Little Red Turbo Creeper

I didn't like how close the front bolts were to the bottom of the radiator or they would be flipped. I did take a grinder to the spot the dif makes contact with the plate and give it a little more wiggle room but probably not really enough to make a difference. I had thought about cutting a hole in the pan for the dif brackets

 

Maybe spacers up front? Or flip bolts and cut shorter? I'm kinda thinking spacers for mine now that we're talking about it.

 

I am curious how those fenders look now???

 

Spacers should make a difference, might allow more airflow too.

 

Like new, I really wish I would have stopped halfway through on the front passenger side because it was in the worst condition and would have been a dramatic comparison. I'll get another picture of the fenders for you

 

The passenger side has always been the worst side too

 

Turns out I don't take pictures of the passenger side very often but here's one that shows what the sun fading looked like in January

 

Made the jump to Map Prediction and turned classic transient throttle off. It's running pretty good. The stumbling when starting from a stop is almost non existent, I even tried to make it stall but could only get a little stumble so I'll call that progress

 

Maybe it just needed that new windshield washer reservoir all along

 

240 miles in the books but the real trip begins tomorrow.

(don't mind the hood gap, it's not closed all the way)

Lots of rain and lots of vehicles on the side of the road. One van looked like it rolled at least once before landing wheels down again, another was on its side in the ditch.
4wheel drive and skinny tires for the win but also just not being in a hurry goes a long way.

 

Have fun on your trip!

 

This was the biggest help for mine as well.

Wise words right there.

 

Who wants GX 470 disk brakes for their rear axles?

This Capivara Industries guy is making that a bolt on options for us

 

Ooo that's sweet. Curious how the parking brake gets integrated.

 

Truck boggs down pretty good when I try and step on it but I'll just live with it for now

 

Boggs down as in too rich, or too lean?

 

Honestly not sure but if I had to guess I'd say too rich.

We stopped using the laptop to monitor things shortly after we left. once I figured out the scangauge was reading the coolant temperatures consistently at 60° lower than the true temp I just kept a mental note and drove on.
I did hook the laptop up every night to apply the LTFT's to the base map and save the map once we pulled into camp but that's about it.


I'm really pleased with the trucks performance overall and I got several compliments along the way by others who were surprised at its capabilities. Some called it the GOAT, others saying how "it just goes"

The first day we were up at 6 to meet in the Walmart parking lot and eventually headed towards the book cliffs around 11:30 where we had lunch and a quick map and compass navigation training. I've always been good with maps but my skills will a Compass aren't what they use to be.

we eventually found our way to the The Devil's Race Track in the San Rafael Swell, it took a little longer to get started than planned due to some recent trail closures and a couple quick trail repairs.








I needed the rear locker once during the main obstacle of the devils race track and that was the most technical part of the trip. I'm glad we decided to throw the skids on before heading out but It's definitely doable with 32's and a little lift.

We stopped and waited for everyone to group up after that main obstacle around 11:30pm and shortly after getting back on the trail my truck stalled without warning, I was the second person in a line of 12 vehicles so I jumped on the GMRS radio to let the masses know "I just lost power" as I finish the statement the sky above us exploded with lightning creating a sense of urgency. I'm not sure why it stalled and it took a couple minutes to get started again seemed like it wasn't getting fuel hopefully it's not the pump already. It did throw a P1301 DTC again while cranking (I pull the laptop out when this happened) but once it started up we kept on heading towards camp pulling in around 12:45pm. We had a quick dinner of "dragon eggs" before bed, chicken stuffed with peppers and green chili's, wrapped in bacon and soaked in a delicious sauce. a strong appetite after a long day made it that much better.

The next morning we were scheduled to leave for a quick repel at 5am but we decided to sleep through that since we had already been up early the night before. I'm not and never have been a morning person.

 

I quickly realized my little air compressor wasn't enough to keep up with these guys when I came time to air back up between trails. Before we left I snagged an equalizer for all 4 tires from my brother so I could set it and forget it while the little compressor did it's thing I ended up borrowing a bigger compressors from others so people weren't waiting on me


After a quick pancake breakfast we headed out to connect with those brave enough to set their alarms early enough for the reppel and while we wated some of us took advantage of a puddle to clean off some of the mud caked onto the bottom of our rigs from all the recent rains we've had. I don't have any of the shots of my pass through yet but I'm sure there's a few.

