Okierover – Page 27 – OKIEROVER.COM

April 6, 2017May 16, 2023

Lucas Elimination Part Duex (Post #572) 4/6/2017

If you’ve been following along with my plan to eliminate my Lucas ignition system you know we’ve had some struggles. Remember the goal, to replace the expensive and moderately reliable Lucas parts with easy to source, available in nearly any auto parts store, inexpensive (sometimes with a lifetime warranty) ignition parts.

No one wants to pay 200$(US)+ for an ignition module that takes 5 days to arrive from one of the coasts or 100$(US)+ for an ignition coil when you damn well know that a similar coil and ignition module for a 1977 Chevy Nova costs 75$(US) and both have a lifetime warranty. Before I owned this Land Rover I had never experienced an ignition module or coil failure….NEVER, on a dozen cars across the entire spectrum of vehicles I have driven.

Our current issue, while we have managed to source an ignition module for 25$(US) and a coil for just under 50$(US) the ignition modules are failing at a rate a great deal worse than the Lucas setup. Think, every 2 weeks I’m replacing an ignition module. I carry TWO spares just in case.

This is in all actuality worse than the Lucas setup. A great deal of science has gone into the conditioning of the voltage and current going into the module and coil. A lot of thought by people a great deal smarter than me has gone into figuring out what is causing the failure of the GM modules we are using to replace Lucas. We’ve come down to this, we need a coil that has higher resistance than the coil we originally sourced. So to that end we now have an ignition module AND coil from a 1977 Chevy Nova with the L6 engine. Matter of fact this is the coil used on 965 different models of cars look at the list here. There’s even 32 models of Jeep on that list! Even with all the models using this coil, this is not a coil commonly stocked at your neighborhood O’Reilly’s. That is a bit disappointing but it is to be expected. The ignition module which is the more common of failure points, is a very common GM part and available in most auto parts stores.

So if you are trying to do the same to your beloved Land Rover.

The coil is a BWD – Ignition Coil Part # E41 available for 23.99$(US) Lifetime Warranty

The ignition module is a BWD – Ignition Control Module Part # CBE4P available for 29.99$(US) Lifetime Warranty

I’ll be installing these this weekend and will keep you apprised of any additional failures and what we are doing to eliminate them. During a fit of frustration recently I purchased a new Lucas ignition module and official coil and I am prepared to put them back in and scrub this experiment. I was able to find them on Amazon.com below the cost of some Land Rover parts sites you have seen online and with my Prime membership they came to the house in TWO DAYS! That will work. It won’t work if I’m stuck in the middle of the Comanche National Grasslands 30 miles or more from the nearest parts store, so I guess I’ll be carrying a spare from here on out, perhaps even two spares.

I’m hoping to have a reliable rig for an Oklahoma Overland Group run to the western part of the state at the end of this month. If you think you’d like to go check out the Oklahoma Overland Group on the Facebook.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

January 23, 2017August 1, 2023

Capulin Volcano and the Northwest Passage 2016, Part Three (Post #571) 1/23/2017

Day Three

We woke in Picture Canyon. Erik and his team planned to return to Oklahoma City. We made a big breakfast cooking everything we hadn’t eaten so far on the trip. By the time we finished cooking eating and packing up Mr. Fisher and I had to change our plans too.

The trek up Black Mesa and back takes at least 5 hours. We had 7 hours of driving to get home. We had an hour and a half to get to the trail-head. The math put us in Norman around 11 PM or even later. That wasn’t really an option as I had to go back to work on Tuesday. So we skipped Black Mesa. I’ve been to the Black Mesa area three times and I haven’t made the hike yet. My next trip to the region Black Mesa will be my primary goal. I’m doing that first.

We headed to Campo, Colorado to get some fuel. We found a garage there with a mechanic, that’s something to put in the memory bank just in case. We fueled up and struck up a conversation with a local gentleman who heard we were overlanding and gave us a great suggestion for a route home. We headed south out of Campo looking for Road C. We headed east and soon found ourselves out on the wide open grassland.

Along the way we found a historical marker and stopped to check it out. Turned out it was a short cut for the Santa Fe Trail.

You can find it by clicking this map.google.com link.

