Prepping for Baja

NIKAL

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May 13, 2012
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Well its that time and I'm doing another Baja trip with the UTV's in Sept. If you did not read about my last trip you can here; http://www.utvunderground.com/exploring-baja-in-a-utv-20178.html I plan to do a complete write up on this upcoming trip, just as I did before. It seemed like allot of people enjoyed it, and several who read it on another site actually made their first trips into Baja because of what they read. So between the story and many PM's it actually encouraged some to go down to Baja for the first time.

We have made a few improvements for this years trip and I thought I would share what I'm doing. We did our homework when it came to tires and have chose to run the GMZ Cutthroat tire. There is several reasons why we chose the GMZ Cutthroat. For one its a tire I can relate to as it is very similar to the Yokohama Super Digger 3 tire. The Super Digger is one of the most popular and most winning limited buggy tire and I have won on them too. GMZ's other tire is the Kahuna and it too is a really nice tire. If we had XP1000's we would have chosen the Kahuna, but with running the XP900 with stock axles and clutching, we felt the 28" Cutthroat was the best tire for our application.

For those wondering the GMZ Cutthroat weighs approx 30 lbs. I weighed 4 out of the 10 tires we bought and those 4 were all right around 30.5 lbs. Also these tires measure in right at 28 inches. Some tires say they are 28 or 30, yet measure in less then claimed. The Cutthroat measured exactly as claimed.






http://gmzraceproducts.com/index.php/tire-selections

I'm lucky to have shops like Alba & Black Rhino in my neighborhood. I have used them both and I have always been taken care of. I highly suggest you call these guys if you need anything. I ordered the new wheels & tires from Black Rhino and when talking to Kenny from Black Rhino about my upcoming trip he mentioned that they would be moving to their new shop in El Cajon just off of Johnson Ave. He said he just might do some sort of GMZ tire sale in conjunction to my trip to Baja. So as soon as I hear or get the Promo Code I will post it up. They were also talking about a Back to the Desert Prep/Service special. I'm sure Black Rhino will chime in!


Now the next cool item we will carry this year will be some new gear bags called MotoPocket made by Adventure Pockets. They are a very nicely made bag that is made in the USA. MotoPocket was intended for motorcycles and cross country endure style bikes. We will be using their medium bag which measures 14X6X2.


What nice is these bags come with a Velcro backing so you can mount them anywhere and with a simple pull you can take them with you. We will be mounting these on the drivers & passengers doors. The idea is to be able to keep our keys, wallets, phones and a small micro fiber rag which comes in handy to clean your goggles or to wipe the dew off when running the coast early in the morning. Then when we pull into a town or hotel, Rip!!!! the bag comes off the Velcro backing and goes with us into the room.


Velcro strips on the door panel




MotoPocket has several sizes and I just picked up another size 11X7X2. I will use these on the back doors, so when I have passengers in the back seat they will have a place for their wallet, phone, sunglasses or whatever.


I highly suggest you check our these unique gear bags. What is so awesome is the fact that you can mount them anywhere. And you can pull them off and take them with you with the easy of pulling if off the Velcro backing. No one else is making bags like this. Motopocket make these in a solid canvas or with a bungee type mesh front. I have spoke with the owners and suggested a solid canvas with the bungee mesh over the top, so you could quick access items like a rag or gloves. I believe if they get enough interest they will make some of them.

http://adventurepockets.com/the-motopocket/

Then while at Black Rhino I saw this cool little kit called a Battery Booster & Power Supply. We are always looking to down size what we carry. This little kit is small enough to fit in the RZR glove box. The actual power supply is about the size of the IPhone 5s. Having this will save us from having to carry a set of jumper cables and we can charge our phones or Go Pro as I have a tendency of forgetting to turn off the GoPro!

https://blackrhinoperformance.com/shop/ace-electrical/black-rhino-battery-booster-power-supply/

Now the next new item is really new. So new that very few if any have heard of it. I found it just by chance. This is a back up CV boot that can be installed in the field without even having to pull the axle. This new CV boot is called CV Saver and is made by Seal Saver. Seal Saver makes Motorcycle fork boots that protect the fork seals. I was told this new CV Saver has been in the works and tested over the last year on the owners UTV and a few friends UTV's. The concept is you can use it over the primary boot as a protector or you can you is as an emergency boot to keep you going down the trail. From looking at it on the XP900 I dont think their is enough room to make it a secondary boot. But I will be carrying it as an emergency boot encase we tear a boot on the trail.


