The Rooster
June 2017
THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association
What’s New We had a great sand season, and are heading into the summer where members will play with river toys, visit Coral Pink and get ready for October!
Dumont May 4-8, 2017 by Jim Kastle Thursday morning, Walt and I caravanned from Golden Valley, through Bullhead City, Searchlight, Mountain Pass, Baker, where we had a Mad Greek lunch, and finally Dumont. My truck has been having some power issues (possibly a turbo problem) so at times the drive was painfully slow, for example, 25 MPH over
Dumont was great The Dumont trip lived up to our hopes, as once again we closed out the season with lots of fast riding, and had a variety of temperatures as well. It went from over 100 degrees to in the 50s.
Coral Pink is Next The trip of the year is coming up in less than two months. Look for more details in next month’s newsletter.
Mountain Pass, but Walt patiently followed me. Frank Wilson was already at the previously agreed upon spot, near restroom 10. It was hot, about 105. We quickly got the cars out of the trailers and fired up the AC. Steve Porter and Kevin Fegan soon arrived. We did squeeze in a late afternoon ride. There were no other
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camps, so we had the dunes to ourselves, and the sand was perfectly smooth. With no tracks, depth perception was poor, so I tended to ride in our tracks. We had a totally unneeded campfire, but everyone came out and visited. John and Anna arrived around 9:00 P.M.
Upcoming Events • July 9-12: Pre-Coral Pink time in Mesquite, NV. • July 12-21: Coral Pink Sand Dunes Utah State Park • July 21-22: Night in Mesquite after Coral Pink
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Friday morning we left camp about 8:20 in an attempt to take advantage of the shadows, and to avoid the heat. The ride was fast and I tended to follow the same path time after time. One particular spot that we call the U's has been a favorite for years, in large part because we can run through it in fourth gear, climb a dune, make a U turn, and go down in fourth fear, and make another U turn, and continue a long sweeping turn, all at high speed. Every ride this trip included multiple passes through the U's. This trip was unusual in that we established routes through
a couple of sections, and found a variety of ways to connect them, and followed basically a track. It was not our usual duning, but it WAS fast, and on every ride we used at least five gallons of gas per car. No one complained, and we had a ball! It did get pretty hot, again about 105. Chuck Grossman arrived with his buggy behind a truck. He had arranged to stay with Kevin. Ray arrived about 2:00 P.M. After it cooled off a bit, we took an afternoon ride that was very much like the morning ride. In fact, each day was a repeat of Friday with two rides that were very similar to the first. The most impressive thing about this ride was that Ray kept up on a very fast buggy ride, seemingly with little effort. He can sure drive the 1000. We had a campfire that was for ambience only, as it was a very comfortable evening. Huck, a long time friend of Ray with the new Can Am that Eibach used to prototype springs, who we met earlier this season, arrived with his wife,son, and daughter about sunset. P.J., Melissa and the kids arrived about 10:00 P.M.
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Saturday morning we took our morning ride starting at 8:00 A.M. and Ray, Huck, and Huck's family went on a family-friendly ride and met up with us on a break. During the break between the morning and afternoon rides, Ray took a nap. P.J. had brought out a replacement front spring for Ray to install, so John decided it would be nice to replace the spring. Obviously, it didn't seem to aect Ray's driving, but it did need to be replaced. Huck and John, with a little help from P.J. and me, removed the shock and using a couple of tie downs as a spring compressor installed the new spring. We decided not to say anything to Ray, instead placing the pieces of the broken spring in Ray's driver's seat. It wasn't until we were getting ready for the afternoon ride that Ray noticed the new spring. He thanked us all. Huck and Ray followed the buggies on the afternoon ride, again with seemingly little eort. Side by sides have evolved quickly since I bought mine five years ago, and both Ray and Huck have a lot of skill, and seemingly no fear, which probably is inspired by their skill. In short, don't expect to see me in my RZR on any buggy rides! The ride was similar to the others of the trip, except for a short detour and break at the North Pole, prompted by a brief rain shower! After a few minutes the clouds blew by, and we resumed the ride. Back in camp some wind and showers prompted us to move the carne asada potluck indoors. Huck used a very special bar-b-que; called a discetta, basically a large wok made from a plow disk, heated by a burner much like a turkey frier; inside his trailer, to cook some of the best carne I've ever had. Ray cleaned out his fifth wheel and set up tables. We brought our own chairs and everyone in camp, all 17 of us, brought Mexican themed dishes and had a feast, or is that a fiesta? Whatever you call it, it was outstanding food, made all the better by the great company and the comfort of being out of the weather. Thanks to everyone!
