daily doubler build

[brinker88]

I was just about to ask you how your USA Alloy joints were holding up. Guess I know now haha.

 

[036speed]

Incredible. I want to make a trip out to Moab someday.

 

[kris97ranger]

Why didnt you go for km2s again? And how many miles did they last

 

[Bray D]

Why didnt you go for km2s again? And how many miles did they last

I tried. They were on backorder.

Exact same scenario that happened when I first got the KM2's. I initially wanted the MTR's but they were on backorder for so long that I switched my order to the KM2's. This time I ordered the KM2's but they were on backorder so I changed my order to the MTR's.

I got less than a year out of the KM2's. I did a lot of driving with a locked rear on the street, but I had hoped to get a little more life out of them than that.

My odo doesn't work, but I wouldn't think there's any way I drove more than 25k on them.

 

[Grunizzle]

I am entirely jealous of you right now. I am planning on a Moab trip this fall, but every time I see things like this I want to go AWOL and head to Utah.

Our trucks are similar, and your trip sounds similar to the one I am planing, so here comes the questions lol.

Did you sustain any breakage at Moab or have any close calls?
How are you liking the 37 mtrs vs the km2s?
I have 3 moab nat geo maps, and the moab guidebooks, is there anything you wish you knew before you went on your trip?
Did you need any special permits or pay any fees for the BLM camping?
Can you setup camp everywhere, or only where those fire rings are?
Were you able to get fuel easy enough from some of the trails?

Sorry I have a million things I want to ask, but your trip and truck look awesome!

 

[NEVERDONE86]

Pics are amazing! I want to go so bad! A trip will be in the future for sure!

 

[Kage]

I was wondering if you'd made the trip out there yet or not. Glad you had fun!

 

[Bray D]

I was just about to ask you how your USA Alloy joints were holding up. Guess I know now haha.

I've only broken one other axle shaft in my life. I thought the greasable joints would be just as strong as the 760's and save me from drying up the bearings. That failure leads me to believe is was more the joints fault than the shaft. Yukon has a 'no questions asked' first time replacement warranty, so I got both shafts replaced for free before we left for Moab, but I went through the front end and re-installed new 760's. OEM Spicer gets my vote.

I am entirely jealous of you right now. I am planning on a Moab trip this fall, but every time I see things like this I want to go AWOL and head to Utah.

Our trucks are similar, and your trip sounds similar to the one I am planing, so here comes the questions lol.

Did you sustain any breakage at Moab or have any close calls?
How are you liking the 37 mtrs vs the km2s?
I have 3 moab nat geo maps, and the moab guidebooks, is there anything you wish you knew before you went on your trip?
Did you need any special permits or pay any fees for the BLM camping?
Can you setup camp everywhere, or only where those fire rings are?
Were you able to get fuel easy enough from some of the trails?

Sorry I have a million things I want to ask, but your trip and truck look awesome!

No worries man. Being from NM, I'm surprised you haven't gone already! I'd go at least once a year if I were that close. It was 1330 miles for us one way. My odometer doesn't work, but I'd bet we clocked right at 3000miles round trip.

No mechanical failures whatsoever on this trip. My plug wires went bad, but that was expected and I had a spare set in the truck with me. Swapped wires and we were good to go. That's electrical anyways.

I had to throttle out of near-flops twice. Once on Pritchett which was necessary, and once on Moab Rim after getting myself in trouble playing around on 'optional lines' (throwing a tire on a big rock that was totally unnecessary, haha). I see my truck as being pretty capable and I like to think I'm a pretty good driver. Golden Spike and Moab Rim were my favorite trails of the ones we ran. Everyone will tell you that you have to run Pritchett. We ran the whole thing without having to winch, but it was pushing the capabilities of my truck. The obstacles are big out there - real big. GS and MR were a lot of fun. Moderately challenging but I wasn't super nervous about breaking anything or rolling off a cliff.

I haven't run the MTR's for long enough and in enough types of terrain to form an opinion yet. On the sandpaper that is Moab, they hooked well, but I'm sure everything does out there. The traction is unreal.

The guidebook will be your bible, and it's pretty accurate. If it said it takes 3-4hrs to run a trail, it took us just over 3hrs. We were only 1 rig so I thought we'd move pretty quick but it turned out to be nearly dead on with the book.

Goldbar Rim, GS, and Poison Spider Mesa MUST be run together unless you do an out and back. We started that trail system at noon and finished up shortly after 7p. It worked out well, but it would've sucked if we broke.

If you mountain bike, DON'T BRING A HARDTAIL. Holy shit. No one told me how rough Slickrock was. It beat us up. I'd ride it again, but I'd be renting a squishy bike.

If you run Pritchett, do an out and back or run Behind the Rocks as you come out of Pritchett. We decided to take the dirt road after the trail back to the highway and it took FOREVER. No one told me to stay off of that damn road. I swear it's 40 miles long. It's in bad shape so you can't run much quicker than 20mph or it'll beat you up bad. I think I worked the truck harder on that road than we did on the trail because I was getting anxious and ran it way too fast. We could've turned around and ran the trail backwards in about the same time, which is what we should've done looking back.

