Diet Taco... trying to keep things light

T'was a good time. Glad you made it out, you'll have to do it more!

 

Was great to put a face other than John Belushi to you! Hopefully another trip coincide with a meetup in the not too distant future.

 

Well anytime you swing through I'll grab a beer with you and swap stories.

 

Awesome. I’ll PM you next time I’m through with a spare evening.

 

I wasn't able to make it to Papoose due to this mud puddle. It's ok though because not making it helped me to decide to camp at a spot I'd been wanting to, since discovering it 8 years ago.

 

Operator error...

Lol. Get into truck after some grocery shopping. Turn A/C on one notch because it is a warm morning. Take down sunshade. Back up out of parking spot. What the hell? Feels like I've got a flat or something. Can't be, brand new tires and just checked the pressure an hour ago. Pull forward back into spot everything feels fine. Why am I hot? A/C not on. Strange. Turn A/C on. Decide to pull forward out of spot instead since parking lot is empty. Turn into aisle. What the hell, feels like a flat. What is that metallic ticking sound from the front suspension!?!

Brain engages. Thought turned on A/C. But then A/C wasn't actually on. Hard to turn. Suspension noises...

Yup, I'm in 4WD. Doh!

 

New Battery
August 2018

How many summers in Vegas does the OEM battery last? Well less than four in my case... The storage place I keep the truck at warned me the battery was dead and wouldn't hold a charge before I came out. I had been thinking about preemptively replacing the battery soon. I guess I now know that once every three years is probably a good number to work with.

No, I hadn't checked the water levels in the battery. It hadn't even occurred to me that it wasn't a sealed battery until I was removing it! Something to add to the list in the future. Though batteries tend to die in heat even if they don't evaporate away.

This was a great opportunity though to verify the booster pack I always bring with me could do its job on the Tacoma. Reviews said it had no problem on Tundras and I'd used it to start a Civic numerous times. Indeed it fired the truck right up and used less than 25% of the charge to do so.

I highly recommend these more recent lithium smart booster packs. Can charge via USB (even from my fold up solar panel), very lightweight and small. I pack it in my carry-on for each trip. I leave the actual booster clamps in the truck so that I won't have to deal with an over zealous TSA agent who might consider the clamps a "tool" and confiscate them (had some ass-hat confiscate a RJ-45 crimp tool once). Keep the booster pack itself at home so it isn't baking in the truck and can also jump vehicles while at home (have an extra set of clamps at home).

There are a variety of these things. The one I have is by Noco and called the "Genius Boost GB40" which is a "1000A" device.

I would strongly recommend NOT purchasing from Amazon and instead go directly to Noco to purchase (https://no.co/gb40). This is because most of these lithium battery packs are frequently counterfeited in China and then dumped into the Amazon supply chain. Because of the way Amazon logistics works it does not matter which vendor on Amazon you choose to purchase from - they will ship you whatever item has the same UPC from whatever distribution center is closest to you. You can even order from Noco as a vendor on Amazon and in the end Amazon will not send you inventory that Noco gave them but instead will ship you the inventory they got from SuperLuckyBatteryCompany because it happens to be closer to your house then the ones Noco gave them. Anywho - buyer beware.

Anyway, jumped the truck, headed over to an AutoZone about two blocks away and swapped in a new battery. Whole thing took maybe 20 minutes - including the driving! I plan to replace the battery in the fall of 2021 even it seems to be working just fine...

 

Generally my batteries fail during the 4th summer. Just a fact of life here.

 

Cooper S/T Maxx LT235/85R16
August 2018

New shoes! As previously discussed a horrible alignment by Firestone combined with idiocy on my part not checking wear in a timely fashion after said alignment ripped the crap out of the BFG KO2s that I put on right off the dealer's lot. So despite it being only 20k miles and a little over three years I decided to get new tires. Some of the KO2s were down to 5/32 tread and during a recent trip I'd had the back end tires spin when trying to accelerate while turning into traffic on wet roads.

