Klamath Falls at the time. Good stuff!

These days I take maintenance issues much more seriously. I also got a haircut and parted ways with the VW. I always do a walk around before leaving each morning as well as an under hood check. I also drive much more cautiously knowing what can happen. Your picture and words about the wreck and some others driving habits were spot on. Well said sir!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by lower50's

I'm loving your adventure with no agenda, That's the way we love traveling as well. The scenery is just amazing you don't need to blaa blaa the pics I enjoy looking at new places. 13 years ago I drove through Ceder city on my way home from Santa Monica driving a 1986 Nissan pre runner I bought. 2500mi trip.

Any time someone, during conversation, mentions that they have to schedule things out in order to travel, I ask them how long the schedule works before adjustments have to be made?? The answer is almost always two days or less. So with that, I say why bother and just shoot from the hip and see what happens. I/we often have a general idea of things we want to do/see, but once the truck is in motion adjustments are made almost constantly.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

I like the rear A/C label. Is that OEM? I've seen a few burbs with the rear air in junkyards but never looked at the dash to find that.

It is a plastic tab that fits behind the chrome nut like the factory in-dash throttle tabs. It is indeed factory and if you ever see one in a wrecking yard, grab it AND the switch and knob. None of it is reproduced and is never available when you need it.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

I could see the climber, which helps give perspective to how high that was. Incredible.

It was crazy looking up and just barely being able to see the guy. That pic is zoomed in with the camera.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That tunnel is so cool. That climber is out of his mind.

I agree--on both counts.

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Thanks for posting these pics. Those are some amazing views. I bet the ol burb was singing right along at 80.

Thanks. Yeah, this was before I put the new GSK in it, so there wasn't much left at this point. Plenty to keep it there, but engine speed beyond was not so available.

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Once again thank you for sharing your journey with us. It brought back lots of good memories of a similar trip I did in '93. After visiting my brother in SoCal, we headed across the Mojave desert and camped in the Hualapai? mountains before heading into the Grand Canyon via the south rim. From there we went on to Zion and Bryce Canyon before breaking a ball joint in Capitol Reef NP.

Fortunatly for us, me and a couple buddies from high school, we got a tow into the mighty town of Loa, Utah. Parts were three days out so the shop owner, who was also the tow truck driver as well as the local deacon, put us up on his backyard trampoline. Three days later our ball joint came in and the shop owner was kind enough to press it in the control arm of my VW bug for us. We assembled the car, eyeballing the alighnment, and got the heck outta Utah. Long haired fellers with Grateful Dead stickers on a beat up VW kinda put the locals on edge I think. Lol.

We ended up going through CO, WY, MT, and ID before making it home on three cylinders. Shot a cross threaded plug out 150 miles from home and limped on into town, Klamath Falls at the time. Good stuff!

These days I take maintenance issues much more seriously. I also got a haircut and parted ways with the VW.

Sounds like a great time!! Has some eerie similarities to Charlie Daniels Uneasy Rider LOL.

Originally Posted by Average Joe

I always do a walk around before leaving each morning as well as an under hood check. I also drive much more cautiously knowing what can happen. Your picture and words about the wreck and some others driving habits were spot on. Well said sir!

Thank you. It's not something that is always top of mind when hitting the road and sometimes a reality refresher can help prevent problems and/or catastrophes. A familiar vehicle that is driven daily reacts totally different when loaded and/or towing. We run some desolate roads, and even with SPOT tracking, a seemingly small problem can turn into a huge problem very quickly. Complacency breeds catastrophes.

[MaxPF]

I'm guessing this little spot is the climber?

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by MaxPF

I'm guessing this little spot is the climber?

Yeah, that's it. The one thing that is missing from the pic is a ground reference. The bottom of the pic is well above the bottom of the canyon.

[mosesburb]

Ok, so the next day we got up and headed to a store in Cedar City to buy a jacket for me. We quickly found out that it is no easy task in summer to buy a jacket. Most normal stores do not stock jackets in summer for some reason. After finally locating one we headed back down the road to Kolob Canyons of Zion National Park. This is a neat area that if time permits, I highly recommend checking out.



