mk5 adventures

Project: New grille

I was having trouble with the air conditioning not getting very cold, so I decided that maybe the grille was too restrictive.



So I made this lovely contraption out of scraps in my garage:



Then I zip tied it in place of the original one. It has a lot more open area for airflow. I don't think that was the problem with A/C, but I like the new look anyway. Also, I finally polished the headlights... compare left vs. right in the top picture!





Trip: Anza Borrego 2019 Superbloom


Wind Caves


Camping in Fish Creek


The Slot


My favorite plant, the ocotillo, in bloom


Dunes @ Borrego Spring


Flower fields


Airing up @ Galleta Meadows Estates

 

Hey, Southern Californians, did you know that greatest jeep trails on earth are right in your back yard??!? Come along on this insider-exclusive tour of the best-kept secret trails of the Angeles National Forest!!!


Trail 1: Devil's gate

This moderate-to-difficult trail features over 16 feet of tire-shredding gravel between the highway and the locked gate, but should be appropriate for any stock 4x4 with high clearance and low-range gearing.





Trail 2: The rut

Challenges along this trail include gigantic boulders and deep ruts that will challenge any stock suspension. Be careful to check the weather before you head out, because this trail is impassible during the rainy season, as well as at all other times due to the locked gate at mile marker zero.






Trail 3: The Octagon

Not for the faint of heart, this rugged trail offers one-of-a-kind views of some of the vast reserves of public land that are inexplicably closed to recreation. Rock sliders recommended!





Trail 4: Hidden fence road

Once used by French explorers to mine dinosaur eggs, this narrow shelf road leads to the ancient ruins of your hopes of enjoying the national forest in your truck.






Trail 5: Who-knows truck trail

At over 172 miles long, with 45 thousand feet of vertical climb, this trail is the most challenging and scenic on earth. Or, maybe it ends right around the next bend. Either way, better bring skid plates and a winch!






Trail 6: Wit's end

Most guide books leave this trail off the map -- and for good reason. Only suitable for experienced helicopter pilots.

 

Project: Replacing the leaf springs and U-bolts. (Plus a new t-case skid.)

By my estimate, I am carrying over 500 lbs of stuff in the bed "dry," and that number goes up to ~750 lbs when I'm packed for a camping trip. The primary culprits are the DECKED drawer system, water jugs, and recovery gear. Furthermore, my rear axle has to bear its share of another ~500 lbs of people, food, and cargo in the cab when we're loaded for adventure. And someday soon, I hope to add a swing-out bumper, which will push the weight even higher.

So I decided it was time to upgrade the leaf springs. I'm going from the All-Pro "standard" springs to the "expedition" springs, made possible by their Black Friday pricing and a weekend or two of my spare time.

Sure enough, upon inspection, I found that my "standard" springs left the truck riding on one if not both bump stops all the time. No wonder speed bumps were slowing me down. And when I removed all my gear and the drawer system from the bed, it rebounded by almost 3 inches -- so it was pretty clear that I was simply overloading the standard springs.

It turns out that the hardest part about changing leaf springs is ... maneuvering the damn springs. They are so heavy! I really struggled to position them, even with a floor jack and moving dollies at my disposal. Keep your chiropractor on speed dial if you're doing this job alone.

Side by side, it is hard to see much difference between the old and new springs, other than the freshness of paint. I'm hoping they behave differently on the truck!



Once I had maneuvered the new spring into place over the axle, I discovered that its locating pin was almost 1" further forward than the prior spring's had been! I double checked the orientation of the spring, before deciding that the axle would indeed have to move forward slightly.



Rather than playing tug-of-war with the axle, or trying to beat it into place with a hammer, I decided it would be wisest to winch it forward using a ratcheting cargo strap, anchored to one of the rock slider arms. That way, none of the force needed to move the axle would be directed through the jack stands, or in other words, I would be less likely to topple the truck from its perch. This actually worked really well, and I felt clever for devising it on the first try.




With both springs finally strong-armed into position, it was time to re-install the U-bolts. The hardware I removed had clearly seen better days, but I had assumed it could be returned to service. I started by wire-brushing and hand-filing the threads until the nuts threaded freely, until I had 3 of the 4 U-bolts re-installed and hand-tight. However, the fourth bolt's threads were simply beyond repair:



Crap. These are aftermarket "flipped" U-bolts, so I couldn't just waltz up to the Toyota parts counter for replacements. What was I to do?

Some quick internet-searching revealed that my best option was a local axle and suspension shop. For less than $50, I walked out with four brand-new 9/16" U-bolts; perfectly bent, threaded, and cut to length. These are far beefier than the mangled U-Bolts I had been trying to save with a thread file, plus they came with some seriously heavy-duty washers and nuts. If you live in the SFV/SGV area, I can wholeheartedly recommend Rite-Way Axle and Suspension for your U-bolts. (And if you live somewhere else that's populated, there's probably a shop near you that can do the same!)



After some inconclusive forum-searching, I somewhat arbitrarily decided to torque my oversized U-bolt nuts to 80 ft-lbs, but not to apply any thread locker. I'll plan to re-torque them at the next oil change for good measure, then maybe spray them down with some brake cleaner and spray paint, since they aren't otherwise plated or passivated.

With everything bolted together, the bed loaded with all my gear again, and a few test drives under my belt, here was the final result:



I measured a 2" increase in clearance from the ground to the wheel wells on both sides of the truck. It might be hard to see the difference, but on the road, I immediately felt an improvement. Instead of riding the bump stops constantly, and feeling every pebble on the road through the back axle, I now have a couple inches of spring/shock travel before the bumpers kick in.

I can drive so much faster over speed bumps now; I'm sure to get the best parking spot at the shopping mall!!!

And just like that, now I want longer springs and shocks...


Skid plate:

In the same black Friday spending spree, I also ordered AllPro's transfer case skid. Now that I finally have all 3 AllPro skids, I can finally start building houses and maybe someday a hotel! Here are the highlights of the skid install.

I started by cleaning and degreasing the skid in my driveway:



Then I cleaned the whole thing with a dental pick under a microscope, before bead-blasting it and then boiling it in a vat of trichloroethylene for 6 days. When it was finally ready for paint, I made the obvious choice to have it professionally powdercoated:



For a final touch, I had a center section of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling mural surgically grafted onto the surfaces of my skid plate, resulting in the ultimate final appearance:



Then I bolted it to my truck and smashed it into rocks for the rest of the year. Great success!


Here is one such trip:

https://youtu.be/Xa84D69dj-w

 

Project: steering rack

I first noticed the stains on the driveway about a year ago: Steering fluid was leaking from the passenger-side rack boot. Step one was to ignore it for several months. Then, as the leak worsened, I made sure to top off the fluid before each trip. But after getting lost on the way to a shopping mall, I found myself on a rocky truck trail near Death Valley with no power steering. And that was no fun at all.


So, it was time to replace the steering rack. The OEM part is like a thousand dollars, so I went with a reman. Here's the bill of parts:

• Steering rack: A-1 Cardone 262629, $433 (I've since discovered a far better option: take your own OEM rack to your local machine shop and have it professionally rebuilt for far less money. More on this below.)
• Steering rack bushings: Energy Suspension 810106G, $51. (Not recommended for new/reman racks, unless you have a substantially better-equipped shop than I do... whereas if you're having your own rack rebuilt, then these are a great upgrade!)
• Outer tie rod ends: Toyota 45046-09340, $39 each (x2)
• Additional repair upon inspection: Sway bar links: Moog K80946 and K80948, $31 each. (Both of mine had shredded boots.)
• Two quarts of Dex 3 transmission fluid. This was surprisingly frustrating to find, because every bottle on the shelf claims to be compatible with and superior to every other type of transmission fluid ever invented. Yet clearly there are different families of fluids, and I wish I had a way of knowing which one was closest to the formulation that Toyota intended for this truck. I went with the parts-store brand with the shortest compatibility list that still included Dex 3.

• As an “upgrade” I also added a Magnefine 3/8" Magnetic Inline Transmission/Power Steering Filter, and fabricated a crude support bracket to install it in the return line below the reservoir.

Here are the instructions that I (mostly) followed:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/05-v6-tacoma-steering-rack-bushing-replacement.289436/


Here are my additional words of wisdom regarding this repair:

1. Do not skimp on safety. You never know when an earthquake might strike! (This was the 7.1 up by Ridgecrest, initially reported as a 6.9.) I'm lucky it was very mild by me. To be honest I didn't even feel it, but yes, I was on my back wrenching under the truck when it struck -- I checked the security cameras. Sadly, some guy in NV wasn't so lucky and was crushed by his Jeep. Anyway, double up on jackstands, or maybe slide your wheels under the frame. I did both after I realized why my wife came running out to check on me.



2. Move ALL the hoses out of the way, as much as possible without disconnecting them, and zip tie them out of the way. This means removing several hose brackets from the engine block, and one from the passenger frame rail.

3. I recommend unbolting the A/C compressor instead of cutting the driver's side rack bolt—I didn’t have a new bolt to replace it. First, un-tension the serpentine belt and slip it off the A/C pulley. Then, there are (4) bolts (12mm hex) holding the compressor to the engine block, accessed from the driver’s wheel well. The rear upper bolt is a PITA to reach, but doable with a regular combination wrench. Unplug the gray electrical connector for better access. Then, you can push the whole compressor upwards and rearwards to move the A/C hoses out of the way. This buys you 1-2” of additional clearance above the rack bolt -- just enough space to remove it without cutting it.

4. Do you really need the urethane bushings? Swapping out the bushings was by far the hardest part of this project, and took longer than the rest of the work combined. One side went okay, but on the other, I literally tore the flange to shreds with the pickle fork, then had to burn out the remaining rubber with a torch, and finally bore the sleeve until it was thin enough to peel from the housing. By the time I was done, I felt like a complete idiot for waging war on the perfectly good rubber bushings that came pre-installed in the rack. If I could go back in time, I would leave them alone!

This is another advantage of having your rack locally rebuilt. Drop off your fancy ES bushings with your core, and have them installed instead of the default rubber bushings. It's a win-win for you and your machinist. Plus, you won't have to immediately void the warranty on your new or remanufactuerd rack to get the benefits of polyurethane bushings.

5. Flush the P/S pump. Unbolting the lines from the rack already drains most of the fluid in the system, but why not also flush the pump? First, pour a bit of fresh steering fluid into the reservoir. It will drain through the return line straight to your drip pan, and should quickly run clear (red). Then, plug the end of this line and re-fill the reservoir. Turn the pump pulley (in the correct direction) by hand to flush its internals with the fresh fluid. I did two reservoirs full, and definitely got some grimy fluid out of the system. Finally, don't forget to clean the screen at the bottom of the reservoir!


6. Add a filter in the P/S fluid return line (below the reservoir).

You have to cut into the rubber hose, but there's plenty of space to mount a Magnefine filter just above the passenger frame rail (green arrow in photo). That also gives you a convenient way to secure it, by making a bracket out of a bent piece of steel as shown (red arrow). To complete the job, I used a hose clamp to secure the filter to the bracket.



