The Rooster
May 2021
THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association
What’s New The season is pretty much over, but we have one more trip to Dumont coming up to round it out nicely.
Moab is Coming A good sized group is planning on a trip to Moab Utah in mid-May. We are looking forward to hear more about this trip.
Website Forum / Trip Sign Up Issues People are still seeing an error message after posting their trip plans on the club website. I am working on a fix, but in the mean time your plans will still be posted, despite receiving an error message.
Easter at Glamis March 29April 6, 2021 As remembered by Jim Kastle After missing out on a big Easter trip last year due to COVID, we were looking forward to this year’s Easter trip. I headed to Wash 6 on Monday, March 29, the day after Nancy and I got our second Moderna vaccinations. I was worried about a reaction, but fortunately, had no reaction whatsoever. I arrived at Wash 6 after a trouble-free trip and in an attempt to avoid the crowds, parked a little closer to the tracks than we have been camping this year. When I checked my GPS, I was exactly where we regularly parked a year or two ago. It turns out there was nothing to be concerned about, as this was the least crowded week of the entire season. I immediately got the yellow trailer from storage as Jeff and Renee had invited some friends, and they were told to look for the yellow trailer. Within five minutes of returning with the trailer, a
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The Rooster
May 2021 lady drove up and asked if I was Jim. She was Debbie, Renee’s friend. Her husband, Gary had stayed with their trailer, about 200 yards from where I parked. They moved their trailer to where I was. They also brought their daughter, whose name I’ve forgotten, and her three daughters. She had quads for everyone, expertly loaded on absolutely the smallest trailer that could possibly haul four quads. The girls ranging in age from 4 to about 12, all love to ride and especially impressed me with how carefully they rode. Gary and Debbie have a turbo Can Am and after Jeff and Renee arrived, took several rides. I then got the buggy box from storage for the last time this season. The family set up a nice campfire and the kids roasted marshmallows. We enjoyed the fire for quite a while, and they got a call that Jeff and Renee would arrive in the morning.
Upcoming Events • April 30- May 3: Season ending weekend at Dumont. Make your plans now for what is always a great weekend of fast riding. • May 9-16: Exploring Moab. Mike is leading a group to check out this iconic riding spot.
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Tuesday morning Jeff and Renee arrived. I had some welding to do on the buggy, and had positioned the trailers to give a good work area. The work went quite well, as John has provided a more powerful, but louder, generator that powers the welder better than my old Honda. I was quite pleased with the repair, and even painted it, just about 10 minutes before a very strong wind came up. The new paint now feels like medium grit sandpaper! I have some more welding to do when I get home, and I’ll sand off the grit and repaint the dune repair. Jerry and Linda, and Don soon arrived. I had some shopping to do and headed off to Yuma. When I got back there was already a campfire. Wednesday morning Don, Jerry, and I went for a side by side ride. We ended up by the swing set. The sun got quite bright by the end of the ride and we got stuck a couple of times on ridges on the way back to Olds. Wednesday afternoon Jeff, Gary, and I took a late afternoon through the bowls by Comp and Osborne. The low sun made good shadows and we had a pretty good ride. We took a break at Osborne and there was only one camper. The season is definitely coming to an end. Thursday morning we went for another side by side ride similar to Wednesday’s. John and Anna arrived, as did Danny and Pam, and Charlie, Jennifer and Dane. For the first time all season Walt arrived. He plans to sell the buggy and the toy box and figured this would be a good weekend to gain exposure. It was sure good to have him back in camp, and it would be a good thing for him to be able to concentrate on the Can Am, and the enclosed trailer. The buggy was built for a younger man. I have a hard time getting into or out of it, and I’m a lot more limber than Walt. A side by side is a lot easier to get into or out of. The buggy is 2
The Rooster
May 2021
