Quicksand Overland (or something)

Aww! Looks like fun! Keep us updated

 

Finding the backseat surprisingly comfortable:

 

Last couple of days:

Passed a fellow traveler in southern Oregon towing this sweet OHV.



Stayed with friends outside of Ashland, showed them how to properly use their outdoor pizza oven.



Went looking for a place for food and found it.



Did a little flying.



Couch surfed in Reno last night, didn't stay confined to the couch.



Today we enter Death Valley. Woo!

 

Made it to Furnace Creek much later than I would have liked, but at least we finished Titus Canyon with a little bit of daylight left. Data is shit here so it probably won't be until Phoenix before I upload any sizeable amount of content, but until then, I'll just leave this here:

 

Today we got all racy:

 

Yesterday at Lippincott:





About to leave Death Valley by way of Harry Wade and head down to Afton Canyon to begin our drive across the Mojave.

 

Love the sticker setup

 

Love this thread! Thanks for doing it...

 

My brother going full 'MERICA! at the Traveler's Monument:

 

Just because every landing you walk away from is a good one doesn't mean getting on the plane in the first place was a good idea:



We made it across Soda Lake safely with only one vehicle. Dumbest thing I've done in a long time. Path looked okay from the Monument, about 1/2 mile in it went to shit. Slowing to turn around would have likely meant getting bogged so I pressed on. 4L 3rd gear at 3.5 to 4k rpm all the way across.

 

Yeah 3rd gear is the beast on these bad boys, especially 4L.

 

Made it to my parents place in Phoenix this afternoon. Then I went to the car wash to get the damn salt off. Got 90% there on the $20 I had with me.



My siblings fly home from here and my five year old and I will head over to Joshua Tree before picking up my wife in SLO for the long drive back to the NW corner of our NW state.

 

Very cool thread.

 

Hey OP, dig your set up, man.

I've narrowed my cap search down to the 100xr, and I'm trying to make the call on window configuration. I'm thinking of going your route with driver-side windoor/passenger-side slider. Haven't seen many real life examples though. How do you like your config? Enough cross flow ventilation? Convinient enough access with only 1 windoor?

Thanks for any insight!

 

I'm pretty happy with the setup. Doesn't quite let enough air in, or allow enough access, but I guess that's the whole trade off. I pack around the layout, things I need easy access to, like my cooler and camera equipment go near the windoor so I can quickly jump out and get to stuff. When sleeping I lay diagonally with my head next to the screened window. Also, I back into my garage with the right side of the truck tight to the wall and a 5 year old sitting behind me, it's nice to be able to put the groceries just inside the windoor and be able to pull them out without having to reach across the truck anywhere.

Ideally I think I would have prefered to go with screened windoors on both sides, but they are notorious for leaking and I live in a place with a lot of rain. The trade off is one that works for me and I can live with.

Oh, one really annoying thing though, the windoor is keyed differently from the back door. Makes no damn sense to me, the locks are the same brand, would it really be so hard to key them the same?

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yeah, the leaky reputation of the vented windoors is what has me leaning towards your configuration. Although, I'm in Southern California, so it's admittedly less of a concern.... I guess I'm trying to weigh: will it rain more often than I sleep in the back over the course of a year? Toss up. Plus, I prefer the aesthetics of the solid windoor

The keying issues seems sensless. Doubt there's anything the shop can do about factory level stuff like that, but I'll bring that up when I order it and and see if they can be matched.

 

Sub'd. Diggin' your adventures and bed setup. Keep adventuring!

 

Old business:

Not much going on since my return from the desert. Did play off road a bit around Lake Chelan last weekend while my wife was at a conference however.





Oh, and I had a little monster along. He's not totally useless though...



...he helped with airing down...



...and with airing back up.



New business:

Finally going to brave the radio install. I've been sitting on an IC-2730 for the last year or so and ever since I bought the truck I've been stewing about where I'm going to mount it. A couple of weeks ago I finally said fuck it, it's not the radio I actually want to install, so I shuffled it off and replaced it with some new hotness:



Since it seems like every damn club in the country jumped on the $500 DR-1 deal not too long ago, digital modes are kind of a no brainer. On board APRS is just a bonus and from what I've seen the UI is stupid simple (by ham standards). I should have my temporary mount tomorrow and I hope to get it all installed in the afternoon, if not it'll have to wait until sometime next week. At a minimum I'm going to bench test it tomorrow, assuming I can track down my power supply...

As for mounting, I was originally thinking about the overhead panel, but I don't think I'll be able to see it well enough, even when stopped so now I'm looking at the dash. Both photos taken to reasonably resemble my perspective from the driver's seat.





Also there's the same spot on the other side of the wheel. All three locations provide for a good view of the sky for the GPS, but I don't like how out in the open it is on the dash, will need a quick release solution there...

 

This thread makes me

 

Here is an AWESOME way to mount your HAM...

By the way I'm using Ram Snap Links and the Clearview-Rearview Mirror Riser from Bird Dawg Industries.


http://www.rammount.com/components?facets[ball_and_socket_size][]=Snap-Link 3/4'' (Holds up to 1 lb)

http://www.birddawgindustries.com/mirror-riser.html