How it works is it is made of neoprene materiel, kinda like a what a wetsuit might be made of. It is then Velcro'ed together after you stretch it around the CV. It's suggested to Zip Tie it on the CV and if your concerned with flinging grease you can also zip tie the bottom on the axle. Its a one size Boot as the material stretches.

They also make a Coil Saver boot that you wrap around your lower part of the coil spring on the shock. The RZR comes with a rock guard, but several other brands dont. When talking to the owner I told him what I was doing and he gave me 10% off of the CV Saver boots. Because these are so new he has yet to advertise them and only got them on his website a few weeks ago. He told me that anyone reading this and wants a pair or full set to call him and tell him the word "NIKAL" and he will give you 10% off between now and the end of September. A pair of CV Savers retail for $26 so they are really affordable. Like the Battery Booster I hope not to need these CV Savers, but if I do I will be glad I am carrying them. And once again they are compact and weigh nothing, which is another huge benefit. I would like to have him make me a pair to fit the 930 CV as this could be cool to carry in the 5/1600 race car too!

http://www.sealsavers.com/

These are just a few things we are doing for this trip. I will post some other prep tips or new items that we might be using or carrying this trip.
 
Last edited:

valco

Member
Apr 30, 2009
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Todd great tips! Nice choice on the tires too, I'm very happy with mine.
Have a safe trip, I look forward to reading your trip recap.
 

JoeyD23

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Jan 9, 2009
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Have a great trip Todd. Looking forward to the review. Sure wish I could go!!

As for your GoPro solution, you should just take a cable and hardwire it to your battery. This is what we do in the race cars now.

Those Black Rhino battery cases are bad ass. I use mine all the time!!

Be safe!
 

jajl22

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Jun 5, 2015
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Awesome!

I really enjoyed reading your last baja write up, will be looking forward to reading this one as well.

I really like those bags you posted up and will be looking into getting a set.

I also really liked the battery jump box kit, nice an compact.

If the seal saver guy was to make a bigger version for the 930 cvs and 934 cvs, i would think he could possibly sell some to the Sand Car guys as well. Just a thought.
 

NIKAL

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May 13, 2012
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Thanks guys for comments. We will be going down over the Labor day weekend and hope this time to have video with the photos to posts. Long story on last years video, but lets say I need to learn how to edit and make my own videos.

Another upgrade we are making for this trip is we are using R2C's new XP900 replacement panel air filter. I've had good luck with the factory air box and filter, so have not seen a reason to change it out. The benefits of using the R2C filter is that it removes 99.97% of the dirt and R2C has been used by many off-road teams with great success. The R2C filter is 100% cleanable and reusable and does not use any filter oil. Also DMC & R2C designed the filter lip to be larger and thicker, so you will not need to grease the filter lip when installing. (IMO it might be a little to thick as it was a little harder then I would have liked to get the top two air box tabs to clip in before tightening the wing nuts.) And believe it or not this filter will save us space as last years trip we carried an extra filter as you never know how bad the Baja dust & silt can be. With this filter we will be able to pull it, tap and blow it out if we need too. Did I say no filter oil and no Grease!

 
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NIKAL

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So today I got the cell phone activated to be able to call from Baja. Verizon currently has a special going. $5 for 100 minutes, 100 Text's and 100Mb of data.


Your going to want to read this!

Then I went onto Baja Bound Insurance website to get my truck, trailer & RZR insured. Up to a few years ago we never insured the off-road buggy's as part of it was ignorance, and I think years ago they did not care if you did. A few years back Mexico changed the laws saying anything that is driven on the a asphalt or maintained dirt road needs to be insured for liability. (They are more strict then we are in the U.S.A.) We do run on the highways and maintained dirt roads. That is what is cool about Baja, I can drive my UTV, Quad, Buggy whatever on their major highways. Imagine driving your UTV on your major interstate without issues.

