Death Valley DAZE 2013

now that's the set up!!!

Sweet rig, take it easy going uphill towing with that thing. I had an 09, towing a rhino on a small trailer, coming out of the salton sea, and it kicked a rod at about 70mph uphill.

Love the setup though, hate the 3.8l mini van motor

Suppose if I had the minivan motor I'd be concerned. This is a '12. And it has already been "tested".



This was after the 3100 mile break in drive with 400 miles of that off road. I've only towed a couple thousand miles with it thus far, but I'm pretty certain the Jeep will be just fine.

Damn Sally!!! That's the setup!!! Who makes the camper????

Yeah, we're pretty happy with it. It's a Fleetwood Evolution E1. They actually don't make them any longer and this one is an '05. I think Jayco and one other manufacturer still make the "off road" version like this one. It basically is a regular pop up with a spring over. The real benefit in at least the Fleetwood ones is that they are a fully boxed frame.

We were looking long and hard on how to do family camping with the dog(s) and little guy. The Jeep can handle all the passengers, but no room for gear. I thought about a roof rack and/or a roof top tent, but those cost a mint and you are still sleeping in a tent and the economy would hurt the refrigerator shape of the Jeep pretty bad.

I debated on fabricating my own "adventure trailer" with a roof top tent or buying one, but the adventure trailers out there very quickly end up costing more than we paid for this guy and don't have provision for a bike(s) and I just don't have the time to actually build one.

Having a heater, fridge, water supply (including hot), grille, and stove already there, and it was pretty simple, especially with that tray up front and what the used ones are going for.

There are bigger ones out there in the E2 and E3, that handle more bikes up front but they start getting bigger than I want to tow behind the Jeep. For our needs right now, this one is perfect.

New motor for 12? I may have to revisit the jk wrangler. It was an awesome rig other than the 3.8l v6

You could not be more correct. So we looked at a JK in '08 and drove one. For the money at the time, it seemed like a pretty steep price for a set of axles and a T Case surrounded by a mediocre motor and cheesy plasticy interior.

In '11 they completely redid the interior. Dare I say, it's not much of a Jeep interior any longer and is a darn nice to spend time in the driver's seat with a proper HVAC system bluetooth, GPS, and even steering wheel controls just like the Grand Cherokee.

In '12 they introduced the 3.6l Pentastar V6. Despite being smaller, it has 30% more horsepower and they say 10% better economy. Darn thing runs like a scared rabbit with the 6 speed and if I keep it under 70 it can get about 20 mpg even will the 300+ lbs of armor and winch I've added to it. We've even gotten 18.5 mpg towing the camper.

It has honestly become a darn nice car in addition to the capability off road. We've done it's namesake already as proof. The funniest thing I've found on it is that it is quieter at freeway speed than a new $130k G Wagen and is also faster in a slalom, even with the mud tires it comes with! :eek1

wow, thats cool as shit

i bought mine "new" in 2009, my wife's dad works at a jeep dealer as a salesman.

someone bought it, drove it 2 weeks, didnt pass for financing, and had to bring it back. so i got it for 18,900 with 600 miles on it, rather than the 25k+ the real new one was.

after comprimising the rod, (had a knock coming off idle) i traded it in after about 4 months and 12k miles.

we went everywhere in that damn thing, a different destination every weekend. mine had the factory metal half doors (can't find a pic) and my wife really enjoyed it.

it got only about 12mpg with the rubicon wheels and tires id put on it, and maybe 9 if i was towing the rhino.

Kinda surprised .. had great luck with my 2008 rubi. 50k so far with the lifetime powertrain. These days also used to carry my XR on a back rack.
Sorry about the hijack

Here it is in DV up echo. . had some time between rides


and towed a 26 ft Macgregor sailboat up to mountain lakes and the sea many times.


Hijack over

anyone going up thursday?

Me! I'm leaving Weds after work and camping on the way down. Then getting there hopefully early Thursday afternoon and ride Echo Canyon that afternoon.

Oh man. Nice. If you have extra space in that thing let me know.

Route Planning.

OK, so which is better to get to Teakettle Junction: The Racetrack or Hidden Valley or Hunter Mountain or whatever it is? I'm starting to create my tracks and was just wondering. I've done the racetrack before, but it's been a few years.


