From Midland Texas to Salt Lake City Utah

[red EOD veteran]

Been working in the west Texas oilfields for the past few years. When the price of oil dropped my employer went bankrupt and closed their doors. So, I decided to pack up and go somewhere that had more to offer than just working my life away. A friend of mine in Bellingham Washington convinced me to head out that way, but life decided that I wouldn't get past Utah. Worked out great, it's an area that I have many friends and there is so much to do in this location!

This is the longest trip I've made in the deuce and I must say, the upgraded seats and exhaust work made for a much more enjoyable drive. This trip did prove (to me) that while the truck is happy to make a long distance drive, the stock multifuel engine is not.

Loaded everything besides the furniture, 150 gallons of waste oil (free fuel), and hit the road with plans to sleep in the back of the truck on an air mattress.



First day drove from Midland Texas, to Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. Average speed of 55mph and about 8mpg, driving into a head wind. This is honestly the most green I have ever seen this area.











Set up camp for the night and prepared to explore the caverns in the morning.

 

[red EOD veteran]

Day 2, exploration of Carlsbad Caverns.

There are 2 main entrances to the caverns, the elevator that takes you right to the main cavern, or the tunnel. I went in through the tunnel. This is where the bats fly out every night and back in during the morning.



















From there I made my way into the "Big Room" that is the main cavern. Really wish I had a better camera with me.








After lunch I got back on the road and headed up towards northern New Mexico. Cruising along at about 50mph through the mountains and 8-9mpg.





Spent the night camped out at a RV spot by a casino just south of Albuquerque New Mexico.

 

[red EOD veteran]

Day 3

Absolute worst day of driving on this trip. Picked up about 20 gallons of diesel before I left in the morning headed west on I40 to Scottsdale, Arizona. I say 20 gallons of diesel, more likely 10 gallons of diesel and 10 gallons of WATER!! Rather than dump a 50 gallon tank of mixed fuel on the side of the road, I sputtered through the day at an average speed of 35mph, until most of the fuel was gone. Agreed, not fun at all. Went through a few fuel filters this day as well.







After filling up in Scottsdale with half a tank of diesel and half of waste oil, the truck was happy again to cruise at 55mph. Decided to stop for camp about 20 miles to the south of the Grand Canyon in the forest.

 

[red EOD veteran]

Day 4

The Grand Canyon, this is my second trip here. Woke up in the morning and drove along the south edge of the canyon, headed towards Lake Powell, Utah.























Decided to stay here for another day and explore. Even though the water is very low right now, it's a very beautiful area!





Playing around on one of the trails in the area I was in 6 wheel drive (very soft sand) and was having no trouble along the trails at my slow speed of 10mph. A side by side UTV came around the corner behind me on one of the trails doing at least 40mph. He came to a stop and instantly sank to the body of the UTV and required a tow to get him up the hill behind me. 6 wheel drive and a wide footprint can be useful haha.

Had to replace an O-ring in the fuel lift pump, then I was ready to drive again on day 6.

 

[red EOD veteran]

Day 6

Plan was to head up highway 89 to Salt Lake City, Utah. Spend a few days up here then continue along on the journey to Washington state. Didn't happen anything as planned haha.

Morning drive was uneventful, following the highway through the mountains of southern/central Utah, enjoying the view.





Once I reached the main valley I noticed a loss of power, and some excessive smoke coming out of the tailpipe if the RPM's dropped below 2000. Knowing I was less than 100 miles out from my friends house I decided to push on through to his place. The longer I drove, the worse the problems became. Managed to limp it to his house on Hill AFB. The next day we opened the hood to determine the problem. 2 fuel injectors were sticking open, and by pushing the truck I had burnt an intake valve.

Not a huge repair bill for parts, but with the purchase price of the specialized tools and lifting equipment to pull the head, was more money than I am willing to put into this motor. So I decided to stay here in Utah, and we towed the deuce to a friends ranch out in Huntsville to store the truck for a few months while I save up for the engine swap.

Towing the truck up the mountain was not a problem, the trip down became interesting. During the trip down I had the transmission of the deuce in 4th gear, turning the engine over and keeping our speed slow and controlled at 40mph. Halfway down, the engine locked up. From there I decided to leave the transmission in gear, and sacrifice the clutch. Made it to the ranch with no other damage.





I'll keep the build thread updated, next step is an engine and transmission swap!

 

[unkamonkey]

Other than the motor doing what it did, it looks like a fine way to travel.

 

[28.]

Great report. Loved our trip to the Grand Canyon. Pics do it no justice. Been to Lake Powell twice. The second time was 2 years ago and level was lower than normal.

 

[red EOD veteran]

Other than the motor doing what it did, it looks like a fine way to travel.

Was a fun trip. I had planned to replace the motor with a better engine in a few years, it decided that had to happen sooner.

 

[unkamonkey]

Was a fun trip. I had planned to replace the motor with a better engine in a few years, it decided that had to happen sooner.

Yeah, that motor should have lasted a lot longer than that.

 

[red EOD veteran]

Agreed, i should not have pushed it after the injectors started sticking.

Had 44k miles on it

 

[1leglance]

great trip write up and very nice to see how you kept your cool with all the issues...
bad fuel, changing filters, lift pump o-ring....and then the injectors, valve and engine lockup while towing...and with all that you still sound positive, good on you sir

I like the route you took and at least you got to see some great sights along the way.

What motor gets swapped into a beast like that?
Trans change also?

Oh and I really liked your low key camping setup, so many people would spend years building and never travel while you just make it happen.
Again very nice.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Have you reached out to Boyce Equipment near your buddies place in Ogden? Boyce is the king of the Deuce and literally right close to HAFB:
http://www.boyceequipment.com/

 

[red EOD veteran]

great trip write up and very nice to see how you kept your cool with all the issues...
bad fuel, changing filters, lift pump o-ring....and then the injectors, valve and engine lockup while towing...and with all that you still sound positive, good on you sir

I like the route you took and at least you got to see some great sights along the way.

What motor gets swapped into a beast like that?
Trans change also?

Oh and I really liked your low key camping setup, so many people would spend years building and never travel while you just make it happen.
Again very nice.

Thank you. With the problems along the way it helps that I've been a diesel and hydraulic mechanic in the oilfield, so working on the deuce is very similar.

Despite having all my stuff for the move (took up about 70% of the space) it was pretty comfy back there. Great timing with the weather, never got hot during the trip. Many more trips to come after it's running again, with creature comforts to be added along the way haha. A hard sided camper for longer trips and cold weather will be built as well.

I'll be swapping in a International DT466 engine. More reliable, parts are cheap/everywhere, much more powerful. The Multifuel makes 330ft/lbs of torque and can be turned up to 380-400ft/lbs max reliably. the DT466 in stock form varies from 400-600ft/lbs, and has no issue with reliability until you reach around 1,500ft/lbs.

Transmission is not decided yet, but I'm thinking a Allison auto.

Been to Boyce Equipment and they have replacement engines and the other parts. I figure since I wanted to upgrade to a better engine anyways, now is the best time to do that. Will be just about the same price.