those water pics are amazing! almost looks like a video game.
CK5
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The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)
- Thread starter mosesburb
- Start date
y5mgisi
1 ton status
That is amazing! THank you so much!
Thats some clear water!! 
Snorkeling at fossil creek is awesome! I have spent many days under water there.... The travertine in the water is what makes it so clear and good for snorkeling... LOVE THAT PLACE!
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That looks like a cool tubin creek
It's actually a little too small for that, lots of places you couldn't float through....
So, last we heard our heroes were leaving the enchanted waters of Fossil Creek. Upon heading out toward Strawberry (the opposite way from the one we came in on), altitude is gained almost immediately and is constantly being gained almost all of the way to Strawberry. There are some very striking views to be had from the road.
Looking back to from where we came:
So in around here somewhere, I smell something. I think I know what I smell, but I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am wrong.
Me: You smell that??
My boy: Yeah. It smells like wheat.
Me: What?? Wheat?? No way, it smells like hot electrical.
But how?? Why?? More importantly, what?? This is the one I have no idea about. It isn't terribly strong stink-wise, but I am thinking it is definitely there. I decide I should stop and check it out. I find a nice scenic spot to pull toward the side. I open the hood and look around. Now, mind you, there is really minimal electrical on this truck. All of the main power feeds are in one spot. I grab each one and none are even remotely warm (no warmer than the ambient under-hood air). Well what the hell is going on. I can kind of smell it, but not really. Meh, maybe I was imagining it. Yeah, that's it.
So I close the hood and we head on. We keep steadily gaining altitude. We see more and more cool scenery. That zig-zag is the road up there:
This white mesa was really cool:
Right about here is where I decided I am not imagining what I am smelling. There has got to be something running hot. I stop and open the hood again and this time I find one of the inner hood support brace insulators laying on top of the turbocharger (long foam strips that go between the brace and the hood skin--actually the only one left). SWEET!! That has got to be it. Right?? Yeah, that has to be it. I grab it and throw it in the back and away we go. I keep inquiring with my boy that the smell is better now, right?? Well, it did get less intense, so I figured we must me on to something.
This little area off of the trail here didn't look like much at first, but a closer look showed it to be a ledge with about a 3.5 screamer to the bottom. Wow, all that uphill driving sure got us up a ways. Well, the smell is getting intense now. There is no denying it anymore. It stinks. Hot electricity. Permeating the vehicle. I am trying to get as close to civilization (and a fire department) as I can now. We are not too far so I am just going as long as we can go.
I did stop to look at the flowers though:
This was pretty neat with it on both sides of the road:
Shortly after we get past here we start seeing some signs of civilization. I decided to stop and unlock the hubs since we hadn't used four wheel drive in quite a while. While I was out I was thinking about our problem and something came to mind. When we are on dirt, I always run the auxiliary electric fans as it keeps the mechanical fan from engaging almost completely. I look in the grille as I pass by and whoa, only one fan is turning. Hmm. I open the hood and notice the other fan is billowing smoke. Hmm. Now I'm no electrical engineer, but I think this is a bad situation. I reach up under the fan and grab the connector and disconnect it. We continue on our journey, but that nasty hot-electrical smell remains with us for a long time and many miles. At least I figured out what was up before the smoke turned to flames.
As a side note, when I got back home, i wanted to check the situation out. I could not figure out why this had happened. There was no obstruction in the fan, it just locked up. But why did it not pop the fuse?? Did I put the wrong amperage fuse in?? I pulled the fuse holder and checked it and it had a 20A fuse in it. Well, that's not it. I put smaller and smaller fuses in it until I was at a 5A and it would not pop any of them. I thought this was strange. Anyways, I bought new fans for it, but unfortunately I have to tear the whole front of the truck off to get to pull the aftercooler to change them out. I have since re-engineered the mounting configuration to permit a fan change in the vehicle. Unfortunately circumstances have not permitted me to get to fab it up yet so right now it runs with only one auxiliary electric fan. Meh, it's winter right??
Looking back to from where we came:
So in around here somewhere, I smell something. I think I know what I smell, but I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am wrong.
Me: You smell that??
My boy: Yeah. It smells like wheat.
Me: What?? Wheat?? No way, it smells like hot electrical.
