The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

Good I can do the vicarious experience...I'm always working...

 

Not to go against Nick because he has done his homework and knows what he's talking about. My thoughts are if you only want 2" max lift in the rear and so running the OEM leaf pack with maybe 1.5" aal's. In that case the 337 seems good to me. I don't really want to extend the bumps because then you limit the up travel, but may have to a little. So for that I think the 337 is good. Heck its an upgrade over what I have which is stock length shocks? I love the way it rides now with the TSB pack and Deaver aal's (overload removed). Works great with 0-250lbs load (can handle heavier loads just gets saggy) that's why I dont want to change it. It's a to each his own kind of thing. By all means if your want max droop then for sure go with Nicks setup, but it seems that only works if you have at least 3-4" lift in the rear, less then that and you'll be hitting the bump stops on compression depending on the actual springs and weight. If you have the Off Road truck and your locked and a wheel comes off the ground the other wheel pushes you through. Been there done that. If you don't have a rear locker then yea that kills you. If I could lift the front 4" effectively I'd go that route for sure. All I'm saying here is bigger isn't always better unless you cover all the bases by looking at everything. My $0.02
I do have a question: Is the valving the same on 5125 vs 5100? I hope it's a bit stiffer.

 

Anza-Borrego 2017 January Part 1

Where do I even begin this trip report? Originally this was supposed to be a 3-day 2-night adventure with friends out in the desert, an annual trip. It turned into one day and one night, and that almost didn't even happen. I cut the trip short by one day to go to an annual father daughter dance at my 6-year old's school. However, I've failed to recover my health from December, and persistent cold symptoms have made me weak.

On Friday night after a tough week of work, I was too sick to go, so my wife ended going in my stead. I was ready to cancel the whole weekend, but decided to see how I felt the next day. Saturday morning was cold 42°F and I hadn't packed a single thing. I sat on the couch with a blanket and my youngest kid on top of me and we watched cartoons for an hour or so. Eventually I made them breakfast. Around 10 am it warmed up enough I felt okay to go outside. I reluctantly decided I would go out to the desert and maybe just for the day, but provisioned to stay the night just in case.

For the second time since installing them last October, I pulled my @crazy joker hinge pins and the rear seat bottoms come right out of the truck in seconds. I folded the seats down, tossed in some blankets, pillows, sleeping pad, bag of clothes, and turned on the fridge.

While topping off the fuel tank at gas station, I did a vehicle inspection. I'm so glad I did! The factory battery hold down bracket had self loosened! Fortunately from experience, I keep a full rack of 1/4" sockets and a ratchet in a soft storage bin that lives in the foot well on the back pass side. I assembled the ratchet+deep socket and torqued it down and stowed the tools away. Then I hit up a Subway for a sandwich, and a taco shop burrito for lunch/dinner and tossed them into the fridge.

I encountered very serious head and cross winds on interstate 8. They were so bad I thought my hood was going to rip off, the fluttering was scary. Made me wish I had dual hood lock pins. I may end up doing that mod one day, as I've seen at least two hood latch mechanisms wear to the point of failure.

I refueled at my destination 60 miles later and spoke to the gas station attendant who remarked that the wind on this day paled in comparison to the day prior, where a big rig got blown over on the Interstate and CHP almost closed the highway.

I really needed time to myself since I am surrounded by people 24/7/365. I decided to explore alone and meet up with my friends later that evening. With that in mind, I have a long list of places to visit and wanted something challenging to do in the truck, but not to far from pavement. Something rough, but short.

I decided to revisit a trail I had not wheeled since 2009. Back then my truck was 100% stock, and only 12 hours new. The trail is rough. It's technical, wheel placement is critical (unless you got full skids and like using them. )

I aired down to 19 PSI and hit the trail. I noted patches of ice in some sections of the trail where shadows persist. I found three other vehicles in the back country, two were presumed hikers, and one was a group target shooting.

The Summit
​

I very much enjoyed the rough terrain. There are several hill climbs, boulders and depressions to navigate, and the margin for error is slim. Wrong steering, wrong wheel placement, too much skinny pedal would put me over a cliff edge.

Slow, steady, calculated movements won the day. ​

After walking the last leg of the trail to insure there were no surprises, I drove up to the summit. I had to do a 3-point turn to make it, gut wrenching the whole time because four feet away is a rollover and death! I succeeded in finishing the trail that I could not do when my truck was stock. The trail has degraded some over time, and there is one very sketchy section that tilts the rig towards the edge with no room to spare. When passing through another boulder obstacle, I think I had 4-6" of space on the driver side, very tight! One day in the future this trail might be impassable.

Finishing at the summit was a good feeling.

