1973 Wagoneer - Full Size Camping Goodness

[Happy Wanderer]

I've been a long-time lurker, but after reading all 42 pages in this thread, and following your trials, tribulations, and victories, I finally have to leave a post of my own. First off, CONGRATULATIONS on the engagement Andrew. You've clearly found a very special woman to spend your life with, and it appears that your future inlaws are easy on the nerves too------------------that's WAY more important than you might realize!

As you've heard a hundred times already, your FSJ absolutely rocks. It's got so much class and style that newer rigs just cant compete with. Keep your chin up, and don't let the gremlins get you down. You're dealing with a rig that probably had some gremlins when it rolled out of the factory in '73, and now it's 41yrs older. Obviously money and time are two variables that can be discouraging, but ATTITUDE is the third and largest, and the one YOU control. I found myself having to do an attitude check a couple weeks ago when changing my wife's 4Runner oil for the first time. I expected it to be a quick job like my '97 Tacoma, but it turned out I needed ramps, and then had to remove THREE skid plate covers just to drain the oil and remove the TWO part cartridge style filter! After exhausting myself of all the four letter words I knew, I stepped back and told myself "it is what it is, and you're going to have this rig for the next couple decades, so get over yourself." The oil change then went without a hitch, and the next one will be even faster. I admire your determination in continuing to fix the problems with your Waggy. These old rigs are becoming more rare every day, and along with the enjoyment you receive from owning/driving it, you're also giving us on the web as well as everyone on the highways and back roads a free treat as you pass by. DON'T throw in the towel----------------------------and keep posting updates.

BTW, I had a Red Heeler (ACD) for 15yrs, and he was my best friend and constant outdoor companion. I have the utmost respect for the breed, and will invite another one into my life some day.

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

Thanks. I appreciate the kind words and encouragement.

Lately I havent been doing much, I need to get back on leak patrol, but also need to do some work on the camper because I think I'll be dragging it out to Havasu in a few weeks. Funny how **** breaks when you aren't even using it. the camper gets moved like 4 or 5 times a year, yet still manages to have something wrong with it every time I go get it haha. I've heard that from a lot of RV people. "Every time you use it you need to fix something" even on brand new motorcoaches. Well, I guess a 35 year old pop up is no exception, huh?

Recently the counter surface (where the sink, stove, and faucet are) separated from the base that flips up and over when you set everything up. Guess the 35 year old staples and glue let go, haha. Will get some screws and glue and go to town. This part falling also broke the faucet, so I'll be replacing that. No biggie.

On the jeep lately there hasnt been much going on. I was still tracking down reasons why it ran like crap going up the mountain, I had re-jetted and tuned my carb to lean things out a bit, but that resulted in a few of the plugs looking like this:


Not so good, so I went back to the stock configuration with the rods and jets. Next time I will try running better gas ans see whats up.

I replaced all the plugs (it had been a while) adjusted the carb, and replaced a brake caliper because one of my wheels locks up before the others. This was not solved with the caliper replacement, so I'm still trying to sort that out too. That one wheel drags ever so slightly when you spin it by hand.

Also noticed I'm in need of an alignment, whoops!


Will get that done this week/weekend, and will also get back to working on the leaks. Ordering an aluminum trans pan, rather than the el-cheapo chrome unit I have that leaks like a sieve. Dont want to mess with trying to get it back into shape.

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

Well, i got it aligned this weekend, one wheel is out of spec on camber (.6* positive and spec is 1.0-2.0) so its slightly positive, but not positive enough. I doubt It's worth installing a shim for, and there's no way that being .4* short of proper positive camber would cause wear on the outside of the tire like that, so I'm over it. I was probably just toed all crazy (the numbers they showed support this theory).

I also installed a new aluminum trans pan and stopped about 99% of that leak (one bolt still weeps a little).

Also set the carb back to the way it was (more rich) and got everything dialed back in. Did new plugs at the same time.

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

Finally got the idle dialed in after a bunch of days of it running kinda weird (now it idles so smooth and quiet at just about 550-600 rpm in gear i feel like it's gonna die because i cant hear or feel it haha)

So, I was bored today, wanted to go on a hike in red rock but its too dang far across town, so I loaded up the woman and the dog and we headed out towards Lake Mead NRA, but turned off towards Kodachrome and Rainbow Gardens.

Just spent the morning tooling around in the desert. Most of the roads are actually graded pretty nicely but there are a few rough parts. No need for 4wd today.




Heading up towards rainbow gardens, the area starts to get nice and colorful.




More desert



Headed down, towards lake las vegas (still several miles away). This is where I took a pic a few years back.

(pic from a few years back)


So we were having fun and decided to keep going, I was interested to see where the trail came out in relation to the city as long as it stayed mild.

It appears as though we have arrived at an impasse! We have had a bit of rain lately....as is evident by this section of road that is GONE.





Yeah thats a big crack.



We decided to go for a little hike down the wash. There was a spot we could have gone down into the wash right there, and then driven out the other side with no issue, but being that I had no idea where the road comes out to or whats on the other side, I decided to play it safe and turn around, rather than having to turn around further down the road and needing to come back through the rough spot.

Hiking around a bit.


Doge:

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

Heep:


Heading back down the way we came.


