1985 Conestoga + Vagabond Trip

[Robertmangrum.rm]

For basically a prototype with no testing I was really pretty happy with it.

I really liked the simplicity of it all. I wished I had a 6ft bed. I would do the same setup. Enjoyed the trip and look forward to our next adventure.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Having a second vehicle of stuff at LBL really helped too, granted I was packing for 1.5 people but if I had to have the loadout to support us for a full week plus like everybody else it would have had to have a lot more stuff.

 

[Jim Oaks]

How do you get to the front totes you ask? I have an ap for that

'App'. That should be on the list of baby names for 2025.

 

[superj]

/\ that was the funniest part of the post to me, ha ha ha. i had an app for it, ha ha ha.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

@ericbphoto @snoranger @Robertmangrum.rm @Jim Oaks @Poppa_R Here is where I will put my vagabond story. We ran part of segment one of the Kentucky adventure trail.

Vagabonds - Vagabonds - Kentucky Adventure Tour - 2024 | The Ranger Station

So on Friday 8/31 we struck off for Central Kentucky. It was a pretty hard two-day drive to get there, IIRC 14hrs plus stops. @Poppa_R convoyed with me in case I had any issues on the road.





Cooled cupholders? Man I have all the whistles and bells!



Kind of fun scenery for Illinois, reminds me of the bluffs of Iowa's Loess Hills.



Stopped at Salem Illinois for the night, found another longbed to anchor with at Arby's







After driving more we are like practically almost there...



Someone wanted his window down, found a nice pulloff





This is what I have put up with...





And the Ranger made it back to its hometown very likely for the first time in 39 years, back in February of 1985 is was built here in Louisville Kentucky... for the first time.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Rolled into Red River Gorge Campground at a decent time, sorted out a issue with my cooling fans and got camp set up.





Time for bed and try out this thing we have been working on for the better part of a year...



The Red River goes right past the campground, gorgeous sunrise that morning. The KAT actually runs on the other side of the river.













From there we went to Natural Bridge State Park. Some went on a hike, they had a neat stream in a picnic area we checked out. There were turtles, fish and we even saw a crawdad.





Then off to the NADA tunnel.







I didn't get any pictures but it was cool, the ceiling is still stained black from the steam locomotives it was built for.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Then we went to see the natural bridges.



Walking across that was about the scariest thing I have done as a parent.











The lovely Miss Livey





The holes and swirls in the stone were facinating.



Then onto Spaas Creek. We decided there was more water on the trail than there was in the actual creek.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Then we went onto Pumpkin Hollow.







Online I always got the vibe it was the easier one between it and Spaas Creek. Where we are stopped there around the corner it was badly rutted. The consensus was we could probably get thru it but it would be very slow going and it was already 5pm, so we cut out and backtracked out to find a campsite.





We ended up at Callie's which was a really nice campground, had a large pond/small lake/whatever you want to classify it as. Very pretty campground, even had a restaurant.

Yes there was some rock crawling in camp...



And some bull got shot too.



I grabbed what I thought was "just add boiling water" mac and cheese cups so I didn't have to mess with milk and butter on the trail. Turns out if you read the directions you add water and then microwave. Of course I fogot to pack the microwave so I had to regroup midswing. I added water to the line like they said and then dumped the whole works in my little cup and cooked that until it resembled mac and cheese.





Grilled some minute steaks and it was a pretty good supper.



Instant oatmeal worked great for me for breakfast. Oliver had dry cereal.



We got packed up and went off to the playground to burn off some energy before sitting in the truck all day.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Then @Robertmangrum.rm decided to take point and lead us for awhile.





Kinda glad I left the Bronco at home...









Pottybreak/lunchtime









Eventually we settled into Turkey Foot Campground in the Danial Boone National Forest.

Daniel Boone National Forest - Turkey Foot Campground (usda.gov)

Very nice campground, although a "campground" it didn't take much imagination to think were camping in the woods... with toilets just down the road.







I had brought my old (like 20yo) pop up hunting blind for a changing room/privy.



Grilled burgers and chips for supper.



Well I thought it was good anyway...

















Another oatmeal and cereal morning.



Awesomely cute thing that caught me by suprise... magic leaves. They can just float on their own.



We saw two of them on the trip, it was one of those things that is kind of hard to want to correct (spider web), I let him enjoy his magic.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Then we went down the road a bit to top off fuel, an elderly gentleman asked if anyone knew anything about cars because he thought it his was leaking. It was a early 00's Ranger, it was a funny coincidence that he would ask like most of the moderators on a rather large internet forum about his truck out of the blue. We decided it was just the A/C condensate draining, it was a super clean truck.

Back on the KAT we stopped at a cave. Oliver wanted my phone to take a picture of "a weird bug" I didn't think anything of it until we got home... holy cow.







For this flatlander the terrain and plantlife almost seemed fake.





On the road again.



















Then we stopped at Camp Wildcat, the site of a Civil War battle.



Battle of Camp Wildcat - Wikipedia

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

And then... the river.

I only watched Jim cross. I was pretty nervous about it. As I was watching him cross I thought I need to unplug my efans and I was debating about pulling the accordian tubes so the air cleaner would just draw from inside the engine bay and not from behind the grille. Then I thought back, running Spaas Creek with puddles maybe a foot deep I was getting water into the belt driven fan which was spraying the engine. I think it splashes ahead off the blunt front axle and into the fan which sprays it all over the engine.

I also thought I need to unplug the temp sensor for the pusher fans. After I got Oliver belted in (which I did soul searching over... what if I find a hole and roll the truck? We had just been driving thru a dry creekbed that had huge holes in it) I fogot about the temp sender.

