Baja Wheels

blowhard · Since 26 Dec 2005 2027 Posts Windward

mayhem
will ensue.

We drove a $100k motorhome towing a new ford exploder with a 10' inflatable on top with surfboards and kiteboards with bicyles and skateboards sticking out all over it
back in 05,,,,,,

so I guess we stuck out,
spent several months there
but not past Todo Santos
we saw all kinds of othe vehicles similar to us all over the place
But we NEVER went into scetchy areas
always stayed where we paid
and never considered banditos.
TJ is much like any other place along the border
not very pleasant but there are worse places and some not by the border.

If you really want to know how to safely travel in MX. get the Baja Camping book by Church and Church.

I don't know about Baja but diesel vehicles are not for the citizens of MX. on the mainland anyway only for business and military.

they are not even offered for sale to them.

Baja is full of Rv'ers in expensive motorhomes they must be doing it somehow.

However my pals were at Conejo last year with 20+ surfers
and one day they all disappeared and the methhead that was collecting the rent also was gone too as well as the fish/lobster camp
he said very creepy
so they split

Pete · Since 29 Oct 2007 844 Posts Opinionated

"Back in '05" is not now. Totally different situation now.

Buy an old Toyota like this one, and you'll be golden.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks___great-running-truck-driven-daily-4x4_W0QQitemZ230313303337QQddnZCarsQ20Q26Q20TrucksQQddiZ2282QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item230313303337&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=65%3A7|39%3A1|240%3A1318

blowhard · Since 26 Dec 2005 2027 Posts Windward

whatever
my pals are down there now and back and forth, campers,rv's,trailers
plenty
no problems,

but they know how to go

Mexico has always been just like it is now
very dangerous
I don't hear of more Americans or other visitors being in any worse shape
than at other times
And I doubt if the Mexicans are putting any spin on it.

Like JBlum says no more"obvious than the others".

If you are thinking of camping on the beach without a wall around
you ,by yourself or with your pals
you are not going to last very long.

first time I went was when I was 8 in 1959
and have been so many times since I can't remember.

There is a war going on with the Sinaloa cartel and the felix gang and the Juarez bunch
But I doubt it has much to do with tourists PAYING thier way.
For sure some extra caution if you are planning on scoring some dope or are where dopers hang or scumbagging on the breach
if you are looking for cheap and safe perhaps Canada

pdxmonkeyboy · Wed Dec 17, 08 11:45 am

Ok, fine people keep asking about Baja and how not to get raped or pillaged, etc and how to go unnoticed. If you want to go unnoticed in baja then either of these cars will do just fine...

Moto · Since 03 Sep 2006 2698 Posts Still a gojo pimp! Moto Mouth

pdxmonkeyboy · Wed Dec 17, 08 11:58 am

blowhard · Since 26 Dec 2005 2027 Posts Windward

"El Camino"

backtoCaLi · Since 15 Mar 2008 74 Posts Nor-Cal Â

That is one SWEET ride, I would roll that shizznit to baja fo certan!!!
remember the old dead Milkmen song....yea blastin it loud and proud as long as I could stand it...

as for driving in Baja, all my surfing buddies from San Diego are way more worried now than in '06 even, but it sure does not stop 'em from going. You are bound to stand out no matter what u drive, just have common sense. I've driven all the way south in baja many times, and never had any problems.....not that $50 could not get me out of. Once you get south it is safer though.

kitezilla · Since 22 Jun 2006 453 Posts gorge Obsessed

This thread has got me thinking about traveling in Mexico. So, here is another piece of unasked for advice, for new travelers:

If you get to a Pemex station and there is a big line at one of the pumps and the attendent waves you over to another pump, which he is opening up for you....DON'T go there!

You know why?

I bet Blowhard (or any of the other experienced Mexi-travelers) can tell you.

