GEOFish - Expedition Mexico 2010

[Fishhippie]

First of all we would like to do a proper introduction and say hello to all you fellow Overlanders.
My name is Thad Robison and I am part of a rag tag crew who has been traveling the globe for the better half of six years now producing fly fishing adventure films. Our crew has filmed expeditions in Argentina, Chile, Iceland, New Zealand, Mongolia, and British Colombia. Our next filming adventure is taking us on an epic 8,000 mile fly fishing expedition from Oregon to Mexico. We will be heading to Baja and the Yucatan Peninsula this fall. We are currently in the final planning stages of our expedition and we will be departing mid October.

Our films are adventure expedition documentaries featuring our fly fishing journeys with a major emphasis on Overlanding. Typically we travel for 2 to 3 months at a time and travel thousands of miles. My partner and I stumbled upon the Overland Expo this past year in AZ and we immediately knew that we have found a wonderful community that we definitely wanted to become a part of.

We have been searching for months trying to acquire our expedition vehicle that can sustain a crew of 4 and our hundreds of pounds of equipment and hopefully last the entire journey. (fingers, toes and all other body parts crossed) As in most cases we have a limited budget and I read some insight recently from a noteworthy Overland community member that “It is better to go underprepared or with a cheap vehicle (or no vehicle), than to not go at all”, well that is the formula we seem to have been following for the past 6 years. God help us.

We picked up a 1996 Ford F250 Crew Cab diesel Powerstroke which we will be taking to Ojai CA in the next few weeks to have a Vegetable Oil fuel conversion installed at Veg Powered Systems. We are hoping to go as green as we possibly can on this expedition. We have mapped out all the tortilla/chip factories along our route to hopefully pick up cheap/free fuel along the way whenever possible.

Our plan is to keep an up to date diary and video blog of our expedition in this forum as well as on our expedition blog at www.motivfishing.com

Although we have traveled around the globe we by no means consider ourselves “expert overlanders”, in fact we are probably quite the opposite. We have dropped axles, drive shafts, wheel drums, lost entire windshields, punctured gas tanks, countless flat tires, buried in mud, and stranded in water just to name a few. We are always learning and we face new challenges and obstacles on every journey we take. But hey, that is part of the fun.

We are hoping to form a connection in this forum with other members who can offer support, guidance and advice. Our expertise lies with a fly rod in our hands and we do our best to capture it on film. For those who are interested we have a collection of our film teasers up on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/AEGMedianWe no longer film under the name of AEG Media, but you follow us under our new company MotivFishing.

So in order to make a proper post I would like to share some info regarding our expedition rig, now temporarily carrying the nickname of the F2Veggie.

Now since we are what we believe to be the 3rd owner this is what we know so far,
1996 Ford F250 7.3L diesel Powerstroke
- 193,000 Miles, stock with no mods
- Rebuilt Transmission at 178,000 miles
- Dual Fuel Tanks
- 35” tires, 16.5” wheels (at the end of their lifecycle)
- 4” lift
- 4” straight pipe exhaust
- HD suspension, front/rear leaf springs

Here is what we have done so far;
- Replaced rear drums and breaks

- Replaced Front outer/inner axle shafts

- Replaced Front axle seals

- Replaced Front U joints

- Replaced Front axle needle bearing
- Added A R E Aluminum DCU Topper

Our next step is to transform it into "el Infierno Sobre Ruedas" (Hell On Wheels)
- Vegetable Oil Fuel conversion at Veg Powered Systems http://www.vegpoweredsystems.com/
- Add 39 gallon Veg Oil tank

- Strip all chrome

- Pant bumpers black

- Weld on recovery point hooks

- Replace tires
- Add ARB roof rack to topper and cab
- Install rack canopy
- Install ARB Xtreme driving lights

- Replace stereo (conveniently the one in the dash is missing)

- Disco Ball

If any of you overlanders reading this post are in the Southern California area and you have any insight or have heard of anyone who is looking at unloading 35x12.5 R16.5 tires for a reasonable price we sure would appreciate the info. You can email me direct at thad@motivfishing.com
Luckily we have found some Greasers in San Diego who are loading us up with as much WVO (veg oil) as we can carry.

We look forward to becoming a part of this community and following all of you on your adventures and we hope you enjoy following ours.

Best,
TR

 

[suntinez]

Welcome! Looks like a fun crew. Good luck with the new/old truck.

 

[vanderpooch]

Diggin the F2Veggie! Just watched MetalHead that's a sweet video!! Nice work!

We'll be in Baja for most of January maybe we'll cross paths!!

John:sombrero:

 

[Jim K in PA]

Congratulations on finding the Portal, and on your new acquisistion.

BTW -I am surprised you have 16.5" wheels on your truck. You may want to consider selling them and fitting 16" wheels, which are much easier to find tires for (and less expensive, as well). My 1988 F250 had 16" wheels, so your truck likely had them replaced at some point. I bet a call to a few junk yards might yield stock 16" wheels for very little $$.

Best of luck with your adventures. Be sure to post up your trip reports.

 

[x32792]

Welcome Aboard

Welcome Aboard...It's good to have purpose in life....Get that Disco Ball installed in your rig.

 

[Fishhippie]

Thank you for the warm welcome.
Jim, appreciate the heads up on the wheel size, definitely sounds like sound advice. Since we will be replacing all 4 treads we will look at pulling the 16.5's off and rolling 16.

 

[constructeur]

Thad- Best of luck to you and the guys with your adventures and the company this time around... I was actually standing in a local river swinging some Ryan Davey designed stuff just yesterday.

