Transfer Case Progress and More

 Well, the motorcycle lift trick worked quite effectively. It took a few attempts to find the angle that was just right for all the bolts to line up, but with persistence, I was able to find something that worked. Once I got a couple of bolts in the holes, then it was a matter of raising and lowering the transfer case and the transmission to level out the bolts in the holes. Getting the input shaft splines to line up wasn't that huge of a deal as I was able to rotate the front tire with my foot to get them to line up. Getting the nuts on the bolts wasn't nearly as horrific as trying to get them off, since I had some experiences of which wrenches might fit in the tight spaces. I reinstalled the drive shafts, then drained and filled the fluid and I was back in business!

While I was down there, I decided to do a fluid change on the transmission. Dropping the pan was easy since the exhaust crossover was already lowered, the skids and crossmembers were out of the way. I bought a gasket/filter kit from Napa auto, which fit perfectly. Over the next few days, I've added 6 quarts of ATF+4 fluid. Finally, the fluid level is right!

Over the course of this entire endeavor, I've noticed that the rubber boot on the front drive shaft has been chewed up a little, which is indication that with the 2.5" lift, the drive shaft doesn't have enough clearance during severe articulation. Funny thing- I happen to have a Rugged Ridge exhaust spacer extension kit that I bought 5 years ago, when I bought the suspension upgrade. At the time, I wasn't convinced that the lift was enough to warrant the spacers, so I tossed them in my box full of Jeep odds and ends. Well, without too much looking, I was able to find them again. Installing them was quite the bitch though. I watched that stupid Teraflex installation video (since all the spacer kits are basically the same) and Dennis makes it look like it's a 5-minute job. Not so!! So many problems that he didn't address. For instance the flange bolt/clamp where the two pipes slide into each other is more or less welded into place, so you need to grind it off. Or the fact that the two pieces just don't slide together! They gave him a modified easy to install Jeep to demo on. I'm not the only one who experience these difficulties either.

I did the initial installation with much difficulty- realizing that the clamp bolt was not about to unscrew out and trying to force the Y-collector pipe into the cat pipe, which wasn't about to work. I took an angle grinder to the clamp and that took about an hour. Then I ratchet strapped the Y-collector to the rear axle and still it wouldn't slide in more than 3mm. I just bolted it all together to get the Jeep running. When I started it up, I immediately knew that something was wrong. There were major exhaust leaks! After spending some time on the internet cruising the forums, I could see that there were physical impediments hindering the two pipes from sliding together. Eventually I found an afternoon where I could redo the project. I rented a chain cutter from my local O'Reilly and I went to work separating the two pipes. I got the Y-collector/crosspipe free and attempted to cut just over an inch off the end, but the chain cutter kept wandering, so just got out the reciprocating saw to finish the job. From there, things got a lot easier. This time around, I sealed up each side of each spacer with high temp gasket sealant. Now everything fits as it should and no more exhaust leaks!

There are two other projects that have been on my to do list for a couple of years  1) relocating the evap canister to a place where it won't get hit by rocks and  2) extending the breather hoses from the differentials and transfer case to a higher level in case I do any deep water fording. I crawled under the Jeep this morning to access the evap canister situation and noticed that the skid plate doesn't have any rock rash on it and I've taken King through some very difficult trails!! After some deliberating, I think that it's going to be just fine in it's factory location. Some people do the relocation because their rear drive shafts make contact with the box or skid plate. I found no signs of contact on my rig.

So maybe tomorrow I'll start on raising the breathers. I think with a few odd parts from my local hardware store, I should be able to take care of it pretty easily. Once that project is done, I'll put the rest of the skid plates on the underside of the Jeep. I'm not sure how the skids are going to play with the lowered crossover exhaust pipe, but we're going to find out awful soon!!

Refocusing Update

It's been an eon since I last wrote to this blog. It's been nearly 5 months since I lost my precious dog and I still think about her all the time. In time, we'll eventually get another dog, as we really miss having that puppy energy and happiness in our lives, but for now, we're going to make the best of the situation and do a little traveling. Not having to worry about caring for the dog, while we're away will be a nice change. 

