Building Lady Lucille

Damn man. Looks awesome.

 

Thanks, brother.

 

A money saving tip. So if you have a Sport and want to install a Pelfrey gas skid you're going to have to pick up the straps made for the Off Road which have the 2 studs required for the skid. Each one is $75 (price @ my local dealer). Orrrrr.... Learn from my mistake of purchasing the OR straps, save $150 bucks and drill out holes on your sport straps and install carriage bolts and a washer. They're going to work just the same.

 

As i like to hear you say"Glorious"!Golden knowledge of yours!

 

Nothing too fancy but a mod nonetheless. Camera relocation went in today. Wires snipped, extensions connected, heat shrunk. Lights, camera, action!!
I'll be welding the exposed harness you see cleanly with electrical tape. Haha

 

brotha!Congrats!

 

Thanks, brotha. Didn't get around to the cab mount due to time but it'll happen eventually. Don't have the tires yet so no super rush.

 

I just go with the info that you fulfill!I actually thought though that the cab mount would be done as well but with patience it will!Lucille is a beauty and that will continue!

 

A little navigation mount mod. Installed the tech deck extreme. Shake down test coming this weekend on the Mojave Road

 

Mojave Road

11NOV16
Veterans Day weekend

The Mojave Road is an ancient route, in use as long as humans have lived in this vast, harsh desert – first as a Native American trade route from the Colorado River through the Cajon Pass toward the Pacific coast, and then later as a path west for missionaries, explorers, and settlers on foot, horseback, and in wagons. For periods of time the U.S. Government stationed handfuls of soldiers along the Mojave Road.
The Mojave isn’t the Rubicon, but it’s also not the U.S. 95. We started from the east on the Nevada/California border. After a quick bite to eat at a surprisingly good gas station adjacent Mexican joint near the Avi Casino, we gassed up our rigs, filled our dump cans, filled out potable water jugs, and snatched up a couple more bags of ice we were off to the trail head to begin our adventure.



The trail head isn’t the easiest to find and can easily be missed. Thankfully, we had the LeadNav app and a .GPX file our friend Wyatt strung together. We found out early that having a reliable GPS app and .GPX file was essential to having a good time on the trail. We got lost a total of zero times during the 3 day 140+ mile run. Not even as much as dead end/ back track scenario happened to us- thank goodness. From the very beginning you’re punched in the face with the harshness of the desert and the unforgiving, always changing terrain.
Airing down at the trail head:



I’ll spare you a full on history lesson of every waypoint we stopped at. Rather, I’ll leave you to read up on those for yourself. Below are a few photos and brief descriptions of our journey. It was a pleasure to wheel with @Willbeck , @downhillbik3r , @socalktk , Wyatt, Josh, my girl Sara and pup Bruiser.

Day 1 and camping east of Fort Piute.

Expect loose sand at the beginning of the trail and tire tracks everywhere. Easy to get thrown off course from the get go if you’re not paying attention. Once past the sandy stuff you’ll eventually find yourself on a short, rutted climb where BLM land ends and Mojave Preserve begins. You cannot actually camp at the Fort so after we poked around a bit and snapped some photos we headed back east to a clearly established open campsite with a stone fire ring.



Day 2 and camping at Mojave Camp.

The sunrise was gorgeous but I still had cell phone reception. We weren’t out far enough– it was time to get off the grid already . Our friend Wyatt had to work the previous day so the plan was for him to meet us at camp at the pin I dropped for him. At 8 am his plume of dust came rumbling right to our site. It was my first time meeting him and straight away I know he had it together. He’s legit. He also drives a Colorado. Which seeing it up close, and after watching him wheel, I’m ok with the Colorado. Overlanding isn’t about what you drive, it’s about the journey.

