The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

I figured I'd post these up in the mean time to prove I actually do something other than just drive it.

Why? Driving it is the point of all builds, or should be. Nice skid plate though.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Why? Driving it is the point of all builds, or should be. Nice skid plate though.

Thanks!!

I agree, but this will open up a few more trails to me and I actually enjoyed doing some fab work again. It has been quite awhile since I have done anything besides maintenance on it and there are a few more things I would like to get done. Once it starts cooling off, I foresee some lower elevation exploration, but at the same time, I want to get a few things done so when the heat comes back I can head to the hills instead of working on trucks in the sun.

[1985-GMC]

The skid plate looks really stout, great job on it! I might have to make one like it one day.

[ERASER5]

I think the skid plate needs some re-inforcement...

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by ERASER5

I think the skid plate needs some re-inforcement...

What do you think, maybe some one inch round bar??
Gotta keep it light-weight you know.

[mosesburb]

Well, I'm not doing so good at this. My boy and I spent 12.5hrs traveling around last weekend and I took a metric dump truck full of pics, but then I realized I never posted the rest from a few weeks ago. So, without further delay, here we are back at the mine.






This is the lower road/level at the building:



Looking over toward the mine:



We did a little wandering around the erector set structure and from what I can tell, I believe it was a mill or an ore processing building. There are many different levels and I found the roads/driveways around the structure and it sure looks like it could have done processing of some sort.

[mosesburb]

So we decided to head down the hill and around back up the other side to check out th emine and whatever else we can find.

While heading down the hill, some equipment can be seen on the other side of the canyon: (the mine is to the right of the right edge of the pic)



After we get around the bottom and cross a very makeshift bridge/culvert/boiler tank we come upon this, which apppears to be the foundation of a building where the ore was transferred from the ore carts to possibly wheeled vehicles. There is evidence of a large door at the other end (opposite end of where tracks come in):



Just around the bend from the foundation we were greeted by this sight:



A little closer and we see this:



There was some air flowing out of the tunnel, but that mud was super-nasty. I did not want to risk getting any of it on me (or getting stuck in it), so I took a couple pics down the tunnel instead:



I like how this pic turned out:



The mud was super nasty, but what it contains is brought by the water which is also very nasty:



The water itself appears clear, but anything it evaporates off of oxidizes to a rust color coating.

Here is a shot down the creek a bit:



Here is a shot of the creek below the structure:



Pretty nasty. Lots of dissolved minerals that should not be exposed to air at this point in their existence.

So we had a great time wandering around these mines and taking some cool pictures. We headed south from here and saw some neat stuff along the way, but I haven't loaded the pics of that yet.

[hgs_notes]

Vey cool. It might just be a lot of iron in the water. We have iron mines in northern MN and a few years back I was with my youngets girl up there just playing tourist for a couple days. We stopped at a lake off the highway to have a picnic and throw rocks in the water. From my experience at other places I recognised that the iron content was really high. My kids have one of those magnet sets with the balls and plastic covered magnets, I got one out and it would pick up rocks out of the water just like hunks of steel. Not just fine grains of iron, but rocks up to nickel or quarter size. Next time you go up there, try it out. Maybe it's similar. Then again, maybe it's uranium and you shouldn't. lol

There are abandoned open pit iron mines around the Crosby-Ironton, MN area that filled with water after they quit mining them. Some of the best scuba diving in the state. Excellent visibility and they go deep. Did my 1st 100 foot dive there.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Vey cool. It might just be a lot of iron in the water. We have iron mines in northern MN and a few years back I was with my youngets girl up there just playing tourist for a couple days. We stopped at a lake off the highway to have a picnic and throw rocks in the water. From my experience at other places I recognised that the iron content was really high. My kids have one of those magnet sets with the balls and plastic covered magnets, I got one out and it would pick up rocks out of the water just like hunks of steel. Not just fine grains of iron, but rocks up to nickel or quarter size. Next time you go up there, try it out. Maybe it's similar. Then again, maybe it's uranium and you shouldn't. lol

Iron might have been a very minor component of the ore, but the major components were gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper. The major contamination is from cadmium, copper, and a tremendous amount of zinc. There is some really funky stuff upstream from here also, so all of the nasty water is not necessarily due to this mine.