On the work front, Covid burnout is real. We are easily at least 2 techs and one tech aide short on a daily basis. While we are short-handed, our workload hasn't slowed down. From time to time, management will put out requisitions to try to fill the vacancies, but few and/or unqualified candidates apply. So matters never change. I've finally become sick of hurting myself at work. We routinely get 250-450 pound patients weekly and until recently, the techs would not have help to rely on. But since I made a stink about quitting my job due to not wanting to permanently injure myself before retirement, my new supervisor has been very good at finding us additional hands to help out. Thank you, Liz!! Still the same, come this Fall, I'll either have found an easier, non-laborious clerical position to move into to finish my vesting term or I will outright quit. I am selling one of my houses, so that should help ease me into retirement early.

The Miata- after deliberating for a few weeks, I decided to give her up and sell her. My plans were to do some autocross this Spring. But since I went ahead and swapped out the OEM tranny for a 5-speed, that would automatically bump me up to the Super-Street Modified class, running against the big boys. To even be slightly competitive, I would have to dump another $5K into the car with stand alone ECU, injectors, tires and wheels, heavier springs, etc. It's time I cut bait and concentrate on the other projects in the garage. It's taken me a few months to peel off the go-fast parts and get the car mainly back to stock- I'm still leaving the suspension, roll bar and intercooler in there, as well as miscellaneous items like stainless steel lines and upgraded stereo. The Miata is nearly ready to go to market. I just need to tweak a couple of things, then wash/wax and take pics.

The Harley- I recently did an oil/filter change and maintenanced the air filter. I installed Rocker Lockers, but I don't really think they made that much of a difference. AND I repainted the front fairing. It was that quickie bumpy job from when I first got it, but I did a real paint job this time- it turned out nice and smooth and rich. There is one spot where I wet-sanded through a little too aggressively, but I'm not worried about it. I also installed a cell phone holder, so I can see who's calling me, when riding. The bike is running great! It's pretty well set!

The Jeep- I'm continuing to put time into the Jeep, King. I still have a couple of trails left on my Hit List here in Northern California that I would like to conquer- Dusy Ershim and the Slick Rock Trail. I found on the Diablo 4-Wheelers Club calendar that they're planning on doing a Slick Rock run in July, so I went to one of their monthly club meetings. A very nice bunch of people. Friendly and accepting. Afterwards we hung out in the parking lot around my Jeep and chewed the fat. I met one of the members named Steve, who said he owns a cabin at the top of the Slick Rock Trail and offered to take me on the run in a small group! Heck yeah!!

Lately I've been working on overdue upgrades. I finally bought and installed a new gas tank skid plate after banging the old one back into shape. (That way my fuel gauge will read more accurately and I can get more gas capacity.) I went with Rough Country. It was a great price, but the kit didn't quite fit. I had to Dremel some of the holes a little wider. It was actually kind of a bitch, as I had to remove one of the tires to get access to the holes!! Whatevers.

I bit the bullet and bought a new tie rod. For a year, I've been thinking about an aluminum tie rod, but in the end, it's all about fitment. Many of the tie rods out there won't fit with the dimensions of my AEV Borah wheels. So I bought a Metalcloak kit. Fitment is great. Thank goodness I bought the lifetime wheel alignment package from Wheel Works, so I had them realign my wheels, since the front driver tire seemed to be making scrubbing noises. Something was definitely off. It was so bad driving down the freeway that the traction control light kept blinking on and off! The new alignment fixed that. I haven't really drove it much since, so I'll have to do an update later.

