Cruise Moab Live (2015)

[BigMike]

Joe's Supercharged 3.4-swapped 3rd gen:

[blackdiamond]

The closer you are to stock the more exciting the Launch Pad is.  When I ran the Golden Spike in my 85 Ext Cab with 32 inch tires, open differentials, and stock gearing all around I didn't make it up on at least one attempt.  I managed to get it hopping a little in the rear and forward progress ended.  Once I figured it out it wasn't an issue.

I assume you're on Hell's Revenge today and are still catching up from yesterday's pictures.

[cruiserpilot]

how many years of experience all together I wonder??   

[BigMike]

I assume you're on Hell's Revenge today and are still catching up from yesterday's pictures.

Yeah sorry about that, trying to get caught up to "Live"

how many years of experience all together I wonder??   

Boy isn't that the truth!!

Continuing from Poison Spider Mesa...



All Pro's Rear Tacoma Bumper took a real beating, specifically the tire carrier, and held up great. I was impressed with it Jon



Regrouped





Caught Marlin napping!

[BigMike]

At this point there wasn't much left other than to head back out the way we came in. Here are a few more pics of Poison Spider Mesa!




Our trusty leader Adam



Plenty of steep drop-offs, traction limited due to a lot of sand atop the ledges



A lot of switch backs and big elevation changes

[BigMike]

Back in civilization!



So Marlin last got gas in Mason, Texas and was still burning the fuel. When we started the trail Marlin thought he had half a tank but it must have been less. On one particularly steep climb - registered more than 40-degrees on my clinometer - The Crawler Truck stalled out multiple times from fuel starvation haha So we hit the gas station the moment we got back.

Here we are outside the City Market



Find Marlin

[BigMike]

We got back in time to set up for Vendor night

Sweeeet MC banner



Check this out



Marlin drawing a crowd as always

Here he is doing his famous "Wood Trick"

[BigMike]

I'll tell you what guys, I've been to many vendor shows over the years and I have to say this was the best and most supportive of them all. We had people at our booth non-stop the entire night. The support from this event has just been phenomenal.

I always find time to get pictures of every booth but I fortunately never got a chance thanks to all the awesome people.

As a result this is the only pic I got, towards the end of the night, as you can see still sharing our product info with people

[BigMike]

One thing that wasn't so awesome is that the Crawler Truck broke down at... the... vendor night!!

Marlin and myself really enjoy demonstrating our Triple Marlin Crawler T/Case Setup by redlining our engines in first gear. It is uber impressive as at near 6,000 RPM, The Crawler Truck is only moving 0.433 MPH. Needless to say the sound of a truck bouncing off the rev limiter draws a huge crowd and is one of the most impressive product demonstration I can think of.

Well, the second time Marlin did this his welder/alternator decided to have a yard sale



Above is a picture of his alternator being removed at about 1am. The plastic air fin cooler mounted behind the pulleys finally gave up the ghost.

This happened right when we were about to weld and repair a FJ80 rear bumper. Bummer!

So without the fan the alternator would overheat for sure (never mind the welder function). With no spare The Crawler Truck was done. We couldn't run into town for a new GM alternator because the welder feature Marlin built changes the entire backside of the welder including different plugs. Also, we couldn't just get a new 3RZ-FE alternator because Marlin had to greatly modify his Tacoma harness for the welding circuitry, so also not an option.

About two hrs after this guess what happened? A guy from the event walked over to our booth and handed Marlin a good used GM alternator with cooling fan in excellent condition!!

Edit: Corrected some info below:
Some people are just awesome! Neil, a member of the Rising Sun Club who put the event on, heard about Marlin's alternator woes and called his friend Jim who he knew could help. Jim is from Grand Junction (110 miles away) and was already on his way to Moab passing through Fruita, CO when Neil called him. Jim turns around, goes back 40 mins out of his way to grab a spare GM alternator, and two hours later he was at our booth handing us the part we needed!!

Marlin was really tired so I did the dirty work while Marlin took a shower and hit the sack, wanting to get the truck back together before morning because we had another trail ride to attend.

Here is the new fan and old fan:

[BigMike]

This alternator had been through a lot since the early 90s even before Marlin Crawler existed. Countless people have been repaired on the trail thanks to this device that doubles as the truck's alternator.

We've been doing this demonstration for a long time and I guess it's time to do less Our Round-Up EMT Bob Brown was here and when Marlin told him, "I've done this a hundred times", Bob said, "GM only manufactured it for 99."

[BigMike]

I got the new fan installed and the alternator back in by about 2am. All is good right? Not quite. The jolt from the fan exploding must have jarred the welder circuits and the alternator was no longer charging.

So new alternator fan, alternator reinstalled, engine running great, only ~10-1/2 volts on the volt gauge.



I gave up. Maybe Marlin can work his magic in the morning?

As previously posted, it was time for a shower and much needed sleep:

[BigMike]

We both slept in, missing our 9am Hell's Revenge departure. Marlin played with the wiring and tested magnetism at the back of the alternator and determined that it had internal damage. One nice thing is that this happened here in a city rather than late on a trail somewhere someone needing Marlin's welder for a serious repair. Perhaps the alternator had been on it's last life for a while and it was just time to get it rebuilt...

