RE: Tie downs
sundowners I been using happijacks ties down for the front and troklift ties downs for the rear for several months and have found this to be a very good working combination.
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RE: 2001 Lance 815 price
18seeds, I did a little research, 2001 Lance 815 sold new at the price of about 5900 dollars without any options. Bluebook on this TC is about 4780.00 if its in "cherry" condition and I also called Galaxy Camper and ask them what this camper should be going for. So 6000 dollars is on the high side for that year Lance 815, make a offer on it if you like it, also wholesale price is about 3260 dollars.
RE: Trip to Hoover Dam
My parents live in Kingman, the 93 is a good road all the way. Since you'll be traveling north bound the inspection area is a few miles from the Hoover Dam and if you go thru it on a weekend be patient. Make sure that youtop off your tank before leaving Kingman Once you get close to hoover Dam area the road has a few cures in it, nothing really bad, for I've seen 40 footer MH on the road there. On the Arizona side is where the overlook parking areas are at.
RE: Closest Propane refil and dump site
We need a little more information, are you in route already? what is your route you are using? how far are you driving each day or do you have planned overnite stops?
RE: Increased Torque in 2009 Ford F53 chassis
284 liters coverts to about 78 US gallons.The contact point in the above story link is in Canada and can only be used by Canadians, I tried it.
RE: Lance Solar Mounting
snowranger,before my Utah trip this past June I had a 85 watt panel installed on my Lance815 with aluminum roof. They installed it using brackets that raise the panel about 1 inch above the roof and mechanically fasten to the roof joists with screws, sealing it with Proflex. This set up has been thru the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands,Utah and some very rought wash boarding backroads of Death Valley, Ca. Galaxy Campers did the install,give Dave a call at the link, he can walk you thru it if you are going to do a self install.
RE: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARINES!!
I believe that we can never do enough for our GI's, even in the toughest of situtions they can still keep their sense of humor.
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RE: New Member/New Lance/Custom Bumper Hitch with tire carrier
That Lance 830 looks great on your truck, Ronada, Dave and DeWanye have alway gone out of their to help their customers. I had bought a Lance 815 from them back in 2002 and I can tell you they will serve you right on any issue with your camper.
Ronada and company
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Death Valley part4, conclusion
Death Valley, Ca.
CONLUSION, PART4
Oct. 8,2008
All Part 4 Pictures
Part 1, 2&3 Reports
As I stepped out of our traveling home the coolness of the morning air reminded me that the sun was still making its trek to get over the peaks of the distance mountains. I see that the young couple that came in after dark are up and getting ready for a morning hike.
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Video: Eureka Dunes Morning
Julie wanted to take a sample of Eureka Dunes before leaving and on the way down from the dune I spotted a butterfly.
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Heading back down the road from which we had came we wanted to make a short stop at the un-name mine area in the Last Chance Mountains. Big Pine Rd made for fast traveling to our wanted site and we had arrived in no time at all.
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The mine area has a strong smell of sulfur in the air, especially after we had stirred some of the soil up. Wandering around the mine area I saw many bricks laying in one basic area, some had names on them and some just had number imbedded in them. Julie reminded me we couldn’t spend a lot of time here, for the next place to see is Scotty’s Castle for Julie wanted to buy a Death Valley tee shirt.
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This dirt road is great, no real problems with it as we whipped passed Crankshaft Crossing and on to Hwy190. Making it to Scotty’s Castle I was impressed with the large area that the compound covered.
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Video: Scotty's Castle
Julie bought her tee shirts, I had talked to a park ranger in trying to find out the name of the mine in the Last Chance Mountain. No one knew the name of the mine, but did know it is on private property. Once again we had to get going and we would be coming back to Scotty’s Castle in the future to really see it. On our way out of the parking area was those two young people from South Dakota that we had talked to at Eureka Dunes. Making a quick run back to Mesquite Spring to dump our tanks and top off the fresh water.
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Video: Leaving Scotty's Castle
The route we did take back was thru Grapevine Canyon passed Scotty’s Castle and on to Hwy95 to Beatty for refueling.
