dunefreak

22 hours ago, joblo said:

When will you guys be in Idaho!

End of July. The 26th-Aug 2 

8 hours ago, Crusty said:

Good write up, hope you get the motor sorted out for SA

It is sorted out! lol It ran great. 

3 hours ago, tmerrell said:

Great Report Pete glad the car is good to go and see you in Idaho 

Looking forward to it. 

Well the season has officially come to a close for us. It has been quite the rollercoaster of a month for me. So I'll quickly fill you in on my buggy motor drama. The short version is this. I have been chasing a low power/pinging issue with my car since last season. Two trips ago the motor went south as the rings were burned up (tons of blow by and low compression). I basically finished it off after 11 hard years of duning and I found out the timing belt had jumped time one tooth. That was my problem all along. Then I replaced the motor and went back out a few weeks ago only to blow the new motor up! I think I had a wastegate issue, it overboosted to 12+ psi and it it went boom. It put three holes in the block. I found another motor and thrashed to get it in and running. So this was our last trip of the season unless we blow this thing up again! lol I am been super stressed to get it done and all the bugs worked out because were going to St Anthony this summer. Finally after all these years!

Anyways, here's my trip report. 

We arrived Friday night. The weather was awesome. We downed what seemed like 100 beers around the fire until the W switch flipped around midnight or so. We knew the weather was gonna suck, but we I had no other choice in the matter. I needed to get some time on this damn car!

We set our alarms to get up Saturday morning and get out before the wind. Well, there was no such thing. We were up, but the wind was already howling. I went to fire my car up and it didn't start. My head is pounding from the previous night's bad decisions and now I gotta diagnose why half my fuse block has no power. lol I finally figured it out. It was a broken solder joint on a power feed. I got it fixed up and we headed out in an attempt to do a dune run. The dunes were so razored out and the sand was just flying off the dunes making it impossible to dune any kind of line. So I just sort of skirted around the outside of the south end and then found some "lines" in the dunes toward the north pole. It wasn't too bad out there but it was breezy for sure. 

Driving back to camp was pretty miserable. I wasn't sure I was even going to be able to put my car under a load in 3rd gear at this point because we had to drive so slow. The dunes were basically summer dunes. There were so many razorbacks and sketchy spots. Our normal lines were screwed. 

Back at camp we spent several hours inside waiting and hoping we'd get a break. It wasn't looking good.

About 2 PM it finally calmed down a little bit and we headed back out. 

I found out only one of my fans was working so we went back to camp so I could fix it. It ended up being another bad connection near the fuse box. It was an easy fix but then the W came back on strong again! Damn it. 

Finally around 6:00 it was absolutely gorgeous. We got a full, solid dune run in and stopped in the dunes to enjoy the peace and quiet. We had the place all to ourselves and the views were awesome!

We ran into some friends on Sunset Hill before going back to camp. Gotta love Jason's shirt! haha

Back at camp the weather was still great. I was finally able to relax knowing the car ran good and was fixed. 

Sunday we slept in, relaxed, and drank mimosas. 

On the way out this little dude bid us a farewell until next season!

WHY?

I will never understand why people feel the need to hang their trash on the pole. 

Looks like at least another week or two of duning weather. Anyone else still heading out or have you called it a season already? We'll be out this weekend doing some more buggy testing. 

7 hours ago, IrnBear said:

This is sad to hear

But a pedestrian on the dunes?

I'm going to guess the coroner report has the times wrong AM vs PM.

Yeah I missed that. It was late at night (AM), not during the day. 

We were also wondering about the details and how this happened. They could have just been hanging out on the dune. ? It was close to camp. 

Late Friday night (around midnight/ 1 am) I saw lights on the face hill which looked like some sort of accident. Then not long after that two girls pulled up to our camp with a truck and empty flatbed trailer pretty distressed and crying. They were lost & looking for the dirt road to go meet the ambulance at the highway. They said someone was run over. I'm assuming in their group. We guided them out and they met up with the ambulance. Then the helicopter landed but left very quickly after touching down. The ambulance left fairly quickly too. I posted it on our Facebook page and some people in the comments confirmed the guy passed away. So sad to hear about this. Apparently it was a hit & run and the person driving never returned.  

