The BRWNTRD (Hasn't flopped yet)

Looksike you folks had a great trip!

 

I mean, nobody is perfect. Just have to utilize ALL of the tools available when your truck exceeds GVRW and you're trying to do shenanigans.

 

He has, its called WFO

 

It was spirited. And still on 16s and don’t care to change it up. I could stomach the cost of one of the big brake kits, but not a BBK, wheels, and tires.

Hey, I know how to drive, I just chose to drive a more fun way.

 

I ask about 17’s because the T4R/tundra brake kits are a thing, but require 17” wheels.

Figured it was spiritual, but never know.

Cute white knights you have in here now.

 

Finally getting back to last weekend’s adventure.

Our next destination was Wheeler’s Crest for a trip above 11k. We stopped to air up and could see the road we had just come down an hour prior 20 miles across the valley.
The fire road up to where we wanted to go had recently been on fire with Fire suppressant on the ground and the burnt sections still had the smell in the air. The road very quickly and sneakily climbed in altitude, pretty soon had to put it in 4Lo just because of the grade.

The sky was looking quite threatening and we weren’t sure about what sort of protection we’d find at 11,000 feet so we found a campsite down low while it was still light. Near where we camped there was a lone bro in his fully kitted out Rubicon told us the trail was too scary for him. A quick walk show some rocks that needed to be climbed and that he had backed a good was down a steep tight trail, so while he wasn't willing to drive over rocks, he was a skilled driver. Probably a smart move on his part to not go up alone, that has ended poorly for other people on this trail.

The campsite kept us out of the wind but was nothing special.

We celebrated a birthday with beers, tequila and some excellent food from @AY_ARONTRD The next morning we continued up the trail to see what it was all about. Lots of rocks, some twisty corners and tight trees but a lot of fun and the payoff at the first meadow with a lake was worth it. We stopped at a small spur that had a firepit and a great view of the valley, not sure how good a campsite it would be as there was not much protection from the wind but there was cell service so you could check for hearts on the gram.

Next was a shelf road that was a little uncomfortable, steep and loose on both sides, not a lot of room to maneuver.


After that we got to another meadow

Then we dropped back down for a bit twisting through some trees and some steep loose climbs that we the hardest parts of the trail. We all used our lockers and there was not much room for error. Since it was steep @desertjunkie760 bummed a ride after spotting

After that was a 3rd meadow and a steep run to the end of the trail at 11,283'


Overall, extremely fun trail, not a huge chance of breaking things if you drive carefully, huge chance of massive fuck up if you don't pay attention, but the payoff is totally worth it.

 

I was picking up what you were putting down.

My white knights are offended that you called them white knights.

 

Good trip.

I'm pretty jealous of the open/free/public areas you can go explore out there.

 

That's my biggest gripe about TX. No public land. And from DFW you have to drive a day to be anywhere. It was home for most of my life, but I dont want to move back

 

We are?

 

Today is a day of maintenance to prepare for the next set of shenanigans hopefully over Labor Day.

First some simple stuff:
Refilled the windshield washer fluid.
Replaced a broken bolt on the Rotopax mount.
Repositioned the @RelentlessFabrication Hi-Lift mounts for my custom 58” Hi-Lift.

Figured out the proper placement of my backup camera reposition on the @Mobtown Offroad Dual Swingout.


I still need to extend the harness and tap some holes to clean it up but I can see behind me instead of the table.

The California plate is on it’s last legs, the registration paperwork from Texas came in and now I’m just waiting on the plates which shipped separately.

Installed the @ARCHIVE Sensor Skids on the rear axle, a simple 20 minute job doing it by the book. As always his gear came extremely well packed and this one has the directions taped to the box.

 

I didn't realize the sensor skids were a thing. Had you damaged the ones on the black truck?

 

Never the actual sensor but did tear the wiring out on the rear. But never damaged a front sensor on the black truck and already broke one on the brown truck.

At $40 for the pair it was an easy purchase instead of the $100 for 3 sensors from SDHQ.

 

$40 isn't bad at all. I might need to check those out.

 

They’ve gone up to $50 after the first batch but still a good deal

 

The second half of today's maintenance period was to find out what's dragging when I back up.

Turns out I didn't only lose a nut from my driver's lower shock mount, I also lost the upper bolt on my driver's caliper. Time to start using some green loctite on stuff. Replaced the missing bolt from my stash and order 4 new ones as well as a blank plate to fit the hole where my backup camera used to be.

 

Why not start with some blue/red loctite first?

 

Took advantage of the @Mobtown Offroad Labor Day Sale to order a @Dometic CFX3 55IM, Cover and wiring kit. Future shenanigans will now feature ice cream for some of the participants, no orange juice flavored cooler water and several cold beers.

Need to start working on a platform to hold it. I'm going to pull the driver's side rear seat and build a platform that attaches to the seat hinge. On the backwall I'll mount the power plug and the

$165 Midland MXT275 MicroMobile® GMRS Radio – 15 watts Two-Way Radio with Integrated Control Microphone – Overland Caravanning Tractors – Detachable External Magnetic Mount Antenna - 8 Repeater Channels

Midland MXT275 radio. Belle will have to deal with a bit less room and probably won't be able to fit two dogs anymore.

 

No eggs in a bottle