ccarley
Adventurer
This past weekend, we were finally able to take the Suburban out on a nice long-ish camping trip. Long-ish, because we have to work still, and having 4 days off is like a vacation when you normally work 5 12 hour days :wings:
I took Thursday the 12th off as well, to get ready for the trip. I had picked up some heavy pine pallets from work to cut up for firewood, and stopped by a few places for some handy items, like a milk crate & storage box with latches. I didn't like going out with bags of groceries, I wanted a place to put food where it would be secure. I cut up the pallets, and made a "wood deck" in the back to help distribute the load. Everything fit great in the back of the Suburban (no surprise, eh?) and it leveled out with the new rear springs & all that weight. I flipped the air cleaner lid upside down to let in some more air to the engine too, I figured I'd give that a try since it had worked so well on my old Jeep Grand Wagoneer.
Friday we hit the store, and while on the road, I realized I forgot my perculator! That's a must have. We stopped for fuel in Rohnert Park (our hometown), and then stopped in Ukiah to see if Wal-Mart had a perculator. Nope, but they had cheap chairs, which we needed too. We hit up an outdoor shop in Ukiah as well, which has a great firearm selection, and one perculator. Sweet! We stopped to top off the tank in Laytonville, and it only took a little over 7 gallons. Need to check the actual mileage on that since my odometer is off, due to the large tires.
It was hot through Ukiah, Willits, and Laytonville, all the way until Leggett where we turned off 101 to Hwy 1 South. Once over the mountain on Hwy 1, it started to cool off. Good thing, we still don't have A/C. The wing windows help though.
Pit stop on Hwy 1:
We turned onto Usal Road at milemarker 90.(something), and past the cattle grate I locked the hubs. The road is steep in parts, so we just use low-range, and no overdrive. That combination was perfect, and the TH700-R4 pretty much kept in a good gear no matter how fast or slow we were going. After maybe a mile we came across our first obstacle: a car. As my wife hopped out to ask them to back up the hill a little, a CDF 4X4 fire truck came around the bend, behind the car. I was thinking we were screwed, no way either could get by us where we were! After some discussion, the car backed up a little (he didn't really have the power to back up the hill...), and I pulled into a ditch with the side of the Suburban really close to the mountainside. The car got by, and the CDF truck backed up a little, where we pulled into the ditch again (I should have got a pic through the mirror!) and we scooted by.
Usal Road:
Narrow & foggy in parts:
The fog was creating "rain" in the trees, to the point where there was a little mud:
I was pulling over when I could to let people who liked to drive (too) fast pass by. At one point, a large Ford 15 passenger van (really?) came up behind us, so I pulled over. This is where the trouble started... after the van went by, I started to pull forward, and the frame twisted so much, the fan started to hit something! I was worried it was hitting the radiator, and my wife was suggesting I shut it down. I hit the e-brake, threw it in park (so I thought) and shut it off. I asked her to assist me in opening the hood, as it never opens easily. I saw that the fan was nowhere near the radiator, and only hitting the shroud, so I figured we'll just let it eat the plastic. If it was tagging the radiator, I was going to pull the fan, and then get out of this situation. I fired it back up, took the e-brake off, gave it some throttle, and it started moving backwards. I guess the frame was so twisted that I could not hit park. After it moved backwards, the fan was ok again after spitting out some shroud pieces. "Self clearancing".
Another obstacle we hit on the way was a rut in a banked corner. This may not have been a problem for shorter wheelbase vehicles, but the length of the Suburban caused us to get a little tipsy! Left-hand corner, with a good bank on it, and a large rut all the way across. As the front went through, we were fine, but when the right rear went in the ditch, and we were already leaning right... well, I probably lifted a wheel, but we came out just fine.
Arrived at Usal Beach, looking for a campsite:
Looking for an available site took a while once at Usal Beach. For a Friday, the place was pretty full. We spent probably an hour driving all over the campground, and everywhere we looked there were people all set up. There was the other side of the campground, which required driving through an area that would flex out my suspension again, or another entry point that looked like I might high-center on, so we held out on driving over there. We finally parked & walked around, and found a nice site, on that other side. I carefully drove over the area I might high-center on, and came through alright.
