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NCLR - Northern California Land Rover Club

NCLR : 2015 Pismo Dunes Trip

lutz

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LandRonB Contributor

LandRonB

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The current roster looks good!  I think I got everyone marked down - let me know if I missed your name.

 

Martin aka alpaca

Paul

Antonio

Don

Michele

Josh

Colin

Lutzi

 

I removed Tom from the list.  

 

Have fun everyone!  Hope to attend the next one.  

 

Cheers,

 

Erin

Have a blast; I won't make it this time; for folks new to wheeling on Pismo, remember to air-down driving your tires on the dunes. And don't forget to bring your air compressor or C02 to air-up.

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psykokid Newbie

psykokid

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Truck is loaded up and ready to go. Taking off from work around 1~ish to go and pick up my co-pilot in Glendale and then meet up with another friend that is tagging along in his early bronco. 

 

I talked to Nathan from SCLR and he's heading up

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GraemeWare Newbie

GraemeWare

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**PISMO FOLKS**

Here is a link to the new website where you can upload your photos and Videos.

 

Looking forward to seeing some great shots!

 

http://NorCalRovers.smugmug.com/upload/M32QNB/Pismo2015

 

Album can be found here: http://norcalrovers.smugmug.com/Trip-Photos/Pismo2015/

 

Tom,

 

And I thought your post was going to be telling them that since we both had to miss the trip, we decided to get together and do some winching practice ourselves .... but then I remembered, "pictures, or it didn't happen".  Oh well, we should have taken some photos.

 

Regards,

 

Graeme

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DHappel Mentor

DHappel

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I regret to say I took not a single picture.  Shame on me.

 

The run down was good.  We met Antonio and Martin in Gilroy and had an easy run 'down hill' with the wind at our backs pretty much the whole way.  I pulled down 16.4 mpg loaded, which is pretty good for me.  Martin reported over 20 mpg.  

 

We made contact with Lutzi once we were on the beach and he guided us in to the camp.  Helpful since I hadn't been there before.  Amazingly we had very few crazies out this weekend.  Maybe they were all watching the fight?  Regardless, the next day we got out to play in the dunes and within a short time I had sunk the LR3 in a bowl.  I was following Lutzi over a crest and took a line about a car's width to his right which I found put me on a steeper side-hill than I was happy about so I turned down and gassed it hoping to drive out the other side but didn't make it.  After a few attempts at different options it was clear I wasn't driving out.  3 pulls later Lutzi had hauled me back far enough I was able to escape.

 

But...

 

Somewhere along this point the LR3 started to idle rough.  It ran OK once underway but it was unhappy.  No codes or CEL so I just continued on.  But it got slowly worse until it would die at idle and didn't restart easily.  Colin was on hand and we all had a look at it but couldn't find anything to cause it and without any codes showing up we didn't have any solid directions to look.  It felt a lot like a vacuum leak or possibly a bad MAF or throttle body.  After a bit more playing we decided to head back to camp for lunch and by now the truck wasn't idleing at all - it would die if I stopped.  So I played diagnostician for a while but after not finding anything decided to do the only logical thing and take a nap.   The rest of the gang headed out for some more fun in the sand.

 

I tinkered around with the truck on and off the rest of the afternoon, including pulling off and cleaning the throttle body and MAF as well as the EGR but just couldn't find anything.  Later that afternoon we all headed out again for one last go at the dunes before nightfall and I rode with Antonio in the P38 for a while.  However at a stop I jumped ship and hopped in Colin's rig for a more 'adventurous' ride.  This included some nice airtime in a 'jump off' with Lutzi.  Somebody has to have video of this...  We decided the Disco flies better than the RRC which tended to nose over a bit more.  Clearly needs some rear ballast.