Edit:
Ooh, never mind, I think I found a loop I could do both that would have me going down Lippincott- or up, depending on the direction I take. So what is Hunter Mountain like?

You'd be hard pressed to get over hunter mountain at this time, it was only 20-25ºF mid-day at those elevations when I was there a few days ago and pretty iced up that high. Teakettle was below freezing mid day, dress warm if the weather is similar. See the DV Road thread for more info on what i found last week for all the roads in that area.

Better is subjective too, Saline valley then up lippencott would be more fun/scenic on a small bike, coming around by Scotty's castle would be the "easier" way but more boring IMO if you weren't doing a loop.
That's not taking into account the fact that this get together is in the worst location for dirt bike riding in the park, being so far with only pavement from most things fun...



They cleaned out all the teakettles, only ones from this year on there now.







Lippencott

What bike are you on these days?

And yeah, I was planning on up Lippincott and Racetrack to Teakettle and then make the loop back down going on Hunter.

I'm going to be on the small bike which means not much in the way of conditions is going to bug me- except for cold as I don't have any wind protection or heated gear.

Even at sub 5k feet, it was still freezing? The weather says Furnace Creek will be in the 70s. I can definitely see Hunter getting to be a bit much, though.

Either way, thanks for the heads up.

I've mostly been doing my thing on The Mighty Husaberg FE570S, but after racking up lots of miles (foolishly) without a cush hub I killed the counter shaft.... so I rode Nancy's G650GS on this one while the Husa gets fixed and she rode the new CRF250L.
Turned out good actually since I was able to carry more of the heavy stuff like food, water, fuel, booze, fire logs, etc. so we wouldn't need to resupply for a few days and could stay way out there while keeping Nancy's bike pretty light.
With the low temps having lots of gear with us was needed, was 17º one morning with snow flurries and very windy... We trailered in and setup a base camp at one of the cabins off of Saline valley road, staying there some of the time, and camping off the bikes other nights. It sure is great not having to worry about getting all the way back to a campground or resort, lets you explore the area without a preplanned loop in mind, or paying $6.25 a gallon for fuel.
Fucking cold though, even for a Chicago raised boy like me, even with electric gear and grips. Didn't see a single other soul on a motorcycle the whole ride, just a couple of cops in a side by side and a few RV type folks out at the hot springs. Fine by me and a fair tradeoff for the cold weather to feel like we had the park to ourselves.

Yes, it was below freezing below 5000', and didn't get much above 32º even at 4000.
Methinks there's a lot of cold air that drops down out of the mountains to the west of saline valley, and furnace creek temps don't help forecast what to expect out there on the northwest side of the park. Looking at the weather for Big Pine seemed to be closer to what we experienced over there.
There's warmer weather in the forecast coming it seems, without it warming up folks will have to have good cold weather riding gear and heated grips at minimum to have a good time at higher elevations IMHO.

I'm hoping to make it out to the party for one of the nights, if the Husa is done...



Brrrr...

So Finn, how many miles did it take to kill the countershaft?

A little over 12,000


A new Woody's wheel with a cush hub is also on the way... First time I was the fool, do it twice and I'm just plain stupid. I'm a (going broke) slow learner, what can I say?

Good info, thanks! I just finished my loops (I'm trailering in as you saw, but wanted to hang out with the party) so I sadly need to keep range in mind, despite the miserly ability of the WR. I'm pretty sure I could do all the loops without much issue on the big bike, but am feeling lazy and out of shape, thus the little bike.

Otherwise, the camper is mildly off road capable, and in the future, plan on on doing the base camp right out of the trailer since it has a heater already. Dude, that thing ROCKS!

Anyway, since I've obviously been out of the loop, whatever happened to the 800?

That is one hell of a camper setup, shame to be parking it in a campground... you could take that thing many places around DV and have quite the base camp.
I understand wanting to hang out with these FF's though. Looking forward to seeing you.

F800...
It was just the natural evolution for me to go smaller, but still on something I can bang out long miles on slabs to travel around on. Minus the self imposed countershaft deally, the Husa does it all pretty darn well for me in my travels and exploring. Fun bike that goes where I just couldn't no matter how much I tried on the GS. Looking forward to more DV exploring on it.

I have a few extra MSR bags I'm bringing if you want to use some of them, great way to carry extra fuel without the fuss of a bulky plastic tank, or in addition to. I have two 6L and a 4L.