3 Weeks, 9 States and a 45 year old FJ40/M416 Combo (1 Viewer)

[Rock40]

After another beautiful night, we started driving the second part of what was supposed to be a 58 mile loop. In actuality, it was closer to 65 miles and the road was very rough pulling the trailer. It took us 4.5 hours to go 34 some odd miles but the scenery for much of it was breathtaking.

We got back to paved road and decided to head to the south end of the park to camp and do some more gravel (suckers for punishment). This time we got a little smarter and dropped off the trailer before hitting the Burr Trail Rd. The drive was stunning and we took a little off shoot road to a lookout, playing on some slickrock along the way.

The short walk out to the viewpoint afforded us one of our best views yet of the entire waterpocket fold. Unfortunately those pictures are on our camera....
Left the park today and got stuck in a Utah traffic jam

Currently on the road again heading to Canyonlands Ntl Park.

 

[Rock40]

Lehman caves and that campground (by the creek) is a great stop. I had a pretty good burger and a beer at baker two years ago lol. Stop at goblin state park after capitol reef if you are headed to hanksville. The henry mtns. south of hanksville would make a nice camp spot

Thanks for the recommendations, unfortunately due to lack of service we didn't see this until too late!

 

[Rock40]

We arrived at Canyon Lands NP only to find there were no available campsites our alternate choice was driving roughly 30 more miles of dirt, obtaining a backcountry permit and camping along the White Rim Road that runs along the canyon floor. Did I mention the road wasn't designed with trailers in mind? It was very narrow in places and a slip would send vehicle/passengers down the cliff to the river below.

At times, we were driving right along the river before headed up 400-500' along the canyon wall.

We camped at Potato Bottom camp and set up for the night. It was HOT in the valley and sadly, it never even cooled off at night.

This fact encouraged us to pack up and drive out the next morning at 3am. Even then, temps were in the upper 80's

Found a crude trail down to the Green River and cooled off in the coffee colored water. Yeah, I might have been cleaner before I got in

 

[hairy_apple]

This looks amazing. I want nothing more in life then to do a trip like this in my FJ40.

 

[Rock40]

This looks amazing. I want nothing more in life then to do a trip like this in my FJ40.

it really has been, thanks it's helped to stay flexible as we go because many of our plans/ideas haven't worked out like we wanted.

The weather drastically changed yesterday when we arrived at the south end of Canyon Lands NP and we were warned (several times) about the high likelihood if flash flooding. This put a damper in my desire to run the Elephant Hill trail or at the very least the Colorado Overlook trail. Both of these will leave you stranded in the backcountry if the washes flood out. So, we ended up doing a hike out to The Needles area instead. Woke up this morning to torrential rain. Everything was soaked/covered in slickrock dirt. We packed ourselves ( and our large clothes bag into the tiny cab and took off for Moab again. Had to stop here on the way back

We'll tour Arches NP today and tomorrow before doing some real wheeling around Moab on Thursday

Anybody have suggestions for a favorite Moab trail? I'm not overly concerned about breaking drivetrain stuff but we've still got a TON of driving left to do. Currently, we've gone just over 2,300 miles; about 1/2 way

 

[Rock40]

Not my proudest moment....

After many, many miles, rough cattle guard crossings and potholes, I discovered today that the exhaust system was able to shake/break its way loose. Probably because the rear hanger broke. This is my parking lot/bailing wire fix which took place in the middle of an afternoon downpour and thunderstorm combo. Not pretty, but it should get us home.

 

[dogbite]

Looks like an awesome trip so far...jealous

 

[Rock40]

Quite a day we set out this morning to do some hiking but ended up meeting a bunch of new friends and wheeling all day. You can't beat that

Tom, John, Phil, Justin and Bobbi, thanks for letting us tag along with you today, it was a blast. How often can you strike up a conversation with total strangers on the roadside then spend the day with them? 4 wheelers are special folks.

We ran Fins and Things then broke for lunch. After several days of rain, the weather was perfect.

Hells Revenge is rated a 6/10 trail by the TLCA group which hosts Cruise Moab. Still having roughly 2400 miles left in our trip, I didn't want to push it much harder than that. Body damage I can live with but big mechanical breakage leaves you stranded and ruins your trip.

Hells Revenge was a ton of fun and it was great to run the trail with other folks. Two close calls for me on the same uphill obstacle the first being a phantom loss of the brake booster which was hissing like crazy. After sliding downhill (and barely stopping) it came back to life. I have no idea what caused this. The second attempt resulted in a 3 wheeled balancing act and the feeling that the FJ was about to go over backwards on its roof. You can't win them all

Cadri at the wheel

One of the many short (and steep) uphills

 

[chappysfj40]

Nice

 

[Rock40]

We ended up spending an extra night in the Ouray, CO area along the Million Dollar Hwy. I didn't much care for Telluride; to hipster/ski bunny/spoiled rich kid for me but Ouray was awesome. It definitely has the feel of an old mining town.

