Damaged by the Dusy
- Thread starter jeremyk
- Start date
Body damage is normal on this trail. Not at all unexpected. A short wheelbase has the best chance, but anything with much of a rear overhang is going to get tagged several times. You are really lucky your insurance covered your "butcher's bill".
There are many interesting features of this trail, including the 6 week window to run it. Once the first snow flies, it's time to go home, because on the part above 10,000 feel it can snow 60 feet.
We ran it one year the last part of July and had to clear a couple of downed trees fully across the trail. The forest service does a heroic job doing this in the late spring/early summer, but they must have missed one. One year there was a freak wind storm that brought down 300 trees just past Lack Camp Lake-I was surprised that could be cleared at all.
And, the 4 wheel drive club of Fresno not only built this trail in the late 1950s, but has maintained and improved it ever since. Without them, this trail would have been incorporated into "Wilderness" years ago and lost forever to motorized travelers. I hope all will continue to respect that effort.
Last time through in my FJ60 I caved a door fully in, bent the roof rail flat on about a 6 foot section of my roof, and crushed one of the rear quarters. I think from now on, I'll do it in my FJ40 where the damage has been much less.
Some mandatory rig mods for Dusy:
1-Good attitude
2-35 inch tires, including a good spare
3-Lockers on both ends
4-Winch
5-Lots of extra gas
6-Serious gear reduction
7-2 days of extra food
8-Common spares, but especially drive shafts and axle shafts
9-Good electrical (I had an engine fire my first year on Thompson)
10-Good attitude
There are many interesting features of this trail, including the 6 week window to run it. Once the first snow flies, it's time to go home, because on the part above 10,000 feel it can snow 60 feet.
We ran it one year the last part of July and had to clear a couple of downed trees fully across the trail. The forest service does a heroic job doing this in the late spring/early summer, but they must have missed one. One year there was a freak wind storm that brought down 300 trees just past Lack Camp Lake-I was surprised that could be cleared at all.
And, the 4 wheel drive club of Fresno not only built this trail in the late 1950s, but has maintained and improved it ever since. Without them, this trail would have been incorporated into "Wilderness" years ago and lost forever to motorized travelers. I hope all will continue to respect that effort.
Last time through in my FJ60 I caved a door fully in, bent the roof rail flat on about a 6 foot section of my roof, and crushed one of the rear quarters. I think from now on, I'll do it in my FJ40 where the damage has been much less.
Some mandatory rig mods for Dusy:
1-Good attitude
2-35 inch tires, including a good spare
3-Lockers on both ends
4-Winch
5-Lots of extra gas
6-Serious gear reduction
7-2 days of extra food
8-Common spares, but especially drive shafts and axle shafts
9-Good electrical (I had an engine fire my first year on Thompson)
10-Good attitude
parkkitchings
Adventurer
Excellent.......
GetOutThere
Adventurer
I recalled your Rubicon write up with fondness as soon as I saw that tube doored FJC. I'm glad I dove in after all the parts were written, as I could read straight through.
Thanks for another excellent write up. Great pictures, great attitude, and great rigs. Your writing style also mixes entertaining and informative very well.
Great job on the trail and on the report. Looking forward to the next one!
Thanks for another excellent write up. Great pictures, great attitude, and great rigs. Your writing style also mixes entertaining and informative very well.
Great job on the trail and on the report. Looking forward to the next one!
Desert Rat 1
Adventurer
Nice!
Excellent write up! I see you've been bitten by the rock crawling bug and now you have its venom in your blood...now you can enjoy the best of both worlds!
I started reading the first page on this one, then jumped to the Rubicon one, finished reading that one, then jumped back to this one and went through both in one evening...and a six pack of happy campers!
I would say all you really need is a front locker, preferably a disconecting one; and a lower geared transfer case, or put a marlin crawler reduction kit on your existing one and it will be good with 33's.
Excellent write up! I see you've been bitten by the rock crawling bug and now you have its venom in your blood...now you can enjoy the best of both worlds!
I started reading the first page on this one, then jumped to the Rubicon one, finished reading that one, then jumped back to this one and went through both in one evening...and a six pack of happy campers!
I would say all you really need is a front locker, preferably a disconecting one; and a lower geared transfer case, or put a marlin crawler reduction kit on your existing one and it will be good with 33's.
I am fearful to do the locker with IFS and the FJC has a chain driven transfer case, so re-gearing is out in that area, but I would like to do a Marlin, I just can't justify the cost with all of life's other priorities right now. We want to return to the Rubicon in '16 so I'll need to do something before then...
Bar3K
New member
My hats off to you for the great story and the bulldog attitude of getting it done.
Your grandkids are gonna love these stories. Hope you are saving then some way for them to read and enjoy.
I have some experience in both a FJ and a Jeep LJ. Your brother's Jeep and your FJ compliment each other using them like this..
Your grandkids are gonna love these stories. Hope you are saving then some way for them to read and enjoy.
I have some experience in both a FJ and a Jeep LJ. Your brother's Jeep and your FJ compliment each other using them like this..
moodywizard
Adventurer
awesome trip report, happen to have pics of the damaged FJ? Fellow FJ's want to know what they are getting into haha.
It's all been fixed now, but you can see the damage in the pictures. The initial damage happened in the area, just off of a forest service road, on the way to camp for the night. Erik was able to make it through a spot that I got off track and "paid the price". His vehicle has sheet metal 6" inside the tires and the FJ is 1" outside the rubber. The trees on the Dusy did not help what was already done, since further contact was made in the same areas of the body.
moodywizard
Adventurer
I read that comment, my tires stick further out. Have spacers and different wheels plus wider tire 305/70/16 plus no flares. I read about this trail on the funtreks book. Beautiful views.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That would probably help protect your sheet metal, but would also increase your track width, which would not help you with the narrow trees and tree/rock combo's on the trail. If you do it, I'd love to see a write-up!
moodywizard
Adventurer
True on the width part. I'll see if I can convince a few SoCal fj guys to come along this summer. Really wishing I had 35's for this tho. Haha thanks again for the report!
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
slomatt
Adventurer
Wow, thank you for taking the time to write up your trip report, really well done. I ran part of the trail several years ago, but it started to snow and we were very aware that our rigs barely met the "minimum requirements" so we turned back. Seeing your pictures and reading your story makes me think about making a second attempt.
- Matt
- Matt
Wh1t3nukle
I gotz dis
The FJ could make the lower portion of Fordyce, but not without alot of work with stacking and winching. This is based on the setup shown in this trip report for FJ, which agreed very well done. Kudos on your writing ability. Would really like to see more pics of the larger obstacle areas, even though I'll never fit on that trail with the bed still on.
Fordyce doesn't have the tightness factor, but does have the unrelenting crawling. I took a group through the lower portion, 5 rigs. Smallest rig was on 31s, older TJ very short wheelbase and with a teralow 4:1 in the tcase. That saved him b/c axle ratio was stock!!! Alot of stacking. We even got him over Winch Hill 1.
Again, great trip report. Have you guys picked your Rubicon date yet?