Ever since the Fordyce trip, I've been toying with the idea of changing out the transfer case to a Rubicon 4:1 TC. For a while, I wasn't even sure it could be done, but with a little research, it's not that hard to do as long as you get the correct part. I kept an eye on the market and prices. Finally there was a great deal on FB Marketplace with some guy in Sunnyvale. A new TC will cost $2500. A good used one will go for $1200-1500. This guy had his listed for $750, but he wasn't 100% sure it would work, so he offered it to me at $600, which I thought was very fair. Supposedly it popped out of 4-Low twice while steep descents. But when in gear, it worked great! He tried to purposely duplicate the problem, but could never get it to do it again. He had money, so he bought another used TC and paid someone to swap it out. But he first bought a used 2.72:1 TC, so he was trying to sell that one as well. When I went to pick up the case, he had the Sport TC ready to take. I checked the part number and found that he was going to give me the wrong case. Maybe an innocent mistake, but it could've been a costly one for me had I drove off with it. I figure that his problem was probably that his linkage was bad. There's not much that can go wrong with the internals. But worst case scenario is that I'll have to rebuild the case in my garage and a kit is only about $250.

Right now, I'm in the middle of doing the TC swap. On the forums, some say it should take 2.5 hours. They're completely full of shit. Maybe if you've done it a couple of times before, I can see it might be done in about 3 hours. In my case, I'm fumbling around with what to get out of the way just to get access to the mounting nuts! It took me 2 hours just to get the transmission crossmember off, since I had to unbolt most of the gas tank skid plate again! Then getting the mounting nuts off was a total struggle, trying to figure out what would actually fit in that tight space. It took me a while to figure out how to get the TC unmounted and lowered without damaging the old case. I finally got the original case off and was able to check that the input shaft spline count was the same. Phew! I did get the right part! My next step is to get the Rubi TC up and mounted. I'm thinking that I might be able to use the motorcycle lift to pump it up to the correct height, then I can slide it in. I'm hoping that the lift will fit under the Jeep- since it has 2 platforms, that will stabilize the TC and make it easier to mount. Fingers crossed!!

That's it for now! More to come....

T-Minus 5 Days and Counting.....

It's been soooooo long since we've last been on a cruise! Finally we're heading out back to sea! We booked this cruise vacation two years ago!! but as Covid would have it, the cruise was canceled last year, so we had to wait until the coast was clear to cruise again. For the sake of safety, I completely understand I it's worth it to wait- I feel safer sailing now.

The original itinerary that we chose was departing from somewhere in Florida, while the highlights were stopping by the Grand Caymans, Cartagena, Columbia, Panama, and Costa Rica. It was such a rare itinerary- one that we had never seen offered before. But that cruise was canceled. Instead, if we chose not to get a refund with the cruise line, they offered a "similar" itinerary- Cartagena, Columbia, the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao), and the Grand Cayman (which later was changed to Nassau, Bahama, since Grand Cayman still doesn't allow cruise ships to dock there).

Well, my packing is almost complete and I'm ready to go!! This is going to be quite a different kind of cruise. The ship's capacity is only at 50% (maybe a little bit more). So it's going to be a lot less crowded than normal. I see it as having all the best parts of cruising without the worst parts of cruising. We will never witness this again. We're all set with a Veranda Stateroom cabin. We've got unlimited Internet and the Premium drink package! I lost 16 pounds in preparation of this trip, so I am planning on eating  and drinking everything in sight!

Stay tuned for pictures!

Holle- Back at It Again!!

Holy shit! After almost a 2 years hiatus on the BMW, I think I'm just about energized to get working on it again! I've been cleaning up and organizing the garages in preparation of getting Holle back on the road this upcoming Spring. But for some reason, last night in my dreams, I started thinking about working on getting that darned starter out.

I dug deep into my archives and found pictures of the last time I was working on her- mid-January 2020. I was a little worried, considering I've got random parts laying around from my last attempt. I went out on errands in the morning and found an array of wrenches at Lowes, wrenches that I returned before, but knowing that these were probably the most suited to do the trick. I got my thoughts organized and went to work on it.

