Moab, 83 yrs young, Indian relics, sightseeing...

[nvrstuk]

I just realized that Steve is already home and I was posting on his thread... I am probably the worst when it comes to that so...


Got more driving to do tomorrow but a rough estimate is about 94 gal of miserable 91 octane so far.

(already posted this on Steve's post)...

We got enough rain last night to keep the dust down on 45miles of dirt/silt this am but it isn't working on holding it down this afternoon!

Used my OBA again to dust our clothes off enough to enter the camper! lol

I'm going to have to come up with some pool noodles or rubber to add to the bottoms of my tube doors to help keep the dust out not only here but where I live as it literally comes in so thick that you can't read the speedo well.... cough, cough... keep moving fast enough and you're ok but like today we were cruising WAAAY out past the Goosenecks going down towards the San Juan River on some GAIA trail on a nice silt dirt track and cough, cough... my wife is SOOOO good about this but even I could barely see out of my sun glasses! lol

I'll put some pics on when my ph charges enough to post.

 

[nvrstuk]

A rough estimate on 91 octane usage in my Bronco so far on this trip is about 84 gal. Burning another 15+gal again tomorrow.

To those that followed my "Quieter Tires" thread a while back I'd like to update that these Mickey Thompson Baja Boss M/T's are not nearly as quiet as the Goodyear MTR's that I ran in 37's and 40's for years. At 60-80mph these baby's really sing. Add in the increase from 2 1/2" from the mufflers back to 3" that I did this spring and the decible level is quite a bit more...

 

[Broncobowsher]

I think Mickey forgot that thing with tires. Baja claws back in the day, amazingly quiet for how aggressive they were. Got some Degean38s about 7 years ago, really nice tire. Daily needed a new set of shoes, wanted something a little more aggressive as the LTXs still had legal tread and enough miles to have gone around the world 3 times but were aged out. Degean38s are no longer made. Got a set of Baja boss ATs, and they suck. Loud, high rolling resistance. If they were marketed as a MT, I would accept. But for an AT, they are not road friendly. They have a shake to them that is not balance, and even asked for uniformity to be checked and they came back as good. That one tire has soured my taste for Mickey Thompson tires.

 

[nvrstuk]

Overall I'm extremely happy with the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss M/T's.

They have outer lugs & they talk while cruising. In my initial writeup I was comparing them to my 2 sets of GY MTR's which never balanced with less than 6 ounces of lead.

I am driving these Mickey Thompsons at 75-80 mph w/o any lead, no beads, nothing. My ride is pretty much dialed in for highway & wheeling. Most rigs I know are stronger at wheeling then cruising so their rigs shake or vibrate at cruising speeds.

Hard to believe that a 40" aggressive off road tire doesn't need any weight to balance at any speed up to 75-80 mph. Never happened to me b4.

I had heard that GY were actually making these now under the Mickey Thompson name. Anybody know for sure?

My initial assessment was & still is true. They do not "roll under" when cornering like the GY MTR's did-both 37's & 40's did.

They must have bumped their design & QC up a notch because I'll buy another set when I get 25-30K miles out of these.

Wheeling with a buddy 2rs ago & his MTR's got 2 large sidewall tears within 40 minutes of each event. One was very 'un-dramatic' as a little stick popped right thru as I was standing literally, 2ft from that tire!

I had a brand new MTR bleed air out thru the inside sidewall after less than 1k miles. No physical bruising or scuff evident...
Last pic-
15 3/8" ext showing 16" chrome In the front & the rear had 15" extension. Best "flex checker" rocks I've ever found when wheeling.

I was concerned that adding the TKS antisway would limit travel a lot but nope...

The last pic... amazing geology. This "pyramid" was according to Gaia, 950ft tall. Awesome stepped ridges all the way up and absolutely square corners... wished the lens could have picked it up better.

 

[Yeller]

Great pics! the geology in southern Utah is so crazy and often creates the "impossible".

Yes, Good Year purchased Cooper Tire, Mickey Thompson Tire, and Kelly Tire. I will say fortunately they did not let the Good Year engineers screw up the great tires that Cooper/Mickey Thompson were making. Cooper bought MT a few decades ago, Good Year bought Cooper a few years ago. I've been wanting to look at the Good Year Boulder tire to see if they got any smarter, IMO the MTR was terrible, and their flagship Dura Trac is anything but durable and good. Have a set of those on the farm truck, if they weren't free we'd of given them back, and because they were free we're still dealing with them 4 years later LOL.

 

[ntsqd]

Tried a set of DuraTracs on the CTD. Not impressed. Moved to Yoko A/T-S' and far, far happier.

I've read that some parts of the US they call those little, not much more than a twig that can puncture a sidewall a "stob." Had one go thru a BFG A/T sidewall on the DB once. Because of that we got to see a then officially Does Not Exist B2 fly over us.

 

[Yeller]

Yoko has a new AT that I really want to try out, it looks more aggressive that the A/T-S but mild enough that it should be a great driver.

so we don't crawl too far away...... not saying where this is in public, but it is NOT tucked away in a museum, it is out in the wild and legal to enter.

