Day 1 started out as a normal road trip. But, within 5 miles of home, my air pressure warning light went on. Since operation of the 1300 is critically dependent on air pressure, this was a "show stopper" crisis. Since we were headed east and since my best-buddy and master mog mechanic Kai lives within a mile of our planned route, I called him and asked for his help. He did help and fully resolved the issue allowing us to continue on.
The original, post-failure plan was to travel east from San Diego toward the Imperial Valley, then north to the Mecca Mud Hills to see a place called "Ladder Canyon". Our time table was immediately disrupted by the air system failure, but as fate would have it, we were more that compensated for this minor inconvenience.
The photos below are what we saw. These shots are reduced from the full size of the digital camera to 800 pixels wide in deference to those readers that do not have "full size" screens. Nearly all of the shots came from my new, 21 megapixel Canon 1DsMark3 digital SLR.
We attempted to start the trip early and were greeted by nice flowers in my neighbor's yard. The over-night dew had left everything moist resulting in nice droplets on the flowers that glistened in the bright morning sun. After briefly admiring the flowers, we completed our loading of the truck and camper, performed a mechanical and tire pressure check and left.
We did not get very far before we encountered an issue. A big issue as it turns out. The Unimog 1300 is critically dependent on air pressure for operation. Air operates the parking brakes, main brakes, transmission shifter, four wheel drive, differential locks and provides air for adjusting tire pressure. Briefly stated, if the air system is down, you are going nowhere. Shortly after we left the house, the air pressure warning light came on. I called by buddy Kai and we diverted to his house to attempt a repair. It took awhile to locate the offending part, but he did find it, remove it and crack it open. The photo above shows the part which is a tank pressure equalization valve. The 1300 has twin tanks and this valve equalizes the pressure between the tanks. The valve had developed corrosion inside and was very contaminated with oily gunk that was preventing it from sealing properly. Kai removed the part, disassembled it, cleaned and lubricated it and re-installed it and we were on our way! The repair held for the entire trip, but given the criticallity of air pressure to the operation of the truck, it will have to be replaced soon.
The failed part repair caused a delay of several hours. Once the repair was complete, we headed back onto the highway en route to the Imperial Valley. Once we got onto Hwy 67, I spotted this rig. There are very few Unimogs in San Diego, and even fewer campers. After we saw it, I realized that it was a new owner that purchased the rig from Werner, one of the other mog guys. I had conversed with the person over the net, but had not met him in person. What luck that we would just cross paths with them randomly on the highway!
We hooked up with them at a road-side shop in Santa Ysabel and chatted for awhile. Since they were heading to Borrego Springs and we had to go though Borrego Springs, we decided to convoy. And, since they were total newbies to the mog, we decided to add an extra day onto the trip and show them through the area. Here, we completed a road-side mechanical check before descending the steep grade into Borrego Springs. The check found that they were very low on brake fluid which is NOT a good thing. I filled them up and we were on our way.
The owners of the rig were Steve and Deborah Shiuno and they live in the metro San Diego area. Here, we are enjoying a glass of wine after making it to our camp site for the night in Hawk Canyon in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park near Borrego Springs. On the way to the camp site, we stopped in Borrego to get lunch. But, the lunch was so big that we just called it dinner thus removing the need to cook in the camp.
Our camp site was one of the best in Hawk Canyon and it was nestled deep into a mini-side canyon. Here, Steve's rig is parked awaiting nightfall.
Our rig was in the normal camped configuration. Hawk Canyon was a nice camp and the wind was good to us.
Hawk Canyon is a nice camp area when there are not too many folks there. It is close to the paved highway and easy to get to without any hard-core 'wheeling required. The night was calm and it was reasonably warm given the time of year. The plan was to escort Steve and Deborah out of the canyon via the drop off and slot canyon back into Borrego Springs for lunch and diesel fuel. Then, they would head back into the park for another night in a remote site and we would head north to the Mecca Mud Hills and Ladder Canyon.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2008, all rights
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