Now check this out! I called Baja Bound Insurance as I had a question, before I did my two policies online. I was informed with UTV's, ATV's and Bike's you can now get FULL COVERAGE insurance which includes THEFT! This is a first and was only implement this year. The insurance carrier for this policy is HDI. The only way to get this coverage is to call the office as this FULL COVERAGE UTV policy is not available on the website, as it is considered a Case by Case policy. What that means is they have to call HDI prior to entering a policy and get authorization. I was told the only time its an issues is when its custom built buggy's. She has yet to see a UTV get denied a FULL COVERAGE policy.

The other Insurance Carrier Baja Bound uses is ACE. IMO after comparing the two Carriers side by side on their website I preferred and have used ACE in the past with the truck & trailer. Ace offers liability only insurance for the utility trailer at no extra cost, where HDI charges you. You can get more coverage on the trailer, including theft if you desire. What I like about Baja Bound, besides the support they give you, is that you can go on their site, put some basic info in and get side by side comparisons of the coverage and price of the two insurance carriers they sell.

So I got a ACE Policy to cover the truck (Full coverage with $500K in liability) and Liability only for the trailer. Then I got a HDI (Full COVERAGE $300K in liability) policy for the RZR and valued it for $20K. Sure I got more into it then that, but the coverage is going to be for what they claim the value is, not what you have spent. In total my insurance for 4 days was $117 for all 3. The difference between Liability only and Full on the UTV was only $33. To me a $117 for the truck, trailer & UTV is pretty reasonable as it gives you piece of mind, legal counsel and medical support, which will work to get you out of Mexico and to a U.S stateside hospital.

If you need Baja insurance, check out http://www.bajabound.com/

 
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NIKAL

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Post Trip UPDATE

I plan to do a full write up on our trip, but wanted to share some updates on some of the new items we used for this trip.

We did 580 miles over 3 days in Baja on the GMZ Cutthroat tires. The types of terrain or things we ran on were; Graded dirt roads, Rutted, whooped out Score Race course, Good & bad asphalt, Silt, Granite based dirt roads with 1 inch loose rock, Sand wash, boulders, small vegetation including cactus, barbed wire, red clay, beach sand, large beach rock and a first for me was Volcanic rock.

Now to the facts;
We had ZERO flats or punctures.

We started with 12lbs cold in the front tires, and 14lbs cold in the rear. These are good pressures, but what we found was that the tires would grow about 2.5lbs as they built up heat. So the rears were around 16.5 lbs with the fronts over 14lbs after about 1 hour of running. We planned to lower the pressures for day two.

Day two we checked all the tires first thing in the morning and we found that all the tires cold had lost about 1lbs per tire from the original pressures. This was found on all 8 tires on both RZR's. It was strange, yet consistent, so we knew it was not a leak. So fronts were now 11 lbs & rears were 13lbs cold. Only thought is that all 10 tires were mounted and aired up using my compressor. Maybe my compressor has moisture in it and the condensation built up in the compressor got in the tires, then evaporated when the tires got hot. Once cooled they were now 1 lbs lower then when we started? We talked about trying Nitrogen in the future as Nitrogen is more consistent vs compressed air.

Now for tire wear;
I expected tire wear, as any tire that does not shows some wear after 580 off-road miles is going to be too hard of a tire compound and you will lose grip & performance IMO. Consider that in the Baja 500, running race speeds & conditions you should almost wear out a set of rear tires, if you were to run the full race without getting a flat or changing them. (For the record we were not running race speeds much of the time, as we were here to enjoy the scenery, and slowed for obstacles that you typically would not slow down for in a race where tire spin would increase tire wear & possibly damage a tire.)

Here are factual specs of the REAR tire wear;
Brand new GMZ claims the tread to be 3/4 tall (.750 or 25/32)
I checked and per my digital calipers that the tread depth was .745, so that is damn close to 3/4 or 25/32 (.750). After running 580 Baja miles I measured the Rear tires and found they measured .656 which equals 21/32. So total wear was .0937 which would be 3/32 of tire were. That is a smidgen less then 1/8th inch of wear.