But how?? Why?? More importantly, what?? This is the one I have no idea about. It isn't terribly strong stink-wise, but I am thinking it is definitely there. I decide I should stop and check it out. I find a nice scenic spot to pull toward the side. I open the hood and look around. Now, mind you, there is really minimal electrical on this truck. All of the main power feeds are in one spot. I grab each one and none are even remotely warm (no warmer than the ambient under-hood air). Well what the hell is going on. I can kind of smell it, but not really. Meh, maybe I was imagining it. Yeah, that's it.
So I close the hood and we head on. We keep steadily gaining altitude. We see more and more cool scenery. That zig-zag is the road up there:
This white mesa was really cool:
Right about here is where I decided I am not imagining what I am smelling. There has got to be something running hot. I stop and open the hood again and this time I find one of the inner hood support brace insulators laying on top of the turbocharger (long foam strips that go between the brace and the hood skin--actually the only one left). SWEET!! That has got to be it. Right?? Yeah, that has to be it. I grab it and throw it in the back and away we go. I keep inquiring with my boy that the smell is better now, right?? Well, it did get less intense, so I figured we must me on to something.
This little area off of the trail here didn't look like much at first, but a closer look showed it to be a ledge with about a 3.5 screamer to the bottom. Wow, all that uphill driving sure got us up a ways. Well, the smell is getting intense now. There is no denying it anymore. It stinks. Hot electricity. Permeating the vehicle. I am trying to get as close to civilization (and a fire department) as I can now. We are not too far so I am just going as long as we can go.
I did stop to look at the flowers though:
This was pretty neat with it on both sides of the road:
Shortly after we get past here we start seeing some signs of civilization. I decided to stop and unlock the hubs since we hadn't used four wheel drive in quite a while. While I was out I was thinking about our problem and something came to mind. When we are on dirt, I always run the auxiliary electric fans as it keeps the mechanical fan from engaging almost completely. I look in the grille as I pass by and whoa, only one fan is turning. Hmm. I open the hood and notice the other fan is billowing smoke. Hmm. Now I'm no electrical engineer, but I think this is a bad situation. I reach up under the fan and grab the connector and disconnect it. We continue on our journey, but that nasty hot-electrical smell remains with us for a long time and many miles. At least I figured out what was up before the smoke turned to flames.
As a side note, when I got back home, i wanted to check the situation out. I could not figure out why this had happened. There was no obstruction in the fan, it just locked up. But why did it not pop the fuse?? Did I put the wrong amperage fuse in?? I pulled the fuse holder and checked it and it had a 20A fuse in it. Well, that's not it. I put smaller and smaller fuses in it until I was at a 5A and it would not pop any of them. I thought this was strange. Anyways, I bought new fans for it, but unfortunately I have to tear the whole front of the truck off to get to pull the aftercooler to change them out. I have since re-engineered the mounting configuration to permit a fan change in the vehicle. Unfortunately circumstances have not permitted me to get to fab it up yet so right now it runs with only one auxiliary electric fan. Meh, it's winter right??
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Hey a little off topic, but have you towed with the burb at all?
an electrician friend of mine likes to say that electricity is made out of magic smoke. everything works fine as long as the magic smoke stays inside the wires. if it gets out, you got trouble.
glad you found it!
Nothing major. I hauled a frame with axles, wheels and tires on a tandem axle trailer. That is the heaviest thing I have hauled yet. I pull a small, two wheel flatbed occasionally. It hasn't challenge the truck at all to pull what I have pulled so far.
an electrician friend of mine likes to say that electricity is made out of magic smoke. everything works fine as long as the magic smoke stays inside the wires. if it gets out, you got trouble.
glad you found it!
It sure is. And once the smoke is out, there is no putting it back.
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That was a nice little weekend you and your boy had, and it gave you a small little something to keep posting up with.
This is going to sound stupid - but I never realized Arizona was so cool.
Az is one of the most scenic states in the USA! Love this place, there is just never enough time to see all I wanna see!
Ok, I am so far behind right now in posting pics of just about anything, that I need to post something to get a little closer to current.
So this trip was not finished yet. We actually had not gotten to camp yet so here we go. I had wanted to go up to a spot that I along with some friends of mine used to go to up by Flagstaff, but that area is full of elk and this was during elk season, so I decided that probably was not the best time to do a Flagstaff camping trip. I amended our plans and rolled through the Verde Valley over through Jerome and back down 413. On our way through the area we stopped at one of the scenic lookout points along the way and I noticed something that I had never noticed before.
At the top of the pic is a trestle setup that carries a pipe on it. I had never seen that before--kind of neat:
This is a look out toward the valley from the lookout:
So we head back into the hills and get a short glimpse of fall colors:
We got back into the area we were heading for and got camp setup and got to have a fire. This is the first time I have camped with my boy that there was not a fire restriction in the area we were camping.
