I've been wanting to take my dad out on a trip, and was thinking of going to the San Juan Mountains of Colorado in the late summer. I was thinking of doing a few of the passes in the Telluride-Silverton-Ouray area, but wasn't sure of the difficulty of some of the trails. Can any of you Colorado guys tell me if Poughkeepsie Gulch is doable with a decent Land Cruiser, or will I need a front locker too?
I'm also apprehensive about how well my Land Cruiser, tuned for sea level, is going to run up there. I know I need to compensate for the loss of oxygen at altitude by adjusting the carb for more air and less fuel, I'm just wondering if this will be enough?

Basically, I want to run Imogene Pass, Engineer Pass, Cinammon Pass, Yankee Boy Basin and Ophir Pass. Not sure about Poughkeepsie Gulch and Black Bear Pass, how tough are these?

Also, this is still very tentative, but if things go as planned, I'd love to meet with fellow wheelers and maybe hit some of these passes together! Any takers?

ever done 21 road in Fruita right outside Grand Junction?.. did this with jeff in justins (usfhc blah blah whatever the rest of it is:rasta: ) in his fj60. its pretty cool. whatever...:D

I haven't done much wheeling in CO at all, hence my interest! I've heard of 21 Road but I think that may be a little beyond the scope of this trip, I'm going to be driving from Washington DC to Denver to the San Juans and back, so I need to keep the wheeling reasonable. Besides, my dad isn't really into the hardcore stuff, I'm shooting for some spectacular scenery instead!

I know I need to compensate for the loss of oxygen at altitude

Thats why you have the "HAC" valve on your cruiser, its the high altitude compensation valve, and it does the work of adjusting the air fuel for you.

Jeff

Jeff, can you tell me where the HAC valve is? I need to check, chances are that it's not even present on my Land Cruiser, which is Third World-spec and missing a *lot* of stuff (it didn't even come with rear seatbelts or rear heater or rear defrost or LSPV)....

Check out this site for listings and ratings of trails in Colorado:
http://www.4x4trails.net/

I know it must be attached to the carb, but that's all I know. Not having one might help explain why my 40 is a gutless wonder... :confused:

Jeff, while you're telling Henry where it is on his 60, can you also tell us where it is (pics are good!) on the stock carb on a 76 2F?

Henry, you won't have trouble on Cinnamon Pass. Engineer should be OK, too. Yankee Boy is fine, too. I've run those in a stock Jeep Cherokee with a bunch of heavy stuff on the roof. I have heard Black Bear is OK if you're careful, but better advice than mine would be a Good Idea there. Hit me by email and I can probably give you a few names for more advice...

Oh, yeah. You can borrow my Pass Patrol book on your way there if you like. I live near Denver.

Alex

The HAC is located on near the driver side front fender.. if you lean into the engine compartment from that side, you will be leaning right over it. Its about 3 inches in diameter and has HAC written on it.

As far as trails go, I have done Hackett Gulch and Wheeler Lake in my FJ-60. Wheeler was totally stock and Hackett after adding a rear locker and some bumpers and rock sliders... I never had trouble with either unless you count when I crossed the river in the wrong spot and flooded my entire truck.
But after someone towed me out, I got her started and ran Hackett Gulch in reverse. No worries.

Thanks for the info, Kevinj. I'll have a look tonight for the HAC.

Henry, when were you planning on coming out here? I think you've got the right idea, going to the San Juans. The scenery is out of this world. The trails are less extreme than some in the rest of the state, but they are perfect "vacation" trails. And don't worry, as with any trail, you can still do body damage or break stuff if you want to. And in the mountains, there's always the possibility of rolling down a few hundred feet to your death. :D

Ouray is one of my favorite places in the world...someday we'll move there...

*sigh*

i have been hitting that area for the last 4 years every summer. none of the trails will be a problem, if you have 1 locker. every thing can be run in a rental stock heap except poughkeepsie gulch and black bear. black bear can be done too but, they are afraid of the liabilty. poughkeepsie is a little rough but not tough by any means. it just has one section that is so much easier if you have a locker. we are heading back in mid july again this year for 2 weeks, the wheeling is not very hard at all just kick ass beautiful. then we take off to moab and break eveything and go home. mike

Henry,
all the HAC valve does is create a vacuum leak (above 4000' I think) at the carb(thru a port in the carb) , to lean your entire mixture out. This is the only way to adjust your above idle mixture w/o rejetting (could be an option for you). I'm not sure where the port would be on a non us carb, but on US versions its at the top.
That sounds like a cool trip. I've been wanting to head out to Colorado for a while & do some wheeling, trout fishing & camping.
Let me know what your plans are in private & I'll pitch them to my wife.

oh yeah, for a pic of the HAC valve go tto the Ih8mud site & got to rich adams desmog diagram. it should be on there.

