3 Tons of Fun! Littles' Build, Travel, and B.S. Thread

Part 5 of Rimrocker to
Moab / Rock Therapy

White Rim Trail - Island in the Sky -Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Day 2 on White Rim - Moses and Zeus!!!!

It’s hard to say what day was my favorite, but the last day on White Rim was pretty spectacular. We had a lot loss road to travel and 2 short but awesome hikes.

We’ll start with sunrise at camp...



We had a little less road to travel, and two longer hikes than day 1 on White Rim. The first hike was out onto what I would describe as a finger land that sticks out into the curve of the Green River. A peninsula of sorts where there are ruins of a stone structure that is believed to be part of a signal network. The structure has a very clear view of both directions up and down the Green River. There were also remnants of a cabin that was built much later.







These little guys were the guardians of the ruins...they were everywhere!

It was basically two roundish stone structures without a roof. The entrances were big enough for a vertically challenged midget to get through, so I had no problem crawling inside. Not much to it, but it’s been there forever and pretty cool if you ask me...




View from the “watch tower”



From here we headed down off the plateau to a lower part of the of the finger/ peninsula towards the old hut.





Pretty primitive living if you ask me...there’s a hut similar to this at Arches National Park on the way to Delicate Arch, but you can’t go inside like you can at Canyonlands. Walking out there and seeing it certainly gives you an appreciation for the way life used to be. Modern life is full of distractions and bullshit. Life back then was simple.

Next up is Zeus and Moses which is probably my favorite hike on White Rim...stay tuned!

 

Part 6 of Rimrocker to
Moab / Rock Therapy

White Rim Trail - Island in the Sky -Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Day 2 on White Rim - Moses and Zeus!!!!

Ok let’s see if we can get this wrapped up...

Moses and Zeus are a couple miles off the main White Rim trail, staring by Taylor campground, but this is an absolute must if you’re on White Rim. The hike up to this formation is quite impressive and challenging due to the steepness and loose footings.


Even from the parking area it looks intimidating. You pretty much go right up the front.

The next picture was taken looking back at the lot from the 2nd flat tier. You can see our trucks if you zoom in.

Looking up from the same spot. You can kinda see the trail going straight along the ridge in the bottom of the photo, then to the right and starting up the steep, loose gravel.

Then looking back from the next tier.


We could hear voices at this point, but didn’t see anyone at first. Then we realized the voices were above us. Look closely at the next one...

If you follow the crack, you’ll see climber there. Gives some perspective on how tall the formation is. We circled around the entire thing. I was too busy having fun scrambling around, up, and over rocks to take more photos until we headed down. You’ll just have to go see and experience it.


After that hike, we spent the last few miles resisting the urge to turn around and go back. White Rim was coming to an end.






So that’s finally it. Only 4 months and 6 posts later. White Rim was the longest, most aesthetically impressive stretches of dirt road I’ve ever had the privilege of driving on. It’s beauty is unadulterated. The limited access through required permits and its remoteness makes it pretty special in my book. I’d love to spend 3 or 4 days and do some of the longer hikes. Make sure you plan ahead for this one. You can’t just show up and drive it.


Hope you enjoyed!

 

Enjoyed is an understatement! Thanks for putting all of this together little brother. I’ll show this to Bonnie tonight.

Can’t wait for our next adventure!

 

I know you live vicariously through me. You know I posted it mostly for you.

Check out what I picked up!

 

Spent some quality time with the truck and re-painted the sliders today. This didn’t suck any less than I remember it sucking the first time. Speaking of which, I while I was laying under there I started to remember staying up till 2am to get one last coating of Rustoleum over the POR15 the night before my first ever wheeling trip down in Gore, Virginia at Big Dogs.

Looking at all the dents, I realized I haven’t used them as much recently as I did those first few years. Between the 35s and a lift and staying off trail 13 at Rausch Creek, they just haven’t been needed as much. Probably one of the best mods I did and sure glad I did it first.

They were in pretty rough shape. I had to grind away a lot of oxidation that worked it’s way under the coating. Considering how bad I abused these my first year or too, I shouldnt be too surprised. They have been peeling for awhile and I knew I’d have to do this eventually.








I spent about 60-90 minutes on each side with the flap wheel to get the major rust off and any flaking paint. I know I should have done more, but some spots were tough to hit and honestly I was just ready to be done after having metal and black paint flung in my face for 3 hours. I’ll do a better job removing the rust next time around.







I didn’t do an etching primer so we’ll see how this goes. I gave zero fucks and just painted over the rust I couldn’t sand. By the way, I hate POR15. I don’t know why this is the hardest paint can I’ve ever had to open both times I did it, but I fucked up the lid so bad I can’t re-seal it AGAIN. So I use it or loose it on another expensive ass quart of paint. The shit stains your skin and gets everywhere no matter how careful you are.




So there’s one coat...i’ll Probably do at least one or two more. I hit the frame with the flap wheel and some leftover POR15 in a few spots while I was under there. Now it’s time to wait for the paint to dry at the closest brewery in walking distance to my garage, Prost Breweing. Solid German style brews.

 

Nice work. Mine are at Chucks right now getting sandblasted & powder coated.