We parked along Main street next to a very clean 78' FJ40 owned by Bill at Ouray Mountain Sports. Bill gave us some local insight and suggested we drive the mountain pass from Hwy 550 back down into Ouray. We took him up on his advice and the 25 mile dirt loop was absolutely stunning! We crossed three mountain passed in excess of 12,000'the highest being 12,960' The scenery was amazing and we passed many old mining locations. Thanks Bill! If you're ever in Ouray, check out Ouray Mountain Sports and say hi

Up on California Pass, 12,960'

The ghost town at Amimas Forks, really neat and this was only part of it

 

[POTATO LAUNCHER]

Awesome, be sure and hit the hot springs pool before you leave Ouray. We did Imogen pass this past July. Beautiful country up there.

 

[sheepdawg]

When you are done with this adventure, I would really like to see a thread on your rig and your trailer.

 

[Rock40]

When you are done with this adventure, I would really like to see a thread on your rig and your trailer.

Yeah, I should probably do that. I'm not very good at documenting builds as they go along, probably too busy building them

We left Ouray this morning after a quick breakfast/airing up tires. The hot springs on the north side of town are a neat geological feature; definitely worth checking out.

This is not that fun.

We've been having an intermittent front end wobble/shake which floats around between 55-65mph. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this. Air pressures are all good and I'm running the counter act balancing beads. Today, it seemed like it was even worse than before. The 6 lug conversion hubs on the Pro Rock 60 already required machining in the rotor face and I wondered if they were actually true on the wheel mounting surface. After nearly 3,000 miles of shaking, we pulled off at Valley Machine near Hotchkiss, CO.

Valley Machine was closed (Saturday) but Roland went out if his way to help us out. Thanks Roland!! After tearing the front axle down, Roland machined the wheel mounting surface.

We got back on the road after that. The shake is still there but it's less at this point. Now, the front tires appear to be actually "hopping" vertically at certain speeds leading to the shake. Could be 10 year old tires with flat spots, broken belts or not enough preload on the coil springs, who knows.

We're currently camped just outside of Rocky Mt. NP and tomorrow we'll be driving up into WY.

 

[Kofoed]

Yeah, I should probably do that. I'm not very good at documenting builds as they go along, probably too busy building them

We left Ouray this morning after a quick breakfast/airing up tires. The hot springs on the north side of town are a neat geological feature; definitely worth checking out.

This is not that fun. View attachment 941464
We've been having an intermittent front end wobble/shake which floats around between 55-65mph. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this. Air pressures are all good and I'm running the counter act balancing beads. Today, it seemed like it was even worse than before. The 6 lug conversion hubs on the Pro Rock 60 already required machining in the rotor face and I wondered if they were actually true on the wheel mounting surface. After nearly 3,000 miles of shaking, we pulled off at Valley Machine near Hotchkiss, CO.

Valley Machine was closed (Saturday) but Roland went out if his way to help us out. Thanks Roland!! After tearing the front axle down, Roland machined the wheel mounting surface. View attachment 941467

We got back on the road after that. The shake is still there but it's less at this point. Now, the front tires appear to be actually "hopping" vertically at certain speeds leading to the shake. Could be 10 year old tires with flat spots, broken belts or not enough preload on the coil springs, who knows.

We're currently camped just outside of Rocky Mt. NP and tomorrow we'll be driving up into WY.

The goat in the background adds to the drama lol

 

[Rock40]

Shame on you! That's a horse!!

 

[Rock40]

Almost a typical day at this point

Roughly 3 miles into our morning drive (well below freezing by the way) we both start smelling fuel STRONG. Somehow, the 4AN braided line for the fuel pressure gauge managed to wedge itself between the body and a needle sharp casting in the engine block resulting in a puncture

Once again, I'm spilling fuel in a parking lot while I bypass the aftermarket fuel regulator. Fortunately, I had a 6AN cap to plug one of the return lines. That got us back on the road; everyday has its adventure....

 

[dad4x4]

just tuned in. i'm jelous of the trip. the wife and I would love to start a road trip in one of my fj40's. one day we will, the kids are too young to leave for a week or so and too young to bring along.
look forward to reading more. enjoy the trip!

 

[Rock40]

Finally had a day where we didn't drive, hike or go crazy all day long. It was a short drive to Grand Teton NP this morning and after setting up camp, we wandered down to the river.

They are sort of hard to see but there is a very large bull moose, cow and calf in the background. They just happened to be there when we exited the trail and we steered clear. Large, angry moose make me a bit nervous...

Flyfishing was pretty good too

 

[Rock40]

This is what you do when your water hose won't reach the fill spigot.

The pintle hook/short wheelbase backs up like poo but the trailer will go over anything

Did a short 5 mile hike to Taggert and Bradley lakes, now we're in Jackson Hole for the night.

 

[Elk Hunt]

There's a bunch of us living vicariously through you two!

So great.