austintaco
Explorer
The trip idea started when my brother passed through Moab on the way back to TX from Wyoming. He was hoping to stay for a day and get at least a ride in, but his family had other plans. As he saw Moab in his rear view mirror, the seed was planted. The next day, he called me and stated "We need to go to Moab next year, just the guys. Are you in?" Hmmmm, Moab, combining all things that I love to do in my spare time", I thought. "Let's do it!" That was last Summer.
We started planning the trip and letting other like minded individuals know about our plans. On my end, I had friends that liked to mountain bike and bike, and I had friends that liked 4wd stuff, but not that many cross overs. We had lots of interest, but when you had to put your money down and commit, it ended up being just 3 guys, including me. My brother's friend from work had been building a beast of a truck to take out there.
My brother would be towing my 4runner with his half ton Dodge with a Hemi. We borrowed a car hauler from a friend that wasn't going to make the trip. This would be both of our first adventures in truck hauling and towing for a long distance. My brother arrived in Austin on Friday afternoon, and while I finished up the 4runner, he put a weight distributing hitch on his truck and the trailer.
winch installed
CB install
We were meeting up with the Grave Digger on I-10. I learned quickly that at 10.5 MPG, fuel would be a big expense.
We stayed the night in Farmington, NM and made the last leg of the trip on Sunday morning. Shortly after setting up camp, we unloaded my truck and drove out to area BFE just south of town, to test out everything.
entrance to Helldorado, No, we did not go down this trail!
We went back to camp, had some cold ones, and cooked on the pig. The pig was made by Charley from an old helium container and spare parts. skills.
Monday: Gemini Bridges on bike
My brother picked this trail to do to get the blood flowing, and it did. It's not technical, but if you ride up from the 191 side, it's a climb. Great views and landmarks.
My bro and me
We spent the 2nd half of the day looking for jets for our carbs. I was unsuccessful, but Charley did find a set at Car Quest. The parts stores in Moab cater to motorsports. It's amazing what they have in stock. We had a few beers at camp and planned out the trail we were going to do the next day.
Tuesday: 12 hours of trail via Poison Spider, Golden Spike, and Gold Bar Rim
We loaded up the rigs and headed to the trail head for Poison Spider. Grave Digger is not street legal, so it had to be hauled over to the trail head. We headed out to what was going to be a very long day.
I was the pack mule, carrying the cooler, our emergency over night bags, coolers and tools. We didn't do the loop on Poison Spider due to the time, but we pressed through to Golden Spike. Grave digger had sheared a steering arm bolt and was running with 3 on the passenger side, so we stopped periodically to check all of the bolts.
All was going well. We were about half way through Golden Spike, and I had remained unscathed, but shortly after Zuki hill, the Grave Digger sheared another bolt on the same arm. For safety, the decision was made to park it, and return the next day with tools. My truck just got a whole lot heavier. We loaded up everything, and continued on, knowing that we would be finishing in the dark. After a few lighter obstacles, my brother and Charley started walking in front of my truck to pick the best lines for me. I had to get winched up the last ledge of the Golden staircase, but we eventually crawled off the trail and on to Gemini Bridges road. It was dark. We had been on the trail for about 11 hours.
Wednesday: The extrication of Grave Digger
Charley went to the parts store and bought drill bits to extract the sheared bolts. My brother tested his inverter to see if it would power the drill we had. We went to the trail head for Gemini Bridges and all piled into the 4runner to head back out to Golden Spike for the repair. I aired down some more, from about 18 psi to 13-14 and it made the world of difference. However, there was one obstacle that gave me two "oh %^&#" moments. Here's the video of me going over it on our way out:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dvxg5ursgq0wa81/Goldbarledge.mp4
It doesn't look like much, but at night, the first night, with more psi, I had to go to the left to get over it. With the lower PSI, it was cake. However, going down it was much different. What you can't see is that there is a berm in front of where your front tires will hit going down. As I descended slowly, I got the usual "*** over" feeling and I just had to let the truck roll out of it, but I was not out of the woods yet. My front tires and my momentum then hit the berm, with a bit of forward motion that stopped completely, sending my back end moving dangerously close to the tipping point. Both rear wheels were off the rock, and I had to give it some gas to get them to settle. The back end hit hard, but it was better than a total loss. I had to change my underwears after that.
