Back from the Rubicon
I still need to collect my thoughts and sort through the photos, but overall it was one of the better trips through that trail. I found I pushed my limits a bit more and spent more time on 2 wheels than usual, but all in all a great time was had.
A good friend of mine sent me this quote, I thought it befitting:
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Hellen Keller
Labels: jeep, outdoor, travel
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Rubicon 2001 Trip Report
Here's a repost of a 2001 trip through the Rubicon where I had a great time with a bunch of great people. 
2001 Rubicon Trip Report
Labels: jeep, outdoor, travel
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Engine squealing
So I was getting a loud squealing sound from the Wrangler, classic belt squeal to me, but I looked it over and it seemed fine and had already tightened the hell out of it to no avail. Tried swapping the idler pulley and even the fan clutch, which turned out to not be bad after all (impressive for 160k on the factory one) but was time to replace anyways. Problem went away but came back.
Discovered this awesome trick, to pin it to your belt or not, get a spray bottle and squirt water on the belt while it the engine is on, if she squeal stops, it's the belt, if not, it's obviously something not affected by water on the belt, i.e. bearings or whatever. Lucky for me it was just the belt.
Labels: DIY, jeep
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Navigation tools
My very first GPS was one of the very early civilian models from Garmin, it had an external antenna that you could adjust. I got the "military" style model and unfortunately it was pretty much a piece of junk. The antenna was not very tough and while simply trying to rotate it the thing popped off. When attempting to put it back, some of the connecting points snapped. Thankfully, I was able to return it and purchased a Magellen unit. I liked the Magellans in that they were self contained, waterproof and had a very simple interface.
Of course this was back in the days when a GPS really only gave you data. Direction, speed, latitude, longitude and sea level elevation. On top of that, it was $300. I used that thing in combination with USGS topo maps for many years, it came with me on Jeeping adventures and backpacking trips into the unknown. Unfortunately it finally gave up the ghost a few months ago after providing me with over 10 years of service. Time for a new one and while I was at it, I figured I might as well go full bore and see what kinds of topo software was out there.
After a bit of research I settled on the Magellan eXplorist e210 United States version. Without going into detail on the specs, you can google those, the device comes preloaded with a US map containing major roads, parks, airports and waterways. For more detailed maps you can upload them into the unit via special software.
Now personally I don't really care too much about a detail map on a tiny little GPS screen. The zoomed out major roadways is fine for my purposes, any real detail requires a real map. Not to mention the fact that if your GPS dies for one reason or another, you better have a real map and compass handy or you might not be making it back to camp. Another nice feature is a dual level backlight that allows you to choose a dim or bright setting, very nice. Considering the fact that the backlight on these things can be a real power hog.
Here's the dim setting, note that I'm not tracking any satellites yet as I just turned the GPS on and I'm inside an office building with it pointing away from the windows. However, if you'll notice in the next picture, it started the tracking process anyway and locked a satellite. From everything I'd read and now experienced, this GPS handles satellite aquisition and lock extremely well. I don't yet have a handlebar mount, so to tracklog I just fire it up and toss it in my bag and it works just fine.
Another one of the nice features with this device is being able to set something called a track log, which more or less just records a ton of waypoints automatically as you move along. The nice thing about this is that you can wander off wherever the hell you want, then basically just tell it to do a return trip and it will guide you back the way you came.
The other nice thing about that is that not only can you use it to record locations with a route to get there as well as how to get back to say... camp with virtual breadcrumbs, but you can import this data into good topo software, like the TOPO! maps software from National Geographic. Now that is super cool, with that little feature when you return from a trip you can download the data off your GPS into your PC and see where you went on your map. Of course one of the primary reasons for getting the GPS is that you can also plot charts on your map and upload them to your GPS as a route that you can follow.
Combined with the very awesome National Geographic TOPO! map software, this little guy will be seeing a lot of use.
Now that I can print my own 100k and 7.5' topo maps I can feel free to abuse them and mark all over them and with the routes I create on it uploaded to my GPS, I can feel confident that not only will it lead me where I want to go, it will get me back home as well.
Labels: backpacking, gear, jeep, outdoor, travel, xt225
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
