We made a trip to the Hite Cove, CA ghost town site on the Memorial Day weekend. The participants from this board were:

Me - Axiom 2004.
Vovkus (Vlad) - Trooper 2001.

There were also guys in Montero SR 1997, Montero 2002, and Nissan XTerra 2007 Off-Road edition.

There were families with almost all of us.

The trail is located between Mariposa and Yosemite. The trail is very steep - during the middle 2.5 miles, it drops 2100 feet, on the loose uneven surface (dirt and rocks). The trail is very narrow, there are almost no places to pass, and absolutely no place to turn around until the end. You start the trail - you commit to the very end. There are no barriers, and if you miss your step, you will be dropping many-many-many hundred feet to the valley floor.

Our wives were really "thrilled" by the road, but we managed to calm them down.

We were lucky that we had only one vehicle heading up toward us, and the guy in the pumped-up Tacoma was very kind and creative in letting us to go around him. There were several motocycles, also.

The scenery was wonderful. I'd say that this is the best camping site I've ever been.

We were hiking, exploring the ghost town, eating, swimming, drinking, fishing, talking, having good time overall. Vlad was "radioing" Canada and Florida and others places he could reach.

The place is rather lonely, only some brave ATVs and motocyclists were (seldom) reaching this place. We also saw some hikers across the river. There also were two oldtimers panning the gold.

We heard many times the bear "voice" but we could not see the buddy.

We rescued a young couple on the first night. They were hiking from the highway 140 along the river, and they managed to get lost. In the night, they were cold (no warm closes), no water, no food, no GPS, no map (!!!). Well, brave fellows. They saw our fire across the river, and they swam the cold river to us (together with their doggy). We gave them the food, various liquids, closes, spare sleeping bags, and the place to sleep by our fire.

The Vovkus' dog (boy) was very happy (the couple's doggy was a female one). After the night, the poor boy was unable to stand - so exhausted (you know why).

In the morning, the couple was equipped with water and with the directions, and they went hiking back to their car.

We spent two nights there and we went back on Monday morning. On the way back, Vovkus cut the sidewall of his BFG AT 33" tire. Another problem was that the Montero 2002 after the ascend could not unlock the center differential lock. The guy is still trying to fix it.

So, the following vehicle problems were revealed by the trip:

1) Axiom has not enough room for all the gears and the OME912 coils are not stiff enough to support all the weight I put in the Axiom. I am switching to OME919s.

2) 33" tires are too much for a Trooper with stock gears. The Trooper has to be re-geared. The long ascend was too difficult for the engine and transmission. The air was very hot, and during the slow uphill crawl the Trooper's temperature was rising.

3) Montero 2002 did overall surprisingly great, when aired down. But the gear range is not good for the slow crawling, especially uphill. And this one was the only vehicle in the group having mechanical problems, as I mentioned.

4) Montero 1997 was good overall, with 2" OME lift it was adequate for the task.

5) XTerra 2007 is a good vehicle, even with stupid street tires (when aired down). But the wheel travel is not great on this vehicle, it was obvious. I'd say that the "Off-Road" model name is a stretch, they need to work more on the suspension, and they must put better tires on the model.

The pictures are here:

Vlad's pictures

Helena's pictures

Great pics, gorgeous location. And nice "little" radio setup you got there, wow! I tore the sidewall of my 33 BFG not long ago so I feel for Vovkus! Curious, are the Montero's on the Wire?

he has a warranty, he says it costs him nothing.



unfortunately, no, I could not persuade them to join.

Great to hear about the warranty, I had one too so it didn't cost me anything... but it doesn't mean it wasn't frustrating at the time. I didn't like the feeling of not having a spare because it was already on the truck.

Anyway, great pics.

By the way, the place was great and it was clean, but still there were signs of "human presence". When we were leaving, we had to pick some minor garbage (like soda cans) up from this place. We were trying to leave it in a better shape than it was before us. But not all people before us were so careful.

This trail was set aside as a special-recreation OHV corridor in the recently created South Fork Merced River Wilderness. If there will be any problems with the "human presence" then they may try to close the place altogether. Remember this when visiting the area.