 

[ntsqd]

Reminds me of the ladders Ms. & I saw in a museum of sorts way over on the West-ish side of UT.

GO15's on the CTD & Taco. Tried a set of the A/T-X's on the 4rnnr after a I wore out a set of GO15's on it. Wear was OK, noise was increased, traction felt the same. Had I known about the A/T4's when I put the GO15's on the Taco (my current DD) I might have gone for them instead. So far the GO15's have gone further than I'd expected in snow and mud, have given great tread life, and are reasonably quiet. Unlike the BFG's they don't seem to get nearly as noisy near EOL.

 

[ssray]

Lots of fantastic territory down there! Looks like Valley of the Gods and Muley point???
Did you get out on the highway and video the required "I think I'm ready to go home now?"

 

[nvrstuk]

You mean...

Yup, putting hundreds of miles on the past 3 days.

Butler Wash was almost dust free today.

Hiked in a mile & saw some ruins we hadn't seen in almost 10 yrs! So proud of my wife getting in & out w/o any issues after all the crap she's been thru the past 3 1/2 yrs!

 

[Yeller]

Butler Wash is on my todo list between hwy 163 and hwy 95.

Been there, tried to sleep, wound up at Mexican Hat

 

[ssray]

Butler Wash is on my todo list between hwy 163 and hwy 95.

Been there, tried to sleep, wound up at Mexican Hat

Tried to sleep at the airport?

 

[nvrstuk]

Butler Wash... yeaterday

 

[rjrobin2002]

I'll come and pay for your gas next trip. I love my new Mickey Thompsons MTZs .

 

[nvrstuk]

Lots of fantastic territory down there! Looks like Valley of the Gods and Muley point???
Did you get out on the highway and video the required "I think I'm ready to go home now?"

So I was checking the tires & hitch (especially the hitch pin- remember last year? aaaagh!) & all that stuff while using the super clean restrooms at Blandings visitor center & the very nice lady was swapping stories with us & mentioned the # of people who have been killed standing in the MIDDLE of the # 163 highway that Forrest was running on in the movie...

I kid you not- as we we were headed north from Mexican Hat we were watching some big, like Huge guy waddling out & standing on the white line getting pics.

She said a tour bus from China or Japan actually just stopped in the lane & let everyone out to get pics & blocked the entire highway once.

IMHO, all these people should just be Darwin'd... then w/o the breeding there might be less of them...

 

[ssray]

IMHO, all these people should just be Darwin'd... then w/o the breeding there might be less of them...

For sure... We've all seen plenty of that on the laugh thread on here! Maybe they need to put in a Business Rt to bypass the Forest Gump Rt. I wonder how many of those folks realize there was a 60s movie filmed just up the road. (Or landing strip built for it.) Much safer to visit.

It does remind me of when they built the Archway over I80 in Kearney. People would pull over to get out and take pictures and someone else rubbernecking at it would drift out of the lane and hit the parked car. They had to put up signs with a fine for stopping in that vicinity. I suppose that whole area of Utah can have accidents from drivers looking at "other things".

 

[nvrstuk]

Well, 2195 miles on the motorhome which was missing terribly on the way home. We just got home. No codes after fixing a loose air intake connection last week. I tossed new plugs and COP "wires" on it before we left because I could barely, I mean barely feel a slight miss under heavy load. Shift down and revs go up and couldn't feel a thing. Threw some injector cleaner in it also since it sits for long periods of time even tho I treat it with Sta-Bil.

Well, 300 miles into a 25-30mph constant wind today from 9am and I got 5.8mpg on the way home! lol

Roughly 365 gal of gas round trip... I ended up with appr 100 gal in the Bronco also...

Might be cheaper to buy a plane, fly down, rent an AirB&B, rent a Heep because the local Moab Ford parts & service guys BOTH said that the 6G's are in ALL the time for repair from the rental shops for new front axles and front diffs.... Heeps hardly ever break... kinda sad...

Anyway... I guess ya just multiply 460 gallons times about $5/gal to figure just one of the expenses for the trip... ka-CHING! $5.69/gal here in Wa as we pulled into town.

Had a great time.... hope we can keep doing this for 20 more yrs but...

 

[Soylent]

Butler Wash is on my todo list between hwy 163 and hwy 95.

Been there, tried to sleep, wound up at Mexican Hat

Any information on this tent setup? Brackets etc.

 

[Yeller]

Any information on this tent setup? Brackets etc.

The tent is a QuickPitch. It’s been a fantastic unit, I’ve stayed in it approximately 90 nights. It’s a bit heavy, I have had it on my bronco, but prefer it on my J Truck. You know it’s on the bronco, no idea it is on the J Truck. As far as brackets it comes with some nice stainless brackets that attach to the built in rails on the tent to attach to a rack of your choice. I built a rack that is bolted to the tent and it gets tied down with straps in the bed of the truck. I’ve had this 4 years and love it.

 

[ntsqd]

hey, Second pic looks familiar!