I've had no real complaints about the KO2 but since I've been hearing lots of good reports on the S/T Maxx and that tire comes in my favorite size for about the same price I decided this time to go with the S/T Maxx. It is a tad heavier than the KO2 probably as a result of an even sturdier sidewall. Both tires have three ply main treads and three ply sidewalls but the S/T Maxx uses a higher denier for one of the sidewall plies than the KO2. And both tires are of course Load E rated.

This is another case in which living remote from the truck increases costs. I can't really wait for a rebate or sale to save a little bit on the tires because I need to coordinate purchase and install with a trip when I'll have time to get the work done. I was going to have an extra day for my most recent trip so now was the time to do get it done.

In this case the easiest and lowest cost option was Discount Tire. I was able to schedule an appointment and arriving just a little early they were ready to pull the truck in. Everything was done in less than an hour and I was at least a little happy to see the hand torque wrench come out for final torque on the lugs.

Following what I believe was @Crom's advice from sometime back I also photographed each wheel from both sides to record the locations of the balancing weights. Apparently these can get lost on off-road trips so good to know what you started with!

I could be imagining things but I believe the road noise was down noticeably. This could of course have nothing to do with KO2 vs ST Maxx and just be down to old tire vs new tire.

Starting tread depth on my 99 cent tread depth gauge is a full 18/32. No idea if that is really 18/32 for sure but I wanted to at least take a reference measurement with the tread gauge I use.

Mileage on my truck is usually all over the place because each trip starts with a disconnected battery (so ECU sub-optimal for who knows how many miles) and the first tank is stored gasoline. The Flip-Pac makes mileage extremely sensitive to speed because of the significantly increase wind drag. All that said by the end of the trip I was getting my usual (if still sucky) mileage of about 14.5 to 15.0 on the highway running at around 75 mph. So it appears these tires are no different from the KO2 as far as mileage goes but I suspect square tires wouldn't either since for my highway travel air drag rather than rolling resistance dominates.

I didn't get a chance to air them down as our plans changed to eventually force us onto an extremely well graded dirt road as our sole "off-road" experience for the trip.

Anyway, they look pretty and seem to work just fine. The proof will be over the next few years I suppose. Sadly I don't even have an epic tire photograph to go along with this! I forgot the day I got them and after that was the sole entertainer for a six year old.

 

For something like that you can take advantage of a deal and have them shipped to my place. It's not a big deal.

 

I just put a new set of KO2s on my truck, replacing the worn out ones. The noise level decreased dramatically, so I'd venture a guess that your noise observation was more related to worn out vs. new tires than a different tire design.

I am curious, however, if the ST Maxx is a quieter tire.

 

It is

 

Congrats on the new tires. Such a good feeling!

 

So far I’ve put almost 15k on my ST MAXX, and really enjoy them. They handle great off road, wear evenly, and are pretty quiet. I was slightly hesitant about trying them over BFG because I ran those tires pretty much exclusively over the years, but am so glad I tried the Coopers. I will recommend one thing, rotate them regularly. I was able to get Discount to rotate mine every 3k, due to the aggressive tread on them. Enjoy the new tires, looking forward to your feedback on them!

 

....uhm big fan of ST/Maxx. i paid premium price to have a local family tire joint put them on. also have a set of the ST in 255, clearly an old design compared to ST/Maxx.
i'd buy ST/Maxx again, but not the ST. I rotated the five wheels every six hundred miles for about the first 3600 miles, got them all set in that way. last time i saw you you were rotating wheels out at that awful SV site..dang it i ain't going out there again

 

Since @DVexile posted about SafeJacks products previously...just got an email from them about their LaborDay Sale!
For 10% off use:
Use code LABOR2018

SafeJacks.com

Good for 8/31 through 9/3

 

Grand Staircase Escalante
August 2018

This is a story of plans slowly going awry, but fortunately everyone still had fun...

Just before school started for my daughter we were going to do a short camping trip. I knew from the start that late August is an annoying time to try to go camping as it is hot most places and usually much of the west is on fire sending smoke plumes everywhere. With that in mind the plan was to hit the area along Cottonwood Road in GSENM as it is at an elevation where temperatures would be moderated and there are lots of shady slot canyons right off the road. This was only going to be a three night trip.

