Posted on

Vapor lock par deux…This time its personal!

The Peach Can Vapor Lock Reduction Device (PCVLRD) seems to have solved about 90 to 95% of the vapor lock(VL) during normal travel. We only have had to resort to switching the fuel tank valve maybe twice since installing it. (Read the A Day You Remember blog for background.)

The only hint now of a VL can be felt when crawling along in low range looking for a campsite at the end of the day, almost stalling, needing to rev and clear the impending VL. Revision 2 was needed!

A comment left by Erick Filippone got me thinking about rerouting the fuel lines to remove the heat. Unfortunately, the carburetor sits on the intake manifold which shares the Siamese ports with the exhaust header…..so no easy way to get away from the heat

Enter the Land Rover PTO and my epiphany! If I couldn’t bring the fuel line to cool air, I would bring cool air to the fuel line!

The Land Rover was originally designed to be a tractor you could drive to town. The transmission and frame even has provisions for a front or rear PTO (power take off) to drive various farm implements (saw mill, bailer, etc…). The frame has a 4 inch hole on the front and rear for the PTO.

My idea was to use a 4 inch dryer vent hose plumed into the PTO frame hole on the front of the Rover. I would pop a small hole in the vent hose where it passed by the engine mounted fuel pump on its path to the carburetor. I removed the fuel line from between the carb and pump….dropped it into the vent hose…fishing out the end to the pump and reattached to the pump and carburetor.

I now have a Ram Air cooled VL reduction hose that cools the fuel line between the fuel pump and the carburetor bathing it in cool air from outside the engine compartment!

I then thought, well that’s fine while we are moving down the road. What about when we are plodding along a fire road looking for a site. It was time for the internet! Enter the Bilge Blower! A 12 volt, 4 inch diameter, blower whose function is to clear gasoline vapors from a boat’s engine compartment prior to starting the engine. And its was only $20!! I spliced into the dryer vent hose by the PTO opening and viola, with a simple flick of a switch on the dashboard lots of cool air blowing in, I hope!

It’s a little cobbled up as a proof of concept, but the dryer hose is only $8 and if it works I will clean it up for a final version (or not!)

Parts! Very technical equipment.
From the top looking down.
From the bottom looking up. The round hole is the PTO 4 inch spot.
Posted on

Hydro on the Sly

Part of travelling long term is making your dollars stretch. That means looking for free or cheap camping spots. There is a great app called ioverlander. People populate it with free or cheap camping sites they have used. They include descriptions and what amenities, if any, are available. All you do is open the map and look for spots where you plan to camp. It is amazing!

So, we crossed the border into Alberta Canada and needed a place to stay. We stopped at the tourist information center, which says you can camp in their back lot. We went in and talked to the nice young lady who informed us it was a national holiday weekend in Canada. Our chances of finding a campground, she informed us, was zero.

We opened iOverlander, looked about an hour up the road and found a spot. (We were not interested in staying at the visitor’s center in town, it didn’t have a good vibe). Up the road we went.

The place we had found was the back side of a small dam/hydro plant next to the stream. We found a little place to tuck in, made dinner and hung-out. We thought we were quite stealthy. To our surprise, in drives a white truck and out pops Alex, a Canadian Fish & Wildlife officer. We thought, uh oh, we are going to get tossed. Boy, we were wrong. He was a super nice guy. We chatted for a while and he said no problem, camping was fine. Phew!

Later that night another car pulls in and joins us, a young man there to fish for trout. Another truck pulled in in the morning and the guy set right to fishing. He pulled out a pike that must have been 3ft long. Alex, we can back up your claim that their are pike there!

Another free night on the road means we can travel that much longer!

Yee-haw! Happy Trails.

A sweet spot for a good night’s sleep.
Posted on

In Search of Higher Ground

In the words of some Newfoundlanders we met while travelling up there on our motorcycles a few years ago…”we got a bit of rain up here in Montana”. In Newfie, that means it poured!

We are now in search of higher ground that isn’t flooded!

Montana has had a bit of rain! Every body of water is over flowing!
Our first glimpse of the mountains! Higher ground, here we come!
Posted on

Summer solstice at Devils Tower

A beautiful dry blue sky day. We dried all of our soggy clothes, and even washed a few smelly ones, recharged the solar, ate breakfast and hiked up to the tower from our campground (Belle Fourche National Campground at the base of Devil’s Tower). We walked the perimeter trail around the tower and admired the rock climbers on the shear columns way above our heads (crazy dudes, and we rock climb!).

