Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Would have loved to. I was with a group - @Digiratus, @Blackdawg, and @Speedytech7 - and we were on our way out of the park after* our adventure, each with a very long drive home. It was Mike and Monte's first trip to the park, so it was a lot of fun to show them around. When we passed you and I mentioned it was your truck, there were several comments about wishing you were around to meet.


*I'm not sure this is the right term; we were headed home two days early because my truck was in the process of breaking. But of course, now I'm getting ahead of myself. The full story will come soon enough.

 

The aftermarket welding is for @eimkeith strut tower re-enforcement plates. As far as how that happens? Years of trails like Johnson Valley, Rubicon, Fordyce, Isham, and a slew of others. I don't use my rig the way 90% of people here do. lol

 

Looks like that top hat is not clocked properly as the bearing in the top part of the shock should be perpendicular to the length of the truck.

Did you once have Icons or Bilstein's? I never liked the open C design of their top hats. That looks like it was the original crack before you or someone hardened the material even more by welding it. Personally I have 1/2" donuts on top of the coil bucket to keep that from happening. I once owned a mfg company where I made these to help to keep Icons from cracking the coil bucket after cracking the top hat and really I should have over bent the metal so that the vertical tab was sitting at a true 90* with a larger bend radius.



Just know that the crack you currently have was started by a nick on the edge of the coil bucket. Know that nicks raise the stress in that area and will propagate to a crack some day. In my aircraft days we would polish landing gear as though it was a jewel - all to ensure no premature failures.

Best wishes on that one. It may be a good time to build an engine cage and go with long travel where the shocks mount right to the cage.

 

And if you don't happen to own a mfg company, @EDDO originally posted a great idea of just mounting a spacer above instead of below the bucket as a reinforcement.

Like this:



The spacer rings used: https://www.headstrongoffroad.com/store/p254/RevTec_10mm_Strut_Spacer_-_REV_TOE2_-_Pair.html

 

Just to weigh in here on the coil bucket issue a bit...

I don't know if the issue is identical on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gen Tacomas, but on 1st gen, one of the primary contibutors to coil bucket destruction is when the shock unloads too quickly (full droop of your suspension where the shock - as opposses to control arms - becomes the limiting factor), creating a downward force on the coil bucket. This is what we think happened to Mike's truck, resulting in a very similar looking bucket:

(see: Redhead Down #9: The Last Hour)



While replacing the buckets (on both sides! - if one fails, the other has likely seen similar stresses), we looked at various methods of reinforcement. We considered welded top caps from various sources, but decided against them because none of them fold over the bend between the top and side of the cap; the weak point of the system. Since then, a couple 1st gen owners have created their own fixtures that essentially cover the entire coil bucket: (example 1) (example 2)

Even so, reinforcing the coil bucket just moves the stresses somewhere else - LCA, frame, etc. - and getting to the bottom of the problem is really the more interesting way forwared (IMO). The problem - if we've identified it correctly - is that when the shock is the limiter of downward travel, the forces on the top of the coil bucket change from being upward forces to downward ones for a very short period of time, stressing the metal there. As such, to solve (or reduce) the problem, once must keep the forces on the coilbucket as upward at all times.

The solution to doing that is limit straps. With them, the shock is always pressing up on the coil bucket and down on the LCA, eliminating the enormous swings in pressure. More details on this solution and the forces behind it in this post, where I installed limit straps on my truck:

Protecting the Front Shock Towers with Limit Straps

 

All credit for the idea to @HBMurphy . I just went with these when he declined to make me a set of the better ones.

 

What about starting right in the middle?

From what I've seen, this is how most of these failures start.

 

Another adventure underway. Where the focus of the last was the remote, lowest peak in the park, this time we were headed into the Panamints and to the top of not only the tallest peak, but the largest prominence in the lower 48 states. But first, we had some other areas to explore...

