Burt, The Old Man With friends Daryl and Donna

I figured they will, If I can get a year from them I'll be happy. And for only 10-15 a bulb I don't mind that as a yearly cost vs performance.

 

I have been running them for about eight years, I love them. I just stock up on them every time I order.

 

They throw so much more light out there. I'll grab another set to keep at the ready for when one burns out.

 

I was very luck in January and managed to pick up a couple campsite permits on the White Rim in Canyonlands. This was my 4th time across the trail and my Girlfriends first time across the trail. I had originally planned to take my Ranger as weather could be either really nice or crazy windy this time of year in Moab. However with a change of Campers coming on that truck and not knowing if I was going to have a camper on that truck I ended up changing my permit over to Burt. Which also forced me to doing some needed maintenance.
This was also the first time I have taken Burt over the Mountains on I70 since doing the 33s and 4.88s.
We left early because of a predicted storm and the absolutely awful traffic that happens in Denver every morning and every time it snows. Even though I live well outside any major cities and away from Denver I still get stuck in the awful traffic anytime I go anywhere. We have seriously been considering moving away from CO because of it. Anyways stories for the future.

New Headlights Worked a treat!
We made our way up and over all the passes, hitting a bit of snow here and there, with the hubs locked the truck did great. Surprisingly well with the MTZ compared to my initial snow impressions of them. Still some slipping but not anything unexpected in the given conditions.

After a few hours we made it to Utah, checked in a the ranger station and started down the trail.
Some Poser shots at the top of the switchbacks. Of course the only mud on the trail was in the first 5 minutes.

I always love the view from the top of the switch backs.

Because we were a bit late getting permits we got a awkward set of camps, Shafers, which is right about 30 minutes into the trail, and then Potato Bottom which is about 7/8 of the way through the trail, Canyonlands says 8.5 hours into the trail, and took us about 6 hours to get to including stops.
We got down the switchbacks and made it to our camp, sat for a minute and then decided to go another hour into the trail to the offshort of Lathrop Canyon.

This added 3 hours of driving and 30 miles to the total trip but worth it to go down the one of the only river access points and usually the "Hardest" sections of trail.
Start down and stopped at some of the overhangs.


Its about 5 miles and takes 30-40 minutes to make it to the bottom.

And a very short stroll takes you to the river.


We made out way back up the canyon and backtracked to camper knowing we'd be doing this section again in the morning.
Camp all set up, dinner cooked, and enjoying the low 30s spring night before climbing into bed.

 

Day 2, Time to drive almost the entire trail in one day.
Shafer is not my favorite site on the trail, far from it. But by no means is it bad. At least the views are really nice.

We blasted our way to Musselman Arch Stopping to see the arch when we got there and a quick breakfast.


We got stuck behind a couple groups. One being a 4Runner, 80 Series, and Disco 2. And a Groups of 1/2 trucks following Mtb bikes, the people in the trucks refused to let anyone pass for the longest time. We spent a lot of that time talking about how awful the ride looked in the Ram 1500s and Silverado 1500 that were at street pressure on rocks. Meanwhile 8 Psi and the 5100s were riding really nicely across the whole trail.
We eventually got passed the Trucks and eventually the other group of 4wds, though they were making good time, traveling as a solo truck is just simple faster.


We made it to White Crack about the halfway point on the trail around 12 and hiked out to the view point.

There is a small section of ore cart track that is sticking out of the rock rear the overlook. It always is a interesting thing to speculate where it came from and what it is doing there all these years.

Some of the flowers were just starting to pop out.


Some rains the day before kept the potholes full and we found a couple full of snails.

From White Crack we paused on top of the Hogback for lunch wraps.
Then just cruised the remaining 30 miles to out camp for the night.
Stopping just on a flexy section for some photos.

The Extra Leaf that I put back into my rear leaf pack was amazing, it was exactly what this truck needed for the weight of all the gear on a trip. I will being looking into a shock relocation soon as well as building dual swingouts on the rear bumper probably during this summer.

Camp for the night.

Dinner, One of our favorites, Kielbasa sausage, bell pepper, onion, and mashed potatoes. Its amazing and perfect while out camping. Its a great meal to warm you from the inside out.

 

Day 3
In the morning you have just a short drive out, but do hit one of the hardest sections. Its steep and a bit rough but easily doable in a stock truck. With the low gears in Burt it just walked up every section without question, I also never had to use my new ARB Locker which wasn't surprising but I was hoping to find something that pushed the truck even just a little bit.


We made our way into Moab topped up on Gas, we averaged 12.5mpg from Moab to Moab. Overall not too bad, round trip ended up being about 181 miles.

Having taken Monday off we had to find one last night camp for the trip and I found a Mine that I wanted to see. I wont tell you exactly where but those who have been to Moab will recognize it. Its on a very popular trail just north of Moab and right after a long climb just next to the highway.
Its a old Uranium Mine as is the case with most in the Central Utah Area.



And soon after we found camp for the night.


No Major wheeling this trip but lots of dirt and some pretty views. More wheeling will come once I can sort out a couple of noises that I hear on the trail and get some sliders and Skid plates on the underside.
One things I picked up before the trip was a weatherproof bag, its designed around Hitch carriers. It was only about 40 bucks on Amazon, but through the snow, rain and dust, everything inside was perfectly clean and dry from the everything. I highly recommend it for anyone with an open bed that doesn't wanna deal with large boxes. Which I am working to get away from.