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Sunday morning Ray again rode with Huck and his family, while the buggies followed our now familiar route, and were joined by another buggy. When we took a break he stopped with us and we found he was from Las Vegas, and decided to come out for the day after seeing the weather forecast. He seemed to be a rather experienced duner, but lost some credibility with us first when he asked what Glamis was like, and second when he said he was more comfortable in his RZR than his rather nice long travel buggy! While we were taking this break we were circled by Ray, Huck, and his family. Back in camp P.J. and Huck packed up and headed for home. I broke my tradition of following P.J. to the Mad Greek, instead opting for another buggy ride. The ride was similar to the others, and was good enough we all decided not to mess up a good trip by trying for one more ride Monday morning. Ray had an appointment Monday, so he left after the ride. Monday morning we took some time packing and loading up, but we were all on the road by 10:30. Walt, John, Anna, and I had lunch at the Mad Greek. On the drive home I was able to get a running start for the hills, so I was able to crest Mountain Pass at 45 MPH, much better than the trip there, but nothing like it should be. Walt stayed with me, and we made it home with no big problems. As I write this my truck is at the Grossman's shop, United Diesel Service. I am looking forward to a much easier Coral Pink trip.
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June 2017
RV Fridge Repair By Paul Kastle When we got home from Spring Break, we noticed that the food in the freezer in the trailer was melting. The Fridge hadn't shut off, but the ice cream was definitely soft. I decided to let it run for a couple of days after unloading it to see how it was working. Well, a couple of days later everything was at room temperature, and the fridge still said it was running fine. When I opened the outside access hatch, I could see the dreaded yellow powder (sodium chromate) everywhere indicating that the system had a leak. The big 8 cu. ft. fridge is something we loved about our trailer, especially for longer trips, but now it was just another cabinet. With Coral Pink only a few months away, we knew we had to figure something out. I checked out what it would cost to get a new replacement fridge, and when I couldn’t find anything under $1500 I decided I better look at other options. Fortunately in my Google search results for refrigerators there were results for “refrigerator cooling units”, and even better “rebuilt refrigerator cooling units”. These were much closer to my price range, but I wondered how they worked, and whether I could change one myself. After a little more web research, and some time at work watching YouTube videos, I found that the process really didn’t seem to be that difficult. There are a few different places that sell rebuilt cooling units, and one even offers a lifetime warranty on their units. Within a few days I ordered the unit for $470 delivered, which includes free return shipping on my old core unit. I waited the rest of the week and didn’t get tracking information, so I was hesitant to take my old one out or apart until I knew the new one was on its way. On Monday I got a UPS tracking notice saying that I had a 60 lb package coming from RVCOOL on Tuesday, but the Dumont trip was only two weeks away and I didn’t have another free weekend before leaving. I decided to go for it, and that night I took the fridge out of the trailer. It came out just like the video, except for the fact that Weekend Warrior had added about 10 more screws to the six that Dometic uses to hold it in. I was able to take the doors off so I wouldn’t scratch them, then laid the unit face down on the floor 5
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June 2017
in the kitchen of the trailer in front of my sandrail. It barely fit, but it was nice not to have to unload the trailer or try to get the fridge out of the side door. In just over an hour I had the original cooling unit removed from the refrigerator, and I was ready for the new unit. On Tuesday the new unit arrived, and I put it in the garage before heading to the elevator shop to work on John’s sandrail. (Tuesdays are buggy night, and this night we had an actual buggy to work on so the trailer would have to wait.) On Wednesday I got home and started working on the fridge. I applied the thermal mastic that came with the cooling unit to the tubes where they touch the back side of the freezer cabinet and the aluminum fins in the refrigerator. Then I attached the fins to the new unit and sat it into the box. This was a little hard by myself, but I got it in a couple of minutes. I sealed the unit using weather-stripping and foil tape like the YouTube video suggested, and then I started attaching screws to hold the unit in place. The original burner assembly and electronics were reused, and pretty much went right into place on the new unit. While it was out and apart I replaced the condensation drain line which looked like split loom and had broken into multiple crunchy pieces. It took a little while to figure out the sheet metal that surrounds the burner, but I got everything back
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together in about an hour and a half. Then Melissa helped me lift the fridge into place in the trailer, and we slid it in. I reattached the doors before sliding it the last inch into the cabinet, and then attached the power and propane line from the outside access hatch. About 10:30 that night, after about another half hour of working on it I was ready to fire it up. It lit and turned on like it should, and there were no leaks. It appeared to be working, but I’d have to wait until morning to see if it was cold. The next morning the fridge was at 38 degrees and the freezer was nice and cold. The repair really wasn’t that hard, and was relatively inexpensive too. We’ll see how it works going forward, but so far I am very optimistic, and looking forward to using it at Coral Pink.
Dumont Drone Pics: Here’s some pics of camp at Dumont. For more, check out the videos posted on the club website.
This month we’d like to thank Jim Kastle for writing about the Dumont trip. Feel free to send in updates about whatever you are up to this summer. We all enjoy the variety, and it helps make sure there is something interesting to fill the newsletter with when there aren’t as many trips to report on. We can’t wait to hear from you and to see everybody soon. Next month we’ll have our annual Coral Pink preview newsletter, as we get ready for our 23rd year making that awesome trip. -Paul, Melissa, Allie, and Marshall. 7