Death Valley Off-Road Adventures

Or find TQ charts that give you the TQ value you need for lubricated threads. Some of the prints at my work have TQ charts that give you those values. Loctite is considered a lubricant when torquing.

 

You don't have to agree - I'm just saying what I do.

I should have mentioned adjusting (lowering) the torque spec when lubing threads.

 

Yeah, I'm not saying this is the correct thing to do, but it's what I decided to do. I used to have frequent problems with lugnuts stripping or studs breaking, and needing absurd force to loosen them, even though I was always torqueing them to spec. By frequent, I mean maybe 3 or 4 failures within the first couple years of ownership. To be clear, this is a third-hand high-mileage vehicle, so the probable cause is prior abuse and over torqueing. Anyway, I changed a lot of things at once, including all the studs, all the nuts, and deciding to anti-seize the threads. So I can't say what particular thing actually worked, but the combination has thus far been flawless. I do 50 ft-lbs on clean, lubricated threads, increasing up to 75 for trail repairs on gritty or dry-looking threads. I use astrology to pick the number when the threads are somewhere inbetween immaculate and mud-caked.

For the first year or so, I periodically checked the nuts with a torque wrench to make sure the bolts weren't coming loose. First to installation torque in righty-tighty, then +10 ft lbs in lefty-loosy, never had one turn on me.** Well except once I left one wheel finger tight and drove to the gas station, that was dumb, but that is a different kind of problem. I was also tracking stud elongation for the first two tire rotations, to make sure they weren't yielding, but then I lost track of the piece of paper where I wrote down all the lengths. But so far, so good, and I'm not going to change my ways unless something goes wrong. What I definitely don't miss is jumping up and down on the tire iron trying to change a flat. A steady pull does it every time. Maybe fresh nuts and studs were all that was needed, but I added antiseize as well.

Speaking of a steady pull, let me share my latest project here where more folks will see it:



I did this instead of fixing my power steering. Sorry, I promise not to ramble about lugnuts on the DV thread any more.

**Edit: Okay I'm exploiting a loophole by editing this post to respond to the below post. You raise an important point. I checked the torque this way only when I was about to remove the wheels.

 

Never ever check torque in the loosening direction. If you want to check Torque set your wrench at 80% off the torque value then in the tightening direction Torque it, if doesn’t move before the click your are good to go.

 

i think something to consider is that lug nuts and studs are different materials. If you're constantly exposing the wheels to water/salt water, it would be important to periodically check for corrosion caused by bimetallic or galvanic corrosion.

As far as checking torque goes, do that when you rotate the tires.

 

I’ve pulled the alloy OEM wheels off my 3rd gen a few times, once for a flat repair and for tire rotation and brake work. Never had a problem with the factory lug nuts, six years now. But the last few times I had a hell of a time getting the wheels off after the lug nuts were loose, both front and rear. So I’ve taken to smearing a bit of anti-seize on the mounting surfaces but it didn’t seem to help. One time one of the rears was so stubborn, I threaded the lug nuts down loosely and drove back and forth a foot or two in my driveway. Didn’t work as well as furious kicking, all the while hoping it didn’t fall off the jack.

 

This is also a bit of corrosion holding the wheels on. Sometimes, you see like a wax paper on the wheel to mitigate the stiction.

 

I agree 100%.
Unless a manufacturer specifically calls out use of a product (theadlock, thread sealer, ect…)

 

Some Death Valley for the Death Valley thread

New to me routes


Never knew there were these tailing piles on Lippincott


Baby rattler out at night, 56 degrees Fahrenheit

 

I have yet to see a single snake in the park; perhaps I'm there when it's just a little too chilly. I hope to come across one someday, though obviously not as a surprise or misstep!

- - - - -



Part 2 of my final trip to the park for the season.
A Stressful Day in Pleasant Canyon - Stranded #2

A broken leaf spring...



Meant a cautious drive down the canyon...


And after a bit of an air show...


A slow drive towards civilization...