This pic was taken just a bit upstream of the mine area. At first i thought it was nasty green water, but upon further investigation, I realized the water is clear but has some nasty biofilm on it. You can see the shadow of the floating log on the bottom of the reservoir, but the white stuff just to the right of the floating log is coagulated biofilm that is spread across the whole reservoir. I have no idea what it is, but it sure looks bad. This pic also illustrates how each mine adds its own "flavor" to the stream as the earlier rust colored pics were taken about fifty yards downstream from here.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

There are abandoned open pit iron mines around the Crosby-Ironton, MN area that filled with water after they quit mining them. Some of the best scuba diving in the state. Excellent visibility and they go deep. Did my 1st 100 foot dive there.

Yeah, I know some aeas don't have the issues with contamination that others do. Hell, some water in abandoned pits is sterile--nothing grows in it and it remains crystal clear. The mine runoff in this area is not so nice. Some areas it is not so bad, but I'd venture to say that this is pretty average.

This got me to thinking so I went through my pics from this run as I thought I had taken a pic that might illustrate this even better, and I did.

This pic show the area just immediately upstream of the "confluence" of the mine runoff and the stream. You can see a bit of the rust colored water mingling with the non-rust colored water from upstream.



This pic shows the mine runoff coming down the adit. If you look close you can see the rust color ghosting the water down the pile. To take this pic I turned 90* from the previous pic.



This pic shows that even thought the water is nasty, mother nature provided something that can live and thrive in it.

[ERASER5]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

What do you think, maybe some one inch round bar??
Gotta keep it light-weight you know.

At least! You should be able to jack the whole truck up from that skid plate! I'm thinking you once worked on Sherman tanks...

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by ERASER5

At least! You should be able to jack the whole truck up from that skid plate! I'm thinking you once worked on Sherman tanks...

Believe it or not, I have never been accused of under-building something.

Honest.

[ERASER5]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Believe it or not, I have never been accused of under-building something.

Honest.

I should say not! I like it that way, I put a D-60 6 lug under my 1/2 ton. Why? Just because I could.

[Mt Man Chad]

Great picture's!
Really like he skid plate ya made, looks very stout!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Mt Man Chad

Great picture's!
Really like he skid plate ya made, looks very stout!

Thanks!! Yeah, hopefully it is stout enough to fend off any evil I bring to it.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice skid plate! Hopefully it doesnt be the root cause for high centering you now. It's not like it's going to give or rip off.

And once again, cool pics. I imagine that there are a lot of old mines and gravel pits and such that have loads of pollution and run off. But the EPA only worries about big ticket items and go after places that generate money, not waste.

[mosesburb]

So we continued south down the Senator Highway, taking in all the sights and grand vistas we could. We stopped here and there to check out this or that.

This is just a generic shot of what much of the road looks like:



This is Palace Station. Back in th eSenator's heyday, this was a stage stop about halfway between Prescott and Crown King. Thses days a Forest Service employee resides there and the signs say they are not to be disturbed.



This tank is about all that remains at the site of the Yankee Doodle Mine:



This is a shot of the low area that you pass through while heading toward Crown King. Prescott and Crown King are both on tall mountains, but there is a big low area between them. This is in that area:



Another shot, down the road from the previous one:



The dark mountain in the back on the right is the one we go around on the right and hook back around it to get to Crown King:



One of the fantastic views off the side of the road:



Here's another:



This looks like a mill site on the way out of Crown King headed toward the interstate:



So that brings us to the end of this run. It was a great time and we got to see a bunch of cool stuff. Can't wait to do it again.

[1985-GMC]

Man you always go on these awesome adventures and have to come back here an show off.



Haha keep em comin!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by 1985-GMC

Man you always go on these awesome adventures and have to come back here an show off.



Haha keep em comin!

Will do.