After breaking down camp and having some chow we hit the trail swiftly. We got word that a portion of the trail was washed out and that we may have to detour around it. We decided to not take that detour. Our rigs are plenty capable of staying the course. We were at least going to get up close and see what we were working with. The area that was washed out wasn’t bad at the time we ran this section. Probably because it was plenty dried out and the dirt was packed. A little skinny pedal and all was good. We could tell that if the sectioned off area on the hillside was recently hit by a storm the area could possibly be a little sketchy. But this go around the weather was just right. The Mojave desert gets only five inches of rain a year, but when those rains fall, they fall heavy, and the flash floods that surge down from the highlands cut ravines in the soft earth. These ravines can be deep, certainly deep enough to swallow a smaller, less capable vehicle’s front end.




A little descent down High Ridge:



The Old School Bus:





It’s easy to blow by the Penny Cup Tree in the Cactus Forest. Be on the lookout:




The Rock House where we had lunch:




Government Hole:



Whoops-ti-dos leading to Mojave Camp are many. Try to find the right throttle position quickly and keep that pace - you'll be on these whoops for a while. We enjoyed camp once past the first hump of the whoops (there's plenty more whoops after Mojave camp as well) and hung out with a couple overlanding outfits that camped near us. Overlanding USA were friendly and their youtube videos are cool snippets of life as a weekend overlander. The other group, Rogue Overland, got word that a couple of us were Veterans and came by and gave us patches and talked overlanding and trucks. Check them out. They’re awesome.



Also installed Kalvin's diff breather mod at camp in preps for the next days water crossing:



Day 3: Mailbox, Lava Beds, Shredded Tires , Soda Lake, Travelers Monument, Sand Blown, Water Crossing.






There are areas all along the 140 mile trail to really open it up and fly at high speed – at least if your suspension is equipped for it. We did just that – hitting 60mph at times. I mean, we all had Kings. Why wouldn’t we? What could go wrong? Well, the area between the Lava Beds and Soda Lake took me down. Lots of turns, lots of sharp lava rocks, and well, I blew one tire and sliced another on at the same time on likely the same rock. Oh fuck, right? Wrong. Panicking is the worst thing you can do in the middle-of-nowhere. Only having one spare which obviously I had to use to replace my blown tire; I needed to find a way to fix the slit tire enough to get me civilization. We swapped out the blown tire, deployed the awning, ate lunch, and then it was time to go to work. 5 plugs later and some epoxy and I had my tire ghetto patched to the max. The delay lasted 90 minutes and we were back on our way. The pace from then on was slow and steady wins the race.


Soda Lake and Travelers Monument. Be sure to grab a rock at the very beginning of your trail run to contribute to the monument and also don't forget to read the plaque on top.



The Sand Blown area is probably the only area where 4wd comes in the most handy(assuming the rest of the trail is dry). Although with a good driver, skinny pedal, and a 4x4 nearby just in case - it can be done in 2wd. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of reliable gps and .gpx file for this portion of the run. There are offshoots everywhere, tire tracks going every which way, and washes going in every direction. While there are posts staggered to aid you in keeping on course, there’s stretches where they disappear and you can quickly find yourself way off target.



Once you’re in Afton canyon and see the train tracks you’re just about home free - assuming your tire plugs are still holding. I hope you won’t have any of that nonsense to deal with.




Water crossing. You’ve made it. Crack a beer, give a toast, air up, gas up and go get a hot meal. An experience of a lifetime, and I can’t wait to do it again

 

End of the Mojave:


Mojave 2016 photo dump
All pew pew shots were on BLM lands and we picked up our brass.

 

Wow. What an amazing trip. Bummed I missed it. Hope to do it sometime next year...

 

Sounds like a incredible trip Greg and based on your write up would be one that all who offroad would want to experience!

 

Nice write up Greg! Awesome trip, had a great time, already itching to go again!

 

Damn good writeup brother. Good summary of our weekend too!

 

Awesome time, bro. Great write up too. Can't wait for our next adventure.

 

Ding dong! Shoe delivery!