The first sign of trouble was when I was in the airport at 6AM EDT in BWI. Southwest often has a national radar map on their monitors at the gates. There was a lot of rain over southern Utah. Not good.

I got into Las Vegas early on a Wednesday solo. My wife and daughter would drive up from the LA area having visited family on Thursday. I took the opportunity of the free day to get new tires on the truck. I also had to replace the battery. I had time to have some drinks and grub with @Mtnflyer which was great. Late that evening I called up the "to-do" list I keep for truck tasks and noted I was suppose to touch base with @ericd the next time I was in Vegas with some spare time. Doh! Moved that note to someplace I'd see it earlier next time...

I also looked at the radar archive and sure enough a massive storm had moved across the southern end of Cottonwood Road the evening before. In the morning I provisioned the truck and called some of the GSENM visitor centers for road reports. Indeed the southern end of almost all the roads in that area were closed. Well most of the area we wanted to explore was on the north end anyway and it would take just a little longer to go around to the north end.

A little after lunch my wife and daughter arrived. My wife had to scurry back to MD for work stuff so it was going to be another Daddy-Daughter trip. My poor daughter had already driven four hours this day and so I wanted to not make a dash all the way to GSENM. We decided to head to some dinosaur tracks near St. George that @Mtnflyer had told me about. That was about two hours away.

We stopped in Mesquite about half way for a break and my daughter ran around the McDonald's playground for awhile. Hopped back into the truck to make the drive through the Virgin River gorge up to St. George. After about 35 minutes of driving I was thinking the skies might be photo worthy so I reached for my backpack. It wasn't there. It was back in the McDonald's. Oh crap. Pretty much everything expensive and important was in there.

We turned back and after many attempted calls to McDonald's someone finally picked up and went and found the backpack. That was a relief. Still this added about 70 minutes more to our journey. My daughter was not pleased.

More bad news was showing up on the radar as we drove. It appeared the northern end of Cottonwood Road was getting hammered now. I had also been keeping my eye on Hole In The Rock Road as so far it was free of any precipitation. Unfortunately that is even more driving and at a lower elevation but it was our backup to our backup.

We finally got to our camp right above the dinosaur track site in twilight. I cooked a hot dog for my daughter and we got ready for bed. It was already an inauspicious start to the trip.

Near Camp First Day
​

We were up quite early in the morning which was good because I needed to get my daughter back onto EDT to be ready for school in a few days. We ate donuts for breakfast and got the truck all ready to go before we went looking for dinosaur tracks.

My daughter is a total dinosaur nut who frequently corrects us or anyone else nearby when dinosaur facts or pronunciation is less than perfect. Seeing actual 190 million year old dinosaur tracks in the wild seemed pretty cool to her (and me to be honest).

These are quite easy to find as there is decent signage. The tracks were first discovered in the 1980s. There are a few species of tracks but the largest and most obvious are believed to be from a Dilophosaurus. My daughter was thrilled to "discover" them for herself.

Future Paleontologist
​

With this minor success under our belt it was time to head towards GSENM. At this point I knew the trip was going to be down to managing driving time and entertainment for my daughter. We stopped in Cedar City for an early lunch and another McDonald's playground to keep her happy. Then we pressed on and after about two hours got to Cannonville and the GSNME Visitor Center there for road information.

At Cannonville I asked if Cottonwood was closed. The ranger said, "Well, we are still figuring out how many people and vehicles we have to rescue from down there so yeah it is closed." She said the storm the day before had been epic and came on very fast and strong. Fortunately no one injured or killed but we were definitely going to have to continue on to Hole In The Rock Road.

And so even more driving...

We stopped at the Escalante Visitor Center. There was a huge fiberglass dinosaur in the lobby that was a Ceratopsian of some form (i.e. like Triceratops) but with more horns. I asked my daughter if she knew what it was. She thought for a moment and said no. I suggested maybe Styracosaurus since it looked like one to me and I thought maybe she forgot that one. Stupid me, no that pause before she had said "no" was in fact her cycling through some list of dinosaurs way beyond my knowledge and she patiently explained to me it couldn't be a Styracosaurus because of the pattern of the horns and it couldn't be a Einiosaurus (which I've never heard of) because it was missing a curved horn on its nose and so on. A ranger nearby helpfully noted this was recently discovered new species called Diabloceratops which explained why my daughter didn't recognize it. He also suggested based on overhearing our conversation that perhaps she would like to complete a paleontology workbook and earn a NPS Junior Paleontologist badge. This was a hit and she rapidly worked through the book and we left with a shiny new badge.