Because I was alone I had my dual band radio turned on and scanning simplex freqs for personal radio services. I heard a radio operator call out on 2M national simplex. He was on interstate 10 in Palm Desert, about 90 miles away. I answered his call, and we chatted for only a minute before the path was lost.

The U.S.A. / Mexico International Border


The Perplexing Salton Sea​

It was quite a beautiful day to be outside, it was cold and there was light to moderate winds at this location. I explored around the mountain for a little while enjoying the fresh air and warm sun. After having my fill, I decided to venture off to a new place that I had not yet been to before. I started the rig and began negotiating the descent back down.

One of the many fun obstacles to wheel through​

Back at pavement I aired back up. This was my first chance to use the moisture filter in the field. I'm glad to say that it works well. It separated the moisture from the compressed air, so only dry air went into the tires. Hooray!

Tire Inflator plus moisture separator resting on slider while airing up tires
​

Airing up has become partially automated and very streamlined now. I use a loop of velcro to hold down the tire inflator handle and rest the contraption on the slider while using a stopwatch to count down for 1:05 before moving on to the next tire. While one tire is inflating, I move around and add valve stem caps to filled tires. I haven't timed the entire operation, but I think it takes about (8) minutes from pulling the air hose out to stowing it 19-40 PSI.

After airing up, I devoured half my sandwich, buttoned up the rig, and took the interstate down the hill, to the lower Sonoran desert for the next adventure.

 

Another use for siders.

Do you use preset deflators? I have some Stauns preset to 18 psi, by the time I walk around the truck installing the 4th one, the first one is done. They can also be calibrated to whatever pressure you want. It's my airing up game that needs improvement.

 

Thorough as can be. Sub'd.

 

Anza-Borrego 2017 January Part 2

After dropping into the lower desert temperatures were much warmer. I followed a badly maintained road that is/was old historic U.S. Route 80. It doubled back and ran parallel to interstate 8 for a while. I passed a few vacant commercial buildings, then a beater house, and finally some burned out shells of buildings.

The route was signed, at one time.
​

Old U.S. Route 80. It is in complete disrepair and is being taken back by mother nature.

Obstacle encountered on Historic U.S Route 80 in California

--Source
​

I continued on and when the broken pavement ended it was dirt, or maybe the route split, and I took the dirt. Either way, I aired down. The dirt parallels the rail road tracks of the impossible rail road, the Desert Line of the San Diego-Imperial Valley Railroad.

I came to an impressively stout rail bridge where I got out and took some photos.

Railroad bridge, Desert Line, SDIY
​

Continuing on, navigation become somewhat more difficult, the route splits many times, so I had to pay close attention to my desired route. Last November I graduated to a single 10.1" screen for navigation and it has been extremely useful. While navigating the route I passed through several sections of the Ocotillo wind farm. I decided to check one of these monsters out. I parked the rig next to one to show scale. They are impressively large. I'll show them in another post.

This section of the rail has lots of whoops and driving them was really fun and I got to truly exercise the new front suspension. I was quite happy and smiling the whole time.

I continued on until I came to the Dos Cabezas Railroad Station

Dos Cabezas Railroad Station


Quite possibly, the worlds most fortified phone booth?​

From this junction, I had a couple different route options. In general my destination was North. I decided to head N-NE on a trail called Mortero Canyon trail. I began the route, and found a Land Cruiser heading the opposite direction, we waved as we passed.

About one mile later I encountered a disabled motorist in a 2014 Tundra. The driver had lost a pass rear tire to a rock, and continued to drive on it.

They asked if I could hang back for assistance. I was all too glad to help. I pulled off the trail.

I provided some plywood for their bottle jack and told them where the spare tire change tools are in their rig and how to use them. Interestingly the Tundra has a star key for lowering the spare tire elevator. Better than the damned hook and slot the Tacoma uses on my truck.

Anyway, no drama encountered while swapping spare. I asked the owner "Ed" if I could photograph his tire, to which he replied "go ahead!" One of his passengers asked if he could buy me a cup of coffee and I said sure! So he gave me a $10 bill which I used the next day to get some.

Blown Tundra tire in Morero Canyon​

With my new friends back on the trail, I pushed through the wash and remaining 2.6 miles to the trail head at pavement and aired backup. I noted one camper in Mortero Wash in a popup camper.

With my tires back at street pressure, I hit the pavement. The sun had just disappeared behind the mountains as I arrived at one of the badland overlooks just before Sweeny Pass

The Badlands photographed the next day​

I pressed on and arrived at Agua Caliente Camp ground to meet my friends, for food, coffee, a nice big roaring fire to keep warm for the next few hours.

While visiting with my friends, some that I haven't seen in over a year, I showed them some of the mods on my rig and the OBA was a hit. I offered to let them use my OBA to air up their Baja Bug tires before rolling out. Was fast and fun and they did all the work of course!