Back at camp a large group of Lakota (Sioux) had arrived during their annual Sacred Hoop Run. We were told that various members and children of the tribe cover 500 miles over 8 days via relays visiting traditionally sacred sites along the way to keep the younger tribe members engaged with their history. What a great addition to the campground for the night.

After recovering from our 3 hour hike, we grilled chicken over the fire with a few neighbors at the campground under the looming Devils Tower, as the Lakota drummed a bit into the evening! Magical!

 

Posted on

Montana is…

Pretty flat, but very green due to all the rain.
And waaaay over there to the west is our first glimpse of the snow covered rockies!
Posted on

Damn You Cabelas

What happens when the place you are supposed to camp is under water from the recent storms? You find a cheap motel and go to Cabelas!

An hour later and our daily budget has been stretched to bursting.

New air matresses so Mr. Sleeping Beauty can get his rest and a new stylin’ hat for me, I mean a very necesarry shade and rain hat that just happens to look awesome on me.

My awesome new hat!
Posted on

Rendezvous in WY

What chance is there waaaaay out here in WY of meeting up with family and friends. Well, not quite as slim as you think.

Our first meet-up was with Darrin’s younger(?) brother, Paul, and his lovely companion, Virginia (and of course Trouble, aka Beastie Boy, and Harley). They were travelling all the way up here from FL and we happened to land at the same campground. That’s our story and we are sticking with it!

Darrin’s younger brother Paul…where’s my walker?

Then we met-up with the Conways from NH at Devil’s Tower! We had a great reunion, catch-up, chow down and soggy hike around Devil’s Tower. Thanks for swinging by guys! Safe travels!

Our friends from back east!

We have had a great, if soggy, week in the WY Black Hills and Devil’s Tower area. We stayed at a great little campground in the national forest, Reuters. Randy, the amazing host took great care of us. Thanks Randy…hi to Boo and Shadow!

The whole motley crew…Paul, Virginia, Randy and well you know the guy on the end😎
WY Black Hills. Camping in the clouds, 40s and 50s and raining.

They say the sun is supposed to shine tomorrow, but we are not holding our breath. Remember how we were complaining about the heat? Well, be careful what you wish for. It is in the 50s and soggy, but what a view! We’ll take it! Although I can’t figure out why Darrin keeps piling up his mash potatoes?

Thanks Jenny and Scott for the inspiration for the blog title and the sage. I think I’m feeling a little batty now😋 Hope you had a safe trip back to Laramie!

Posted on

One of those days you remember

So we took off full of pent up energy after being waylaid in Newcastle. We were ready to get back into the woods after our time in the hotel.

We headed up in the Wyoming Black Hills to find a dispersed place to camp. While Heading up the fire road we checked the weather…hmmm….severe thunderstorms and a slight chance of a tornado! No ridgetop with a view for us. We needed a secure place to set up before the storms hit in a few hours.

Looking, looking, looking, hmm there’s a spot just down that little slot canyon. It looks like a 4 wheeler may have left a trail just our size. Dropped the rover into 4 wheel low range and down we went into the little canyon. No problems dropping down to the site, but it wasn’t as flat as it looked from above. Surprise, surprise!

So, it’s hot down in this little canyon and when we went to jockey the Rover around the vapor lock reared it’s head for the first time since installing the famous Peach Can Vapor Lock Reduction Device (PCCVLRD) and the rover quit (PCCVLRD 2.0 is in the research and design phase, production to start shortly).

At least we were in a place safe from the approaching storm, but we wanted a secure place to set up and camp, not just ride out the storm.

Out comes the winch and 45 minutes later we had winched ourselves back out of the little canyon into a semi secure spot in a glade of ponderosa pines.
While using the winch to shift around bit I tried the starter and the Rover sprang to life

We jumped in and made a beeline down to the security of the little national park outside Sundance, WY.

Where we met some wonderful people.

We were given a pile of dry wood for out little woodstove.

Given a ride into town for groceries.

Given a nice lunch at the community center.

Lesson learned!

Free dispersed camping is great, but not when you are in a rush and racing a storm.

We would have missed out on a nice spot and great people!

Sorry, no pictures🤨

Posted on

Happy Campers

We are back on the road and camping in the Black Hills!

And it is 65 degrees!

We are very happy campers!

Ahhhhh…much better!