Taboma
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Left Lake Havasu early Friday morning with 15' Rzr 900S Eps in tow headed for our Ranch property in the mountains 30 miles NE of Kingman.
My wife and I have been exploring this area and surrounding mountains since 07', at first in our 07' Ranger, followed with our current Rzr.
Due to the increased comfort and speed of the Rzr our trips have branched out further and we've found and explored some amazing country.
Despite coming equipped to handle minor repairs, belt and tires etc. and always driving in a manner to protect the equipment, plus a few basic survival aids, this trip proved, that even with only 373 miles, Razors engines can shit the bed and you're screwed.
This trip consisted of exploring in the Cottonwood mountains. They extend from the I-40 approx 30 miles east of Kingman, to old Rt. 66 to Peach springs and beyond to Seligman. It's a huge area, often hunted and there's rural ranches scattered around. We were only going to climb into the mountains and travel through one corner returning on an old cattle road that ends up paralleling I-40. It was about a 70 mile loop.
The trip was amazing, beautiful country, crossed several small running creeks, avoided a near head-on with a quail and an attack by two huge wasps. Keep in mind, this is rural, you'll see deer and occasionally pronghorn antelope, certainly big jacks. But at the end of the day you'd probably conclude that humans had in fact gone extinct. Therein lies the beauty :bowdown:, therein lies the danger. :skull
You fully realize you're very much alone should unforeseen shit happen, you try to prepared and act accordingly, after all, you can die in bed too.
By mid-afternoon we had explored and wound our way down the south end of Willow Creek Ranches, now there's some very nice homes around and we can see the I-40 off in the distance. We had found and were traveling the final rural section of our trip, now we're in cattle country between these ranches and the I-40. A rocky cattle road that goes straight up, straight down and round and round. Meaning a mile as a the crow flies is several miles by road. We had another 3 miles to go and we'd be at the Silver Springs offramp and groomed roads ahead to get back to our ranch where we'd left my truck and Rzr trailer. Damn near beer-30, hell yeah :thumbsup:thumbsup
Rzr engine purring along, trucks blowing by just above us on the I-40, suddenly Rzr engines starts popping, backfiring, dies :yikes I tried to re-start, it fired right up, started to idle and as soon as I gave it any throttle it popped and died. Engine was cool, battery voltage fine, no codes, so started tearing access panels off looking for something obvious. Opened the gas cap in case it wasn't venting, removed the air filter in case it had clogged, checked connectors, everything appeared normal.
OK, so break out the cell phone because usually we get good service anywhere near the I-40 --- nope, not this time because we're down in a hole.
Re-tried to start it after it had sat and cooled, it kicked and by constantly goosing the throttle I got another 100 or so yards out of it, then dead again. Climbed a high hill, still no cell, so we started climbing and hiking to the I-40 and started trying to wave down a car. Finally after a long period of people just waving at us --- WTF ? Two nice young guys stopped and while we were explaining our situation, here comes Mr DPS officer with lights blazing. :thumbsup:thumbsup Damn, now that felt good watching him pull up. YES, we're not going to die
I'm 69 and this was NOT my first ride in a Highway Patrol or other cop car, my wife is 61 and this was her FIRST ride, the look on her face was priceless :rolleyes
Let me tell you, those Ford Explorers look really cool, but good God, those plastic backseats and complete lack of rear leg room is ugly. I realize they're not made for passenger comfort, but that vehicle had the worst ride and loudest road noise of anything I've ever driven or ridden in. No shit, but the I-40 felt like we were traveling over a washboard road :thumbsdown
Anyway the officer was really cool, hauled us close to 30 miles to the Petro truck stop at Blake Ranch Rd. Now the trick was, how to get from there another 40 miles away to our ranch, to get the truck and trailer and 4 wheel in on this nasty road to recover the Rzr and we had but a couple of hours before nightfall.
I won't bore you with the failed phone calls and other attempts to remedy our situation. But while taking a stress break in the truck stop there was an skinny old guy with a cane wearing a Marine Corp vet hat sitting across from us. My wife went over and asked if he had a car, "Yes Ma'am I do", he replied. So we told him our story and where he needed to go. He shared that he had bought his car for $ 250 out of a field in North Carolina and he and his nephew had traveled across the USA in it, they were sleeping in the car and were down to their last $ 28 cents, but they'd be happy to help us.
We filled his tank, promised to make it worth his while and off we went with salvation in sight, but kinda precariously so, given I wasn't sure if this old Mercury Tracer would even make it out of the truck stop :yikes But, screw it, we were otherwise out of options.