I started by trying to reorient myself on what were the problems I had the last time I was in the engine bay. I spent a few minutes looking at forums on how to remove the started. All were convinced that the intake manifold does not need to be removed, perhaps just the oil dipstick tube and a bracket. I checked my previous work and found that I had removed those things.

There are only two bolts that hold the starter to the transmission bell housing and one of them was already loose. The back one was the problem where I lost my mind. I removed a couple of hoses to get more access for my wrenches. Miraculously, I was able to get the 17mm wrenches on both ends of the bolts fairly easily. I broke tension and was able to get the bolts out! Just like that! With a slight effort in navigating the starter through the space to the front of the engine bay, that broken beast found its way out! Oh my God!! I got it out in about 45 minutes! I didn't even bleed!

I went back to the computer to examine all the old pictures to make sure I got the wires back in the right places. Then I installed the new starter. I used red Loc-Tite on the bolts. I got the driver side bolt snugged up just fine, but the other bolt was a little more of a problem. Maybe the new starter mount is slightly thicker, but the bolt barely had any threads to hold on to. I decided that I'll just run to Home Depot tomorrow and find a longer bolt. No problem.

I hooked up some of the wires, but thought it might be nice to clean up the manifold sensor before installing it back in again. Half an hour later (and a lot of Brasso and elbow grease) it was looking almost good as new! I wrenched it back in and attached the wire. With any luck at all, tomorrow the car will start again! Wahoooooo!!!

Sparco Seat Installation

I had my eye on the Sparco Sprint seat. It's been around for many generations and with it's steel tube structure, it's been tried and true. I had considered getting the Momo Start seat again, but it's considerably more and I'm slightly superstitious- the first time I took it out for a track day, I got sent into a wall. The price of the Sparco was hovering around $360, but suddenly Amazon jumped the price all the way to $400! Then I found the seat on EliteRaceFab.com for $328 with free shipping! Ka-ching! I bought it right away!

I spent a night installing the old Hard Dog harness bar back in the car. When I bought the harness bar 5 years ago, it cost me $165 including shipping and tax. Now it sells for $50 more!

I was trying to figure out how I was going to mount the seat in the Miata. Last time, I did a fixed mount

with the Momo seat, which was fine, since I was only using the seat for track days. This time, I was thinking about leaving it in. But to get in and out of the car with the seat in a permanently fixed is going to be difficult, especially with the top up. So I did some brainstorming about putting the seat on rails. Sparco sells rails, but I would still need to mount them to side mounts first. Sounding expensive... But why can't I use my original rails? I guess the seat new holes don't exactly line up with the OEM rails. I did find some adapters on eBay for $59 (plus $12 shipping) coming from Lithuania. Then I stumbled across a very useful YouTube instructional video! I think I can do this myself! for a lot cheaper! I'm on it!

I ran down to my local Home Depot and found a 3-foot piece of flat steel for under $7 and I bought some new M8x1.25 bolts of different lengths. Lucky for me, I just happened to have all the tools necessary to do this DIY project! The video was extremely helpful, but it doesn't really address the bolt issue that you need to find tapered countersink bolts, so that the rail can sit flat (relatively) against the adapter- so that was a second trip to the hardware store. Other than that, the project went pretty straight forward. Just a lot of accurate measuring, not an easy task if you're gulping down wine! Regardless, the seat mounted to the floor and the sliders worked flawlessly! Thanks, CashedOutCars!

In my last post, I did mention that I was buying a used Simpson 5-point harness on eBay. So now was the time to get it mounted up. I bought my mounting hardware through IOPortRacing.com, same place as last time. Ken's store is about 25 miles down the road from me, so I just pick up the parts myself. I was able to mount the harness to the same points as last time with no issues. It works perfectly! But this time, I looped the OEM seat belt through a couple of the holes, so I could wear it when street driving instead of using the harness- just more user friendly and legal!

Mazdaspeed Love

Every day that I drive this car, I realize just why I bought it! and I am so happy that I decided to keep the car, not selling it to some hack that would not appreciate the vehicle for what it is.

