theesotericone's Trails and BS Thread

[theesotericone]

LOL, well that's one way to maintain 75 mph up a grade. I totally know the feeling. I am not often pushing up steep grades, but the last time I went out with a couple 4th gens, I noticed being the slow poke. Maybe ECGS will have a black Friday sale for you. I gotta think that swapping gears is way easier than swapping engines. And with gears you get lockers!:tea:

ECGS will never offer a sale on their pre-built thirds. Ever. Rightfully so. Add up the locker, the gear set and new bearings. When you do compare that to there cost for the pre-built. I've done just that and ECGS is building my third and shipping it to me for 225 bucks more then the parts. That's damn cheap for what's involved. Then they add a 5 year warranty on top of it all. Yeah, they know there shit.

 

[Road Bull]

ECGS will never offer a sale on their pre-built thirds. Ever. Rightfully so. Add up the locker, the gear set and new bearings. When you do compare that to there cost for the pre-built. I've done just that and ECGS is building my third and shipping it to me for 225 bucks more then the parts. That's damn cheap for what's involved. Then they add a 5 year warranty on top of it all. Yeah, they know there shit.

Oh I know.. I was just kidding around. There are plenty of places that sell cool stuff that never have to offer a sale because people will still buy it regardless due to quality or good value. I think ECGS definitely falls into those categories. I think that if there were more hills in my everyday life, I would make gears more of a priority. For now, it is a want, and not a need for me. I will just live vicariously through you on that front.

Glad that the Nitto ridge grapplers treated you well in the snow. Nitto doesn't like making that tire in 16" though.

 

[theesotericone]

Oh I know.. I was just kidding around. There are plenty of places that sell cool stuff that never have to offer a sale because people will still buy it regardless due to quality or good value. I think ECGS definitely falls into those categories. I think that if there were more hills in my everyday life, I would make gears more of a priority. For now, it is a want, and not a need for me. I will just live vicariously through you on that front.

Glad that the Nitto ridge grapplers treated you well in the snow. Nitto doesn't like making that tire in 16" though.

Exactly. ECGS produces quality at a great price. I trust them because so many others have before me. I know that they stand behind that warranty. I doubt I'll need it but that piece of mind alone is worth it.

I know. That's why I got 17" rims. lol Seriously, the main reason I went up in rim size was for these tires. Glad I did.

 

[theesotericone]

I've been chasing a rather annoying rattle on washboards for the past couple weeks. I thought for sure it was my Savage skids because I stripped one of the welded nuts. I added some rubber between them as a temp solution a few weeks ago.

Today I had time to drill it out and tap it. After that was done I went for a ride. Some rattle. WTF?

So then came time for the 4lb lump hammer. I crawled under the rig and tapped everything. One of the last things I tapped was the OEM gas tank skid. Yep, that's the rattle.

I pulled it off and was greeted by this:

Yep that'll cause a rattle. Because I'm me and the skid was already down I decided to go ahead and sound deaden the skid. I had some butyl laying around that was put to good use for this.

After getting the skid back up in place I went for a drive down some dirt. No noise. None. Zero. Anyone else chasing the rattle in the future, consider pulling the 5 12mm bolts that hold the stock skid on and having a look there first. lol

 

[octanejunkie]

The old rock on the skid plate trick, eh [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION]

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[Road Bull]

The old "Find that noise" game! That can be frustrating for sure. Just last month I was doing the same thing after my last outing started to make it sound like something was coming apart. I checked all my suspension torques and I was crawling around with a mallet hitting skids, control arms, whatever trying to reproduce the sound. Hell, it could also have been a bit of the rollers on the fairlead vibrating that I wasn't used to.

I have a good bit of cabin chirping that would be hard to run down unless I had someone who would sit in the back and move around till they find the source. I am still working out some bracing to quiet down my ARB cubby compressor, but surprisingly, I hardly noticed it on my adventure today. Oh, it was there, I just didn't care because I was having fun. I might just roll up some towels to jab between body and plastic to brace it in place.

Well, glad you got that sorted out. And now you can get back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[theesotericone]

Coyote Flat Bishop Entrance(32ES10)​

There hasn't been a ton of snow up high yet so I decided to go up to Coyote Flat and check out what trouble I could find. All in all the roads pretty snow free. It's mostly ice past the Baker Creek turn off. lol


The powers that be put a sign here many many years ago to help the lost traveler.

The usual air down location. The road can be seen cutting up left in the photo.

