YotaTech Forums - TDS/Anza Borrego trip 3/4-3/5

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TDS/Anza Borrego trip 3/4-3/5

Had a short, but fun weekend. We all met at the annual Tierra Del Sol event at Truckhaven Hills next to the Salton Sea.

There were hundreds of motorhomes, tents, and aything else you could camp in. The vehicles came in all shapes and sizes. From stock to professional rock buggies. There were Unimogs, Heeps, Broncos, Blazers, Internationals, and of course a lot of Yotas.

Most of us went a different route on Sat morning. We left from Truckhaven and proceeded across the desert to Ocotillo Wells. We stopped at 17 Palms, and Pumpkin Patch on the way. We then played on Devils slide, a few hill climbs with some dunes mixed in. On one decent Eric (echamberlin) snapped a cv axle on his 3rd gen. The rest of us proceeded to "the slot". After the run, most of us went home. There are some that stayed the night at Truckhaven again, and I am sure they will have their own stories.

Hopefully pics will be posted soon.

I have no pics, but a video will be compiled.

Everyone in the poor guy group was super nice. It was one of the most fun offroading experiences that I have had. TDS looked like a zoo, it reminded me of half the reason we drive so far to offroad..... It's nice to get away from the crowds.

Man, what a heck of a weekend. I had an awesome time out there with you guys. There was plenty of scenery and some good technical sections out there. The Slot was a little tight for my Taco but it just tested the driver, not the truck :hillbill: As it turned out, we didn't have a YT Yotacamp per se, but oh well, at least the people there were cool. Right as we got go Superstition, Josh went over a whoop too fast for his aftermarket upper control arms and ended up having to get towed out around 7pm (7 hours later!). It was not pretty seeing axle grease explode at his wheels. It turned out that there was a GeoCache really close to us, so we checked out the "Lucky Lady" (there's a welded sign that says it). Either the cache was too well hidden or somebody removed it because we didn't find anything except that post.

Here's the picture of the broken part.
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0707.jpg

Josh inspecting the damage (his lid isn't covered in grease yet)
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0705.jpg

Our camp:
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0673.jpg

Shot from Superstition while while Bill, Josh, and I waited
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0674.jpg

17 Palms
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0678.jpg

The Pumpkin Patch:
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0683.jpg

Eric on three wheels
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0686.jpg

The "Slot"
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0690.jpg

Marc and Matt's rig's at the edge of the valley for the "Slot"
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0692.jpg

A oddly-placed rock in the slot
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0695.jpg

A stone pillar that fell over the top of the foottrail of the Slot
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0697.jpg

The Blow Sand area that was insane with bikes and buggies
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0699.jpg

Eric at the very top of Superstition
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0710.jpg

Another shot near the top of Superstition
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0711.jpg

Sunset at Superstition
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...d/DSCF0719.jpg

Dang I'm tired and my truck needs a good cleaning. I was really pleased with how everything worked out with my truck for this trip. Thanks, Eric!

dang Josh, sorry I couldn't be of more help. I tired a few people to see if they had Marlin's cell but no dice :(

looks like ya'll had a bunch of fun! :)

Just got home .. need sleep

Glad to see you made it home Josh. It was great seeing old faces and new ones.

Looking at our camp picture I realize I forgot my chair there....did anyone grab the ugly purple beach chair??

Well That trip Rocked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made it to Joe's place but by the time I got there that broken CV was really making a racket. We got a new CV in Ramona and Joe taught me how to put it in. Let me tell you, Joe is an outstanding mechanic! We put it in and then I had to make a really difficult call.

Do I drive an hour and a half back home or an hour and a half back out to Truck Haven.

....So on my way back to Truck Haven to do some more wheeling....Got back to the TDS camp at about 7:30pm and camped for the night. Went out with Josh Ryan and Bill to Superstition the next day. Then Josh breaks on out way into the trails.

Moral of the story is to never wheel and IFS Yota without a spare CV shaft! Lesson Learned! Will Post pics soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phalanx

Just got home .. need sleep

Glad you made it home also!

Where is the beast?

I also had a great time. I'm glad to hear Eric that you got it all fixed and made it back to camp.

Everyone was super nice and I definitely want to continue to go out with all you guys. I was bummed to not see the Fartruk, but Fartruck mini-me was there, so that was cool.

I was really impressed with everyone's driving skills, it's really cool to see experience offroaders drive and get up obstacles that aren't too inviting. It also pushes me to try stuff that I normally wouldn't do alone.

Next post will have a few pictures. Looking back I'm bummed that I didn't take more, but we were going from place to place so fast that I was having more fun just driving. Also, I had my camera set on movie a couple of times, so instead of getting stills I was getting a quick clip of someone climbing a hill and then a shot of my pant leg as I put the camera down (I'm a genius!).

Jared- That is a cool picture of the slot.

Allright, finally got it done. The official TDP video. We had a great time this weekend and hopefully the video captures some of the fun.

It's kinda huge (110MB) and it requires Quicktime to view it. It's about 10 minutes, so it is worth the wait.

Right click and then "save as", then wait and wait and wait, then ENJOY!

www.protrux.net/videos/TDP.mov

For those of you who don't have quicktime, here is a link to the download page for the FREE Quicktime viewer:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html

He meant 110mb and not 110kb. So when it takes more than half a second, don't be surprised!

:)

Oh yeah, I'm only half nerd.....so I mess these things up sometimes...sorry. :)

I'd make the file smaller, but I don't liek sacrificing the quality and 10 minutes is gonna be a big file anyway.....at least that is what my 1/2 nerd is telling me.

Nice video and editing. Next time, when I know I'm being filmed, I'll haul a little more ass. On the dropoff I stopped to talk to Mark, so I looked like I was being a total pansy! haha

Nice video, thanks for putting it together.

That video is great!! I love the footage and the title. The "Final Countdown" is a nice touch...thanks Eric. And people laugh at me when I play Journey!!

I think we all learned lessons on this run...Eric needs a spare CV shaft, Josh found that he needs some spare parts, and I need a new GPS.

Lets plan a Carveacre run soon. There are guys that haven't been on it yet, and the recent rains have probably made it interesting.

I agree with Eric, that trip did rock!
sweet video, btw.

Thanks to all you Socal guys for many valuable lessons and info.
Much appreciated.
And a special thanks to Josh for all the help.

Now, off to mud and rocks of Norcal for me.

cheers

Did Eric ever do the dropoff? I was looking forward to that in the video. :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by jethro

Did Eric ever do the dropoff? I was looking forward to that in the video. :(

No, he broke his CV on a previous dropoff that none of us went on. It was a decent down hill trail with a wicked hole bordered by a large stone. He got his left front tire in the hole and the rock didn't let the tire get out of it. When he tried to adjust, the cv broke. After that though, he got down it fine. The picture of him on three wheels in my post above was right before his CV broke.

Because of that, he had to go get repaired, while we went and did the dropoff at the slot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deathrunner

I cannot make this work for me. I have Quick time but it keeps sying that it is not a video when I try to play it. This is way frustrating not to be able to see :help: :think: :chair: :pat: :pop: :( :dunno: