Gary Lewis

I'd do my best to convince her that a Bronco is not a truck. And if that didn't work I might agree to give the '50 Chevy back to her cousin.

Amen, brother! David knows, but Janey and I celebrate 49 years of marriage on Wednesday. I thank God for her daily as she has been such a blessing in my life.

And now I think I know why I was thinking of ratings for the trails. I'm hoping for additional trips! My daughter and family just got back from Colorado and New Mexico and they were taken with it. (They took my new truck, Blue, and absolutely loved the truck as well.) That got me to thinking about taking them, or at least the grandtwins, out there. And I remembered the D&RGW train from Durango to Silverton. Janey and I rode that train in probably 1970 just after we were married, and then again in the mid-90's with our kids. And now I'd like to take the grands on it as well. So, we watched Support Your Local Gunfighter with them and I think they are interested. But, since the train ride ends in Silverton you are just 23 miles from Ouray. Hmmm! So, I think I need a good understanding of the trails out there, and not only the ones Janey would be willing to do. That's because I may get the opportunity to take my son on some of them or my grandkids, and their willingness to do things will be different than Janey's. Plus, we might have Blue out there and want to take him on some of the easier trails. (He's got a rear locker, but nothing up front.) Or, maybe rent a Jeep. Or tow one.

I'm in no hurry to get the info on my thread. I'm just having a great time reading your adventures. As for doing it in Big Blue, I'm guessing that I may want to try it on another trip w/o Janey. Or, maybe I should say "on a trip with Janey but without her on that trail". In an effort to keep the focus here on your trip, more of this on my thread.......

Absolutely. The conversation went something like this: And, it was real. Extremely real. We brought back a treasure trove of parts, and a truck that needed help but not money. So far the most expensive "repair" has been to have a vacuum pulled and freon added to the A/C. Yes, I've done a lot of work on it, but basically I've spent essentially nothing.

Yep, but I'm told I have enough trucks.

Many years ago [my children were still very young], while enroute to Denver, we experienced one of KS's late snows and ended up having an accident and spending a couple of days in Goodland. Nice people, but not good memories. That wouldn't be good memories at all. Mine are much better. I heard Red Rubber Ball yesterday and commented to Janey that my memories of that song are sitting in a cafe in Goodland with my father and my brother as we took a break from hunting pheasant. I played that song on the juke box, so it would have been in the fall of '66. Sitting outside would have been my '58 Bel Air. Another remembrance from that trip was my return trip to Manhattan, KS. I was in engineering school at Kansas State and had traveled what we now know as the back roads of Kansas to get there. On the way back I stopped at a restaurant in a little town and asked what all of the road construction was. I was told that it was I-70, and while the construction was done it hadn't been opened yet. But the locals were using it and that I should as well. I did, and assuming that the highway patrol wasn't going to be there I "cruised". (That car cruised easily above 100.) Made really good time back to school.

That's yet another great idea. I have plenty of the plastic wrap, so can do that as well. As for luck, yes that's the way it usually happens. I'm reminded of the trip in 1969 or '70 when we took the VW van to Arkansas. Sunday morning, with a white shirt on for church, we had a flat. I wasn't very clean when the spare was on.

Wow! That Wall looks like fun! But, I don't think it is something Big Blue would like given his front and rear overhang as well as his stiff suspension, and I'm sure Janey wouldn't. But the views are amazing! Keep the reports coming, I'm living vicariously.

I don't have any experience with distributor brands. But if you are replacing the dizzy I'd go for one that is correct for a truck with whatever EGR setup you'll have. In other words, if you will have EGR then go with the correct one for your truck. But if you won't, drop back to one that doesn't have EGR. That way the advance curve will be close to what you need. As far as with or without a builtin ignition module, one built in would cause you to rewire. Do you want to do that? It would be easiest to leave the current module on the fender. But if your wiring is toast then maybe it would be time to rewire. But another option is to just replace the pickup in the dizzy rather than the whole dizzy. You can do that in situ and not even change the timing - although you should check it as it could change it slightly.