Details, as always are here: A Stressful Day in Pleasant Canyon - Stranded #2

 

This makes it number 3 for me. One of which was a dead one on Steel Pass. I was informed by Jimbob (a TW member who decided to take his content elsewhere for understandable reasons) that this snake is a Crotalus stephensi, aka Panamint Rattler. Pretty cool. He said they have been seen in temps down to the 40s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_stephensi

 

I saw a torpid - or maybe injured - rattler on the road near the top of Grapevine Canyon near South Pass. There was just enough room to get by.

 

I watched a juvenile rattler slither it's way from the upper Wizard Pool to near the Source Water. He was majestic and graceful in the way he moved. This was before Thanksgiving weekend. Posed no danger to nobody since I was the only one around that afternoon..

 

I think I’ve only seen a red racer in DVNP actually.

I’ve seen a handful of rattlers in MNP sunning themselves on dirt roads and fortunately I believe have avoided squishing any of them (one was a Green Mojave, yikes!). One made the most unimaginably amazing acrobatic egress from the road. It was laid out straight across the road and basically nearly instantly folded itself in a V shape and lofted itself off the road over a bush. Actually saw it in midair out my passenger side window. Absolutely insane.

My favorite snake encounter was during a cool early morning hike down “B” mountain at China Lake. I usually descended via some sandy gullies. I just managed to avoid squishing the tiniest baby sidewinder curled up in a boot print in the sand from a previous hiker. Remarkably fine patterns and surprisingly vibrant colors compared to adults. Eventually had to tear myself away from staring at the little guy to get to work. Wish I had had a camera, but, well, cameras aren’t really allowed there.

 

Dude knows his snakes. Does a lot to educate peeps too.

 

I get a handful of these guys in my garage every year. Well not exactly the same, different species, but close enough. Too young to rattle... and hot-damn, they are bitey!

But they are pretty neat little creatures. We no longer have BBQ tongs, we have snake tongs. After rounding up the hatch, I haul them a half mile up the ridgeline and let them go, so long as they promise to never come back.



The last one was a loner, I named him Venomir Putin, now I'm worried he's planning a reinvasion of my garage.

 

I think this topic may have been raised here in the past, but DVNP has opened up a comment period for the proposal to upgrade the AT&T microwave relay station on Mormon Peak. Comments open for a month, until May 10. Personally, it seems worthwhile to me … I’ll be glad my monthly AT&T payment is being put to some good use, even though I’d prefer actually have signal at my own house, which is in a decent-sized city near the edge of a huge metro area. Back to Mormon Peak: it’s in the South Park area east of Pleasant Canyon. Has anyone been up there?
https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=297&projectID=106433&documentID=119886

 

Thanks for posting this.

I read all that they have offered and honestly, the scope, justification, and desired outcomes are not met simply by upgrading Mormon Peak.

They would be better off creating a communications plan and from that a requirements document for all these features they expect to have. Then bid the job out. Otherwise, the justification is BS.

 

I don't recall hearing about this up to this point. After reading the attached project description it doesn't seem too big of a deal. Improving communications in the park is a good thing for emergencies. All the work done to improve the communications tower will be by helicopter so no impact will be made on the environment. I'd rather see a new road up there but then again I don't agree with all the "wilderness" areas created by past politicians.

 

Is this a cell tower?
No. Mormon Peak does not have a cell tower, and AT&T is not requesting for it to be a cell tower in their right-of-way permit application.

Will this affect telephone service in the area?
The AT&T microwave relay facility on Mormon Peak is a critical link in the communications chain between Death Valley and the outside world. Without it, there would be no landline or cell phone communications within the park.The proposed upgrade would increase the communications bandwidth for the two cell towers in Death Valley at Furnace Creek and Stovepipe Wells, which are currently limited by the capacity of Mormon Peak.

What is the current and proposed data capacity of Mormon Peak?
The current capacity is 90 mbps. The proposed capacity is 1.5 Gbps.