My brother took the very first LTS Earthroamer he built to Baja. He had an incredible journey and made lots of improvements after that trip. It's a really funny story but far too long to type here. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Brent…Bill was an amazing guy that I thank every day we are out roaming! What an incredible gift he has given all of his roamer owners. Glad you liked the video and thanks for the comment!
2003, we converted a 1996 Ford CF8000 commercial truck to our concept of an ExpeditionVehicle. Two decades full-time live-aboard. Summers up rough logger tracks to remote mountain lakes. Winters on isolated Baja beaches. . As you might imagine, our rig is battered and bent, scratched and faded and rusty. Intentionally. We avoid confrontations with jealous by-standers, because we appear to be at their income level... or worse. . Your rig is pretty.
I don't believe I've ever seen a military grade Michelin tire get damaged like that. They have some of the most indestructible side walls on the market. That's pretty wild, I think they just got really unlucky.
The tires are actually continental MPT81 and yes they have sidewalls so thick they barely squat when we air down with a 9T rig but still not indestructible. The broken rock in that part of Baja is crazy sharp which is why we were pretty careful on the rest of the route. We have had 3 flats with these tires in 90k miles.
Thanks for a great video! This should get you a lot more subscribers. :) Never tried to plug a sidewall, but of course my car doesn't have 22-ply military bead-lock tires. I wonder if a combo of a plug and spraying a full bottle of the goo in the tire would have done any better. My Porsche (with no spare) only came with the bottle of goo, but I of course added a plug kit (which I used exclusively - never used the goo). I believe the goo semi-hardens inside and perhaps would have held the plug in (but maybe not). Also, (yours looks different), but for my plug I think you are supposed to twist it around once or twice after inserting before pulling it out. And of course use the little tool that removes some rubber to make the cut rounder so there isn't a little "corner" that can leak past the plug. It seemed the hole was opening up whenever the leak spot was in the down position because of the sidewall load. Lastly I think the plugs "dry out" after a few years and maybe don't hold as well. I wonder if taking the tire above 150psi would have kept it more round and not allowed that deformation that loosened it. Oh well, we'll never know. :) Glad the spare worked!
Thank for the comment and ideas! I think the plugs would work fine with a tread puncture but just thought we would try it on the sidewall to get some more miles out of it. I think it would have lasted longer without the silicone lubricant.
Interesting Adventure... I think the Plugs weren't inserted Properly, hence why they Blew Out ❗ What I Really Liked though, is that you'll had Actually Spare Tires & the Equipment to Change Them 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
The sidewall cut pretty much destroys that tire so it will be recycled and another one mounted. We keep a couple worn tires to swap in when we we have a problem with one and the other three are worn. We don’t mind running tires with slightly different diameters on the front but we don’t like to do that on the limited slip rear.
@@AnimalOverland air down to the 20s but correct no sidewall repair but to limp out. Thank you for sharing the good times :) It happened to me in Iceland in the outback. Slowest drive out to buy the most expensive tire ever created. They got me!
We have taken our roamer and our boys to Baja three times now and never had anything but great experiences with the Mexican people…it’s an amazing place and an overlanders dream!
Yes but we are not interested in Cabo or any of the developed city areas. We only went there to pickup our boys for surfing. We boondock camp everywhere we go and try to avoid cities other that to restock.
Not sure I understand what you are referring to but if it’s “Catavina to the coast”…I called it that because we drove all the way to Cabo and had many different dirt trails we explored all over Baja.
Cool stuff but your video quality is beyond words almost...? I'm not trying to be rude, but it looks more grainy than a first gen iPhone almost? Wish it looked better because the content is really good! Side wall cuts are the worst...looks like you needed like 10 plugs in there...then paste it with rubber cement glue and light it on fire (keep something close to put it out of course) to bond it in, but even that wouldn't last long. Even the best patch on the inside wouldn't hold that tear closed.
