Black Mountain Truck Trail, Ramona, CA - Prickly Pear Adventure

well I told you guys the next time that you would see prickly pear in a video we would be out on the trail and today I'm going to deliver on that promise but I gotta be honest I'm both excited and a little apprehensive about how things are going to go today while we have done a ton of work over the last two years on this 74 Cherokee there's still quite a few things to do but we're gonna just do it we're gonna go put some road miles on this thing and we are gonna hit the dirt nothing extreme but we're gonna do a good Shakedown run plus we've been a little bit more work since the last time you've seen it so we'll talk about that as well but first a little more coffee and give them once over and then then we're gonna hit the road and hit the trail guys I'm ready for this let's hope we don't call Triple A today [Music] with an old classic like this you constantly need to be taking a look at your oil level and the important Essentials under the hood there is no high-speed computer in here that will flash you a warning light or display some error code if something isn't working right so you've got to keep an eye on things often thank you foreign [Music] how happy I am to be driving this with a little more confidence knowing that we have done so much work to this that it's a little more reliable and look that there's still plenty of bugs that need to be worked out of this thing but I mean we're finally to a point where we can drive this and we're hitting a trail today I'm super excited and and none of this would have happened without a lot of elbow grease and help from my good friends over at shift Auto Works they have been instrumental in getting this thing to where it is now and of course the MagnaFlow exhaust that we just put on which sounds so incredible I love it okay uh we have a little ways to go I'm gonna go top off the fuel tank which we will talk about here in a minute and then we will be on the trail and today I'm just listening for you know every little rattle and Creek and just trying to feel how it drives and just see if there's anything that needs some more attention before we take it on a much longer trip that's one of the things about driving one of these old Vehicles is you have to be aware of everything and uh you know ever since I did the interior it's gotten a lot quieter in here maybe it doesn't sound like it to you guys but it's definitely a lot quieter in here and so there's a lot less rattles and bangs but I'm still I'm still keeping an ear out for stuff so a few miles to go get some fuel [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm heading now today to a local favorite trail of mine and I actually haven't been up here in a while so I'm excited to see how the trail conditions are it will be the perfect Trail for a good Shakedown run to see if there are any pending issues that need to be sorted before I take this old girl on a longer trip before I head up the mountain though I need to ensure I've got a full tank of fuel and just last week over at shift Auto Works they helped me swap out the old rusty steel fuel tank that was not the original tank and it had been kind of Jerry rigged to make it fit and I believe it was probably only around 15 Gallons we replaced it with a new polyurethane tank that is 21 gallons and similar to what have been original on this Jeep plus the old tank my gas gauge never read accurately so having a few extra gallons of gas and knowing how much fuel I have going forward is going to give me some good Peace of Mind these guys did a great job making this tank fit perfectly and sorted all the details very thankful for this full tank of gas and uh I got some good news which some of you are going to probably gasp and think that's terrible news but I'm calculating you know my MPG I have to do it manually and I'm this first tank of gas in all back City uh driving 9.6 miles to the gallon which I know that sounds awful but previously before we did all this work I was lucky to get seven and a half or eight miles to the gallon so nine and a half is a big Improvement and especially if we get it out on the open road and stuff and uh maybe we can get a little bit more but you know this thing belongs on these Back Country Roads like this this is just beautiful okay we're gonna go uh drive a few more miles air down and then we're gonna hit the dirt bike [Music] all right just got to the trailhead and look this really isn't a trail that you need to air down on but we're in leaf springs and small tires so I think it's just prudent to make it a little more comfortable today at least that's my that's my thought process I just got to figure out this new there we go it's a new little kit I got just for just for the Cherokee it's a little smaller more Compact and since I only have smaller tires on here I don't need this big massive compressor so hopefully this will work well it's official project prickly pear is on its first Trail at least since I've owned it no idea how often this was off-roaded in the past but what a good feeling after all the work over the last two years to finally have this thing on the dirt and optimistic about how it's going to perform today we're not doing anything crazy uh you know just a just a mild Trail climbing up a mountain beautiful scenery but this is a good first Shakedown run I think for this Jeep really good [Music] today