Sounds like an epic trip, that was a whole pile of failures to encounter. And yet you drove it home. 
CK5
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Epic overland trip on the way to Blazer Bash - The S-10 is back on the road!
- Thread starter r3dd0g
- Start date
If you read my build threads, you know that the trailer was finished the day before we left on this trip and that the S-10 1 ton swap was completed not too long before that. It's not usually my thing to take an untested rig and trailer on a 2000 mile trip, but it was either that or call the trip off. That being said, everything worked out pretty well I think.
Here are the stats for the trip:
Total mileage ~2000 miles with over half of that being offroad
Truck issues:
-leaky steering hydraulic fitting which was replaced at the trail head.
-leaky engine oil cooler which was bypassed.
-bent frame which was straightened and re-bent.
-broken axle shaft which was replaced after the spindle was cleared out.
-screaming throwout bearing (it wasn't the idler pullys...) which somehow caused me to lose hydraulics as well. Still hasn't been repaired so I'm not sure the extent of the damage. I hate mud.
-Broken bumper bolts which ended up mangling the rear of the frame when the bumper rotated down. It's welded on now, but I'll have to figure something else out when I back half the truck to fix the frame.
Trailer issues:
-the solenoid valves I used suck, they leaked by if I didn't have pressure on the inlet side and the bags would deflate. There was a small air leak at the shutoff valve for the connection to the trucks air system so that meant my air compressor would run every 10 minutes for the entire week while we were moving. I want to get better valves and move them up inside the electronics panel to keep them cleaner. Everything under the trailer is covered with mud. The leaky valve caused a couple issues, I forgot to re-connect the trailer air line after airing up a couple times, that resulted in a nice groove being worn into the passenger side tire after dragging it down the freeway...
-the big fridge in the trailer had an issue where it stopped working on 12 volts about the 3rd day in. Luckily someone had a 110v cable that worked and I just plugged it into the inverter that was mounted right there anyways. Unfortunatey this meant the inverter had to stay on all the time, but it's not really that big of a deal. I still need to figure out what's wrong with the fridge but haven't taken it apart yet.
-One of the welds on the water tank cracked. I had ground it down for cosmetic reasons and didn't leave enough metal there. Luckily enough people had empty tanks that we could dump the water into so we could pull the tank and weld it up. Unfortunately that means I used regular steel to fix it so now it's going to rust. I'll either have to make a whole new tank or cut out the repaired area and replace it with stainless.
-the charging system was insufficient. I used a big solenoid relay with a 50 amp breaker on it to charge from the truck while we were moving. Unfortunately with the load from the fridge and the small gauge wiring going through the trailer plug it just didn't seem to get the voltage up on the trailer batteries unless it was charging for 8+ hours. This meant I had to get the jumper cables out a few times to quick charge the batteries enough to raise and lower the tent or to finish the movie we were watching. I'll probably get a 150+ amp battery isolator and run some 4 gauge cables back to the trailer to get the batteries charged properly.
That was pretty much it, if I had better bumpstops on the S-10 I don't think I would have bent the frame and that may have prevented the axle issue as well. The trailer worked out really and if I had time to do some shakedown runs with it prior to the trip I don't think I would have found and addressed all the problems we ran into on the run.
Here are the stats for the trip:
Total mileage ~2000 miles with over half of that being offroad
Truck issues:
-leaky steering hydraulic fitting which was replaced at the trail head.
-leaky engine oil cooler which was bypassed.
-bent frame which was straightened and re-bent.
-broken axle shaft which was replaced after the spindle was cleared out.
-screaming throwout bearing (it wasn't the idler pullys...) which somehow caused me to lose hydraulics as well. Still hasn't been repaired so I'm not sure the extent of the damage. I hate mud.
-Broken bumper bolts which ended up mangling the rear of the frame when the bumper rotated down. It's welded on now, but I'll have to figure something else out when I back half the truck to fix the frame.
Trailer issues:
-the solenoid valves I used suck, they leaked by if I didn't have pressure on the inlet side and the bags would deflate. There was a small air leak at the shutoff valve for the connection to the trucks air system so that meant my air compressor would run every 10 minutes for the entire week while we were moving. I want to get better valves and move them up inside the electronics panel to keep them cleaner. Everything under the trailer is covered with mud. The leaky valve caused a couple issues, I forgot to re-connect the trailer air line after airing up a couple times, that resulted in a nice groove being worn into the passenger side tire after dragging it down the freeway...
