A short and not-so-sweet trip report
For the last little while I have been upgrading my truck and elderly truck camper with many trick extras. The last little spurt was to add a lot of block insulation to all the unused windows and insid...
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Since I can walk on my own thread, here is a story of youthful exuberance.
The scene takes place in a set of sand dunes overtaking a shack near Clark Dry Lake in the Anza Borrego Desert. I had camped there many times and had loads of confidence that my topless, doorless CJ-8 could weather any storm and had in the past. The only difference was i stone cold alone. I pulled in and parked right on the dunes in the lee of a large stand of Tamarisk taking in the slowly fading day. They effectively blocked the afternoon breeze that came in from the west. I pulled out my sleeping bag and water heater blanket and laid them out next to the Jeep. I had a quick supper and sat in my director's chair gazing at the stars. Oh, and I do know Jack. After a good night's sleep, I awoke and made an easy breakfast. It was leisurely, just absorbing the desert sun in the morning. It was time to move so I assumed the driver's seat and turned on the key..........nothing. No cellanoid sound, no circuit to the starter. Hmm? I'm about 15 miles from Borrego Springs and about 10 miles to the nearest paved, non-jeep road. The 50% effort: turn the key on and try to roll the Jeep down off the dune by manually rolling the front whee and jump around and pull in into 2nd gear. I did get the Jeep to move, but only down into a hollow. This is before cell phones and I had no CB radio at that time. The 100% effort: walk out to the paved road and catch a ride into town to get a tow. It was getting hot by now and I carried as much water as I could and set out for pavement. This was as stranded as I'd ever been. When you are young this takes on a survival tone and becomes a game. It took a couple hours to reach pavement going cross country slightly downhill in and out of small arroyos. Then I proceeded to TRY to hitch a ride. But I looked like a dog's dinner by now in oily jeans and disheveled attire. Car after occasional car would not stop even with me wildly gesticulating and jumping out into the roadway. Hmm? Maybe that was the problem. Finally, a cheap little rental car with 4 people in it pulled over and the window rolled down. The woman in the passenger seat said, "Ease zer un problem?" They were French tourists making the rounds of the southwest with their daughters. No Americanos would dare pick up the wildly gesticulating guy jumping up and down in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere. I squeezed in the back seat between two teenage girls with my two half full gallon milk jugs of water and we made it to town. The 4WD tow truck took me out to the scene of the fail, finally giving me a tug with a strap to clutch start the Jeep as I had tried to do by rolling the wheel. Just a jump made no difference.
In the end, it was determined that the starter was going bad and had a 'flat spot' which is exactly where the armature stopped the last time i started said Jeep. From that time on, I always carried a spare starter along.
jefe
The scene takes place in a set of sand dunes overtaking a shack near Clark Dry Lake in the Anza Borrego Desert. I had camped there many times and had loads of confidence that my topless, doorless CJ-8 could weather any storm and had in the past. The only difference was i stone cold alone. I pulled in and parked right on the dunes in the lee of a large stand of Tamarisk taking in the slowly fading day. They effectively blocked the afternoon breeze that came in from the west. I pulled out my sleeping bag and water heater blanket and laid them out next to the Jeep. I had a quick supper and sat in my director's chair gazing at the stars. Oh, and I do know Jack. After a good night's sleep, I awoke and made an easy breakfast. It was leisurely, just absorbing the desert sun in the morning. It was time to move so I assumed the driver's seat and turned on the key..........nothing. No cellanoid sound, no circuit to the starter. Hmm? I'm about 15 miles from Borrego Springs and about 10 miles to the nearest paved, non-jeep road. The 50% effort: turn the key on and try to roll the Jeep down off the dune by manually rolling the front whee and jump around and pull in into 2nd gear. I did get the Jeep to move, but only down into a hollow. This is before cell phones and I had no CB radio at that time. The 100% effort: walk out to the paved road and catch a ride into town to get a tow. It was getting hot by now and I carried as much water as I could and set out for pavement. This was as stranded as I'd ever been. When you are young this takes on a survival tone and becomes a game. It took a couple hours to reach pavement going cross country slightly downhill in and out of small arroyos. Then I proceeded to TRY to hitch a ride. But I looked like a dog's dinner by now in oily jeans and disheveled attire. Car after occasional car would not stop even with me wildly gesticulating and jumping out into the roadway. Hmm? Maybe that was the problem. Finally, a cheap little rental car with 4 people in it pulled over and the window rolled down. The woman in the passenger seat said, "Ease zer un problem?" They were French tourists making the rounds of the southwest with their daughters. No Americanos would dare pick up the wildly gesticulating guy jumping up and down in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere. I squeezed in the back seat between two teenage girls with my two half full gallon milk jugs of water and we made it to town. The 4WD tow truck took me out to the scene of the fail, finally giving me a tug with a strap to clutch start the Jeep as I had tried to do by rolling the wheel. Just a jump made no difference.
In the end, it was determined that the starter was going bad and had a 'flat spot' which is exactly where the armature stopped the last time i started said Jeep. From that time on, I always carried a spare starter along.
jefe