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Along Hwy95 we saw Big Dune in the distance, didn’t know it was even here. Making our way to Amarogas and doing a quick photo stop. Not too much had chanced since the last time we had been thru here.
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A few more miles down the road is Dumont Dune and not far from them is Harry Wade Rd. where we had started our adventure into Death Valley with this we have come full circle of our trip.
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To my fellow travelers may all you sights be wondrous and your road be smooth.
RE: External hard drive help needed
It is possible to pull data off a crashed hard drive, mine had crashed and a computor geek friend of mine recoverd 99% of it to a new harddrive.
RAID stands for Redundant Arry of Inexpensive Disks
RE: Lance Cabover / Extended Cabover
18seedsyou got that right,extended cabover has the bed in the north-south postion. The nice thing about a extend cabover is that you don't have to crawl over someone else to use the bathroom.
RE: New to Truck Campers- Looking at Lance 815: best option?
newtocampers welcome to the Lance 815 club, as for question on how long on propane for the refrigerator how's 3 weeks plus for you and base on real life experience.I carry a extra tank up top in my roof rack and a 22 gallon blue tote straped to my laddler for long trips.
You'l still will need air bags for the Lance 815 is heaver on the driver side,extra springs will handle the weight of the Lance but won't correct the tilt toward the driver side.
I've had My Lance since 2002 and it started out on a 1984 chevie 1/2, if you have automatic don't drive in overdrive with the camper on and up grade your tires.
As for extra water we bring along a couple of extra gallon bottles. Lance 815 is a well built camper that can take a lot of abuse. Enjoy your camper and hit the road as often as you can.
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RE: Universal Studios area
geneo2004,your best bet is Travel Villagenorth of Los Angeles. you don't say if you have kids,if so Magic Mountain is close by Travel Village. Universal Studios is good for a one time visit with many years in between.
Directions from Travel Village to Universal Studios:
Time Mile Instruction For Toward
Summary: 28.7 miles (27 minutes)
9:00 AM 0.0 Depart Valencia Travel Village on Local road(s) (North-West) 98 yds
9:00 AM 0.1 Turn RIGHT (North-East) onto SR-126 1.2 mi
9:01 AM 1.2 Take Ramp (RIGHT) onto I-5 18.8 mi I-5 / CA-126 E / Los Angeles
9:18 AM 20.1 Keep RIGHT onto SR-170 6.4 mi CA-170 / Hollywood
9:23 AM 26.5 Merge onto US-101 1.2 mi
9:25 AM 27.7 Keep RIGHT onto Ramp 0.2 mi Lankershim Blvd / Universal City
9:25 AM 27.9 Turn LEFT (East) onto Cahuenga Blvd W 0.5 mi
9:26 AM 28.4 Turn LEFT (North) onto Universal Studios Blvd 0.3 mi
9:27 AM 28.7 Arrive Universal City
SUMMARY
Driving distance: 28.7 miles
Trip duration: 27 minutes
Driving time: 27 minutes
Death Valley,Ca.-part3
Death Valley, Ca.
Part 3
Oct. 6,2008
Al of part 3 photos
Part 1 and 2 reports
This is a Long Report
Like with many of our trips morning always comes around so soon. Morning at Mesquite Spring was so bright it hurt my eyes. My Julie has coffee perking away and is busy making breakfast. This morning I have some repairs to do on my roof rack, for 2 of my rail bolts had sheared off. Since I’m a handle type of guy repairs were made in short order and didn’t have any more trouble from that area.
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Mesquite Spring Campground
Finishing breakfast, we packed up our TC and made a pit stop at the RV dump before exiting Mesquite Spring campground. Just a side note the dump is setup in what I would call the “right” way in which our TC was pointed uphill enough the drain the tanks completely.
Once back on North Highway it was a very short drive to Racetrack Valley Rd turn off and down we drove into wide-open spaces. Heading to our first viewing of the day, Ubehebe Crater.
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To Ubhebe Crater
A few miles in on this road we came across a section of the road that was dirt laden from last Saturday thunderstorm and the ark maintenance crew hasn’t gotten to this clean up yet.
