Ulysses and Penolope


More like a land-train, really, than an off road vehicle.  But it is an interesting concept, at least.  I would rather travel in something a bit smaller, but I suppose that if you want to travel AND have your condo too, this is the way to go!

Labels: 4wd, expedition, travel

While Nicolas was here (see last week), one of the things that we did was to install an electric temperature gauge so that he could have some sense of the actual temp of his coolant vs. the stock gauge that basically says "ok" or "about to boil over" with not much info in between.

There are many options as to where to put the probe in such a setup, we chose to take an easy route that may or may not stand the test of time.  I post some photos here for others who are keeping track and to open the door to "I told you so" later.  Either giving or receiving (hopefully me giving). 

Installing the probe was darn easy:  the plastic top of the radiator is a thick section of high-quality resin that drilled nicely and was stiff enough for a 1/8" NPT tap to get a good bite.  The thickness is about 1/4" in this area, and not too rounded.  In all I estimate that we had 4 or 5 threads in radiator into which the probe could get a good hold.

Because the probe relies on a ground path through the probe housing, we added a washer and a short wire to a nut on the upper radiator support, the ground wire has a blue shrink-wrap cover.  The top wire goes to the gauge.   The wiring tucked neatly into the corrugated wire sheath as seen, and in general was a clean installation.

To prevent getting plastic bits in the coolant, we detached the top hose and stuck a bent soup spoon into the radiator.  It caught a large amount of plastic from the drilling and tapping.

To help prevent future leaks, we dabbed some silicone sealant onto the threads of the probe.  Normally that's a bad idea- because the probe grounds itself through those threads, but in this case it should help seal and keep the probe from moving against the threads and potentially stripping them (brass is much harder than plastic, after all).

We were worried at the height of the probe, but the radiator sits pretty far back under the bulge of the hood, so there is no contact with the heat-insulation and no need to fret.

Labels: expedition, land cruiser, repair

Nicolas Rapp is driving around the world but along the way he has had some minor mechanical setbacks.   You can read more about it on his blog, but the short story is that a steering sector shaft broke, which led to a collision that led to to front axle mayhem.

When Nicolas finally rolled into Costa Rica after a delay in Honduras and another in Nicaragua, it couldn't have come as much of a surprise that he was bound for yet another delay.   When I offered him a place to spend a night or two, I thought that we might fix some minor detail on the truck, enjoy a few beers, and wave goodbye after, um, a night or two.  But the Cruiser gods had something else in mind.

The last post I wrote has some more pics and info about finding a broken side gear in the differential.  For those of you not mechanically inclined, a broken gear in the front differential can safely be considered a major repair.  Not quite catastrophic, but very bad.   So it was incredible good luck that he ended up here, and that I noticed the problem, and that we could tear into it.

Even more incredibly lucky, on the order of "I really can't believe it" lucky, is that Toyota Costa Rica had a new differential gear set in stock.   It was even about 25% less expensive than the same part in the USA, which was a nice touch to the "Holy Moly we have been lucky on this job!" situation.  So we ordered the part and some other minor spares, and they came a mere 24 hours later.   In the mean time, I determined that setting up the differential was a little beyond my expertise level for a vehicle that will soon find itself in the wilds of Africa.  Our great luck continued when we found a qualified mechanic who could put the diff back together for us in "1 day".  Not too surprisingly for Costa Rica, "1 day" took a little longer than 36 hours.   Still well within the realm of giddiness-inducing great luck.

While we were waiting on various parts to arrive and mechanics to perform, we also took a look at what Nicolas thought was a potential overheating problem.  As it turned out, it is merely a fairly normal phenomenon for this model-year gas-powered Cruiser.  The front DS fender gets hot when you drive them in hot weather.  Who knew?   But just to be on the safe side, we did change out his thermostat/gasket and get a new radiator cap.  We also bought and installed a temperature gauge so that he has something more than just the stock gauge for helping determine if he is running hotter than he should be.  In the short period that he was here after the gauge install, it seems that he maintains temps between 195 and 210, which is perfectly normal operating temperature for his motor.  More good news!

We sent Nicolas and Nadia off with a quick trip to a beautiful local beach and vague directions towards Arenal.  The beach gave us a good location to test out his newly repaired differential lockers (they work!) and also a nice primer on how to drive in sand.