Also, I do not think that the summer is a good time for visiting. Mountains act there like a heat lense. On the Memorial Day, in the middle of the day, I experienced more heat than in any South-West deserts I've ever been.

May and September are the best months there.

There are several more pictures:
More pics

Holger,

Sounds like a great trip. I know you said it was steep, narrow and with rocks. Do you know the name of the trail?

I know you said the montero owner is not on the wire. Do you mean both or just one of them? As for the 2002 Montero owner was he able to unlock the center dif? Have him post up on the monty tech forum if he hasn't already with this problem. I'm sure others can help him figure it out.

Did anyone actually overheat their engine during the trip? For those montero's if they have AC (likely they do) they can easily wire the AC fan on for the off road sections. The problem in many cases is simply lack of air flow to cool the engine/radiator so your engine can easily overheat even with a good cooling system but this only happens on steep inclines where the engine works hard (2-4k rpm) to climb slowly uphill.

Nice job helping the young couple out. I hope they made it to the end of the trail ok especially with bears roaming around looking for food.

BTW, did the 97SR have a locking rear differential?

Be careful with that Xterra off road. I've heard that many have complained because the front R&P's fail with off road use. Check with Lloyd Schwarz on that one. His have failed.

the official name is "Hite Cove OHV trail", as far as I understand. It can be found in the books "SUV trails (western slope)" by Roger Mitchell and "Backcountry adventures (northern California)".



both of them.



not yet, as far as I know.



thanks, I'll tell him.



Trooper's temp gauge was right on the red mark (normally it is in the middle). 2002 Monetro was complaining but I did not see his the gauge myself.

Others SUVs did not have any temp problems.



The climb was so slow that the RPM was around 1.5K, and the ACs were on on the SUVs. My Axiom was perfectly fine about these conditions, but the guy in 2002 Montero was complaining that the truck just not able to go THAT slowly. Unfortunately, I could not go faster (due to the rocks and overall road conditions), and I could not let him pass by. This is why I had an impression that the engine power/gearing/vehicle mass are not perfectly matching each other on the 2002 Monteros.



the bears were shy - we could not see them at all, just the roaring.



yes, but he was trying not to use it - just for fun. I had my wife in the cabin, so I used my locker, becouse I wanted to present the trail to the wife as "business as usual" without any excitement.



The underpinning of that truck actually look tremendous - more solid that anything I've seen on Isuzu and Mitsu SUVs. Too bad that the actual strength does not match the visual impression.

I have R&P on my Axiom, so I have to be careful also.

As for the R&P on your axiom, I think the problem happens with bigger tires (33"+) but I haven't followed any discussions on it so if I were you, I'd definitely check with the various nissan resources (forums, sites, etc.) to verify the facts on the front r&p issues.

Not sure about the Nissan's underpinnings but have you checked out the 94-96 SR running gear? The rear r&p is almost D60 sized and definitely larger than a D44 and it comes with a rear air locker stock and the ARB locker is available up front. The axles are also pretty beefy so breakage hasn't been a real issue for tires up to 35". I only know one guy (cap510) that's running something larger than 35" on rock crawling trails and in fact he still needs to do a real trail test on it for our upcoming Sierra Challenge in August. I believe he plans on testing it this during the next 2 months so only time will tell how reliable the running gear is for that kind of tire mass for that rig. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

you are probably talking about differentials, I really meant the R&P steering. The differentials are not a problem for us guys with tires less than 33". But the R&P steering on IFS SUVs... sometimes, when I am driving in a bad stuff in a place where no tow truck would reach me, I wonder why I did not get a Land Cruiser 80 (around 1995 year) when I had a chance.



I did not check these particular years, but I checked two Monteros 97 and 98. I had a chance to put the rear OME coils and the torsion bars on Montero SR 1997. As for the Nissan XTerra, everything under it just look ... thicker, I'd say. Steering, frame, crossmembers, links, etc are just all "thick".

But the rear leaf springs look weird on a modern SUV.

off-roader thank you for you advise. I registered on a forum. Here is a link to the problem: http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showf...mp;amp;sb=5&o=14&fpart=1

Any advice is really appreciate.
Thank you.