7. Do your best to align your wheels during re-assembly. My original tie rod ends were pretty far misaligned – 9 turns on the driver side, 16 on the passenger– so I decided to scrap the original alignment and try my best from scratch. With the wheel centered (where it had been seat-belted since the start of the project), I eyeballed across the brake rotors (snugged down to the hub with a few lug nuts) to point the wheels straight with respect to the center of the rear tires. Wound up needing 12 turns of thread engagement on each tie rod end, and it drove perfectly straight during my test drive.

Although I of course had it aligned soon afterwards.

I like this alignment shop.​

8. While re-filling the steering fluid with the engine off, when you are moving the wheel back and forth from lock to lock, don’t immediately refill the level back to “MAX” on the reservoir. Just add enough to keep it from running dry. I kept filling mine to max, then when I started the engine, it overflowed everywhere!

9. I had a negative experience with Rock Auto on this one, and lost my $200 core deposit. I am not without blame there, but I was really disappointed by their total lack of interest in dealing with my situation, and moreover was appalled by the total lack of customer support options they offer vs. any other mainstream online retailer. There is literally no human to call when things go wrong, for any reason, ever.

Maybe that's what the future holds, and someday we'll just buy everything from gigantic robotic vending machines with no option of human interaction. But that's not the future I want, so for now I am avoiding Rock Auto and recommending you do the same.

But as result of this experience, I stumbled upon a much better option for getting a re-manufactured steering rack: Have a local machine shop rebuild yours!



Since I was stuck with my old core, I had it rebuilt at Valley Machine in Sun Valley CA for $165 out the door. They replaced all the seals and boots, cleaned it up, and repainted it. I'm sure I could have had urethane bushings installed as well. It cost less than the cheapest parts-chain or online reman unit, with no shipping fees, no extra taxes, no core-charge BS, and no getting screwed over by Rock Auto.

I wound up deciding to sell off my rebuilt rack, since I don't think I'll need another one any time soon. But I wish I had gone this route in the first place!

 

Trip report: Canyonlands and the Alpine Superloop


In this, the first major camping trip we’ve taken with this truck, we head for Canyonlands National Park in Utah--our first real off-road experience in this amazing state, and our first taste of what the Moab area has to offer. From there, we head to more familiar territory in our home state of Colorado, where we are running what I am presumptively calling the “Alpine Superloop,’ which means we’re traveling the well-known Alpine Loop, but starting and ending in Telluride via Imogene and Black Bear passes. Not everything went to plan, but we had an epic time, and have undoubtedly raised the bar for future adventures!



Acknowledgements:

I’d like to acknowledge @turbodb ’s excellent narrative of his trip to the Needles District earlier this year, which inspired my decision to visit this area in addition to our originally planned destination of the San Juans. I also acknowledge his trip reports and photography in general, for inspiring my present attempt to document this adventure to a comparable degree of detail below.

I thank my in-laws for loaning us their GoPro camera, which helped with the creation of the videos. Finally, I thank my wife, for putting up with me during this trip as well as at all other times.


Contents:

· Prologue / departure day
· Day 1: Monument Valley & Bears Ears
· Day 2: Manti-La Sal NF, Beef Basin, and Canyonlands N.P.
· Day 3: Elephant Hill, driving to Colorado, and Imogene Pass
· Day 4: The Alpine Loop
· Day 5: Black Bear Pass & the trip home

 

San Juans ’19 trip report, part 1: Prologue and Departure Day

Prologue: I’ve had this trip planned for months. I’ve spent countless lunch breaks panning across satellite imagery, daydreaming hopelessly about every conceivable point of interest and side trip, and trying in vain to find the perfect route to visit them all. The hotel room was booked, time off had been granted, backcountry permits had been printed and signed, and my living room was littered with empty boxes--the result of a gleeful yet reckless spending spree in anticipation of our first real expedition in our still-mostly-new-to-us truck. We have an electric fridge to replace our slush-bucket cooler, a proper camp table and chairs, a propane campfire, and countless dollar-bin gadgets and trinkets. Plus, I splurged on an entry-level flying camera in hopes of getting some better photos and footage of our adventures, and I’m hoping to learn how to use it on this trip.

I wish I could afford a brand-name camping fridge, but even this budget model is a vast improvement over our cheapo plastic cooler. Gone are the days of playing soggy roulette with food-borne illness! ​

But with only two days remaining to our planned departure, things are suddenly looking doubtful, because of this slight problem with my truck:



The problem here is that my engine is disassembled, and the cylinder heads are sitting in cardboard boxes in the garage. I’m not even certain that I can put the engine back together at all, much less in two days. Oh, and I have to work both days. Shit.


Departure day: The engine finally roared to life around 4PM. It purred for several joyous minutes while I checked for leaks and error codes, but then it began lugging and smelling way-too-hot, while the radiator remained cold to the touch. Had I left a chunk of packing foam in the new radiator or water pump? Did I screw up the thermostat somehow? I was about to cry tears of defeat. Luckily a final burp of air emerged from the funnel atop the radiator, and the coolant began to flow freely. My engine worked! I couldn’t have been happier… but there was no time to celebrate my first successful major engine repair. In fact, there was no conceivable way we’d be ready to go by 5PM as planned. I still needed to reassemble the bed drawers, install the topper, and of course… actually pack for the trip. Also, I had to deal with some of the random problems that came up, such as how we couldn’t access the bed lights or power outlets without modifying our “Decked” drawer cubbies a bit:



By the time we were loaded up and rolling down the driveway, it was 10PM. I’d barely slept in days. We’d never make it to our hotel room in Arizona, and now my poor wife was stuck at the wheel. She hates driving at night.

In a fleeting moment of lucidity, I phoned the hotel to let them know we wouldn’t make it, and then booked a new room in Needles, two hours closer, but still three hours away. And that’s the last I remember of departure day.

(Sorry, wife!)

 

San Juans ’19 trip report, part 2: Monument Valley & Bears Ears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRDEdAOnHMs​

Arising well-rested in Needles, we hit the road eastbound by about 9 AM. But we were soon led astray by the Cracker Barrel in Kingman and its array of healthy breakfast options, which led to a far-worse decision to stock up on camp food at the nearby Walmart afterwards. As we discovered, this is the worst possible type of store for en-route provisioning, and we lost over two hours to its convoluted maze of inconceivably barren shelves and its inexplicably slow checkout process, only to emerge confused, angry at each other, and lacking several key items on our list.

Lesson learned: Do not stop at a mega box store to provision on the road. The best option is to stock up before leaving town, of course, but if you don’t, you are better off stopping at a truck stop or a 7-Eleven. They might not have everything, but neither does a mega box store. The only difference is that the smaller store can tell you what items are sold out or not stocked, whereas it’ll take 20 minutes at the mega box store just to determine where the item is supposed to be, and half the time, the shelf is empty anyway.

The original plan was to stop at Monument Valley in the afternoon, then to catch sunset at Natural Bridges. But with our late start and subsequent delays, we were lucky just to make it to the tribal park with a few minutes of sunlight remaining. Not that I’m complaining – Monument Valley was absolutely beautiful as the setting sun gave way to dusk!



If you’re ever passing by this area on 163, don’t be dissuaded by the hokey-looking billboards. (Or as I did, drive past them, assuming that the “real” park would be indicated by the drab-brown retro-reflective signage typical of the U.S. national park system.) This is a legitimate tribal park offering spectacular views of perhaps the most-iconic landscape of the American west, as well as countless opportunities to interact with Navajo people who live and work in this area. I wish only that we had more time for the latter during our brief visit.



On the other hand, this isn’t exactly a back country adventure, and the constantly flickering brake lights of the distracted tourists crowding these roads were only slightly more tolerable than those of the brain-dead Prius drivers thwarting my commute every weekday back home. This is not a place to race across the desert – it’s a place to chill out and take in the views with other tourists.



Our last stop in civilization was to refuel at Mexican Hat. Sadly, in darkness, we didn’t get to see the reason why this town has such a funny name (another excuse to come back someday!) But with the gas tank full (and double-checking the jerry cans), we charged northward towards for our first night of camping in Manti-Lasal NF.

Along the way, we encountered a spectacular section of switchbacks on Utah 261 climbing out of the San Juan valley, which according to my Big Internet Company map service is called the Moki Dugway. Even in darkness, the steep grades, hairpin turns, and near-vertical surfaces at either side of the roadway brought to my imagination visions of vast desert landscapes stretching below (and above) us. That’s not to suggest that it’s scary or dangerous (like the clickbait claims) – it’s a wide, immaculately graded roadway built for gigantic mining trucks. But it’s certainly worthy of revisiting in daylight!



We set up camp somewhere near Bears Ears. It wasn’t one of the sites I had scoped out in advance, but as it turned out, I had forgotten to download any of the trip’s GPS data to our mobile devices prior to leaving cell coverage. So with that in mind, I’m pretty happy we found a campsite at all.

 

San Juans ’19 trip report, part 3: Manti-La Sal, Beef Basin, & Canyonlands NP

As we emerged from our slumber and began cooking breakfast, our once-tranquil campsite was quickly inundated by yellow jackets. I guess this was another failure of my planning, to consider what types of swarming insects would pester us this time of year. Or maybe we were just unlucky and picked a spot near a massive nest. I soon found myself assembling and devouring my breakfast burrito whilst briskly jogging around the camp site, hoping that I had managed to roll together its partially cooked ingredients without enveloping at least one of these winged vermin. Immediately abandoning our hopes of enjoying the rest of our morning at camp, we tossed our remaining breakfast into the fire pit in an attempt to distract the swarm long enough to throw our gear in the bed and head out. So much for a leisurely morning.



Traversing the well-graded roads of Manti-Lasal National Forest northward was easy, but finding our way to Beef Basin and Canyonlands seemed impossible owing to my complete lack of preparation for the task of navigation. In my haste to leave home, I had forgotten to download or print so much as a single map of our route, so I was left to rely only on the compass and my fading memories of having exuberantly planned the trip several months prior.



By the grace of god, we were able to reach the first major crossroads by memory alone, whereupon we encountered a helpful group of ranchers that pointed us in the correct direction for the next intersection. A few miles further, we stumbled upon a well-stocked information kiosk that provided us with a motherlode of maps and forest information, which I shall cherish for as long as I live.



Special Note to the men and women of the Monticello Ranger District of the Manti-Lasal NF. I really enjoyed my visit to the public lands that you manage. The map kiosk along Elk Mountain Road was a practical lifesaver for our trip. Thank you!


It’s refreshing to visit areas of the country where public lands are managed effectively, by competent people, acting genuinely in the interest of the public. The nearest forest to my temporary home in SoCal (that is, Angeles NF) seems to operate quite differently, in unbridled contempt for the public, striving to close every road, to ban every activity, and to extort visitors with unconstitutional fees at every opportunity. But I guess I’m off topic again...



With paper maps in hand, our progress quickened. In fact, I would not make any more wrong turns, and my only remaining blunder of the day would be to thoroughly smoke my brakes during the descent into Beef Basin, owing to the excellent condition of the forest roads, and the constant distraction of the spectacular desert vistas unfolding around us.



