Azdunerat

19 hours ago, Stinky said:

It was about all the stuff that you changed on the trip.  That is a long list, or so it seems to me.

This is the total carnage spread over three seperate rzr’s. 
 

1 Rzr accounted for three of the belts, the secondary issue(I guess there is a washer that is a known failure point) and the blown transmission. 
 

the other issue with the primary was a weird fluke but also not unheard of if you get them hot and then introduce water. Literally looked like a grenade went off in the belt housing. 

1 hour ago, Stinky said:

This sounds a bit excessive and unreliable....

 

1 RZR secondary.                                                    
1 rzr primary.                                                      
5 rzr belts.                                                           
1 rzr transmission.                                             
1 rzr top end.

Trying to figure out if this statement is about the Rzr or my damage report. 
 

either way I was not overly impressed with the Rzr’s reliability. 

7 hours ago, SandTrap said:

Looked Epic for sure..How did you like your Arisun tires.. My opinion and my other friends that run them they are a GREAT all around tire

Loved the tires! We didn’t have any issues and I thought they hooked up great.  Another car was running a set as well and he did have 1 sidewall puncture but it was in some nasty rocky chit. 

1 hour ago, SandTrap said:

Loved seeing the Pics and reading all this.. I most likely will never do this trip but looks amazing

It was a bucket list item and I feel blessed that we were able to do it. I want to do it again next year but the wife needs some time to come down. 

580 miles. JR also does a 1400 mile run to Cabo if you want more. If you are bat chit crazy they just finished a 2500 mile loop that took 14 days. 

Last pic was an oops. 
 

also a how it started vs how it ended pic

We started day 4 waiting at horsepower ranch for a tow truck to come pick up a rzr that lost the transmission just as we entered Ensanada.  HP ranch is absolutely beautiful so I wasn’t going to complain. We finally hit the trail about 11 and made it out of town when another Rzr went into limp mode. 
 

chase team swapped out the fuel pump and we were off again only to make it 2 miles before it went back into limp. Swapped injectors and some of trouble shooting and 2 hours later the call was made to scrub the mountain pass and tow the disabled car out via the flatish road. 
 

not many pics from the final day but it was still a beautiful ride. 
 

overall I counted almost 9 hours of mechanical downtime which was based on the following. 

1 rzr secondary.                                                    
1 rzr primary.                                                      
5 rzr belts.                                                           
1 rzr transmission.                                             
1 rzr top end.

moral of the story, make sure you go with can am’s 😂  seriously though we are pushing these machines to their limits and chit is going to break, just be ready and accept it. JR did mention this was probably the worst trip he has had in a while both mechanically and weather/water wise.

i would tell anyone who is thinking about it to do it without hesitating. My car is bone stock outside of the ZRP radius and pull plate and I went through one belt that was due to a serious river cross. I also drive my car at 70-80% of its ability, if you know both your limit and your cars you will be fine. I will also say, this is not the place you want to be if you run out of talent so ride carefully.

JR with bajautvtours.net was an absolute professional and made both me and my wife feel safe at all times. He does these ride through out the year, hit him up if you want more details.

Manually resizing the photos before posting fixed the black photo issue. 
 

now the upside down issue is beyond my technical skills. 

Rzr primary grenaded aftermath 

30 minutes ago, Wash 10 Crew said:

It works 50% of the time and will get you home.  

https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/63E34AE2-0FE0-48A6-8844-0236D76A8A6C?ingress=2&visitId=6ac42a33-69e8-44a7-8643-147d42e33d91&ref_=ast_bln

 

Adding this to my tool bag for sure

Day 3 started with us running the coast, this is absolutely amazing country and views that make everything you went through worth is. 

we zig zag up the coast line and drop into an amazing bay for a quick stop. Rain has made the entry and exit sketchy as all hell but no risk no reward right. 
 

after leaving we hit what looks like a normal puddle but no the is a Baja demon hell hole. 2 foot deep and soft as hell. Thank god I have it in 4 lo trying to keep the belt temps down and we plow through. Climb out and make it 1/2 mile when we hear another rzr is down. Our new friend Juan had the primary on his 6 month old rzr grenade as soon as he got out of the demon puddle. I have never seen anything like it, catastrophic was an understatement. The worse news is his 6 is a 2023 and the chase crew only has the older style clutch with them so JR has to head out to meet the chase truck and get the new clutch. 3 hours later we are back on the trail. 
 

only to meet demon puddles older much uglier sister hell hole. I unfortunately misjudge my spacing trying to get around it and end up pretty well f@cked. Winch out and hit it right this time and we are back in business. Still the best day of the ride so far. 
 

role into Horsepower ranch at 7.30pm ready for some dinner and a relaxing night. 

