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Please click here for Part Four
Noise
Since laundry was needed, we stayed one night at the KOA in Needles, California. The campground is nice but is showing wear around the edges. It is about a mile north of Interstate 40. We were not ready for highway noise after so many wonderful nights of quiet. It was a restless night and morning could not come soon enough.
We went back to “the list” and drove north of Laughlin, Nevada to Grapevine Canyon, an expansive and well-known petroglyph site.
The rock is granite and the scenery is breathtaking. It was easy to spend a few hours wandering.
We extensively explored the north side of the mouth of Grapevine Canyon.
This faded petroglyph was the most fascinating with a man standing on the outstretched arms of another man.
The Lady crawled under and around the granite boulders in search of rock art. She did not want to miss anything.
We moved into the canyon and explored up the wash. The amount of rock art is staggering.
We continued up to the end of the canyon. Although we passed the area of rock art, the landscape compelled us on.
We turned around and worked our way back through the grapevines.
Walking back down the wash we discovered more rock art including a petroglyph of the antichrist.
This area is easy to reach from the south. Take the time to visit.
We returned to the signed parking area and turned north on the dirt Christmas Tree Pass Road. Although it is a wide graded road, there are a few rough sections. We turned south on highway 95 when we reached pavement. Several miles south on highway 95, we turned west onto the Mojave Road. After a few bumps we realized the noise in the truck’s front end was back. What to do?
“Change of plan,” I said to the Lady. “Any bars with cell service?”
“Two bars,” the Lady answered. “What do you propose?”
“Let’s call the shop in Pahrump that’s helped us in the past. Let’s have them align the front end after we’ve mounted the camper and also find where this noise is coming from.”
The shop could get us in the next morning. We turned around and headed back to pavement.
“Let’s stop and check under the truck again,” the Lady suggested. On our backs in the dirt, I took the driver’s side and the Lady took the passenger side.
“Should this be loose like this?” the Lady asked. I crawled under her side and joined her. The mystery was solved. Both ends of the stabilizer bar link were loose with both nuts almost off the threads.
“Twenty bucks says the shop never torqued these nuts after the install. We will check the other side also,” I said with the discovery.
A bit of the back story. The Lady and I installed the new Dobinsons suspension parts on the rear end of the truck. Before we could get to doing the front end, I had gum surgery that was previously scheduled. For post-op the surgeon insisted I was NOT to get my heart rate up and possibly cause gum bleed during healing – he did not even want me to go for an easy walk for 2 weeks after surgery – so I did not inquire if he thought it might be okay for me to rebuild the front end of the Ranger with the Dobinsons parts during recovery. To meet our deadline of getting to Arizona before Thanksgiving, we paid a 4x4 shop down the hill to do the install on the front. All in all, they did a good job, except for this one thing just discovered. I should note I did inspect their work but I did not double check torques. This episode is why I like to do the work - if at all possible - myself.
Out came the tool box. We jacked up the truck and removed the front tire. We had the required tools, a 17mm wrench and a 6mm hex wrench to keep the stud from turning. It was an easy fix. Back on the road less than an hour later, the noise was gone. (Note: the driver’s side link was tight.)
“Should we still go to the shop in Pahrump?” the Lady asked.
“An alignment check and a double check of the stabilizer bar link won’t hurt. We’ve got many more miles of dirt roads planned for this trip.”
With the abrupt change of plans, we needed a spot to overnight on the way to Pahrump. We found a dispersed campsite along the edge of the Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness west of Searchlight. It was cold with a strong wind but the sunset was outstanding.
But we also had bad news. The rattle was back with the bar link. We addressed it early the next morning, removed the tire, and tightened the two nuts with as much force as I could muster.
We dropped the truck off at the shop along with a full recounting of the issue with the stabilizer bar link. When the truck was ready, I asked about the bar link and was told I had tightened it to torque specs and all was well. With the change of plans we again consulted “the list” and decided to head into the “Nevada Triangle” area of Death Valley National Park north of Beatty. We found a great campsite just outside of the Park boundary.
The near full moon rose before sunset.
The sunrise the next morning was incredible.
Coffee was ready as first light spilled across the landscape.
The Lady insisted we carry the coffee mugs high on our “morning wander.” She wanted a view.
First on the list was at the end of a long slow drive into the Park. This was another good workout in 4 low for our new truck. We stopped at an impossible washout and found a spot to back the truck into.
We found the ruins of a small mining camp.
There was a collapsed building.
Its roof had blown off intact and was fifty yards downslope.
Our objective was an ancient shelter site above a spring. It was rough going but we reached the shelters along a cliff face.
We found the pictographs we were searching for.
A cave was high above.
You know who wanted to make the climb.
We both did. The Lady surveyed the area from this high perch.
Here is the route back down.
Back near the spring we located more ancient shelter sites.
It was a cold day, but with our success we returned to the truck.
We made a detour and visited the small Happy Hooligan mine site.
It is on cold days like this one we really appreciate heated seats in the truck.
The heated seats have three settings – heat, roast, and cremate. Anything above the lowest “heat” setting and I start singing, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.”
We settled into a nice overnight spot back near the boundary. It was another beautiful quiet night with the solitude that sustains us.
The next morning, we headed back into the Nevada Triangle.
Our adventure continues. Please click here for Part Six.
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