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Desert Trip VI: Trip Report starting on page 6

Larry

Largarto Rancher & Tumbleweed Farmer
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It is that time of year again where the K10 gets a major look over and lots of maintenance performed in preparation for our annual 7-10 day off-road adventure trip to the Southwestern Desert someplace. This year the trip will happen a few months earlier (Leaving in late March) instead of the usual July (we have a baby girl on the way that is due in July :woot:) and we are going a bit further on this trip than the usual Utah and Arizona trips we’ve done over the past few years.

This year we are going to check out the Mojave Rd that run from just South of Laughlin, NV to Zzyzx, CA (pronounced "Zye - Zex"). The Mojave Rd is an old Indian trading route of about 130 miles of nothing but wide open desert and beautiful scenery with lot of old rustic ruins to check out. Really neat place rich in Southwestern history. After that we are headed up to Death Valley for another 3 or 4 days of trail riding, camping, photography and what not. The entire trip should come in somewhere around 2,500 to 3,000 miles depending what all side trips we follow along the way.

As you can imagine this truck goes through tires about every 2 years and this time around I wanted a bit heavier load range of tire but there isn’t much on the market in the way of 315/75R16’s Load Range E’s so I settled upon a set of Fierce Attitudes Load Range E by Dunlop mounted on Desert Rat Rattler Moab STR aluminum wheels. The bad news is the new tires and wheels are a bit wide and badly interfere with the front fender flares under moderate articulation so that is something I need to work out yet. Might even order a set of Xenon flares and move these WARN’s to the Suburban. These WARN flares hang down pretty low and have often gotten in the way of the tires anyway. Also had to go through the NP205 transfercase last weekend to address some old noise issues I’ve been dealing with for the last few years. I wouldn’t mind upgrading the alternator to around a 150 to 200 AMP unit before we leave as well.

Last year’s trip was only 1,555 miles where the big beast delivered 11.72 MPH for the entire trip. Not too bad for a big block powered, 8,000 lb. rig with the aerodynamics of a drive in movie theater screen.

Because I am a picture wh0re, here are a few shots of the winter tires, old desert trip tires and the new Fierce Attitudes.

Old All-Terrain tires and wheels used for long distance desert adventures. These now live on the Suburban
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Winter tires used for CO mountain trips
. Still use this set for local trips
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New Fierce Attitude tires on Rattler Moab STR wheels. You can see Pikes Peak right under the transfercase. These pictures were taken in the open space next to my house. I love these new tires and wheels! :laugh:
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Another with Pikes Peak under the truck
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You can rest assure I'll have lots of pictures from the Mojave Rd and Death Valley when we get back! Might even post up my SPOT GPS link so you all can follow us along in real time as we stroll through the desert like watching ants in an ant farm. Plus someone can come rescue is if we break down! :haha:
 
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Awesome rig you got there!
The Mojave Rd is a lot of fun, my friends and I did the trail twice in the last two years. Pick up a copy of the mojave rd guide if you haven't yet, it has all the info you'll ever need about it. Gps coordinates, landmarks to see and handy directions for when you feel like you've lost the trail (trust me it happens), history about the area, etc.
4A4C6483-DDA6-4A56-92BC-35F3440C8A05-6223-000007958F3AC19A_zps30fab2a1.jpg


Around mile 75-80 is this really cool spot to camp for a night
3DC4A5A9-F415-486A-861C-A0EC1F79CB42-6223-000007958435803C_zps374104c8.jpg

927DBA12-9BD1-47E3-80F9-33D0FD64F0AE-6223-0000079577E37005_zpsf6baafa1.jpg
 
Those tires look like a really good fit for what you do! An in between of the Swampers and the all terrains. Nothing will Look as good as the swampers to me, but form follows function.
 
I'd be too much of a puss to go as far out into bfe as you Larry.

I'd be way to freaked out about my rig breaking down and being stranded.


Props to you. Truck looks great :thumb:
 
Awesome rig you got there!
The Mojave Rd is a lot of fun, my friends and I did the trail twice in the last two years. Pick up a copy of the mojave rd guide if you haven't yet, it has all the info you'll ever need about it. Gps coordinates, landmarks to see and handy directions for when you feel like you've lost the trail (trust me it happens), history about the area, etc.

