melbakid
Well-known member
The wife and I just spend 7 days in the Idaho Bruneau Desert hunting (AKA camping w/rifles as my wife likes to call it) in Unit 46. Didn't see any deer at all. Just one dead one that a fellow hunter was gutting along the road to Castleford on Balancing Rock Road.
We did see about 150 to 160 antelope, 7 sage hens, covey of Hungarian Partridge and about 40 wild horses. Went down a steep 1000' drop into the Bruneau River to Indian Hot Springs. Major pucker factor going down and up the one lane canyon road. Too hot to get into the springs, my wife tried. Funny to see her yelp when she tested the water. She wouldn't believe me that it was too hot! Had to see for herself. We drove down to the Nevada border at Murphy Hot Springs (see a pattern here, my wife likes to go to hot springs, me ahh). The springs was a commercial venture, and it was closed, they were rebuilding it and it won't be open until next spring or later. I didn't realize I was only 13 miles from the town of Jarbidge, NV or I would have driven to see it. That was a 140-mile round trip and no deer, but lots of sightseeing which was fine. All told after 7 days I put almost 500 miles on the Samurai driving around the desert. The Samurai performed perfect, I was really happy with how it handled the terrain and drove on the gravel roads. The weather was nice. First morning it was 20* but, after that it warmed up to the high 50's low 60's in the daytime and down too mid to high 30's overnight.
We got buzzed by two A10 Warthogs on the third morning! They were making an attack run on the Saylor Creek Bombing Range. We were camped just a 1/2 mile south of the range. They flew about 80 to 100 feet above us. One behind the other. Just as they passed over us the lead one rolled vertical to the left and the second one rolled vertical to the right, so they were flying side by side belly to belly. It was fricken cool!!! When they passed over us it made the Samurai shake and the engine whine was incredible! I love the things man!!!! We saw A10's on maneuvers on two other days. We also saw F15's on three different days. One of the days they were flying into the bombing range right by camp, so we got to see them up close. Incredible!! But they weren't dropping anything, just making passes on the range. But it was still fun to see them that close. Tried to take pictures but could not get the camera to focus on the jets.
Well, I have two Samurai's, so I made my Tin Top into a more capable off roader. I changed the gears from 3.73 to 4.57. I put a locker in the front axle and a spool in the rear axle. I had bigger chromoly axles and all new bearings installed in the front and rear. I had disk brakes installed in the rear. When I did that, I lost my parking brake so I installed a kit that put a disk brake on the output shaft of the transfer case so I could have a parking brake again. Brakes work great!!!! Then I had the transfer case rebuilt with 4.16 gears and 2WD low range which it only had 2WD high before. With additional torque from the regearing I had to install a beefed-up transfer case cradle and mounts. I have a new winch mount bumper, some rock sliders and a set of 6" Bushwhacker flares that I still need to install.
This was the first trip out for the Tin Top with all the gearing, locker/spool and full disk brakes installed. The Sami performed extremely well!![[thumbsup]](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f44d.png "Thumbs up [thumbsup]")
I was very happy with it. I expected a little getting use to the rear spool, but no problems. It really helped when we ascended the 1000' vertical climb out of the canyon after visiting Indian Hot Springs. I had to lock the front hubs in order to climb out. With a locker in the front diff it was a handful trying to steer it. I think my next project will be to install power steering.
The first photo is at Balance Rock Park just outside of Castleford, ID
The second one is at Clover Creek Crossing.
Third one is at Indian Hot Springs.
Fourth one is the trail that drops 1000' below the Bruneau Canyon Rim down to Indian Hot Springs.
Fifth one is the Jarbidge Mountain Range on the Nevada/Idaho border.
We did see about 150 to 160 antelope, 7 sage hens, covey of Hungarian Partridge and about 40 wild horses. Went down a steep 1000' drop into the Bruneau River to Indian Hot Springs. Major pucker factor going down and up the one lane canyon road. Too hot to get into the springs, my wife tried. Funny to see her yelp when she tested the water. She wouldn't believe me that it was too hot! Had to see for herself. We drove down to the Nevada border at Murphy Hot Springs (see a pattern here, my wife likes to go to hot springs, me ahh). The springs was a commercial venture, and it was closed, they were rebuilding it and it won't be open until next spring or later. I didn't realize I was only 13 miles from the town of Jarbidge, NV or I would have driven to see it. That was a 140-mile round trip and no deer, but lots of sightseeing which was fine. All told after 7 days I put almost 500 miles on the Samurai driving around the desert. The Samurai performed perfect, I was really happy with how it handled the terrain and drove on the gravel roads. The weather was nice. First morning it was 20* but, after that it warmed up to the high 50's low 60's in the daytime and down too mid to high 30's overnight.
We got buzzed by two A10 Warthogs on the third morning! They were making an attack run on the Saylor Creek Bombing Range. We were camped just a 1/2 mile south of the range. They flew about 80 to 100 feet above us. One behind the other. Just as they passed over us the lead one rolled vertical to the left and the second one rolled vertical to the right, so they were flying side by side belly to belly. It was fricken cool!!! When they passed over us it made the Samurai shake and the engine whine was incredible! I love the things man!!!! We saw A10's on maneuvers on two other days. We also saw F15's on three different days. One of the days they were flying into the bombing range right by camp, so we got to see them up close. Incredible!! But they weren't dropping anything, just making passes on the range. But it was still fun to see them that close. Tried to take pictures but could not get the camera to focus on the jets.
Well, I have two Samurai's, so I made my Tin Top into a more capable off roader. I changed the gears from 3.73 to 4.57. I put a locker in the front axle and a spool in the rear axle. I had bigger chromoly axles and all new bearings installed in the front and rear. I had disk brakes installed in the rear. When I did that, I lost my parking brake so I installed a kit that put a disk brake on the output shaft of the transfer case so I could have a parking brake again. Brakes work great!!!! Then I had the transfer case rebuilt with 4.16 gears and 2WD low range which it only had 2WD high before. With additional torque from the regearing I had to install a beefed-up transfer case cradle and mounts. I have a new winch mount bumper, some rock sliders and a set of 6" Bushwhacker flares that I still need to install.
This was the first trip out for the Tin Top with all the gearing, locker/spool and full disk brakes installed. The Sami performed extremely well!
I was very happy with it. I expected a little getting use to the rear spool, but no problems. It really helped when we ascended the 1000' vertical climb out of the canyon after visiting Indian Hot Springs. I had to lock the front hubs in order to climb out. With a locker in the front diff it was a handful trying to steer it. I think my next project will be to install power steering.The first photo is at Balance Rock Park just outside of Castleford, ID
The second one is at Clover Creek Crossing.
Third one is at Indian Hot Springs.
Fourth one is the trail that drops 1000' below the Bruneau Canyon Rim down to Indian Hot Springs.
Fifth one is the Jarbidge Mountain Range on the Nevada/Idaho border.