We rolled out of San Felipe around 9.30 and were on our way to Mikes Sky ranch, this was some of the most beautiful country you could imagine. Technical goat trails, lots of cliffs and some great rock crawling. 
 

we could tell they had been getting hammered with snow and rain and the wash outs and ruts were insane. Found myself straddling 3’ deep washed out ruts on trails with the setting sun dropping into our faces, made for interesting riding for sure. 
 

same rzr that had clutch issues the day before dropped his ass end into a rut and blew the tire right off the bead. Waiting for an hour for him to get back. 
 

after we regrouped we watched the Space X launch and continued on, behind schedule but as long as no other issues we should be in Camalu by 8 of 8.30……….and that’s when the things got fun. Our route took us down a mountain pass to what should be a dry creek bed but ended up being a raging creek with a 2 foot drop in and a near vertical climb out. So time for plan b, the boring ride out through some farms. Unfortunately the new gate with a nice man holding a machete meant we could no longer use that route. 
 

JR makes the decision that our only route out is through the washes. The first water crossing was about 30 yards wide with 18-24” deep water flowing at a decent pace. The Rzr in front of me smoked his belt taking the shallower path so we had to go through the deeper softer exit and the car started to sink so me and the throttle got very friendly. Car made it out just as the belt let loose. Video shows how hot that belt must have been. Honestly I thought I caught fire. 
 

one more uneventful water crossing and we were out of the canyon and into town. 11.30pm we rolled into Camalu soaking wet and exhausted but day 2 was in the books. 

52 minutes ago, Sand Shark said:

Very nice.  Did you cross in Mexicali?    Where did you leave your trucks and trailers.

Running the Baja race course shortly after a race is brutal.    

 

When I have gone we drive to Ensenada and leave the trucks and trailers there.  

Crossed in Mexicali

JR has a place in La Rmorisa he uses. Fully gated and charges 10.00 a day. 

After seeing so several posts from guys who have done Baja trips my wife and I decided to jump in and get it off our bucket list. 
 

a couple items to note, I am rocking a bone stock 2018 can am X3 Max turbo R. The only upgrades that have been made to the car are ZRP radius rods and pull plate and we just went to 32” Arisun tires. That’s it! I know my limits and I drive my car between my limit and what I know is the cars and it has served me well for the last 6 years. 
 

The trip started off with a hiccup as a front was pushing into La Rumorosa and they were expected 6” of snow in the mountain pass. Thank god the guide made the call to have us ride down the mountain and take the salt flats, it was a fast ride but my co pilot got kind of bored. After about 30 miles a Rzr lost its first belt, chase team fixed it quick and we were back up and runningl

We hit the highway and were on our way to getting the trip back on trail. The same Rzr had the secondary washer let loose so we were down for another hour waiting on the chase truck to come pick his car up and trailer it to San Felipe where the replacement parts were waiting. We made our way into an amazing sandy wash that was stupid fun at 50-60mph followed by the nastiest rocky trail I have ever been on.  Honestly I am not sure how much of my skip plate it left. The San Felipe 250 ran the course the week before and what would normally be 6-12” ruts were 18-24”. The group had 3 flats and tried to break the world record for my gummy plugs used to seal a sidewall, hint it didn’t work. 
 

Another Rzr belt blown and we rolled into San Felipe around 6.30. Found the best Al Pastor taco shop and ate my body weight in tacos. 
 

and of course I had to rock some old school gd.com swag. Sloppy send me this sweater 18 years ago and I still wear the hell out of it. 

Figured it out, I have to manually resize the pictures from full size to scaled 

Any other iPhone users have issues loading photos?

not sure when it happened but I get a black box now whenever I try to upload pictures. 

Well this goes in the loss category. 

Day 1 highlights

After the snow moved in we decided not to take the mountain pass out of La Rumorosa and instead drove the cars down the hill and took the Salt Flats to San Felipe. The wind made it bearable, keeping the dust down for the most part. 
absolutely amazing trip so far

3 minutes ago, Stinky said:

Where is that at that it snowed?

La Rumorosa

Go home Baja your drunk

Final prep of the can am for our Baja run next week. 550 miles doesn’t sound like a lot until you look at the map. 

Saw this car this weekend, the pictures don’t do it justice. The owner was very nice and talked to me for a bit. 

Here is the electric ATC, very impressed