Yes, it does sound too good to be true. But, my deal for Big Blue sounded that way but turned out to be true.

Needs some body work, but he's not asking too much either.

SSB = single side band. Used to have my license - WA0FFF. Worked 80 and 20 meters with a Heathkit DX80 transmitter and a Knight R100A receiver. Long time ago.

Dyn - I really like that idea. I'm going to see if I have some of the 1" composite flooring left and cut a piece or two of it to fit.

It sounds like the pickup in the spare dizzy is bad. That's about all it could be. And I agree you've not fixed anything, so the problem will come back. However, if you moved a wire that was broken or shorting then it might not come back until you move the wires again. The pickup modules can start failing when they get hot. And from what I've read they quit and then come back again pretty quickly. But it is all or nothing. No bogging down as if running out of fuel. Just on/off.

No reason to hurry. Just let it work and then rinse it well.

With the two 5 gallon cans you should be able to make it to good old Goodland. (We used to drive there from home for pheasant hunting, so have been there many times.) But you'll probably want to stop and add one of the cans to make sure you don't run out on the interstate. As for Oklahoma, you'll have gas at Tonkawa where you exit I-35 onto US 60. The station is immediately to your right. Then there's gas in Ponca, but you'll have to go into town and lose time. Instead, go on past Ponca on 60, cross the river, and then up on top of the hill there are several stations. Your map may call that McCord. There's there's basically nothing until Pawhuska, and the best selection is where you turn south from 60 onto 99. (Don't take 9 Mile Road, nor turn south on 18 toward Fairfax since there's not much gas down that way - and it is longer.) South of Pawhuska there may be gas in Wynona, but there certainly is in Hominy. Then, when you turn onto OK 20 there's nothing until you are basically in Skiatook.

I grew up before the internet, but I too prefer the traditional forums. I tried voting, but it didn't seem to let me. I'm a little late to the vote here...I was a couple hundred miles out in the north Atlantic the past couple weeks with an internet connection that was sketchy at best;). In any case, I came via FTE, but I can't remember exactly what/when/why....a link to one of Gary's write-ups I presume. I believe it was the gauge needle painting page;). The vote count is up, so I'm thinking it did let you. I think you just press the button for the way you want to vote and then press the Vote button to register your vote. And, after almost 4 days we have 3 votes for a search, 12 for another forum, and 2 for "other", for a total of 17.

On the rear I jack under the axle housings, as close to the wheel as I can get. On the front I jack on the swing arm/axle, again as close as I can get to the wheel with the jack. Granted it isn't exactly parallel with the ground, but I've never had a jack slip there. However, I always use jack stands before I get under the truck. Jacking that way doesn't require jack with a lot of lift as 1" of jacking gets you almost 1" of wheel lift. And you can use the factory jack in the same way.

You can start a thread on Bullnose Cutlery. But those look sweet.

I've used the Loctite kits before, but it was years ago. I seem to recall there being a little jig to align the two cut ends perfectly. That is the hardest part to accomplish. I forget where I was when I used the kit...but it was either on an offshore oil rig or in a mine up north...both places where there were no other options. It worked, but I have no idea how long it lasted. I think I would try to find an o-ring that fit rather than machine the fitting. That's a critical place in the scheme of engine lubrication, and any leak could cause big problems as well as a big mess.

