Mark W
Yep, I really don't really care that much I guess.
I'm sitting here taking a break this evening before heading back to the shop. Lots of work going on. Getting ready for quite a trip here in a few days. It's the main thing on my mind lately so I figured I'd talk about it some while I'm relaxing. Try and make folks jealous. 
Some of you may have noticed Lowenbrau's thread about his BJ74 "expedition" build. While I'm sure he has other plans and reasons for it, it's first trip will be over to Alaska for a pretty serious jaunt. It's a small happening in terms of participation. Only four rigs (maybe three, we won't be sure for a few more days). But far from a small thing in terms of what we'll be doing. It's a run I have been looking at and into for several years now. We'll be spending ten days on the trail. Not on the "trails" or at a campground near the trailhead(s). Ten days traveling over trails that see less and less use the further from the road we get, and then if all goes well, moving well beyond any existing trails at all. And of course making our way back to the trailhead at the end of the ten days. Hopefully on schedule.
Many of you probably Know that Bruce and Charla are heavily involved in making the River Shiver happen. And you've probably all heard about Jim Brantley (Pismo Jim) hosting the Pismo Beach gather for a few years now. Jim won't be driving up, but he's flying in to ride shotgun with me.
The other two rigs will be driven by a couple of the Alaska Cruiser Crew. Kevin has been running with me on the trails here for years and has a heck of a lot more experience than that all on his own. (He's owned his '78 FJ40 since it was new, has driven it back and forth between Montana and Alaska in it at least a dozen times, and has over 350,000 miles on the current rebuild of the 327 small block Chevy that resides under the hood!)
Our last participant is a sometimes participant here, FJ55Tyrant. Not as much experience in Cruisers on the trail, but like the rest of us a pretty decent wrencher with plenty of back country experience and one heck of a rig.
Unlike most gatherings of Cruisers, Bruce's will be the tamest and smallest on in the group. Not that I would normally describe it with either of these terms.
Kevin's rig is sitting on an extended wheelbase SOA conversion, and 39.5x18 boggers. Lots of traction there with both ends locked. Still using stock gears, which is the biggest drawback of the rig. Not a terrible handicap though with the 3 speed T/C behind an H42 with a well built 327 pushing everything. Warn 8274 on the front end and basically "stock" beyond that. Keeping it simple seems to keep this rig running and making it home no matter what it's presented with over the years. Not to say it hasn't seen it's share of breakage... It gets used hard. Busted a couple of axles on the trails over the years and birfields too. Last fall Kevin brought it out from our hunting camp, 75 miles from the road with a T/C that was practically snapped in half. Babying it and beating on it at the same time depending on the boggers to get him through in 2wd and adding some prayer that it would hold together when he had to use 4wd to climb a very lose and very steep mile long ridgeline. As usual, it got him home.
Norm (FJ55tyrant) as his screen name may indicate, has a heck of a built up Pig. SOA of course with 63 inch Chevy 3/4 ton springs under the tail. 350 TBI, SM465, NP203 and 3 speed T/C. 4.88s and lockers in the diffs. Lots of unique touches. Oh yeah, 42x15 TSLs keeping it all up off the ground.
My rig has just undergone another evolution. I'm wrapping it up in another few days, just in time for this run. I'd prefer to have more time to make sure that all the bugs or out before we go, but it looks like I'll have to be content with a couple of testing runs.
It now has a 350 in front of an SM465, NP203 and a 4:1 Orion. Full floating rear with 5.29s and lockers at both ends. Toyota disc brakes at each end too. And like Kevin, I'm pushing 39.5x18 boggers over the trail. PTO winch on the front and Warn 8000 pound electric under the tail. Long leaf springs under each end (55 rears under the front and 45 rears under the tail end), 104 inch wheelbase, firm ride a full 14 inches of suspension travel at front and rear.
Lots of other detail on all three of these rigs, but you get the idea. Built to handle challenging trails, move a quick speeds over the easier ones and haul a good bit of gear over either (or the roads).
