The BRWNTRD (Hasn't flopped yet)

We didn't get the shocks on until Tuesday. When were we supposed to move the GFC over?

 

I didn’t know you didn’t get them on until Tuesday, I was just asking is all.

 

Headed out to Arizona yesterday, stopped at the Imperial Dunes rest area for a comparison shot of the progress from this summer.

Memorial Day


September 24

Met @AY_ARONTRD and a nonTW friend at I-10 and then met someone to pick up some parts to TW Express back to @Norsemanvike

We drove north to Sedona and found a nice campsite at the top of Schnebly Hill Road.




Schnebly Hill is just a rocky fire road but the views are amazing, absolutely worth the time to check it out and enough camping spots that you can find one at 11:30 on a Thursday night.

 

Are you still on 285s? They look massive in the last few pics

 

Nice, went there a few years ago, were the pink Jeeps still running tours?

 

I got those MySpace angles down

 

Every few minutes at a $125 a head

 

Friday morning we ran Broken Arrow after leaving Schnebly Hill. A short fun trail with enough challenges to keep everyone on their toes.

The new rear setup got its first workout and the @ARCHIVE Rear Shock Relocate, Hammer Hangers, Deaver U402 Stage 3 leaf springs and Fox 2.5x14 shocks performed amazingly.

This isn't even fully flexed



We stopped at Submarine Rock for awhile and enjoyed the scenery


Next was Chicken Point where Belle got to enjoy some wind in her ears.

On the way back I climbed a rock and @AY_ARONTRD was caught mid sprint on his way to spot me


While trying to figure out a binding in my truck that turned out to be a tire pressure mismatch I backed into an angry pokey plant that almost made me bleed out


Then we headed back down Devil's Staircase and out to the parking lot to air up and eat lunch

 

I want to do this trail in the worst way now that I've got my lift and tires.

 

The first time I did it there was a bone stock 3rd gen sport out at the end, It's not terribly difficult.

 

Sweet.

 

I ran it with a stock 3rd gen in my group a couple years ago. He didnt have any problems getting through without scraping. He did have to be careful in a couple spots to not drag his bumper.

 

After Broken Arrow Friday we headed north towards Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon beyond. We found an awesome but windy campsite in Coconino National Forest off FS 9123H. On the way in I was able to comfortably hit 60MPH on some washboard sections with zero bad things to say about how the shocks soaked them up. There the human carnage continued with a broken finger a victim of an RTT ladder but spirits stayed high despite the injury.

Belle kept us safe and killed a mouse that was probably conspiring against us and then stood watch the rest of the time we were there.




We headed north along the AZ Trail to meet up with AZBDR section 7 and a dirt entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. I finally realized the binding issue was the tire pressure so we stopped while I evened out the pressure in my tires.


Shortly after that I misjudged a bump and biffed pretty hard taking out an innocent tree but there doesn't seem to be any permanent damage. After reading the map wrong and taking a wrong turn I ended up at the back off the lineup and became the one eating dust.

That section of the AZBDR has lots of long straight well maintained roads and I was able to get the truck above 70 and it loved it.
After about 50 miles of dirt, we popped out by Grandview Point and got an amazing view of the Grand Canyon and Belle provided a great example of why she's not allowed on every trip. But she looks cute when she's not yelling at other dogs.


We aired back up and headed south back towards Sedona so we wouldn't get the worst of the Sunday traffic on I-17S.


We were able to get the same spot we had Thursday night, which had worked out pretty well for us before.


Belle apparently was tired from sleeping all night so in the morning while I packed up to leave, she slept in the sun

 

The human carnage broken finger ended up turning into emergency surgery once they returned home and seen a doctor. But recovery is going well. She’s already wanting another outing . Belle made sure the mouse was not going to eat her leftovers and still covered her grounds in the AM chasing down some lizards haha

 

Maybe he shouldn’t have kept flicking it

 

Sounds like a great trip, with war wounds and stories to remember it by.

 

Brown Santa stopped by today with presents for the BRWNTRD




A @Dometic CFX3 55IM Powered Cooler and the PC55 Cover and Hardwiring Kit that I purchased from @Mobtown Offroad

It is much lighter that I thought it would be, only 10 lbs heavier than the RTIC 65 it will be replacing. To often spirited driving resulted in ice water and things that don’t belong in ice water like beer, cole slaw or limeade comingling with terrible repercussions. Things will probably still be affected by spirited driving but I won’t crack open a beer that has had cooler juice enter it again.



Covered, plugged in and filled with liquids to help it get down to operating temp.

Now I need to make time to make a platform to replace the rear driver’s side seat.

 

It was a great time, some fun driving and awesome sights with good food and company as well.

 

Definitely looked like a fun trip

 

These camping trips look awesome. I'm jealous of all the open land y'all can explore. Doesn't seem like any crazy crawling, but great views and scenery.

Two ideas for it:
1) Use the lower bracket creating a platform that can "flip forward" to access the cubby. Recognize that you will never remove the fridge to access the cubby, but you don't entirely lose it.
2) Use the seat-back bracket. This gives you 4-6" of air gap under the platform, and in theory will let you store stuff under the platform. I'll verify the lid will still fully open if @SuperBad lets me check my fridge fit in his truck this weekend.

I'll also take comparison pics of each type. I've been meaning to for a while.