10 hours ago
My two oldest grandkids were in town for a late Christmas and New Year. They have both gone out separately with me on different multi-day trips and they wanted to go do something in the short amount of time we had. When I need a quick two-day, one night adventure, my go to is usually Striped Butte Valley. I packed up some gear and we headed out in the morning of January 2nd.
I gassed up and filled two Rotopax in Paharump to avoid sky-high prices in Shoshone. We made a quick stop to check out an old cabin before turning onto the dirt past the Ashford Mill ruins. I aired down to give them a nicer ride and to be ready for Mengel the next day. I was in a great mood because the high-speed death wobble the Jeep experienced on the way to the airport the week before was gone. I ordered in new heavy-duty ball joints but before I installed them I discovered the driver's front tire, which until recently had been the spare, looked weird. I think a cord or something was broken. Once I got it off the Jeep, no more wobble.
But that joy faded once we started down the well-maintained road into Warm Springs. The rear locker locked light started flashing and staying on randomly. It's a super common JL Rubicon issue with the lock sensor. My previous rear axle had the issue so bad we couldn't use the lockers at all until it was fixed. And the fix was to install a $180 Z Automotive harness that tells the computer all is well. That rear axle had a pinon bearing fail over the summer in Yellowstone so we drug the Jeep home using the RV with the pinon screaming the entire way. Instead of messing with it I sourced a new replacement axle and did not reinstall the Z Automotive harness since I broke a wire during removal and the axle was new so the sensor should last more than 12K. But it didn't.
Anyway, the road into Warm Springs is a super highway, no issues at all. It's a little bumpier past that, you might not want to bring your 1997 minivan, but we didn't need 4wd all the way into Geologist cabin. We hoped my good luck streak of getting the old stone cabin would hold, but it didn't Someone was already camped outside in their super fancy off-road trailer and planning on spending a few days. We chatted while the kids got a look at the cabin. From there we went over to Russell's. I grabbed a broom and a dust mask, opened a window and swept out the Honeymoon Suite, the best looking room there. We wiped down the table and chairs and set up our cots. Once we got moved in we went up to the chairs at the overlook and hiked over to Stella's. It looked cleaner than in early December when I passed through last.
We spent the night watching various rigs pass through towards the pass, having a fire and playing cards. In the morning after watching sunrise we packed everything up, folded the flag and made our way towards Mengel Pass. This was at least my fourth time across in the past 12 months and the third in this Jeep. I wasn't expecting any surprises and there were none. There's some bumps, ruts, rocks, etc, but nothing I would consider hard core off-roading. Anything with good ground clearance, proper off-road capable tires and 4lo if needed will have zero issues. Go slow, pick a good line and use a decent map to stay on route. We stopped to pay our respects to Mengel on top of the pass and then made our way to Goler. Then we turned towards Barker Ranch where we found a camper packing up. We showed him the route to the old dump site and then took some pics. I never got to see the place before it burned down.
I showed the kids the old Jeeps supposedly stolen by Charlie and Company at the dump and then we continued down. We stopped by the old Keystone mine and Newman's cabin. At Newman's I smelled coolant coming from the Jeep. Popping the hood I found a crack in a coolant reservoir, but didn't know what it was for. On this Jeep I have a reservoir for the turbo, the massive eTorque battery and the engine. While the kids had a snack I fired up Starlink and searched the WWW. Turns out it was for the engine and it's also a super common JL Jeep issue. So common parts are on national back order forever. The best aftermarket part also has a long lead time. Knowing we needed the Jeep as our RV toad for a trip starting on the 8th, I ordered the Mopar part that I'll never see and the China Amazon version. After stowing Elon's hardware we cruised over miles of washboard road to Ballarat. The kids explored everything there and instead of heading towards the Big 4 mine as planned, we went to Stovepipe Wells for burgers. From there we made our way home without further problems.
Once home I tried the Z Automotive locker harness from the old axle, but even repairing the wire didn't fix it. I must have damaged the computer chip as well since installing it made my sensor problem worse. I ordered a new one. All my parts arrived yesterday. I put the new harness in taking about 90 seconds. I knocked out a quick oil change and then started on replacing the coolant reservoir. On a JK or something earlier that would be a three minute job. On a JL it's a PITA. At one point I dropped a small screwdriver into the engine bay and could not find it. My wife and I searched for over an hour from the top and bottom but it had vanished. Using a floor jack I lifted the right front up as high as the jack would go so the left side was fully flexed. Even with this configuration that screwdriver was MIA. Frustrated I went to release the jack and my dirty hands caused the jack to drop the Jeep violently. But, the screwdriver fell to the floor. The rest of the install was painless. To recap - route into Striped Butte Valley via Warm Springs is a super highway, Mengel is as it usually is, but no issue with a proper 4 x 4. Goler has one bump below Newman's that isn't an issue downhill and shouldn't be an issue uphill.