Soon, we had descended into Beef Basin, a picturesque stretch of BLM land stretching from the northern reach of Manti-Lasal to the southern border of Canyonlands.



The landscape here was breathtaking, and trail conditions ranged from slow-going yet easy rocky sections, to smooth sand straightaways suitable for warp-speed travel.





The skies teased us with illusions of approaching rain, but a brisk wind brushed the clouds away just as we approached the turnoff for Canyonlands.



This route would take us to the south entrance of Canyonlands’ Needles District via Bobby’s Hole, a steep yet easy descent from the lower reaches of Beef Basin into the first of the national park’s countless namesake attractions. Apparently, the condition of Bobby’s Hole varies greatly from year to year, and without doubt, this route would be much harder in the uphill direction. But for the record, during our visit in September 2019, the downhill direction posed no challenge for our truck, and it looked like the uphill drive would have been possible with careful line selection and spotting.





Soon we were at the park gate. Progress thereafter was generally quick, especially without the distraction of the now-forbidden flying camera, and we raced along the park’s smooth sand doubletracks between increasingly challenging and noteworthy obstacles such as the one below, which brought me out of the cab several times to find a suitable line.





Pictured above are the Silver Steps. Although this area isn’t particularly technical, I frequently lost sight of the terrain over the hood, so I was constantly hopping out to double check for hazards, or just to figure out which way the trail went after each crest. Travelling solo, we couldn’t risk becoming stranded by a stupid mistake. We hadn’t seen another human since early that morning, and as it turned out, we wouldn’t see another until we were on our way out of the park the following day. We had the place to ourselves!



The view from the confluence overlook was easily worth the short hike!



By the time we returned to the truck, the sun was already approaching the horizon. We backtracked to our camp site just in time to catch the final phases of a beautiful sunset.


2020 UPDATE: Canyonlands now forbids attaching or hanging anything from vegetation in the park. That includes LED light strings like shown above. I like the picture too much to take it down, but... don't do this!

Our elevation was now several thousand feet lower than last night’s camp, and we realized that the temperature, skies, and lack of flying insects were perfect for open-air camping. We lowered the soft topper to sleep under the mostly-full moon. But before we retired for the night, we commissioned our propane campfire to cook our dinner and dessert, and to satisfy the innate human desire to sit around the flickering incandescence of hydrocarbon combustion whilst camping.

Special thanks to 90.1 KZMU, Moab Community Radio, for serving up a totally unexpected yet utterly perfect playlist for our evening at camp. It was hard to turn it off, but the near silence of open-air camping in the desert made for the ultimate coda to the day’s soundtrack.

 

San Juans ’19 trip report, part 4: Elephant Hill & the trek to Colorado

The Utah sunrise was every bit as spectacular as the sunset that preceded it. We broke camp in good spirits, then cruised around the Devil’s Kitchen loop before heading eastward towards the park entrance by mid-day.



We then encountered the first group of vehicles we’d seen since the prior morning. One of them was a blue Jeep that we would see again at the end of our trip, descending Black Bear Pass! Somehow they recognized us from this chance encounter at Canyonlands.



Soon we were upon Elephant Hill, one of the most exciting and memorable segments of the trip.



We were approaching Elephant Hill from the “back” side, which is far steeper than the front. This is probably the steepest road I’ve ever driven, and certainly it’s the most freaked-out I’ve ever seen my wife on our adventures. God bless her for putting up with me and my hobbies.



After a steep approach, the switchbacks become too tight for turning around. Instead, you have to reverse between the two hairpins.



Hopping out at a higher switchback to plan my course, I heard the distant sound of vehicles approaching from above. Crap! It would be a total shit show if I met them here.



I sprinted to the top of the hill, flailing my arms to catch the attention of the descending vehicles. Luckily I caught the leader’s attention just before he had had passed the point of no return. Both vehicles pulled aside to wait for me. But as soon as I returned to my truck, gasping for breath, I found my driving skills to be suddenly paralyzed by the knowledge that random strangers were watching from above. Their friendly gaze was like kryptonite to my coordination. So I rushed to climb the rest of the hill as fast as possible, with lots of unnecessary tire spinning along the way, and no more breaks for pictures. But ultimately we made it up in once piece!



The rest of the trail was a cakewalk by comparison, and we soon found ourselves on the final descent to the parking lot and civilization beyond.



All that was left was to air up and hit the highway to our next destination: Colorado!



And soon we had arrived at said border:



But where the heck were the gas stations? We had been back on pavement for hours it seemed, but as the fuel gauge dipped further and further into uncharted territory, we passed small town after small town without sighting so much as a single gas pump. We finally lucked out in Naturita, some 120 miles after leaving the dirt roads of Canyonlands. The last 30 minutes had been like walking on eggshells, as I expected the engine to sputter out at any moment. But we made it without needing to rely on the Jerry Cans in the bed… and knowing I had another 5 gallons of fuel made for reasonable travel speeds despite this uncertainty!



For those pondering the drive from Canyonlands to the San Juans, I would recommend taking the southern route through Monticello, for a much closer opportunity to refuel, and a less stressful drive into Colorado.



Here is where our trip took another deviation from plans. My wife was coming down with a cold. We had already tried a day-long regimen of denial, but it was time to face the facts: Camping in the San Juans was not going to happen. So instead, we lined up a hotel room in Ouray. And rather than heading there via Telluride and Imogene Pass as planned, we drove straight to Ouray so I could drop her off and buy her some cold medicine. With the remaining daylight, I raced alone up the back side of Imogene pass, wondering how far I could get before the sun set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN9IfkhNg4Q

Traffic was as dense as I’d ever seen on this route, but by no means did it detract from my enjoyment of the evening drive.







There are many side trails and mines to explore, and at one point I wound up lost at a dead-end trail to a mine shaft far below the actual pass. No complaints here though, the views were spectacular.





I reached the summit just in time for the sunset, and after stopping for some photography, I decided to turn back rather than to press on to Telluride in fleeting daylight. With camping off the table, and the remainder of our food protected by compressor-cycle refrigeration in the back seat, I had my sights set on dining out in Ouray that evening.





Here is an interesting panorama the flying camera produced at the summit:



Even this ridiculous picture doesn’t do justice to the jaw-dropping beauty and surreal vastness of this place.



I was bummed not to explore the Telluride side of Imogene Pass this year, but I wanted to make sure I’d be back in Ouray in time for dinner … and most of that town shuts down by 9PM if not earlier!



So with that I raced back to Ouray just in time for last call at the Brewery. I’m not claiming it’s the best brewery or restaurant in the Rockies, but it’s one of my favorites, and no trip to Ouray is complete without enjoying a cheeseburger and a fresh beer at its rooftop!



The final order of business for the day was to jumper the accessory relay to keep the fridge running overnight. Up until now, we’ve been able to leave the keys in the ignition all night at camp. But it would seem foolish to do so at a hotel parking lot. Someday I’ll fix the wiring to keep the fridge outlet on all the time, but for now, I just needed to bypass the relay with a short length of wire:



Interestingly, and appropriately, a police officer approached me as I was working under my hood. I didn’t even know Ouray had its own police department, but I’ve never been so happy to be caught off guard by a lawman. I don’t know whether he thought I might be stealing a car, or getting ready to drive one in my clearly inebriated state, but by the time I explained what I was doing and shook his hand, I realized that I had nothing to fear when it came to leaving a bed full of camping gear unsecured in the motel parking night that evening. Add this to the ever-growing list of reasons of why I love visiting Ouray!

 

San Juans ’19 trip report, part 5: The Alpine Loop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9zLjPmiEZ4​

I enjoyed breakfast in bed with my still-sick wife. By mid-morning, I had wished her well, then departed on my own for the day. My destination: the Alpine Loop.



This rugged yet well-travelled network of high-country passes is easily one of the most scenic drives in America for 4x4ers and off-highway-vehicle crowds alike, and I will never grow weary of visiting this place.



My trip started with a brief jog southward on US 550 (the “Million Dollar Highway.”) Along the way is a particularly spectacular waterfall, whose splendor has been enhanced by yet another example of Colorado’s commitment to tastefully functional highway engineering:



Not far from this waterfall, we begin our off-pavement journey eastward, following the Mineral Creek trail:





Mineral Creek appears to have been regraded since my first visit many years ago, although it’s hard to be certain, since I also have a lot more off-road experience under my belt since then (and a more-nimble truck!) This trip, it seemed no more difficult than Imogene Pass had been the day before.



In my excitement I missed the turnoff for Poughkeepsie Gulch, where I was hoping to use my winch for the first time out of actual necessity, but I wasn’t too disappointed because this gave me more time to explore the mining and ghost town ruins at Mineral Point:









There is no place on earth I’d rather be than the high country of the San Juans. Whenever my spirit is being battered by the reality of day-to-day life, and my will begins crumbling beneath the relentless torment of human existence, it is the memories of this place that help me find tranquility, and the dreams of returning here that help me face a new day.





Next, I began the climb to the summit of Engineer pass, at 12,800 feet elevation. While by no means challenging, this stretch of trail is astoundingly beautiful, and with every visit, the terrain reveals itself in a new gamut of color that I can scarcely comprehend much less capture through my feeble attempts at photography.



(although to be clear, I’m photoshopping the heck out of these images in hopes of conveying even a fraction of the beauty that I witnessed on this drive!)



Intermittent rain showers, punctuated by glimpses of sunlight, danced across the skies throughout this journey. The temperature at the pass was damn-near freezing according to my outside air temperature gauge. I was impressed by my flying camera’s ability to fight through the gusts of wind whipping over the pass.



There are numerous points of interest on the descent from Engineer Pass to Lake City, including the ruins of the Bonanza Chief mill:



This one actually survived until 2008, when it was crushed by an avalanche! Connoisseurs of irony will appreciate how even the informational sign posts now show apparent signs of avalanche damage.





In fact, this was one of the most avalanche-littered sections of Colorado jeep trail I’ve ever seen, and it was hard not to stop to appreciate the absurd magnitude of destruction from time to time.





Another area of interest is the Ute-Ulay mine, and the remains of the concrete arch dam that once powered this massive complex.





Soon, I was in Lake City, the other terminus of the Alpine loop. Sadly, I had missed business hours at my favorite barbeque joint in town, but I at least was able to fuel up.



I returned to Ouray via Cinnamon Pass, California Pass, Hurricane Pass, and Corkscrew Pass, finally emerging on US 550 at the former townsite of Ironton. The ascent to the first pass starts as a long and easy graded road past Lake San Cristobal and the American Basin area.



Near the top, the road becomes bumpy, with tight switchbacks, reaching 12,640 ft. elevation.



Here, I nearly lost my flying camera to the treacherous winds lurking just above the pass. No sooner had taken off and hopped into the comfort of the cab, than I realized that the camera had already been whisked half a mile downwind, and that nothing I could do would bring it any closer! I wound up having to dive it down to within a few feet of ground level, then follow the roadway back up to my position, which I accomplished just as the battery was running on empty. Every time I ascended maybe 10 or 20 feet above the ground, the poor thing was again whisked away by winds faster than its rotors could fight. It was quite the adventure in aerial photography, and my first white-knuckle experience with this camera.



