On my trip roaming Nevada one of the things I learned was that I needed/wanted to get my rear door all the way open even if the bike rack was in the hitch. This was for a few reasons; to be able to get the boxes in and out easier(easier on my back), to open the door and utilize the table on it, to be able to use the door prop in the wind, for climbing in and out myself are a few of them.
Originally I had figured on just taking the bike off the rack and then unbolting the rack from the receiver and getting it out of the way. I had already cut down the rack so the door would open wider while on the 109 and the rack folded down.
It was just more than I wanted to do every time I stopped, so maybe you noticed in the video the door wasn't open all the way. It was a nuisance on the trip and kept shutting on me.
So I noticed on the trip that I could probably just whack it off below the door line and weld it back as a dogleg.
Some pics of the problem;
The last one shows the limit of the door opening.
Well I did some measuring and some cutting,
And double checked that I had cut enough off.
That's when the fun kicked in. Using some old steel I clamped some to the upright and checked to see how far I needed to drop the top piece to clear the door opening. Turned out it wasn't just a a simple dogleg.
I needed to add 1.75"+ to allow the door to swing open. Of course I didn't have any 1.75" anything. I did have some 2" square tubing from an old project I could cut and weld this to the 1.5" tubing of the rack!
And then checking my work;
Now that I knew it was going to be deep enough, I welded on the rest of the upright. Test fitted it and then gave it some paint.
The finished product!
Here is the clearance for the door bottom;
Now I can get the door fully open with the bike rack on AND a bike on the rack! This is going to help with getting groceries and other shopping as well as camping.
In this episode, I drive to the area around Nevada's Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park for some exploring and camping while doing a "sea trial" on my 109. You can follow along on a map when watching the video at the end.
After a couple of false starts, I left home around 0330 on a Sunday morning in July. The drive was good although loud, I wore earplugs, as I went thru the SF bay area and across California's Central Valley and headed into the Sierra Nevada Mtns.
There pretty much is the same ol-same ol routes to do this and I wound up on Hwy 120/108 and at Sonora I turned onto Hwy 49(from now on I will only use the number designation) and drove a section I had never been on before. 49 intersected with 4 and I turned East and began the climbing in earnest(don't call me Ernest!).
The 109 began to heat up and one of the things I needed to sort out was the electric fan, I wasn't sure it was coming on. Up and down I went along with the temp gauge, at one point it was around 230°F and I knew the fan was not coming on. So I pulled over and lifted the bonnet, pulled off the rubber cover and started adjusting the set screw(counter clockwise) until the fan came on. Then it shut quickly off so I adjusted it more, and again, and again until it stayed on a bit. I think that now it is coming on around 220 and off around 190. I can tell when it kicks on/off when the voltmeter needle moves.
It came on and off the rest of the trip so I know it works! A real + and was a relief of some of the worry.
In the morning I climbed on 4 over Ebbett's Pass, 8,730', and 89 over Monitor Pass, 8,314'. While lower Monitor proved harder for the 200TDI because it was steeper, but I was still in 3 or 3 over and sometimes 4th gear.
I wanted to take these lower passes first as opposed to the 9k+ Sonora pass until I had the 109 sorted out/known better. Not having driven a Series Rover on these hwy's I had nothing to compare it too, just that I wasn't holding up any traffic.
By mid-day I had arrived a Topaz Lake and refueled, diesel was $.40 less per gallon in NV........ I did 270m on 12.53gal for 21.5mpg while climbing the Sierras.
I turned N on 395 for a short distance and hit 208 East until I came to 829 which I took South, off that I took 338 for a long scenic drive with the Sierras to my right until I found NF 028.
Here I stumbled. There was a street sign saying Sweetwater Rd and below it I could see a National Forest(NF) brown sign with NF420 on it. It confused me, I thought Sweetwater was the way to go, but it should have said 028. I drove forward to turn around thinking I needed another entrance when I espied the full NF post! It read NF42028. So I was at the right place after all, whew!
Now the NF rd is dirt and wound thru the desert a bit until it came to what is called The Elbow and Bighorn Campgrounds a part of the new NVSP system's Walker River SP; http://parks.nv.gov/parks/walker-river $15/night, $5 entrance fee
Driving in it was a hot day(this heat would head East) and I took the first campsite I found empty. Then I started to set up camp and my new Rhino Rack Batwing awning. Partly due to my ignorance, and Rhino's lack of instruction, as I spread my awning and attached the tension strap, the second from the bottom hinge broke............followed by the bottom one as it tried to support the additional weight.
Rhino sent 2 spare "hinge knuckles, #CA1175" with the original purchase so I got lucky as I had brought them with me. (I just got off the phone w/Rhino and they are going to send me 4 spares, seems they had a bad batch of hinges, Thank you Robert G.)
UPDATE; 8 Oct 2021 never got them despite a couple more emails. I have since bought 2 spares and made 1 out of oak from a pallet, I'll make me some more.
Back to the story;
I strapped the broken awning up to the mount with my belt and a spare belt to hold it all up while I removed the hinge bolt and the broken knuckles and replaced them. All told took about 20 min with digging out the tools and stuff.