A veiw of Mt Humphreys, Mt Baker, and Mt Tom from halfway up the first switchback section. There's also an OK looking 3rd Gen in there. lol

Paging [MENTION=118730]AssBurns[/MENTION]. I remebered our little conversation about running that switchbacks in 2HI. Here's a pick of my temps at the top of the switchbacks. Look at what an inline trans cooler can do. lol

So much terrain and so little time. That's mainly because I got my usual crack of 11AM start and am back home typing this up at 3:15. Bishop sucks that way. lol

Another one for [MENTION=118730]AssBurns[/MENTION]. That was at the very top before you drop into the Flat proper. I had it in 2Hi the entire way. Took about 20 minutes which is pretty damn good. I also didn't cook my trans which is also good. lol

Ever wonder where 32ES09 goes? It's a small barely marked spur road just after you enter the Flats. Here's a shot about 3/4 mile in. Great meadow with some really good looking rocks to climb in the future.

After another 1/4 mile or so I was greeted by this. It's strange as most gates on National Forest land are not locked and have no such cute little sign. I'll dig around and find out how owns that parcel. I'd like to have access to it because from the topo's it looks like a really cool untraveled way to get to Sugerloaf.

Back out to the main road and the decison on where to go? Did I mention there's a lot of terrain to play on up here? lol

The decision was made to point it towards Coyote Lake. It's great spot that I've been to many times. I had a feeling the ice would be getting a lot worse up this way and I was right. Here's a little show stopper for open diff rigs. Yeah that's a 15 degree ice hill at the end of the stream. The step of ice was about 20" high.

It was fun trying. I put all my skills to the test but ice is ice. I had a winch that I could have used on the pine tree. I had traction boards that I could have used to keep going. That's not what I wanted though. I wanted to say my open diff rig could do this section. After about 10 tries I finally backed out.

Would lockers make a difference here? Probably. So next year once the lockers are in I'll come back to this section in similar conditions. Then let the lockers do there thing. I could have also just put it in 4Hi and charged it but that's not how I wheel. I can't be breaking the wives DD every weekend. lol

 

[Rock_Rat]

Looks like you had a pretty nice day just traversing around. Don't feel alone there on the lack of snow. We're way behind up here. They're just grooming and blowing snow on the slopes now. Been thinking about grabbing the AT's and skins and looking for something. Hopefully it gets better.

 

[Road Bull]

Great pics man. Ice can sure stop you in your tracks or with you had. I was pricing an ARB with a gear chance and one without. Installed with was around $3K (this is with a 20% Dec. discount), without, $1500 after tax and install. The re-gear is beyond my reach, but perhaps just the locker after tax season... Or maybe I will just be an open diff Jedi for the foreseeable future.

 

[theesotericone]

Great pics man. Ice can sure stop you in your tracks or with you had. I was pricing an ARB with a gear chance and one without. Installed with was around $3K (this is with a 20% Dec. discount), without, $1500 after tax and install. The re-gear is beyond my reach, but perhaps just the locker after tax season... Or maybe I will just be an open diff Jedi for the foreseeable future.

Who where you getting that pricing from? I'll be doing my own install of the thirds I buy from ECGS. They'll send me built thirds with ARB lockers and 4.88 or 5.29 gears for just over 3600. After I return them my cores they refund 550 minus shipping for my diffs. So just over 3100 total for ARB F/R diffs with new Koyo bearings and Nitro gears. Purchasing the gears, ARB lockers and bearings isn't much cheaper then what ECGS will build them for. Plus I don't have to worry about the install of the bearings and gears. It's a win/win.

 

[Road Bull]

Who where you getting that pricing from? I'll be doing my own install of the thirds I buy from ECGS. They'll send me built thirds with ARB lockers and 4.88 or 5.29 gears for just over 3600. After I return them my cores they refund 550 minus shipping for my diffs. So just over 3100 total for ARB F/R diffs with new Koyo bearings and Nitro gears. Purchasing the gears, ARB lockers and bearings isn't much cheaper then what ECGS will build them for. Plus I don't have to worry about the install of the bearings and gears. It's a win/win.

Mule Expedition Outfitters. We also have 10% sales tax here. So... there's that. Both options seem pretty far away from me at the moment. But I remain ever hopeful. Maybe when the busy season in the summer starts again, I can swing it. Wow.. I was thinking 4.56, but you are thinking 4.88 or 5.29? Planning on 35" tires soon? Seems like that would struggle on the highway right?

 

[BrianSD_42]

I think it's just as likely that the locker would have made no major difference here. Open diff you've got one wheel in front and one in rear both slipping 100% due to being on ice. Having a second wheel spinning in the rear, still on ice with no traction .... the result would probably be pretty similar.