It is a comparatively short descent from Cinnamon Pass to our next stop, the ghost town of Animas Forks. Just west of Animas Forks is the impressive Frisco Mill:





Ascending into California Gulch, I opted to skip the numerous side treks to mining ruins to the south, hoping instead to make it back to pavement by the light of day, and to Ouray in time for last call at my favorite drinking and dining establishment.


California Pass (12,960 ft.):





Hurricane Pass (12,730 ft.):



(Sorry for the increasingly cheesy Photoshop effects on these photos… I botched the original exposures in the fading light conditions, and this is honestly the closest I can come to replicating the spectacular views I experienced!)


Corkscrew pass (12,240 ft.):


The sunset from Corkscrew Pass was spectacular.





And to top off my evening, I made it back to town just in time for dinner, which I enjoyed with my wife, now in better health and spirit!

 

San Juans ’19 trip report, part 6: Black Bear Pass

After checking out of the hotel in Ouray, we had one more trail to visit before starting the long drive home: Black Bear Pass.

https://youtu.be/aZrzwhEIe5s

On our way to the trailhead, we stopped to admire the bizarre color of a stream just below Ironton, another sign of the area’s rich yet environmentally disastrous mining heritage.



The trail begins near the summit of Red Mountain Pass on US 550.



Black Bear Pass is a somewhat infamous Jeep trail--perhaps the best-known trail in Colorado. It is famous for its narrow shelf sections and steep switchbacks descending into Telluride, and the spectacular views of nearby Ingram and Bridal Veil Falls.



Due to the tight switchbacks, lack of turnouts, and enormous popularity, this section of the trail is one-way only. And due to its reputation, I hadn’t driven it in the past, out of fear that my prior (full size) trucks would have had trouble at the switchbacks.



While I can attest to the spectacular pucker-factor of driving this trail, it isn’t particularly technical, and I saw a lot of full sized trucks up there anyway. I still wouldn’t recommend this trail for novice drivers though!

The drive to the summit is easy-going and almost exclusively above tree line, and is fairly short in length compared to other high passes in this area, since it begins at the 11,000 ft. summit of Red Mountain Pass.



The pass itself reaches 12,840 ft. elevation. The views are expansive, but seemed a bit bland compared to many of the other passes in the area, at least under late-morning sunlight on this cloudless day.







The descent into Telluride is the more challenging section of this trail, but first there are several miles of beautiful alpine meadows to traverse.







The most challenging section of the trail are the “steps,” where the scenery transitions from alpine meadows to scary shelf road in the blink of an eye. As the trail creeps perilously along a ledge above Ingram Falls, we get our first full view of the immense Telluride valley floor thousands of feet below.



But on approach to the steps, we encountered a bit of a traffic jam.



It turns out that a biker had just gone over the edge, so there was a rescue effort underway just ahead! There were dozens of vehicles and hikers milling about, but as I made my way forward (on foot), I learned that, luckily, the biker was okay and was already being driven (or perhaps even riding) to the bottom.



I caught glimpse of this 2nd gen nearer the front of the traffic jam.



One by one, each vehicle slowly descended the steps, and it was soon our turn. Lucky for us, we were following an experienced driver in a blue Jeep that we had by chance encountered days earlier at Canyonlands. Thanks, blue Jeep people – hope to see you on the trail again someday!



Just below the steps, we paused to admire Ingram Falls and the view of the valley below.



The upper switchbacks were indeed incredibly tight, and at least a few of them required 5 point turns! Even my access cab’s modest wheelbase seemed unwieldy here, and I wound up riding my sidewalls around some pretty sketchy rocks (thank god for E range tires!) I was finally getting the hang of it just as the switchbacks opened up on the lower sections of the road, and before long we were at the fork in the road leading to the powerhouse above the falls.



If I was a superhero, I’d live at the Telluride powerhouse. This place looks epic! It took some serious self-control not to fly the camera near it, but it is clearly private property, and is probably already inundated by a constant flux of tourist BS.



No longer a one-way Jeep trail, the final section of Black Bear Pass was a total shitshow, even on this early-fall weekday morning. Range Rovers and G-class Mercedes littered the roadway, abandoned by their fantastically wealthy occupants in favor of striding past us in the latest most-pretentious sportswear, glaring at us with uniquely Telluridian disdain. But hey, if I was that rich, I’d hate me too!



We aired up at the gas station west of town. As much as I love to make fun of Telluride for being the douchebag capital of the universe, their gas station is totally awesome. Free air, clean bathrooms, and all the junkfood you’ll ever need for the long trip home. The only problem is that the walls are covered with some of the most interesting maps of Colorado I’ve ever seen, so I always wind up buying one to take home!



The drive home was uneventful, although I made terrible gas mileage thanks to a stiff headwind and my obstinately unrealistic timeline for the journey, which meant much of the trip was spent hunting between 3rd and 4th gears just to maintain speed. Perhaps this truck needs a supercharger after all. Anyway, I’ll end our report with the above photo of the Arizona sunset that graced our final evening of travel. Can’t wait to come back next year!

Note 1: My comments regarding Telluride are satirical. This is a wonderful town, and my only legitimate gripe is that its rapid progression towards becoming the next Aspen is far outpacing my ability to accumulate wealth, so I’ll probably never fulfill my lifelong dream of being able to live there.

Note 2: If you are visiting this area and are intimidated by Black Bear Pass, as I was during my prior visits, another great option for connecting Telluride to the US 550 corridor is Ophir Pass, just a short distance to the south. It is astoundingly beautiful in its own right, and in my humble opinion, is the more scenic of the two, although that perspective may be tainted by the bland skies that prevailed during our traversal of Black Bear. It certainly lacks the insane switchbacks and waterfalls, but is less intimidating to drive, plus it can be driven in either direction. Here are a few pictures from prior visits:







Note 3: Following the rich Coloradan tradition of pronouncing things in unexpected ways, here is how the locals pronounce the names of these passes:

• Ophir: oh-fir (not oh-fear)
• Imogene: I’ma-jean (not emma-jean)

 

Reserved: Wheel hubs and needle bearing write-up

Write-up underway, but here is the cheat sheet for this job:



Important update: For the (4) 17mm bolts that hold the hub assembly to your spindle, don't bother with crow's foot socket adapters and a torque wrench trying to hit 59 ft-lbs as listed above. Get a long, high-quality, 17mm wrench, then torque that shit as hard as you possibly can. 59 ft-lbs is fake news!

I bought a set of crow's foot socket adapters and did the math to ensure I torqued all (8) of these to exactly 59 ft-lbs, within the accuracy of my torque wrench. Plus, the screws in question came with a red threadlocking compound pre-applied (at least if you buy them from the hub assembly guy on this forum--highly recommended!)

But a month later, just after a long trip to some of this state's most desolate back-country... one of the bolts backed out so far that it started striking the wheel studs as I drove! Luckily, this happened just as I was pulling up to GlorifiedWelder's shop earlier this year, and he basically diagnosed the problem by ear, before there was a chance for a lot of damage to occur. We fixed it in his parking lot. But if I were just slightly less lucky, I could have destroyed my hub/spindle, or perhaps even lost control and crashed if the wheel locked up while careening around Death Valley the prior weekend.

Once again, do not stop at 59 ft-lbs when torqueing the (4) 17mm hex screws that hold your hub assembly to the spindle. They will back out!

I'm not sure what the correct torque value is, but I'm pretty sure it should be measured in hernias, not foot-pounds.



Correction (2020 revisit): Hub/axle nut is 35mm, not 38mm, sorry.

 

Mojave Road trip report: Day 1

https://youtu.be/SmrYvScpgbU

The Mojave Road is in my figurative back yard, so we had no excuse not to tackle it with our final free three-day weekend of 2019. Unlike our prior adventure, this time I not only remembered to download some offline maps of the region prior to leaving cellular data coverage, but I even had the foresight to order my own copy of Dennis Casebier’s Mojave Road Guide -- much of which I had read prior to starting the trip. I had also researched a number of other destinations that weren’t exactly on the Mojave Trail, but seemed worth deviating from its canonical path to explore along the way. Ultimately, we decided to run the trail “backwards,” from west to east, to make best use of the limited daylight this time of year.



We also stepped up our provisioning game, resolute in our desire to never again waste prime daylight hours wandering the inexplicably barren isles of a Super Walmart in search of some kingpin meal ingredient that we’d never find. We planned out each meal in advance, bought the ingredients on familiar turf, and had the truck fridge packed and chilled by the night prior to our departure. We had another card up our sleeves as well – a set of stacking plastic bins for non-perishable food and cookware storage, rather than the “random plastic grocery bag” system that had so thoroughly failed us on our last trip. These bins turned out to have another great advantage at camp: they gave us a lot more table-like surface area for meal prep and fireside lounging:



Finally, to avoid another habitual late start, we forced ourselves to pack up and leave home Friday night. The goal wasn’t so much to cover ground, but to escape the trap of Friday-night procrastination and Saturday-morning snoozing that normally costs us several hours of daylight. So we fought our way through Friday-evening traffic to crash at the in-laws' place, just a bit closer to the trailhead. Recharged by a good night's sleep and hot showers in the morning, we hit the then-empty freeways around 7AM. The sun was already well above the horizon, but this was definitely our earliest start yet!



Our first stop was to fuel up at Eddie World– apparently the largest gas station in California. Worth a stop, but it’s no Buc-ee’s! Next up was Peggy Sue's Diner for a proper breakfast. Which, by the way, is: Steak, eggs, and coffee. On our way out of town we admired the original Del Taco (which is no longer a Del Taco), and I bought a box of firewood from a local worm farm. Soon we were underway to the next destination: The Lake Delores Waterpark



I first set eyes on the abandoned Lake Dolores waterpark perhaps ten years ago. It was in far better condition then, with glistening waterslides beckoning to me each time I flew past it on the nearby freeway. This fleeting moment of intrigue was a welcome distraction from the monotony of weekend Vegas traffic. I wish I had taken the time to explore it then, or perhaps in an alternate life, to have partied there when it hosted an early EDC music festival in its heyday.



Today, little remains of the park’s water features except for graffiti-layered concrete structures and a handful of dead-end stair platforms, rising from the barren hillside like forgotten effigies to whatever marvelous attractions once drew flocks of people to this bizarre outpost of civilization. I tried to imagine the sights and the sounds of a flourishing waterpark out here in the middle of nowhere, but all that greeted my senses this day was the silence of a forgotten city decaying in the relentless desert sun. And the drone of the nearby freeway of course.



We picked up the Mojave Trail not far from its western terminus at Camp Cady, stopping first at the Daggett VORTAC station to air down the tires:



We next headed toward Manix Wash, finding some dead ends along the way. I was already ignoring the maps and trying to follow my intuition and roadside trail markers, and consistently failing on both fronts. As Manix Wash gave way to the Mojave wash, and we descended further along its path, we were eventually joined the Union Pacific railroad to our left. And just before we were forced to follow an underpass beneath the tracks, we were rewarded with a spectacular view of the riparian area at the mouth of Afton Canyon.



