Just got back from a weeklong trip to the Great Basin area. We left on a Friday and drove into Vegas, staying cheap in the Fremont Street area – something I wont ever do again. Pretty much all the bad parts of Vegas with none of the good.
On Saturday we visited Michael Heizer’s ‘Double Negative’ on Mormon Mesa outside of Overton, NV. It’s an interesting piece. It probably wasn’t the best time to visit with the sun high in the sky, and I wish we could have spent a little more time with it, but still work having a look.
We then headed up along US93 through the basin to Great Basin National Park – camping in the Baker Creek campground for the night. Unfortunately heavy cloud cover made any stargazing almost impossible that evening. The next few days after meeting up with some friends we toured the Lehman Caves and did some hiking up near Wheelers Peak. The hike to the Bristlecone Pine grove and small glacier was the highlight of the trip for us. The Bristlecones are really amazing trees and seeing them in the late afternoon with the sun bringing out their color was stunning. On our last night we finally got a clear night and were able to do some star watching, getting some great views of Jupiter and four of it’s moons in particular.
After Great Basin we headed up to Salt Lake City to relax for a few days. We spent an afternoon in Park City, riding the zip line and alpine sleds. We also did a scenic drive in the American Fork canyon, stopping to tour Timpanogos Cave, which was a pretty steep hike but overall a lot of fun.
On our last day we took a trip out to the Salt Flats in Bonneville to catch a little bit of speed week. Got to see some really cool cars, and the setting itself is very surreal.
Finally got some sliders for Kim’s 4Runner. After getting stopped on the way to Copper Creek we decided we needed to get a little armor on it – nothing over the top, as it’s a daily driver and not a dedicated off road rig. Took it down to Globe yesterday to the guy who’s working on my FJ40, he makes sliders for the FJ Cruisers and these are basically a longer version of those, though with a different mounting system. The 4Runner requires a really long slider – 70″ vs 58″-ish for the FJ Cruiser. So while the FJ Cruiser slider just bolts up, he came up with a different mounting system for the 4Runners. It uses a separate plate that welds to the frame, with slotted mounts for the slider to bolt on to. Makes them relatively easy to remove for maintenance needed (if we ended up doing a body lift installed for example).
Need to pick up the skid plates next week and get those bolted on. Next step will the be the suspension, probably this fall some time.
Here’s some pics -
The mount plate:
The sliders – just out of powdercoating:
Plate welded on:
Plate painted:
Slider bolted on:
Took a nice, gentle paced, car camping trip to the Flagstaff area over the long 4th of July weekend. We camped at the Forest Service ‘Bonito’ campground, just outside the Sunset Crater National Monument – as the Lockett Meadow campground was closed due to the recent Schultz Fire. While the weather wasn’t as cool as I’d hoped, the high 70′s & low 80′s were a nice break from Phoenix weather.
We explored the three national monuments in the area – hiking on the cinder cones & lava fields of Sunset Crater, including a steep hike up the Lenox Crater trail. We also enjoyed the ruins of Wupatki and it’s associated pueblos and the stunning scenerey of the cliff dwellings of Walnut Canyon.
Additionally an ill advised trip to the Grand Falls of the Little Colorado took us over 10 miles of rough, washboarded road, only to be rewarded with a dry riverbed and no running falls.
We managed to visit the Lowell observatory, and while the tour and museum were interesting it was packed for the holiday weekend and we left before the telescopes were open for viewing as the crowds were too much. The camping did allow us some great views of the night sky though, including looks at a bunch of the Messier objects through a 6″ SCT telescope. Some of the highlights included : the Ring, Lagoon, Eagle and Horseshoe nebulas and Butterfly, Ptolemy clusters and Great Global Cluster in Hercules. Much nicer skies than trying to see anything from the light pollution of the Phoenix area.
Took a trip out to Mule Hoof Bend this weekend. It’s a ghost town, located north and west of Globe, AZ about an hour or so. The weather was nice – cooled down very nicely after the sun went down. Spent some time playing around with long exposure photography at night and looking at the stars & moon through a telescope. With the full moon the stargazing wasn’t spectacular, but was still a lot better than we get in the light pollution of Phoenix.
Checked in on the FJ40 this weekend and got to see the state of the progress. The Saginaw power-steering box has been mounted, the brake booster installed, a shackle reversal put in place and a new steering column mounted. Still a few things on the check list, but a lot of the major things are out of the way at this point.
After Kim’s Prius was totaled by some inattentive jackass in a parking lot, she opted to replace it with a Toyota 4Runner – since my FJ40 is still of little help in exploring the great outdoors.
