Well, we started our Moab adventure yesterday. I’ve previously run Poison Spider but we ran out of time and turned around at the Golden Spike trail.
So this year we went back to run Poison Spider, Golden Spike, Gold Bar Rim and finish on Gemini Bridges.
All was going well, we got through Poison Spider including the loop. No big deal.
We start making our way through Golden Spike making great time.
About 3 miles before the Golden Crack I stop to grab a water out of the Dometic. All of a sudden while walking back to the drivers door I hear a woosh. Water is now pouring out from under the engine. I pop the hood and finally see the top of the radiator split.
We had many bottles of water but they were quickly used up trying to fill the radiator back up. I used a section of a harbor freight moving mat and nearly a roll of electrical tape patching the hole. And of course since all my buddy’s backed out I was traveling solo.
We pushed forward watching the gauge on my OBD scanner. Stopped whenever it started climbing.
We weren’t making good time. Called the non emergency hotline and they sent a guy with a buggy to help us. We talked with him and we figured a 2-part epoxy JB weld would be enough to get me back to town so he set out with that and many gallons of water plus some ice cold bottles for us since it was 104 degrees outside and I put everything I had in the radiator. We did still have some vitamin waters so we weren’t going to die immediately.
While waiting for him a couple jeeps came by and they had a good supply of water so we filled the radiator and pushed forward to put us closer to the buggy that was coming.
We made it almost to Golden Crack by the time we met up with the buggy. He patched our radiator and we filled up. He gave us extra JB weld and lots of water to get us back to Moab but he had to go and couldn’t stay with us.
The patch worked and we finished all the trails and made it to Oreilly’s to get a new radiator.
While buying the radiator the patch blew and dumped much of the water out in their parking lot, we filled it back up and drove to our campsite.
Installed the new one this morning. Working well now.
Takeaways, I will never venture offroad without JB weld. I’ll also take considerably more water next time.
I did have my inreach so I could have hit the SOS button if things got bad. Everything worked out and we had a good time but it ended up being a much longer day and all that was really hurt was my wallet, it’s not cheap having a buggy bring you JB weld and water.
PS - I still finished the trail before the guys that gave me water.
So this year we went back to run Poison Spider, Golden Spike, Gold Bar Rim and finish on Gemini Bridges.
All was going well, we got through Poison Spider including the loop. No big deal.
We start making our way through Golden Spike making great time.
About 3 miles before the Golden Crack I stop to grab a water out of the Dometic. All of a sudden while walking back to the drivers door I hear a woosh. Water is now pouring out from under the engine. I pop the hood and finally see the top of the radiator split.
We had many bottles of water but they were quickly used up trying to fill the radiator back up. I used a section of a harbor freight moving mat and nearly a roll of electrical tape patching the hole. And of course since all my buddy’s backed out I was traveling solo.
We pushed forward watching the gauge on my OBD scanner. Stopped whenever it started climbing.
We weren’t making good time. Called the non emergency hotline and they sent a guy with a buggy to help us. We talked with him and we figured a 2-part epoxy JB weld would be enough to get me back to town so he set out with that and many gallons of water plus some ice cold bottles for us since it was 104 degrees outside and I put everything I had in the radiator. We did still have some vitamin waters so we weren’t going to die immediately.
While waiting for him a couple jeeps came by and they had a good supply of water so we filled the radiator and pushed forward to put us closer to the buggy that was coming.
We made it almost to Golden Crack by the time we met up with the buggy. He patched our radiator and we filled up. He gave us extra JB weld and lots of water to get us back to Moab but he had to go and couldn’t stay with us.
The patch worked and we finished all the trails and made it to Oreilly’s to get a new radiator.
While buying the radiator the patch blew and dumped much of the water out in their parking lot, we filled it back up and drove to our campsite.
Installed the new one this morning. Working well now.
Takeaways, I will never venture offroad without JB weld. I’ll also take considerably more water next time.
I did have my inreach so I could have hit the SOS button if things got bad. Everything worked out and we had a good time but it ended up being a much longer day and all that was really hurt was my wallet, it’s not cheap having a buggy bring you JB weld and water.
PS - I still finished the trail before the guys that gave me water.