We somehow made it back to our ranch and our truck. Gave our new best friend $ 160, which was all our cash, but he was now the 2nd happiest person on earth, us being the happiest :bowdown:
Set a couple of land speed records towing down 30 miles of dirt roads trying to beat the sundown to reach the stranded Rzr. Ended up in 4X4 low with the rear end locked, a lot of desert pin stripping on the truck, but as the sun dropped, we'd retrieved the Rzr and had made it to the Silver Springs I-40 onramp. I was able to get the Rzr to fire over and a couple of quick throttle jabs, popping and backfiring, it made on leap up onto the trailer before it died again --- Whew !! :thumbsup
By 9 PM we were back in Havasu and I tell you, a beer has never ever tasted so good
By Sat AM the POS Rzr was back at AZ West, fingers crossed our extended warranty will cover the repairs, which nobody seems to know what that will be. I'm really disappointed that AJ is no longer at AZ West, I heard he opened his own shop somewhere. In the past I've found his current replacement difficult to deal with, his persona this time was no different, so we'll see how this impacts our ongoing relationship.
I realize there's a hundred morals to this story, we understand the inherit dangers exploring by ourselves, we realize shit can and does happen.
We had however developed perhaps a false sense of security in the vehicle. Our previous Ranger had never missed a beat and after exploring like this for ten years, we're not exactly newcomers. Our # 1 priority has always been, prepare, then protect the vehicle, because being stranded in this country can end very badly.
Of course traveling in numbers is much safer, we get that, but not everybody enjoys following in the wake of a dusty group and riding from bar to bar. If that's our only viable option going forward, we'll sell the machine and enjoy our marvelous memories.
What we ultimately lost during this trip was the ten years of confidence in the two Polaris vehicles we'd accumulated. I'm not sure my wife is going to be up for another trip outside of a couple of miles, given she's shaken with the thoughts of how narrowly we escaped with our asses this time.
Now what ? Perhaps we need to consider a new Jeep Wrangler ? Obviously we can carry more survival gear, be better equipped do deal with the Shit Happens moment, at least not die of exposure. My Rzr took a shit with under 400 miles, my F150 is purring along with 33K miles and in my 69 years I've never had a properly maintained vehicle just quit and leave us dead on the road.
Anyway, awesome day right up until it wasn't Here's a few pics --- now pondering the future :headscratch:
From the top of the Cottonwood Mtns looking back towards Kingman and the Haulapai mtns.
At the top
Over the top and dropping into the Cottonwoods.
My wife and I have been exploring this area and surrounding mountains since 07', at first in our 07' Ranger, followed with our current Rzr.
Due to the increased comfort and speed of the Rzr our trips have branched out further and we've found and explored some amazing country.
Despite coming equipped to handle minor repairs, belt and tires etc. and always driving in a manner to protect the equipment, plus a few basic survival aids, this trip proved, that even with only 373 miles, Razors engines can shit the bed and you're screwed.
This trip consisted of exploring in the Cottonwood mountains. They extend from the I-40 approx 30 miles east of Kingman, to old Rt. 66 to Peach springs and beyond to Seligman. It's a huge area, often hunted and there's rural ranches scattered around. We were only going to climb into the mountains and travel through one corner returning on an old cattle road that ends up paralleling I-40. It was about a 70 mile loop.
The trip was amazing, beautiful country, crossed several small running creeks, avoided a near head-on with a quail and an attack by two huge wasps. Keep in mind, this is rural, you'll see deer and occasionally pronghorn antelope, certainly big jacks. But at the end of the day you'd probably conclude that humans had in fact gone extinct. Therein lies the beauty :bowdown:, therein lies the danger. :skull
You fully realize you're very much alone should unforeseen shit happen, you try to prepared and act accordingly, after all, you can die in bed too.
By mid-afternoon we had explored and wound our way down the south end of Willow Creek Ranches, now there's some very nice homes around and we can see the I-40 off in the distance. We had found and were traveling the final rural section of our trip, now we're in cattle country between these ranches and the I-40. A rocky cattle road that goes straight up, straight down and round and round. Meaning a mile as a the crow flies is several miles by road. We had another 3 miles to go and we'd be at the Silver Springs offramp and groomed roads ahead to get back to our ranch where we'd left my truck and Rzr trailer. Damn near beer-30, hell yeah :thumbsup:thumbsup
Rzr engine purring along, trucks blowing by just above us on the I-40, suddenly Rzr engines starts popping, backfiring, dies :yikes I tried to re-start, it fired right up, started to idle and as soon as I gave it any throttle it popped and died. Engine was cool, battery voltage fine, no codes, so started tearing access panels off looking for something obvious. Opened the gas cap in case it wasn't venting, removed the air filter in case it had clogged, checked connectors, everything appeared normal.