Girl took a few pics of me moving through some of the washed out spots.




Yeah didnt use 4wd and started spinnin' a lil here. I'm way too lazy to get out and lock my hubs. whatever. check out my MAD FLEX YO!!!!!!!!!!!





More desert.


Parked and walked down another wash for a while. I could hear somebody shooting in the distance and didnt want to go too much further because I had no idea where they were and I dont think shooting is allowed out there.


Parked in a wash:



and back to the crappy city.

 

[gregaf3]

Looks like a blast Marn!!

 

[Rockhounder]

Love that part of the desert. If you follow those washes toward the further canyons in the hills that are a dark, greyish and reddish color hills, there are lots of great collecting sites for Agates, Jasper, and lots of druzy(the crystal sugar frosted looking crystals in the most beautiful blues and browns. Great to make Jewelry out of.

Oh, and PS: We always go into 4wd when traveling those blm and electrical line access roads, but not for the traction reason you'd expect, rather to help prevent the terrible washboarding seen on these roads from vehicles in 2wd. If you stop and think about, you don't see washboarding on roads after you get past any difficult to navigate areas because all the 2wd have turned around. I used to be the head mechanic/farm equip repair guy at Lost Valley Ranch in Colorado, and one of my jobs was to every couple of weeks take the road grader out and cut down/fill all the washboarding from all the guests who drive there in their 2wd vehicles. During the season when there were no guests, the roads stayed good for months, as all who used it have 4x4

 

[Dr. Marneaus]

Hey good advice, that makes total sense about the washboarding. Never thought about it really.

Also I'll have to go check out deeper into the hills sometime for sure.

 

[k9lestat]

if wash boarding is from the driving of 4x2 then why does the washboard go from ditch to ditch. Rutting of a road comes from driving on it. Wash boarding comes from wind and water erosion. i have lived on dirt roads all my life. I dont believe its caused by 4x2 or 4x4 but maybe helped by air displacement from driving faster.

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[Rockhounder]

if wash boarding is from the driving of 4x2 then why does the washboard go from ditch to ditch. Rutting of a road comes from driving on it. Wash boarding comes from wind and water erosion. i have lived on dirt roads all my life. I dont believe its caused by 4x2 or 4x4 but maybe helped by air displacement from driving faster.

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Next time you go out to an area that has washboarding, take a close look at any uphill areas of road, versus the downhill side of the same stretch of road. uphill side has significantly more washboarding, also usually, with time it ends up stretching all across the road as everybody, including those in 2wd try to avoid the bad bouncy rumbles, and the 2wd cars make it all bad. In the CA desert roads, and Colorado roads in the arid mountains you really see it a lot.

 

[Happy Wanderer]

Ditto on 'hounder's explanation, and the better the visibility, the faster the washboard extends clear across the roadway because everyone cheats the oncoming side of the road when they can. I grew up on gravel, and drive it every day at work. Washboard is a curse.

 

[k9lestat]

Ok

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[Dr. Marneaus]

Well, we had been invited to go camping with my buddy's family on their yearly trip out to Lake Havasu.

Friday FINALLY came. I hooked up the camper at about 2:30pm and left the office. Picked up my buddy (the women folks were going to drive out after work) and hit the road.

Driving through a whooooole lot of nothing.


Had my copilot.


Beautiful sunset on the ride out there. This was just outside of Needles, CA.



Arrived, opened up the camper just after dark, then sat by the fire for a while just relaxing.


Didnt stay up too late, needed to be up BEFORE the crack of dawn to hit the water. Not a bad morning view, if you ask me.


And not a bad way to start one's morning



Pulled in a few stripers, but they all stopped biting right around 9am so we headed back. I felt a little out gunned surrounded by the big ole RV's in our group haha.




We had some breakfast, let the dogs do their thing for a while to wear em out, then a few of us loaded back onto the pontoon to go putt putt around the lake.



Dog's first time on a boat.


Oh look, the London Bridge, and it isnt falling down!


Finished out the day in standard fashion. a little swimming, alot of beer, some lunch, a cigar, some more beer, some dinner, some more beer, and then bed.

Woke up sunday morning and decided I'd rather sleep in and let the other guys go hit the lake. Not a bad plan considering as they couldnt pull in a single fish. Decided to drop the campah before it got too hot.


Around 11am we hooked her up, said our goodbyes, and hit the road.



And thus begins the drive through vast amounts of nothing, in the 100* heat in a rickety old truck with no AC. Typical California desert



Typical Nevada Desert.....


Everything was very green. Must have been some recent rain.



All in all it was a good trip. Losing about 2000' in elevation caused a mid throttle ping however, and on the way back home the jeep was acting up similarly to how it was while towing the camper up the mountain the other month. All was well but then doing about 60mph it started to surge and stumble, stepping on the gas produced a grumble, no pickup, and a backfire out the tailpipe. Not sure why it does this, but it does.

Calculated 11.5mpg on the way out, 10ish on the way back. Gotta love old iron.......


Anyway, Sort trip and not that many pics, but it was good nonetheless!

 

[locrwln]

Looks like a good trip. Too bad about the throttle issues, hopefully you get it figured out.

Jack

 

[Lecoq]

Looks like a nice place. Too bad you have no AC in this heat. How was it at night in the trailer?