Continental Divide and Colorado BDR

[Glen]

Awesome & inspiring!!! A bucket list trip to be sure...

I have a few "dream trips" in mind, but have always been concerned about doing them in the van. There's some good food for thought in your report.

Thx

[velo47]

Thanks Glen!
m

[velo47]

An Overland Bound member reported that the car in Post #23 was still there 2 weeks ago when they went over Hagerman Pass!

[GvB40]

Originally Posted by velo47

Final Thoughts, in no particular order

The CDR and COBDR portion of the vacation was 25 days and about 4,250 miles from home in Albuquerque. That includes the trip down from Albuquerque down to the border, the detour to Glenwood Springs for tires, and the detour to Missoula for Walleye.

From Eureka, I drove to Yakima, WA to visit friends. Then to Missoula and Philipsburg, MT for a couple weeks relaxing with relatives. Then home to Albuquerque with my wife, stepson, and grandson. Total mileage for the 43 days was about 6,600 miles.

I thought I could get one last trip out of the front tires. This was a mistake, and I should have gotten new ones before I left.

I’m putting the new ARB twin compressor under the hood. The current single ARB is under the van and gets caked with mud. All the time. That can’t be good. Hopefully I can rebuild the single and put it in my Colorado.
Does anyone have any tips? The motor runs, it just doesn’t pump much if any air.

I’m glad I have a winch. I never used it. A pull-pal would be nice for the wide open areas in NM and WY.

I love having the SpotX. So much of this trip was out of cell service. It is layer of comfort for both me and my wife, and she and the grandson can follow my progress on the computer.

What fun it is to travel and meet new people and to travel with “old” friends! But going alone adds to the adventure, too. When I’m by myself I need to slow down and do more detours to see the sights. Or maybe just stop early and relax if I find a really nice campsite.

The van performed great. It’s big, but no longer or wider than a new full-size truck, really. It is tall, and you sit up high, so it feels even bigger. It’s got a lot of new pinstripes.

There was no instance where I was even close to getting stuck. Partly because I bypassed Fleecer Ridge in MT and some mud in NM. We didn’t do the “hard” passes in CO, but they were hard enough. There were a couple spots where I thought I was going to have a problem (like Hagerman where the Tundra was temporarily stuck in front of us), but the van handled it no problem. I only scraped the skids a few times.

Do I want to do more of the high mountain passes in CO? Not really, at least not in a big vehicle. I spent most of those days looking at the road, trying to anticipate the ever-present traffic, and a little stressed about what laid ahead. I didn’t really get to look around and see the sights except when we stopped.

Would I want to do the high mountain passes as a passenger? No way! I like being in control. Plus, you have the steering wheel to hold onto.

Traffic! Wow, there were a lot of vehicles on the passes in Colorado. It was just after 4th of July weekend, but still…

I’m more cautious by myself. I don’t want to spend a day digging out of mud by myself. Or trying to winch up or back down Fleecer Ridge. Even if I could.

It was kinda a let-down to finally get to the Canada border.

6 weeks is a long time to be away from home.

Am I glad I did it? HECK YA!

What’s next? Beats me, maybe the Mojave Road in the spring. Then the Idaho or Utah BDR. Maybe the Enchanted Rockies Trail. Maybe the Trans-America Trail? The Great Western Trail?

If anyone has any questions, comments, suggestions, fire away!

What’s next looks like it’s going to be the Mojave rd. I’d like to do the Enchanted Rockies trail also. Sometime when you are not occupied with other endeavors.

[wander]

What a great report - good writing and photography. I particularly enjoyed seeing places in Colorado and Wyoming we've traveled. Thank you for taking the time to bless us with this.

[Spr]

Amazing!!! Thank you for the awesome write up.

[joefromsf]

Originally Posted by velo47

Final Thoughts, in no particular order


. . .


I’m putting the new ARB twin compressor under the hood. The current single ARB is under the van and gets caked with mud. All the time. That can’t be good. Hopefully I can rebuild the single and put it in my Colorado.
Does anyone have any tips? The motor runs, it just doesn’t pump much if any air.


. . .

Hey Matt,


Did you ever sort out your compressor issue? I had one of the compressors on my twin ARB go out on the CDR trip with similar symptoms; motor runs but no air. It was a broken screw connecting the piston to the motor. I limped thru the trip with one of the ARBs working, but it was slow, so I augmented it with a portable compressor I bought at Autozone.


Going to take out the compressor this week and see if I can extract the broken screw for an inexpensive fix.



--Joe

[velo47]

Hey Joe,
I ended up installing the double in the back of the van, behind the passenger rear wheel well. SMB had wired the single to the house battery, so that location worked better than under the hood, and it won't get as hot.

I haven't delved into the problem with the single, other than to check the bolt that broke on yours, as it seems to be a common failure point. Mine is not broken, so it must be something else.

If you can't get the broken bolt out, Polyperformance has all sorts of ARB replacement parts listed on their website.