The Elk were out when we arrived around 4:00 pm:
"Primitave" Camping:
I don't know how long a post can be, so I'm going to stop here & continue in a reply.
Clay
I took Thursday the 12th off as well, to get ready for the trip. I had picked up some heavy pine pallets from work to cut up for firewood, and stopped by a few places for some handy items, like a milk crate & storage box with latches. I didn't like going out with bags of groceries, I wanted a place to put food where it would be secure. I cut up the pallets, and made a "wood deck" in the back to help distribute the load. Everything fit great in the back of the Suburban (no surprise, eh?) and it leveled out with the new rear springs & all that weight. I flipped the air cleaner lid upside down to let in some more air to the engine too, I figured I'd give that a try since it had worked so well on my old Jeep Grand Wagoneer.
Friday we hit the store, and while on the road, I realized I forgot my perculator! That's a must have. We stopped for fuel in Rohnert Park (our hometown), and then stopped in Ukiah to see if Wal-Mart had a perculator. Nope, but they had cheap chairs, which we needed too. We hit up an outdoor shop in Ukiah as well, which has a great firearm selection, and one perculator. Sweet! We stopped to top off the tank in Laytonville, and it only took a little over 7 gallons. Need to check the actual mileage on that since my odometer is off, due to the large tires.
It was hot through Ukiah, Willits, and Laytonville, all the way until Leggett where we turned off 101 to Hwy 1 South. Once over the mountain on Hwy 1, it started to cool off. Good thing, we still don't have A/C. The wing windows help though.
Pit stop on Hwy 1:
We turned onto Usal Road at milemarker 90.(something), and past the cattle grate I locked the hubs. The road is steep in parts, so we just use low-range, and no overdrive. That combination was perfect, and the TH700-R4 pretty much kept in a good gear no matter how fast or slow we were going. After maybe a mile we came across our first obstacle: a car. As my wife hopped out to ask them to back up the hill a little, a CDF 4X4 fire truck came around the bend, behind the car. I was thinking we were screwed, no way either could get by us where we were! After some discussion, the car backed up a little (he didn't really have the power to back up the hill...), and I pulled into a ditch with the side of the Suburban really close to the mountainside. The car got by, and the CDF truck backed up a little, where we pulled into the ditch again (I should have got a pic through the mirror!) and we scooted by.
Usal Road:
Narrow & foggy in parts:
The fog was creating "rain" in the trees, to the point where there was a little mud:
I was pulling over when I could to let people who liked to drive (too) fast pass by. At one point, a large Ford 15 passenger van (really?) came up behind us, so I pulled over. This is where the trouble started... after the van went by, I started to pull forward, and the frame twisted so much, the fan started to hit something! I was worried it was hitting the radiator, and my wife was suggesting I shut it down. I hit the e-brake, threw it in park (so I thought) and shut it off. I asked her to assist me in opening the hood, as it never opens easily. I saw that the fan was nowhere near the radiator, and only hitting the shroud, so I figured we'll just let it eat the plastic. If it was tagging the radiator, I was going to pull the fan, and then get out of this situation. I fired it back up, took the e-brake off, gave it some throttle, and it started moving backwards. I guess the frame was so twisted that I could not hit park. After it moved backwards, the fan was ok again after spitting out some shroud pieces. "Self clearancing".
Another obstacle we hit on the way was a rut in a banked corner. This may not have been a problem for shorter wheelbase vehicles, but the length of the Suburban caused us to get a little tipsy! Left-hand corner, with a good bank on it, and a large rut all the way across. As the front went through, we were fine, but when the right rear went in the ditch, and we were already leaning right... well, I probably lifted a wheel, but we came out just fine.
Arrived at Usal Beach, looking for a campsite:
Looking for an available site took a while once at Usal Beach. For a Friday, the place was pretty full. We spent probably an hour driving all over the campground, and everywhere we looked there were people all set up. There was the other side of the campground, which required driving through an area that would flex out my suspension again, or another entry point that looked like I might high-center on, so we held out on driving over there. We finally parked & walked around, and found a nice site, on that other side. I carefully drove over the area I might high-center on, and came through alright.
The Elk were out when we arrived around 4:00 pm:
"Primitave" Camping:
I don't know how long a post can be, so I'm going to stop here & continue in a reply.
Clay