We continued in reverse of the trail we drove the night before. We drove to a point just past "Body Snatcher" and I parked my rig. We would be quicker on foot, and if we needed anything else my truck would only be about 1.7 miles away.
The trek
The repair
The fix was successful, and my brother jumped into the passenger seat of Grave Digger and I jogged along the vehicle back to my truck. We still had to make our way off the rest of Golden Spike and Gold Bar, but at least it wasn't at night. With the lower PSI, it was much easier.
We returned to camp for some pool time, cold beers, and a Dinner at the brewery. Success!
Thursday: Charley's last day
We checked out some easy trails called Bar M that were just across from the Gemini Bridges parking lot. After the trail ride, we did some shopping and beer hopping, and retired back to camp for another cookout on the pig, some beer, some home made spirits, and some rest.
Friday: Slick Rock
Charley hit the road by 7, and my brother and I packed up our bike gear and rode out to the Slick Rock trail. Amazing. Neither of us wanted to get crazy and wreck, so we did our fair share of pushing, but my brother tried more stuff than I did.
We rode back into town, and while having lunch decided to start packing up and get a jump on the trip home. We left Moab by 4 that day, just before it got crazy for Memorial weekend. Everything went smooth until the next day.
Saturday: Trailer Trouble
We were in Abilene, about 200 miles from home when we stopped for gas and noticed that one of the trailer hubs was blown out.
Both of us were hoping that it would be a bolt on hub assembly, but it was not. After removing the sheared off parts, we found it to be welded on. We unloaded the 4runner, removed the tire from the other side, and headed home. I aired up the tires on the 4runner and we were off. We did take it easy, but I was very proud of my 4runner. After all the abuse and use we did to her in Moab, here she was, coming home on her own power, driving behind the trailer. We arrived in Austin at about 1 AM for some much needed rest.
The end.
We started planning the trip and letting other like minded individuals know about our plans. On my end, I had friends that liked to mountain bike and bike, and I had friends that liked 4wd stuff, but not that many cross overs. We had lots of interest, but when you had to put your money down and commit, it ended up being just 3 guys, including me. My brother's friend from work had been building a beast of a truck to take out there.
My brother would be towing my 4runner with his half ton Dodge with a Hemi. We borrowed a car hauler from a friend that wasn't going to make the trip. This would be both of our first adventures in truck hauling and towing for a long distance. My brother arrived in Austin on Friday afternoon, and while I finished up the 4runner, he put a weight distributing hitch on his truck and the trailer.
winch installed
CB install
We were meeting up with the Grave Digger on I-10. I learned quickly that at 10.5 MPG, fuel would be a big expense.
We stayed the night in Farmington, NM and made the last leg of the trip on Sunday morning. Shortly after setting up camp, we unloaded my truck and drove out to area BFE just south of town, to test out everything.
entrance to Helldorado, No, we did not go down this trail!
We went back to camp, had some cold ones, and cooked on the pig. The pig was made by Charley from an old helium container and spare parts. skills.
Monday: Gemini Bridges on bike
My brother picked this trail to do to get the blood flowing, and it did. It's not technical, but if you ride up from the 191 side, it's a climb. Great views and landmarks.
My bro and me
We spent the 2nd half of the day looking for jets for our carbs. I was unsuccessful, but Charley did find a set at Car Quest. The parts stores in Moab cater to motorsports. It's amazing what they have in stock. We had a few beers at camp and planned out the trail we were going to do the next day.
Tuesday: 12 hours of trail via Poison Spider, Golden Spike, and Gold Bar Rim
We loaded up the rigs and headed to the trail head for Poison Spider. Grave Digger is not street legal, so it had to be hauled over to the trail head. We headed out to what was going to be a very long day.