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Washed over Road
Paved road is all the way to Ubehebe Crater, loops around on itself with the turn off to Racetrack spurring off there.
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For now we are alone and that didn’t last long for this is a popular visiting site. I was able to take several pictures before the horde of people showed up.
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While there I was talking to a young man by the name of AJ, Julie didn’t want to make the walk down into the bowels of the crater and AJ was going to make the hike down there, so we went together
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Getting down to the bottom of the crater was done in short order for the slope was indeed steep. A dark area at the bottom was that way due to it was still wet from last Saturday’s storm. AJ and I wandered around a bit, I had learn that he competes in iron man contests. I said that’s good you mat have to carry me back up.
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Bottom of Ubehebe Crater
Picture below is of us on our way back up I had stop a couple times to rest my legs, man I’m out of shape, AJ hadn’t even broke out in a sweat.
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Well we made it back and AJ didn’t have carry me back up like a sack of potatoes. With a new friend made, it was also getting time for us ramble on to Racetrack and AJ was headed else where in Death Valley.
Video Good Bye Ubhebe
Leaving Ubehebe Crater area, following the asphalt path back around to Racetrack turn off. From this point on it dirt road all the way out and some sections of the roadway were severely washboard, other road sections became the riverbed for water doesn’t care what’s it is flooding over.
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Video-Rain Damage Road
We even came across a large puddle in the roadway while traveling to Racetrack. Many types of cactus were showing as the road climb in elevation with the sprinkling of Pickly Pear cactuses
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There wasn’t a sole to be seen since leaving Ubehebe Crater, well just when I think we have the place to our selves a motorcyclist and his buddies blow pass us.
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Reaching Teakettle Junction, to our surprise we had a cell phone signal and voicemail waiting for us, you bet we took advantage of the situation. While doing our cell calls several SUV’s came from the direction of Racetrack and one driver asked us if we were with the motorcyclists, they were searching for of their buddies. We finished our calls and did a couple of picture while reading some of the place the teakettles had come from.
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On the road again, that theme keeps coming back to us. A few more miles and many excellent sights along the way entertained us till the sight of Racetrack came into view
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Stepping up the pace the distance to Racetrack came to a close in a short time. Taking a look at the information signage and then we made the trek out on the playa in search of those mysterious rock tracks of Racetrack.
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Wandering out to the Grandstand is search of those slower than crawling snail tracks, we did come across a rock that had a hard to see track. This end of racetrack didn’t have much in the way of those rock.
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Julie and I looked around some more with little in the way of rock tracks, I was thinking that the recent storm had washed out the tracks.
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Video-At Racetrack
Taking notice of the time we when to the dry camp 3 miles south of Racetrack, for tomorrow we’ll go back to the southern part of Racetrack. The only way we knew about this dry campsite was the fact it was shown on Death Valley Back County road hand out, those free hand outs do come in handy.
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Rocks outline the camping area with a portable toilet on site. Being surrounded on three sides by local mountains it was going to get dark quickly and we weren’t the only one’s here.
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On the way in I saw what appear to being mine tailings on the near by hillside near the base, so I trek up to them while Julie was getting dinner ready. Once up to the tailing I found that there was no mine but just a small hole dig.
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Video-Dry Campsite
Our neighbors had shown up and it turned out we had passed their parked SUV on the way to Racetrack, they are father and son from South Dakota on a university grant doing satellite conformations of mineral deposits. Julie had made a large pot of sweet n sour soup, much more than we could eat. Well with this much soup there was only one thing to do, invite the two geologists to our nightly meal, which they were glad to do. They told us that they had been to this very campsite about 20 different times.
Oct.07, 2008…Tuesday morning
Waking up to a refrigerator that’s dieing isn’t what I expect on this trip, but not the less it was happing. The darn thing when on strike on us and wouldn’t stay lit on propane; lucky for us we always take the ice chest with us. Well we invited the geologists to breakfast explaining that our refrigerator was dieing on us and we had to cook some extra food (not enough room in ice chest)
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They thank us for breakfast and we finished packing up for the drive back to Racetrack, the south end.
