“What better place than here, what better time than now?”
-Zack de la Rocha
Overview:
Exploration; The desire to discover uncharted territories, conquer challenging obstacles, experience new and fascinating cultures, and experience breathtaking views of Planet Earth innately resides in us as humans as the want for growth and knowledge. For our team, the long-term sights have been set for my roommate and I (colloquially known as Dos Mateos, as we are both named ‘Matt’) to drive our two personal, daily-driven trucks to Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. Many simply call it the Southernmost city on the planet… we will call it “Point B”.
“Point A” will be the tenth annual Overland Expo WEST in Ft. Tuthill County Park, Flagstaff, Arizona from May 18 – 20, 2018. We’ll time this as a convenient ‘jumping off’ point, as we both end Active Service in the military only a couple of weeks prior to this time. In a perfect-storm of timing and circumstances, we’ll have roughly seventy-five days to journey from Arizona to Tierra del Fuego, and fully intend on maximizing each day (though some of these days will be certainly maxin’ the relaxin’).
Friction:
Our biggest factors of friction will be the astounding number of border crossings (we’ve currently estimated thirteen), the detailed logistics to keep ourselves afloat and sustained, and quite certainly the unknown. Fortunately, we have begun planning for this expedition over a year out, formulating the very framework while communicating over spotty wifi hotspots in between working in various, separate locations throughout the Middle East. The time we have to plan, budget, rehearse, and build is a great asset, at this point. Through conducting smaller ‘rehearsal’ expeditions, we will be able to streamline our loadouts, refine our skills, and improve our cohesion… on top of identifying unexpected issues we may have otherwise overlooked. The first of these journeys will be into the canyons and wilderness of Southern Utah, coming during the beginning of July.
Terrain and Weather:
We will be experiencing the gamut of temperatures, climate, and precipitation that the Meteoroi can throw at us. From the ponderosa pines of the Coconino National Forest, to the boojum trees and volcanic fields of the Baja California Coast, ruin-scattered jungles of Central America, the equator in June, waterfalls of the Gocta Cataracts of the Amazon in Peru, the Incan citadels of Machu Picchu, Torres del Paine and the Patagonian region, culminating in the frigid winter of Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego… the end of the Earth.
Fortunately this trip will fall during the dry season, for most of our journey. As we get further and further South and the temperatures begin to decrease, we will begin to see snowfall in areas of the Patagonias, the effects of this snowfall on our mobility is not to go unnoticed, and may prove serious obstacles to overcome. Tire chains, recovery gear, and other cold-weather precautionary measures must be accounted for.
I like the autumn but this place is getting old
I pack up my belongings and I head for the coast
It might not be a lot but I feel like I’m making the most”
-‘The World at Large’, Modest Mouse
Additionally, the further South we travel, and the longer we get into winter, the days will get shorter… in fact, in Ushuaia there is the “National Festival for the Longest Night of the Year”, but it is in late June, so it looks like we’ll be missing that by a couple of weeks.
As we traverse the Americas, the terrain will include many challenging roads, perhaps culminating (but not limited to) roads like the North Yungas Road, also known as ‘The Road of Death’, leading from La Paz to Coroico Bolivia. The jungle terrain in vicinity of the equator will put our tires to the test, as will the sandy tracks of Baja… this will truly be all factors of nature experienced in a very compact timeframe.
The Team:
The team will primarily consist of the ‘Dos Mateos’, myself and my good friend and roommate, both aptly named ‘Matt’. We intend to have a rotating cast of characters comprised of various friends and family that will take smaller sections of their personal life in order to accompany us during the course of our journey.
Over the last few years we have been honing our skills venturing out and around our home location of Joshua Tree, California and the greater Mojave Desert/Southern California region for both pleasure and business. As it stands right now, both of our vehicles are technically already very capable, however we will need to do some additional modifications to fully equip them for the true rigors of the journey South. Obviously, the climate and cultural changes we encounter will significantly shift and require constant adaptation, but we will plan in advance in order to acclimatize as effectively as possible.
The Rigs:
Our vehicles are our daily drivers, and maintained as constant ‘works in progress’, at the time of writing, Van’s Truck has received an extensive suspension upgrade from our friends at CJC Offroad in Bellflower, CA and I’ve just mounted front winch and rear tire/can swing bumpers with rock rails from Eric at Tactical Rovers in Menifee, CA. We are fortunate enough to live at one of the world epicenters of offroading, and over the past couple years have been taking full advantage. I will do more detailed posts on the vehicles over the next several months, with comprehensive breakdowns and information about the parts and reasoning behind different fixtures, but in the interim, a brief description of the status of the two vehicles as of June 2017:
Smith’s Truck and Loadout:
- 2005 Land Rover LR3/Discovery 3 HSE HD; “Sand Rover”
- Front/Rear Bumpers & Rock Sliders (Tactical Rovers)
- 10,000-lb Synthetic Winch (Warn)
- 33.2″ Mud-Terrain (Grabber X3 General 275/70/R18) [x6]
- 18″ Steel Wheels (Terrafirma) [x6]
- Rod Kit (Green Oval Experience)
- Bumpstops/’SYA’ Off-Road Kit (Proud Rhino)
- IID Diagnostics Tool (GAP)
- Canvas Seat Covers (Melvill & Moon)
Van’s Truck and Loadout:
- 2004 Dodge Ram 3500 SLT HD quad cab, short-bed, with 5.9 Cummins
- 3″ Carli Unchained Suspension
- 3.5″ King Racing Shocks front
- 3.0″ King Racing Quad-Bypass Shocks rear
- Linear Rate Carli Front Coils
- Deaver Full Leaf Springs by Carli rear
- Carli Long Travel Air-Bags rear
- Carli Long (control) Arms front
- Carli track bar
- Carli Limiting Straps front
- Carli Torsion Sway Bar
- Carli Ball Joints
- Synergy Steering Linkage
- Carli axle Truss
- Detroit Trutrac torsen-style differentials front and rear
- MBRP 304 Stainless turbo-back exhaust
- Banks Techni-cooler Intercooler Kit
- K&N air filter
- Optimal Yellow Top Batteries [x2]
- 35″ General Grabbers [x6]
- Rhino Spray in bed-liner Black
- Locking tail gate
- Decked Drawer System
- Smarty Touch Programmer
- Auto meter factory match gauges:
- Pyrometer
- Turbo-oil temp
- Boost
- 3″ Carli Unchained Suspension
- Prepped-to-Install:
- Mercenary Offroad A-Bomb front Bumper
- Warn VR-12000 Synthetic rope winch
- Baja Designs XL Racer lights (2)
- Baja Designs XL 80 driving/combo lights (2)
- Rigid E-series 6″ SAE compliant lights (2)
- Factor 55 Pro-Expert front
- Factor 55 hitch-link rear
We’ll be adding a slew of expedition-specific gear prior to departure, most importantly (and next on the agenda) is solid communications equipment… any suggestions?