We were quickly greeted with great views and the familiar red asphalt:



Gratuitous truck pic:



It's not a long drive into the park before you get to the end of the road and beginning of the trails:



We weren't set up for hiking this day, so we decided to mark it for next time and continue on. We headed back up the road and headed up into Dixie Mountain. Toward the top of the 13% grade we came upon Brian Head. I'm guessing it is a ski resort judging by all of the hotels and ski lifts..



After passing through Brian Head, i found a trail leading off the road to what would be the top of a mountain. It looked like there should be some great views, so off we went. Unfortunately, we were there too early in the summer and got thwarted by snow:



11,019' in June



Shortly after getting back on the road we came upon Cedar Breaks National Monument. There were some great views to be had:



Another area:



Very neat stuff.

Yet another gratuitous truck pic:



Heading down the east side of Dixie Mountain, while looking for an area to camp, we came across a gigantic pile of volcanic lava flow. The pic does no justice to how much volume of this stuff is here:



We didn't find anywhere to camp that we liked. Mostly because it was too early in the day to be stopping to set up camp, so we kept heading down the road. We went through Panguitch on 89 and got onto 12 heading toward Bryce Canyon National Park. We were actively seeking a camp location along the way. We had to stop and look at the scenery along the way though:



With a truck that kind of matches the color of the scenery:



Another arch/tunnel:



We passed a really neat campground that had some nice bike trails in it. While we don't normally stay in campgrounds, we did scoop the loop looking for any open spots. We didn't find any and continued down the road. I noticed that the area north of the road was labeled as BLM land on the map so if we could find a trail, we should be able to find somewhere to set up camp. Before long we did and after heading back into the hills for a couple/few miles we found our address for the night. It was a nice secluded spot. We got set up and I got my boy's bike down so he could burn off some energy before we had dinner. While getting everything in order it started raining a bit. Now comes a quick non-complete explanation of the roof rack and its purpose. An awning!! A self supporting, no poles needed, no strings necessary awning. Well, in this case an awning structure with a tarp covering. The awning material was supposed to be finished before our trip, but didn't actually get done. I had grabbed a HF tarp and some cheap paracord and by combining the structure I made and the HF components, we had a nice dry area to eat our dinner:



The real awning is yet to come, so much like me, you will have to wait to see just how awesome it turned out!!

[1985-GMC]

Nice awning/ roof rack. That should come in handy. I like the tire carrier too, I don't remember seeing it before. I plan on building one similar for my burb as well.

[Average Joe]

X2 on the awning/roof rack. Very cool!

Hwy 12 is one of the most scenic hwy's I have ever been on. I may have even defaced a picnic table or 2 with my initials along that stretch. lol.
Thanks again for the pics. It brings back a flood of good memories!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

Nice awning/ roof rack. That should come in handy. I like the tire carrier too, I don't remember seeing it before. I plan on building one similar for my burb as well.

Thanks. The bumper build is in here somewhere. Go review and learn all about it. The bike rack is not in the build, it's just something I quickly threw together for the trip.

Originally Posted by Average Joe

X2 on the awning/roof rack. Very cool!

Hwy 12 is one of the most scenic hwy's I have ever been on. I may have even defaced a picnic table or 2 with my initials along that stretch. lol.
Thanks again for the pics. It brings back a flood of good memories!

Thanks. Glad you're enjoying the ride. You'll want to stay tuned if you like Hwy 12...

[lower50's]

You guys make me jealous with your trips. The awning is awesome I have been thinking of building something like that for my trailer.

[Dieselwrencher]

More great trip pics! That awning is very cool. Some screen sides and you can ward off pesky insects.

[spacedebris]

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

Nice awning/ roof rack. That should come in handy. I like the tire carrier too, I don't remember seeing it before. I plan on building one similar for my burb as well.

page 35 post 875. I have the page bookmarked as I think I'm gonna use a modified version when it comes time to make mine LOL