via West County Explorers Club: Vincent Urban and his crew of friends have just finished another journey, this time through South America. Last winter I posted his first big video, a beautifully shot and edited Land Rover tour through Asia. This is one equally great. Go Vincent! And thanks again for the tip, Greg!
VOTD: Town of Ghosts
via West County Explorers Club: Here’s a beautiful video of Bodie, the ghost town in the Sierra Nevada a few miles from the Nevada border. We visited there on our Mark Twain trip. Click here, if you’d like to read more about it.
Thanks for the tip, Greg!
VOTD: 4×4 Winter Driving Recoveries
via West County Explorers Club: Winter’s on the way. To help you get ready, here’s a video showing some snow recoveries by the Search and Rescue Unit in Pierce County, Washington. One involves raising the truck with a Hi-Lift to pack snow under the tires. In the other a Hummer gets winched out of the snow.
When using the Hi-Lift, always keep your head (or any other body part) out of the area between the Hi-Lift frame and the handle, so the handle doesn’t accidentally snap up and whack you. One way to keep yourself out of the “whack-zone” is to put a foot on the base of the Hi-Lift and work the handle with your opposite hand, pulling with the weight of your entire body.
VOTD: A Day in the Life of a Fire Lookout
via West County Explorers Club: Having visited a couple of fire lookouts this year, I found them to be pretty fascinating places. In this age of electronically monitored everything, rangers and volunteers still head to the tops of mountains to scout for forest fires with nothing more than simply surveying gear.
When smoke is spotted, a bearing is taken using something called an Osborne Fire-Finder, basically a circular map and a sight on a rotating turntable. Once the fire’s bearing is recorded, it’s shared with other towers, who, if they are within visual range, also report a bearing. With a bearing from at least two towers, an approximate fix on the fire can be made. Using the line of sight across the circular map (the lookout tower is located in the center of the map) estimates of the fire’s location can be made if no other lookout is within visual range.
This video, about the Mt. Tamalpais fire lookout in Marin County, just north of San Francisco, is more about the view but I’ll hope you’ll enjoy it just the same.
Sierra Nevada Camping Spots
I went on a nice little solo trip up to the Sierra Nevada this past summer, found some great back country camp sites, and thought I’d share them with you. Keep these in mind for next summer when the snow clears.
La Aduana: 1959 Chevy NAPCO Suburban
Here’s something you don’t see every day, a 1959 Chevy NAPCO Suburban. NAPCO was the company that made aftermarket 4-wheel-drive systems for GM trucks in the 1950s, before GM made them in-house.
Doubleback, VW-Based Camper
VOTD: Icon FJ44 on Jay Leno’s Garage
VOTD: DIY Truck Painting
via West County Explorers Club: If you’ve ever wondered about saving some money and painting your truck yourself, it can be done. The folks from Rugged Guide did it with a roller and spray cans and show you how.
See part 2 after the jump.
La Aduana: 1999 Mercedes G500
I like these early trucks because they were fitted with the classic instrument cluster that Mercedes had used for decades: temperature/fuel to the left, speed in the center and tach. on the right.
La Aduana: 1962 Land Rover Series IIa
From the forums comes refurbished Land Rover Series IIa.
Best of Dakar Rally 2012
via West County Explorers Club: It’s only a couple of months until the Dakar Rally starts up again in January. Until then you can watch the best of 2012 in this action packed video.
VOTD: Now That’s a Pothole
To mangle a Smiths lyric, some potholes are bigger than others. Driving up to this washout, you’d think there was no getting across. Watch this Pinzgauer 6×6 give it a go.
Crooks Canyon, Arizona
via West County Explorers Club: As part of our Southwest Trip this summer, we drove through the Prescott National Forest. We shot video of the most remote part of that drive, Forest Road 82A through Crooks Canyon.
Here’s the post about that part of the trip: Southwest Trip, Part 4: Prescott, AZ.
VOTD: Toyota Hilux, Deep Water Crossing
It’s times like this that you really need to trust your snorkel install and waterproofing job. This video is from New South Wales, Australia via YouTube. Once your windshield wipers are under water, you know you’re in deep.
VOTD: Desert Pinzgauer
Just a Pinzgauer 718K heading over the horizon in Tunisia.
WCXC Southwest Trip: Canyon de Chelly Video
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via West County Explorers Club: I cut together this quick video from our trip to Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona. Apologies for the wind noise.
How to Open a Can Without a Can Opener
Say you’re camping and just about to crack open a can of tomatoes for your stew when you realize — d’oh! — no can opener. If there are some rocks or, better yet, some concrete nearby, to scrape the top of the can on, you can get it open.
No can opener? No problem.
Bentley’s EXP 9F SUV Concept
via West County Explorers Club: Leave it to the English, the inventors of the luxury SUV, to push the limits of that vehicle segment into new, outrageous terrain–understatedly outrageous, that is. Bentley’s new SUV concept, unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show this year, makes a mere Range Rover look positively populist.
It’s called the EXP 9F, which—let’s be honest— doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. As for the look and feel of it though. That’s another story. There’s so much style, upon stateliness, upon brawn in this vehicle that it’s hard to imagine these disparate elements coming together in any kind of comprehensible way, yet they do. Whether it will make sense as a functional object remains to be seen. I can’t imagine hitting the trails with a 600hp, W12 engine, quilted, white, leather seats, 23″ wheels, and all-wheel-drive. That said, I’m looking forward to seeing the videos of the first person that does.
Rumor has it that it’ll be out in 2015. If, in three years, you happen to run into Jay Z on some remote hillside, this is the SUV he’ll be driving.Porsche 911 Off-road
via West County Explorers Club: It’s pretty amazing to see what this mostly stock 911 can do off-road. Finally having the engine in the back makes sense.