After that was done I deployed the awning. This time by setting the support pole under each roof pole as I went along. This way there was no weight on the hinges.
By this time I was HOT and tired, too hot to cook much which was good because I was too hot to eat. I went and cooled off in the Walker River at the edge of my campsite. The mosquitos were not to hot to eat though and they attacked enforce that evening chasing me into the back of the 109 where I had set the cot up for sleeping.
I endured the heat and the mossies for 2 days.
I needed to get away to the mtns where it would be cooler.
Leaving in the morning I hit the fire pit with the bottom of my bulkhead and ripped it out of the ground. I thought I had run over it. I backed up to see it poking up at 45°. Very little damage to the bulkhead foot. I saw the maintenance guy later and let him know. He said it was not the first time and it's probably in a bad place.
Going out I turned the wrong way and went on 028 all the way to 338 until I realized my mistake, then turned around and went back on Sweetwater Rd and across 3C on to NF 026. I've wanted to do this road for years just because of the remoteness and the name, Lucky Boy Pass.
It is a great drive really scenic too, but the downhill!! Holy schmoly ya talk steep and long. I bet a lot of brakes get burning there, especially the trucks to and from the mine. At the bottom it t's into 359 and I took this to Hawthorne where I refueled and bought water and food prior to heading out into the desert.
I've been to B-ISP bout a half a dozen times in Rovers and on my motorcycle so I checked in and paid my entrance fee, $5, and drove thru to Grantsville where I wanted to camp if there was water in the spring. There wasn't, and since I've been to Grantsville there was no need to stick around so I headed off to wards Milton Ranch. Milton was a farmer who grew vegis for the miners in Grantsville and I wanted to see what was there.
If you've ever been to the outback of Nevada there are roads going everywhere sometimes. I followed one up onto the East side of Grantsville Ridge where it overlooked the land.
Here I found a semi level spot in a switchback(38.82344 -117.57572) and decided to camp there. There were no tire tracks once I got on the back roads out of Grantsville and for 2 days I only heard a couple of jets and saw no one. I couldn't even get radio reception, bliss!
Few mossies at night and as I was around 7k' it was cool. As the ground was uneven and I was skittish about setting up my batwing, I didn't.
I did cook, I got out my Coleman 2-burner whitegas stove and filled the tank. Then it would not pressurize, no matter how many times I took it apart and tried to get it going. Heck it worked the night before. So I used my back up propane stove.
During the shadow of the evening I walked up the road and found an old mine and took my camera up the next morning along with my metal detector. I found some nails and what I think was the shelf for a refrigerator.
Some pics from around the camp;
It was HOT here during the day too. All I could do was sit in some shade and drink water! I set my trail cam up over night and got this pic, let me know what it is;
After a couple of days I left to go to see the Milton Ranch and then flow South along the mountain range and check out some other canyons and find the Gold King Mine before heading home.
Milton Ranch had a gate and No Trespassing signs, so I went back out past Grantsville and turned S.
Several years ago in my Range Rover I had crossed East over Grantsville pass and came down the Eastern side of the Toiyabe Range poking in here and there. Once home I saw that I had missed going all the way to the Gold King Mine. So I set off to find it.
Along the way I wanted to poke into Merritt and Indian Canyons. So I followed the road S and turned into what I thought was Merritt cyn. I got into a tight creekbed with a 2-4ft shelf on the right and a 20' tailing pile on the left. It was so tight my left tires were on the tailings. It made a turn in the hill and then went up and the left side fell away and the right became a ditch. A few trees on either side. I went about 40-50' up the hill and decided that if the road was washed out out of sight I would be screwed. So I decided to back down. I started to and my right rear went into the ditch. Due to the dry dirt I couldn't pull out in 4x4. So I hit the compressor and locked the locker and it drove right up!
I got centered on the road and backed down to the left to a more level spot and did a 12 point turnaround and thanked my lucky stars I'd bought the locker. Again I traversed the canyon(38.805692 -117.604618) and got out and headed south.
Turns out it wasn't Merritt canyon as I hit that later. Where I got into more trouble. I bounced around the trails in Merritt and finally found the last one. It dead ended after a creek crossing on a side slope. I again backed down and dropped the right side this time into the creek about an 18" drop putting me about 25-30° and crashing the side into the bushes. I think it's the bushes that stopped me from going over.
I tried driving up, no go, even the locker would not pull me back on the road. I was thinking that if I couldn't get out it was going to be really expensive to get me out..... I wasn't done yet though, I figured what the--- and with it in low and locked I selected reverse and gunned it! Either I was going over or getting out!
I got out. I backed some 20' into the creek crossing and then up the road. There I was able to do a 3 point turn around, and check for damage. I put 4 rocks across the road in hopes of helping the next schmuck not get in trouble.
I got some desert pinstriping and knocked my mirrors out of whack for light damage.
