BruteForce

Ride for Life (Make-a-Wish Foundation): Tooele to Wendover

2010-08-30T14:09:10Z

On Saturday at 0900, around 200 ATV's departed the Deseret Peak sports complex. Final destination, the Nugget Casino in Wendover, Nevada.

Interesting things to note about the event. In the end, over $24,000 was raised by this group and well over 100 people participated in the ride, with several dozen additional in support (trailering drinks, port-a-potties, extra trailers, etc). Ages ranged from late teens to folks in their 70's. Average speed for both days was easily 45-105mph (depending on the vehicle driven). My average speed was 53mph along the salt flats with top speeds exceeding 64mph.

Virtually 100% of the terrain was flat open desert and the vast expanse of salt flats adjacent to the Great Salt Lake. Nothing overly challening except maintaining full throttle. Since the winds were excessive, we were able to avoid most of the clogging dust/dirt that usually accompanies 200+ machines going full throttle in the desert.

While en route, we took a break at the Knolls offroad area. After a few moments, one of the Make-a-Wish children (there were two brothers suffering from the same ailment) approached me in his wheel chair and said "you have the coolest and meanest looking machine out here, can you take me for a ride". We tossed an oversized helmet on his head and I had him start the machine. As soon as the engine fired, Noah hit the accelerator to the point of blowing the motor. Fortunately, we were still in Neutral.. that launch could have been disastrous.

On the last 40 mile stretch before reaching Wendover, we hit the salt flats. Even though some machines were easily 1/4 mile ahead, they threw so much mud/salt in the air, it coated every inch of us. We had to stop to wipe our goggles every 2 or so miles, because it was impossible to see.

Reaching Wendover, we were escorted through town by several Tooele County search and rescue vehicles. Full lights and sirens. Tourists and passers-by stopped to gaze and photograph the long procession of machines coming into town. It was quite a sight.

We then spent Saturday night donating our remaining money to the Nugget Steakhouse, slot machines and roulette tables.

Sunday morning was spent raffling off a ton of items donated by local companies, to include ATV ramps, ATV tires, medical supplies, first aid kits, fire extinguishers and the only 12V auto vacuum cleaner (which I won).

We preceeded back to Tooele on the same route, fortunately most of the previous day's rain had dried up and we didn't get nearly as salt coated on Sunday.

Total mileage was around 185 miles. Total for the past week is now over 800 miles on my Kawasaki. What an August!

500 Miles / 5 Days: Marysvale to Escalante and Back - Part 1

2010-08-22T16:13:26Z

On Monday, 16 August, 30+ people on ATV's and Side-by-Sides departed Marysvale for our first 90 mile leg. Destination: Torrey, Utah.

To get to Torrey, we had to cross the Paiute and Fremont trail systems and summit two mountain ranges. One of the more notable trails we encountered was the Barney Lake trail. This trail was easily the most destructive to the skid plates and undercarriage. It was on this trail that the rear skid plate on my ATV decided to give up and partially fall-off.

At Barney Lake, we took a brief break and watched the clouds come in (it was threatening us with our first rain).

Before we could reach Torrey, we had to stop in Koosharem to refuel, get drinks and wait for the 2nd group to come in (we broke up into two groups of about 15 ATV's each. My group being referred to as the "Really fast group".

..to be continued. Videos and GPS Tracks..

Navy -v- Army

2010-07-15T23:41:37Z

Note: Should I be insulted? My AirForce brother used to tell me about the Marriot air conditioning while I slept under a helicopter. WTF?
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2010-07-01T16:45:24Z

It's unbelievable that our Congressional representation should be so ignorant and unconcerned about the state of our country. Listen to how he demeans his constituents!

Fuel Filter Change: Dodge Ram 6.7L CTD

2010-06-23T00:03:27Z

Via: http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/6-7l-tech-articles/177185-6-7l-fuel-filter-change-how.html

First fuel change for this diesel. Filter was very tight but after a couple of tries with the socket drive it came loose.

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Mexican Immigration & Arizona law

2010-06-22T23:38:19Z

I'm curious why the Mexican President feels as though he can bring a lawsuit regarding the Arizona law?

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Ophir/Mercur/Stockton Exploration

2010-06-21T12:59:25Z

Took the quad out again Saturday to do some more riding in the Mercur/Ophir/Stockton area. My goal was to explore every side trail I could find.