Regards-Terry

 

[Darwin]

Good luck. The chip factory sounds like a good idea, wish I had thought of that when I went down to mexico last winter. I drove from Idaho down to the central pacific coast with a 135lb Newfoundland dog and 92 ford diesel (old Smokey) converted to WVO.

Personally I would not have somebody else do the conversion on the truck. You are much better off doing it yourself because it will break down and things will go wrong with it and then you are left trying to fix it. Also you are going to blow I am guessing close to 2 grand just to have somebody else do it. It's not hard to do yourself and you can build a better system than what VegPower will do. The best conversion for a powerstroke is a vegistroke style (google it) that uses check valves and electric fuel pumps. Check out WVO designs, they have a complete parts list and instructions to converting a powerstroke to a valveless design.

How do you plan to filter and dewater while you are on the road? What pump will you use to collect the oil? It's a pretty steep learning curve.



Right now I am going to be heading back down to mexico and maybe farther again here in a few months. I am replacing with old smokey with a 97 dodge cummins. I use a centrifuge to filter and dewater on the road. (extreme recycling) I call it.

I like your plans for the truck and the utility shell on it I think is the way to go. I plan to pick one up before I leave.

If you have any questions let me know. Here are a few pictures from my last trip.

 

[1leglance]

will you be doing the hotel thing or trying to sleep in/on the rig?

of course I love a fridge so that is worth doing, maybe going with bucket seats in the passenger area and a fridge in the middle?

ARB make a 12vdc LED light called the Adventure Light, it is great for around camp

Quality chairs make a huge difference, I love the GCI Xpress Lounger, it is metal, folds up small and very comfy for cheap

Having messed with veggie oil in the past I can say that the centrifuge setups are the best way to go, big rigs use them to keep oil clean on the highway and they are super simple. Hang out on the veggie forums to learn more.

Get the cleanest oil you can as far as particulate matter goes, that means much less filter time and less filter issues. Your temps will be warm enough that you won't have gel issues.

Have a blast!

 

[Fishhippie]

Darwin - Your truck looks supper Bad A. Love the pics. We are hopefully picking up that same style cap rack this weekend. Found a used one for an unbelievable price. We have 2 Gheenoes we need to put up on top. Yeah, the veggie oil thing is going to be a learning curve for sure. We blocked out a week to get our skills honed in. I'm sure we are going to learn a lot along the way. Hopefully there aren't to many "learned from our mistakes" if you know what I mean. Were getting our hands dirty and helping with the install on the Veg system so we can get a good understanding of all the components and how everything functions. They gave us a killer deal.
The plan is to go centrifuge on the filtration.

Lance - Not many hotel points getting racked up on this trip. We got a couple of the new Nemo Morpho2 tents last week. The airbeam supports on those things are a trip. Also picked up the ARB 12vcd LED. (thx for the advice) Wish we could afford the fridge. After Mongolia we got used to drinking warm beer but for now we picked up a pair of the 75qt YETI coolers.

The beginning leg of the trip starts next week when I drive the F2Veggie from SLC up to Vancouver WA. Meet up with the rest of crew and get organized and packed and then throw a big going away party. Gotta be in Ojai on the 11th then border crossing on the 17th if all goes well.

We should have the first of our diaries and video post up on the web site starting next weekend. I'm ready to get this party started!

 

[redthies]

Darwin... Where are those pics taken? Looks alot like a town I have spent years in... Maybe in southern Nayarit? A left and a right?

Fish... Love the 250! I almost bought the exact same truck in blue with a 5 speed. Even had a lift and 35-12.5R16.5s!

 

[ScottKas]

Hippie, sounds like a great trip. Loved the previous four adventures. You guys need to hook up with the Malloy Brothers of "Bend to Baja" fame. Think they live in the ojai area. They made the trip with surf boards instead of fly rods but probably have some good tips. Cant wait for the trip to begin. Good luck.

 

[hooktup]

Looking forward to keeping up with your trip. Please keep us posted on security issues as I hope to make an offhighway fly fishing trip into Baja next year.

I'll bet Owen has less trouble with the Mexican border than the Canadian border.

 

[c.nordstrom]

Darwin - Your truck looks supper Bad A. Love the pics. We are hopefully picking up that same style cap rack this weekend. Found a used one for an unbelievable price. We have 2 Gheenoes we need to put up on top. Yeah, the veggie oil thing is going to be a learning curve for sure. We blocked out a week to get our skills honed in. I'm sure we are going to learn a lot along the way. Hopefully there aren't to many "learned from our mistakes" if you know what I mean. Were getting our hands dirty and helping with the install on the Veg system so we can get a good understanding of all the components and how everything functions. They gave us a killer deal.
The plan is to go centrifuge on the filtration.

Lance - Not many hotel points getting racked up on this trip. We got a couple of the new Nemo Morpho2 tents last week. The airbeam supports on those things are a trip. Also picked up the ARB 12vcd LED. (thx for the advice) Wish we could afford the fridge. After Mongolia we got used to drinking warm beer but for now we picked up a pair of the 75qt YETI coolers.

The beginning leg of the trip starts next week when I drive the F2Veggie from SLC up to Vancouver WA. Meet up with the rest of crew and get organized and packed and then throw a big going away party. Gotta be in Ojai on the 11th then border crossing on the 17th if all goes well.

We should have the first of our diaries and video post up on the web site starting next weekend. I'm ready to get this party started!

Thad, this is a bit ASAP - what do you know about the marbled trout? I'll be in Slovenia for the next week and I want to hook something that you haven't been able to (because this species of trout is unique to Slovenia) (unless you have been to Slovenia).

 

[Scott Brady]

Great to see you here Thad. Best of luck on your journey.

I did see your emails a few days ago. I am just now getting back into the office and will take a look.