Gratuitous truck shot in campfire lighting:
On the way out the next morning I noticed something odd. The power poles were very unique. I don't know if I have ever noticed them before, but if I did, it did not ring a bell with me.
I had actually seen some just like it yesterday, but did not realize it then.
Right in the service yard at Childs was another one. I was doing some research when we got back and I found out that the transportation guys were not able to get the wooden poles needed for the power transmission cables through the switchbacks and down to the plant (along with other areas that poles needed to go), so being the huge Erector Set transmission structures that crossed the west in the 60's and 70's were not invented yet, they came up with their own idea. The got with a company that made windmills and had them supply the windmill stands that could be transported as bits and pieces to the site and then get erected. The tower that is on the side of the road transported power from Childs to Jerome back in the day. Very cool.
We got back into Jerome the next day and did some aimless wandering. There is an old car dealership The New State Motor Company that has been transformed into a store on the street level and a museum like display on the lower levels.
The math kind of defeats the purpose:
We went on a walk that I can not admit to taking, but at the end of our walk I remembered this was down the street from where we were:
So this trip was not finished yet. We actually had not gotten to camp yet so here we go. I had wanted to go up to a spot that I along with some friends of mine used to go to up by Flagstaff, but that area is full of elk and this was during elk season, so I decided that probably was not the best time to do a Flagstaff camping trip. I amended our plans and rolled through the Verde Valley over through Jerome and back down 413. On our way through the area we stopped at one of the scenic lookout points along the way and I noticed something that I had never noticed before.
At the top of the pic is a trestle setup that carries a pipe on it. I had never seen that before--kind of neat:
This is a look out toward the valley from the lookout:
So we head back into the hills and get a short glimpse of fall colors:
We got back into the area we were heading for and got camp setup and got to have a fire. This is the first time I have camped with my boy that there was not a fire restriction in the area we were camping.
Gratuitous truck shot in campfire lighting:
On the way out the next morning I noticed something odd. The power poles were very unique. I don't know if I have ever noticed them before, but if I did, it did not ring a bell with me.
I had actually seen some just like it yesterday, but did not realize it then.
Right in the service yard at Childs was another one. I was doing some research when we got back and I found out that the transportation guys were not able to get the wooden poles needed for the power transmission cables through the switchbacks and down to the plant (along with other areas that poles needed to go), so being the huge Erector Set transmission structures that crossed the west in the 60's and 70's were not invented yet, they came up with their own idea. The got with a company that made windmills and had them supply the windmill stands that could be transported as bits and pieces to the site and then get erected. The tower that is on the side of the road transported power from Childs to Jerome back in the day. Very cool.
We got back into Jerome the next day and did some aimless wandering. There is an old car dealership The New State Motor Company that has been transformed into a store on the street level and a museum like display on the lower levels.
The math kind of defeats the purpose:
We went on a walk that I can not admit to taking, but at the end of our walk I remembered this was down the street from where we were:
So we do some more wandering around town. I talked to a food service driver who did not get paid nearly enough money to drive a semi where he was driving it. I ran into a nice lady from the historical society and we had a fantastic chat about all kinds of topics related to Jerome and the surrounding area. She was very knowledgeable about the town and I really enjoyed talking with her. She realized that I knew a fair bit about the dirt roads leading to Jerome and was asking detailed questions about certain locations and points on the trails. It was really cool to be able to answer questions from someone in the historical society with information that I had learned while wheeling. Really cool. I got to help an old lady that decided to run her three wheeled electric scooter down a nasty road and put it over on its side. I did not see it happen, but I heard it and by the time I turned my head, she had already laid it over. My boy and I ran up the hill and another guy came down from the top. The old lady was mostly ok. We got her uprighted and I got the scooter uprighted then she sits down on it, swings her legs in and hits the "GO" switch--back down the hill she just dumped it over on!! WTF?!?!?! I run down the hill to get in front of her because I know if she puts it over again, she won't be as lucky. So I finally get her down to the bottom (no small task as she alone outweighed me by a fair bit, then add the scooter and the fact that she was giving it power to go down the hill...) Ugh.
Let the fun (the real kind) continue. What is it with us, snakes and roads??
We headed down the hill, through Clarkdale, past the slag pile up toward Sycamore Canyon. Once around the bend you are greeted with the TAPCO power plant. It was an oil fired plant built to supply power to the smelter in Clarkdale when the power from Irving and Childs was not enough. It ran a fair bit more than just that, but it was not as significant to the mines as Childs and Irving were.