It was also on the coroner's page.

On Saturday, April 3, 2021, at 12:36 PM, officers with the California Highway Patrol and San Bernardino County Fire Department personnel responded to the Dumont Dunes Recreation Area to investigate the report of a pedestrian being struck by an off-road vehicle. Upon arrival, Roman Jose Lugoaceves, a 47-year-old resident of Long Beach, was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:40 PM. The California Highway Patrol is investigating the incident. [04032021 1921 JL]

Sandcar: absolute best dune experience, plush ride, fastest dune experience, will do just about everything you want it to do if setup properly

SXS: fun for most people, will give you plenty of fun duning experience and will go just about everywhere you need it to go, plush ride, not the fastest, but fast enough for most, also more versatile- can go on desert or offroad adventures 

Jeep: Not the best vehicle to enjoy the dunes. Comfortable yes, but heavy and dangerous in some situations in the dunes. A sandcar or SXS will ride much better. Good for exploring & playing in the sand every once in a while, but not the most ideal to go to the dunes with if it's your only dune toy. 

It's a spammer in Russia. They've already been banned. Unfortunately they sent out numerous PMs to members so I'll be getting messages from many more to come that haven't opened it yet. Normally you hit the report button so admins can look into it asap. Just delete it though. 👍🏻

Looks like we'll have some warm weather finally. 

https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/USCA1133:1:US

Alot of the area around Dumont is not open to OHV travel, but there are some trails that are open. You just have to stay on trail. Nothing really that great for a dirt bike, but it's still fun to go out and explore. Like raspadoo said, Sperry Wash- you'll see it when you pull in. Also, there's trails on the other side of 127 but they're mostly wide dirt roads. Somewhere out there, there's a cabin. I have yet to find it yet. 

Who's planning on heading out?

Last trip I blew my motor but I just got it fixed (new motor) so Easter will be my shakedown and test trip. Hoping she runs strong with no problems. 

Vendors! If you are going to be there please post up as well. 

On 3/22/2021 at 10:35 AM, Sandbuddy said:

Pismo was junk duning. Nothing there for buggies. A quick blip of the throttle and it's over. I think it will be way to far for that crowd.

It wasn't too far for many of them on Halloween weekend. 

Either way. I don't doubt the duning there sucks. That's not really what I'm getting at here. I just hope it doesn't get shut down. 1) because it'll possibly cause more people to come to Dumont. and 2) I don't ever like to see any place get closed for OHV use. Once they take some, they always try to take more.  

16 hours ago, Jakster884 said:

Love these Dune reports. Any weekend in the Sand Box is a good weekend. Great pics. 

Thanks Jack. We miss ya buddy. 

That's very disappointing to see.

And many people think dumpsters solve trash problems at Dumont on holiday weekends. This is a prime example of what would happen. They get overfilled and cause an a bigger trash problem. Just haul out what you brought in. 

Welcome to the site, Emi. Easter is never super busy. There will likely be plenty of people there, but nothing like the bigger holiday weekends. 

Awesome turnout! Looks like you all did a great job. It's good to see how many people still care about Dumont. Thank you guys and thanks for posting this up Jodi. I wish I didn't have to miss it but work and other commitments didn't allow for it this year. 

11 hours ago, Agricon said:

Had a great time, dunes where awesome, too bad couldn't remember how to drive. No seat slider couldn't reach the pedals or the steering wheel. Put 3 coats behind my back and that helped.  Those butterflies just kept distracting me.

Great weekend Ben. I heard you mentioning to someone about your sweatshirt/jacket mod to reach the pedals. hahaa

Your the only guy I know with a complete second setup (buggy, truck/RV).

We rolled in Thursday night. The weather was breezy at times, but it was really nice. So nice we hung out around the fire until 2AM. 

I was excited to get my car back out after some recent suspension and tire upgrades.