.750 new tire (3/4 or 25/32)
.656 used 580 mile tire (21/32)
.09375 total wear (3/32) Just under 1/8 inch.

While just under 1/8 inch is noticeable, most of the visual wear looks to be as the square edge of the knobby tread is rounded off. Also I have found a few cuts and nicks in the actual tread of the rear tires, this too is was not a surprise. (The loose Granite rock and Volcanic rock are sharp and wheel spin will wear, cut and damage tires real quick if you dont manage your tires. In those places I tried to dial it back and conserve not only the tires but the equipment as a whole, as we have Zero support with us to get us back to our trailers hundreds of miles away.)

After 580 miles


I only found a few cuts, and this was one of the worst I found.



Now here is my Opinion;
If GMZ were to call me and ask what I would like to see as an improved Cutthroat? I would suggest they tighten up the tread. I measured and found some parts have just over 1 inch between tread knobby's. Keep the tread gap about 1/2. This would help in many places, as it would reduce puncturing the casing of the tire, reduce rounding off the edge of the tread, and reduce noise. Also between the larger areas of tread gap I would add small Stone Ejectors as you would not want rocks to stick between the tighter tread and cause stone drilling into the tire carcass. I think with the GMZ Kaunha they addressed many of these issues as the tread on the Kahuna looks to be tighter. Also the Cutthroat is being used in short course racing, so what is better for my type of use, might hurt the the performance in other types of use. If GMZ made a 28 inch Kahuna I would try it, as it might check off those box's I mentioned above.

Overall Myself and my Brother in Law were very, very impressed with the handling of the GMZ Cutthroat tire. The rounded tread worked really well in the rutted sections of race course we ran as it did not rut track, and the side wall tread allows you to pull out of the ruts easier then a square edge tire. Same with the small silt bed pockets we ran into. The extra ground clearance we got vs. the last time we ran the Bighorn tire was a noticeable improvement. I dont have allot of experience with other current brands of UTV tires, but the Cutthroat excelled over the Maxxis tire in every place, except for the sand dunes on some of the beaches. The Bighorn tread gives you a paddle effect, that a Baja All Terrain tire is not going to give you. Unlike the last trip on Bighorns we had Zero punctures with the Cutthroat tires. I highly suggest the GMZ Cutthroat if your looking for a 28 inch all terrain tire. Give Black Rhino a call as they are a GMZ dealer. We proved they are Baja tough!



 
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Johnny

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Jan 15, 2009
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altitude and air pressure

Altitude (ft.) Air Pressure (psi)
Sea Level 14.7
1,000 14.2
2,000 13.7
3,000 13.2
4,000 12.7
5,000 12.2
6,000 11.7
7,000 11.3
8,000 10.9
9,000 10.5
10,000 10.1
 

valco

Member
Apr 30, 2009
59
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I'm glad you liked the tires, I'm having good luck with mine. I just put the rears on the front for this season to help balance the wear. Looking forward to your write up!
 

NIKAL

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May 13, 2012
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I'm glad you liked the tires, I'm having good luck with mine. I just put the rears on the front for this season to help balance the wear. Looking forward to your write up!
Yes having the same size tire all the way around is really nice. I have marked each tire so I can not only rotate, Front to back, but also side to side. So that way I'm wearing the back side of the tread. I'm guessing with rotations, I could get 5-6 500+ mile Baja trips out of them, unless I damage one.

Last years trip was 627 miles, this years was 580 miles. We talked about doing a Gulf side trip in early spring. If we run the route we talked about it could be an easy 650-700 mile trip.
 

NIKAL

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May 13, 2012
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I would love to do a trip like this....hmmm semi-retirement comes up in another 6 weeks.
Finishing up my Baja trip story and should have it posted by Friday evening. Story is written and I have been sorting through the 500+ photos that were taken. This story will probably convince you to do it! Stay tuned!
 

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