I've spent the last couple of months really raking through some maintenance. I replaced the timing belt, water pump and radiator, while changing the accessory belts to Gates, keeping all else as OEM as I could. I changed the engine oil to Mobil 1 5W-20 synthetic. I changed the transmission and differential oils with Red Line oils. I recently had the tires rotated and balanced. And I finally bit the bullet and bought one of those nifty Miata Roadster long shift kits. I think the shifter is still breaking in, so I am only just feeling a modest gain in smoothness, but the added leverage and ball placement has improved for sure!

I am currently doing worksheets on how and what it would take for me to "compete" in the local SCCA autocross group. I've already emailed back and forth with one of the members of the chair to get a fix on my classification. With my transmission swap from the lousy OEM 6-speed to the 5-speed, and with the larger intercooler swap (probably my radiator fans too), he has pegged me at the SSM (Super Street Modified) category. Yikes!! That means I'll have to deal with extremely modified beasts in my class!! But since I'm running regular street tires and not racing specific tires, I could move to one of their local specialties- the Street tire Modified category. I could run 200 UTQG rated tires and hopefully my competition will be more palatable.

I can do upgrades and mods in stages. The first thing to get would really be new wheels and tires. Finding 12 lb. wheels would be ideal. I'll probably stay with 15X8. I'm undecided on the offset. I might try BFG Rival tires in 225/45/15R. Also in the first stage would be a new seat and harness. I've already found a used Simpson 5-point harness on eBay and a very nice price. I have to reinstall that harness bar and relocate the windblocker. The last reasonable upgrade for this stage would be a new exhaust. I'm looking at the Flyin' Miata MSM exhaust, since I already have their intake kit and downpipe. I just have to figure out if I already bought their midpipe. These mods should help me through the first year as a novice just fine.

The next stage would be way more serious. It would involve modifications to the ECU. Since the stock ECU can't be adjusted, unless doing a reflash (which is expensive and not adjustable), I am looking at a standalone solution, most likely a Megasquirt. The ECU and new bigger injectors would bump me up to close to 250hp. I would also need a wideband gauge/processor to help tune. That's going to run me around $2,000!!

Lastly in this stage would be aerodynamics, like a rear spoiler and a front splitter. Maybe I would do this before the engine management. It's certainly cheaper. I'm thinking about a small ducktail spoiler bolted to a spare trunk lid.

All in the name of fun. It's just money! And lots of it!

Sierra Trek 2021!!!

So we did it!! King, my friend, Dave, and me!! And it certainly was an adventure!! Last year's Sierra Trek was cancelled due to the Covid situation, so it made this year's 54th Sierra Trek all that much sweeter! Sierra Trek is hosted by Cal4Wheel, a non-profit off-road organization that lobbies on the behalf of 4-wheelers in California. This is their biggest fundraiser of the calendar year. One of the major draws to this event is the Fordyce Trail run. The Fordyce Creek Trail is known to be THE most difficult 4x4 trail in Northern California. The rocks are big and loose. The hills are steep. There are 5 particular hills that are named Winch Hills #1-5 (plus there's a couple of x.5 Winch Hills in there too.) There are 6 creek crossings and normally they would be more than 3 feet deep (which can certainly wash your vehicle downstream)- PG$E operates a hydroelectric dam at the top of trail, but Cal4Wheel has a friendly relationship with PG$E, so only for the Sierra Trek events, they turn down the spigot, which makes the crossings much more doable. And with the help of volunteer trail guides and winch equipped vehicles sitting at the tops of each of the Winch Hills, your chances of completing this extreme trail are very high! This trail is so technical and hard that most 4x4 clubs that do this trail take 2 days to do it. Sierra Trek goes wheels up at 0630 and the group keeps going until we make it back to camp (the end of the trail).