The 4th gen 4Runner is a great truck – a true SUV with frame-on-body construction, a solid rear axle and a two-speed transfer case. It’s based off the Land Cruiser Prado, sold overseas. For all that the road manners are surprisingly nice. Off road it’s a treat to drive with a tiptronic-style shifter that works great for off road use and clever features like hill-holder and descent assist control.
We took a short four day trip to break it in – we traveled the Mayer-Goodwin Road from Mayer, AZ to the old Palace Stagecoach Station, and then followed the Senator Highway into Prescott, AZ. After stocking up on supplies we drove up to the top of Mingus Mountain to enjoy some spectacular views of the Verde Valley and camp out for the night.
The following day included a drive down the windy 89A into Jerome, followed by a visit to Tuzigoot National Monument. Then we drove into Sedona, cutting across the desert following the Bill Gray Buckboard Road. We traveled up 89A through the stunning Oak Creek Canyon but were unable to find any open campsites – in the end settling for a site outside of Flagstaff along Lake Mary Road.
The third day was a drive along the stunning Schnebly Hill Road from the I17 into Sedona – and then back to Phoenix.
On the last day we took a ride out to Superior, AZ then followed the highway down to Mammoth, AZ – stopping to see the giant Ray Copper Mine. From Mammoth we tried to travel the Copper Creek Mine trail – but had to stop just short of the intersection of the trail to the Bluebird Mine and Sibley Mansion. Unfortunately the road was a little rougher than expected and with the pristine 4Runner just purchased a few days prior no one wanted to put any dents in it. On the way back we went north through Globe, to the Apache Trail and stopped at Tortilla Flats for a nice burger before getting back to Phoenix. All in all a great trip though.
Work on the FJ40 continues – the steering column is out now, to replaced by a later model one. This is more than I wanted to do, but it solves a few problems: the horn that randomly goes off, the busted up steering wheel and the goofy turn indicator switch. Front shock mounts have been removed, to replaced with ones that will support long travel shocks. Need to go to different springs to get much improvement in articulation, but everything will be there when/if I go down that path.
Rode along with the Land Cruiser club on an outing through Box Canyon to the Coke Ovens. Really beautiful scenery. Unfortunately we encountered an injured ATV rider and that kind of put an early end to our run. Fortunately one of the club members used to be a paramedic and was able to assist the rider and we took him out to the trail head in one of the cruisers, while one of the club members rode his ATV out for him. So, I still haven’t gotten to see the Coke Ovens, but the run through the canyon alone was worth it.
After a minor FJ40 disaster last spring, it’s finally back in the shop getting sorted out. Fortunately, this time the guy doing the work actually knows what’s he’s doing.
The short version of the whole story is that the cruiser was purchased in Dec of 2007. I’ll admit to not knowing enough as I should have before taking the plunge. That said, the seller went to great efforts to dress up what was a very poor ‘restoration’ of the cruiser – which is to say it wasn’t really restored at all – aside from some paint. Almost immediatley it ended up in the shop – the wrong shop – getting basic drivability issues resolved – brakes, clutch, etc. Following that it spent some time getting the electrical sorted out. Then summer hit and the rig went into the garage, since it too hot to be wheeling without air conditioning. Fall of 2008 I got involved with one of the local cruiser clubs and actually got the cruiser out and had some fun with it. Then spring of 2009 it became apparent that the problems with the rig were much more serious than I thought. After a wheel came off while off road I knew it was time to make some serious changes.
Fortunately, the club hooked me up with someone who really knows cruisers. On the to-do list is: an axle swap – front & back to get disc brakes, ARB air locker installation front & back, power brake installation & new brake lines, Saginaw power steering install, H41 4-speed transmission installation, auxilliary gas tank install, new shackles and dual batteries.
Just got back from a quick trip to the shop to finalize the work to be completed – great to see it coming along. Equally depressing to see just how many shortcuts were taken during the ‘restoration’ that was supposedly done on it.
When all is said and done, the shop that worked on it for me after I bought it, I’m particularly disappointed in. While the guy I bought it from sucks, the shop definitely didn’t do me any favors either. The coin I spent with them repairing the old drum brakes system & clutch is almost what going to later model axles with disc brakes *and* ARB lockers is costing me now. Live and learn I guess.
Sadly missing a good hunk of the cool weather this year – but looking forward to getting back out there with it once it’s done.
A cop pulls a car over, and after looking at the driver’s license says “I noticed you were driving erratically. Do you mind if I search your car?” The driver gives him permission. After searching, he comes back to the driver’s window. “Dr. Schrodinger, are you aware that there’s a dead cat in your trunk?” Schrodinger says, “Well, there is *now*.”
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