Now for the trail... We're gonna be leaving the road system at a well know roadhouse on the highway at the edge of the eastern foothills of the Talkeetna Mountains. The area see a lot of use by hunters and recreational off roaders and snow machiners. At least a lot of use by our local standards for a place that is 130 miles out of town. But we'll be moving beyond the areas that 99.9999% of the folks who head out here ever see by the evening of the first day. Kevin and I have run this area enough that we are confident that with some steady travel we can push in to one of our camping spots that is about 75 miles in. Just short of a river that stops the ATVers Virtually no one takes 4x4 rigs even that far. Only a couple of moose buggies a year go beyond there any more either.
Pretty standard stuff for us to that point. Old mining trails and braided river bottoms for the most part. A couple of alpine passes and a couple long stretches of muddy and boggy taiga. We drop into some thicker woods with mixed meadows as we reach camp.
One the second day we start climbing back up in elevation a little to climb through a pass that is expected to be pretty barren rock. Scree and talus with boulder mixed in. I say "expected" because we'll be into "New To Us" country within just a few miles. Only three or four rigs getting up there a year. Tractor tired moose buggies heading for their hunting camp. We should reach the are of their camp that night. We'll be right at the boundary of the foothills and the true mountains of the Talkeetnas. At this point we will have run out of rudimentary trails (basically tire tracks and low spots in the brush laid down by the buggies by the time we reach the last of it). We'll probably try to run a few miles downstream on the drainage we will be in to reach the Susitna River, then turn back upstream a little to attempt to make our way about 35 miles up a secondary drainage which runs higher up into the peaks. If all goes well we'll reach the top of this drainage and move down the other side a bit to reach the top end of a narrow canyon that drops down to the Talkeetna river in the heart of this range. Doubtful that we will get the rigs down this canyon. Assuming that we get this far, which is not a given. If we get there we also don't know how long it will take to do it. Anyway, if we reach this point, we;ll porbably hike down the canyon and camp overnight at the Talkeetna. Mainly so we can say we did it.
We may explore the side valleys that feed the one we've come up. Or we may head back down and head up another drainage. There's really no way to know exactly where we will be able to get to or how hard we will have to work at it, so we'll be playing this pretty much by ear.
When all is done, 10 days and 300-400 miles of trail travel.
This one should be one to remember. We'll be the first to do it so far as I can tell. We'll know for sure once we get there.
Keep your fingers crossed for us. And watch here for reports when we get back.
Mark...
Some of you may have noticed Lowenbrau's thread about his BJ74 "expedition" build. While I'm sure he has other plans and reasons for it, it's first trip will be over to Alaska for a pretty serious jaunt. It's a small happening in terms of participation. Only four rigs (maybe three, we won't be sure for a few more days). But far from a small thing in terms of what we'll be doing. It's a run I have been looking at and into for several years now. We'll be spending ten days on the trail. Not on the "trails" or at a campground near the trailhead(s). Ten days traveling over trails that see less and less use the further from the road we get, and then if all goes well, moving well beyond any existing trails at all. And of course making our way back to the trailhead at the end of the ten days. Hopefully on schedule.
Many of you probably Know that Bruce and Charla are heavily involved in making the River Shiver happen. And you've probably all heard about Jim Brantley (Pismo Jim) hosting the Pismo Beach gather for a few years now. Jim won't be driving up, but he's flying in to ride shotgun with me.
The other two rigs will be driven by a couple of the Alaska Cruiser Crew. Kevin has been running with me on the trails here for years and has a heck of a lot more experience than that all on his own. (He's owned his '78 FJ40 since it was new, has driven it back and forth between Montana and Alaska in it at least a dozen times, and has over 350,000 miles on the current rebuild of the 327 small block Chevy that resides under the hood!)
Our last participant is a sometimes participant here, FJ55Tyrant. Not as much experience in Cruisers on the trail, but like the rest of us a pretty decent wrencher with plenty of back country experience and one heck of a rig.
Unlike most gatherings of Cruisers, Bruce's will be the tamest and smallest on in the group. Not that I would normally describe it with either of these terms.
