SWFWDA Summer Quarterly Live Report

[lissa]

one more

[8Runner]

Mark, so sorry to hijack your post. I originally intended this to be short, but realized while typing it that there was so much that even those that went with us don't know.

__________________________

11:30pm - DavidO started running out of gas about 30 mi outsid of Canon City, NM. He tried a small town a bit off the highway and found no gas. We went on to try & make it to Canon City, but decided to pull over in a small motel where there was enough room to park to try & siphon some gas out from Troy's ride. Since no-one actually wanted to use their mouth, Nick made a valiant attempt at the "jerk off with a fuel line" method of getting diesel out of troy's tank. After a few spurts anywhere but the gas can, Nick was all dried up and no one else was up to the task. David decided to make a run for it and ended up coming to a halt ~100 yards up the road in a much more trailer unfriendly location. The rest of us went on to Canon City where Matt got diesel and returned to get David.

Saturday
1:30am - Many of us were exhausted and felt we could no longer drive safely, so we pulled into a hotel in Super 8 in Raton NM that had No Vacancy. He said the only place that had rooms was the Motel 6, which also had no running water. We went over to check it out and found out that they had rooms, no water, and would not give us a discount, even if the water was not back on by morning. What was both funny & sad was that the live in manager (owner?) looked seriously like Ms Choksondik from Southpark and looked like she was about to cry when we said it wasn't worth it for us to stay there.
2am: Of course everything else was booked up so on we went to Clayton, ~80mi away.
4am - We checked every motel in the town and all were full. We ended up pulling into the back of a gas station to sleep for a few hours before heading on. DavidO decided to head on.
8am - Landon also took off sometime during our rest and left Nick sleeping under a truck, so he just hopped in with us. We were back on the road by 8:30am
Mid Day saturday Scott got a call from DavidO that he took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Abilene, a few hundred miles out of the way. He still beat us to denton by a few hours.
5pm- We pulled in to Denton to shower & swap rigs at Troy & Melissa's (Thanks for letting us use your place as a rest stop!).
6:30pm - Brandon and I caravanned back to CS uneventfully with the exception of stopping to re-wire his headlights once it got dark. We pulled into town about 10:30pm.

________________

That's it. Feel free to correct me as I am sure I made many mistakes since much of this trip was during a sleep deprived stupor. If ya'll want, I'll clean this up and make it a full trip report.

[redcagepatrol]

I never measured the rim. The Toyota guy there did with Troy and Matt.

One more interesting thing... While Brandon was driving David O's rig early in the morning, he ran out of fuel again but was lucky enough to coast into a gas station.

After David and I left Troys in Denton, David ran out of fuel AGAIN!!! just outside of Buffalo on I45. I told him that he should stop just before the exit and he cruised on hoping to make it to Madisonville - he ran out like 2 miles away. Had to unload the Patrol and take the fuel tank that he bought the first time to the gas station that we had just passed. Oh what fun!!!

I got back to Houston around 12:30am after stopping in College Station to get my Dodge / swap trailers and then dropping the trailer in Navasota. Got up at 5:30am to catch a flight to Atlanta for work - now I am in GA.

There is more stuff to add from the Carnage Canyon trail and the rest of the other trails that Chris didn't make but I don't have time to write it right now.

[eight]

[HINT]I've got a transfer tank that's supposed to get sold.[/HINT]

[davido]

Yes, a very good vacation overall. If I keep doing this, I will have to do some things with my truck. It hauled the 15,000+ lbs. fine, but the range is not that great and I can't trust my gas gauge. If anyone knows anything about options for aux tanks for a Silverado, please PM me. My trailer will also include jerry cans. Thanks for everyone who helped with that fiasco.

The Cruiser did pretty well overall. I think the cooling issue is pretty close to done. We'll see as time goes on. Carnage Canyon was fun until I sheared off the bolts that hold the springs to the perch on the D60. It then sheared the center pin off the other end, and promptly spit the shim. The bolt was partially broken already, not sure how. Hopefully new grade 8 hardware will fix the issue for good. Only time will tell. After chaining the axle to the frame and springs, I limped it back out and onto the trailer. After the adjustment for altitude change, my tires were absolutely flat when I got home. Between that and the axle moving, I couldn't hardly turn at all. But it's in the garage, awaiting the next round of upgrades.

Thanks again to everyone who helped plan and solve issues. Scott for planning. Troy for driving lead and winch help. & Melissa for the place to crash. Landon and Nick for the tech help. Brandon for driving relief. Mark for comedy relief. And Chris for giving us something to doh about. Great trip.

[uglyota]

Epic.

[redcagepatrol]

lissawins!

the carnage on the trailer . Notice that the hub is missing the outer half of it (where the grease cap normally is). Also notice that two of the studs are still in the hub - they ripped out of the rim!

[Violentv8toy]

that sucks, I coulda set yall up with a couple of furnished vacant houses that we've got in eagles nest, raton or springer.

looks like a really fun trip though

[lissa]

here's the rest of my pictures

http://www.tamor.org/members-rigs/lissa_godkin

[redcagepatrol]

I put some pics up. I still have to add some of Marks pics to the Carnage Canyon day but the server was acting funny and wouldn't let me...

http://www.offroadrepublic.com/galle...bum.php?page=1

EDIT: all the pics are up that I need to put up. I slipped in pics from Brandon and Mark where I was lacking...

[Jackasic]

cool pics scott, still having probs getting mine up.

little binder love:


old army Fig'm

[redcagepatrol]

cool pics scott, still having probs getting mine up.

Hmmm... That sucks

I had to upload like two or three at a time for it to work on ya'lls big pics without resizing them.

[Graystroke]

That trip sounds like a true tamor trip. Can you imagine how boring it would have been if everyones POS' purred like kittens, had brand new tow rigs w/ auxilary fuel tanks and trailers w/ new tires. That's some funny ****!
Oh, and the engine fire was an excellent sub-plot!

Edit: Davido is your fuel gauge really that far off? Take it back it's under warranty. the float may be hanging/out of adjustment.

[BigRedFord04]

whats the deal w/ 8runner eating alternators? someone dont know how to wire it right?

when i went to CO w/ doug and steve freshman year we had to stop in Raton on our way out there b.c. the roads were snowed over. same deal. no hotels available, which makes me think it'd be a good business venture to open one up there, running water and indoor facilities optional. we slept in the trucks in the back of a hotel parking lot. next morning when i got up i thought it'd be fun to pee in the snow between my truck and the car next to me. so...my trail led from the snow, to the car's tire, promptly up the side cuz it was fun to watch the ice fall off, up to the back window. when that sheet of ice fell off i saw someone's head, pressed up against the glass...asleep. figured it was time to zip up and walk away hastily. thank you for listening to another pointless anecdote.

[davido]

Edit: Davido is your fuel gauge really that far off? Take it back it's under warranty. the float may be hanging/out of adjustment.

I'm not sure. I think it's retarded....er, slow. It was working it's way down but the low fuel light hadn't come on yet, but the needle was more than half way through the last red mark. I turned it off when we got to the hotel. When I started it up to leave, the low fuel light came on. It ran out of fuel about 300 yards later.

When we were past Buffalo, it was still a notch+ away from even touching the final red line. It ran out about 2 mi. down the road.

SOMETHING is going on with it. It is definitely losing some accuracy as it gets down past 1/8 of a tank... when it hasn't been turned off (and had a chance to recoup?) Oh well. I'm back in now and I will have a better plan next time.

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fu...g/13550942.cfm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...+for+silverado