 

This morning we all broke camp and headed home.  Once I got on 101 for a few miles I finally got a CEL but as the truck was running OK as long as I was moving I just kept on figuring I'd pull the code when I stopped for gas.  We stopped for gas at I5 & 198 and the truck was still running poorly at idle.  The code was for insufficient EGR flow, which I cleared.  With the tank topped off, we continued home, not stopping again until we were in Walnut Grove, only about .5 miles from the house.  Had to pick up some fresh cherries from the guy on the corner.  The CEL had not returned during the drive and when we did stop I found the truck was idling fine.  Brought it on home and checked the idle again after it had sat for a few hours and no problem.  ??

 

If you've been reading the OR trip thread, you may recall Antonio saying watch out for bad gas in OR due to high Ethanol levels.  We all sort of said not to worry, everything has ethanol in it.  He mentioned bad gas as a possibility while we were trying to diagnose my rig at the dunes and again we sort of said 'yeah it's possible but just not likely'.  We had filled up in Oceano just before hitting the beach and I'll be darned if it doesn't seem like once we burned off that load of fuel the truck is running just fine.  While I don't think we had an ethanol problem specifically, maybe we did get a bad tank.  Regardless, I'll do a bit more research when I next have a day off to play with the truck.  I might just order up a PCV valve as well...I don't really think there's anything wrong with mine but give the code I suppose it's cheap insurance.  

 

I mentioned to Michele on the drive home that it may have been a blessing in disguise that the truck was acting up.  Maybe it was self-preservation.  I suspect that had I been out in the dunes with Colin and Lutzi doing crazy things, my inner child would have gotten the better of me and I'd have tried something I might have regretted.  Hey, if they can shoot a bowl surely I can too!  Never mind how much I weigh and that I can't air down to 10 psi...how hard can it be?   ;)

 

Great trip - I'll let the other guys tell the full story.  Mostly I just wanted to let Colin know the LR3 is magically behaving itself again.

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AA Journey Newbie

AA Journey

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Don, good to hear the LR3 is doing fine now.  Is always the last thing you suspect turns out to be the issue.  

 

Pismo is always fun and the weather couldn't be better.  I had a great time.  

 

I did capture Lutz and Colin flying in the dunes.  I will post the pictures i took later this week. 

 

Thank you Lutz for hosting us at the Dunes.  

 

AA

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alpaca Newbie

alpaca

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Here are some pics from the trip on my dropbox account.

 

My stock RRS couldn't go everywhere the big boys did - but after I aired down to "Colin Levels" - well almost - it actually ran pretty well - and I didn't need the sand ladders - which is just as well - because  that is the one piece of equipment that I left at home ! Great time for my first real trip to Pismo ... and I got to see a few other guys get stuck in the "sand" at laguna seca on the way home (last pic)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wqpmri7n9h87fyh/AAA9wjj1edMOqqP-EhvoPTr_a?dl=0

 

Cheers - Martin 

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psykokid Newbie

psykokid

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Indeed, another great pismo trip on the books. I have to say this past one will be hard to beat as far as weather was concerned. It's about the best weather I've seen out there in the previous three years I've been out there. 

 

My copilot Lauren posted some great shots he took on Facebook. I believe that Lutzi shared them there.

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DHappel Mentor

DHappel

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Indeed, another great pismo trip on the books. I have to say this past one will be hard to beat as far as weather was concerned. It's about the best weather I've seen out there in the previous three years I've been out there. 

 

My copilot Lauren posted some great shots he took on Facebook. I believe that Lutzi shared them there.

I'm the first to admit I'm not a facebooker.  Checked the NCLR facebook page but didn't see anything?  Got a link?

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AA Journey Newbie

AA Journey

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I uploaded the pictures and video I took in Pismo. 

 

 

http://norcalrovers.smugmug.com/Trip-Photos/Pismo2015/i-QSkd6Wr/0/M/IMG_4024-M.jpg

 

Here is the link so you don't have to look for it through the Tread:  http://norcalrovers.smugmug.com/Trip-Photos/Pismo2015/i-QSkd6Wr/A

 

I am not sure if we are working on adding a link to the home page for all the photo galleries in SmugMug.  That will be great so we don't need to be searching for the links on the treads.

 

AA

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