Del Albright

 DISASTERS CAN MEAN POWER OUTAGES. ARE YOU READY? By Del Albright Whether fire, flood, hurricane or tornado affect your world, the key is to be prepared with back up and escape plans.  Power goes out often depending on where you live.  Will your freezer and food survive a long outage?  Will your pets and critters still get water?  Will you survive? Service and test your backup generator. Do you have spare fuel nearby? Do you check and maintain your smoke detectors?  Change the batteries every time change? How about a supply of assorted spare batteries for all your flashlights? The key here is to NOT wait until the last minute.  Do it now.  And please review this comprehensive piece on preparing for and surviving wildfire: https://delalbright.blogspot.com/2018/07/wildfire-house-and-life-saving-tips.html ## Del

  DON'T TAKE THE KITCHEN SINK! Lessons Learned from an Overlanding Trip Pulling a Trailer By Del Albright I built this old apple orchard 1/4 ton trailer, M100, into an overlanding trailer -- and made some mistakes.  But first, the good things I did: 1. Put BFGoodrich All Terrains on it to match the Jeep towing height and the fact that I did a spring over on the trailer.  2. Completely went through the bearings. 3. Converted the hitch to a triple-swivel, custom torsion spring towing mechanism that allows the trailer to follow perfectly. Now, what lessons did I learn pulling my trailer, overlanding? 1. Do not take the kitchen sink .  Packing like you have to live out of it for a year makes this trailer HEAVY.  My 4.0L Jeep is not designed to pull 1000 pounds up a steep mountain.  The trailer starts out at 565 pounds empty.   Pack light; but take the necessary. 2. Add trailer brakes if you build one.  I did not.  I paid the price.  Sto...

  By Del Albright (first written in 2004) Sunrise seems like a slow process when you're watching from 11,000 feet in elevation on a cold morning. The mountains were still beautiful, reflecting the last glimmer of moonlight. We could feel the bite of the predawn chill on our ears as my fellow wheelers and I waited patiently for the light to climb high enough for some picture taking.  We were miles from nowhere and anyone. We were one with nature. We had SUV'd our way to the top of the world, waiting for the magical moment of sunrise. Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) are the rage now (2020 note: along with overlanding rigs). Hundreds of thousands of them are sold every year, the numbers only rise from year to year. Having an SUV is a great way to explore places just like this. You can get away from the crowds, and yet not damage your vehicle. The Sweetwater Mountain Trail is a little-known SUV route outside the town of Bridgeport, in the Great Basin country near the border of Ca...