Great pics btw. Regarding that road I'd suggest asking the forrest service what's up with the gate.

 

[AssBurns]

That’s still one of my favorite spots that I didn’t even get to spend much time at. Next summer I’ll be back up there for sure.

Good to hear that the trans-cooler helps a lot! Another item on the list of things to do. 20 minutes is really quick for that trail. You must have been hauling ass haha. You are running 4.10 gears right? So your RPMs are probably about the same as my 4.30s with 35’s. That’s impressive how well the trans cooler helps. I barely got half way up before my trans temp light came on.


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[rkntoy]

From the looks of it a locker would have helped. With as crossed up as the rear is it looks like your tire with the least amount of weight (and traction) would have been the one spinning.

 

[octanejunkie]

From the looks of it a locker would have helped. With as crossed up as the rear is it looks like your tire with the least amount of weight (and traction) would have been the one spinning.

You know who has a rear locker and is 2H?

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[rkntoy]

You know who has a rear locker and is 2H?

I can be in 2H with my locker. Or 2L. Or 2 Double L.

 

[thenightman]

5 star thread. You live in one of my favorite parts of California. It is beautiful, has lots of stuff to see and do, and, what might be the best part, the rest of CA seems to have forgotten about it. Am I correct in assuming you have done all of death valley? I'm going to try to get out there during wildflower season this year.

 

[theesotericone]

I think it's just as likely that the locker would have made no major difference here. Open diff you've got one wheel in front and one in rear both slipping 100% due to being on ice. Having a second wheel spinning in the rear, still on ice with no traction .... the result would probably be pretty similar.

Great pics btw. Regarding that road I'd suggest asking the forrest service what's up with the gate.

The ice hill also had a slight lean down to the right. The tires that where spinning where the uphill tires. The downhill tires still had some bite but couldn't do shit. Lockers would have put me well past the spot my open diffs made it too.

That’s still one of my favorite spots that I didn’t even get to spend much time at. Next summer I’ll be back up there for sure.

Good to hear that the trans-cooler helps a lot! Another item on the list of things to do. 20 minutes is really quick for that trail. You must have been hauling ass haha. You are running 4.10 gears right? So your RPMs are probably about the same as my 4.30s with 35’s. That’s impressive how well the trans cooler helps. I barely got half way up before my trans temp light came on.

I was rallying pretty hard but still slow enough to not spin out since I was in 2Hi. I actually rode up with my windows down so I could here if the rears where loosing traction. They only lost it briefly in one spot, that most guys would have been in 4Lo for. My tires kick ass. lol

From the looks of it a locker would have helped. With as crossed up as the rear is it looks like your tire with the least amount of weight (and traction) would have been the one spinning.

Exactly. See my comments above. Plus if I could have gotten even another 5 feet I could have put the left tires in some softer snow.

You know who has a rear locker and is 2H?

Yeah man, you would have been fine. Let me know early summer and we'll get out. You can do Coyote and Silver Canyon for sure. You can probably even do most of Mozourka Canyon and I'd be happy to drag you through the Narrows to Papoose Flats. If we don't do the narrows you'll be fine getting in the "normal" way to Papoose.

I can be in 2H with my locker. Or 2L. Or 2 Double L.

Twin sticks are still a ways off for me but who's case did you use?

5 star thread. You live in one of my favorite parts of California. It is beautiful, has lots of stuff to see and do, and, what might be the best part, the rest of CA seems to have forgotten about it. Am I correct in assuming you have done all of death valley? I'm going to try to get out there during wildflower season this year.

Actually I haven't done a lot in DV. I split my free time between climbing and wheeling. There is so much of it here I never drive more then 45 minutes to get things. I would like to explore DV at some point though. And the Panamint Valley as well. I've also been trying to figure out the logistics of an all dirt trip up the East Side of 395. Basically start at the 395/14 junction and stay on dirt all the way to Mammoth and possibly beyond.

 

[phattyduck]

Actually I haven't done a lot in DV. I split my free time between climbing and wheeling. There is so much of it here I never drive more then 45 minutes to get things. I would like to explore DV at some point though. And the Panamint Valley as well.

I did a backpacking trip to Panamint (the ghost/mining town up out of the valley into the national park) this spring. I have a feeling there is a lot of 4WD fun around there. Very lonely desert land out there...

-Charlie

 

[rkntoy]

Twin sticks are still a ways off for me but who's case did you use?

I did a TG dual t-case and triple stick from RADesign.