OK, so break out the cell phone because usually we get good service anywhere near the I-40 --- nope, not this time because we're down in a hole.
Re-tried to start it after it had sat and cooled, it kicked and by constantly goosing the throttle I got another 100 or so yards out of it, then dead again. Climbed a high hill, still no cell, so we started climbing and hiking to the I-40 and started trying to wave down a car. Finally after a long period of people just waving at us --- WTF ? Two nice young guys stopped and while we were explaining our situation, here comes Mr DPS officer with lights blazing. :thumbsup:thumbsup Damn, now that felt good watching him pull up. YES, we're not going to die
I'm 69 and this was NOT my first ride in a Highway Patrol or other cop car, my wife is 61 and this was her FIRST ride, the look on her face was priceless :rolleyes
Let me tell you, those Ford Explorers look really cool, but good God, those plastic backseats and complete lack of rear leg room is ugly. I realize they're not made for passenger comfort, but that vehicle had the worst ride and loudest road noise of anything I've ever driven or ridden in. No shit, but the I-40 felt like we were traveling over a washboard road :thumbsdown
Anyway the officer was really cool, hauled us close to 30 miles to the Petro truck stop at Blake Ranch Rd. Now the trick was, how to get from there another 40 miles away to our ranch, to get the truck and trailer and 4 wheel in on this nasty road to recover the Rzr and we had but a couple of hours before nightfall.
I won't bore you with the failed phone calls and other attempts to remedy our situation. But while taking a stress break in the truck stop there was an skinny old guy with a cane wearing a Marine Corp vet hat sitting across from us. My wife went over and asked if he had a car, "Yes Ma'am I do", he replied. So we told him our story and where he needed to go. He shared that he had bought his car for $ 250 out of a field in North Carolina and he and his nephew had traveled across the USA in it, they were sleeping in the car and were down to their last $ 28 cents, but they'd be happy to help us.
We filled his tank, promised to make it worth his while and off we went with salvation in sight, but kinda precariously so, given I wasn't sure if this old Mercury Tracer would even make it out of the truck stop :yikes But, screw it, we were otherwise out of options.
We somehow made it back to our ranch and our truck. Gave our new best friend $ 160, which was all our cash, but he was now the 2nd happiest person on earth, us being the happiest :bowdown:
Set a couple of land speed records towing down 30 miles of dirt roads trying to beat the sundown to reach the stranded Rzr. Ended up in 4X4 low with the rear end locked, a lot of desert pin stripping on the truck, but as the sun dropped, we'd retrieved the Rzr and had made it to the Silver Springs I-40 onramp. I was able to get the Rzr to fire over and a couple of quick throttle jabs, popping and backfiring, it made on leap up onto the trailer before it died again --- Whew !! :thumbsup
By 9 PM we were back in Havasu and I tell you, a beer has never ever tasted so good
By Sat AM the POS Rzr was back at AZ West, fingers crossed our extended warranty will cover the repairs, which nobody seems to know what that will be. I'm really disappointed that AJ is no longer at AZ West, I heard he opened his own shop somewhere. In the past I've found his current replacement difficult to deal with, his persona this time was no different, so we'll see how this impacts our ongoing relationship.
I realize there's a hundred morals to this story, we understand the inherit dangers exploring by ourselves, we realize shit can and does happen.
We had however developed perhaps a false sense of security in the vehicle. Our previous Ranger had never missed a beat and after exploring like this for ten years, we're not exactly newcomers. Our # 1 priority has always been, prepare, then protect the vehicle, because being stranded in this country can end very badly.
Of course traveling in numbers is much safer, we get that, but not everybody enjoys following in the wake of a dusty group and riding from bar to bar. If that's our only viable option going forward, we'll sell the machine and enjoy our marvelous memories.
What we ultimately lost during this trip was the ten years of confidence in the two Polaris vehicles we'd accumulated. I'm not sure my wife is going to be up for another trip outside of a couple of miles, given she's shaken with the thoughts of how narrowly we escaped with our asses this time.
Now what ? Perhaps we need to consider a new Jeep Wrangler ? Obviously we can carry more survival gear, be better equipped do deal with the Shit Happens moment, at least not die of exposure. My Rzr took a shit with under 400 miles, my F150 is purring along with 33K miles and in my 69 years I've never had a properly maintained vehicle just quit and leave us dead on the road.
Anyway, awesome day right up until it wasn't Here's a few pics --- now pondering the future :headscratch:
From the top of the Cottonwood Mtns looking back towards Kingman and the Haulapai mtns.
At the top
Over the top and dropping into the Cottonwoods.