And so finally we were headed down Hole In The Rock Road. It was afternoon and plenty warm so I wanted to stop someplace fun to climb (she insists on climbing things) with shade. Devil's Garden would fit the bill so we stopped there. She had a blast and there are plenty of shady nooks.

Hanging Around in Devil's Garden
​

We could hear thunder rumbling in the distance and it was a bit late in the day to start a longer hike (not to mention hot) so we skipped doing any slot canyons. Even more driving brought us about 40 miles down the road to Dance Hall Rock where we camped nearby. It was toasty and we were both quite exhausted. Too much dang driving. With the Flip-Pac deployed and some nice breezes we made use of some hand pressurized misting bottles to keep cool. Hot dogs for dinner, marshmallows for dessert and early bedtime to get closer to EDT.

Saturday morning we packed up camp and explored Dance Hall Rock. This is a really neat rock formation with a bit of history to it. My daughter loved the story of the not so cunning settlers who decided to head this direction from Escalante apparently unaware of the Colorado River in their way. They stopped at this rock to celebrate their great progress so far before their scouts had gotten back to tell them of what lay ahead. This area provided some good shady climbing spots.

The plan for the rest of the day was originally to do Spooky Canyon, a really awesome slot canyon off of Dry Fork. It was, however, already getting quite hot despite being just eight in the morning. Unlike the canyons off of Cottonwood the ones off of this road require a fair bit of exposed hiking to get to. It was time to reevaluate.

I sat down with my daughter and we talked about how much driving we had done, how much driving we'd have to do the next day to get back to Vegas and how it was going to be a hot hike to and from the slot canyon. I offered an alternative that we'd split up the return drive by doing some today, staying in a hotel (with a pool) in St. George and of course stopping by the visitor center again to get a different badge the ranger had talked about. Or we could do the slot canyon. Predictably she picked the badge and the hotel pool. And I was fine with that.

So that was the end of the camping part of the trip! We really hardly got to do anything! The original plan would probably have worked out great, but it slowly fell apart as we were in route due to all the thunderstorms. It really was just way too much driving and being forced to lower elevations and away from shade made it quite uncomfortable for a six year old. She was a real trooper though.

The rest of the trip became a tour of McDonald's playgrounds and hotel pools which was plenty fun enough for my daughter. It turned out my brother and his wife were in the St. George and Las Vegas area as well so we got to see them for a few meals which was also fun.

From a camping perspective the trip was a bit of a failure. From a keeping my daughter happy perspective it was a success - which is all that really mattered.

I think next August we are going to do something from a hotel instead... With a lot less driving too...

 

I really like this idea and after seeing it on @scocar build thread i pieced together the recommended Jack along with some safe jack accessories, and a NOS Husky tool bag. Eventually I’ll add a decent support plate of some type. Thanks again Ken & Scott for sharing this Mod.

 

Treadwear vs. Snow Rating
A new KO2 tread compound...

Posting this here since I ran the KO2 for awhile and this seems relevant for desert drivers.

An interesting question came up in the KO2 thread today, someone was asking what was the difference between two identical sized KO2 tires in which one was "DT" and the other not. This KO2 DT thing was new to me, hadn't seen it when I looked at tires a few months ago. I was curious too so I did a chat with a representative on the BFG website and they said "DT" stands for "Different Tread" and these tires are using a different tread compound that they claim will be more durable off-road. They said it would only be available in certain sizes. They didn't specify if both DT and non-DT versions would continue to exist in those sizes but so far both are still listed on various vendor sites. The DT versions are very slightly heavier (well one of them is way more heavy but I strongly suspect that is a typo).