Thanks! As to the crowds, I think that's not too uncommon (the FJ Summit was maybe pretty big). But it's a BIG area, so it rarely was an issue. And even when it was, it was generally only a pretty short delay. If you're looking for seclusion, Ouray won't give it to you. But that's not to say it's too crowded. Sorry, Jeep jargon. JKs are the 2007(?) - early 2018 Wranglers. JLs are the new 2018 Wranglers. The "U" is for "Unlimited" which designates the 4-door version. Prior to the mid-size Cherokee and Wagoneer that people today are familiar with (from the '80s - 2001), they were based on the old "fullsize" J-series pickups. The Wagoneer was the 4 door version, the Cherokee had 2 doors. The Cherokee and the J-trucks had a vertical slot grill (about 22 slots if I recall, not the 7 that Jeep says they always have) while the Wagoneers had a more "elegant" looking grill. It seems no one likes the Wagoneer grills. Or maybe they're hard to find. Anyway, most of the Wagoneers had the vertical slot grills. Yeah, we ended up giving away one map to a lost person on the trail, and helping another who had a national forest map figure out where they were (which was not where they thought or wanted). I had a simple hand-drawn map from an old trail guide that was very helpful, and my "sketched" map on mt GPS which was VERY helpful because it also showed exactly where we were on the map. And back to your earlier question, "Est" is "estimated". Those are the trails I drew in by hand using the GPS base map as a guide. If the base map is correct (and it frequently was), then those lines are accurate. But I can't otherwise vouch for them. Ok, got it. I understood JK, and by extension JL, but didn't get the "U". And I wondered if Est meant estimated. Now I know. On the Wagoneers, that makes sense. Apparently a lot of people are restoring them now. As for the crowds, I'm not looking for seclusion. In fact, I don't want to be the only one on the mountain. But I also don't want to be that guy that is going too slowly or having trouble negotiating the turns and holding bunches of people up. And, I've been thinking about ratings for the trails. But I don't want to derail your wonderful trip report here, so I posted about it on my thread.

For the trails around Ouray I'm wondering if there is some kind of rating. And not just one number, but maybe a series of numbers. One thought is something like: Shelving: How narrow the "shelves" are coupled with how many there are, coupled with how far the drop would be, to give a sense of how much angst there would be. In other words, one shelf with a two-foot drop is one thing, but shelf after shelf that is so narrow that placement has to be perfect, with a 2000' drop on each one is another thing altogether. Technicality: This might be a combo of steepness and smoothness of the trail, making it difficult for a novice driver. Turns: This could be a factor of the number of turns plus the tightness of the turns plus the drop off if you go wrong. Oh, and might this be different for different vehicles? Overall rating, blending the above. But, again, does this vary by vehicle? And driver? Hmmm. I'm making this toooooo complicated!

I'm ready to go!!! But Big Blue isn't. So much I want to do to him before we go. Anyway, I absolutely LOVE the pics. Stunning scenery! Inspiring. As for the crowds, it does sound sorta busy, especially with the clubs there. However, we will probably go a bit later in the year and hope many people will be home from their vacations. I do have a few questions. What are JKU's and JLU's? And what is "Est" on the map? And you saw a lot of Wagoneers? And why the Cherokee/Jeep-truck grills on them? Is that an upgrade of some sort? The maps are a huge help. It is difficult to get my head around all the different trails, but having things laid out in the thread helps significantly. Thanks. Anyway, patiently awaiting MORE!

Chris - I'd forgotten that you have such low gears. No wonder you get 10 MPG. And with only 31" tires and that gearing I'm not sure you will get much better, regardless of tuning. Turning 3000 RPM at 65 MPH is a killer on MPG. Big Blue is at 2500 R's at that speed currently with the 3.55's and 33" tires, and should drop to 1800 with the ZF - which is essentially half of your RPM. And a ZF would drop yours to 2150, which isn't bad. As for the gas sender, a NOS one would be nice. But they are pretty much gone for the older small-hole tanks from what I've seen. And the Spectras don't seem to last. The one on Big Blue keeps getting stuck on Full, as it is now, which gives a false sense of security. Finding high octane on the road isn't easy either. I fought that battle to/from Lake Powell two years ago .and had to do some searching several times to find it. And that's with a 36 gallon tank, so it was much less frequent than you'd have to do. Having said that, once you get into OK, which means you are off the KS turnpike, the odds are much better. There's a Conoco station at Blackwell and several of them in Ponca City, all of which should have it. Then when you get to Pawhuska there's a Come & Go which has it. But, with two 5 gallon jugs of gas, which is exactly what I did when I took Big Blue and the trailer to Grove to get the Chevy, you'll have another 100 miles of range. And that should get you to another station - you just might have to search for one with 91 octane.