The HAC valve is the one with the red top.
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<IMG width=320 height=240 SRC="http://www.pirate4x4.com/ubb/uploads/FJ60smog-3.jpg"

Jeff

Sometimes when I pop the hood on my FJ60, I just wanna call up a Toyota manufacturer and start yelling at them! WTF were they thinking with all that smog crap!!!

Jeff

Originally posted by dog walker
The HAC valve is the one with the red top.
Holy crap! Is there a motor underneath that rats nest?:eek: I don't think 60seriesguy has a HAC. Last time I looked at his carbed 3F it had maybe THREE vacuum lines.:D

Ross

Originally posted by dog walker
Sometimes when I pop the hood on my FJ60, I just wanna call up a Toyota manufacturer and start yelling at them! WTF were they thinking with all that smog crap!!!

Jeff

Didn't you take a trip out to colorado so could get rid of all that crap???

I know I'll be pulling all mine soon

I'm tentatively scheduling the trip for late summer, somewhere around the third week of August. The job situation will really make it or break it, I'm going (okay, okay, Rustycruiser and I are going) on an expedition in Venezuela during mid-july, so that might be the only time off I take for a while...I'm just cranking out some ideas, I've been promising my dad some wheeling time; I considered Moab, but it might still be brutally hot at that time of year, ditto for some of the Arizona trails. My dad, who spent more than thirty years on expeditions in Venezuela and Brazil, does not consider rock-crawling a pleasurable experience, he's more of the "wheel hard to get somewhere" school. Thus my idea of taking him to the San Juans, and since I've never been there, I figured it would be a good idea.

I'll look for the HAC valve when I get home, I have the nagging suspicion that it's not on my Cruiser (!@#$% Third World bare-bones spec).

Yeah I did, so that I can put a V-8 in here and not have to worry about smoggin it, but that will be awhile before I get started on that project.

Jeff

Henry,
About two years ago I ran several of the trails between Silerton, Ouray and ?Lake City?. Engineer pass and others to the east. (Not sure, the map is at home) Did it in the GF's stock '93 4Runner and never so much as banged a skid plate. Just had to be careful picking lines in a few spots.
There may be a couple of off camber spots that are uncomfortable, not intense just uncomfortable, for a SOA rig.
The scenery is fabulous. Animas forks is a neat place for a picnic lunch. Make sure to take rain gear and plan on evenings near freezing.
Hoping to make it again this fall myself.
Chris S

Those are all "Sissy" trails Henry;)

You won't have any problems there,they are high altitude so late summer like you are planning should be fine.

You might try our www.colorado4x4.org site and post your ? there.

Rob

does anyone know of any good books on 4x4 trails in Ca? I'm looking for some pretty "light" trails that me and the wife can go check out what the cruiser is made of!

Donald

those all seem to be more scenic trails. you can do all of them with 1 locker. in fact, you can do almost all the colorado trails with 1 locker if you drive well. indy, montrose trails, and most anything during the winter require 2 lockers and some aggressive driving. make sure you schedule your trails for after the thaw, or you'll be pretty disappointed. there are a few trails like slaughter house and lefthand canyon that can be done all year though, but those are closer to denver.

remember we work around the seasons here.

Originally posted by sixty


Didn't you take a trip out to colorado so could get rid of all that crap???

I know I'll be pulling all mine soon

not if you're going to be in the denver area!!! smog nazis will get ya!

Originally posted by Donald Butcher
does anyone know of any good books on 4x4 trails in Ca? I'm looking for some pretty "light" trails that me and the wife can go check out what the cruiser is made of!

Donald

the books by charles wells are good..."colorado backroads and 4wd trails" vols 1 and 2.

My two current favorites are...

Colorado Byways: 80 of of Colorado's best adventure roads by Tony Huegel. It's definitely more of the "take the family on an adventure" kind of book, rather than the "your spouse is getting out and walking so that one of you will be left alive after this run" kind of book. :flipoff2:

The Adventures of Pass Patrol, Vol. 3: 4-Wheel Drive Roads & Ghost Towns of the San Juans by Larry E. Heck is great. The writing is fun, the trails are excellent. The binding sucks, but all the pages are still there, I think. :D

You can pick up the Pass Patrol book at OutbackUSA.com (http://www.outbackusa.com/) , the publishers, or both are at 4x4books.com (http://www.4x4books.com/).