The BLM camping was 10 bucks per night and most were paid on the honor system. Just put the money in an envelope, tear off the tag, put the envelope in a bin and put the tag at your campsite. Super easy.

Camping is more limited than I expected. Run into town and go to the information center. Explain exactly what you're looking for and they'll hook you up with maps and give you places you can go. We stayed at 3 different spots while we were there, one as far out as 40 miles from town (in Canyonlands National Park). If you're looking for primitive sites, I highly recommend driving down Kane Creek Rd. There's excellent primitive camping along that road, many of which require you to hike into your campsite. Our last one was ~1/3 mile in. Complete solitude. It was awesome.

I always keep a 5gallon jug with me, but fuel was never an issue. Moab is HUGE. You have to drive pretty far to get to the trailheads, and equally as far to get from the end of the trail to wherever you want to go. The first and the last nights were the only ones when we got back to camp before sunset. We were busy all day every day. It's pretty easy to schedule your day around a quick pit stop in town to fuel up.

Shoot me a PM if you want to know more. I'd love to tell you everything I learned. I tried to research before heading out there myself, but no one really portrayed the vastness of the place to me. I'm used to private parks where you can run the whole park in a day. This place is literally one trail per day, two if you're really pushing it and don't have any issues.

Your wheelbase may hurt you sometimes, but you'll do well if you're locked F/R. You'll love your doubler a little more after this trip as well, haha.

I was wondering if you'd made the trip out there yet or not. Glad you had fun!

Thanks Ben! It was a most excellent trip!

 

[Grunizzle]

Yeah I have lived in NM a total of 1 week haha I just moved.

Thanks for a the info you have been extremely helpful. I will definitely get in contact with you when my trip comes closer, which might be moving up to May time.

 

[Josh40601]

Told ya you'd have a blast.

GB,GS,PSM took us 15 hours with 8 rigs and 1 that broke. We didn't run Pritchett Canyon or Moab Rim. We did Hell's Revenge and Cliffhanger instead. We stayed in town at one of the motels, just to get that evening shower after wheeling all day. I too say it was the greatest vacation we ever planned. Depending on when Spring Break is next year, we are going out there again to hopefully be there for EJS (at least a day or two of it)

 

[Kage]

...The guidebook will be your bible, and it's pretty accurate. If it said it takes 3-4hrs to run a trail, it took us just over 3hrs. We were only 1 rig so I thought we'd move pretty quick but it turned out to be nearly dead on with the book.

I'll second this, the Fun Treks' books are absolutely worth the price. We found that we took a bit longer than what was suggested time wise, but that was mainly because we tended to stop and take lots of photos.

Our system was to plot out the trails we'd want to do well in advance so that you can optimize things as much as possible. Kind of a "Trail A ends near Trail C" type thing. Otherwise you can waste quite a bit of time going from trail head to trail head. Current trail conditions can usually be found on the interweb via google form there.

We did find that they tended to rate the trails a little harder than what they actually seemed to be. But maybe I'm just more hard core than I thought

Fuel was never a problem for us. I can see how it could be if you were planning on running all of white rim in one shot (approximately 95 miles in 4 low). Otherwise it's not that bad to find fuel. I will say this...

..BRING LOTS MORE WATER THAN YOU THINK YOU'LL NEED!!!! This is especially true if you're out there in the warmer months. The wife and I would kill about 1-1.5 gallons of water each when we were playing around out there (leaving at sunrise, and coming back at sunset).

For some entertainment, here's our trip reports from when we made the treck last year and in 2010 (hosted on my local Jeep board):
Link to 2010 trip
Link to 2012 Trip

You can see quite a bit of the Moab area in a stock-ish vehicle due to the sand paper rocks that Bray had mentioned. You can see alot more with a modified vehicle with lockers (and get in that much more trouble!).

Hope that helps!

Oh, and Bray is more Hard core than me. Half doors, Snow Storm, in the mountains. **** that noise, I like my heat!

 

[Josh40601]

Oh, and Bray is more Hard core than me. Half doors, Snow Storm, in the mountains. **** that noise, I like my heat!

This.

 

[86 slo-vo]

Lucky SOB.

Bray....when my kids graduate and move out...me and you road trip of a lifetime.





Only 16.5 years to go :laughing:

 

[036speed]

Only 16.5 years to go :laughing:

I have 17 more yrs....

 

[brinker88]

I've only broken one other axle shaft in my life. I thought the greasable joints would be just as strong as the 760's and save me from drying up the bearings. That failure leads me to believe is was more the joints fault than the shaft. Yukon has a 'no questions asked' first time replacement warranty, so I got both shafts replaced for free before we left for Moab, but I went through the front end and re-installed new 760's. OEM Spicer gets my vote.

Thanks for the heads up. I appreciate it. Looks like I'll be going with the 760X's w/ full round snap rings. If i ever break them, I'll just get a set of Long's. ($175/piece is pricey as hell though)