I gassed up and filled two Rotopax in Paharump to avoid sky-high prices in Shoshone. We made a quick stop to check out an old cabin before turning onto the dirt past the Ashford Mill ruins. I aired down to give them a nicer ride and to be ready for Mengel the next day. I was in a great mood because the high-speed death wobble the Jeep experienced on the way to the airport the week before was gone. I ordered in new heavy-duty ball joints but before I installed them I discovered the driver's front tire, which until recently had been the spare, looked weird. I think a cord or something was broken. Once I got it off the Jeep, no more wobble.
But that joy faded once we started down the well-maintained road into Warm Springs. The rear locker locked light started flashing and staying on randomly. It's a super common JL Rubicon issue with the lock sensor. My previous rear axle had the issue so bad we couldn't use the lockers at all until it was fixed. And the fix was to install a $180 Z Automotive harness that tells the computer all is well. That rear axle had a pinon bearing fail over the summer in Yellowstone so we drug the Jeep home using the RV with the pinon screaming the entire way. Instead of messing with it I sourced a new replacement axle and did not reinstall the Z Automotive harness since I broke a wire during removal and the axle was new so the sensor should last more than 12K. But it didn't.
Anyway, the road into Warm Springs is a super highway, no issues at all. It's a little bumpier past that, you might not want to bring your 1997 minivan, but we didn't need 4wd all the way into Geologist cabin. We hoped my good luck streak of getting the old stone cabin would hold, but it didn't Someone was already camped outside in their super fancy off-road trailer and planning on spending a few days. We chatted while the kids got a look at the cabin. From there we went over to Russell's. I grabbed a broom and a dust mask, opened a window and swept out the Honeymoon Suite, the best looking room there. We wiped down the table and chairs and set up our cots. Once we got moved in we went up to the chairs at the overlook and hiked over to Stella's. It looked cleaner than in early December when I passed through last.
We spent the night watching various rigs pass through towards the pass, having a fire and playing cards. In the morning after watching sunrise we packed everything up, folded the flag and made our way towards Mengel Pass. This was at least my fourth time across in the past 12 months and the third in this Jeep. I wasn't expecting any surprises and there were none. There's some bumps, ruts, rocks, etc, but nothing I would consider hard core off-roading. Anything with good ground clearance, proper off-road capable tires and 4lo if needed will have zero issues. Go slow, pick a good line and use a decent map to stay on route. We stopped to pay our respects to Mengel on top of the pass and then made our way to Goler. Then we turned towards Barker Ranch where we found a camper packing up. We showed him the route to the old dump site and then took some pics. I never got to see the place before it burned down.
I showed the kids the old Jeeps supposedly stolen by Charlie and Company at the dump and then we continued down. We stopped by the old Keystone mine and Newman's cabin. At Newman's I smelled coolant coming from the Jeep. Popping the hood I found a crack in a coolant reservoir, but didn't know what it was for. On this Jeep I have a reservoir for the turbo, the massive eTorque battery and the engine. While the kids had a snack I fired up Starlink and searched the WWW. Turns out it was for the engine and it's also a super common JL Jeep issue. So common parts are on national back order forever. The best aftermarket part also has a long lead time. Knowing we needed the Jeep as our RV toad for a trip starting on the 8th, I ordered the Mopar part that I'll never see and the China Amazon version. After stowing Elon's hardware we cruised over miles of washboard road to Ballarat. The kids explored everything there and instead of heading towards the Big 4 mine as planned, we went to Stovepipe Wells for burgers. From there we made our way home without further problems.
Once home I tried the Z Automotive locker harness from the old axle, but even repairing the wire didn't fix it. I must have damaged the computer chip as well since installing it made my sensor problem worse. I ordered a new one. All my parts arrived yesterday. I put the new harness in taking about 90 seconds. I knocked out a quick oil change and then started on replacing the coolant reservoir. On a JK or something earlier that would be a three minute job. On a JL it's a PITA. At one point I dropped a small screwdriver into the engine bay and could not find it. My wife and I searched for over an hour from the top and bottom but it had vanished. Using a floor jack I lifted the right front up as high as the jack would go so the left side was fully flexed. Even with this configuration that screwdriver was MIA. Frustrated I went to release the jack and my dirty hands caused the jack to drop the Jeep violently. But, the screwdriver fell to the floor. The rest of the install was painless. To recap - route into Striped Butte Valley via Warm Springs is a super highway, Mengel is as it usually is, but no issue with a proper 4 x 4. Goler has one bump below Newman's that isn't an issue downhill and shouldn't be an issue uphill.