Pete · Since 29 Oct 2007 844 Posts Opinionated

'Cause he's gonna "fuck you at the drive through"?

blowhard · Since 26 Dec 2005 2027 Posts Windward

Well maybe a variation of the pump that is reading short,

A wise man told me that a lot of the times
the pumps are rigged to read short because on the way to the station
all the buddies of the tanker driver have 50 gal. barrels they fill up
but have to show where the fuel went(pemex is a gov. entity) so they have the pumps set up for showing more than pumped .

We would fill up mostly a 130 gal. tank(over 1000 mile range) and knew just how much it took,
locking gas caps kept any funny business down to a dull roar,
and we always tipped the attendants

but we were able to avoid the big cities and the ensuing coruption

small towns don't put up with thieves
an example is Abreojos were the gas is in 5 gal cans and the dude siphons it to your tank ,
you know it's 5 gal Very Happy

kitezilla · Since 22 Jun 2006 453 Posts gorge Obsessed

Wow! I am glad I decided to be obnoxious and pose my comment as a question.

I didn't know about the 50 gal drum tradition, so I will file that bit of information away for future use. Thanks, Blowhard.

And you make a good point about having a locking gas cap. I got tired of the quick-footed attendants pouncing on the tank, before I could get out of the truck, to see if the pump was "zeroed out". Some of those guys are quick! If you have a keyed gas cap, then you can casually check out the pump display, before removing the gas cap. It just makes a non-issue out of a common way to get cheated. I have had ladies with plates of tamales hold me at bay in my truck, to give the attendant time to get the hose in the tank and the pump running. I couldn't prove it but I suspected a little conspiracy. With a locking cap there is no arguing about the fact that your tank only holds 18 gallons, and they are charging you for 26 gallons.....having a locking cap is a real stress reducer...no accusations, no hard feelings.

But, alas, as good as your answers were...they were not the one I was looking for. The answer I was looking for has to do with the physics of heat transfer, condensation, the density of petroleum, the density of water, empty tanks, and about $1500. worth of damage done to a fuel injected engine in about 5 minutes.

Give up?

blowhard · Since 26 Dec 2005 2027 Posts Windward

the answer is a
Baja filter ?
commomly used on boats to detect dirt in fuel ,,
but you can also see water swirling around in it too
but my diesels have water filters

best I heard was some Canadians in Cabo
got charged in dollars instead of pesos
didn't realize until wife started counting after they left
ended up in a brawl with polica intervention
which didn't get thier money back.

Canadians have a hard time exchanging money because they have to go to U.S. dollars from Canadian dollars and then pesos
very confusing Laughing

pdxmonkeyboy · Thu Dec 18, 08 12:25 pm

kitezilla · Since 22 Jun 2006 453 Posts gorge Obsessed

Good answer! It is the water in the gas that does the damage to injectors. It is the water I worry about when filling up at a unused pump.

In the US, water in the gas is a rare problem, but not so in Mexico. How does it get into the Pemex station tank? Even though you may think of Baja as a big desert, there are many places near the coast where the fog rolls in and the humidity is temporarily high. The moist air gets into the station tank as the gas is pumped out. If the tanks weren't vented to the atmosphere, a vacuum would form, and you couldn't suck the gas out. So when the humid air hits the cool underground walls of the steel tanks, the water vapor condenses and mixes with the gas...but of course, since the water is more dense than the gas, the water falls to the bottom of the tank... and since the gas is pumped out of the tank from the bottom of the tank...the water comes out first. Another way water gets into the tanks is through groundwater, leaking into the outdated, defective tanks. Water may also travel in the tanker trucks to the station tank. Long standing, partially empty station tanks are the biggest risk, since the "empty" part of the tank contains a lot of air.

Anyway, a conscientious Pemex attendant will draw the first few gallons of gas from a newly filled, or rarely used station tank, or in other ways suspect tanks...into a glass jar, where he can see if there is water in the gas. This doesn't always happen.

