Hi all, been lurking for awhile, first post.

I've been gathering together information on this board and around the net for a trip I'm planning on making to AB and/or Ocotillo either Fri/Sat or Sat/Sun this weekend. I've been doing my 30k servicing a little early at 28k to make sure everything is cool and getting together off-road-ish equipment (compressor, deflators and stuff). Anyway, I landed upon a few questions:

-Will I need to buy and bring an extra gas can? I mean, I have a little 2 gallon for emergencies, I mean a big one. I know there are stations around, but are they within reasonable distance?

-Do I have to come at any particular time to pay a few bucks at the ranger station or anything? If we leave Friday we won't be there until maybe 6pm.

-First time I installed spark plugs on a reasonably new vehicle (my last three cars were 80s beater bmw's I didn't worry about), so I have some concern that I did everything right, ie OCD problems of mine. I did everything as per gap adjusting (which ended up not really needing to be done) and buying the denzo plugs from the stealership. Anyway, any obvious symptoms of a flub-up I should be getting beside the more long-term low gpm? So far tonite it ran nice, smooth, started fine and seemed to have good power (although I don't exactly drive it fast often so I don't really know)

Any other advice would be appreciated as this is my first real off-road experience.

Thanks in advance

 

You won't need to bring an extra gas can for out there, but it is nice to have. There's the Blue-In right along the 78 that you can hit up if you really need to.

The area is totally free - you don't have to worry about paying.

If you're going out there by yourself, try and stay away from the dunes as there is super-soft sand out there that can challenge a 4wd vehicle. Air down to 15 or 20 psi if you start to have problems with traction. Some weight in the bed will help.

 

carefull going alone, at the desert ironwoods RV park just west of ocotillo wells they sell a very nice map of the AB area, and at the ranger station just west of there they have free maps of ocotillo wells(this map is very detailed and covers a 3x3" square of the other map)
If i was going alone i would start in ocotillo wells and get those maps, do some exploring in that area, pumkin patch, gas domes artesian well are all real neat.
another neat drive is from borrego springs to ocotillo wells or vice versa, there is gas in b.s.
There is also gas in Salton city which is a fun off road trip from ocotillo wells.

DONT WORRY ABOUT GAS WORRY ABOUT WATER!!!

good luck and have fun
Mike

 

Mike brought up a good point. If you get stranded in the desert, you're gonna need to hoof it somewhere since cellphone coverage is spotty so bring PLENTY of water.

 

Check, will replace that gas can I was going to buy this afternoon with a water tank. I was concerned about maps also, so I will take your advice and try to stop by those places to get some.

Those trails you suggested in ocotillo wells, would they be alright for a 2WD preunner with a rear locker? I don't plan on going up any rocks or crazy stuff, just wheeling around the desert.

Thanks alot for the advice guys, pretty new to this whole thing, mostly just getting sick of having a somewhat rugged truck that says 'OFFROAD' all over it, yet does nothing more than cart me along on the I-5 between, SD, LA, and SF.

 

yeah you will be able to get around ocotillo wells real well, just dont try to take the cross over trail, its nasty.
I would recommend that since you are going alone to STAY in ocotillo wells where you have a good chance of finding help quikly should something happen.
Another recomendation i have is to go to split mountain and hike to the wind cave(may wan tto do it early in the morn but they are really cool. If you go south on split mountain road past the iron door bar about 5 miles you get to a wash to the right( alittle past the road to Elephant trees which is neat too) and it is a little soft so air down but you will be able to explore back there alot.

just stick to the washes and take it easy through the whoops you'll be fine, my friend has an opoen diff 4runner and does great out there.
MIke

 

You'll be fine on all those trails. You'll have fun playing on the washes too, nice and sandy, fun in a prerunner. I'd stay off the Shell Reef expressway as much as possible because it is the main road in Ocotillo so it has a LOT of washboards that get really annoying. Pick a different wash to get to the places you want to go!! Here's a basic map that'll at least let you plan:
http://www.desertusa.com/ovr/octwell_map.jpg

And that site also has a lot of good info about Ocotillo wells. Have fun and watch out for motorcycles and quads!

 

Awesome, thanks for the map.

Alright, since I'm going to do this at Ocotillo now, my buddy brought up a good question: Are we going to be able to sleep in OW? Or are we going to have crazy backcountry-types bounding around our tent on ATVs at midnight?