Cool! Yeah, I picked up the Mojave Road Guide a while back. What a great book! We met the Author or coauthor last year at the Overland Expo. That guy knew everything here is to know about that area that is for sure. That does look like a great camp spot in the pictures. Almost looks like the Doll House area of Utah's Canyonlands. We have 4 trucks total going along; 2 Dodge Rams from CA, a 1971 F250 from AZ, and my buddy (Dodge/Cummins) and I from CO so we will be needing somewhat of a large camp site. We are really looking forward to the trip! Ready to leave today! :haha:


Those tires look like a really good fit for what you do! An in between of the Swampers and the all terrains. Nothing will Look as good as the swampers to me, but form follows function.

Thanks man! These new meats should fit the bill well for the long distance trips. I am surprised how quiet they are on the highway. Of course, after Superswampers even a turbo prop airplane seems quiet.


I'd be too much of a puss to go as far out into bfe as you Larry.

I'd be way to freaked out about my rig breaking down and being stranded.


Props to you. Truck looks great :thumb:

Hehe, anything can happen! We haven’t had a full-on breakdown yet but had a good scare 2 years ago in Utah when the truck up and died on a steep twisty climb. As it turned out the weather pack connector near the bellhousing for the electric fuel pump got yanked apart. Apparently when I did the NV4500 swap I routed the fuel pump harness in a fashion that caused the harness to pull pretty taut when the frame was flexed. I just knew I was dreadfully going to need to start draining the fuel tank to replace the pump, which I carry a spare just in case....got lucky with just a connection issue. Like I say, anything can happen no matter how new or old the truck and pieces are or how well they are bolted together. Hopefully we have enough parts with us to limp them to civilization :haha:
 
Some video's of trips over the years. There not always the most difficult of trails, just remote as hell with a lot of cliff faces to scale :haha:

Hole in the Rock 2012
[youtube]X6L9ZDsau0g&list=PL2BBBDD489D71B611&index=3[/youtube]

Top of the World 2011. All the racket is the fan bitting the fan shroud thanks to a pair of failed Napa engine mounts
[youtube]I2F4a5iulcc&list=PL58161C0471F25102&index=5[/youtube]

White Rim 2011
[youtube]IlrT2uhpZk0&list=PL58161C0471F25102&index=7[/youtube]

Canyonlands Maze District 2010
[youtube]O2MTHed-WT0&list=PLA966B54CA0B63794&index=18[/youtube]
 
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http://www.findmespot.com/en/
any thoughts of having something like this on you?
i know you guys are pretty well prepared but cant be too safe these days.


Ah, yeah! :waytogo: SPOT is awesome. We've been running one since 2009. Because of SPOT is the only reason why my wife lets me go so far to play :haha:

SPOT allows her and friends at home to follow us along in real time on Google Maps and if anything goes wrong they will get a text, email and see it on screen. I’ll throw up a SPOT live link when we take off for the trip in March so all the CK5ers can check it out.

Here is the SPOT summary link from 2011. Be patient, the SPOT Adventures page loads slowwwww. The live SPOT feed looks much different than the post trip summary page.
 
Ah, yeah! :waytogo: SPOT is awesome. We've been running one since 2009. Because of SPOT is the only reason why my wife lets me go so far to play :haha:

SPOT allows her and friends at home to follow us along in real time on Google Maps and if anything goes wrong they will get a text, email and see it on screen. I’ll throw up a SPOT live link when we take off for the trip in March so all the CK5ers can check it out.

Here is the SPOT summary link from 2011. Be patient, the SPOT Adventures page loads slowwwww. The live SPOT feed looks much different than the post trip summary page.
:thumb: :thumb: :bow:
 
Looks like its only $120! Is there a subscription type fee also? Or is it free to use after purchase?
 
Looks like its only $120! Is there a subscription type fee also? Or is it free to use after purchase?

Nah, there is a yearly service fee above the cost of the SPOT unit itself. Can’t remember what the yearly fee actually is but it well worth it. Mine automatically renews each May.
 
We did our little shakedown run this morning to foothills up the road from home. Everything is good to go outside of still needing to install the new Xenon flares (the new tires rub the current WARN flares badly) but I sure miss the Detroit TruTrac that was in the old front D44. The D60 was a big upgrade in brute strength but a major downgrade in the traction department. Need to do something about that someday.

It was a beautiful day in the foothills outside of Canon City today :waytogo: Not nearly enough snow to make the short trip interesting :rolleyes:

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Certainly quite pretty. When you swap flairs, what are you going to do about the marker light cutouts?
 
The new Xenon flares are pretty cool where they have a cutout for the sidemarker light built into the flare. I’ve never seen any decent pictures of these particular flares the front of a ’73-’80 before. Hoping to find time to paint and install them sometime this week. Pics soon! :popcorn:
 

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