 

I understand why you gave up on prepping yours and let him blast them. The plus on powder coating is that even if you damage it, I don’t think it works it’s way underneath the finish the way oxidation does with paint.

 

Exactly. That’s why I did the skids too. Next I’ll get the bumpers redone.

 

@Littles your trip reports from Rimrocker etc inspired me to go back through my pics and I found this one of our trucks from that first night in the national forest on the Rimrocker. Good times and good whiskey!

 

I threw another coat of POR15 on the sliders today and will do one more before I hit the trails tomorrow, for a total of 4.

I also ran a new CB cable to replace the one I severed and repaired in Moab last year. Hoping to get a clearer signal now that wires aren’t spliced together all ghetto fabulous. Remember this?

While I was working on wiring, I figured I’d start tackling my backlog of electric on the aux fuse box by testing my setup and getting my PIAA lights wired up.



Since I’m using my own relays on rocker switches in the cab, I cut the PIAA provided wires at the relay harness and wired it directly to my fuse panel with a single switch connected to the relay. Much to my dismay, I’m blowing the dedicated fuse I wired up that powers my switches every time I hit flip the rocker to activate the relay.

After some trouble shooting with a spare relay, I think I have figured out my problem. Let’s go back 18 months ago to the relative start of this mod, when I had this great idea to solder on flyback diodes to prevent premature degradation of my switches and relays.

I’m pretty sure that I soldered all my flyback diodes on backwards. . See that little gray band on the diode? Yea, it’s on the wrong side, and letting current from from the white wire that triggers switch

So all that extra time I spent meticulously taking apart the relay harnessss and soldering those little fuckers on to lengthen the life of my switches and relays was in vain because now the shit is all put together and wired up and it’s wrong

So now I have to decide if I take the time to pull everything apart and re-solder new diodes on the right way, or just say fuck it and cut them off and move forward with the install.

 

I’m pretty sure I fried relay #1. After clipping the flyback diode that looked blown apart, and trying again, it stopped tripping the fuse, but didn’t turn on the lights when the rocker switch was flipped. Progress?

To test my theory, I clipped the flyback diode on relay #2 and wired both lights up to switch #2 and things worked as expected. No blown fuses. Score! I feel better now knowing that I got everything right on wiring from the start except that stupid diode. Once I get that fixed on the other 8 relays, I’ll run the switch wires through the firewall and build my IggyCorp switch panel for the cab.

 

Finally, after over a year and a half, my aux fuse box is done and installed. I’m afraid to total up how much I spent on this. I went a couple different directions trying to build my own bracket out of lexan, and eventually caved and bought one. I purchased stuff that was either too big, to challenging to work with, or ultimaty not needed.




Despite the way it all came together, I’m pretty proud of this little masterpiece. I meticulously crimped, soldered, and heat shrank every connector and tried to keep things as tidy as possible. With the exception of the misstep on the flyback diodes, everything worked perfectly as planned. I actually had fun building it.



I have a 100 amp marine style breaker hooked up to a 12 circuit blue sea fuse panel. Of the 12, I have 10 circuits pre-wired that 10 relays that can handle 30 amps each, with switches in the cab for 6 right now. All I need to do is tap in my accessories on the positive and negative buses and flip the switch.




A feature I’m fond of already is the quick disconnects at both ends of the 12 conductor / 18g wire i ran through the firewall for the switches. It makes things just a little easier to remove things on either end. 10 of the wires are obviously to control the relays and switch the circuits. The other two are the constant positive for the switches and grounds for the dimmer LED and the “on” LED.


I used 5 pin SPDT (single pole, double throw) relays. I could have gone with 4 pin single throw relays but I’m not sure what accessories i’ll add done the road.

Black is obviously ground.
Blue is the fused hot lead off the fuse panel into the relay.
Yellow is hot when the relay is activated or “on”
White is the switch trigger wire which activates the relay when the switch is on.
Red is hot when the relay is “off” or there is no current on the trigger wire. These aren’t used right now...but they are there if I need them.



White wires are the trigger wires for circuits 1-6. I have 4 more to tap into the connector when I figure out where the other switch bank is going.

Green goes to a dimmer wire tied into the dash lights to illuminate the switches.

Black is the common LED ground I mentioned before that goes back to the fuse panel.

Red is hot off the fuse panel on the one if the two spare circuits (only 10 of the 12 are wired to relays), solely to provide the power to the switches that activates the trigger wires.

With this setup, my switches will always be hot and be able to activate accessories even if the truck is off, but the switches will illuminate the lower light only if the headlights are on, and the upper LED light only if the circuit is on. So I can see if I leave shit on...at least at night.

The best part is, it works!

Now it’s time to plan a dual battery setup!

 

Man your killing me. I Need to do some mods! Very nice. Fun seeing the truck in action before reading through this build thread.

 

Mad skilz bro...

 

Get those sliders and skids first!

 

Your brother actually stopped by this evening.
Nice surprise.

 

I heard he was i town. I got some goofy pictures from him and Bonnie last night. Looking forward to seeing you in about a week!

 

Hit me up when you get here.

 

Damn clean work dude!