Dparo's 2007 Adventure Build (1 Viewer)

[Dparo]

This is great thread - thanks for sharing. How far are you from the Badlands off road park? Any interest in a day trip?

Thanks.

Yeah, I'm down for that. I'm a tad over an hour from there. The Indiana Land Cruiser guys go there but I haven't been able to coordinate yet with them, usually it is after one of the Ed Martin Annual Land Cruiser meets that I have not missed yet.

I am starting to work on an 80 though to be more for that type of driving, trying to keep the 100 more for the exploration thing.

 

[Dparo]

Well here was one of those jobs that just didn't want to cooperate so I had to bring it to the pros. Pics are theirs. Specialty 4WD in Walton Ky did my Doug Thorley headers and knocked them out. Thanks Luke and Josh.

Worth every dollar.

 

[Dparo]

Less than a year of Krylon and the oxidation was starting to peek through the Dissent bumper so time to get it removed and sent out for a proper powdercoat. I guess you get what you pay for the shoddy job was $350 and this one was almost $900 because of oven time. Grumble.

I am a bit of an expert at this point on doing this puzzle.

All nice and shiny with a 60% gloss.

Also picked up the Trail Tailor antenna/light mount for my HAM antenna install.

 

[Dparo]

Finished up a couple of loose ends by taking out the somewhat useless pocket and replacing it with the blank piece to install the Redarc Brake Controller.

Also did the Ayune mount for the scangauge.

 

[Dparo]

I have a bad back so ground tent camping isn't the most comfortable, besides I quit doing that after a 52 miler in the Sawtooths, now hammock camping is the Cat's Meow. But I've also wanted a RTT and started to search for the right one. I'm 6'3" so some hardshells are limiting and the soft tops can kind of limit you in other ways, namely time so I ended up deciding on the Camp King. I also try to avoid made in China if I can. I don't really have a great way to mount this myself so it was a good excuse to go off to Colorado!

Sloop Imports used to sell these, not sure if they still do though, either way that's where I went.

Well, in Colorado might as well return to Slee for those sliders and skids first.

When I got home I took out the CK mattress and replaced it with one of these.

MegaMat Max 15 Duo

EXPED’s famous MegaMat built 50% thicker! MegaMat Max 15 Duo has at its core 15 centimeters (6”) of just-the-right density, Oeko-Tex 100 certified, open-cell polyurethane foam for support and warmth. The air-core-channeled foam allows the mat to be soft-inflated for an enhanced cradling of the...

www.expedusa.com

 

[Dparo]

Time to switch those wheels and tires up, decided on the Icon Rebounds in Titanium after seeing them on a gray Heritage at Ed Martin Toyota. Also went to Toyo MT's. Decided to get rid of the stickers as well, I like the cleaner look.

Getting close to leaving for the IDBDR.

And yes, I have used my axe and shovel for uses in which they were designed for.

 

[Dparo]

Built the rear platform out of some 1/2" Baltic Birch and used the Trail Tailor platform mounts for it.

I'm not a carpenter by any means but this thing is stout. One day I still need to stain it.

L-brackets on the corners really hold it steady and I have never needed to tighten anything up. Threw on those tie-down points as well.

 

[Dparo]

Trying to remember the exact details but I had ordered the new National Luna Legacy dual zone 60L and it was not in stock. Equipt was hoping that the shipment would get here in time so we waited...

Well they ended up helping me out by coordinating with Overland Addict and sourced it through them to send to me instead. Fridge arrived with about a week to spare iirc. I ended up powering that through my rear fuse panel with some Anderson connectors and used some shock cord to help control the cable when the fridge gets pulled out on the slide and placed back in. Eventually this is one of those things that I may look to improve, but it works.

sorry no pics other than....

What is going on here? I set the freezer zone for -18C and the fridge zone was set for 4C. I'm leaving soon. Ugh. This is right out of the box and I let it run overnight.

So I fired off an email to Equipt and apparently these were designed originally with a solenoid valve to control the refrigeration to the appropriate zone. What they found was that during shipping some of those would pop out of the coil and then essentially become a single zone. You have to open it up and pop that back together. So I had it off to allow it to return to room temp before restarting it. Hey it's working now, cooling down to the desired set temp.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

Thanks.

Yeah, I'm down for that. I'm a tad over an hour from there. The Indiana Land Cruiser guys go there but I haven't been able to coordinate yet with them, usually it is after one of the Ed Martin Annual Land Cruiser meets that I have not missed yet.

I am starting to work on an 80 though to be more for that type of driving, trying to keep the 100 more for the exploration thing.

My 100 is long distance tourer too - there is plenty to do at Badlands without getting into the rear rough stuff!

Time to switch those wheels and tires up, decided on the Icon Rebounds in Titanium after seeing them on a gray Heritage at Ed Martin Toyota. Also went to Toyo MT's. Decided to get rid of the stickers as well, I like the cleaner look.

Getting close to leaving for the IDBDR.