-the big fridge in the trailer had an issue where it stopped working on 12 volts about the 3rd day in. Luckily someone had a 110v cable that worked and I just plugged it into the inverter that was mounted right there anyways. Unfortunatey this meant the inverter had to stay on all the time, but it's not really that big of a deal. I still need to figure out what's wrong with the fridge but haven't taken it apart yet.
-One of the welds on the water tank cracked. I had ground it down for cosmetic reasons and didn't leave enough metal there. Luckily enough people had empty tanks that we could dump the water into so we could pull the tank and weld it up. Unfortunately that means I used regular steel to fix it so now it's going to rust. I'll either have to make a whole new tank or cut out the repaired area and replace it with stainless.
-the charging system was insufficient. I used a big solenoid relay with a 50 amp breaker on it to charge from the truck while we were moving. Unfortunately with the load from the fridge and the small gauge wiring going through the trailer plug it just didn't seem to get the voltage up on the trailer batteries unless it was charging for 8+ hours. This meant I had to get the jumper cables out a few times to quick charge the batteries enough to raise and lower the tent or to finish the movie we were watching. I'll probably get a 150+ amp battery isolator and run some 4 gauge cables back to the trailer to get the batteries charged properly.
That was pretty much it, if I had better bumpstops on the S-10 I don't think I would have bent the frame and that may have prevented the axle issue as well. The trailer worked out really and if I had time to do some shakedown runs with it prior to the trip I don't think I would have found and addressed all the problems we ran into on the run.
I worked on the truck finally this weekend. I forgot about another issue we had. On the last day of wheeling we got a small tear in the brake booster diaphragm which tore more as we drove home. We never really had any braking issues while driving, just a high idle. You did lose vacuum as soon as the truck shut off so Amber was having some trouble keeping the truck from rolling when starting it.
When we dropped the tranny, we got to see what happened to the slave cylinder/throwout bearing. Apparently the mud/water/etc. killed the bearing, this caused it to overheat on the highway and melt the plastic which allowed the piston to push through the middle of the bearing (bad design, cheapo autozone part, lesson learned, AC Delco part was put in as a replacement):
The truck is back on the road and we'll be taking it an the trailer out for a 3 day weekend/camping trip this weekend.
When we dropped the tranny, we got to see what happened to the slave cylinder/throwout bearing. Apparently the mud/water/etc. killed the bearing, this caused it to overheat on the highway and melt the plastic which allowed the piston to push through the middle of the bearing (bad design, cheapo autozone part, lesson learned, AC Delco part was put in as a replacement):
The truck is back on the road and we'll be taking it an the trailer out for a 3 day weekend/camping trip this weekend.
ekajkrats
1/2 ton status
I've been following along during story time, and want to say thanks for sharing your adventure. Epic was a great title for it!
looks like the slave cylinder I pulled from a bronco 2 the other week, same thing, the bearing was stuck down there
The bearing is actually right where it's supposed to be (although it doesn't spin). The piston is the part that's popped through the middle. The additional stickout made it extra fun to extract the transmission...
Thanks!
Awesome stuff. Great job on all of the above!
ran across this article
http://www.fourwheeler.com/events/1...ition-7-days-of-remote-backcountry-exploring/
http://www.fourwheeler.com/events/1...ition-7-days-of-remote-backcountry-exploring/
Nice!
Wow, that was quick. Usually it takes a year before those hit the magazine.
another awesome pic
I was WOT when he took that picture, I thought it would be throwing more mud than it is, but it still looks good.
Jay wheeled with us the whole first week and got a ton of pictures. I wish I could see all the ones he took, I'm sure he has a bunch more good ones.
Jay wheeled with us the whole first week and got a ton of pictures. I wish I could see all the ones he took, I'm sure he has a bunch more good ones.
Cool stuff!
The article is in this months Dirt Sport too. I didn't read through it yet, but it looks to be pretty much the same thing but in print.
I love this. If I can get the metal fixed on my truck in time for Spring break, this is what I intend to take the family on.
Just found this thread. Good read.
Martin
Martin