The end;
Not seeing a good camping place I headed on the the Gold King. Got there around noon. Eventful morning, eh? Had some lunch and looked around, finished my book. I was again hot and bored. Around 3 I decided that after a cup of coffee if I headed home where it was cooler and left now I could traverse the Sierras's at night when there would be less traffic and it would be less likely to overheat.
Everything got packed up and I headed along new roads to old roads and Mina, NV and back to fuel up in Hawthorne, $3.33/gal diesel, before heading on 359 to California and Mono Lake where I would hit 395 and connect to 108 and go over Sonora Pass 9,620'. I've taken my old 2.25D 88 over Sonora and by the time it got to the top it was in 1st gear, from either direction E-W.
The 109 started to have this whining noise outside Hawthorne and I couldn't find a loose hose, I thought it was vacuum, Couldn't find it until I got home. The lower hose clamp on the turbo to intake hose was slightly loose, allowing for excess air to not go to the engine and a loss of power which I could feel. Still it was strong up and over the pass.
0330 was the time I pulled in my driveway, the shower and bed felt wonderful. It was a full day!
The 109 with the 200TDI ran great the whole trip until after I left Hawthorne on the way home. I know now that it was the loose clamp on the turbo hose. I checked the oil often and it never seemed to use any always between the N and H mark.
Until I got home:::::: the next morning I checked the level and it was down on the L. Looking underneath oil was everywhere on the turbo side. There was even some on the airfilter intake ??. I thought the worst, the high heat had cracked the block or blown a head gasket or cracked the head. So I started wiping things down and looking for evidence. I ran the engine, nothing seemed to be leaking. Maybe it needed to be hotter?
Looking at the engine from the top I saw that one of the timing cover bolts had backed out. Probably the hardest one to get to too. It is right behind the mounting bracket for the alternator. I got a couple of fingers on it and it threaded back into the block so it wasn't broke (whew!). I could barely get a combo wrench on it's 10mm head and turn it. The wrench would go about 6° and hit the alternator. I found that by using 3 wrenches with the points in different locations I could tighten up the bolt and finally by taking 1 wrench and bending it I could apply some torque to it.
I learned some things, I took too much stuff, I'd go back.
I did 905 miles and used 41.701 gallons of diesel, I'm not the sharpest tack when it comes to maths, but I think that is 21.7mpg with a lot of crossing the Sierras. I hope it is not 2.17mpg..... ;^) My max speed was 74!
Now I tried something new, let me know what you think.
I made a video by taking snippets along the road and at camps. I've added subtitles. I don't have a way to lower the sound on the video so watch out with the car road noise! I fought on the trip, my SD cards would not talk to my laptop so I couldn't do all I wanted, my SD cards at one point refused to work in my Fuji cam. When I got home I struggled mightily with my Windows Movie Maker program for 3+ days to make the video.
I hope you enjoy it it is almost an hour long but I think it will be worth it. Like and subscribe!
I set my alarm to get up early(for me) at 0630. I dressed for a short bike ride to town to the annual Fireman's pancake breakfast fund raiser. It started at 0700 and I was going out the door when I heard the fire siren announcing they had commenced.
With it being a cool 50°F and foggy overcast I wore my puffy jacket over my longsleeve tee and shorts. Once there I locked up my bike and exchanged my helmet for a warm sock cap!
No line and that is why I go so early, later and you can stand in line for an hour waiting to get in.
I picked up some hot blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs w/sausage, grabbed a cup of java and found a seat at a mostly MT looong table.
Keeping an eye on the growing crowd, I ate steadily so the food would not get cold. Yummy for the tummy!
Once finished I policed my plate and got my bike and rode the 1/2 mile home, which is uphill going in this direction.....
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!
The parade started at 10, by now it was pushing 65°F and I got back on the bike and rode into town, this time passing parked cars on the side of the road and peoples walking in to either eat or see the parade.
Locked up the ol' 2-wheeler and walked to a place that I over the years have found to almost always have a spot open so I can lean against the wall and watch the world go by.
Yuup, it was again open!
I planted my back against the wall and waited for the parade to start.
One reason why I like to go is I like to people watch and this is one of the best places and times around here for it. Thousands come into town and I saw neighbors and friends and lots I don't know sporting Red, White and Blue.
The Boulder Creek parade starts with the local Fire Dept weaving down the Main Street (Hwy-9) followed by a pletheora of clubs and cars and bubbles and candy for the kids. It lasted about an hour and I had forgotten my camera.
New this year as the parade got over the newly opened Sheriff's satellite office was giving out free hot dogs. Unlike Joey Chestnut I only ate 1.
As the crowd dwindled I grabbed my bike and rode back home.
I was home by noon. I fixed some coffee and settled in for a calm day.
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!
By 1430 I was going stir crazy. I'd done my daily chores and had cabin fever. My neighbor wasn't home he was trapped at a party(his words!). I need to go for a drive.
I got in the 109 and headed up the old standby Hwy 236 into Big Basin State Park, California's first state park. I turned onto my favorite Lodge Rd and headed into as remote as you can get in this park on a road. Being careful of oncoming traffic I puttered along stopping here and there to see things and take some photos.
