Adventioneering

With just one week before we roll out for Burning Man, a lot of attention is now turning to getting the vehicles ready and loading out cargo. While there are a lot of people at Burning Man (40,000+), it’s really a horrible place to experience any sort of breakdown; particularly on the drive in and out of the event. For those of us coming from the North who chose not to detour through Reno, the drive is also rather remote.

Since it’s so difficult to purchase fuel from the Gerlach gas station (the line can be tens or twenties of cars long, and they might have gas, maybe), we’re anticipating carrying a fuel load-out with us sufficient to not only run the genset during the event but get the vehicles out through the remote mountains. Along with the many gallons of water we have to take for four people, this is actually quite a lot of weight.

Aaron managed to diagnose the problem with the Jeep radio last night (Just a problem with the crimp on the mic), so Victoria’s radio is working again which is good news. I’ve got 80 lbs (literally) of parts coming from back east which will arrive tomorrow for the rover; all the brake parts (minus calipers) for all four corners, new wheel seals, a new rear left brake pipe (crushed at reiter pit), thermostat, every cooling hose, and an o2 sensor to replace one that’s been hit-or-miss. I’ll also probably do the front upper shock mounting bushings while I am at it.

The truck has been overheating when pulling heavy loads; it had no trouble running way hotter than usual when I dead-towed Aaron’s 11,000lb unimog at mogfest (to see if it could). It actually towed really well, until I tried to get up a gravel road and eventually lost traction. Rating on the truck is 7,000lb in low. Anyways, this is why there’s going to be so much attention placed on the rover’s cooling system since I’ve got to get the Airstream back up through the mountains; remembering also it popped the water-pump on the way down last time and I had to change it out there.