Speed Glampers Überfahrt: Anza Borrego Sep 14-17, 2017

SGU is going to Anza Borrego! Anybody interested in rolling with us?

I will be in Borrego Springs Thursday afternoon. Driving home Sunday. This trip will be mostly desert trail so we can stretch our legs and work our suspension. Bruce and Roy recently installed long travel front suspension and I have revalved all my bypasses. You don't need a fully built truck though, we stay together as a group, wait for everybody at turns, and help each other with breaks and stucks. This will be a great opportunity for you to see a large portion of the park in one weekend. You will need AT or mud tires, full size spare tire and tools to change it, VHF comms, and backcountry camping gear as we'll be doing dispersed camping. You will also need to bring extra fuel, at least 250 miles off road range. I get about 7 mpg off road so I am bringing 10 ga extra fuel. Bring extra water, 1 ga per person per day. You will also need to bring firewood, 2 to 4 bundles per truck.

It would be awesome if we could get a couple Taco's to start running with us! If you would like to go, pm me your email address and phone number.

Beer drinking and general shenanigans will be encouraged.

Role Call:

I have the following trucks confirmed so far:

Confirmed:

@osidepunker , Alex solo. 4wd Tundra. Arriving Thu 2pm, leaving Sunday morning
@Roy park , Roy. 4wd Tundra. Arriving Fri morning. Leaving Sat afternoon
@papasmurf , Bruce. 4wd Tundra. Arriving Thu 1830hrs. Leaving Sun morning
@jc153 , John. 4wd Tundra. Arriving Thu 1830hrs. Leaving Sun morning
@hoagie , 4wd FJ, arriving Thu 0000hrs, leaving mid-day Sat
@djkaosone, Dave, Eurobox, arriving Fri around 4-5pm
@noSKills858 , Tacoma, Sat day run 9-10am at Fish Creek

Tentative:

@zackbremer , Zack, 4wd Tundra, arriving Thu eve, leaving Sun
@mrturner, 4wd Tacoma, possibly arriving with Hoagie

Route/Itinerary:

Final routes TBD

Ok so the loose plan is to camp Thu night somewhere north of Clark Dry Lake bed. I’ll be in the area Thu afternoon. Fri morning we’ll make our way east, through the dirt, to Salton Sea and fuel up. Then we’ll do dirt south through Ocotillo Wells. We will cross hwy 78 and blaze a trail south to the RR trax by Split Mtn. Then we will cut west and camp in Fish Creek Fri night. Sat we will head east along the RR trax and run to Superstition Mtn. I’ve never been there so we will play it loose. Then we will head south to Plaster City. We will fuel up at the chevron in Ocotillo, then decide on a camp. Depending on time of day, we can head through Valacito wash and find a camp there, or continue up to Blair Valley. We could also backtrack and camp by Superstition. Sun we can mess around in the morning then head home. If anybody has suggestion on routes, or places they want to see/do, let me know. I am flexible. I designed this route so we could bomb some trails and fully test our new suspension setups over long distances.

You will need to have some good fuel range for this trip. Friday’s run will be around 125 – 175 miles between fuel stops, but it will be lots of super soft sand and high speed. I am expecting 5 – 7 mpg on my truck so I am cutting it super close with 35 gallons total fuel.

Meal Planning:

Thu dinner: Jilbertos in Borregos Springs
Fri breakfast: JC
Fri dinner: Roy, Korean BBQ
Sat breakfast: Hoagie
Sat dinner: Bruce
Sun Breakfast: Alex, breakfast burritos

 

I'll probably go.

 

Roll with us! We would like to get some tacos involved

 

No way we can't deal with another Alex

 

Would probably have one other truck come too but it would be a pre-taco.

 

Yeah dude for sure! Bring him! Just let me know when you guys are fully committed. I'm going to cap this at 6 or 7 trucks.

Yeah dude I can't even deal with myself!

 

Guess I'll be Alex number 3 or 4.

 

You rolling with us for sure?

 

Yeah more than likely (if I don't procrastinate too much on doing some much needed things on my truck) I'm always good to go on a desert excursion regardless. Chances are I will be heading out Friday afternoon at best and or early Saturday morning and staying for the night or just doing a day run. Not sure what area's you're trying to hit up but I should be able to go most places.