Kevin's rig is sitting on an extended wheelbase SOA conversion, and 39.5x18 boggers. Lots of traction there with both ends locked. Still using stock gears, which is the biggest drawback of the rig. Not a terrible handicap though with the 3 speed T/C behind an H42 with a well built 327 pushing everything. Warn 8274 on the front end and basically "stock" beyond that. Keeping it simple seems to keep this rig running and making it home no matter what it's presented with over the years. Not to say it hasn't seen it's share of breakage... It gets used hard. Busted a couple of axles on the trails over the years and birfields too. Last fall Kevin brought it out from our hunting camp, 75 miles from the road with a T/C that was practically snapped in half. Babying it and beating on it at the same time depending on the boggers to get him through in 2wd and adding some prayer that it would hold together when he had to use 4wd to climb a very lose and very steep mile long ridgeline. As usual, it got him home.
Norm (FJ55tyrant) as his screen name may indicate, has a heck of a built up Pig. SOA of course with 63 inch Chevy 3/4 ton springs under the tail. 350 TBI, SM465, NP203 and 3 speed T/C. 4.88s and lockers in the diffs. Lots of unique touches. Oh yeah, 42x15 TSLs keeping it all up off the ground.
My rig has just undergone another evolution. I'm wrapping it up in another few days, just in time for this run. I'd prefer to have more time to make sure that all the bugs or out before we go, but it looks like I'll have to be content with a couple of testing runs.
It now has a 350 in front of an SM465, NP203 and a 4:1 Orion. Full floating rear with 5.29s and lockers at both ends. Toyota disc brakes at each end too. And like Kevin, I'm pushing 39.5x18 boggers over the trail. PTO winch on the front and Warn 8000 pound electric under the tail. Long leaf springs under each end (55 rears under the front and 45 rears under the tail end), 104 inch wheelbase, firm ride a full 14 inches of suspension travel at front and rear.
Lots of other detail on all three of these rigs, but you get the idea. Built to handle challenging trails, move a quick speeds over the easier ones and haul a good bit of gear over either (or the roads).
Now for the trail... We're gonna be leaving the road system at a well know roadhouse on the highway at the edge of the eastern foothills of the Talkeetna Mountains. The area see a lot of use by hunters and recreational off roaders and snow machiners. At least a lot of use by our local standards for a place that is 130 miles out of town. But we'll be moving beyond the areas that 99.9999% of the folks who head out here ever see by the evening of the first day. Kevin and I have run this area enough that we are confident that with some steady travel we can push in to one of our camping spots that is about 75 miles in. Just short of a river that stops the ATVers Virtually no one takes 4x4 rigs even that far. Only a couple of moose buggies a year go beyond there any more either.
Pretty standard stuff for us to that point. Old mining trails and braided river bottoms for the most part. A couple of alpine passes and a couple long stretches of muddy and boggy taiga. We drop into some thicker woods with mixed meadows as we reach camp.
One the second day we start climbing back up in elevation a little to climb through a pass that is expected to be pretty barren rock. Scree and talus with boulder mixed in. I say "expected" because we'll be into "New To Us" country within just a few miles. Only three or four rigs getting up there a year. Tractor tired moose buggies heading for their hunting camp. We should reach the are of their camp that night. We'll be right at the boundary of the foothills and the true mountains of the Talkeetnas. At this point we will have run out of rudimentary trails (basically tire tracks and low spots in the brush laid down by the buggies by the time we reach the last of it). We'll probably try to run a few miles downstream on the drainage we will be in to reach the Susitna River, then turn back upstream a little to attempt to make our way about 35 miles up a secondary drainage which runs higher up into the peaks. If all goes well we'll reach the top of this drainage and move down the other side a bit to reach the top end of a narrow canyon that drops down to the Talkeetna river in the heart of this range. Doubtful that we will get the rigs down this canyon. Assuming that we get this far, which is not a given. If we get there we also don't know how long it will take to do it. Anyway, if we reach this point, we;ll porbably hike down the canyon and camp overnight at the Talkeetna. Mainly so we can say we did it.
We may explore the side valleys that feed the one we've come up. Or we may head back down and head up another drainage. There's really no way to know exactly where we will be able to get to or how hard we will have to work at it, so we'll be playing this pretty much by ear.
When all is done, 10 days and 300-400 miles of trail travel.
This one should be one to remember. We'll be the first to do it so far as I can tell. We'll know for sure once we get there.
Keep your fingers crossed for us. And watch here for reports when we get back.
Mark...
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Chad
that's dissapointing.... how much fuel per rig? is the plan to backtrack or make a connection to circle back to known trails?
