Yep missed that
CK5
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'91 K5 Four Wheel Camper
This is the build for my 1991 V1500 Blazer, AKA the K5.3. It started out life being sold to the U.S. Government with a 350 TBI/700r4/241 combo. 4 years with a 5.3/700r4 Combo and now moving to an 8.1L Vortec and NV4500 5-speed.
Made it back tonight at about 10:30. Camped on a beach at lake Powell last night. Broke my left side stub axle and u-joint while trying to park in the sand. Decided to pack it in and come home.
I'll do a full blown trip report in a while once I get all the photos of mine and others on the trip together.
But here's some highlights. I forgot my duffel bag with all my clothes and cpap at home. Didn't realize this until I was climbing LaVeta pass 2 hours away from home.
The truck ran flawlessly. The only time the engine shut off was when I shut the key off. Temps got as high as 114 degrees but the engine never got hotter than 195. It only did that on long steep pulls.
Oh yeah, I almost got run into by what we could only think to be was a Las Vegas stripper driving her boyfriend's 7 series BMW on 22" bling bling rims. Near as we could tell by looking at the car on its lid was that the right rear tire shredded itself as she was passing me at a rate at least of 85 mph or better. The car did what it would have done had I executed a pit maneuver on her. The tire blew right next to us and made a complete right turn inches in front of me as I'm going 75mph. When they say everything slows down in an accident they are right. The bmw was completely sideways inches from the front of my truck, it was so close Ian and I both thought we were going to drill the doors. I let off the throttle and the bmw had enough momentum it kept sliding to the right away from us. It was surreal. As I'm trying to slow down without flipping myself, the bmw had spun 180 and nailed the rock wall on the right shoulder, flipped on its lid and started sliding back toword us now in the left lane from the middle lane. I got the truck stopped at the same time the bmw stopped on its lid. Ian and I immediately jumped out of the blazer once it was stopped. We ran to the car to hear a woman screaming about being stuck in her seatbelt. I happened to have my pocket knife on me (which I don't normally do) I got down on the ground and reached inside of the passenger side window. I could see her stuck upside down in the seat. She's still screaming. I couldn't reach her belt. I was able to hand her the knife and she cut the belt and landed on the roof. Me and Ian got her out of the car and assisted her to the right shoulder. She had no broken bones we could see. By the time we had done this the rest of the group had caught up and pulled over to help. Bill's girlfriend Jenn is an RN and took over care of the girl.
I gave my statement to the first CHP officer that showed up. The entire group waited for the driver to be attended to by the ambulance crew before we would leave.
What we realize during the time from getting her out of the car to the emt's arrive was that the girl had been on her phone facetiming with her boyfriend as the wreck happened. What I didn't know until we were sitting at In-n-Out in Vegas is that the lady had passed everybody else in the group behind me at a high rate of speed. She was weaving all over and passing cars on the right. She almost clipped a truck passing on the right a couple cars in front of Larry.
We moved on and hit a great trail from mesquite NV to the Arizona strip. We stayed at the tuweep campground on the north rim of the Grand Canyon that is a good 70 miles from the nearest paved road. We left there and stayed near the beach on lake Powell last night.
The camper was great. But improvements need to happen. The foam was not supportive. Dust came in from every crack. Mainly the rear, but we had it everywhere. The bench needs redone too. It was still better than a tent.
I'll do a full blown trip report in a while once I get all the photos of mine and others on the trip together.
But here's some highlights. I forgot my duffel bag with all my clothes and cpap at home. Didn't realize this until I was climbing LaVeta pass 2 hours away from home.
The truck ran flawlessly. The only time the engine shut off was when I shut the key off. Temps got as high as 114 degrees but the engine never got hotter than 195. It only did that on long steep pulls.
Oh yeah, I almost got run into by what we could only think to be was a Las Vegas stripper driving her boyfriend's 7 series BMW on 22" bling bling rims. Near as we could tell by looking at the car on its lid was that the right rear tire shredded itself as she was passing me at a rate at least of 85 mph or better. The car did what it would have done had I executed a pit maneuver on her. The tire blew right next to us and made a complete right turn inches in front of me as I'm going 75mph. When they say everything slows down in an accident they are right. The bmw was completely sideways inches from the front of my truck, it was so close Ian and I both thought we were going to drill the doors. I let off the throttle and the bmw had enough momentum it kept sliding to the right away from us. It was surreal. As I'm trying to slow down without flipping myself, the bmw had spun 180 and nailed the rock wall on the right shoulder, flipped on its lid and started sliding back toword us now in the left lane from the middle lane. I got the truck stopped at the same time the bmw stopped on its lid. Ian and I immediately jumped out of the blazer once it was stopped. We ran to the car to hear a woman screaming about being stuck in her seatbelt. I happened to have my pocket knife on me (which I don't normally do) I got down on the ground and reached inside of the passenger side window. I could see her stuck upside down in the seat. She's still screaming. I couldn't reach her belt. I was able to hand her the knife and she cut the belt and landed on the roof. Me and Ian got her out of the car and assisted her to the right shoulder. She had no broken bones we could see. By the time we had done this the rest of the group had caught up and pulled over to help. Bill's girlfriend Jenn is an RN and took over care of the girl.