Even though I've been to this location at least a dozen times, I was surprised today when I found some trails that lead to new and interesting places.

The first new side trail was Above and just North of Jacob City. The trail climbed and climbed until it reached the peak of the mountain over Jacob City (north of). From there, a trail pressed North and would have dumped me into Soldier Canyon. Unfortunately, I had to turn around as a huge herd of bulls (horns and all) were blocking the trail, and I was in no mood to be gored by angry bulls (they were at 9800' elevation and seemed wild).

The next was N/E of Jacob City and in the neighborhood of N 40 24.034 W 112 14.720 . From this location, it would appear that I could drop all the way down to the far end of Ophir Canyon. Again, I had to turn around as a large herd of cows was blocking the trail and they refused to move.

While almost to Soldier Canyon, I ran into several members of the Northern Utah ATV Club (Gary & Co.). Thanks for stopping by, guys!

A few photos from my high elevation riding today:

There are several ways to get up there. One is along Ophir Canyon (paved road) at about: N 40 23 102 W 112 14.070. Another, which makes for a great loop is around: N 40° 20.355 W 112° 17.335 and then you could also come in from Stockton around: N 40 25.300 W 112 19.255.

All staging locations are very easy. It's not until you deviate from the marked trails that some of the riding gets a bit more aggressive.

In fact, from the Stockton location, you could drive a regular truck most of the way up before the trail narrows to just ATV width.

Event: 140mile+ Trek.. ATV/Geocaching/Camping

2010-06-20T01:55:05Z

Tent, food and at least an extra 5gal. fuel required. We will cross two mountain ranges, hit elevations in excess of 12,000', encounter all manner of wildlife and have an awesome time. Who's coming along? You will need an ATV of 50" or less width.

Fillmore to Marysvale (or further).

Camping at the Wickiup (San Rafael Swell)

2010-06-12T17:13:18Z

Over Memorial weekend, we made the 5 hour journey South-East (30 miles from the Colorado border), just off I-70 at exit 131. Our goal was to enjoy a new section of the San Rafael Swell (the Swell) and camp along the North side, instead of our usual location near Temple Mountain and Goblin Valley. The North side is chock full of great off roading adventures, to include :The Devils Racetrack, Buckhorn wash/draw, Head of Sinbad and many others. The most enjoyable and challenging area of riding was easily the Devil's Racetrack. Although I knew about this location, we didn't plan on riding it until we stumbled upon the trailhead. With us were my 15 year old son (Alex), my 12 year old son (Nick), my nephews (Zach, Skyler), my neice (Megan) and my brother-in-law and his friend Jeff. I decided to ride up for the first 3 miles or so to determine if the kids could make it. There were a few rugged stair climbs and slick rock sections, but after that, it seemed to level out. I turned around and indicated that we could probably get the entire group up. What a mistake that was... A few photos from the trip:

Camp

This guy was stinking up the area and completely blocking the trail. I had to winch him off the trail.

Underneath him were frogs, apparently eating away at the underside of this sheep. Carnivorous frogs?

Our first planned ride and Zach’s machine blows out the CVT belt less than 2 miles from camp!

The “Head of Sinbad”

Rest break along Coal Wash:

One of the many natural arches we encountered:

Zach and GF climbing the rock pile.

Spectators at the top of the Devils Racetrack.

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Too large a 5th wheel trailer?

2010-06-12T16:17:05Z

After having taken our new rig out three times since May, I’m now thinking we may have bit off more than we can chew. On my first real outing, I went out alone to hold a campsite for two days while friends and family arrived. Since I was alone, I had to navigate the RW395 by myself. Unfortunately, a tree jumped out and grabbed the entire right side of the rig, punching a small hole in our front door. After getting back home and backing this beast into our driveway (RV spot), I pulled forward just a little and somehow the rig grabbed our gate and got wedged. The only solution was to cut that entire side of the gate down.

Camp (Wickiup area, San Rafael Swell)

Ouch!

Austrailian RV Adventure

2010-05-22T18:26:05Z

The sheer determination is amazing:

ATVUtah Forum - Abandoned trailer-homes

2010-05-09T14:07:02Z

http://www.atvutah.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1240693879/26#26

We went out again yesterday (Nick, Alex, Megan and I) to explore this hastily abandoned camp. Seems far more vandalism has taken place since last year.