Marlin thought for a moment about swapping GM guts and removing the welder from the harness, but.... even after all that he'll very likely miss most of the day run. So he decided to stay in camp and hang out with customers which was actually great because he got to take a few customers out for both breakfast and others for lunch, and had a great time hanging with customers in the city.

[blackdiamond]

Glad Marlin had a great day, but did you stay in town as well?  There's this one trail that I keep suggesting that you run that will only take a couple  of hours and it's 5 minutes from town.

:deadhorse:

[cruiserpilot]

I'm not surprised someone from Gr Junction helped you out. I go there often and it is one of the top 10
places in America!     Hanging around and yakkin' isn't wheeling, but it can be a lot of fun too!   

[BigMike]

Friday morning

Every morning we wake up to this:



These are seeds from the many Cottonwood Trees here. They are floating around and get in all your gear, it's crazy but also very pretty.

In this campground much of the ground looks like this:

[BigMike]

During the vendor show a very close Crawler family friend showed up entirely by surprise, our great friend Jeff Badger.

Jeff has been following THIS VERY THREAD and as he lives only 4 or 5 hours away, he drove over to surprise us.

Such a great surprise Jeff, it really meant a lot to us all. We have not seen Jeff in a good ten years! Jeff used to work for Marlin before Marlin Crawler existed, and was also a Pathfinder youth leader for myself and my sister when we were wee lil kids (a Seventh Day Adventist version of Boy/Girl Scouts).

Jeff ended up staying the night in our cabin. Wow it was just great to catch up-



Jeff showing Marlin the route he took to get here. If you've ever hung out with Marlin then you know he has an incredible memory for interstate numbers and city names. Marlin impresses on so many levels



For reference as to how good a friends these two are, if you follow our Facebook page then you'll recognize this 1998 picture. Great times

[BigMike]

I'm not surprised someone from Gr Junction helped you out. I go there often and it is one of the top 10 places in America!     Hanging around and yakkin' isn't wheeling, but it can be a lot of fun too!   

Interesting. Well Jim is certainly one hell of a cool guy for helping us out!

And yes yakkin' can be so refreshing and nurturing as well!

did you stay in town as well?

So with Marlin staying behind and without further ado I was off to Hell's Revenge for my first time ever! (at least I think so; my memory of Moab from when I was a little kid isn't so good)



Hell's Revenge and a few other trails are within a state recreational area so there is a day use fee of $5/vehicle to participate. Beings we are part of an organized run, our entry fee was waived for us, however, we are now over an hour and a half late to the party. With our trail leader long gone, I wasn't sure if they'd charge me, but the guy at the gate was super friendly and let me pass with no problems.

Making my way up to the park entrance. Thank you Google Maps. I had no clue where I was going.



At the trail head airing down! Running 5psi like always (I'm accustomed to California trails and it worked well yesterday on the slick rock as well)



Our local friend and customer Don Larson (from Visalia, CA) rode shotgun with me again

[blackdiamond]

Pathfinders isn't something I see referenced often online.

You probably caught the group for Hell's Gate?

[BigMike]

Pathfinders isn't something I see referenced often online.

I have a TON of great, great memories. Was part of the Fresno Navigators I earned so many badges I had to get a second slash and I was a member of our "Elite" drill team haha Thoooooose were the days!

The moment you leave pavement you're met with a really nice backbone rock with a steep 90-degree off-camber entrance ramp.

Here is a pic from about halfway up the backbone / fin



And another from it's far side

[BigMike]

Park property rules. Speed Limit 20 MPH



Fortunately there wasn't too much traffic on the trail because I was in hammer-down mode to catch the group that was at least 1.5 hrs a head of me.

We did find a small group of Jeeps, a couple Yotas, and a couple side by sides. Also found a guy flying a quadcopter and he took video of me climbing this one hill. Obviously he got epic footage.





Check out the white drone at left

[BigMike]

The beginning of the trail looks like this for miles. Reallllly cool





Found some MTBers with dedicated bike trails including similar "follow the rubber brick road" tire singletracks. How cool is that?

[BigMike]

I was happy to find a number of flooded areas. Having wet tires really added to the fun l

[SqWADoosh]

I was torn between going to Cruise Moab or taking my club in September. This thread is starting to make me think I made the wrong decision! 

[blackdiamond]

I was torn between going to Cruise Moab or taking my club in September. This thread is starting to make me think I made the wrong decision! 

Nope. You made the right decision. Your trip will be your trip and you will have more days on the trail.

[pacer]

Thanks for posting @big mike, I feel like I was there.

[OVRAROK]

Thanks for posting @big mike, I feel like I was there.

x2

[SqWADoosh]

Just saw this get posted:

[cruiserpilot]

        Now I really wish I was there...

[jangelfire]

Apologizing for taking all day!! LMAO

[Box Rocket]

Mike, some kind words in here for sure, and I don't know how well deserved?  But thank you.  Being on the trail with you guys was a blast and I didn't need to do much "leading".  Looking forward to the next time!

Adam Tolman