I gave my statement to the first CHP officer that showed up. The entire group waited for the driver to be attended to by the ambulance crew before we would leave.
What we realize during the time from getting her out of the car to the emt's arrive was that the girl had been on her phone facetiming with her boyfriend as the wreck happened. What I didn't know until we were sitting at In-n-Out in Vegas is that the lady had passed everybody else in the group behind me at a high rate of speed. She was weaving all over and passing cars on the right. She almost clipped a truck passing on the right a couple cars in front of Larry.
We moved on and hit a great trail from mesquite NV to the Arizona strip. We stayed at the tuweep campground on the north rim of the Grand Canyon that is a good 70 miles from the nearest paved road. We left there and stayed near the beach on lake Powell last night.
The camper was great. But improvements need to happen. The foam was not supportive. Dust came in from every crack. Mainly the rear, but we had it everywhere. The bench needs redone too. It was still better than a tent.
Yeah it was a hell of an adventure. It wasn't heavy on the technical 4wd stuff as I only pulled the t-case lever out of 2wd 3 times on the trip. What it lacked in hard 4wd stuff the trip had us miles off pavement far away from anything in heat that was up to 113 on the Mojave road. I was really happy my truck handled the heat as well as it did compared to last year.
Once I gave up on the concept of trying to get decent fuel economy and kept the 5.3 wound up I was able to keep up with Larry on the highway. 75 mph was the sweet spot. Overall mileage was just under 12mpg. Last tank from pagosa springs was up to 14 mpg. Considering the truck was probably 6500 pounds when we took off and has the aero of a barn I can't complain.
I think bumping the gearing up to 4.56 will give me the biggest bang for the buck in power and keep the engine in its torque band at a little lower speed.
We visited the Tuweep area with my uncle from Kanab. It is really neat especially because it's off the beaten path.
I'm going to try. Need to solidify time off at work. My son got his time off so I need to get in gear.
I've seen the Grand Canyon from the south rim like most that have seen it have. Impressive, but the bus loads of tourists totally kill the vibe. Tuweep is the opposite, no tourists and the last three miles in is rough and rocky to keep the riffraff out. The view is breathtaking with the river straight down. We camped around the corner from the overlook with similar spectacular views. Well worth the 70+ miles of washboard road to get in and out of there.
I think the drive out there is part of the experience/fun. We made most of it in my mom's Scion xB. I think we parked it where the Ranger stays IIRC. No way it would have made the last stretch of the drive tho.
You are right. The drive is part of the fun. All the seat time, dust intake and sweat makes it worth it to get to a spot most can't. I ended up just sitting on a rock near the edge looking down to the Colorado river in silence. It's an amazing place.
Funny thing, we saw a clapped out Dodge with a large horse trailer parked between the ranger station and where the road got rough. We figured there was a horseback tour nearby. Hoofprints in the dirt confirmed that, but we never see them on the ride in. We spend our time at the overlook and make our way to the camping area about a 1/4 mile away. While we all spread out to find our own spots and I pulled around the end of a large rock outcropping to find a F350 dually with multiple tents and somebody cooking for a large group. Turns out it was a group from France taking the tour. When they got into camp they looked at our rides like they were from space. At least they were quiet.
Started uploading some pics to flickr. Here's a shot from the wreckage on I-15.
Larry took more pics from the scene as I had to tell the CHP officer what the hell happened and move back so I could call my wife to let her know what just happened.
Larry took more pics from the scene as I had to tell the CHP officer what the hell happened and move back so I could call my wife to let her know what just happened.
So here are some teaser pics before the full blown trip report. Not everybody has uploaded pics at this point but I'll share a few of mine.
Between the start of the Mojave and Ft. Piute. Temp was at 113 degrees here.
Looking back from the Fort onto the trucks. That trail that leads off into the horizon is what we had just covered to get to this spot.