I only know of one case of a friend, who got water in his diesel. As Blowhard said, our diesel engines have fuel/water separators, that catches the water before it hits the injectors...that is another reason why I like a diesel in Mexico. The semi drivers might have 2 or 3 of these filters installed inline... But, I think that the main reason that water in diesel is not a big problem in Mexico, has to do with the fact that Mexican semi and bus drivers are pretty "macho" guys, and if they got some bad diesel, they would deal with the attendant in a very personal and violent manner. A little bit different, for the attendant, than having a Yuppie tourist just going away mad, after threatening the station, in broken Spanish, to report them to the Tourist Bureau and Vagabundos del Mar travel association. "Andale pues, Amigo, que ten buena suerte con el auto".

Anyways, it is better to just be patient and wait in line for gas, than to speed up the trip, by going to an unused pump... just one more example of how it is a bad idea to try to rush things...add this bad idea to other ones like being agressive and assertive with officials, and trying to "make up time" on Mex 1, by speeding or driving at night.

I have one more suggestion on the subject of dealing with "morditas" along the road, and will try to find my old "dummy" wallet, which I used to carry in a quickly accessible spot, over the visor. I will take a couple of pictures of it and describe the standard operating procedure, I used to use, when stopped for a bogus reason.

blowhard · Since 26 Dec 2005 2027 Posts Windward

Mordita
After our first encounter with Mordita
I also fixed up some dummy ID.
the first thing they want is your licence and won't give it back until you either pay or see the Hefe (and pay a bunch more),Tampico is the worst for mordita
they instruct you to follow them to the Hefe downtown
were they get ready to give all the perps your dough
Never go see the Hefe if you can help it pay on the spot, it will only escalate .

If we had went downtown were it is illeagel to drive "smoke" diesels or big rigs of any kind, chances would have been that we would have been impounded
and who knows what ,,
This is from others who have had this happen (Church&Church "Mexican Camping")

We after a lot of wrangling got away with $98 US
only to be stopped less than 100 yards further for another $5
On they way out of town we saw several truckers being stopped
so they are not afraid of mixing it up a bit.
Copy your licence put it plastic ,give it to them ,if they tell you you can pick it up somewhere nod in agreement
then split.
We were advised to vid the officers and it did work once in GDL ,they noticed my wife taping the whole deal and wrote me a ticket without my full name or anything else, drove off .
I pulled over in a bus stop with many witnesses after they left some of the locals asked if I had my licence and when I did they said throw the ticket away.
Later we heard of them getting hostile if taped.

We met some rv'ers in Patzcuaro in a guided convoy ,they all were stopped in Tampico and each had to pay $500 before being allowed to leave
there were 10 RVs
Church& Church recommended we take another route 200 miles further to avoid Tampico.
We tried to avoid the bigger cities altogether.

have a fun MX. trip see you there Laughing

poncex · Since 28 Nov 2007 2 Posts New Member

after many years of being assaulted by federales in the highway and transitos inside the cities and probably thousand of pesos in mordidas, I learned that the best thing to do is ask for the ticket again and again, I never try to bribe them anymore I just ask for the reason I am been stopped and my respective ticket and you will confuse them and they wont know what to do and let you go without a ticket or probably a fake one and your wallet unharmed. And If I really committed an infraction like speeding or something else I rather have the ticket issued than bribe them in order to stop the vicious circle.
No matter how many times they tell me my car is going to get towed and my license seized, I just keep asking for my fine and they might go and check something inside their patrol car over and over some even might pretend to call "el jefe" over the radio, but after a while they always end saying to me "maneje con precaucion"
after all things are changing for better IMHO, yes, there´s still a lot of corruption today but at another level not like many years ago, just be polite, show no fear but don´t be rude and please avoid the clueless gringo face and DO NOT hand a 50 dollar bill as soon they approach your window, we have to change that paradigm for the best of all of us and Mexico.