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Video-leaving Dry Campsite
Three mile drive was indeed short (I put my foot into it) for the road here wasn’t that bad. We wasted no in getting out on the playa and making that little hike out to the rocks that a snail could out run.
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Video- Traveling Rocks
We saw a lot of rock trails out here and enjoyed our time out here, wandering around the playa and I was amazed how flat this place is. Our next place to explore is the Lost Burro mine, the road to it is back at Teakettle Junction was done fast, once being over it I now knew how fast I could fly over this part of the road.
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Video-Road to Lost Burro Mine
Today there wasn’t any cell service at teakettle, so we continue our drove up to Lost Burro mine. The beautiful of Death Valley just keeps on coming, while taking in the passing sights I almost missed the spur road up to Lost Burro mine
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Video-Lost Burro Mine
Conditions on the spur road became such that the last ¾ mile we ended up walking to the mine for the road became so off camber I didn’t want to risk tipping into the hillside, as it turn out there were 3 other section that were worst and I estimate it would take about a hour at each section for repairs by hand, It was better to walk in.
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Lost Burro Mine is worth the trouble getting there with structures in fairly good shape and decent photo opportunely.
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Video-At Lost Burro Mine
Julie stopped at the entrance of a storage room crave into the hillside
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The mine is spread over a good size area; I found the retaining wall a nice piece of work and looks like it has held up rather well.
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We spent what time we could here and then made our way back to the TC. I would have to back it up a few hundred feet to an area to due a 3-point turn.
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Video-Leaving Burro Mine
Making our travel back to Racetrack Valley Rd didn’t take long and getting back to Ubehebe Crater was done in a fair god clip. Once back at the crater it was time for a little lunch, did we get a surprise when I opened the door, there lying on the floor was the bathroom door. Humm, I found all the screws on the floor as well so I guess making that fast run over all that wash boarding had backed out those screws. It took 10 minutes to put everything back together and we had lunch looking at the crater. Our next area to see is Eureka Dunes and we have a few miles to get there.
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Road to Big Pine and Eureka Dunes allowed fast travel for it was in good condition and had little wash boarding. There were only two spots that had to be slowed down for to transverse the damage from the pasted storm. On our map is a place along our way called Crankshaft Crossing, when we arrived there we knew why it was called Crankshaft Crossing.
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From here the road climbs up into the Last Chance Range winding around in a valley, in traveling thru here is a un-named mine just off the roadway no time to stop to explore. The road opens up to a spacious valley, for the road to Eureka Dunes is at the bottom of the hill.
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Ten more miles to of dirt road and a couple of soft sand pocket spot to transverse.
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Arriving at the big dunes with a cloud of flying dust left behind us, we looked at the dunes with awe. Out came the daypack and off to climb that pile of sand.
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Video-Eureka Dunes
Walking up the dunes was fairly easy until I stepped on my first soft spot, watching my foot vanish to my ankle, good thing I have my hiking boots on. This is the way the surface tension was on the dune, one spot firm the next one soft. We hiked up to what I guessed was about 300 feet above the base; this was about as far as we would go today.
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Once back a tour TC we relocated to a different site south of where were are at. On the way in we were buzzed by a F15, this happen a couple more times and this time I was able to catch some of the fly by on video.
Video-Fly By
The above video shows a F-18 flying by and a couple of F-15 over the distance Saline Range. Shadows were taking over the face of the Eureka Dune like a blanket covering a kid being tucked in for the night.
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Video-Shadows on the Dunes
The above video is in real time, no fast foreword effects done. At this time we are the only ones here and I’m bar-be- que the last of our steaks as twilight curtain tumbles upon the retreating sun. A great steak diner and night entertainment of local bats doing their twilight maneuvers chasing down their nightly meal.
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Video-Bats at Night
This is the last picture I took before settling in for the night, maybe Don Curley can tell me what planet is being shown by the moon.
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To my follow travelers may your road be smooth and all your sights be wonderous.