Soon we found ourselves at the Afton campground, where we could see several groups camped in various combinations of tents, trailers, and RVs, as well as a handful of welcoming, unoccupied campsites. Without stopping, we agreed to press forward, as we had many hours of daylight remaining, and we now tend to prefer isolated, dispersed camping over the developed campground experience.

After passing by the first (westernmost) railroad bridge, we found ourselves in the only “traffic jam” we’d encounter for the rest of the trip. There was a lengthy submerged section of trail ahead, with several vehicles gathered at either end, but none attempting to traverse it. As I was slowly waved forward by the stopped vehicles, we learned that they were a part of a westbound party that had bypassed the water crossings, and were simply waiting for the remainder of their party to arrive from the east. Thus, there was no traffic jam after all, and we quickly found ourselves at the front of the line, staring at the Mojave River crossing with several sets of curious eyes behind us.



Due to my evidently poor reading comprehension skills, I incorrectly believed that the most challenging water crossing awaited us further down the trail, beneath the second railroad bridge. I thus charged into the Mojave River with little fanfare, confident that the worst was yet to come. But as we approached the far end of the crossing, and the water started splashing onto the hood, I started really worrying about that second water crossing!



We paused after emerging from the puddle to re-evaluate our situation. The high water mark was well above the fender flares on both sides -- I'd guess maybe 38." We had definitely already taken on some water beneath the door seals, so I would need to dry the carpets out at camp that night. The rear differential breather had also clearly been dunked, despite its having been relocated to a bedside… if only the hose had been a few inches longer! I couldn’t really tell how close we’d come to flooding the fuse box, but it didn’t seem like a good idea to push our luck any further than we just had. So, we decided to go check out the second water crossing, expecting to turn back if it looked any worse than the first.



Luckily, I was wrong about the second water crossing. It was nowhere near as deep! No sooner had I breathed that sigh of relief, then I suddenly regretted charging so nonchalantly across the prior crossing… I should have taken more pictures! But ultimately we were glad to be (mostly) dry and safe as we pressed onward through Afton canyon, stopping to admire some of the spectacular cliffs and cave structures along the way after being caught unprepared to photograph an eastbound train that overtook us in the cut. Those gigantic freight trains sure are sneaky!







We reached the third and final railroad bridge at the eastern mouth of the canyon, stopping there for sandwiches, hoping to photograph a passing train as the desert sunlight took on the hue of an autumn afternoon. But sensing our enthusiasm from miles away, trains in both directions must have stopped and hid on sidings, so we eventually gave up and packed away the picnic supplies. That’s just how trains seem to work… I’m sure if we were in a hurry and our path crossed the tracks, then one would have emerged at a crawl to block us.





Entering the Rasor OHV area, the trail became a chaotic free-for-all in a broadening wash, and we found it necessary to occasionally enter GPS coordinates from our guide book into our navigation app to stay generally on course. We started by checking out the Cave Crystal Mine, which is long-abandoned but reasonably interesting for SoCal.



Heading east again and meandering across the soft sands of the Mojave flood plain, the trail eventually cuts north on its approach to Shaw Pass, becoming more easily identifiable as the primary route again. From this vista we glimpsed the distant dry bed of Soda Lake, still dozens of miles away. The trail became firmer, and our progress faster, although deep ruts and whoops every several hundred feet keep us on our toes (and the brake pedal) the whole time.



The sun hung low in the horizon as we approached the eastern boundary of the Rasor OHV area. A cloud of dust stirred up by ATVs swept over us as we waited for all of them too pass us, each one spaced a thousand feet behind the next. Within moments we were entering the Mojave National Preserve, where I planned to camp at the south end of Zyzzyx (Soda Springs), a former desert resort and spa with a fascinating history; now the site of the Desert Studies Center which is run by a consortium of California Universities.



I had scouted out a number of promising camp areas just south of the developed areas of Zyzzyx via satellite and street view imagery, which appeared to offer some shelter from the winds, and views over the dry lakebed to the east. But sadly, long before reaching these areas, we instead came upon the familiar trademark of Southern California’s public lands: a locked gate.



So, with the sun starting its descent below the horizon, we quickly backtracked along the right of way of the long-abandoned Tonnopah and Tidewater Railroad until we found a camp area with a fire ring at the edge of the OHV area. This offered us little protection from the wind, but our last opportunity to set up camp in daylight.





Although temperatures were moderate for a November night in the high desert, I had trouble keeping warm in the constant wind. By the time we retired for the night, I had burned through the entire bushel of firewood, and was still cold. Burning the last firewood became easier when, as darkness set in, we could see the twinkling lights of Baker some 20 miles to our north across the lake bed. Our next day would start with a side-trip to this burgeoning metropolis to restock on firewood. And since we were there, to eat Gyros at our favorite Greek restaurant!



Another victim of poor planning this night was my naïve ambition to try my hand at night sky photography using a DSLR camera I had borrowed just for this trip. A blindingly full moon emerged belligerently above clouds just as the sun set. No deep sky photography for us on this trip – but the moonlit landscape gave me something to try photographing anyway.



Thanks to my foresight to pull the trim and prop up the carpet at camp, everything flooded by our water crossing was dry by the next morning

 

Somehow I lost the words I wrote to post here, so I'm at least uploading the photos...





We actually went in to Baker for gas, food, and firewood, but I guess I lost those photos.



You should note that drones aren't allowed in MNP. I didn't at the time. Let's say these are from a really long selfie stick instead.








Fucking instagram filters. Whatever, I don't have the original.



Her name was Tina:




Oh no my antenna broke again!






This was so cool, that little strip is a whole-ass train in the distance. Hard to believe how far away we were, and how long and straight that pole line road was. Here was our closest glimpse of that train before heading into town:



Don't worry we'll chase it down later. But first:





I walked into the depot with the drone in my hand, on and blinking, and set it down on the counter while talking to the ranger. Not a word was said. I really assumed it was legal. My plan was to shoot a train passing the station, but none came.



To be clear, drones aren't allowed in MNP and you shouldn't use them there. Sorry.



Choo choo??? Nope.

The ranger directed us to a most-excellent campsite back on Mojave Road to our east. Giving up on catching a train at Kelso, or on seeing the dunes for that day (it was getting too late), we headed east, and soon found ourselves catching up to the train we had seen earlier. In fact we overtook it entirely. That's quite the grade for a train.





Gee golly I sure do like trains!



The campsite the ranger had sent us to was amazing. Absolutely perfect. Despite many return trips I've never found it available, but that night, it seemed we had the whole area code to ourselves!



Dinner was Kabobs. Unlike the prior night, this night was comfortable and enjoyable.





And it only took me like three years to finally post the photos!

 

Still had a lot of ground to cover.

Had to go for this classic shot after breaking camp:







This place felt a bit creepy for whatever reason, even by abandoned mine standards.



If I recall, this was the only spot on the whole trail where 4x4 was required:




It's just a long, fun road to drive.



I have to say, the eastern part of the route isn't quite as exciting as the west, at least on average





But it still felt like an epic voyage. A glimpse of green finally let us know we were reaching the Colorado:



This is where we decided to end the trip and head home. I'll note my credit card was skimmed here, I had a bunch of fraudulent charges by the time I got home. But shit, on a res in NV... that was some cheap gas!



Well I guess that's it. I accidentally deleted nearly all my footage from day 3, so the video sucks too. Whatever. Here's another place we went:



Cheers y'all.

 

Head gasket replacement

​

This is NOT a how-to. You should read up on that elsewhere. This is a collection of parts lists, lessons learned, and words of wisdom from my experience of replacing my head gaskets in 2019.

https://youtu.be/ac0NUFY6OD8​

2021 Update: If you're changing out your head gaskets, consider installing these retarded cam gears as an upgrade! When I tackled this job in early 2019, retarded gears were being promoted mostly only within the supercharging community, so I opted to skip them as an unnecessary risk. But since then, dozens of NA folks have installed retarded gears with overwhelmingly positive feedback on this forum, and they are now available for purchase on the above linked thread. I'm not going to tear my engine apart any time soon, but if and when I do, I'll be going full retard too!


Problem: The 4.0L V6 engines for the 2005 model year (and I’ve read early 2006 as well) were assembled with a defective head gasket design that caused them to fail prematurely, typically in the 150k-200k mile range. (Mine was leaking by 175k miles, possibly sooner.)

​

The head gasket failure begins as a mild leak from the #4 or #6 cylinder on the driver’s bank, into the water jacket. (You can see in the above photo that my leak came from cylinder #6.) As a result of this leak, exhaust gasses can escape into the coolant while the engine is running, and coolant can leak back into that cylinder upon cool-down. (Notice how there’s evidence of coolant in the affected cylinder in the photo above, and how spark plug #6 bears tell-tale signs of contamination in a photo further below.)

Luckily, this is a very gradual failure which is very easy to detect before any engine damage occurs. But if ignored, the leak will worsen, leading to rough starts, misfires, and eventually permanent engine damage.

Here is a cylinder diagram I found somewhere on the internet!​

Solution: Toyota improved the head gasket design sometime in 2006, and the new gasket design will last the life of the engine. If you have one of the early 1GR-FE engines with original head gaskets, you will eventually need to replace the head gaskets with this new design. If done correctly, this is a permanent solution, and the repaired engine will be no more prone to head gasket failure than the 2007+ engines.


Some people on this forum recommend to simply swap in a 2007+ junkyard motor--and that may be faster/cheaper if you are using a shop; or simply the better option if you know your engine has been poorly maintained, abused, or overheated. But in my case, I had a very well maintained engine with excellent compression and oil pressure, so I didn’t want to roll the dice on a junkyard motor. I also wanted to tackle this job on my own, in my driveway, where I lack the equipment and confidence to attempt an engine swap. Ultimately, if you aren’t paying for labor, you can dive into this incredibly complex repair for a lot less than a junkyard motor costs. And you will learn a hell of a lot about how to work on engines.


@wishbonerunner reported his costs at ~$800. I elected to spend a lot more (see below), but I vastly improved the reliability of my truck, while also adding some useful new tools to my garage.





Cost and time: I spent around $2k and one whole month of free time on this project. I barely got it back together in time for my Utah trip!


That’s a lot more than most self-respecting shade-tree mechanics would spend on this job. But in my defense, this was by far the most complex repair I’ve ever performed, so I took my time. Also, around a third of my budget was for tools I didn’t yet own. Finally, since I really do value my time, and I plan to drive this truck aggressively through remote and challenging terrain for years to come, I elected to preemptively replace numerous components that might be nearing the end of their service life – which I think gave me a totally more reliable truck overall. For example, I replaced essentially my entire cooling system, and nearly every belt-driven thing under the hood (except for A/C). I also did some side projects while the radiator was removed, like upgrading to a larger transmission cooler, and installing the heat exchanger and thermostatic valve for my [link]camp shower system. Those costs aren’t included here.

​

Note: This doesn't include tax or shipping, which was probably on the order of $200-400 for all this stuff.