I was the pack mule, carrying the cooler, our emergency over night bags, coolers and tools. We didn't do the loop on Poison Spider due to the time, but we pressed through to Golden Spike. Grave digger had sheared a steering arm bolt and was running with 3 on the passenger side, so we stopped periodically to check all of the bolts.
All was going well. We were about half way through Golden Spike, and I had remained unscathed, but shortly after Zuki hill, the Grave Digger sheared another bolt on the same arm. For safety, the decision was made to park it, and return the next day with tools. My truck just got a whole lot heavier. We loaded up everything, and continued on, knowing that we would be finishing in the dark. After a few lighter obstacles, my brother and Charley started walking in front of my truck to pick the best lines for me. I had to get winched up the last ledge of the Golden staircase, but we eventually crawled off the trail and on to Gemini Bridges road. It was dark. We had been on the trail for about 11 hours.
Wednesday: The extrication of Grave Digger
Charley went to the parts store and bought drill bits to extract the sheared bolts. My brother tested his inverter to see if it would power the drill we had. We went to the trail head for Gemini Bridges and all piled into the 4runner to head back out to Golden Spike for the repair. I aired down some more, from about 18 psi to 13-14 and it made the world of difference. However, there was one obstacle that gave me two "oh %^&#" moments. Here's the video of me going over it on our way out:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dvxg5ursgq0wa81/Goldbarledge.mp4
It doesn't look like much, but at night, the first night, with more psi, I had to go to the left to get over it. With the lower PSI, it was cake. However, going down it was much different. What you can't see is that there is a berm in front of where your front tires will hit going down. As I descended slowly, I got the usual "*** over" feeling and I just had to let the truck roll out of it, but I was not out of the woods yet. My front tires and my momentum then hit the berm, with a bit of forward motion that stopped completely, sending my back end moving dangerously close to the tipping point. Both rear wheels were off the rock, and I had to give it some gas to get them to settle. The back end hit hard, but it was better than a total loss. I had to change my underwears after that.
We continued in reverse of the trail we drove the night before. We drove to a point just past "Body Snatcher" and I parked my rig. We would be quicker on foot, and if we needed anything else my truck would only be about 1.7 miles away.
The trek
The repair
The fix was successful, and my brother jumped into the passenger seat of Grave Digger and I jogged along the vehicle back to my truck. We still had to make our way off the rest of Golden Spike and Gold Bar, but at least it wasn't at night. With the lower PSI, it was much easier.
We returned to camp for some pool time, cold beers, and a Dinner at the brewery. Success!
Thursday: Charley's last day
We checked out some easy trails called Bar M that were just across from the Gemini Bridges parking lot. After the trail ride, we did some shopping and beer hopping, and retired back to camp for another cookout on the pig, some beer, some home made spirits, and some rest.
Friday: Slick Rock
Charley hit the road by 7, and my brother and I packed up our bike gear and rode out to the Slick Rock trail. Amazing. Neither of us wanted to get crazy and wreck, so we did our fair share of pushing, but my brother tried more stuff than I did.
We rode back into town, and while having lunch decided to start packing up and get a jump on the trip home. We left Moab by 4 that day, just before it got crazy for Memorial weekend. Everything went smooth until the next day.
Saturday: Trailer Trouble
We were in Abilene, about 200 miles from home when we stopped for gas and noticed that one of the trailer hubs was blown out.
Both of us were hoping that it would be a bolt on hub assembly, but it was not. After removing the sheared off parts, we found it to be welded on. We unloaded the 4runner, removed the tire from the other side, and headed home. I aired up the tires on the 4runner and we were off. We did take it easy, but I was very proud of my 4runner. After all the abuse and use we did to her in Moab, here she was, coming home on her own power, driving behind the trailer. We arrived in Austin at about 1 AM for some much needed rest.
The end.
