Information and reports of places the Scout has been driven.

Dec 26, 2003  Show Low, AZ

Went out playing in some fresh snow with my son, Andrew who was down for Christmas with his family (left). We ran up Porter Mountain to the transmitting towers at the top and then ran some of the ranch roads around the base of the mountain. Nothing difficult. Just enough to use the 4x4 a little and get an idea of the amount of articulation (or lack thereof) the Scout has. Had some problems with a bad voltage regulator but got that fixed. Sure would have been nice to have had a heater!

March 20, 2004  Charouleau Gap,  Catalina, AZ

Went with 9 other Scouts on the monthly Sonora Desert Scouts trail run. The trail is a 3+ to 4  and I planned to run just the first half to kind of shake down the Scout. Carburetor flooding problems prevented me from making more than a couple of miles. I was unable to climb the first big rock step (right) we encountered so I turned around and went back to town with a stock Scout 80 who was also having some problems negotiating the trail. Turned out the carb float was stuck and the idle jets were not shutting off fuel even when turned all the way in!

This was also why the truck failed Arizona emssions testing. After I got the carb problems taken care of, it passed ok. I'll have to see if it performs better on the trail.

April 24-25, 2004 Arizona IH Rendezvous, Prescott Valley, AZ

This was our first year at the Rendezvous. There were about 53 trucks registered, mostly Scout II's. I won first place in the Stock 800 class but there were only 4 of us in that class.

We participated in some of the truck games and tried the RTI ramp. The fairgrounds is a great venue for the event. Lots of room to camp and drive around. Also, it's has an indoor arena which is nice if the weather isn't cooperating. Click here for photos of the event. Click here to see the trucks of the Tucson members of Sonora Desert Scouts that attended.

 

May 23, 2004 Gardner Canyon, AZ.  Five Scouts started out from the Triple T Truck Stop in Tucson on Sunday morning and headed east on I-10 to the State Highway 83 turnoff. From there, it was about 10 miles to the turnoff for Gardner Canyon. Lonnie had run the trail about three weeks before and was the leader for this trip which was supposed to be a fairly easy grade 2 trail. As it turns out, we missed the road to the microwave tower that Lonnie had run before and ended up running up the Gardner Canyon road about 3 miles until the trail ended. My Scout is still having carburetor problems and doesn't want to run slowly over rocks. Eric made some trail adjustments to the carb and it did run a little better but there were several creek crossings where I had to gun it uphill to get over the rocks. It's amazing that a 34 year old truck can still take this kind of a beating, but that's an IH for you! We discovered that my tie rod is bent, apparently has been that way since I bought it. The "V" shape in the tie rod makes the ball joints turn from front to back when the wheels are turned. Makes for very sloppy steering and puts extra stress on the front steering components. I ordered a new tie rod and drag link rebuild kit from Super Scout Specialists the next day.

It was a fun trip that helped me learn more about how my Scout handles the trail and I got some good practice picking lines through the rocks. Here's a link to all the photos I took of the run.

 

February 24, 2007 Redington/Tanque Verde Lower Loop, AZ.  A perfect day for wheelin' and a great turn out! Seven club trucks and 2 more non-members picked up on the way to the trailhead. Club trucks: Eric (leader), Sam, Jason, Ronnie, Steve, Roy, Lonnie. Rick and Ryan joined us for the run.
Lost Rick to an axle-wrapped rear spring while playing on rocks early in the run. Ryan almost did a corner roll but Jason got him strapped back on all fours. Gumby lost the rear spool but continued with the group. Lonnie had carb problems - truck wouldn't idle. It was 2:00pm by this time, so he and I turned back at the Chiva Falls turnoff. We tried to follow the trail map and Eric's instructions but still got lost. Finally got back to where we started, checked the map again and went back out the same way we had come in.

Lonnie managed to get it back out to the graded dirt of Redington Rd. but needed to be towed home once we got into town.
The rest of the trucks continued on to the lower loop.
My SR-2 performed admirably. 6 hours on the trail and another 1.5 towing Lonnie's SII back home.
Click here for more photos of the run.