Plus I acquired another new toy...a couch! Polaris Sportsman 700. 

I took the couch, also referred to now as Pedro, out for a morning cruise to see how it did and check out what mother nature had groomed. 

Then we headed out for our first buggy run and Josh's spindle decided to break in half. We pulled it off and took it back to camp to get welded up in order to get the car back. Theron and I stayed and played security guard with the help of some cold beers in the cooler.  We got it all back together and we headed back. 

Josh was convinced the spindle wasn't strong enough to drive on anymore, but Theron made sure to give him that push to weld it up on the inside as well so he could dune the rest of the weekend. Everyone came together to help out. 

On the way back to camp from the spindle incident, we made a few rips up comp hill. I noticed my car was falling on its face over 4000 rpm. I've been dealing with an issue all season and I was getting pissed off I haven't figured it out yet. So long story short I took it out to test a few things and I blew up my motor. 😥 I had excessive blow-by coming out of my breather and one or two cylinders were not hitting anymore. I kinda felt like this was going to happen, but not on day 1 of this weekend. I was really bummed. Luckily I had friends to cheer me up. I hopped in Theron's car and Anna rode in Dan's so we could all go up to Sunset Hill. 

Saturday morning it was really gusty at times, but the W finally calmed down. I took the couch quad out again and ended up all the way across HWY 127 exploring some ohv trails in Anvil Canyon. Along the way I spotted an old memorial up on a hill between Little D and Big D. The message in the concrete read LOVED THE DESERT. 

Quickly realizing I didn't bring any water or supplies, I decided to head back. I was pretty far out there. You can barely see little Dumont in the distance in this pic. 

I got back to camp and found out the guys still hadn't returned from their buggy run. Gary and Josh came back but it was to get a pully for Gary's car. On the run, it fell off. Ben stopped to get it as it was rolling down a hill, then got stuck! Then Theron hooked up to him and got stuck and then one more buggy got stuck. They had 3 buggies tied together with tow straps so tight they had to cut one off. LOL It's this was our first dune trip of something. After fixing Gary's car and then bringing out a floor jack, everyone finally got Theron's car extracted from the earth. LOL

Later that day everyone else went out while I cruised around taking dune pics and managed to snap some of the crew. 

Looks like Greg's car is Pacman and eating the buggy in the distance. haha 

Josh and Greg had a little more fun for the camera. 

Sunday we all packed it up and headed home. I have a ton of stuff to fix. First a buggy motor swap, then some more upgrades to switch over to 5 lug front wheels from spindle mount wheels, then fix my water heater and furnace which BOTH decided to take a crap in the same weekend. It's always something! Duning is constant work but so worth it when everything is clicking and working right. I was really bummed I couldn't take full advantage of those amazing dunes this weekend. They were so epic while my car lasted. Just not the same on an old man quad. haha

Big thanks to all my friends that made a sh*tty weekend still a super fun one. Saturday night we had ATC races, giant human ball fights, guess that crappy 80's song, and lots of fun around the fire. 

Time to get to work and get back out before summer hits. I'm not done yet! 

 glad you haven't changed. Hi Bob! mafakaaaaa! 

Post a picture of the satellite map showing which dune or ridge it's on. I'll look for it this weekend. We'll be out there. 

Thanks for posting these, Justin! Times sure have changed out there. I love seeing all the old trucks and campers. 

It wasn't just a coyote was it? 

Unfortunately there was a fatality this last Saturday when a side x side rolled at Comp hill. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene and the passenger had injuries. I always hate hearing about these accidents. I don't know exactly how it happened, but it's always a reminder to always play it safe out there and wear proper safety gear. 

Coroner Press Release

On Saturday, February 20, 2021, at 8:32 PM, Bradley Scott Mowdy, a 62-year-old resident of Corcoran California, was the driver of a UTV that rolled over in the Dumont Dunes Off Highway Vehicle Area near Baker CA. Mowdy was pronounced dead at the scene. The Barstow office of the California Highway Patrol is investigating the incident.