From: Marc Strangfeld (curlyjoe98@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Aug 14 2003 - 23:18:51 PDT
Some of you may or may not know I was planning to take
my M35 to Ouray, CO from Eau Claire, WI. The original
idea was to tow a 34' camper and haul 4 ATV's on the
bed of the truck. Well, two of the guys backed out so
I towed the M105 with two road bikes in that instead
and only two ATV's in the bed of the truck. I assume
some list members have done long distance trips with
their MV's but to me this was quite an adventure.
A summary of Ouray, CO is in order first. Ouray is
located in the southeast corner of the state in the
San Juan mountains. It is known for being a beautiful
vacation spot with lots of hiking trails and many
miles of Jeep trails. (most of these trails are old
pack mule trails for supplying the many mines in the
area.) Some trails are easy with many being rather
difficult for a jeep to travel. We took ATV's on
these trails rather than risking a wreck with the
duece. (many tight switchbacks and no powersteering
would not be easy) Also, highway 550 also known as
the "million dollar highway" is got to be the most
scenic in the US. If you get a chance to drive on it
don't pass it up. Unless you're afraid of heights.
We made it over several passes on the way out and back
with most reaching at least 10000 feet. I found that
5th in the main and low on the transfer worked the
best on the 6-8% grades up and down. The turbo
multifuel hardly even smoked at these high altitudes.
I couldn't really feel a big power drop either,
maybe that is because it is underpowered all the time.
THE WAY OUT
We took a longer route to get there as we had to stop
and see Big Brutus in West Mineral, KS (Big Brutus is
a very large strip mine shovel now a museum)
Somewhere along the line the temperature gage stopped
working so I stopped at Ranchers Supply in Lamar, CO.
These guys were great to work with! A used $12.00
gage and I was on my way. They have an extensive
surplus supply and great service so check them out.
Also the transmission developed a noise when shifting.
It just doesn't sound like a throwout bearing but
I'll have to investigate. Either way, it held up for
the whole trip so I'm greatfull.
IN OURAY, CO
We took the duece on a couple moderate jeep trails
with no major switchbacks. Yankee Boy Basin and
Maggie's Gulch to be exact. That was fun and we
showed up the rock crawling jeeps too. The truck just
kept crawling away regardless of how loose the footing
and the steepness. By the way I saw more than a few
Power Wagons and M37's and yes they were on the
trails too. One M37 had a 6.2 GM diesel in it and
really ran good.
THE TRIP BACK
The trip back started with the tach not working but we
didn't sweat that one. We drove straight through this
time with one guy sleeping in the "bunk" while the
other drove. The "bunk" was several layers of carpet
laid down just behind the cab and was actually guite
comfortable. I cut the middle out of the headache
rack and rolled up the back of the canvas cab top so
we could pass though to the cab without stopping. It
was also pretty funny to be passed by two trucks
towing mobile homes UPHILL. Also got passed by a tri
axle tractor towing a big lowboy with a Cat scraper on
it. It was also funny to be passed by someone only to
have them pass you one or two more times because of a
stop they made. Slow and steady wins the race right?
TOOLS AND SUPPLYS TAKEN
2 spare tires mounted and ready to go
1 gallon of DOT 5 brake fluid
2.5 gallons of 15w40
2 gallons of antifreeze (we also had 10 gals. of
water)
2.5 gallons of 80w90
extra starter
extra alternator
50' 6" wide nylon tow strap
grease gun (I greased the throwout bearing enroute)
an entire assortment of hand tools
tire changing stuff
assorted fittings to repair/cobble brake lines and air
lines
one liter of Jack, Tennessee's Finest
and last but not least, true grit and a little
optimism
STATISTICS AND FINAL THOUGHTS
2935 total miles
350 gallons of fuel approx.
$1.51 average cost per gallon
I should mention that the front hubs were left on as I
couldn't get my freewheeling ones done in time but I
did take off the interaxle driveshaft.
8.39 mpg average
9.68/6.58 best and worst mpg
40.3 mph average including stops for fuel and such on
the way back
80 hours total drive time est.
Only "lost" about 1.5 quarts of oil in all them miles!
I think most of the oil was lost due to a couple
seeps and through the crankcase breather. Eitherway I
was impressed.
Also met a lot of reminiscing veterans and fielded
LOTS of questions for the curious, ignorant, and
misinformed throughout the trip. This I enjoyed doing
and if anybody doesn't like such conversations on a
regular basis then buying a MV is not a good idea. A
common question was, "did you DRIVE that thing all the
way from WI?" My answer was usually, "we were going
to fly it but we just couldn't figure out the wing
geometry" I have also been asked if I would do it
again. My answer is YES, but the cost for fuel will
keep my from doing it again for a while anyway. I
enjoyed every mile and never got tired of hearing that
Hercules singing her song.
I'd like to hear if anybody else knows about Ouray and
any other comments are appreciated also.
Marc Strangfeld
PS Next year we should get a convoy going.
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat May 07 2005 - 20:23:36 PDT