One of my mud tires had an issue, nobody had any in stock and they are on backorder for some indefinite period of time. So that, coupled with the fact that the new tire would be the new tread pattern that looks nothing like my other tires and the other detail that if I have another problem in six months, I will be going through the whole wait-and-see ordeal again, I decided to get a more common tire size. I looked around at various other sizes and tread patterns. I really didn't need the mud tire, but got the previous ones because of the size. So I pretty much settled on 285/75/R16 BF Goodrich All Terrains load range "E". These were $31.00 less per tire than the load range "D" in the same tire. Strange. Anyways, these are about 33 tall and a fuzz under 12 wide. I asked what the narrowest wheel they could be put on was and I was told the preferred width is eight, but they could be installed on seven inch wheels with minimal detriments. No more 6.5" I guess. Well, I just happened to have a set of 16x7" Accuride wheels in my stock, so I took them down to the blaster and had them blasted. I brought them home and painted them white and took them in to have the tires mounted up on them. They don't look as sporty as the narrow mud tires, but these can actually be found in a tire store--a real ggod thing when you are out on the road somewhere. They are the exact same height as the muds, so I effectively have three spares for these new tires now.

The new wheels have a bit more positive offset and I think they look pretty cool for a wider tire. From a distance they look like the highway tires though.

[hgs_notes]

Maybe it's just me, but I thought they looked better without the caps. Those AT's are a pretty good tire.

[1972GMCSUB]

I got more than 60k miles out of my BFG AT's. I ran them on my 2001 F350. They were 35". They still had tread on them when replaced but they were starting to lose air because the rubber was starting to crack. I'd air them up to 45 in front and one would lost air down to 35 psi. I found more on craigslist. Three tires basically new for $100. The guy wanted a taller tire.

Chris
'66 GMC Custom Deluxe Suburban
'69 Chevy C20

[Dieselwrencher]

That stinks about your tire, and I feel your pain. my 95 F-350 has 33 12.50 16.5 BFG A/T K/O's on it and 2 of them blew out. Guess what, none to be found. So I have to find wheels and tires for it. It'll be cheaper to finish my Longhorn and drive it for a while. I like the look with the caps or without them. Call me crazy I guess. Hey, did you ever get that tach in yet?

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That stinks about your tire, and I feel your pain. my 95 F-350 has 33 12.50 16.5 BFG A/T K/O's on it and 2 of them blew out. Guess what, none to be found. So I have to find wheels and tires for it. It'll be cheaper to finish my Longhorn and drive it for a while. I like the look with the caps or without them. Call me crazy I guess. Hey, did you ever get that tach in yet?

Yeah, that was another option that I had was to go with 16.5's. They are available around town (currently), they are cheaper than 16's (still), and I have a set of wheels to put them on (I seem to have a lot of wheels...), but what I did not want is to end up in this same situation a year or two down the road when I have an issue with one of those and none are available. Hey, at least you had TWO go bad. I got to do this for one damn tire. I like it with and without the caps too, but I run the caps for the sleeper effect.

Cheaper to finish the Longhorn--that's funny. Let me know how that works out for you.

I haven't located a lens yet. I have a tach head, but no lens. No biggie as I really don't need to do it and there are other things that I really do need to do, so maybe when I find a lens. Maybe.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Maybe it's just me, but I thought they looked better without the caps. Those AT's are a pretty good tire.

Yeah, I've run BFG A/T's on all of my trucks and have always had good luck with them. I like it without the caps too, but if I leave the caps on, then I don't have to store them somewhere else.

Originally Posted by 1972GMCSUB

I got more than 60k miles out of my BFG AT's. I ran them on my 2001 F350. They were 35". They still had tread on them when replaced but they were starting to lose air because the rubber was starting to crack. I'd air them up to 45 in front and one would lost air down to 35 psi. I found more on craigslist. Three tires basically new for $100. The guy wanted a taller tire.

Sweet deal for a hundered bones!! I have just slightly alot more than that in these--but, if I can get 60k out of them (or even close), I'll be real pleased. Arizona trails can be a bit harsh on tires.

[Dieselwrencher]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Cheaper to finish the Longhorn--that's funny. Let me know how that works out for you.

I haven't located a lens yet. I have a tach head, but no lens. No biggie as I really don't need to do it and there are other things that I really do need to do, so maybe when I find a lens. Maybe.

It's either spend $2k I don't have, or put the Longhorn together. I have most of the parts for it sitting in, on, and around it. I just have to get one more customer project done and then I can get to it. On the tach, did you see the cluster I made with a 4k mechanical tach in it?

[DBear]

Still looks good.....but I did like it better with the muds! Sorry to hear that you had to buy new tread though!