Night 1 camp spot on the trail. We are just north of the Ft. Piute horse corral on the edge of the Piute gorge.
We don't starve on these trips for sure. We are trying Ian's hand made knock off Skottle, or discada if you like. It's basically a plow disc with the hole in the middle filled in and some handles and an attachment point for a single Coleman burner. Call it what ever you want, but it makes Fajitas in no time and cooks up a killer breakfast.
Oh, yeah you could say we went full blown overland this time around. Bill tossed his Trasharoo my way to use on the trip. Patches and all. Only problem is it's not very usable in camp with the tire on the ground. Yet another reason to reconfigure the spare to swing horizontally.
Joshua trees are odd. No other way to say it. Like driving through something out of Dr. Suess for mile after mile.
Getting ready for dinner at the camp spot north of the lava tubes. Another spectacular sunset.
I've got a couple hundred more pics and lots of video to go through still.
Between the start of the Mojave and Ft. Piute. Temp was at 113 degrees here.
Looking back from the Fort onto the trucks. That trail that leads off into the horizon is what we had just covered to get to this spot.
Night 1 camp spot on the trail. We are just north of the Ft. Piute horse corral on the edge of the Piute gorge.
We don't starve on these trips for sure. We are trying Ian's hand made knock off Skottle, or discada if you like. It's basically a plow disc with the hole in the middle filled in and some handles and an attachment point for a single Coleman burner. Call it what ever you want, but it makes Fajitas in no time and cooks up a killer breakfast.
Oh, yeah you could say we went full blown overland this time around. Bill tossed his Trasharoo my way to use on the trip. Patches and all. Only problem is it's not very usable in camp with the tire on the ground. Yet another reason to reconfigure the spare to swing horizontally.
Joshua trees are odd. No other way to say it. Like driving through something out of Dr. Suess for mile after mile.
Getting ready for dinner at the camp spot north of the lava tubes. Another spectacular sunset.
I've got a couple hundred more pics and lots of video to go through still.
So here are some teaser pics before the full blown trip report. Not everybody has uploaded pics at this point but I'll share a few of mine.
Between the start of the Mojave and Ft. Piute. Temp was at 113 degrees here.
Looking back from the Fort onto the trucks. That trail that leads off into the horizon is what we had just covered to get to this spot.
Night 1 camp spot on the trail. We are just north of the Ft. Piute horse corral on the edge of the Piute gorge.
We don't starve on these trips for sure. We are trying Ian's hand made knock off Skottle, or discada if you like. It's basically a plow disc with the hole in the middle filled in and some handles and an attachment point for a single Coleman burner. Call it what ever you want, but it makes Fajitas in no time and cooks up a killer breakfast.
Oh, yeah you could say we went full blown overland this time around. Bill tossed his Trasharoo my way to use on the trip. Patches and all. Only problem is it's not very usable in camp with the tire on the ground. Yet another reason to reconfigure the spare to swing horizontally.
Joshua trees are odd. No other way to say it. Like driving through something out of Dr. Suess for mile after mile.
Getting ready for dinner at the camp spot north of the lava tubes. Another spectacular sunset.
I've got a couple hundred more pics and lots of video to go through still.
Yay!
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Yeah, that wasn't really explained, but if you were watching Spot you would have caught it.
We had covered 2/3's of the Mojave road by where we stopped on night 2. We took a serious detour to get to that campsite over miles of lava rock. The idea of backtracking over that section of trail was not inviting to anybody. We missed the dry lakebed and Afton Canyon, but where we were put us on a perfect launch point for Death Valley or something else. After discussing as a group we felt climbing to higher elevations and cooler temps offset the crazy temps of Death valley. We didn't quite have an exact plan for the way to the AZ strip, but we knew we could find a way. Plus, the real adventure begins when the plans get chucked out the window. We ended up at a campsite that was one of the most gorgeous sites we've ever stopped at because of this detour.
Unless you have a GPS Spot device or something similar, I don't recommend going way off the intended plan. I think we had at least 3 of these devices running within our group.
That's exactly what it was. Right turn at I-15. That was after a soaking at the gas station for some fuel.
Big $$$ but they do build a good product.
https://denver.craigslist.org/pts/d/wilco-classic-offset-tire/6613688173.html
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We actually talked about reusing what we've built as it's double shear and we could attach it to the face of a bumper we build. Or we use the 10bolt hub and spindle I already picked up. Not sure yet. All I know is heaving that tire up by the end of the trip was getting old.
Can’t wait for the official trip report!!!