Coming back, this is the slag pile in Clarkdale from a lower view point:
So we head back up the hill, through Jerome and out the other side. Along the way I spot somethig that I had always wondered where it was. The Jerome Swimming pool:
It was fed by a spring at the far end of it. The water collected to the depth of the spillway at this end, then flowed into a trough that crossed the ditch and then into pipes for the ride into Jerome to become drinking water. Yup, swim in the drinking water. You can see the steps leading down to it on the right side of the pic and the spillway in about the center of the pic pointing at you. The spring still flows and still supplies Jerome with drinking water the same way it has for over a hundred years. I guess the only difference is you can't swim in it anymore.
So we head down the hill into Prescott Valley, get some fuel and keep on moving. Well, we get down to the Dewey Humboldt area and I can't resist taking a few pics. This area is very contaminated and is an EPA Superfund site. That is not good, but there is still a bunch of history around here.
This is the smelter in Humboldt:
It processed ore from the Iron King mine about a mile away. This is another structure on the smelter site:
These are foundations on the Iron King Mine site:
Old scale house:
Sign proving I am not making this up:
This is the mine dump from the Iron King Mine:
It has been "mined" recently. The product "Ironite" came from these piles of mine waste. IIRC, it was outlawed in Canada because of high levels of arsenic. I could be wrong (it has been a bunch of years, but it seems like it was something like that).
So we head out from that and look back at the mountains we just came out of and are greeted with this parting shot:
Let the fun (the real kind) continue. What is it with us, snakes and roads??
We headed down the hill, through Clarkdale, past the slag pile up toward Sycamore Canyon. Once around the bend you are greeted with the TAPCO power plant. It was an oil fired plant built to supply power to the smelter in Clarkdale when the power from Irving and Childs was not enough. It ran a fair bit more than just that, but it was not as significant to the mines as Childs and Irving were.
Coming back, this is the slag pile in Clarkdale from a lower view point:
So we head back up the hill, through Jerome and out the other side. Along the way I spot somethig that I had always wondered where it was. The Jerome Swimming pool:
It was fed by a spring at the far end of it. The water collected to the depth of the spillway at this end, then flowed into a trough that crossed the ditch and then into pipes for the ride into Jerome to become drinking water. Yup, swim in the drinking water. You can see the steps leading down to it on the right side of the pic and the spillway in about the center of the pic pointing at you. The spring still flows and still supplies Jerome with drinking water the same way it has for over a hundred years. I guess the only difference is you can't swim in it anymore.
So we head down the hill into Prescott Valley, get some fuel and keep on moving. Well, we get down to the Dewey Humboldt area and I can't resist taking a few pics. This area is very contaminated and is an EPA Superfund site. That is not good, but there is still a bunch of history around here.
This is the smelter in Humboldt:
It processed ore from the Iron King mine about a mile away. This is another structure on the smelter site:
These are foundations on the Iron King Mine site:
Old scale house:
Sign proving I am not making this up:
This is the mine dump from the Iron King Mine:
It has been "mined" recently. The product "Ironite" came from these piles of mine waste. IIRC, it was outlawed in Canada because of high levels of arsenic. I could be wrong (it has been a bunch of years, but it seems like it was something like that).
So we head out from that and look back at the mountains we just came out of and are greeted with this parting shot:
scotto0609
1/2 ton status
Shiny happy cement face!!
Is that a leaf spring? Thanks for posting I enjoy the storyies and history.
keep catching us up! atm you're about the only one actually using his vehicle for more than garage decoration. lol gotta keep the rest of us motivated!
Awesome! I was just thinking about your thread today.
Thanks for the tour!
Thanks for the tour!
I miss Arizona sometimes.
Shiny happy cement face!!
Thanks!! Yeah, it is a real old leaf spring. Has a funky end on one end. I found this by accident while wandering about twenty years ago and I had forgotten about it until we were nearby it.
That is part of the reason for my continuing this thread. I did the "build" part and now I am doing the "driving" part. So many people get hung up in the build part of the deal rather than just enjoying the supposed imperfections of their rig while using it on the trail. Too many perfectly good vehicles get torn apart for an indefinite period of time rather than doing mods/improvments over a weekend or the off season. I am guilty of it too, but I learned my lesson.
Awesome! I was just thinking about your thread today.
Thanks for the tour!
Anytime!!
There is some good stuff here. I am hitting the high points though.