Shortly after that chat a Discount Tire rep replied in the thread and pointed out that the new DT versions do not carry the 3PMSF rating/symbol on them like all the other KO2s do. The BFG website (which sort of sucks) makes no such mention of that but the Tire Rack site does clearly state the DT versions are not 3PMSF. So with two vendors saying the same thing I'm guessing it is true regardless of what the BFG site says. I hadn't been aware of that when I was chatting with the BFG rep so I didn't think to ask. I'm almost certain the new versions would still have "M+S" on the side of them even if they don't have the three peak symbol.

So what is up? My guess is that this new compound is both sturdier and probably optimized for higher temps. Winter tires are only used in the winter precisely because they will wear super fast in the summer because their compound becomes too soft in the summer. Summer tires suck in the winter because the tread compound gets way too hard in cold temps to conform to surfaces which results in much worse traction. Now 3PMSF in no way makes something a winter tire, the tread compound still needs to wear well in the summer and the amount of siping is minimal as well again to keep wear reasonable. That said it would make sense that to get a 3PMSF rating a tire might need to use a compound with better cold temperature performance than a tire without 3PMSF. I suspect getting the 3PMSF symbol on the original KO2 version may have compromised its durability in warmer and rougher conditions and this new "more durable" DT version is instead using a compound that is stiffer at warmer temps and thus more durable as well. Obviously this is speculation on my part, maybe there is some other reason the DT version doesn't have a 3PMSF on it.

This also reminded me of another KO2 and S/T Maxx difference. The S/T Maxx also does not carry a 3PMSF rating/symbol. It does however have M+S on the side like almost all off road A/Ts do. I'm wondering if the S/T Maxx's great ratings for durability and tread wear are down to a compound that is too hard to get a 3PMSF rating.

Lastly - at least for those that do their exploring in CA and NV having that M+S (or M/S, or M-S) somewhere on the sidewall can be important. If you have tires with MS on them and 4WD you can enter R-2 chain control areas without having to put chains on (though you do need to carry chains in the vehicle). So at least in CA/NV you don't need the 3PMSF symbol to avoid chaining up, just the plain old MS on the sidewall is good enough. If you've ever driven under CA "chain controls" you know that they are really "crowd controls" and chains are completely unnecessary in most places (especially in So. Cal. mountains) but the CHP flips down the chain control signs just to manage the traffic. So I always double check my tires have MS on them in case I need to cross a pass under chain controls.

 

Improved Glow Stick
A cheap, reusable 120 hour glow stick

Been meaning to share this. Sometimes I want to mark a cairn or cache that I'll need to find later in the dark.

A classic option for this is a chemical luminescent glow stick. These are reliable, weather proof and last about 12 hours though you if look hard enough you can find different chemistries that burn slower and dimmer or brighter and shorter. They aren't reusable of course though. And if not packed correctly can activate before you need them.

Recently a number of manufacturers have made LED versions of these powered by button cells. They also typically last about 12 hours but then you can replace the batteries and use them again. Some of these offer fancy blinking options, multiple modes including a flashlight and some of them also have a automatic timer that turns them off. That last feature is annoying if you can't disable it!

Some of the fancier ones include a current mode driver for the LED which ensures even illumination over the life of the batteries as well as making the batteries last longer. The cheapest ones directly connect the LED to batteries and so start out extremely bright when the batteries are fresh and thus drain the battery much faster than necessary until they start to become rather dim.

All of these options as offered suck for multi-day use such as placing a cache three or four days before reaching it or wanting to mark a return point on a multi-day trip. Or if you are using them as a nightlight or toy for a kid on a trip you will burn through a bunch of batteries fast.

I'm a EE so the suckiness of these choices annoyed me to no end. I thought about modifying one to be more efficient or only turn on in the dark or whatever. Fortunately I found a much easier and more elegant solution...

Step One - Start with the cheapest stick possible

​

The first thing to do is start with the cheapest, simplest sticks that do nothing other than connect the LED to the batteries. The above made by Life Gear are what you want. They make many versions, including fancier ones that blink and do all sorts of other stuff. Give those a pass. Get these ones that you screw to turn on. Available in red, green and blue. They are available at places like REI but also this time of year (Halloween) they tend to show up lots of places for cheap (like $3 a pair). I got mine from Target a number of years back for $1 each.

