Important Safety Issue
You did not recommend this in your magazine (I read it in another rag), but I thought this was important enough to write to all the off-road magazines regarding the use of chlorinated brake cleaner to degrease/clean parts prior to welding. Do not do it unless you want either an early grave or serious permanent health problems. Luckily chlorinated brake cleaner is banned in many states because it will decompose into phosgene gas/chlorine when exposed to a flame or any other heat source that glows red (heated metal, a cigarette tip, etc.) and that is one of the primary gases that Hitler used in his extermination facilities during WWII (at least that was what I was told while I was in my York 1-ton R-114 unit maintenance classes). That is some scary stuff, the other bad thing about it is that it’s heavier than air, so if you breathe it in it’s not coming right back out and can take an extremely long time to be removed from your respiratory system!
Check out these links to see some real life examples!
http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/showthread.php/67393-Brake-cleaner-welding-BAD!?highlight=brake+cleaner+welding
http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm
I would hate to see anyone in the off-road community end up in the hospital (or worse) from using brake cleaner prior to welding because they read it in a magazine and didn’t know any better.
Thanks for the great mag, keep up the good work.
Joel Atteberry
Poulsbo, WA
Top Dog of the Desert
In your September 2011 issue you wrote an article comparing bikes versus trucks, deciding the top dog in the desert. The article was very interesting as it included the feedback of the late Jeff “Ox” Kargola. The article compared a Johnny Campbell Racing prepared CRF450X and a Superlite series truck. In the desert, this is like comparing an apple to a tomato. Both are technically classified as fruits, but that is where the similarity ends. Additionally, the test track was Glen Helen raceway? That is some seriously scary desert terrain!
If you really wanted to do a comparison of the heavyweight champs of the desert then take the JCR Honda, any one of the top 10 trophy trucks currently competing in SCORE or BITD, and drop them off on a 200-mile point-to-point desert course somewhere in the continental United States and see who gets to the finish first?
FYI…
2011 Baja 500 results:
http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/showthread.php/94724-Official-2011-baja-500-results
SCORE Trophy Truck (Unlimited Production Trucks)—1. Bryce Menzies; Las Vegas; Ford F-150; 9:04:52 (49.87 miles per hour)
Class 22 (450cc or more)—1. Kendall Norman; Santa Barbara, California/Quinn Cody; Buellton, California/Johnny Campbell; San Clemente, California, Honda CRF450X; 8:47:07 (51.75mph)
2010 BITD Vegas to Reno results:
http://www.bitd.com/images/stories/pdfs/vtor/2010_results/official_results/2010VtoR_CT_Official_Res.pdf
http://www.bitd.com/images/stories/pdfs/vtor/2010_results/official_results/2010VtoR_MCQ_Official_Res.pdf
Trick Truck (BITD Trophy Truck): Rick D. Johnson; Barstow, California; 9:10:42.850; Ford
Open Bike: Cody Quinn; Los Olivos, California; 9:21:18.396; Honda
Seems we have a tie? Maybe Source Interlink Media could contact Sal Fish and put up a $5,000 bonus for the overall winner of the 2011 Baja 1000?
Tony McCollum
Via off-roadweb.com
Correction
I hope I’m not the first to point out that the picture of the Eaton Truetrac on Page 16 of the August 2011 issue is not a Truetrac.
Gary MacFadyen
West Coast Differentials
Thanks much for pointing this one out, Gary. It looks like we accidentally slipped in a picture of an open differential, as that is certainly not a TrueTrac. We’ve included an image of a separated Truetrac—a helical gear limited-slip differential.