Metcalf on Ultimate adventure?

They try and keep the UA trips under a bit of secrecy to help it move along. It is amazing how difficult it is to keep 20+ vehicles moving in the right direction.

I didn't end up with too much video. I was too busy driving. I do have a few little ones...

Rootpass wrote: What kind of parts failures if any did you experience? How was it driving the road trip portions?

The only part I replaced on the trip was an outer bearing on the full float conversion. A few of the rollers where chipped and it was making noise and heat. That was actually after the UA trip on the way back home.



I caught a few things on the trip before they went bad. I inspected the vehicle the evening before every road day. We had to add some fluids here and there. There was a loose rear pinion nut. One of the front wheel bearings was a little loose. The bolts that hold the hubs and full float axles in place tend to loosen up over time. I had to bend a skidplate back after going turtle on it a few too many times. I also found a big bolt in one of my tires that I must have picked up somewhere.

The highway travel. This vehicle doesn't have any problem going 55-60 all day long, but it doesn't really like going 65-80 that much at all. The seating position and seats are VERY comfortable. We did a 19+ hour day on the highway and I didn't have a sore butt or back. 22psi seems to be the happy pressure for the tires. You can run more, but the steering start to get a little floaty above 60mph. If you leave the tires a little lower it doesn't float around as much.  I drove the little guy over 3150 miles during the trip over a long week. Going my speed on the highway it works just fine. If you want to keep up with modern traffic on the interstate your better off with another vehicle. I have toyed around with the idea of getting an overdrive for it, but honestly I don't think it is worth the cost and complication as long as I can go MY speed. I don't really enjoy driving it on the interstate much, that just isn't what a vehicle like this is for. I much rather find some old two lane blacktop and cruise at 50-55 all day while I check out all the sights.

SlowPocono wrote: To me, your little videos are more interesting and enjoyable than the professionally prepared and narrated ones.  I certainly appreciate yours more. Thanks for sharing them.

Thank you. I wish I had more.

Rootpass wrote: What you did is impressive. And the fact you weren't wrenching to whole time says you build a good rig. That guy with the Suzuki would have driven me nuts.

Thank you. Why would Tim ( sami guy ) driven you nuts? He is a great guy...

Rootpass wrote: I was kind of kidding. The first video segments showed him broken down a lot. It gave the impression he was one of those people who would rather rig something together than buy the part. Or it seemed. Rick made the comment that he was probably carving a new engine out of a block of wood. I figured he made/Mcgivered a lot of his parts. He would be the guy to have out in the middle of nowhere when you break down. Understands how and why things work. I didn't mean anything out of the way at all. The fact you all could wheel that hard all day and drive that far to get to the next place is really amazing when you think that your are all custom built by guys in their garage. At home. No sponsors. Your own dime. Most new vehicles couldn't do that. I'm mean ya'll did something very few people could. And the satisfaction of knowing your design and choice of components met the challenge and won over.

yeah, Tims little rig has the record for being one the most ultimate adventure trips. I think he has done something like 9 UA trips in that little rig. He also 'wheels the pee out of it whenever he can. He drove has also driven back and forth across the country like 7 times.

He basically just had a bad run of luck on this trip. We spent most of the Saturday tech day trying to fix the little guy. The mount on his compressor had failed on the 2000 mile drive out to the event after a million miles of abuse. We actually did a pretty good job, but the same issue came back at night during the 19+ hour 700 mile road day. The same bracket broke again and the air compressor pump rocked over and rubbed a hole in the oil filter. All the oil went out and it roasted the lower end bearings.

In the end it was just one of those things. I give Tim major props for getting it fixed along the way well enough to continue the event. He actually did most of the trip without the power steering working. Then he drove it 2000+ miles back home.

In general this group of people could build a vehicle for the trip, on the trip, using spare parts and a $300 truck found in a field. Good people all! Everyone had there little issue to deal with, some more than others, some less than others. I don't think anyone made the entire trip without having to fiddle with something. The video doesn't really do that good of a job conveying what its like to do a trip like this. You just can't stuff 10+ days of 16-20 hours per day into a 2 hour video.

Rootpass wrote: I appreciate you sharing the links and some of the behind the scenes stuff. I'd rather meet and hang out with Yall than any other people on TV. Lol

Tim is a good guy, spoke with him a lot on the '09 Adventure when the group stopped at a park I volunteered at.

LesBerg wrote: Rootpass wrote: Great videos but not enough Metcalf! Too much time showing sponser trucks. Metcalfs Jeep is easily to most interesting of the competitors' 4x4s. I might be biased.   X2!   great videos, but I think they focused too much on the 'sponsor' rigs and not enough on the readers.   I think Metcalf's rig did great, considering his design intentions. My understanding is that he built dual-purpose - daily driver with good trail capabilities. It's a well thought out rig. He's demonstrated time and again that he can reliably take it on long trips and run up into rough country without pause. And I bet he didn't spend nearly as much as most of the other guys.   Nicely done, Metcalf!   [edit] Metcalf, at some point I'd like to pick your brain on what I'm doing in my build. I have no 'wheeled vehicle' off road experience to speak of and I have no exposure to the engineering that goes into building a capable vehicle.   I have 3k hours of off road/cross country experience, but it was all in an M113A1 tracked personnel carrier. It was lots of fun and became experienced enough that I could drive it in places that you couldn't safely walk, but transitioning it a civilian wheeled vehicle on my own dime is certainly a challenge.

Hey how did the lunch box locker in your front diffs work out? Spartan if I remember right?