Finally it was time to retire for the night, I can't stand campgrounds, so I drove into the open desert and camped in the wilds. Before falling asleep I got to watch a few hours of Netflix on my tablet with bluetooth speaker. I enjoyed that very much. As far as sleep goes, it was a very nice quiet and relaxing night under a clear starry sky.

 

I've heard good and bad about the Stauns. The bad I had heard for example was if calibrated at sea level, and then used in the high desert, they would be off. The good I heard was that they work. For the price I wasn't willing to take the risk. I'm using Teraflex Tire deflators. I time the deflation so I know when to check/stop. I've been pretty happy with them.

Welcome to my mental disorder, I mean build thread.

 

Interesting point. Was that mere hearsay and speculation, or demonstrated? I'll have to look into the actual mechanism to see if it has any compensation for ambient pressure. It's damn simple device. And I'll have to check that the next time I'm up at Bristlecone.

IIRC, when I used them in Utah, they were dead on when checked with my digital gauge at elevations ranging from 3-8k feet. It is sad that Utah was really the last time I had any need to use them. Working hard to change that now.

 

I think they were reviews on Amazon, which are anonymous... So taken with a very large cube of salt. If they are working good, then that's awesome. And yeah, soon you'll be getting out there!!!

 

I had the Stauns and the first time you loan them out and somebody grabs at the wrong spot the little set nut got moved and they were off. I reset them 4 different times and still had issues... I use an ARB deflator I got from a friend for free now.

 

I started with the ARB which works great. Thing is the Teraflex are cheaper and much less fussing around than the ARB. Screw on a Teraflex every 30 seconds and when you put the last one on check the first which is now close to pressure. Basically just walk around the truck twice monitoring pressure on the second pass. Whole truck takes 4 mins. Staun look nice once cal'd but nothing can go wrong with a Teraflex and I sometimes air down to different pressures.

I too need to improve my air up technique but at the moment about 17 minutes.

 

+1 for the TeraFlex delfators.

Been using them for years, never had a problem. I usually do 2 tires at a time, staying on one side of the truck.

 

​

Nick, I always enjoy your thread with the great details on your build and the fantastic pictures that you take of the wonderful places that you go but I have to say I totally love the photo of your little ones above. It's great that not only can you take the time to try and educate others with your experiences with your truck and the trips that you make but that you also show your love for your kids while doing it. Great work man!

 

Passing through the Ocotillo Wind Farm

While traveling to the Dos Cabezas rail road station I passed through the Ocotillo Wind Farm. The wind farm has the capacity to generate 265 MegaWatt wind energy generation facility utilizing 112 American-made wind turbines. The turbines stand at 500' tall. As I understand it, on paper, the wind turbines begin producing power when wind speed is 8 mph at hub level. There are three main parts to each turbine, the towers are manufactured in Fontana, CA, The blades were made in Iowa, and the nacelles made in Kansas.

Note the truck parked at the base​

A small section of the wind farm can be seen in the background,
The town of Ocotillo lies just beyond the turbines,
In the far background is El Centro, CA
​

The land that the towers reside on is BLM land. That's federal public land. There is a lease that allowed the owners of the project are Pattern Energy, to build the wind farm. The wind farm is monitored from their operations center in Texas.

Despite the seemingly impressive capacity of power generation (256MW), the wind farm only produces a fraction of that. The projected goal was 34% annual production based on capacity. Four years in a row, the project has failed to meet it's goals. There are several reasons suggested for the failure. Some say that the estimates were based on erroneous elevation data when the project was presented to congress for approval and that exaggerated wind production claims made by energy companies. Those are claiming possible fraud, and they are probably right. As I understand it the only people to profit from this project is the company that took federal subsidies to build it, Pattern Energy. The biggest losers were the residents of the immediate community and town of Ocotillo, CA.

Part of the Ocotillo Wind Farm Electrical substation​

I encountered many of these signs when in the area. And I was confused at first. "Restored Area - Do Not Disturb" "Closed to Motorized Vehicles" Restored to what? Restored to Industrial development? Restored to corporate profits? Huh? Well it turns out there was considerable bulldozing that occurred to erect the 500' towers, so lots of land was disturbed. I think that is what they are saying.

I found this little quote on ECM which sums up how many locals feel:

The 500' towers, all one hundred and twelve of them (112), have red flashing lights on them, an FAA requirement. If you could see them at night, it is one of the most hideous sights to behold. It reminded me of a Skynet internment concentration camp, from Terminator 4! It's that bad.

There is also some question of safety as it relates to the turbines. Back in November one of them collapsed.

Locals who heard it crash to the earth thought it was a downed airplane producing a very large explosion sound.