 

My last outing was to the maze district, that was awhile ago. Thanks for sharing your adventure.

 

The Maze district is on my short list. And might be a late fall trip this year or early next year.

 

White rim was a good time when I went, looks much the same it seems. I'd do it again, nice pics!

 

Been driving Burt quite a bit lately as I work on it. I rolled 290,000 miles while making my way up to Wyoming for Lunch a week or so back.
Took dirt most of the way up through easter Colorado which was a fun challenge.


I have been working on the next few fabrication projects.
I am ditching the half height rack and returning to the soft topper, Building a rack over the top of it. I being a single cab, I need any "sealed" space I can get.
Coming up is also adding Dual swing outs to the rear bumper. Tire on the passenger side and Fuel/water can holders on the Driver side. The Bumper base is more than stronger enough being 2x4'' 1/4 steel and 3/8 3x3'' angle mounts to the frame. But there was a little design work to get it around the fact the bumper is only the width of the tailgate. But I think I came up with a solution for that.

4x Innovation Skid Plates and Rock sliders should be here Tomorrow, they will get painted, and installed likely in July when I have a little more time.

 

I interrupt the otherwise Burt Related thread to up date everyone on the Ranger as its transformed to a Camper rig and Burt is going to be the long term project and wheeling rig.
And a small update on the Ranger since it's been forever and @Squeaky Penguin mentioned it.

I sold the Super Pacific X1, in favor of a FWC Project M and absolutely love it. It's slightly heavier at 350lbs (vs 280) but has 10x the space. It's got a power system with 135ahs of lithium, and Redarc BCDC 1225, 200w of solar and a Redarc battery monitor.
The armor is all completed, 3/16 from front to back and White Knuckle Sliders. Of course the hidden winch remains.
I picked up a 37 gallon tank from LRA and threw that in for 700 miles of range.
It's also now sitting on 34x10.50s. To make 3rd gens jealous. Trucks on a sagged out OME 2" lift, stock wheels, no trimming, no spacers.

Last Trip with the X1 to New Mexico


10 Days down to Overland Expo to be in the Four Wheel Campers Booth

Custom Bench to house the power system and kitchen gear.

Made our way through the San Rafael Swell.


I also had a trip to Utah between the sale of my X1 and getting my Project M so I slapped the RTT on the roof rack and of course had the windiest trip I had ever been on.

There is the Yearly Ranger Update
Now back to the regularly scheduled Burt Programming

 

Sliders and Skid plates came in Yesterday, Started on painting the Skids, Mocked up the sliders this morning. I think I will be aiming for a 15° Kick since this sliders are a little wider than I would have ideally wanted. I likely wont be able to get it welded on until later this month. Skid plates might go on this weekend if all goes well.
I HATE not having 220V at my house. I have access to 110v and my TIG but my MIG is unless at the house. So I'll have to weld it at the shop which will delay things a little.

 

good to see ole burt getting out and about! havent seen anything minus your ranger stuff on facebook tbh haha

 

Battery Tray came in. It will fit a group 34 or group 35 as well as my ARB Single on the Passenger side of the engine bay. It will be tied into 5 or 6 different spots on fender appren and upper inner fender. 1/4 Aluminum, Cad Designed, sent off for Laser cutting and bending.

 

Parts have started to come in for the Dual Swing out and Slider mounts. Picked up tons of hardware, the base of each swing out being 7'' long 1.25" Grade 8 Bolt. Bronze Bushing to fit into a 2" OD 1.5" ID DOM Tube. This thing is massive, I know there is more resistance than a bear set up but having done 4 or 5 different swing out builds in the passed I wanted to give it a shot and just know that due to vibrations likely the bushings will wear out in 2-3 years or 20-30K but I don't mind swapping them out.
All the Steel parts are getting Laser cut and might be here the end of next week.

The whole thing was designed in Fusion with was really nice to be able to get parts laser cut and bent. The tire and fuel can holder height will be decided once they are mocked up on the truck

 

In Addition I picked up some new wheels, some Sequoia/Tundra 17s, they have the same 15mm offset as my factory 17s so I should still be able to fit a 10.50 tire on there. Which I might take the 34x10.50 off my Ranger and put them on Burt to test fit since they measure to be within 1/4" of my current tires . Otherwise my plan is 255/80R17 Hankook RC10 XT or Toyo RT Trails as both are either the same weight of just a pound or two heavier than my current set up.
These wheels are to be sand blasted and painted the same color as the current wheels I have on there now.

 

I need to pick me up a set of those. I would like to go with the 34x10.5x17 tires as well.

 

I caught a really good deal 15 minutes from me that has just been posted for $200, I still need to find a spare but I did find a few sets listed around Denver and one on Glenwood for $250.
Took a couple weeks of looking but it was worthwhile to get some good 17s cheap.

 

I found some in Idaho for about $500 for five of them. Nothing local to me though now that I am back in Arizona. I may have my son pick them up for me and bring them down when he finishes this semester.

 

I am excited to see how your swingout look when they are done. I have always wanted to convert mine, but I never could figure out a latching system that I liked.