And yes, I have used my axe and shovel for uses in which they were designed for.


View attachment 3132750

Noice! How do you keep your shovel and Axe safe from sticky fingers?
Edit: Nevermind, I see the locks!

 

[Dparo]

Off to the IDBDR...

I had a buddy running the IDBDR as well and he was coming from Oregon so we met up in Silver City...

A few notes from Silver City...

DO NOT tap the "fountain" for some water. It is a pressurized system used to suppress a fire.

Two buildings were for sale but were insanely expensive.

Cattle graze freely.

There is a HAM repeater in eyesight on War Eagle and I was able to get a check-in to Boise. There are really no services in town except for the hotel which has some basic breakfast and lunch on the weekends. I have been back a couple of times.


This area has a few places that were towns at some point so there are some remnants of what was there.

 

[Dparo]

We decided to take the Owyhee Backcountry Byway out and around to head down to Jarbidge. There wasn't really much going on or to see.

But if you have a day to kill...

Owyhee Uplands Backcountry Byway | Bureau of Land Management

www.blm.gov

Here is the TL: DR

I'm sure there is more to it or off of it but we needed to get to Jarbidge this same day.

We took this green marked route down to Jarbidge and the area in Nevada was at night and there are some fairly steep grades.

 

[Dparo]

Jarbidge; the beginning of the IDBDR.

I had a few hours into mapping this out and placing waypoints.

Somewhat like the Wisconsin trip the southern end was pretty dull and I would skip it if I were to run this again.

 

[ClassyJalopy]

You, my friend are talented with the camera! Are those routes of yours shareable? Could you please share the Northern WI, MI Upper Peninsula maps when you return?
Thank you!

Jarbidge; the beginning of the IDBDR.




View attachment 3133437


I had a few hours into mapping this out and placing waypoints.



View attachment 3133439


Somewhat like the Wisconsin trip the southern end was pretty dull and I would skip it if I were to run this again.

View attachment 3133440

 

[Dparo]

The routes are all available on the ridebdr.com website, I just added my waypoints and also cross referenced the USFS/BLM app for their campground locations.

 

[Dparo]

Moving north...not going to add every picture but wanted to hit some highlights.

Somewhere just south of Lowman I started to hear strange noises from the NL fridge. I checked it at the next stop and it was throwing an error code for a motor start error. Tried numerous times to reset it but no go.

Found a wifi signal and called Equipt. They were going to send me a replacement board, only problem was these small towns don't get mail deliveries every day so it had to go to Grangeville which was a little off the path. Arrived at the Grangeville PO before they opened and picked up my General Delivery. Pulled into a Cash and Carry to open it up and swap the board. No dice, error code persisted. What a pain. Bought some dry ice and called Equipt back. They were going to have a loaner fridge sent to Missoula and I could swap out the bad one and use the loaner for the trip. Plan was to stop by Equipt on the way home to swap it back. Picked up the loaner which worked for the remainder of the trail and did swap it out for a new fridge on the way home. Thanks Equipt.

 

[Dparo]

Part of the Magruder Corridor

Lolo

 

[Dparo]

Winch showed up after I got back after a long shipment delay. Ended up having to relocate the solenoid, thought I'd do so somewhere in the engine compartment but it does line up close to the drum body. The shorter cable set wasn't available so I had to get the longer which may work out if/when I move it.

 

[Dparo]

Post trip worked also included a tire rotation along with working with BenCC to get some caps made to fit over the front hubs.

New prototype arrives but it wouldn't fit on one of the five Icon wheels...headscratcher.

Well that answer quickly became apparent when I tried to do the tire rotation and one wheel that was mounted on the rear would not go over the hub on the front. Amazingly ICON kind of blamed me for not test fitting all of the wheels in all of the positions when I was at Discount Tire and like SCS they told me to go have it milled out. When I mic'ed it the diameter was off compared to the other four. ICON refused to help but the vendor (I won't name) took care of the issue. All of the wheels now fit in all locations.

 

[Dparo]

Ended up going back to Idaho last year to scout some property and find some of the ghost towns that I had not been to on the eastern portion of the State, but made a return to Silver City as well.

Strangely enough the new National Luna fridge started to make funny sounds about an hour into the trip and I had it running at home for a few days prior to load it up. I checked it the next stop and it had the same motor start error that the first one did. Ugh, so aggravating. Fired off an email to Equipt and to Overland Addict even though it was before both opened I was hoping to be able to line something up. Thankfully they all came through and I was able to get the fridge swapped again in SLC on my way. Hopefully third time is a charm and not three strikes you're out. So far this one is good.

First camp

And a quick trip back to Silver City, not many pics this time. The town was actually really busy due to it being one of the few days of the year that the Church has Mass.

Made it to Lowman that night.

 

[Dparo]

One of the other things that I wanted to do was take the Custer Motorway from Custer to Challis. Pretty basic drive but had some nice views. It used to be a toll road long ago.

Custer Motorway Guide