Still a fun area to explore:

A gopher snake that decided that if wanted to sit under my ATV:

High 5 Etiquette

2010-05-03T04:03:10Z

Too good not to share:

2011 Ford -v- 2010 Dodge Ram

2010-04-17T20:46:52Z

Note: I'm a huge Dodge CTD (Cummins Turbo Diesel) fan and was eager to see this review.

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Original Site (MotorTrend) :Comparison: 2011 Ford F-250 Super Duty vs 2010 Ram 2500 HD

Click to view Gallery

The battle lines have been redrawn. Ford and Dodge (now Ram) have been duking it out with each other in the heavy-duty (3/4- and one-ton) pickup market for what seems like forever, but in recent times Ford has been winning the biggest percentage of market share while the Ram HD has the highest all-important diesel take rate in the segment, almost 85 percent. These trucks are made for hard work and hard play. And even though sales for full-size pickups have dropped as much as 40 percent in some segments, OEs understand there will always be buyers for work trucks. And here we've decided to pit two of the latest -- the all-new 2011 Ford Super Duty and the Ram 2500 HD -- head to head, equipped with the all-important oil-burner.

Diesel connoisseurs have been waiting for this confrontation for ages. The 2010.5 federal emissions regulations essentially forced all three of the 3/4- and one-ton work-truck makers to dig deep and come up with clever ways to provide the most pulling power possible with a much cleaner NOx and particulate emissions rating. The 350-horsepower, 650-pound-foot 6.7-liter Cummins I-6 was updated three years ago and was the first of the HD diesel engines to meet the stricter 2010.5 regulations. Unlike the Cummins, Ford's all-new 6.7-liter, 390-horse, 735-pound-foot V-8 Power Stroke (now built in-house) uses a urea-based aftertreatment emissions system.

Mobile Phone Group to take over GPS Satellite Network

2010-04-01T19:22:39Z

Note: I've known for some time now that the US Military has been putting private birds into orbit. It's no surprise. Now we'll see if we get charged for GPS services.
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View on Web

On April 1, 2010, The US Department of Defense announced its intention to give up ownership of its GPS Satellite Network, citing concerns about the mix of consumer and military traffic, and the cost to maintain the system as it experiences record growth in use.

The GPS Satellite Mobile Phone Consortium, a group of the 24 largest telecoms worldwide, is expected to take ownership of the satellite network.

The so-called 'GPS Satellite Mobile Phone Consortium' will combine 24 of the world's largest mobile carriers, including America Movil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, mobilkom Austria, MTN Group, NTT Docomo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, TeliaSonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, VimpelCom and WIND. The four operators in the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) mobile apps initiative - Vodafone, China Mobile, SoftBank and Verizon Wireless - are also included.

Under the terms of the agreement, the mobile phone group will lease the satellites currently in operation and be responsible for the cost of launching any new ones. It is expected that GPS will be completely under their control by 2012. By that time, a GPS device will need to use a cellular identifier to decode GPS signals.

Department of Defense officials declined comment on the future of the use of GPS in military applications, citing security concerns. It is speculated that the military has been launching a new satellite network strictly for its own use.

Not all are happy with the move. High on the list of consumer complaints is that the perception that mobile phone companies, in their typical fashion, will levy monthly fees for a GPS signal that used to be free.

In response to this criticism, the Mobile Phone Consortium stressed their intention to make the technology affordable and available to all. The Consortium itself will levy no fees for GPS use, but choices of pricing will be left to the individual telecoms.

The question comes up also of the future of GPS receivers that don't have a mobile phone component. While the number of mobile phone gps receivers has now overtaken these in number, there are still millions of these in existence. The GPS Satellite Mobile Phone Consortium says they are willing to license their technology to these manufacturers, and companies such as Garmin and Magellan may even join the consortium.

Resistance to the idea of a mobile phone owned GPS network has gone beyond words. Programmers who preferred not to be identified announced their intention to hack the new network as soon as it was launched. If they succeed, exploits will be posted widely around the internet, with the goal of keeping the technology free for all.

If you are concerned about this transfer of GPS ownership, add your name to those concerned by taking a short survey at this web address:

Respond to Mobile Phone Ownership of GPS