**These are parts I have since replaced on my truck, which would have been a lot easer to replace during the HG swap!



Symptoms: Early symptoms will include a “whoosh” sound when you first start your truck. That’s the trapped air in your coolant whooshing through your heater core. As the engine cools down and the coolant contracts, air leaks into the water jacket, and coolant leaks into the cylinder(s), leading to big air bubbles on startup. That’s why you hear the whoosh.


Another early symptom will be a steady trickle of bubbles emerging in your coolant tank while the engine is running. These start as tiny bubbles every few seconds, which are very tempting to ignore. But if the bubbles continue indefinitely, even after a few drive cycles, then you have a head gasket leak. And this is when I made the call to stop driving my truck and start replacing my head gaskets. The symptoms below are compiled from what I’ve read elsewhere.


Another early-stage diagnostic test you can perform is a chemical test for exhaust gasses in the coolant (my local shop does this for a reasonable fee). And this would be a prudent test before resorting to HG replacement on most engines, but if you have an early 1GR-FE with original head gaskets that’s started blowing bubbles in its coolant bottle, then I wouldn’t even bother with this test, because obviously your head gasket has failed. It sucks, but it’s true.


As the condition worsens, the amount of coolant leaking into the affected cylinder between drive cycles will increase, causing rough starting and misfires. Look for white ‘smoke’ coming from the exhaust during those rough starts. Eventually you will get misfire codes for the affected cylinder, which can’t be resolved by replacing the plug or coil. As the leak worsens, the rate of exhaust gasses escaping into the water jacket will cause the coolant reservoir to overflow, and even worse, will introduce huge air voids that prevent proper engine cooling. Continued operation in this state will ruin the engine as the undercooled head overheats and warps, and the oil becomes increasingly contaminated with coolant. It also seems possible that a severe leak might cause hydrolock upon cranking, but I’ve never heard of that occurring on these engines.





Parts list: Here are the parts you’ll need, and what I paid for them in 2019. Note that these don’t include tax and shipping, so add 10-25% (plus inflation since 2019) if you are trying to budget your own project. Also: I worked long and hard to find the best prices on all of these items at the time, and sourced them from all corners of the internet.

• 04112-0P061 Valve grind kit ($181). This includes essentially all gaskets required for the job, including the new-style head gaskets, plus several extra gaskets for your junk drawer because nobody can possibly know where every last one of these gaskets go. There were a couple gaskets that seemed oddly missing, but I forgot what they were, and my originals were serviceable. The two that come to mind were the exhaust pipe to Y pipe gasket (
  $30 17451-0A010 Toyota Genuine Exhaust Pipe Gasket
  17451-0A010, $23) and I think one of the oil pickup o-rings. See my report below for more info on the contents of this kit:

• Cylinder head bolt set (FEL-PRO ES72249, $44)
• FIPG sealants: The FSM calls for two types of sealant, one of which is essentially unobtainable as of 2019. The one you can still buy is the black
  $23 Toyota 00295-00103 Formed-in-Place Oil Pan Gasket - 3 oz. Tube
  Toyota 00295-00103 ($17). The other one is 08826-00080, which appears to cost over $300, if it even exists at all. I ordered a tube listed under this product number, from a forklift repair supply company, but what showed up was a regular tube of blue Dynatex (TY08826-00080 / GASKET - DYNABLUE MAKER 2.7 O / $5). And after some internet research, I wound up using the blue stuff around the coolant passages, and the Toyota 103 for the oil seals. So far it’s holding perfectly. Note: others on this forum have recommended Permatex ultra gray for both seal areas.

​

• Oil refill: I used 5 Qt 5W30 dino oil ($15), which I ran for 100 miles post HG job, then changed for M1 to resume regular change intervals ($25)
• Oil filter (
  $55 90915-YZZD3 Oil Filter 1 Case (QTY 10)
  90915-YZZD3, $4, x2)
• Coolant refill: 3 x 00272-SLLC2 Super Long Life Coolant @ $16/ea

You need the pink super long life coolant. It is only available pre-mixed. If you try to outsmart the dealership and buy concentrated coolant, you will wind up with the wrong [red] kind of coolant. In my experience this is a stupid way to waste $60! Wow… I checked my receipt, I spent north of $80 for 3 gallons of useless red concentrate at my local dealer! Only to give it away on this forum earlier this year. What a total bonehead move!

• Spark plugs: Believe it or not, the two banks on your 4L V6 came with two different brands of spark plugs—Denso on one bank, and NGK on the other (I think). Who decided that made sense? Oh well, it let me know my truck was running on original plugs at 180k miles! I replaced them with NGK V Power Copper Spark Plug #7787 ($5.49/ea)

My original plugs didn’t look too bad, except for the leaky cylinder!​

• Crank bolt: Technically this isn’t reusable, but everyone (including me) reuses it. Look up its list price--then you’ll decide to reuse yours too.

Machine work: Once you remove your heads, you’ll want to bring them to a machine shop for a “valve job.” I took mine to Sun Valley Auto Parts & Engines. It’s been too long, so I forgot what they charged me. It was somewhere between $200 and $300, but I also had them clean my timing cover and intake manifold, because I was tired of ruining my driveway and my nervous system with brake cleaner splatter. Totally worth it. Look at how shiny that timing cover is above!

​

I’m not 100% certain what this service includes, but I’m pretty sure it involves at least the following:

1. They completely clean the heads
2. They resurface the heads to ensure a proper fit to the new gasket. There is very little allowance for resurfacing the heads on the 1GR FE, so if you overheated and warped your heads, then the shop probably can’t fix them. But mine were within spec, so they came back with immaculately clean and flat mating surfaces.
3. They replace the valve seals with the ones you brought from your valve grind gasket kit. (Important: You remembered to bring the gasket kit, right???)
4. They reseat all the valves for a perfect seal
5. They reset the lash on each lifter. I think they do this by welding a blob of new metal to the bottom of each lifter, then machining it back to the exact correct thickness. (Important: make sure to bring all the cams and caps with your heads!)

My heads: before vs. after machining
​

Recommended optional parts: Now is the ideal opportunity to replace many other wear items under your hood. For me, the future time savings (and peace of mind on the trail) were well worth the extra cost of preemptive replacement during this project.

• Radiator (
  $165 Denso 2213139 Denso 221-3139 Radiator
  Denso 2213139, $76) I believe Denso is the OEM radiator for these trucks anyway.
• Thermostat (Gates 34051, $27)
• All coolant hoses
  • Toyota 16571-0P020 Upper Hose $17
  • Toyota 16572-0P020 Lower Hose $17
  • GATES 19531 $20
  • GATES 19532 $15
  • GATES 18337 $3
  • GATES 18338 $3
  • GATES 18199 $3
  • GATES 19025 $6
  • GATES 18335 $3
  • GATES 18336 $3

​

• Water pump (
  $116 Aisin WPT802 AISIN WPT-802 New Engine Water Pump with Gaskets - Compatible with Select Toyota 4Runner, FJ Cruiser, Tacoma, Tundra
  Aisin WPT802, $78). Aisin is the OEM manufacturer for the Toyota branded water pump on my truck, so I felt okay buying their aftermarket model.
• Alternator (Toyota 27060-0P020-84 [reman+75] $243)**
• Power steering pump (Cardone 9605447, $138 new) – see also my notes below on filing the pump to prevent timing cover leaks.**
• Serpentine belt (
  $31 Gates K070834 Micro-V Serpentine Drive Belt
  Gates K070834, $24)
• Serpentine pulleys:
  • 16603-0P030 idler pulley, $55
  • 16604-0P011 idler pulley, $48
  • 16620-31013 tensioner, $96

• PCV Valve (
  $13 Toyota 12204-31030 Genuine Toyota 4Runner FJ Cruiser Tacoma Tundra 4.0L PCV Valve (12204-31030)
  Toyota 12204-31030 $5)
• Air filter (
  $29 Toyota 17801-0P010 Genuine Toyota Air Filter Tacoma 2005-2008 4.0L V6 Genuine Toyota OEM New
  Toyota 17801-0P010 $16)
• Oil control valves (2 x 15340-0P010 @ $100/ea, these do apparently wear out over time!)**
• Starter (Toyota 28100-31050-84 [reman+60] $151)**
• Timing components (skipped): Inspect each component, especially the plastic, for wear or cracking. Check range of motion on tensioners to gauge chain stretch. Mine all appeared perfect, so in the end I decided not to replace the timing components.
• Harmonic balancer aka crank pulley (skipped): Check the health of the rubber between the hub and the pulley, replace if cracking.

Mine should have been replaced, but I didn’t realize it until I was reassembling the engine in a rush for our Utah trip, and the only replacement I could source on short notice (aftermarket, $70) just didn’t quite fit, so I returned it and threw the original back in. It appears that the aftermarket pulleys are designed for an interference fit, whereas the OEM part is a tight slip fit. I didn’t have a gear puller, so I didn’t want to risk trying to force the aftermarket part onto my crank the night before a huge carefully planned trip.​

• Exhaust manifold screws and studs – if you want to make sure these remain removable in the future, replace them with 316SS hardware now. I bought the studs and flange nuts on McMaster. I believe they were M8. (Make sure to use a high-temp nickel antiseize on stainless threads!)

**these are things I didn't actually replace during my HG, but wish I would have, because it was a PITA to go back and fix them later! Note that I do tend to drive through deep water from time to time, which is the likely cause for my starter and alternator wearing out.



Additional replacement parts specific to my repair: The reason why I replaced these parts is because my engine started throwing P0333 error codes in 2018, which indicates a fault with a knock sensor in the valley between the cylinder heads. These codes only occurred once every month or two, but enough to warrant concern.

Since this is a solid-state sensor, it is unlikely for it to fail. Instead, the common cause is that rodents chew the wires in this area. But you literally have to remove the heads to access these sensors and their wiring! This is easily one of the worst shortcomings of the design of the 1GRFE, especially since they also decided to make the wire harnesses out of soy-based materials that rodents love to eat.

• 82219-0C010 Wire Sensor $19

But when I finally got down into the valley of my engine, I couldn't find any outward signs of rodent damage! So, to be safe, I decided to replace the knock sensor itself as well. This felt like a huge waste of money, but I couldn’t risk having this error code return after reassembling the engine!

• 89615-06010 Knock Control Sensor $163

I tried a number of approaches to shield these sensors and their wiring with metal loom or braid, to prevent future rodent damage, but I couldn’t make anything work in the tight confines of the cylinder valley. So in the end, I wrapped it with some Honda rodent tape, which is also stupidly expensive (~$60). Hope it keeps the mice away! The good news is I haven’t ever since gotten a P03333.

​

Specialty tools: I already had what I though was a pretty solid collection of general-purpose automotive tools, but it turns out you will need a number of specialty tools for this job, which can drive up the cost. Some are great additions to your garage, others are probably never going to be used again. But I couldn’t figure out a way to do this job without these tools:

• 10mm double hex socket driver (Snap-on SADM10E2, $11). You won’t believe the amount of torque you’ll be applying with this tool. It’s the most critical tool for the job. Buy a new one. And make sure you have a 1/2” drive socket that fits it perfectly.