If all this wasn't bad enough, the failure of the Ocotillo Wind Farm was predicted in advance of construction by Nicolas Boccard, an expert in the field of wind power generation who is a professor at a University in Spain. His report is here

In a nutshell, he said

• 
  
  
  • the design was dumb to build a wind farm in a valley (500'-800' elevation) and not on a ridge. And too dense footprint.
  • the wind resource at Ocotillo is low, and does not reach the minimum standard (Class 3) in wind efficiency models used all over the world.
    • He notes that the famed wind projects in the Techachapi or San Gorgonio passes are class #6, and #7, significantly higher.
  • Conclusion: wind powered electricity generated at the Ocotillo project will be 30% to 50% more expensive than the current US average.
  • Since renewables sources of energy are supported by public monies, it is the duty of the regulator to watch over their efficient use. In that particular case, we may safely conclude that the Ocotillo Wind Project fails to meet these standards of stewardship.

Just over the hill, is La Rumorosa, MX, you can see it from Ocotillo, It's over 3000' higher and on a ridge is a the La Rumorosa Wind Farm with (47) wind turbines producing 155 MW power. Oddly enough, that wind farm is feeding the U.S. grid. I can almost guarantee you that that wind farm kicks ass being on a ridge.

The La Rumorosa Wind Farm in Mexico at 4,400'​

I think the best hope for Ocotillo is that congress, not renew the lease, the towers pulled, and land restored. When and if that happens remains to be seen.

I don't think there is anything wrong with wind energy, but location certainly matters, so build them where it counts!

 

Right now one of the biggest threats to deserts besides agriculture and depleted aquifers is energy production - solar and wind. Wind requires enormous land area and solar requires quite a bit of water. Both destroy viewsheds over tens of miles. Annoyed by road closures from wilderness areas? Well the alternative is what Nick discovered - open roads through an energy production site. It seems every inch of desert land that is not currently protected has been evaluated for power production at one point or another. Broadwell Dry Lake was proposed, fortunately proposal pulled and now part of a new National Monument. The Fremont Valley already had some non-energy development (that's north of the town of Mojave) but in the past decade solar fields have been popping up all over it.

There really aren't easy answers to long term energy needs. Keep in mind though that properly sited wind requires about fifteen times the land area per kW-hr as desert solar does. Now a lot of the wind farm area is undisturbed or can be restored after construction such that permanently impacted area is five times less than solar as far as animals like jack rabbits are concerned. As a selfish land user who mostly cares about views though I'd say a photovoltaic field is a lot less impact than a wind farm and a solar tower is the worst of them all.

And then there are the subsidies. Kind of necessary to jump start things but they can also lead to abuses like that Ocotillo monstrosity.

 

I've always thought those things were ugly. More and more giant solar plants are being built in the Mojave. You usually cant see them unless your very close or above them. I'm partial since I have them on my roof. One of the best investments I've made. What is the wattage of those panels you got mounted? Great report as always

 

Thanks a ton Rob! Yup Love the kids. They are so fun.

Providing for them has been and adventure and challenge at times. Soon I'm going to make a robust hiking staff for my youngest kid. The stick I found for her on the last outing wasn't too strong and broke recently. With her big brown cow eyes she asked I help her get a new one. lol I'm like sure! Let's do it. And then her face lights up.

Finally the dark days of December have passed, and with each passing day, the days are getting longer with more light, so I'll be glad to be able to accomplish little tasks each day.

I'm hoping to take the family out on another outdoor outing in Feb, provided my health improves.

Thanks for taking the time to comment!

 

Thanks Ken. It's a complex subject for sure. Regarding types, my feelings are the same!

Thanks Curt. Yes the windmills are ugly. The truck carries 75W solar which charges the aux battery, and will float charge my starter when aux is full.

I too like locally generated solar best. I realize it's not practical for every house / business.

Best roof ever! A garage at a friends place​

 

Glad you were able to 'get lost' for a short amount of time, also sorry you missed dancing with your daughter. Hope you get better soon, whatever you have sure seem to be hanging on for quite awhile. Note: one of my favorite photos is a b/w image of my son with his then three or four year old daughter standing on his shoes 'dancing' at a wedding reception - tux and fancy dress.

I have this love/hate thing about wind farms. Yea it's good & yea they can be an eyesore. In the Red Desert south of Rawlins WY a 1000 unit wind turbine farm is being built. Located on part private part BLM lands. I can't even imagine what that will look like. The life expectancy is 25 years for any given unit. The operators have been issued a permit by the US Fish and Wildlife to kill 25 eagles a year as part of the cost of doing business.

Like your photo but miss your girls in their brightly colored clothes - they seem to have so much fun! Oh, your truck looks good too.