The Fellowship of PNW Tacomas | PDX Area Wheeling

If it’s still there this would be fun

 

So cool! Wish I was I was still in the PNW. I wonder if they do anything like this in Pennsylvania.

 

Not in the burn zone, so far. Ollallie is toast though.

 

Is this Santiam River Rd route a one day thing or more of an overnighter trip? Excuses to do some camping.

 

Depends on where you start and end, and how many breaks you take. That said, I ran from segment 10 to 12 and it took about 2 hours. Only the segments marked 'ATV' are drivable, anyway.

 

I'm still waiting on my lift parts to arrive (hopefully by this Friday) so I can get to work installing next week.

Hopefully we can get some good rain here soon to kill the fires, smoke in the air and get the Chanterelles to start popping.

 

yeah, so could a stock taco make the trip? or any ideas which legs of the route would be possible? i would like to do it depending on how tough it might be

 

Didn't feel uncomfortable going solo on the segment I took. I'm a mostly stock trdor with slightly bigger bfgs and recovery gear. I'd have to scout out how 2676 looks and the segment between 9 and 10. 10 to 11 was sandy dirt (no gravel bed) with lots of ruts but mostly a comfort/slow down thing than a 'get stuck' thing, and 11 to 12 was standard NF road (as is everything from 11+, really.

Everything else is hiking/biking trail so just consider it a highway segment.

 

How do you think it would be in the snow? If the flatter FS gravel roads were snow covered (not buried), it may be an interesting snowventure/camp along type tour, no? I've been considering idea of trying basic near camp snowshoeing sometime for the exercise.

 

Land Cruiser shop is closed today due to Portland's cigar-club air, so I'm going to do some more measuring and planning to install these beautiful things. Going to cut the mounts off my old seats and throw them on the BMW seats, will have to fab up some brackets but I was excited to find yesterday that they'll work and sit at stock height (unless you want them taller, which is great news for Lauren).

 

Dude, this upgrade is gonna be life changing. Lol

 

It turns into snowmobile/xc ski areas in the winter.

 

Weather report has been saying it's gonna rain soon for days now. Reminder to that ash + water is corrosive to paint. You might want to wash your truck before it rains if you don't have covered parking. You will need to dry it after.

I got a couple drying microfiber towels from home depot and a drying squeegee. The squeegee got 90% of the water and the towels did great. Just don't miss any dirt or the squeegee can cause a scratch.

Stay safe guys, it's really dangerous to be outside in this air right now. Check this map for local data on air quality with a rolling 10 min time table.

https://www.purpleair.com

It's far more accurate than any other air quality site I have found. Most average the whole area. With that site if you have a sensor near you, you get much better results.

 

i have heard this from a couple different places now, without any explanation or sources cited. could you please explain how ash + rain is going to ruin a paint job?

 

No, the rain + ash mixture will not damage your paint, there has to be A LOT of ash for that to occur, and it needs to be from hardwood.

 

There is not enough ash to worry about the rain mixture to become corrosive enough.

 

Softwoods, such as pine, spruce, or fir, which make up the majority of the PNW forests, do not contain enough potassium or calcium, which is necessary for making lye, the corrosive substance people are worried about.

 

thank you. this is what I suspected.

I did some more google-fu on the subject. lo and behold most of the sources saying, "be sure to wash you car very thoroughly" are car wash/detailers or have some stake in selling you products

 

Ash + Water = Lye

Lye is a caustic solution.

I don't pretend to fully understand the science. Googling the question results in many dozens upon dozens of news stories warning people about the problem without any of them offering a fully satisfactory answer on the science of it.

In any case, car paint is much easier to damage than a lot of people realize. I am not willing to take the chance.

Here is an article discussing the making of Lye.

You do not know what is in the smoke, nor how much ash has gotten on peoples vehicles. Homes, cars, buildings, people, animals, batteries, plastics, oils, chemicals, and countless other things have been burned. Additionally just because most of the forest is softwood does not mean the is no hard woods in the area.

That being said, I'm not going to argue with you. If you want to risk it, it's your truck.

It's not worth the risk to me. A few car washes in the smoke while wearing a mask is a small price to pay for me to have peace of mind that I am doing everything I can to keep my truck's paint in good condition.

 

Woah there, bud. Just explaining the science since I'm a scientist, sorry if that bothered you. If someone wants to do it for peace if mind, I'm not trying to stop them, but it's better to make an educated decision than just to listen to the masses and make one out of fear and worry.

No, I don't know everything that's in the ash, obviously, but statistically, it's still going to be a mostly negligible amount to cause damage for the majority with ash on their vehicles.