​

• A high quality ½ drive breaker bar ($23). Again, you won’t believe the torque you’ll be applying with this tool.
• A four-foot long cheater bar to slide over your breaker bar. I used a spare piece of 1” rigid conduit. EMT or copper pipe would be way too weak here. For other parts of the job, I also recommend my go-to cheater bar, a 20” long piece of thin-channel unistrut with rubber bumpers on either end. It fits perfectly over most box/combo wrenches.

​

• 22mm ½ drive impact socket, standard length ($5). This is for the crank pulley bolt. Depending on your impact wrench, a deep socket won’t fit here.

​

• A 250 lbf range 1/2” drive torque wrench ($40). You need to retorque the crank pulley to 184 lbf., so your 150 lbf harbor freight wrench won’t cut it here. This is also a good investment for when you need to replace your wheel hubs in a few months.

​

• A big fucking impact wrench ($240). I’ve been a shade tree mechanic for a couple decades now and never really thought I needed an impact wrench. This project finally changed my mind. There are certain bolts in this job that simply cannot be removed by mortal human hands and breaker bars. I tried. You should buy a very powerful impact wrench. Something with >1000 lbf breakaway torque. Future you will love it for other projects too!

​

Important: Do not use an impact wrench on the head bolts. (I mean, I’m not sure, but that sounds like a terrible idea!)

I went with a Makita lithium impact wrench, because I already had a Makita cordless drill, so I didn’t need to buy a new battery or charger. This thing is a beast, and it instantly broke free bolts that I couldn’t budge with gigantic cheater bars and numerous curse words.

[crank bolt gif]

​

• An impact socket set ($40) for your new impact wrench, unless you want to risk sending pieces of your $5 harbor freight socket set into your eyeballs or thorax. (Remember when you could get a socket set for $5 at HFT, including the ratchet?) Make sure the set includes the correct size for the cam sprocket bolts, because you’ll need an impact wrench to remove them too:

​

Important: When removing the cam sprocket bolts, brace the cam wrench against something rigid before unleashing the impact wrench. That way, you don’t thrash the timing chains quite as violently as I did.​

• A 23mm open end wrench ($14), to hold the camshaft flats. This seems to be an odd/rare wrench size, so plan to order it online. Then, when it inevitably fails to show up on time, use a 15/16 service wrench and a breaker bar (shown above).
• A compression test kit ($35). First, during disassembly, you should make sure your engine is in good health before investing your time in this repair. Then, after completing the job, you should verify that you put it back together correctly, and that the valves are in good shape! I also had an oil and vacuum gauge around, so I tested the engine with those before and after also.

[compression test gif]​

• Hose clamp pliers, long reach cable and needlenose style ($50). Some of these constant tension hose clamps essentially require specialty tools like these, because they are so hard to access. Although, for the majority of them, channel locks are the best! Pro tip: Don’t bother with the cheapo cable-type pliers, they will break.

​

• Plastic scrapers, razor blades, brake cleaner, Q-tips, and other stuff ($30) to clean up your block and pistons while the heads are at the shop! Avoid harsh abrasives – the block is aluminum. A plastic scraper will get most of the schmutz off the deck, but you might need to carefully use a razor blade to remove the most stubborn deposits.

​

• A machinist’s straight edge and feeler gauges ($40) to make sure your block deck is flat. I didn’t get a picture of that process.

• A crank pulley tool ($63). This sucks, but you can’t fit standard pulley holders on the harmonic balancers on these engines. I tried a few general purpose rentals before giving up and buying the specialty tool. Sure, you can do use the bump-the-starter trick to kick it loose (or so I’ve read), but you are going to need to retorque it to 180+ ft lbs—and I can’t imagine doing that without this specialty tool.

​

Other words of wisdom:

• The FSM is imperfect: I chose to follow the 2006 factory service manual (FSM) that is frequently linked on this forum, as the primary guide for this job. But there are several points in that procedure that you can safely skip, and a few more that you’ll find infuriatingly vague or contradictory.

Popular consensus is that you can skip removing the oil pan and therefore the front drive train, which saves a ton of time vs. factory procedures. This is true. Just be careful to keep debris from falling into your oil pan during the repair. I kept my oil pan covered with various combinations of masking tape, plastic bags, and aluminum foil, depending on what I was doing. Then, just before reinstalling the timing cover, I cleaned as much of the pan as I could reach with my fat stupid hands, and stuck a boroscope further down to make sure I hadn’t left huge chunks of debris to clog the pickup screen.

Also, the Toyota FSM is pretty vague and frustrating compared to other FSMs I’ve pirated over the years. (Maybe you get what you pay for?) For example, you can find several camshaft removal sequences throughout the manual, some warning you to rotate 40 degrees away from TDC before performing a certain step, while others skip this warning. “Well it’s an interference engine, so this might be an important point,” I thought, as I pointlessly rotated my crankshaft back and forth while cursing the manual for several hours. In this case, I can tell you, just leave the crank at TDC. But be prepared to experience some delays and anxiety trying to follow the FSM.​

• The exhaust manifolds suck: Maneuvering the exhaust manifolds out of the way was one of the hardest parts of this job. The manifolds mount to studs on the head, but unfortunately, those studs are about sixteen feet longer than necessary. The result is that it’s nearly impossible to maneuver the exhaust manifolds without constantly binding on the studs.

In hindsight, I now know that you should start by removing the Y-pipe and passenger downstream cat. I didn’t do this, but it will make it easier to slide the manifolds out of the way. The trick to removing the Y pipe, other than undoing the flange bolts on either end, is to drown the rubber exhaust hangers in WD40. Only then can you slide them off their hooks. Then, pry apart the downstream flange by pushing the exhaust pipe rearward. Then the Y pipe will drop down freely onto your face.

Now might be a good time to buy a new Y-pipe-to-exhaust-pipe gasket, mine was pretty worn out, and there isn’t one in the valve grind kit (17451-0A010, $23).

Even with the Y pipe removed, the crux of removing the exhaust manifolds are these stupid ass-hole brackets holding the far end of each to the block. Circled below are the two bolts holding the upper end of this bracket on the passenger side:

​

It’s not enough to simply unbolt the lower manifold flange from this bracket. The bracket will still be in the way, and your manifolds will still bind on the head studs. You’ll have to loosen and possibly remove the upper bolts, so you can swing the bracket out of the way. Unfortunately, the upper bolts are torqued to 12,000 foot pounds from the factory, and even after extreme contortion of your body and arms, you’ll be lucky to get a pinky finger’s leverage on it with a crooked 12-point socket.

So to install and remove the manifolds, first try various combinations of sockets, extensions, u-joint adapters, and other tools, until you’ve thoroughly rounded off those upper bolt heads. Then, just lubricate the manifold studs with blood spatter from your knuckles, then beat the fuck out of everything in sight with a hammer. It will eventually work, maybe.​

• Prevent timing cover leaks: If you dry fit your timing cover with a few bolts, then try to slide your power steering pump back into position, you’ll see that the steering pump is a bit too wide to fit. I think this is why our timing covers are prone to leaking from this exact area – the power steering pump is constantly prying it away from the heads. I decided to file a few thousands off my power steering pump to get a snug but non-interference fit to my timing cover. I’m hoping that will prevent future leaks here.

​

I slid a sheet of cardboard between the pump and the engine to make sure none of the metal shavings wound up in the oil pan. (I later repeated this when I decided to swap my pump for a new one!)​

• Cleanliness: This is going to be a multi-day job. If you’re working outside, make sure to cover exposed engine internals between work sessions, or while you’re working if it’s really windy or dusty out. Where I live, we get randomly gusty winds that can kick up tons of dust, especially if I’ve just painted something. Plus, my neighbor’s gardener scours the earth down to bedrock with a leaf blower at like 5:30AM every other day. I don’t want all that dust in my engine!

​

• Cleaning the block: Some folks recommend Scotch Brite pads to clean the cylinder deck, but I was worried about sprinkling abrasive materials into the block. So I chose to use plastic scrapers to clean the deck as much as possible. Only a few stubborn areas required a (metal) razor, which was used with great care. I stuffed some lint free towels into the water jackets to keep scraped debris from winding up in the coolant passages.

[cleaning gif]​

I also decided to clean the tops of my pistons, and to dig out as much loose crap as I could from above the top rings. Some people don’t recommend this, and I understand why. But after spending night after night bent over my engine block with various scrapers and picks (all soft materials: plastic, wood, or bare aluminum) I convinced myself I had actually improved things:

​

• Keep track of things and try not to go crazy. Take lots of photos or videos to help with re-assembly. Also, use bags and cardboard boxes to carefully label everything as you go!

​

• Cover your radiator with a sheet of cardboard so you don’t poke it. Even if you’re planning to replace it, it is stupid to poke a hole in your radiator.

​

• Don’t let your cams rust. They’ll come back from the shop spotlessly clean. That means there's no oil to protect them from rusting. If you’re going to spend a whole week messing around with other projects (and cleaning the block), make sure to oil them down, otherwise they will rust! Not knowing if this was catastrophic or just bad, I took them back to the shop, and the machinist cleaned them up for me and told me not to worry.

​

• Look out for tarantulas. This guy scared the living fuck out of me, but he turned out to be cool. He was just out looking for a lady friend in my driveway that night. But I'll never roll under my truck on a creeper without thoroughly looking around for one of these guys again!

Must be a SoCal thing?​

My results:

It’s been 14 months and 12k miles since this repair, and my engine is still running about as well as it ever has (well at least since I got the truck at over 170k miles.) Here are some metrics for gauging my success:

• Gas mileage: I didn’t observe any change in gas mileage before vs. after the repair, although my mileage varies wildly, so it’s hard to say. Note that most of the lower values come from off-road adventures, which have become more frequent and more intense since this project.

​

• No perceivable consumption of oil or coolant.
• No more leaks from the timing cover.
• Compression:

​

• Oil analysis: I didn’t collect any oil for analysis prior to the HG change, or for the short interval of dino oil I ran afterwards. But here are the results of the first two full interval changes since then:

​

The first oil change showed elevated levels of iron, aluminum, and chrome. Yikes! But the second oil change showed numbers below average for an engine of its age. That was great news to me. And definitely no trouble with coolant or fuel contamination. (Note that both changes reflect around 5k miles intervals, although it took me 9 months to hit that the first time, and only 3 months the second time.) Hopefully this engine will be good for another few hundred thousand miles!

​

Conclusion: This was a ton of work, and I would probably not ever do it again. But I learned a lot about engines, and I absolutely consider my truck to be every bit as reliable as a new-model vehicle—assuming of course that both are heavily modified, overloaded, and beat to shit off-road every few weeks!

 

Happy New Year to all! (And happy new set of tires to my truck!)

I got to spend the past week in the SoCal deserts. Here are some highlights.

Our first stop was at the Integratron in Landers:







The sound bath was awesome, although I’m not sure if I actually experienced time travel and antigravity, or just fell asleep towards the end of it. Either way, a gentle elbow from my wife brought me back to the present timeline just as my physical body had allegedly started snoring. All jokes aside, it was a memorable experience that far exceeded my expectations.