I literally registered for the event the first day that we were able. Originally, it was going to be Emily and me. I was somehow able to convince her to camp out for 3 nights, since they actually have showers. So I signed up for two of the easier runs, leaving the Fordyce Trail on my hit list for next year. But as the trip grew nearer, she elected to stay home with the dog and let my good friend, Dave, take her place instead. It actually worked out better this way, since Dave is very handy and has excellent knowledge of all things mechanical. That also gave me the chance to change up my trail run selection to the Fordyce Creek Trail. There's no way that Emily would've been game to do such a technical trail, but Dave is always game for whatever. But with this change of plans, suddenly I was in a hurry to find some more underside skid plate armor! (That was part of next year's budget plan!)

One of the big bonuses of this trip were that unlike "overlanding" trips which pack up and go every morning, we just had to set up camp once and there we stayed for the next three nights :)  Additionally, Sierra Trek provided all the breakfasts and dinners while we were there. That was awesome, because that meant that I had less planning to do and NO cooking!! On the trail runs, there were experienced wheelers in the vehicles, as well as Sierra Trek volunteer staff. Along the runs in the more difficult areas, able volunteers were there to help to guide us through the treacherous terrain.

We left really early on Thursday morning. We shoved off from Brentwood just after 8a and were driving into Truckee around 11:00. After a quick bite to eat at a local taqueria, we hit the road for the campgrounds. I had downloaded the google maps for the route the night before, since I figured there probably wouldn't be a good cell signal, but the route that it gave me took us through a seriously thick  and undriven trail. We had doubts as we were making our way, but we could see that it was [barely] a trail. But we were following the blue line on the map, so we knew that we were absolutely following the directions correctly!! There was no room to turn around, so we forged on being scratched by thistles and the manzanita trees. At points, the trail was so narrow at some points, we had to squeeze between two trees, knocking my mirrors back. In another instance, I actually had to run over a small tree just to go forward. Eventually we popped out onto a main highway and just circled back to the nearest town, where we could get a signal and come up with a new plan. We were able to get a new and better route, which got us there safely, albeit 45 minutes later that I had forecasted. Not too bad.

We had just enough time to register, set up camp and enjoy a nice meal before heading to bed. Our run on Friday morning, staging at the trail head at 5:30a!! And from the campgrounds, it was going to take two hours to get there, which meant getting up at 2:45a! Yikes! Thank God we were able to find some nice flat areas to set up our tents! I got everything packed in the Jeep that night before hitting the sack.

Friday morning came too soon. I made some coffee with the Whisperlite stove that I brought. We headed out of camp and made it to the muster just before 5:30, after fueling up one last time. There, they fed us packaged pastries and freeze-dried coffee, while we listened to the drivers meeting. There were about 50 rigs all lined up. Most people brought Jeeps- 4-door Wranglers. I think I might have seen 3 vehicles there that weren't Jeeps. There were five lines. We were in the third line, just about right in the middle, suggesting that we were starting right about in the middle of this run group. I was a little nervous (of course) being that this was the FORDYCE CREEK TRAIL. There were some seriously over-built rigs, but most were moderately equipped. I always seem to show up with the smallest least (minimally) equipped rig to these things. My King is a true daily driver, not some trail-dedicated trailer queen. Its main job is to drive me to work and around town with maybe 3% duty to crawl. So people are often surprised when they see how capable this little beast really is. It's not going to have the suspension or clearance like some of the other rigs, but it can certainly get the job done.

Wheels up at 6:30. The trail was dry and dusty. It seemed like the first 4 miles were pretty easy- nothing really to write home about. Then stuff got harder. I hit this one steep incline step and it was so sandy and gritty, but I just couldn't get enough bite to get up it. Someone came to my rescue and threw a couple of rocks in my problem hole, which took care of the trick.