All said, their visit was closer to eight days than two or three, but they were wonderful guests and we certainly can't blame them that the Cruiser needed a little more mechanical work than anyone had anticipated.  I would be happy to host them again any time, though I must admit that we are looking forward to getting our daily schedule back towards a more normal state of affairs.   I should point out-- Nicolas did an amazing job of supplying us with Nicaraguan beer and Rum.  I'm sure we put a serious dent into what must have been his libations stash.  Nadia was 100% smiles and a dish-washing-dervish, which is always welcome in our perpetually just-shy-of-clean kitchen.

As an extra bonus, now when I follow Nicolas' website around the world, I'll get the added happy feeling of knowing the author and knowing that I was able to give back a little of the generosity that I have been fortunate to receive in the past.  I only wish that we could have spent a little more time driving around this beautiful area instead of wrenching on his truck.  Oh,well...  next time.

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, Costa Rica, expedition, land cruiser, photo, repair, travel

Tonopah Station. It was cold, they take dogs. Other than that, I don't have much to endorse.	Tonopah proper has some older buildings that I liked	More old buildings in Tonopah	And old cars. There is plenty of "old" there.
...and a CREEPY "clown motel". I'm afraid of clowns, a little, and this place looks to me to be straight out of a Stephen King novel. I *almost* wish we had stayed there. Just to say we did. (note freaky 2/3-size painted guy on wall)	More old. More Tonopah. Pretty mountains	On the road again... with great, big, fluffy clouds	Nevada desert dropping into Eastern California desert
I wish that I had noticed the highway marker before clicking the shutter	Doggy break. Sage.	I have no idea why I took this picture, hope you enjoy it.	Probably an awesome trout stream. Owens Valley, California (and no, we didn't have rods nor licenses, dangit)
First of several hot springs with some hippy-dippy self-appointed caretaker who turned out to be a real peice of work. The best description I can offer is that he was a burnt-out surf goat type who was feeling territorial about "his" mungy little hot spring in the middle of almost-nowhere and sent us looking for a "better" one...	...which lead us down some well-maintained fire roads with towering trees	also soaring vistas -the Eastern Sierra in California is pretty. Go there.	We finally found the "super secret" springs that the Goat had described. So secret that they had posted signs, and were entirely concreted in and no camping allowed.
At least the setting remained spectacular, but we decided to press onward	Soop. Surveying the Scenery serenely.	A lousy picture of a pretty building	Now *this* is more like what we were looking for!
Natural hot spring cascading down into a natural pool formed by naturally(?) stacking rocks in a rough pattern.	Complete with wildflowers	And more wildflowers	and more wildflowers!
Majestic trees, seen from our campsite	We even needed a little 4wd to get to our site	After a soak in the springs, we built a firepit and enjoyed a tasty dinner.	Our site
I like the progress of my insulation when everyone else stayed pretty much the same. Left to right: Steve, Annette, Seth, Soop	Soop put on a different hat, I'm sporting down jacket. The tropis will do that to you.	Campfire beats Casino 10/10 (but isn't as warm).

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, california, camping, day trip, expedition, land cruiser, nevada, photo, vacation

Holy Late posting, Batman! If I don't get this wrapped up in the next few days, I'm about to get lapped by a whole year of procrastination! Yikes!
In case you haven't been sitting on the edge of your seat awaiting this installment in the saga you go back to the all the Moab trip posts or each installment: Day 1-3, Day 4, Day 5.

We started the day in Bryce Canyon, UT at a huge hotel where we zonked out the night before after a very long afternoon of trying to nurse along an automatic transmission that didn't want to go. You can also go see this story with fewer pictures per page.