GPS coordinates

“Santa Fe Trail Marker with Stone Posts”
37°01’05.7″N 102°27’42.3″W
37.018258, -102.461744

The markers were for the Aubry Cutoff. From the sign, it was a way from the Mountain Route to the Cimarron Route on the Santa Fe Trail.
The sign was well weathered and really hard to read so I translated it for you.

“Francois Xaver Aubry was born December 3, 1824 near Quebec. In 1843 at 18, he left his home and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he began working as a clerk for a French Canadian merchant company.”
“In 1846 lured by the talk of trade making money and adventure on the Santa Fe Trail, he gave up his job as a clerk and became a full-time trader. By 1850, Aubry had traveled multiple routes with the goal of finding the shortest sand-free path that provided adequate water and wood. In 1851 he found it establishing what became known as the Aubry Cutoff.”
“From 1846 to 1854 Aubry was among the business most influential merchants on the Santa Fe Trail. His caravans were usually large and his speed and reliability in getting goods to the right market ahead of others was legendary. The average length of Aubry’s trips was 37 days while other merchants would take up to 90 days to deliver their goods to Santa Fe.”
“Along with this mercantile reputation he developed a talent for individual travel. Aubry’s 730 mile trip on horseback from Santa Fe to Independence Missouri in the **** days…”

The rest of the sign is indistinguishable.

The grassland was amazing. I’ve never been so far away from everything. It is a truly wide open place.

A panoramic view.

There were other markers laying out the Santa Fe Trail.

We crossed in to Oklahoma.

Mr. Fisher stands in Colorado and Oklahoma at the same time.

We decided to head to the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site. I’ve never been but have wanted to go several times. The shortcut through Texas was really terrible. We battled the 18-wheelers hauling pre-hamburgers and pre-steaks at mach 2 on the roads throughout the panhandle of Texas. I’m pretty sure most of them should be arrested and thrown into jail for the speed they were traveling and the absolute utter disregard for other drivers. Seriously we were nearly rammed by two 18-wheelers going well over 80 mph. There’s no way they could have stopped if something happened.

We stopped in one these cattle towns and made some sandwiches and ate lunch. Every town had a silo like this one.

The Washita Battlefield National Historic Site is a real nice museum and was free! We stopped and watched an informative video about the event. We looked at the artifacts and read some of the interesting perspectives of the times. There would be a recollection of a white person and a recollection of a native person showing the two sides of the same event. Very informative.

We then went down the road to the actual site. The river has moved since the original event but with a little imagination you can put yourself there that fateful winter day.
We took the two lane highways home. I can tell you as we came back into civilization I actually longed for the wide open spaces of the plains. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we managed to get home without dying.

Part One.
Part Two.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

January 23, 2017May 16, 2023

250,000 Miles (Post #570) 1/23/2017

Two hundred fifty thousand miles. You can drive to the moon (238,000 miles), drive around the moon’s equator (6,786 miles) and have plenty of miles left to find a good parking spot with 250,000 miles.

That’s probably no big deal today when you are thinking about cars. I know several Japanese based autos that have clipped that. JagGuy got 340,000 miles on his Isuzu Trooper and has 300,000 on his Mercedes 300CD’s clock. Like I said no big deal for some manufacturers. But for a British made auto from the middle 1990’s that’s a big deal.

How do you get to 250,000 miles? The answer is lots of maintenance. You’ve seen the “tick sheets” for Land Rover maintenance. Most people don’t take their car to the dealership for maintenance after the warranty runs out. You are already paying 400-600$(US) a month to buy the Land Rover why would you pay 2000$(US) for a “service call”?

So after time goes by and those things get neglected suddenly you have a hose pop that should have been replaced 25000 miles ago and that can lead to even more trouble. Or how about a sensor that stops working optimally and starts to damage other stuff? Eventually you have to replace components when they fail.

Major components start to fail and cost quite a bit to repair. How about 2000$(US) for a transmission, or 1200$(US) for a transfer case. Air conditioning components don’t last forever either and are pretty expensive to get repaired.

I have long ago made my “last payment” on my car loan. As I tell my wife when I have to pay for a repair, “it’s cheaper than a car payment.” Indeed even in terrible years when I have replaced a transmission, averaged over 12 months its cheaper than a car payment on a new car.