Once we regrouped it was off to the Black Dragon for a little mental health awareness

The black dragon looked awfully red to me but what do I know. I'm sure a handful of the people reading this will have a picture of their rig a couple hundred feet up the cliff behind us but that too is no longer accessible due to trail closures. Full disclosure this point in out trip had me in tears, I'm extremely thankful for the mental progress I've made over the years to get me to the place I am today and I love what Racing Anxiety is doing to help others get there as well.
After that we heading towards Green River to fuel our bellies and the truck.

Subway is always an easy option for us out on the road because you know what you're going to get but we tried one of their new 12" churro's and that was quite a disappointment. It may have just been that location but it tastes like the oil they used was complete garbage and had a terrible after taste.

After that we headed towards Moab and dead horse point, At least those who's vehicles were still going strong.

The La Sal mountains in their glory behind us. My grandpa who was born in Moab hiked across that entire skyline back in his day and as kids we hiked Mt Peale a couple times.
With dark clouds building and more lighting off in the distance we began our decent into the canyon. I was admittedly a little uneasy with the possibility of flash flooding and rock slides at a moments notice looming over our heads but every worked out okay at least for the tacoma.
Another Cherokee was crying for attention as 4x4 wouldn't engage and needed to be pulled backwards and out of the creek bed. But in his defense even the red Cherokee will it's glorious giant tires didn't make it through that line without being winched but was also having issues with 4x4 engagement

This was another area where I wasn't taking many pictures but left that to the camera crew and focused on driving.
We stopped for a group photo on the edge of the cliff and for the second time in as many days I made a statement that was immediately followed by the flash of lightning and a gloriously echoing thunder throughout the canyon moments later.

After we exited the canyon I took a more exciting line than the masses to add some drama to the drone footage we were rolling but we will both have to wait for that to be released.
I've also got 64gb of dash camera footage and a few pictures on my camera that I haven't pulled yet but we'll get to that later.

Once we reached the bottom of the canyon we set a meeting point and disbursed to get showers before heading back into the mountains to find our second camp sight in the dark.
It's definitely more beautiful in the daytime

The downside of pulling into camp after dark is you don't see the cactus spread out around the place and several of us ended up getting pricked I kicked one straight on driving a needle deep onto the top of my big toe which is still in there several days later. That morning I also noticed an abundance of wild onions and took the opportunity to spread that knowledge during our mornings wilderness survival course but apparently I forgot to get a picture of them.

The day consisted of a much smoother drive through forest services roads that lead us to a nice little burger joint called Blondies that we hit up after a quick pressure wash and fill up from the little gas station next door. their green chili burger goes great with bacon on top. To add the cherry on top the restaurant had two plum trees outside so I used my wilderness survival skills and procured a couple of them for the road. I only picked 3 but later wished I had picked about 30 you can see the purple leafed trees in the background here

My truck definitely didn't look this clean when it finished drying.
Somewhere along the forest roads I cooked the transfer case a little and developed a slow leak that'll need some attention in the near future


Keeping a group pase isn't always the best when everyone has different gearing and tire sizes but maybe I should have swapped out of 4low a little sooner.
But where we were headed I was happy to be back in 4low soon enough.



Bill from Capivara Industries was kind enough to get this awesome shot while we waited for the rest of the group to catch up
He definitely did better than I did

Not only did he get that great shot but he sponsored several veterans for the trip including myself at $500 each! I'm excited to see how his GX460 disk brake kits do on the market. This trip proved to be an excellent test run for the brakes on his original prototype. Bill had some bags of popcorn chips that we could hear popping as we neared the summit that made for some interesting drama and a satisfying snack because we couldn't let them go stale

Ophir pass is a great place to be during the sunset that's for sure but those photos are still on the camera for now. With the sun setting behind us we headed for Colorado's famous million dollar Hwy and found ourselves looking for camp in the dark once more but at least they had our tents up and ready to go when we arrived.
The next morning before the sun came up I found myself wondering in the woods and brushed my hand across what I quickly identified as stinging nettle a couple seconds too late, another downside of arriving at camp in the dark.


I didn't find any wind onions but we did find another plant that almost resembles common yarrow but is much more hazardous.

In my attempt to be over cautious I didn't get a very good picture of this water hemlock (or our camp chef Pop's)
another picture poorly showing it's leaves

And a bonus mushroom.