I am bummed I missed you guys in sand hollow this past week. I was in Moab and was trying to get over there, but plans got messed up and changed.
It was a trip that had me grinning ear to ear saying, holy fuck my rig kicks ass and then minutes later, my rig sucks.
This is my 8th (I think) Moab trip. I have been to Moab completely stock to my current rig today. We had different plans then normal. Normally we run the traditional trails. This time we added in a trip to area BFE and we got a permit for Coyote canyon. In total we ran Pritchett, Helldorado, Green day, Hells revenge, part of brittany spears and Coyote Canyon.
I hauled my rig to Moab which is just under 600 miles but once in Moab I drove it all over on the highway which was important to me. As per usual, right when I get something dialed, I make more changes and that takes time to get it all dialed. This is my 3rd trip on the 6l80e swap and 2nd time out wheeling the rear 3 link so I wanted some street time too.
I was not concerned one bit about coyote canyon or helldorado and green day, they are rock crawling trails and I am a rock crawler! I was concerned about the moab trails. I have always felt the hummer struggled on those type of trails even after the SAS and in the end it was quite the opposite!
As stated in previous posts I felt I was under sway bared. I felt unstable and like a boat in rough waters. I had a Schroder sway bar 30in length .825 diameter for about a spring rate of 74 at 14in of arm length. I ordered a .95 bar which they said would take 4-6 weeks since they are back logged. Moab was 7 weeks away. I was good right? Well, they said it was done the morning I was leaving. I had put the arm down to an 11in eye to eye to bring the rate up to 120ish but it was still a tad soft. Given Moab is a tippy place I wanted the bigger bar so I reluctantly spent $118 to overnight it to Moab. I got it and installed it there, set it to the 2nd hole which gives me a rate of 153 which was ON THE MONEY. Does it sway a little bit on road? Yes, but it returns to center and feels very stable now. I could up the rate by swapping around holes and go down to 120ish 180ish and up to 220ish. I may try 180 but 150 feels good.
So Day 1 we hit Pritchett, we drove to the start, dropped off the trailered rigs, and then we drove to the end, dropped off the tow rig and trailers and I drove them back to the start with the Hummer. It did well on the road and seemed happy minus a tire or driveline vibe.
Pritchett was fun and I quickly felt confident on its stability which was a huge plus because my first test run I felt a ton of instability.
Chewy hill was my first problem. Last time out I had gas pouring out of the evap canister and caused it to flood the engine and run like dog shit. I had a purge valve CEL and replaced the valve, the CEL light went away but on chewy hill it started doing that again. Run like shit from flooding the engine and at this point I winched because I needed steady throttle and it would only work with heavy throttle inputs. I ended up plugging one of the lines to the evap and that fixed it.
We continue to rocker knocker and I took a bad line, get sketchy and winched. I am so bummed because I literally took the wrong line. From there we hit axle hill and I got that, rockpile was FUCKED up. It was so dug out. The drive out was long but hit the highway and headed back to camp.
Day 2 we hit Area BFE and ran helldorado. Same thing, it was FUCKED up and dug out but it was cool to knock off a legendary trail on the bucket list. We ran Green day and had fun then headed to Hells Revenge.
The hybrid cage saving my bacon again.
Hells Revenge was fun, its an easy trail so I did the entire main trail in 2wd as a challenge. Then we did hells gate, my buddy hit devils hot tub and made it which took big balls. I finally hit mickeys hot tub. After years and years of wanting to hit it, I finally did and got it. I also hit a big climb which historically I would lift because I am a bitch when it comes to commitment on ledges and climbs but the rear suspension didnt lift or squat too much, it felt stable and put the power to the ground. After hells revenge I was stoked!!!! This thing was doing stuff in Moab I struggled with in the past.
The video above is what I think shows my new suspension working, no hopping, or lifting not showing AS over 100%, it doesnt seem to squat so much it pulls the front to full droop. It seems to work nicely.
I took the wrong line, in the past it would be game over, get on the winch but I was able to ride my cage out and get on the right line. If I didnt have the cage Id have no window right now.
Going down escalator
Day 3 we hit coyote canyon, this one was rough, I winched on the first obstacle everyone else got. On the one line I took I was hanging up on my frame side lower rear link mount, I don't think with leafs I would have. Another line I tried my buddy said I do not have the steering angle I needed (18in wide Mickey AG tires hurt steering angle.) From there, I was frustrated and drove like a fucking idiot. The left hand turn on coyote I was going to get, I just couldnt get my tires to steer. Shitty excuses, just like....if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle so enough with the excuses. I had moments of FUCK YEAH and moments of FUCKING POS.
In the traditional rock crawling trails I thought I would have hit my lower shock mounts more and surprisingly I didn't I'd say my lower control arm mounts were worse.
Overall, I had a fun trip with friends and got some seat time with the new changes.
Some things I need to fix before the next run.
-Tap shift: I have resistors in my tap shift wiring and the wiring moves with the shifter and the resistors use such a small piece of wire it broke. I need to mount the wires where the resistors are to lay flat and have the excess wire where no resistors are to move with the shifter.
-Battery: My battery decided to puke all its acid out at the end of the trip. WTF. So I need to replace that and rewire some stuff.
-Ram: my ram assist started leaking so replace the seals.
-Fix the evap leaking bullshit once and for all.
-lastly, and most oddly, if I had sustained higher RPM at highway speeds something is smoking. It didnt do that ever before. I wonder if something from the 6l80 is touching hot exhaust or something. It only happens at 3k rpm plus for grades and such. It didnt do that the first day or up grades on sustained rpm in Idaho so something is up....
As you can see I have my work cut out for me. It was a good trip, I have a lot more confidence in the rear suspension now. I feel it is leaps and bounds better on ledges and climbs, the power is put down, doesnt hop, deflect or do any of the leaf spring things it used to do.