So I will continue to drive my Range Rover until I can no longer find parts or some moron crashes into me and she is truly beyond repair. I’ll then find another and drive it until I can no longer find parts.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

January 22, 2017May 16, 2023

Overlanding Kit on the Way (Post #569) 1/22/2017

I bought a second aluminum medical transport chest. I read an article on Overland Bound about having a three trunk system. Pack 3 Cases describes a system where you have three cases ready to go at all times. Adjusting your kit to have the optimal amount of gear for getting out and getting on the trail.

If you have the cases pre-packed you can get home, get your kit on you rig, and get on the road more quickly and efficiently. It’s a solid idea, so I went to some effort to find and purchase 2 additional GI Aluminum Medical Transport Cases. They come in basically three sizes I prefer the Medium size.
Medium – 11½. H x 19½ in. W x 31½ in. L
Large – 17 in. H x 19½ in. W x .31½ in. L
X-Large Chest – 22 in. H x 19½ in. W x 31½ in. L

A quick search of eBay may find you some used ones. I found some at Coleman’s for a reasonable price 79.99$(US). I’ve seen the for as much as 130$(US) and weren’t as nice. Coleman’s often runs out of stock so be prepared for that eventuality. I bought on from a gentleman on eBay. It came with a lot of additional stuff which I thought was awesome. In addition to the case, I got a sleeping bag bivy cover, a very large ditty bag, and a large ammo can. So shop around you don’t know what you’ll get.

If you read my Organizing the Boot post you will see my first medical case there in the pictures. In that case I pack all my tools, spare parts, and straps both recovery and packing. I recommend you read that post as well as it outlines how I pack all the gear needed to keep me on the road and prepared for most issues.

I have packed the camp kitchen in one of my other cases. I still have a little room left for more items if necessary. The third case I think will be my sleeping gear like sleeping bag and sleeping pad. My cot will still need to go in the back along with camp chairs. My friend Erik recently purchased a set of the upgraded heavy duty plastic storage cases.

The thing with either of these solutions is that the cases are water tight and very sturdy. I don’t expect that I’ll have to replace them any time soon. After Erik posted this picture on the Oklahoma Land Rover Owner’s Facebook page I thought of doing a similar picture. However that was the first week my shoulder was really acting up and I couldn’t lift anything over my head. The thought of emptying the cases to make them lighter didn’t appeal to me either as I had just got them loaded with gear.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

January 22, 2017May 16, 2023

Dash Mounts (Post #568) 1/22/2017

I added a mount for some tablet based navigation. I also added a mount for my phone due to the Oklahoma summers melting the suction cup windshield mounts.

Installing it was a bit of a challenge. Under the plastic dash cover which the Evil German Dude gave me quite a lashing over poking holes in it lies a metal framework. In my defense, that dash is faded, falling apart from years of Oklahoma sun, and generally not worth preserving. So the mounts are mounted through the plastic and through the metal and I assure you are quite sturdy.

I’ve had a few questions about what software I’m running on my Android tablet for offline navigation. Let me first say I’m not sure the software I’m running is the right application for me. We had some issues using it when we were in New Mexico and it turned out that using our phones connected to the interwebs was more convenient. Mostly because I wasn’t familiar enough with the software to tell Mr. Fisher how to use it and my impatience with my A-driver/navigator response time being too long when I need to know the next turn. Thankfully Mr. Fisher was very understanding and forgiving of me.

The software is MapFactor: GPS Navigation (Play Store link) its available free from the Google Play Store. You can also download areas from Google Maps for “offline use”.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

January 22, 2017May 16, 2023

New Tires (Post #567) 1/22/2017

After 4 years on my Firestone AT’s they finally quit me. They just don’t make tires like they used too. /sarcasm.

With 2/32ds on the worst one it was time get new shoes for the BWB. I took her by my son-in-law’s Firestone shop on 33rd in Edmond to get a new set of Bridgestone Dueler AT Revo 2’s. I love these tires.

I noticed he had a set of 5 BF Goodrich MTs on sale for 180$(US). If they were the right size and I had an extra set of rims I would have totally bought these for trail driving. But alas I am only able to afford a single set today.

They got me all setup and I’m back on the road. I could go on for hours about tires. But like opinions there are many brands and sizes of tires to choose from. I am a big fan of Bridgestone. I know Bill Burke is a big fan of BF Goodrich tires. All I recommend is that you do your research. Tires need to function on dry and wet roads, snow and ice, gravel and dirt. And for me most of all they have to be quiet on the highway.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering