Preparation for Desert Trip VI

[DirtyLarry]

It is that time of year again where the K10 gets a major look over and lots of maintenance performed in preparation for our annual 7-10 day off-road adventure trip to the Southwestern Desert someplace. This year the trip will happen a few months earlier (Leaving in late March) instead of the usual July (we have a baby girl on the way that is due in July ) and we are going a bit further on this trip than the usual Utah and Arizona trips we’ve done over the past few years. This year we are going to check out the Mojave Rd that run from just South of Laughlin, NV to Zzyzx, CA (pronounced "Zye - Zex"). The Mojave Rd is an old Indian trading route of about 130 miles of nothing but wide open desert and beautiful scenery with lot of old rustic ruins to check out. Really neat place rich in Southwestern history. Check it out! After that we are headed up to Death Valley for another 3 or 4 days of trail riding, camping, photography and what not. The entire trip should come in somewhere around 2,500 to 3,000 miles depending what all side trips we follow along the way.

As you can imagine this truck goes through tires about every 2 years and this time around I wanted a bit heavier load range of tire but there isn’t much on the market in the way of 315/75R16’s Load Range E’s so I settled upon a set of Fierce Attitudes Load Range E by Dunlop mounted on Desert Rat Rattler Moab STR aluminum wheels. The bad news is the new tires and wheels are a bit wide and badly interfere with the front fender flares under moderate articulation so that is something I need to work out yet. Might even order a set of Xenon flares and move these WARN’s to the Suburban. These WARN flares hang down pretty low and have often gotten in the way of the tires anyway. Also had to go through the NP205 transfercase last weekend to address some old noise issues I’ve been dealing with for the last few years. I wouldn’t mind upgrading the alternator to around a 150 to 200 AMP unit before we leave as well.

Last year’s trip was only 1,555 miles where the big beast delivered 11.72 MPH for the entire trip. Not too bad for a big block powered, 8,000 lb. rig with the aerodynamics of a drive in movie theater screen.

Because I am a picture wh0re, here are a few shots of the winter tires, old desert trip tires and the new Fierce Attitudes. I love the new tires and wheels!

Old All-Terrain tires on cheap black steel wheels used for long distance desert adventures. These now live on the Suburban


Winter tires used for CO mountain trips. Still have these for local trips.


New Fierce Attitude tires on Rattler Moab STR wheels. You can see Pikes Peak right under the transfercase. These pictures were taken in the open space next to my house this afternoon.




Another with Pikes Peak under the truck




You can rest assure I will have plenty of Mojave Rd and Death Valley trips when we get back in April!