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Keep reading the rest here
Through Dunes, Arches and Canyons - Panamints 1​

 

Posting a few pics from recent trip to Panamints inspired by @turbodb Nadeau trip report from last year.
But first some tips, if you are passing through Ridgecrest and want a good meal, check out Pita Fresh for Kabobs. Good food and generous portions for decent price. Then if it is a Saturday, stop and visit the Trona Museum; we were the only visitors in last two weeks per the visitor log and the 93 year old, lifetime resident of Trona was insistent that we get a personal guided tour through every room and every display case, something you don’t get in a larger museum. Now on to the pictures.

First day at the Trona Pinnacles, very strange looking when we arrived Friday night in the dark and more strange in the morning light


An amazing place with many hidden places to camp and you can’t beat the BLM price of free camping, definitely on my list of first night camping after the long drive from San Jose area.
From here it was a short drive to the before mentioned museum and after an enjoyably visit, we were off to Slate Pass to pick up the Nadeau trail that I’ve noticed on several previous trips to DV and always wondered where it went.

Got to admit, the first section of the trail from the pass to highway looked a little scary as you don’t know if trail is washed out around the next bend but turned out to be much easier than first appearance suggested and other than adding to my pinstripe collection, it was an easy drive. However once on other side of main road the story changed and it got more interesting in a series of V ditch washes. I was glad to see my high clearance front bumper handling these with ease - although from driver seat vantage point I’d swear we were pointed straight down as view in windshield was mostly rocks and dirt and more rock on some of the deeper ditches.

Red Taco handled these well pulling up out of the ditch although The stock rear bumper was not so lucky as trailer hitch electrical receptacle is now bent up 90 degrees from where it should be.

Next stop was up canyon to one of the better known mine site to enjoy the rare privilege of having a concrete pad to pitch a tent with nearby tables, not that it mattered for my friends with Big Taco and their FWD camper.


Lonely piece of mine equipment on the hill tormented by many bullet holes. Per Turbodb trip report, the fan still spin in a breeze.


Sadly this has been used as target practice as witnessed by many shell casings littering the ground. Here is a test if you can name the shell casings Hopefully none of these were left by TW folks.


Further up canyon, Desert Dog pup checking out the narrows, said it was a no go for my setup as trail got rougher around the bend.



But if you can make it, this is what is waiting for you on the other side. Be sure to check out the “ore” sample hanging in the cabin.


Despite the well maintain cabin with invitation to sleep on a real bed we decided to move to next stop and so left making sure the vacancy sign was turned on.


More pics later, hope you enjoyed.

 

hows the outhouse? clean? smelly? that brick is sooo cool!

 

Clean enough that my wife did not complain about using it and actually had a roll of TP waiting for the next patron.

 

GOLD! any pic from inside the ore cabin?

 

well, since you asked. Signs in the cabin says it is being maintained by a volunteer group so my complements to them for keeping an historical structure in such good, and clean, condition.

 

Does that stove operate with the Coleman propane?

 

...I found my fellow explorer napping in the truck, the sun warming the cab to just the right temperature, and after filling her in on the maze I'd discovered, I asked her if she'd been down to the end of the road beyond the mine. In fact, she had, and told me that it led to the Skidoo Mill - the whole reason we'd come to Skidoo in the first place. I wasn't going to miss that, so once again, lunch had to wait....

Keep reading the rest here
The Legend of Skidoo - Panamints 2​

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Keep reading the rest here
The Legend of Skidoo - Panamints 2​

 

Looks like frosted mini wheats

 

Curious if anyone knows whether the road closure above the kilns on Wildrose Road is a soft or hard "closed"--NPS says that last couple miles above the kilns is closed but I can't remember if there is a gate there or not that would make it impossible to go up to the Mahogany campground (shortens the hike up Telescope Peak by a few miles and the road is graded and tame). Any thoughts here on whether one could still go up past the kilns even if the road is "closed"?

 

I think there is a gate past the kilns. Personally I would not want to hike Telescope Peak with snow and ice. Especially with the added mileage from the kilns.

 

Quickie rookie question. I have never gone exclusively to DV. Knocking around the idea of taking the TRD over there with my wife this winter while she's got the time off. Is this a good time to hit the area or a bad idea?

Slowly perusing this long-assed thread has got me interested in multiple visits in the near future.

 

The gate about 30ft away from the kiln bathroom