My usual looking for trouble gear is low third. It is a hair faster than high first. I can ride the brakes and go kinda slow or I can punch it and still get pretty decent wheelspin without having to shift. Everyone said I hit it a little hard. Watching my gopro it does seem faster than I remembered it being. It also seems like I didn't get very far but looking at pictures I made it over halfway before the engine quit. The big splash I think is coming off the truck, I took absolutely no water over the hood.

It did restart easily but then quit again.

Water was about that deep where it died, I would have to watch Jim's video again but I think I was past the channel...



And here comes Livvy to the rescue!



Eric tagged along for the fun of it too.





Neat view downriver after Jim tugged me out.







Pop the hood, it was really only wet around the engine, not so much the fender where the ignition brainbox and coil live. So I popped apart the distributor connector and it was wet. Ran to the back of the truck to fetch a can of brake cleaner. Two puffs and it fired right up. I let it run while I repacked things an it started to get a funny lope which scared me. Then it died. I tried to start it but it wouldn't say a word. Then it hit me, I turned the key on to unlock the wheel when Jim pulled me... and I shut off the fuel pump so I didn't flood it bouncing thru the river with the engine not running. Turned that on and it fired right up again.

First ever river crossing like that. My technique needs work for sure... but for the way the fan had been spraying my engine it could have happened sooner in the week too. I need to seal the connector and I think I need to make some kind of splash shield to keep water from coming up underneath the engine. I also need to wire in a switch to kill the efans and extrapolating... engine air intakes could use some thought too. I was the only truck there without a snorkel... and there is no real good way to add one to my truck.

 

[Curious Hound]

And then... the river.

I only watched Jim cross. I was pretty nervous about it. As I was watching him cross I thought I need to unplug my efans and I was debating about pulling the accordian tubes so the air cleaner would just draw from inside the engine bay and not from behind the grille. Then I thought back, running Spaas Creek with puddles maybe a foot deep I was getting water into the belt driven fan which was spraying the engine. I think it splashes ahead off the blunt front axle and into the fan which sprays it all over the engine.

I also thought I need to unplug the temp sensor for the pusher fans. After I got Oliver belted in (which I did soul searching over... what if I find a hole and roll the truck? We had just been driving thru a dry creekbed that had huge holes in it) I fogot about the temp sender.

My usual looking for trouble gear is low third. It is a hair faster than high first. I can ride the brakes and go kinda slow or I can punch it and still get pretty decent wheelspin without having to shift. Everyone said I hit it a little hard. Watching my gopro it does seem faster than I remembered it being. It also seems like I didn't get very far but looking at pictures I made it over halfway before the engine quit. The big splash I think is coming off the truck, I took absolutely no water over the hood.

It did restart easily but then quit again.

Water was about that deep where it died, I would have to watch Jim's video again but I think I was past the channel...



And here comes Livvy to the rescue!



Eric tagged along for the fun of it too.





Neat view downriver after Jim tugged me out.






Pop the hood, it was really only wet around the engine, not so much the fender where the ignition brainbox and coil live. So I popped apart the distributor connector and it was wet. Ran to the back of the truck to fetch a can of brake cleaner. Two puffs and it fired right up. I let it run while I repacked things an it started to get a funny lope which scared me. Then it died. I tried to start it but it wouldn't say a word. Then it hit me, I turned the key on to unlock the wheel when Jim pulled me... and I shut off the fuel pump so I didn't flood it bouncing thru the river with the engine not running. Turned that on and it fired right up again.

First ever river crossing like that. My technique needs work for sure... but for the way the fan had been spraying my engine it could have happened sooner in the week too. I need to seal the connector and I think I need to make some kind of splash shield to keep water from coming up underneath the engine. I also need to wire in a switch to kill the efans and extrapolating... engine air intakes could use some thought too. I was the only truck there without a snorkel... and there is no real good way to add one to my truck.

You did fine. Killing the fans might have helped but the mechanical fan probably did the dirty work. None of us needed snorkels for that crossing. Though it feels good knowing the air us coming from way up higher than any splashing water. My biggest recommendation is; slow down. You were almost slow enough. We had enough trucks through by then that we knew it wasn't too deep for you and you were in the established line.

That's what made me nervous. We didn't really know the line until the first truck went through and verified what we thought. It was a good learning experience for all of us.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

You did fine. Killing the fans might have helped but the mechanical fan probably did the dirty work. None of us needed snorkels for that crossing. Though it feels good knowing the air us coming from way up higher than any splashing water. My biggest recommendation is; slow down. You were almost slow enough. We had enough trucks through by then that we knew it wasn't too deep for you and you were in the established line.

That's what made me nervous. We didn't really know the line until the first truck went through and verified what we thought. It was a good learning experience for all of us.

I just don't like the pushers running with water, if I started blowing blades off it would have dramatically changed my trip.

I know you didn't need snorkels... but it is kinda close for comfort. I do have the factory deflector for my right intake tube which is lower, the bottom is about even with the bottom of the headlght which was like 4" above the water. I tried putting another on the left and it interfered with the grille. It is something I need to look into more. Its a potential weakness that is worthy of attention.

I agree, it was the belt fan that hung me. It very well could have done it earlier in the week but it was offered a lot more water to throw in the river.

I did pull all the plugs tonight, all my oil looks great so that is nice.

At the end of the day, if that connector was sealed properly I don't think I would have put the fire out.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I'd be figuring out your cold start up issue.

Or did you get it handled?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I'd be figuring out your cold start up issue.

Or did you get it handled?

Two days on the highway/interstate seem to have helped, I am thinking its tune up related. Trying to get the truck unpacked and stabilized (check fluids) so I can back it into the garage and start playing under the hood.