We also checked out Giant Rock (above) and Pioneertown (below)



The next day, I headed out on my own to visit Old Dale, to explore more abandoned mines and go rock hunting. A lot of folks hunt rocks with pickaxes and metal detectors, but I still prefer setting traps.







This was my first visit to the Lorman mine, which is one of the larger ruins out there. But the rain never let up, so I'm sure I missed a lot of it.



In the valley below, I stumbled across the ruins of an ’89 Toyota Pickup…



To be honest, despite the fact that its drivetrain and interior have been completely stripped, and that it’s an upside-down crumpled wreck lodged halfway down a desolate canyon in the middle of nowhere, I have to admit: this is the least rusted ‘80s Toyota vehicle I’ve ever seen.





Over at the Supply mine, I revisit the burned out wreckage of a Chevy (?) that materialized here just earlier this year. It has accumulated surprisingly few bullet holes for such an accessible location!



Then, I headed up JT1932 to check out whatever ruins lie atop that mountain.



Unfortunately, I shredded one of my tires on the way up this trail!



This was 100% my fault; I crashed into a gigantic rock slab with my passenger tire sidewall, slashing it instantly and nearly ruining my wheel as well. I can't begin to speculate as to why I made such an easily avoidable blunder on this rocky shelf road, but here are some aerial photos of the accident, which are in no way related to the reason why I was so distracted from my driving duties:



You can see the huge rock slab on the right hand side of the bend in the road ahead. Only a total ass-clown would crash into such an obvious and avoidable obstacle.



But as you can see here, my tire is now flat after plowing into said rock slab like a total ass-clown. I kept driving for a few hundred feet, like a delusional moron, hoping that the terrible noise I had heard was anything other than what it actually was. But I had definitely shredded a tire. Here is a photo of the carnage I took later that night:



Luckily, swapping in the spare went smoothly, and just as I finished, the gloomy skies and intermittent rain gave way to a spectacular sunset, and a most glorious rainbow!







I still made it to my destination: the top of what I believe to be Doberman Mountain (at least based on the name of the road leading there.) This is one of the highest peaks in the Old Dale mining district, and certainly the highest accessible point by vehicle.







Since my tires were nearly worn out already, I decided to replace all four with a new set of KO2s, which would take a few days to be delivered to the local shop due to the holiday. In the meantime, I went rock climbing in Joshua Tree, which had been my plan all along.











Finally, just before my new tires arrived, the area was graced by a snow storm, and I went to explore some of the mining areas south of 29p in the winter weather.





The next day, testing my brand new tires, I headed towards the mountain towns of San Diego county.



The new KO2s did pretty well in the snow, and we had a great time visiting our friends. I never even needed the snow cables.

 

So, I never really understood the whole off road thing... until I stumbled upon your San Juans ’19 report. Now, I almost get it. Makes me want to go back to Ouray! Beautiful pictures and story! Thanks!

 

Thanks man!

There are lots of ways to camp and see the outdoors... I grew up with lots of hiking and backpacking, and the wife grew up with big RV family vacations. Now, off roading is turning out to be our favorite way to see the back country.

 

Trip report: Death Valley Feb '20

https://youtu.be/wWKL9530Qe0

This was a last-minute trip that was made possible when our other weekend plans fell through. As such, I didn't have a ton of time to plan our route. But I have been lurking on the Death Valley thread for ages and had a pretty long "short list" in mind already. So I hastily downloaded the topo maps and aerial photos for the park to my navigation app and started packing up the truck late that Friday night.

First thing Saturday we headed for Lone Pine. After gassing up, I headed north to visit a particularly impressive mine that's been on my bucket list since I read about it on this forum a few months ago. On the way I found an abandoned car with an awesome view:



Soon we were at the mine.



At one point I stopped and turned off the engine and all the lights. The darkness and silence were unbearable. What a fascinating yet terrifying place to be.



Emerging back into daylight, the snow-capped Sierras towered above the valley behind us.



On the way out, we stopped to admire the water in the lower Owens River.





Arriving back at the 395, we headed south through Lone Pine again, now planning to head into the park via Cerro Gordo. I stopped to top off the tank again, and to pick up some firewood in case we wound up camping outside of the park boundaries. We made one more stop to admire the lake bed from near the highway, which I tried to photograph with the flying camera.



But soon into this effort, the thunder of fighter jets filled the valley, and I quickly stowed the camera. For such loud monstrosities, fighter jets sure are hard to spot! After a few minutes of searching the skies, the sounds decayed to distant echoes, so we gave up and headed around the lakebed to intercept the road to CG.



It is hard to express the expansive beauty of this place. While pondering this, a soaring bird caught my eye as it crossed low over the road ahead. As I contemplated what species it might be, it suddenly pitched into a vertical climb in an absurd defiance of natural physics. Indeed, this was a most remarkable species of bird, the F18 fighter jet, and no sooner had we realized this than the majestic cry of its engines rattled the cab of the truck. As I slowed onto the shoulder, a second one passed even closer, giving us a far more impressive show of its insane speed and power as it passed just a few hundred yards in front of us before pitching towards the heavens. I fumbled for a moment with my cellphone and the gear selector, failing to operate either correctly, before simply rolling down the window to watch the climbing jet in awe. And within moments, it disappeared into the clear blue sky, leaving us to gaze in all directions at the waning echoes of its roar, hoping for another glimpse of this glorious war machine.

An approaching caravan of Jeeps snapped me back into reality, and I quickly threw on the hazards and pulled the rest of the way onto the shoulder. I decided this was as good a time as any to air down, and although I was hoping for a repeat performance, no more jets approached our location.



The road up to Cerro Gordo passes by several ruins of an old tramway, with long lengths of cable still intact. I didn't get a chance to research this, but I think this is a different tramway than the famous salt tramway connecting Saline Valley to Owens Lake. Visiting that one will have to wait for next time.



Cerro Gordo is essentially at the summit of the roadway, and compared to many ghost towns in the area, is exceptionally well preserved. We splurged on the guided tour, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can wholeheartedly recommend it.



I couldn't decide whether this photo looked better in color or black and white, so I came up with this abomination:



Note: Cerro Gordo is privately owned (which is why it is so well preserved), and the owners do not allow aerial photography. So, even if you are just passing through, don't go crawling around the ruins or taking aerial footage as if it were a run-of-the-mill ghost town on BLM land. It is not.



With the sun low in the sky, we departed CG to head down into the national park. I stopped for this shot of our noble steed at the summit:



On the far side of the pass, we encountered a lot of snow. It posed no problem for downhill travel (and we definitely weren't making first tracks), but I'd be worried about getting stuck or damaging the road attempting it uphill. So we were committed to making it to the bottom.



We made quick progress down the snowy road, but unfortunately, this route doesn't connect directly through to Saline Valley as my cursory planning had intended; instead, we had to head south on White Mountain Talc Road toward the park boundary near Panamint Springs, where we could pick up Saline Valley Road. Such is the risk of using aerial photos for impromptu route planning instead of using up-to-date maps and, well, doing proper research before hitting the road.

Not that I'm complaining--we were capitalizing on an unexpected free weekend, and we were enjoying it! Or at least I was... by the time we reached Lee Flat, we were running out of daylight to make camp, and my wife was threatening me with physical harm if I stopped to take any more pictures. Always a man of compromise, here's the best shot I could manage by reaching across her out the passenger window while still technically keeping the vehicle in motion:



And soon this loophole too was closed.

We wound up camping just outside the park boundary at an old mine south of Lee Flat. I had been looking forward to having a toasty campfire, but it turned out that the bundles of firewood I bought in Lone Pine contained thoroughly green hardwood, so after 30 minutes of effort (far longer according to my wife), we were cold, our food was uncooked, my hatchet was dull, I was out of lighter fluid and dryer lint, and all of our clothes were thoroughly smoky. I should have stuck to the original plan and just used the propane campfire! It fired right up and provided plenty of heat for the rest of the evening.



Try as I might, even with a tripod and frigid ambient temperatures (by SoCal standards), I could not get the sensor on my cellphone camera to capture the glorious panorama of the skies above us on this moonless night. Giving up on that hope, I settled down to crack open a book that had conveniently arrived just the day before.



That night, for the second time, one of our "Klymit" air mattresses developed a leak and deflated within a matter of minutes. I'm really disappointed with that product; it seems to be only good for 3 nights of use. And their warranty forces us to return it to the inconveniently distant brick-and-mortar store we bought it from, rather than offering direct replacement. I'll be looking for something better to sleep on for next time, and would advise anybody considering this product line to avoid it.

The next morning I was awoken by fighter jets overhead. Not a bad way to wake up in the desert. But it had been a cold and uncomfortable night, so we skipped breakfast.



I found this beautifully decaying car just a few hundred feet from camp.



A second set of fighters passed overhead as we broke camp. I'm fairly certain they were headed to Rainbow Canyon a few miles to our south, as they passed less than a thousand feet overhead and appeared to be descending in that direction. My feeble attempts at cellphone photography did not yield results worthy of inclusion here.

We headed up South Pass, which offered us a spectacular view of Panamint valley below. This is the same vista we would revisit at the end of our day.



We then headed up and over Hunter Mountain Road to Hidden Valley. The route was clearly well travelled, but had a fair amount of snow remaining at higher elevations that was starting to give way to deep patches of mud. I hate contributing to rutting and erosion trails, and would advise others to avoid this route in the spring as conditions will undoubtedly worsen.



It is hard to comprehend how huge this place is. I mean, I have maps and I understand how numbers work. But even at the recklessly fast speeds these roads invite, each hop between seemingly adjacent destinations on our map felt like an epic journey across an alternate universe of overwhelming time and distance.



One such destination was the Lost Burro mine.







Next stop was the Racetrack, via Teakettle Junction.





The racetrack was a bit of a shit show, and I was disappointed by the abuse this area has seen--another victim of the age of social media and self-gratification. (PS remember to #like and #follow!!!) The lakebed was thoroughly scarred with tire tracks and footprints left by inconsiderate assholes of years past, and the gliding rocks themselves were outnumbered by white men with camera bags and tripods setting up for the golden hour. Here's my pointlessly redundant shot of rock #7:



But still, what an awe-inspiring place to experience. I'm glad I finally made it out here. If I had an extra eternity to wait, I'd sit here just to watch the earth age.





We made our exit via Lippincott Pass, stopping first at the namesake mine.





This road is one of the most spectacular I've ever encountered in California. I'm pleased with some of the views I captured, but I definitely failed to do justice to the breathtaking vertical scale of this route's descent into Saline Valley.



Part way down we caught up with a 3rd gen. Tacomas sure are popular at Death Valley!





We reached the valley floor just as the sun was disappearing behind the Inyo Mountains.



Then we raced back up to South Pass, hoping to catch the end of the sunset. The views did not disappoint!





We stopped to air up during the last moments of the day's light, then made our way down to the 395 to join the Sunday night Mammoth traffic, feeling just a bit out of place amidst all the SUVs with skis and snowboards on their roofs. I can only hope they all had as much fun in the snow of the high Sierras as we had just experienced on our first trip to Death Valley's backcountry.



Can't wait to come back!