GONE Moab 2016~ Trail Day 1: Hell's Revenge

Monday was the first trail day and the last day that all three of us intrepid adventurers would be on the same trail. Steve B had plans that would take him out of the area. Travis and I would share only one other trail ride before our respective itineraries would diverge as well. 

 We met in the Walker Drug parking lot for what would be my first ever Blue rated trail in Moab. Four years prior, Hell's Revenge qualified as a Red Trail; I rode shotgun in an extensively-built Xterra on what was then the second-to-last trail day. Now, although downgraded one rating level lower, we would be tackling it right off the bat.

 I had heard of Derrick Metz and his epic Alaskan journey, but this was the first time (that I was aware of) that we were meeting and that I would be seeing his rig in person. He had been on the east coast prior to relocating to the Colorado area (?), I think. It seems a fair number have been contemplating that move as of late.

 The Diesel-swap, solid-axle swap, first gen definitely garnered its fair share of attention.

 I might have been a little bit nervous...

 But I was not alone. Several of the other newer riders were scoping out the initial ascent.

Now we often say that a photo fails to do some obstacle justice, but this really is the case here. It looks super easy from this vantage point. But from behind the wheel, all  you have available to gauge whether you're on the right track or about to end up flat on your back is whether or not your rig is generally within the rubberized portion of the trail. And this is a bit of a steeper grade than the camera is letting on. 

 Probably the worst part for me was that you'd be climbing, climbing, climbing, and then you'll reach the top and be uncertain as to whether or not the trail continues straight ahead or if you have an abrupt turn in either direction. And there were a couple of the abrupt variety that the trail leader would radio back to the convoy to provide warning. However, our group got spread out a bit due to other travelers on the trail attempting to go the same direction as us as well as oncoming 'traffic' coming from the opposite way.

 There were a couple of things playing against us. For one, there was somewhere close to 20 rigs in this group. There was also this rogue tour guide that kept weaving up through our group and overtaking drivers on narrow passages. He would make his way entirely past our group, pull ahead a couple hundred meters and veer off the trail, only to come surging up behind our group again 30-45 minutes later. He was really in a hurry to continually get back in the way as opposed to either trailblazing ahead and staying ahead or taking a longer break and allowing us to gain some separation.

 My last trail ride with Hillary. I'm still sad over this. On the way out, there was some chatter on the radio between Steve and Travis about how nice Subarus are. It became a bit of a running game of "I spy..." every time we encountered one after that first travel day. Well, Hillary got upgraded into a Subaru after they got back to the east coast.

 There were few places where I felt comfortable getting out to take photos. I also was taking it easy as this was the firs trail that Veronica had been on post full Titan swap with 35s and the M205. (I had previously taken it out a few times with the R180, 33s, and extended half shafts.

 I tried telling Marcus and John that Jeeps are always welcome out here. Here's one of your brethren.

 And another one.

 I alternated between following Derrick and following the Diesel-swap.

First minor calamity. And if you follow this blog, you know I usually have at least one. In the course of chasing my electrical gremlins, I ended up buying all new components for my dual battery setup. As I swapped new parts in for old trying to isolate the fault that was causing my charging system to only intermittently charge the batteries, I revised how a few of the fuses were mounted in the engine bay. Previously, I had modified the housing of the automatic charge relay to allow the fuse holders to be located at that point in the system. I never liked the hack job look of it thought. I thought I had arrived at a better arrangement of attaching the fuse holders to the battery terminal posts instead. They were positioned relatively higher and closer to the hood, but I thought I was good by having insulated rubber terminal caps above the posts. At one point, I noticed that my radio and all other circuits fed from the auxiliary battery were no longer getting power. The radio dropping out gave me my first sign. This also meant that I no longer had power to the compressor for my lockers. I was a bit unnerved by this. When someone needed to stop to get spotted over an obstacle, I jumped out of the truck and tried to see if I had come down hard on the power feed that runs beneath the truck in conduit. It was unlikely but possible. 

That wasn't the case. Then I tried to see if the cab had maybe flexed a bit and crimped it somewhere along the feed to the bed. No fault there either. The convoy once again got moving and I had to abandon the search to keep forward progress. And I proceeded for maybe another 10 minutes until I got to this point and Veronica went to sleep. No power whatsoever.

I've done a bit of foreshadowing; so, now it was obvious what was happening. The tie down system was still allowing the batteries to shift just enough that they could make contact with the hood. The insulated boots either wore through or the current was great enough to arc through and burned out both fuses. So the fuses did their job. Great. But I didn't have any more as they were kind of an expensive specialty item. Not so great. 

We ended up removing them entirely, rewrapping the posts with electrical tape and continuing on. With the fuse holders removed from the configuration, I reclaimed nearly 1.5" of clearance which was sufficient to avoid any future contact or shorting out. 

 I was still easing Veronica back into wheeling. And with the minor electrical mishap, I was pretty much not going to be doing any of the optional action on this go 'round. I had also seen Hell's Gate done by several of the rigs 4 years ago; so, Maddy and I just ended up hanging out around the rocks. I had brought her over to watch a few of the rigs get set up, but another owner had their dog off leash, that dog turned and got aggressive with Maddy, and ended up giving her a small gash on her forehead. So I went to tend to her wound and we just stayed back at the truck. She was actually nonchalant about the whole thing. Maddy fought back and all, but as soon as I got her separated, she immediately went right back to sniffing at shrubs and tracking whatever animal's scent had initially intrigued her into meandering that general direction.

All of that is to say, that I happened to miss the moment where this particular Yota got a little tired and decided to take a nap (twice) in the gate. So the group ended up setting up winch lines to guide the truck up. The minor mishap occurred because the driver attempted to negotiate the chasm unspotted unbeknownst to the trail leader and organizers. No one was injured besides a little paint marring and bruised ego.

 For us, this photo was at kind of the beginning of the end. Tip Over Challenge may have been after this, but I wasn't getting tippy. The rest of the run was just negotiating gnarly climbs and descents.

It was a good day on the trails and definitely a confidence boost. Veronica had made it all the way out there towing a trailer and climbing through mountain passes without so much as even a slight uptick on the temperature gauge. The temperatures had been more temperate though and we were only in 2WD. I was glad to see that even in the higher desert temps, running 4-Lo, everything seemed to be working well. I was feeling a lot better heading into the rest of the week that we were likely to have some strong mechanical performances out of the truck.