Later there were a few bypasses that were pretty scary. Even though they avoided the serious crawling portion of the trail, they were still no joke. I made it through all the "winch hill" sections without winching. Some took multiple tries, but eventually I found lines that worked. Only once did I need to get winched and it was a self-winch, as I got my rear pumpkin hung up on a big rock, exactly the same as the rig right in front of me. Other than that, King muscled and bounced his way through the whole trail! We did get backed up on the trail a couple of times, as this one rig kept having problems starting (the same fucking truck twice!). Why this guy didn't just let everyone pass by, we'll never know. Total time wasted was definitely over an hour! But still, we topped out of the trail at 5:30p (the trail ends up at the Meadow Lake campground), so we were easily there in time for dinner! (The night before, that group didn't get back to camp until 8:30p. We've heard that sometimes the groups don't make it back until 10p or later!) That dinner was very satisfying, as we definitely felt blessed!

My Jeep did take on a few bumps and bruises. I tagged the driver rear fender pretty good, the rock rails got ridden on fairly hard and the rear bumper got dumped on some rocks really hard. The sides of the Jeep were all scratched from bushwhacking to camp the first day. And the tie rod got bent upwards quite a bit, which also rotated the steering stabilizer mount. That caused a problem on the trail, because the stabilizer mount would impede the tie rod from making full right turns! (I was able to correct the steering issue the next morning, but it will still need to be replaced.)

Saturday morning came and we decided to skip the River Run. When I signed up for it, I didn't realize that it was just doing the Fordyce Trail in reverse starting from the top, going about halfway down. Why did I need to do that again? I was feeling lucky enough that we escaped with as little damage as we did already! No need to tempt death a second time. Instead, we stayed in camp and got a real hot breakfast. (Hey, we paid for that, right? I couldn't take any more freeze-dried coffee and pre-packaged pastries, calling that breakfast.) We drove up to the town's cemetery and walked around there for a bit. We were going to take a quick trip into Truckee to do some window shopping, but the bumpy road out of camp revealed that the rear bumper was making sporadic contact with the drivers side rear tub. So we opted to try and fix that instead.

Soon enough it was time for dinner. Afterwards we hung around for the awards ceremony and bonfire. Dave decided to grab a shower and I thought I was tired (plus I forgot my jacket, so I was cold), so I headed back to our campsite to go to bed. After I got there, I could hear the band playing and everyone sounded like they were all having a good time. I got my jacket and headed back to the bonfire. I ran into one of the guys from the Fordyce run and he offered to buy me a couple of beers- his partner headed to bed and fortunately for me, he was stuck with some money tickets to burn. The fire was great, the band was fantastic, and we had good conversation. What more could I want. Oh, yeah- another beer, please!

We slept in on Sunday morning. We grabbed some breakfast then broke camp at a leisurely pace. After we packed the Jeep, we headed to Truckee to visit some friends of mine on our way out of town. The perfect ending to a fabulous trip!

In summary, as nervous as I was, everything went according to the plan. I installed the right armor in just the right places- the front and rear lower control arms were protected, both pumpkins had cast iron covers, and the new oil pan and transfer case skids did their jobs. I installed rock rings on the AEV Borahs and they got some really nice scrapes, but they protected the wheels just like they were supposed to do! And the lockers performed awesomely and were always at the ready! 

When we first got to the Sierra Trek, I was a little apprehensive, as there were probably about 500 participants there and I was the ONLY Asian person there! After a couple of days of looking around, we finally identified ONE African-American male in the crowd. Yes, this seemed like a Trump rally setting. And I'm not really very squeamish about prejudice that comes my way, as I'm an American-born Chinese, born and raised in California. So I don't really come across being very non-Caucasian. Just like I had figured, as long as you can drive, you're just one of the boys. Everyone treated me with the highest respect, not looking at my race, but connecting with me based on our common interests.

There was a group of older guys out of Truckee that were razzing me just a little bit on the trail, asking me if I had skid plates on that thing, and pointing out sections that I will probably want to be ready to get winched. But when we got back to camp, they had the nicest things to say about me, my Jeep and my abilities. That warmed my heart.

I had been considering doing the Sierra Trek for a couple of years now. I had a wonderful time and I am so glad that I did it! I was able to conquer the notorious Fordyce Creek Trail and met some really nice people along the way! Would I do it again? Heck yeah, I would!