I am just outside of Ramona California for this Shakedown run on a local Hidden Gem trail that I have been coming to for many years it's a bit of an unknown Trail but it will reward you with some incredible Mountain views as you climb up the trail this is an up and back trail that begins around 900 feet in elevation and climbs all the way up to just under 4 000 feet I really hope that I can make it up all the way today it's 11 miles of climbing the whole way up and sometimes things like that can give a carbureted engine like this a bit of a challenge but we'll see how it goes [Music] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] I've been climbing up this pretty good mountain for a little while and it is doing great no problems with the incline because you know sometimes carburetors can be fickle and with the elevation climb so far it still feels great uh and I'm glad I hear it down because it's not rough but it's definitely you know definitely noticeable there are a lot of squeaks and rattles when we're on this trail and I am noticing one that I think is up front it's probably a bushing so we may have to address that because it's a little annoying but otherwise you know awesome the one thing that this thing really needs is a stereo now it has an AM radio in here and it does work the 80 radio does surprisingly work however it would be nice to have a stereo where I could you know play some regular music but I think what I'll do is something a little discreet uh you know so you'll still see the AM radio but you're not going to see you know the modern day the modern day stereo the speakers you'll probably see but the stereo I'm going to keep hidden but some tunes today would be perfect foreign everything's been going well on the trail so far just started to get a little hiccup we'll see how that goes as we continue to climb in elevation but I've come up here to this great Plateau a couple folks camping up here got some cool vehicles so I thought you know just take a second and go check those out plus there's a little spot here where I want to try to flex out project prickly pear because I think there's a little bit of rub that's something I was concerned about but I think if we go get it flexi we at least can identify where that rub is and then and then we'll keep uh keep climbing guys so far so good today hi I'm Maria I'm from roaming Reckless I'm on a 50 state road trip with my 1997 Land Rover Defender 110. it was a um ex-military special vehicles build from the Royal Air Force I just had it imported from the UK but yeah it's uh like 70 000 on the clock right hand drive 300 TDI super cool if people wanted to check out more of your Defender where can they go roaming Reckless on YouTube go check around guys yeah my name is Cena my dog's Duncan and uh I'm last 10 years I've been living in Bellingham Washington uh originally from Texas this is my 06 Lexus lx470 known as just the Toyota Land Cruiser it's about hitting 310 000 miles it's just barely broken in WoW and I got a whole setup got a bed right here got the cooler have drawers I have these drawer slide outs from Landshark the only things I've done are the front I have a bumper and a winch on it some lights those were some very nice Adventure vehicles and honestly it's pretty rare that I come across Folks up here camping but those were some great folks that know about this little Hidden Gem and they're out here having some memorable Adventures I hope to see them again soon but prickly pear nine need to keep moving we have a mission and up next I need to get a little flexi all right guys so we've got a nice little rut right here nice little climb I should be able to angle it and see if we can Flex it out pretty good and we'll uh we'll find out if we got some rubs or not [Music] thank you oh I heard that you guys hear that Rob let's go take a look [Music] tired here [Music] worked out there and somehow I got caught up by that rock but the other side is where we're hitting it oh yeah just just kissing it right there on the back that's something we can rectify too bad though well pretty cool to run into some folks up here on a weekday which is not really typical now we're just kind of playing around getting a little flexy oh you can hear the rubbing got some rubbing that's all right rub it a lot that's all right kind of expected it I mean we knew that the 33s were going to be a tight fit and they are but we made it through it so that's good news I think I just dusted out the camera though [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] okay I was a little worried that was gonna happen as we are climbing up an elevation the fuel mixture is getting a little rich as you can see from the plume of black smoke coming out of the exhaust once I got it restarted I'm gonna have to get very familiar with this carburetor and make sure I can tune it on the Fly because elevation changes when we're out on the trail is just the name of the game but now I'm a little worried I hope this doesn't keep me from reaching the top today [Music] all right we're still climbing and boy I'll tell you what this Trail is a lot more washed out than the last time I was here you know we had a lot of rain this winter and I haven't been up here in a while and this is definitely a little rougher there's more ruts more exposed rocks and that's what happens when you get that rain you just get that erosion on the trail