one of the more beautiful sand rails anywhere, and one of the fastest. Walt’s a realist and wants it gone. Someone is going to get a great deal! Gary and Debbie left, and Dave Huggard arrived, followed by Pete and Jeremy and one of Jeremy’s friends. Ray and Janice towing their just reengineered and reconstructed Weekend Warrior arrived. The frame had some noticeable (at least to Ray) flex, and he removed most of the frame from the landing gear forward and replaced it with expertly planned and fabricated framework, including a new air-ride hitch pin. The work is perfect, and you have to know it’s been modified to be able to detect it. Tom and Sarah Ricketts and Jacob and Aubrey arrived. Their arrival insured a better trip for Allie and Marshall. Thursday evening Don, Walt, Jeff and Renee, and I went to Yuma for Jeff and Renee’s first Texas Roadhouse visit. The restaurant was at its best and they were impressed. When we got back, Jeremy’s buggy battery was dead. Connecting a regular battery charger didn’t help. John remembered something about charging totally discharged Optima batteries requires hooking a conventional battery in parallel with the Optima. He made a quick call to P.J. to confirm, and he was right. We hooked up Jeremy’s trailer battery to the optima, and connected a charger, and the next morning the battery was charged. Friday we all, including Walt for the first time in a long time, went for buggy ride. We soon found that Jeremy’s newly charged battery wasn’t the problem, a loose battery connection was. That was an easy field fix. We headed towards Olds, and the big bowls between Olds and Comp. The bright sun kept the pace down but I don’t think there were any further problems. I had to get back to camp, as Nancy was going to arrive, and I planned to leave her car in the yellow trailer’s spot. For those of you paying attention, you know that for several years Shawn Martin has very graciously let us store the yellow trailer in his spot at Glamis Dunes Storage at no charge. This year he planned to return to the dunes, so we had to pay for a spot. Shawn’s plans changed, and he again offered his space for the yellow trailer. This solved a dilemma of what to do about storing it during the off season. THANKS SHAWN! This also saved the cost of a pass for Nancy’s car this trip. Later Friday, Randy, Cainen and Paige Ray arrived, as did P.J., Melissa, Allie and Marshall. As P.J. unloaded the buggy, he (or probably Melissa) found the buggy had developed a coolant leak all over their newly acquired carpet roll. OOPS! He had to install a power steering pump, as the one he replaced last trip was squeaking. Upon replacing the power steering pump we discovered the source of the coolant leak was the water pump, requiring its replacement. It was almost 11:00 P.M. P.J. checked stock at both AutoZone and NAPA in Brawley, and both had one in stock, and would open by 7:00 or 7:30, so we decided to go to Brawley first thing
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May 2021
Saturday morning, thus delaying the planned 8:00 A.M. ride. Saturday Morning, P.J., Marshall, John, and I were on the road by 7:00. NAPA had the pump and the necessary coolant, but did not have the needed tap. Fortunately ACE hardware did. We returned to camp and were able to get out by 10:30. The ride was uneventful, but was hindered by the bright sun. We made an afternoon ride that was one of the worst rides I have ever led. I tried to avoid heading straight into the setting sun, and instead led us into the no man’s land between camp and hill 3. I couldn’t go a hundred yards without hitting something I didn’t want to hit. It was terrible. I’m getting angry at myself while typing this a full week later! I’M SORRY!! It did get a little better after we passed Olds, but nothing could make up for the first half! Saturday night Randy led us to Olds for one of the first night rides of the season. He did a good job of going straight to Olds on a road. John saved it on his GPS for future reference. Olds was busier than we expected, but still slow by normal standards. The day’s rides were topped off by Ray picking a great line through the dunes back to camp. I was in the RS1, and it was by far the best ride of the day, if not the trip! Thanks Ray! Sunday morning was a busy one, as we had the omelet boil, the kid’s Easter egg hunt, and the ever-popular adult Easter egg hunt. The omelets were great, as always, and the slightly smaller than usual crowd allowed plenty of “mixing.” Before the omelets, we parked the off road vehicles in the center of camp, and the adults hid the kids’ Easter eggs. With only five kids hunting, and many gracious adults, the kids had a dream of an Easter egg hunt. I think we should ask the ADA for a generous contribution, as I’m sure we impacted their business for the coming year! Every kid found plenty of eggs. I think they had a ball. After the kids finished their hunt, it was time for them to hide eggs for the adults. I know Allie and Marshall had as much, if not more, fun hiding eggs as they did finding them. After breakfast the big kids (the adults) returned to their childhoods as they hunted for eggs. We had a ball, and the kids really enjoyed watching us struggle to find the last of the eggs while the kids knew where they were. After finding the eggs, we had the prize distribution where the contents of the eggs were exchanged for the promised gifts. The “horse trading” was an unexpected benefit, much like a Christmas gift exchange. Many thanks go to everyone who participated. It’s a tradition we have not been able to continue the last few years, either due to the calendar, or of course COVID. I’m glad it’s back! After the egg hunts Ray led another great buggy/side by side ride in the bright sun. That’s a hard thing to do. He led us on a smooth, fast run through the dunes to Olds
