2020 Power Wagon JUXI Build and Trip Thread

[jupp0r]

No squeaks so far, I paid extra attention to keeping the front backing plates as low as possible, fingers crossed.

So it turns out squeaks were there after a week. I took a look and found two washers on the very front drivers side backing plate making contact with the cab. I ended up grinding down the washers and everything is fine now. I’ll be driving the Mojave Road over the weekend. If it’s still not squeaking afterwards I’ll consider it fixed.

Before

After

 

[Explorerinil]

You should be good now. I can’t believe how close those mounts fit to the floor.

 

[jupp0r]

We drove the Mojave Road over 3 days this weekend. It’s one of the prettiest trails I’ve ever seen and the diversity of terrain was just really cool. Thanks for the guys at scota4x4.com for hosting this run.

Tail gates are really handy for food stops. The Decked drawers are nice to rest your back against.

The trail varies between fast and slow sections and is mostly easy terrain.

Vegetation at Fort Piute

First Camp was between bushes and trees.

Leaving Camp 1.

Notice the road ahead

The Lava Tube Caves were one of the highlights of the trip. We arrived just at the right time for the light beams to be super pretty.

Camp two was exposed but offered super pretty views overlooking Soda Dry Lake.

Soda dry lake was interesting to drive on.

Lunch stop in Afton Canyon.

The combination of watching this guy hydrolock his engine (went way too fast) and not having had the time to extend my diff breathers made us go with the bailout group and skip the Mojave River crossing.

 

[Antwon412]

Man that’s cool. I need to find a group here in Northern CA to go with.

 

[jupp0r]

With all campgrounds in CA closed, we found out that dispersed camping in Death Valley National Park is still open, so we drove into Saline Valley via South Pass on Boxing Day. The plan was to stay there for two nights, but a somewhat unannounced winter storm made it four. We continued on via Lippincott (easily replaces three cups of coffee in the morning) and Racetrack and ended up camping two nights in Cottonwood Canyon near Stovepipe Wells.

Great views of Panamint Valley from South Pass

Saline Valley Road heading into the valley

The hike up Little Hunter Canyon we did the next day had great views over the valley.

We found what looked like mobile milling equipped in the way back to the truck

We camped off Steele Pass Road between middle and upper warm springs. Camping at the springs was closed due to COVID (go figure, it’s not like primitive wilderness camping is a high risk activity....)

Middle Spring source pool

By the salt lake. The mud had the consistency of cement, but it rinsed off good with olentynif water after the trip.

Leftovers from salt evaporators

We found what looked like the return station for the salt gondolas

Some of it was almost rusted away

Snow in the Inyos from our camp

Obsidian shard

Day hike to some native American ruins

Lower warm springs was all closed but still nice to visit

Lippincott Road. It wasn’t that bad actually. There was one spot with a rock wall inches from the truck body on one side and a washed out bump where one tire was an inch from the cliff in the other (sorry wasn’t in the mood to take a photo if that one). Then there was a little technical section where I picked a wrong line, scraped the front diff guard (what a good investment), had to back up a little and get spotted. I’d totally drive it again.

Ubehebe Crater

Cottonwood Canyon Campsite

Sunrise looking down canyon into Death Valley

Marble Canyon has really cool narrows. We hiked 4 miles up the canyon and then turned back. The drive there was easy.

Sunrise on New Years Eve

 

[Explorerinil]

how did your power wagon perform? Still happy with it? Any things you came up with that you need next?

 

[frq flyr]

We did Titus on Dec 31, and Panamint to Hunter, to teakettle to Ubehebe on Jan 1

Hunter had 4-5” of snow and some ice in the higher elevation and shade spots. went low and slow!

 

[jupp0r]

how did your power wagon perform? Still happy with it? Any things you came up with that you need next?

It performed great and we are still super happy with it. Some things that can be improved:

- suspension is ok, but a Thuren/Carli upgrade would make the ride more comfortable for sure. The factory bump stops are super hard and we hit them a couple of times on Saline Valley Road.

- the spare rides in the bed currently, but rear tire carrier swing out bumper would free up more space in the bed and could also hold some water/gas cans

- roof top tent would be awesome, I’m still trying to figure out if I can mount a big one on the camper shell and if that’s a good idea with the driving we are doing

- I bought a pair of snow chains just in case. I doubt I could fit any in the front tires but rear should be fine.

 

[Explorerinil]

It performed great and we are still super happy with it. Some things that can be improved:

- suspension is ok, but a Thuren/Carli upgrade would make the ride more comfortable for sure. The factory bump stops are super hard and we hit them a couple of times on Saline Valley Road.

- the spare rides in the bed currently, but rear tire carrier swing out bumper would free up more space in the bed and could also hold some water/gas cans

- roof top tent would be awesome, I’m still trying to figure out if I can mount a big one on the camper shell and if that’s a good idea with the driving we are doing

- I bought a pair of snow chains just in case. I doubt I could fit any in the front tires but rear should be fine.

I wish thuren made stock replacement coils for the the power wagon that left the truck and stock height just ride better, throw on some thuren bump stops and be done. My issue is that I tow my boat and haul allot of hunting gear during deer season so I need some load capacity.

ive been debating the RTT for years and I’m still undecided.

 

[jupp0r]

Because I came somewhat close to hitting the rear diff on a rock when backing out of our camp site in Saline Valley, I decided to put a Purple Cranium rear diff guard on. Seems really well built and falls into the “cheap insurance” category in my book.

The install was super easy, not a single drop of diff fluid lost when replacing the 7 bolts on the housing. I used blue Loctite on the bolts and torqued to 25lbft. I plan to replace the diff fluid at 20k mi or so.

 

[Halligan]

Nice upgrade. If you're still running stock fluid I'd dump it ASAP. My fluid was nasty when I dumped it at around 1,000 miles. Those differential gears wear in during the first 500-1000 miles and cause the most fluid contamination you'll see during the life of the vehicle. Dump that stuff and clean the metallic fuzz off your locker magnet. After that you'll be good to follow the manufacturer recommended change intervals.

 

[jupp0r]

Nice upgrade. If you're still running stock fluid I'd dump it ASAP. My fluid was nasty when I dumped it at around 1,000 miles. Those differential gears wear in during the first 500-1000 miles and cause the most fluid contamination you'll see during the life of the vehicle. Dump that stuff and clean the metallic fuzz off your locker magnet. After that you'll be good to follow the manufacturer recommended change intervals.

I’ll replace it sooner then, thanks for the hint!

 

[Explorerinil]

Clean off the locker magnets when your in there.

 

[jadmt]

Nice upgrade. If you're still running stock fluid I'd dump it ASAP. My fluid was nasty when I dumped it at around 1,000 miles. Those differential gears wear in during the first 500-1000 miles and cause the most fluid contamination you'll see during the life of the vehicle. Dump that stuff and clean the metallic fuzz off your locker magnet. After that you'll be good to follow the manufacturer recommended change intervals.

I did mine around 2000 miles and it looked brand new and luckily the magnets were fuzz free.

 

[Halligan]

I did mine around 2000 miles and it looked brand new and luckily the magnets were fuzz free.View attachment 636722

Your picture does look good. Maybe they changed something during the manufacturing / assembly process. My 2010 Ram 2500 and my 2015 PW were both nasty when I did an early fluid dump. The locker magnet and fill plug magnet both had a pretty good metallic sludge build up on them. I've pulled the fill plug out a few time to check the fluid level after that initial fluid swap and the plug has never had the amount of buildup as the first time.