so it's definitely been bumpier so I'm glad that I aired down now uh the carburetor does seem to be a little finicky it stalled twice already but it's running okay now and look temperature is holding great uh oil pressure gauge I don't think that oil pressure gauge is accurate but it is showing oil pressure I can see the top but now I'm fighting with time because it's actually Devin's birthday and Regina was very clear she said if you go out you need to make sure you're home for Devin's dinner so I'm gonna try to make it to the top we'll see but I got to make sure I'm home on time for dinner and again fingers crossed we get out of here with no mishaps right now I'm happy guys I'm happy I know we're not perfect I know there's things got to be fixed [Music] thanks guys good yourselves beautiful view up top yeah I've been up there before just not in this thing we'll see if we make it it's well she's an oldie and she's working on being a goodie still a little more work to do but she's doing okay we're getting so close to the top I can taste it it can see it in my sights we are almost there uh just passed a couple guys in a forerunner out here just enjoying the day and they said uh they said there's a little bit of a rough spot up ahead but no worries at all uh very nice uh you know when we get to a tight section like that when you're on a shelf Road you know it's really common sense is who who's easier to pull off to the side and we just kind of did some hand signals and got it all worked out no problem super nice guys just out here enjoying the day and uh guys I want to make it to the top we're almost there [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] guys prickly pear made it up here ah this is awesome of course we need to do a little bit of carburetor tuning but you know what it made it no problems we do still have to get our way out of here and down the hill but that shouldn't be as hard as coming up we have climbed the entire way up here much rougher than I expected but I love coming up here the views just go for miles and miles it's gorgeous up here the wind is starting to pick up I'm going to take a little bit of break but I gotta get going so we got to get back down the mountain air up and I gotta head home prickly pear making no problem today I have fallen more deeply in love with this old Jeep and while I was a little apprehensive about how successful I might be today it didn't let me down I'm so thankful to have this thing on the trail and very appreciative for all your guys's encouragement over the last two years it's really given me a lot of motivation to keep on going and I also want to thank the partners that I've worked with they've been super helpful I think this is just the beginning of many more Adventures to come but first today I've still got to make it down the mountain fingers crossed foreign [Music] guys made it off the mountain safe and sound no problems at all okay we gotta adjust the carburetor but that's okay got a few things that I want to talk about when we get home that are kind of uh kind of top of my mind right now but first things first we need to air it up and we still have a drive home to make I love project prickling Fair [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] well I would say that was a successful Mission a couple Lessons Learned though number one uh we know that the carburetor needs to be re-tuned a little bit number two we got the rubbing issue and I actually kind of took a little bit of body damage in the rear but that's okay because that section is Rusted and it needed to be repaired anyway so I think when we go to do the actual repair we'll give ourselves a little extra clearance but otherwise I think we're good with these 33s next is uh dust abatement because when I was going down that dusty road the dust was coming up underneath I think somewhere in the wheel wells maybe in the sides but it was getting all inside the cabin and so figuring out how to seal that up a little bit better and that also means being able to roll up the windows in the hot summer which is on its way and so finding a way to get this air conditioner fixed is going to be kind of up there on the list but otherwise guys what a great day I'm ready to throw this camping gear in here and go hit the trail now when am I going to do that I don't know because I definitely don't want to do that on my own I want to spend a good couple days out on the trail and I want to have some folks with me that'll be helpful and a little safer but today was a blast if you have enjoyed hanging out with me today consider joining us over on patreon to help support this project our other adventures and you get some extra content some behind the scenes stuff so check us out over at patreon and make sure you check us out over at 12rican.com thanks for joining me guys uh this has been a great day I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have thanks for watching

Channel: TrailRecon

Views: 79,384

Keywords: trailrecon, jeep, wrangler, overlanding, 4x4, adventure, trail, review, light, lift, tires, led, overland, rock, crawling, desert, forest, rubicon, socal, California, product, jk, tj, yj, cherokee, toyota, fj, cruiser, overlander, truck, bronco, four wheel drive, offroad, off-roading, off-road, overland vehicle, news

Id: 0wk_UjFoHzs

Length: 24min 55sec (1495 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 23 2023