 

Check out the trip on SD wheeling trip for the Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend. Since your from SD you'd be able to get first hand experience with an awesome group of guys.

 

Toyopnoy- Did a 2wd w/locker make the last trip up carvacre with you guys?
If not, I'm still not sure it is possible with the way the trail is now. I remember doing it almost 2yrs ago with only rear locker, but alot has changed.

As for Camus, why did you wait until nearly summer to check out the desert? You should have come with us a couple of months back. I would definitely stick close to Ocotillo. I don't imagine there will be many people on quads/bikes this late in the season, but if there are they might get annoying late at night.

 

I will try to make the memorial weekend trip, assuming that I won't slow down the 4x4's, but at the moment I will probably be stuck with work (which I'm currently trying to get out of).

Had I known about the season and such I would have already gone, but truth be told I had no real interest or knowledge of off-roading until about a month ago when I decided to get use out of this truck that fell to me literally through a complete fluke, as I would have never probably bought a truck myself, nor could I ever afford a newer Tacoma.

Fact is I was involved in a big pile-up on a late Friday night in the OC on the freeway where (ironically I guess) a huge lifted chevy got his rear suspension knocked out by a drunk chick in an impala and careened across the freeway, causing a big mess. How I got out without any injury in my pos I'll never know. It's family policy never to buy vehicles for the kids, but given the catatrosphic nature of my incident and oddly timed suicide of a family member who had just bought a Tacoma (only 4000 miles), I wound up with a truck.

 

you'll have ta come out sometime, my wheeling buddy has a 2wd 4runner so i do alot of 2wd friendly stuff. i'm ditching him for carveacre, i wanna do some crawlin

 

2wd locked would have a hard time in my opinion. There were none out there on the last trip. Lot of big rocks, ruts, and wheel stand areas haha.

 

SWEEEET!

 

I am open in front and rear and had to get pulled through once on this rocky section with some huge rocks...you'll like it.

 

i tend to enjoy all wheeling so you know where carveacre is? is it best to meet in Alpine or somewhere else??? seems like the carls jr. is the meeting spot for most runs out there...
Mike

 

and sorry for the hijack to the OP:G

 

Hey, just want to thank everyone for the help.

We camped out on a little trail in AB off the 78 near ocotillo, think it was called buttes or something, couldnt see as we got there late. Got up at 5am for a little breakfast and started on the western part of Ocotillo at 6am driving through washes into the Borrego Badlands in AB and tooling around there. Took about a half hour to get comfy driving fast in the washes, but really fun, should have had my girl get out and take some action shots, eventually we got more adventurous and tooled around in the hills around pumpkin patch and then the part of the cross-cut trail thing that's really hilly (by something they closed called 'the trap') in ocotillo. I didn't drain my tires as I was a little nervous about driving 45mph in washes with 15psi tires, dunno, total noobie to offroading here. Naturally traction wasn't amazing, but had few problems except a few real steep hillswith real loose sand (very sandy out there in general). Used the rear locker a few times, helped alot. Girlfriend got slighty scared when we went into a really steep part of the trail and couldnt get enough traction to get out the other side, but with the locker and some patience I was able to get out reversing on the hill behind us. I assured her that it would have been fine if we drained the tires, but that I didn't really want to unless it was necessary.

Tire pressure was my real stupidity. I usually keep it at 25 in the city, but I forgot two things: I recently took it to the dealer for the ball-joint recall fix and they put it to 30 and its alot hotter in the desert. When I check out pressure leaving to get on the highway, it was at 35!!! I was like HOLY%$@#!

Anyway, is it safe to drive 40 mph at 15psi? I wasn't sure so I took the safe rout, I mean I've read some articles on airing down, but didnt remember them addressing this point.

Some pics.









Around five palms


I'd like to close with me being a dork


Thanks for the help, I had a great time and will definately do this again.

 

right on!!! now you have to come out on some runs this fall/winter...I do more wash running than crawlin so your locked 2wd will keep up fine.
fwiw i run 20 rear and 25 front off road and haul balls in the washes, i also tend too keep my rear end locked while off road in 2wd, helps with control and greatly helps fun factor.
Mike

 

You should come out this SAT. They said the trail has been cleaned up a bit so u may be alright. Chime in and post on the SD thread to see what others think.