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May 2021
and then onto the big bowls between Olds and Comp. We took a long break in the shade at Osborne. He then led a good ride back to camp. Sunday afternoon most of us headed for home. After P.J. and family left, I decided it would be a good opportunity for me to take the buggy box home, leave Nancy in camp with good company for safety, catch a long shower and a short night’s sleep, and then head back to the dunes before everyone left. It worked great. I was pleasantly surprised to find that John had packed the yellow trailer while I was gone, saving me a lot of time Monday. Nancy and I were able to go to Yuma and Texas Roadhouse for dinner Monday afternoon. We spent a quiet night Monday and had a nice drive home Tuesday. It seems this paragraph comes quicker each year! It’s hard to believe another Glamis season has come and gone. I look back and have many great memories. This club, or whatever it is now, has been a great addition to my life. I think of what would have happened to most people who lose an axle on their trailer 7 miles from Glamis. Very few of them are fortunate enough to have a group of friends so willing to help that their trip would be barely impacted. I lost half a day getting the axle, but you guys installed it in way less time than I could have done it at home. I will always remember all the help I got when I really needed it. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING! By that I mean a whole lot more than fixing my trailer. Remember we still have Dumont and Coral Pink, and some of us are trying something new with a side by side trip to Moab Utah. LET’S GO DUNIN’!
Prepping For Moab By Mike Bacon We are getting ready for a trip to Moab in the middle of May, and I thought I’d better take care of a few things on the Talon before we go. First thing I did was add a trailer hitch. This wasn’t necessarily needed for Moab, but I wanted to be able to move my small trailer around without getting the truck involved so I added it to the Talon. I’m looking forward to my first trip to the dump pulling the trailer with the Talon!
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May 2021
Next I wanted to add bead lock wheels so I can run lower pressure in my tires for better traction and a better ride. I perused the offerings on Amazon and chose a set I liked. I took all the tires off the Talon and went to a local shop to have them dismounted. In days past I would have done this myself, but getting older and arthritis in my hands makes it a lot more difficult so off to Tire Man where they dismounted all four in less than ten minutes, for $20!
Once back home it was pretty easy to get the tires mounted on the bead locks and get all the bolts torqued to spec, them remounted on the car. The next morning there were no flats so I must have done it right!
I had been thinking about adding a winch for some time, and the upcoming trip to Moab sounded like a good time to add it, so off to Harbor Freight for a 3500 pounder. Since I was mounting a winch I figured it would be a good idea to have a second battery in case we had to use the winch. I bought an under hood battery tray that went in very cleanly. I couldn’t find a replacement Talon battery locally so I settled for a Polaris battery. Not sure if having a Polaris battery in a Honda will cause the wheels to fall off, but we’re going to risk it.
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May 2021
Once the winch was installed, which went pretty smoothly except for my dropping a wrench down through the maze of wires, tubes, and other components, for which I had to take the entire skid plate off to find and extract it, we tried hooking up the cable to the garage wall and pull the Talon up the driveway. When we heard some cracking from the wall we stopped, deciding we probably had enough pulling power to pull the wall down, and Pat would have killed me many times over if that had happened! I think we’ll be able to pull someone out if we have to.
With that we are pretty well prepared for Moab. Can’t wait to try all this stuff out and experience the wonders of Utah!
This month we’d like to thank Jim Kastle and Mike Bacon for sending in articles, and encourage everyone else to do the same. We’re looking forward to getting together for a nice trip to Dumont, followed by Moab for some and then Coral Pink. It should be a great riding summer. Please send your contributions for future newsletters to me at pkastle@msn.com and we will publish them along with a calendar of events each month. -Paul, Melissa, Allie, and Marshall. 7