Now the beauty of these is they will not try to outsmart you by turning themselves off after some amount of time. They just smoosh two contacts together when you screw the top down so the stack of three button cells are connected directly across the LEDs.

The problem as mentioned before is that this direct connection draws way too much current when the batteries are fresh (about 90 mA in my measurements when 5 mA is more than enough). If only there was an easy way to fix that.

​

Step Two - Get the right batteries

It turns out there is just the right kind of battery to solve our problem with too much current and at the very same time also one that stores way more energy than the typical button cells. Unless you have hearing problems you probably don't know about them.

The Magical Zinc-Air Battery

Zinc-Air batteries have three times the energy density by volume than any other battery chemistry. That means for the little button cells these lights run on they can run for at least three times longer (but actually it is even better than that, see below). Why then doesn't the whole world run on Zinc-Air batteries? Well there are a few issues with them. The first is right in the name - "air" - they need oxygen to work. They are actually more like a fuel cell than a battery and they "breath" the air around them to work. A related problem is that once exposed to air they start working whether you need them or not. They come with a seal on them and once you remove the seal you better use up the battery in the next few weeks or it will be dead. This is just fine for a camping light though - tear off the seal at the start of your trip and throw the battery away at the end.

So what are they used for? Well, they are primarily used in an application that has nearly continuous use and where a really small power source is a plus - hearing aids. You'll often see them referred to as "hearing aid batteries" and will most often find them in the pharmacy section rather than with the rest of the batteries. Another reason they are probably overlooked.

One heck of a bonus feature

Remember how the I said above the simplest LED sticks drain way too much current with new batteries? Basically there is no current limiter in the circuit so the LED sees the full voltage of the fresh battery and uses the internal resistance of the battery to current limit. With fresh batteries this isn't enough limiting and they run really bright and rapidly drain the battery. After an hour or so the battery has had nearly half its capacity drained but now the voltage lowers and so the LED draws less current and this is how things run for the remaining 10 hours or so. Some fancier LED sticks have circuitry inside them to try to better manage the current and so these can make things last longer but a number of these same sticks do annoying things like turn themselves off after an hour! Not what we want!

Well the Zinc-Air has one other awesome "feature". It is more like a fuel cell than a battery so it's output current isn't limited by an internal resistance like a typical battery. Its current is limited by how quickly air can get inside battery cell to react with the electrolyte. Basically the current is limited by how many and how big the holes in the case are. It turns out since these are designed for hearing aids this limit is almost the perfect amount to illuminate the LED. Better still this kind of current limiting does not waste any energy like a resistor or linear current regulator would - so it is extremely efficient.

​

Putting it all together

These Zinc-Air batteries for hearing aids are pretty cheap. About $0.33 per battery in quantity. A glow stick takes three, so that's just $1 per use.

The glow stick itself costs between $1 and $2.50 depending on when and who you purchase it from. You'll reuse it multiple times of course making its long term cost essentially zero but they are still so cheap that if you lose or break one it is no big deal.

And how long does it last? I've tested them multiple times and their run time is more than 120 hours!!!!

They actually run a lot longer than that but of course they eventually start to dim. After five solid days of continuous use they are still just about as bright as they are when first used. Do be aware though when you first turn one on it will be unusually bright for a few minutes because there is plenty of ready power in the fuel cell from oxygen stored in the cell. It will take a few minutes to deplete that and have the current limited by oxygen entering the holes in the battery case.

Again once you remove the pull tab seal the battery needs to be used within a few weeks. In my tests I've run them continuously for five days without turning them off to evaluate their total energy storage. In the field if I'm using them as a night light for my daughter or to mark a campsite at night I typically turn them off during the day. I've run them after such a trip and verified they can at least hold their charge for up to two weeks from removing the seal.

Last careful where you purchase these batteries. They have a more limited shelf life than most batteries and a lot of online vendors like to sell near expiration batteries at a discount. This is fine for a hearing aid user because they naturally use a lot of these fairly quickly and so buying a near expiration battery is no big deal. For an infrequent user like me that's not what I want so I make sure to buy from a reputable online seller or just go to the pharmacy where I can see what the expiration date on the package is.