 

We mostly are planning on desert trail. Nothing too technical. We want to do a shakedown on our suspension setups. I also want to make it down to plaster city, I've never been there

 

Ah ok, I was just more concerned about what 4x4 trails you guys were going to take. I know majority of the trails from Ocotillo Wells, through Superstition and Plaster City.

If you want some tips on some shock valving I can help if you or anyone else is interested.

 

Yeah dude for sure! I been pulling my hair out over this, but I think I'm on the right track. My problem is that I weigh >7000 lbs. I want a comfortable trail truck, but I also want to be able to cover all different kinds of terrain very fast. I've revalve twice, but I think I was afraid to go heavy with the valving and that was my problem. Here is my setup (all Fox):

16", 2.5 coilover and bypass in the front, stock bumps, very soft springs, 8" up travel at rest

17", 2.5 bypass, 3" bumps, 5" up travel

I recently revalve my rear. I switched to low flow piston and a 4,3,2 stack. Dropped the bumps from 400psi to 300psi. It made a huge difference. I loosened the tubes until it was somewhat comfortable. Takes hits much better. I still need to get my leafs redone, they sag too much. Once I do, I may go to a lighter stack

For the front it's currently getting the bypasses revalved. I'm going to do the same thing. Low flow piston and 4,3,2 stack. If that's not enough I'm going to increase the coilover. Right now it's running a pretty soft flutter.

What do you think??

 

A 16" C/O and BP up front? I hope that's a typo unless you're running beams, I'm guessing it's a 10-12."

I assume you have Bilsteins as well and I haven't dealt with those much but the concept is still the same.

It's hard to tell what valving you need without actually seeing the truck and what all you're carrying. I'd have to watch it go through some whoops and see what the truck is doing. Tire size, speed, driving habits all play in different factors with suspension.

If you want to go find a whoop section you would like your truck to handle and drop an EZ up to do some shock tuning, that's the best way to go about it. I can bring some oil and shim stacks to really get it set up.

 

Well that's what's difficult about my truck. I'm not trying to tune it for a particular set of whoops or specific terrain. It's a trail truck so I drive on all kinds of terrain. I'm trying to get it to absorb the big hits better without killing the comfort.

I have total chaos long travel so I have 16" of suspension travel in the front, I'm not sure what size coilover and bypass. I'm running Fox shocks all around

There's one section in Anza that is varied and I'm working on being able to run it better. Specifically I'm trying to get rid of the donkey kick. I think I need more up travel in the rear so I'm going to redo my leaf packs. But hopefully the stiffer valving will help as well. Here's a video, it's the pole line road from Arco heading south:

https://youtu.be/D_H4k4ZmnNs

 

See you want to set it up for decent size whoops so that if something like that comes up on you really quickly, you will know that the truck can go through it and not have to worry about a wild ride. Comfort can still come with that and I believe that's why they added a flutter stack in your shocks but that can also be counterproductive as well.

Your truck looks like it handles everything pretty well but it's definitely the low up travel trouble in the rear that's making your front suspension dive really hard. Have you considered doing a C-notch in your frame?

By the way I didn't see that you have Fox shocks and that's what I run so I have a lot of shim stacks.

 

I'm the one that might be joining, currently getting it ready...only a couple more things to do and I'm ready, sounds like it's gonna be a killer run!

 

We're also going out the weekend before, so if anything doesn't work right, it will be fixed and ready to go before this trip.

 

I think I understand what you are saying about the whoops. Its those big unexpected hits that I am working on with the front valving. The rear takes them ok because I have bump cans. Originally, I had heavy flutter stacks in the bypasses because I told the guy I wanted it comfortable. I'm getting rid of that and going to regular stacks with low flow pistons. The front coilover is still a soft flutter stack for now. But I may increase it to absorb some heat if the bypasses start getting hot.

For the rear, I don't want to do a c notch because I want more ground clearance. The rear sags a lot. I think I just need to redo the leafs again. Its very a very heavy truck. If I can gain another 3" of up travel, I think I will be good.

Nice truck! Yeah dude Anza is always a killer run. We're glad to have a couple tacos run with us. Using hi lifts at that height is scary lol Here's a shot of mine azz up face down:

 

We still have room for another truck or two if anyone else wants to roll with us

 

A C-notch is a cheaper way to gain more travel and is recommended if you don't plan on doing a more custom leaf pack set up. Only thing is your bump cans might poke through the bed depending on who you run. Although you can make bump pads off the axle if you don't want to move them.

89sleeper has a fab shop in Fallbrook if you want to price out options.