woke up to see a teepee (tipi? teapea? TP?) across the pond	Ducks, too. You just never know what to expect in exotic Bryce Canyon.	Always sad to see a Cruiser on a towtruck. But better than seeing it drive 12mph for 4 hours. The truck and our travel buddies rolled off towards an auto transmission shop that came highly recommended by a friend in California. Soop and I pointed in that general direction, but figured we had many hours to kill exploring.	First step: drive through hole in rock.
I could post dozen of pretty shots with interesting rocks in them. I probably will. These are "hoodoos" and the stuff for which Bryce Canyon is famous.	The park itself is on my list of future places to visit, but they don't allow dogs, so it wasn't such a good idea for us on this trip.	This may look like your average, shot up road sign...	...but in fact, it is a shot-up road sign that limits access to a road that doesn't exist. Not the weirdest thing we would see today.
Old School Camper!	We climbed up into the mountains again, headed towards Cedar Breaks, which is purported to be lovely.	Turned off on a random fire road, trying to make the drive take longer, and see some sights. Great fire roads!	"the fence...protect from livestock..." Might work better if it were a little less.... broken.
Along the way, we stumbled onto this nifty spot. Big underground cave. Very big.	The entrance is basically a hole in the ground- lava formations- bats- good stuff.	Look! I'm in a cave! In Utah!	Colman was a little reluctant... so we left him at the surface, probably better for the cave denizens anyway.
Cave interior. I'll bet it is a lot of fun to go spelunking here, but that wasn't on our agenda for the day.	... and the batty areas are blocked off so that folks like us don't disturb their hibernation, which can be lethal as they could lose precious heat/energy that they need to make it till spring.	The mountains here are much different than those we were seeing just a few hours before. And the fire from 20 years ago had really left its mark on them.	Another entrance (exit?) for the same cave, some distance away from the first one.

But wait! There's more!

Antelope. They were pretty frequent along the road. Driving at night around here must be a little dodgy.	Crazy lava flow in the middle of nothing. We never did find out what the story is behind these... they seem to just be a big seam of lava rock that stretches a few miles from one non-descript point to another non-descript point.	Adding a Steve for scale	More lava flow (floe?)
Up up up goes the random road we chose.	Another change in trees.	Hmmm.... Ya think the road isn't open just yet? Bummer. No Cedar Breaks for us. :( We debated pushing through, it wasn't far to where we wanted to go, but we didn't have a winch, no snow clothes, didn't expect anyone else to come by, and didn't want to spend several hours shoveling ourselves out of being stuck. Discretion won the day.	So instead we stopped on the highway and had lunch. I'll bet that when the road is open, this isn't nearly as peaceful a place to eat.
Since we were killing time anyway, we made delicious fried sausage sandwinches and soaked up the view.	What a view!		Summit, Brian's Head in the background (which is probably more interesting when you are traveling with someone named Brian) Starkly beautiful.
Nice looking little town of Parowan, UT	Not hard to find churches in Utah, some are impressive.	We finally arrived at the Transmission Wizard- I've since forgotten his name, but the guy was great. He got Seth and Annette's truck running better than ever (a few tweaks) in just a few hours. Apparently we had the good luck to get a guy who had spent years perfecting the art or repairing this particular transmission.	Not every car gets in and out of there in just a few hours, apparently.
Considering the drug problem in this part of the world, we think they might consider changing the name of the place.	The old train station (mission?) in Caliente. I think Nevada, by now. Cool old building.	Gratuitous self potrait	Not much else to photograph out on highway 375

...and a few more...

Uhm, "How much fuel de we have?" "I'm sure that there is a gas station... somewhere"	You've seen these mountains before, in movies about barren places.	"So this is it? The actual *middle* of nowhere?"	Nowhere to the left
More nowhere that way too.	But there must be water, somewhere. Read the sign. I'm guessing this isn't such a fresh-smelling place on a hot day.	Impressive.	Yet another type of rocky rock
And then we found Rachel, Nevada. Probably the weirdest place I've ever been. But they had some gas, and they had cold beer, and the people were really friendly.	Yup. Rachel.	As it was getting late, and the "whole town" was sold out of rooms due to a bike ride, we pushed onward.	The bar. Rachel, NV. Not an outpost of liberal thinking.
Rachel's bar	What alien town bar would be complete without a mind-scan protector?	Happy travelers: Soop, Steve, Annette, Seth	They filmed part of ID4 here, apparently.
Rachel. I'll never forget you.	The Lisa Loeb look-alike bartender told us about some hot springs nearby where we could camp, but to be careful, because the owner was a real jerk and got mad at people for camping there... we checked it out...	...but decided to move along as it gave us a distinct "beginning of a bad story" vibe. After driving too far, we ended up in Tonopah, NV: the stargazing capital. Also a big stinky casino. But it was a warm place to rest and it had been a very long day.	The "view" from our room at the Ramada in Tonopah.

Labels: 4wd, 4x4, day trip, expedition, food, fuel, land cruiser, moab, nevada, travel, utah