Death Valley December 27-29

[nissanh]

So the Death Valley trip became a reality....

Mike (Mojaverunner) planned the trip and is the best trip I ever took.

We had 6 X 4runners (3X3rd gen and 3X4th gen) + 1 X 07 Tacoma...

Started our trip at Lone Pine CA on 395 and drove west to camp (near Mount Whitney on movie road). Did a night run to find some land marks. For me not so luck. BrianSD did a good job there and won!

Following day we drove to Big Pine and load our trucks with supplies. Then took 168 and Death Valley road
https://www.google.com/maps/preview....4429125!3d38.5615405!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1

Then we pass the Eureka Dunes Dry camp and continued to the steel pass
https://www.google.com/maps/preview...25!3d38.5615405!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1&fid=7

Steel Pass at:
https://www.google.com/maps/preview...25!3d38.5615405!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1&fid=7

We continued that trail all the way to Hot Springs.

 

[nissanh]

More-1

Inside the mine

 

[nissanh]

More-2

Eureka sand dunes and beyond... the steel pass

 

[nissanh]

More-3

Driving to the hot springs..

 

[BrianSD_42]

Hey Nissan, it was great meeting you last weekend.

On the last day we just drove home, didn't make it to the racetrack. Next time!

 

[nissanh]

Hey Brian

It was nice to meet you all too.

Me and Tyler decided to drive to the race track and Scotty's castle and came all the way down to emigrant camp ground and realized we have no time to return on the same day.

Yeah... lets do it next year! I am in hunt for a rear tire carrier and gas can holders.

We all had fun...

 

[BrianSD_42]

It was nice to meet you all too.

Me and Tyler decided to drive to the race track and Scotty's castle and came all the way down to emigrant camp ground and realized we have no time to return on the same day.

Yeah... lets do it next year! I am in hunt for a rear tire carrier and gas can holders.

We all had fun...

Cool. I will post pics soon. I'd hold off on the rear carrier. I don't think they are necessary. You can keep the gas on the roof like I did on days 2-3.

 

[BrianSD_42]

I had some damage from the trip. Here is my post trip report:

Today:
Removed 1.5" wheel spacers from all four wheels due to my 285x75x16 not fitting well with them on.

What happened? Well in the desert I hit a bunch of stupid mogals and ended up bottoming out my front end. Because of the size of the tires and spacers (which I had originally bought to go with my 265s) my wheels popped off both L and R side limited fender flares AND bent my passenger front panel so much that I think I will need to replace it. That alone wasn't the end of the world, probably $200-$300 to fix on the cheap.

BuT .... I also found out today, due to my visual inspection, that I need the following replaced ASAP:
* outer tie rods
* inner tie rods (might as well do at same time)
* rear axel seals and rear brakes (last time I did them was about 80,000 miles ago)

I also likely need in near future:
New upper control arms
Lower control arms

Ahhhhhhbhhhh!

 

[nissanh]

wheel spacers

Brian... I too was thinking about installing them and then at one point my rear wheel went all the way into the wheel well. I thought to my self, if I had wheels sticking out, it would have bend my fender.

 

[04desertrunner]

Wow trip looked like fun, I want in for next year.

 

[Dawg4Runner]

nissanh,

Thanks for the pics. Glad you were able to make this run. Mike's a great guy to wheel with and knows DV really well since its in his back yard. There's nothing like waking up and seeing the snow covered peaks of Mt Whitney. I'm gonna try to make it back out to DV sometime this winter.

Here's another trip report thread started by Mike with more pics.
Death Valley Winter 2013...Report - Toyota 120 Platforms Forum

 

[hrt4me]

what were your daily temperatures, highs and lows?

 

[4x4runner2002]

hey man nice meeting you and caravanning up there.

my only damage was to my front coilovers. I slammed real hard and hydro-locked them.

Im looking forward to doing it again.

 

[BrianSD_42]

hey man nice meeting you and caravanning up there.

my only damage was to my front coilovers. I slammed real hard and hydro-locked them.

Im looking forward to doing it again.

[MENTION=80933]4x4runner2002[/MENTION]

What do you mean you hydro locked your front coilovers ?

I hit pretty hard as well, one of my bilstiens even had the top plastic cap come off. Other than that they seem fine now.

 

[Net4n6]

Hi Nissanh. Thank you for the report and pictures. The trip was fun. Unfortunately, we were late to the racetrack. My kids said that you are cool and smart.

It was great everyone got home safely with minor damages. I hit couple hard rocks. Zack can confirm my bad driving. I got couple scratches on the wheels but no major one.

BrianSD_42 - We can do another trip (just pavement) to the race track and Scotty Castle. Nissanh and I were too late to see them.

 

[JWaldz]

Inside the mine

sasquatch?! :ak472:

 

[LuckyRunnerLTD]

Net4n6 Where is 127.0.0.1?? I always love places like no other.

 

[nissanh]

Hi

Hi Nissanh. Thank you for the report and pictures. The trip was fun. Unfortunately, we were late to the racetrack. My kids said that you are cool and smart.

It was great everyone got home safely with minor damages. I hit couple hard rocks. Zack can confirm my bad driving. I got couple scratches on the wheels but no major one.

BrianSD_42 - We can do another trip (just pavement) to the race track and Scotty Castle. Nissanh and I were too late to see them.

Tyler

Brian didn't make it to the race track either. Let's plan for this December...

Say hi to Jason and Jordan. There are really good and very generous kids.

I am in Sac right now and will be back in Los Angeles on the 4th. In a short while I am heading to Truckee CA and Reno NV.
I did an oil change yesterday.. make sure to do it as well as to grease the drive shafts. We drove through heavy dust clouds...

 

[4x4runner2002]

[MENTION=80933]4x4runner2002[/MENTION]

What do you mean you hydro locked your front coilovers ?

I hit pretty hard as well, one of my bilstiens even had the top plastic cap come off. Other than that they seem fine now.

when i hit the piston compressed the nitrogen so much that it had no where to go and it was forced passed the o-ring on the piston to the oil side. the whole front end felt heavy as the nitrogen went from 150 to 90 pounds (what we measured).

 

[Net4n6]

Net4n6 Where is 127.0.0.1?? I always love places like no other.

IP address 172.0.0.1 = home:yo: