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April 1997 Campfire Tales

by Larry Heck of

PASS PATROL

Rollins Pass

There are few passes in Colorado whose name is better known than Rollins Pass. It began as a mule trail between Denver and Winter Park. Indians, fur trappers, lumberjacks, and miners used it extensively long before tracks were laid across its saddle for the iron horse.

The Needle’s Eye Tunnel still attracts hundreds of visitors each year. A rock slide closed it in 1979. Prior to that slide, the tunnel was used by 4X4s to cross Rollins Pass. The tunnel was repaired in 1987 but another slide closed it in 1990. Because of that closure, there is no longer a motorized route across Rollins Pass.

The Devil’s Slide Trestles, also known as Twin Trestles, stand between the Needle’s Eye and Rollins Pass. Both trestles are considered unsafe, even for foot traffic. They are built into the side of the mountain seemingly clinging to the cliff.

At the very top of Rollins Pass, a town named Corona was built to serve the train and for a while, the pass was frequently referred to as Corona Pass. In order to protect the tracks across the pass from winter snows, much of it was enclosed in snow sheds. Because the snow sheds were so extensive, exhaust from the trains was difficult to vent, creating coal gas. It was not uncommon for workers to pass out in the tunnels from asphyxiation.

Snow plows were built using train engines with rotary snow blowers to clear the tracks beyond the ends of the snow sheds. In one case, the brakes failed on a snow plow and it plunged down the cliff. In the same area a train engine was swept over the edge by an avalanche. The sites of both wrecks are still clearly evident today.

Telegraph poles stand across Rollins Pass and some sections of the original wire are buried in the grass.

The Loop Trestle was another engineering marvel. A photograph in the Moffat Road Guide shows the tunnel below with the trestle going across the top. On its way up, a train would pass through the tunnel, then make a complete loop and pass over the tunnel high above. Although the tunnel has long since disappeared under many tons of rocks, the trestle still stands, but is unsafe to cross.

For a few years, the tracks ended on the west side of the pass at the townsite of Arrowhead, normally referred to as Arrow. It was a busy little town with numerous businesses and sawmills. During the time it retained its “end-of-the-track” status, the post office served about 2,000 people.

Our visit to get photos was scheduled for the end of September. A snow storm closed the road above the loop trestle before we got there. We recommend a visit in August or even on Labor Day.

Before you begin your journey up the west side of Rollins Pass from Winter Park, we recommend you stop at the visitor center and pick up a copy of “The Moffat Road”. Numbered posts along the route are referred to in that guide and there are numerous photographs taken during the early 1900s. For more information, write to Rollins Pass Restoration Association, P.O. Box 1082, Longmont, CO 80502-1082.

4X4NOW Editor's note: Rollins Pass is in The [Colorado] 4X4 Trail Book Number 1

Trigger's new eyes

Probably the most time consuming add-on 4X4 owners dive into is the installation of off-road lights. Due to the complex task of fishing numerous wires through headliners, down door-posts, through the firewall and along the frame, such an installation can take the average shade-tree mechanic a couple days to complete the task. Once all those wire ends are sticking out where you want them, the next step is to get them wired correctly so they don’t go up in flames of glory when you flip the switch.

Trigger (Outlaw’s Trooper) now has a full set of lights across the top and believe it or not, they actually work. We chose our usual set of six Warn 5-inch lights. We used a total of three kits, each kit containing two lights, a switch, a relay, and lots of wire. Two of the three kits (part number 220512) contained 100 watt spotlights. The third kit (part number 220522) contained 50 watt flood lights.

For those who prefer a little more light, optional 100 watt bulbs can be purchased for the floods, but when used for the purpose we’ll describe below, the additional wattage is not necessary.

The lights are arranged on the light bar with the four spot lights inside and one flood on each end of the bar. The light bar is mounted on the vehicle behind the driver.

The reason for mounting the four spots inside is to aim them far ahead of the vehicle in a pattern that lights up everything in the distance. The two floods are turned slightly outwards. Their purpose is to light up the countryside on both sides of the vehicle. If the lights are aimed correctly, the driver has a brightly lighted view of everything on both sides and for about a half mile ahead.

The farther back you mount the light bar, the easier it is to light up everything along side the vehicle, however, there is a trade off. The farther back you mount the light bar, the less light you will get directly in front of the vehicle. As you move the light bar back, the shadow from the roof and hood of the vehicle covers the area directly in front of the vehicle. The solutions are to either raise the lights higher above the roof or to put two lights on the bumper to assist the headlights. We’ll discuss the lights on the bumper in more detail next month.

The light bar we chose is made by Carr. Although Carr makes several models, Trigger ended up with the Stealth (part number 313 bright finish). The Stealth is also available in black (part number 314) Since Trigger has no gutter to mount the bar to, an installation kit was required (part number 338).

Another very popular model made by Carr is called the Rota. It is designed so the lights can be laid down. Most folks who use the Rota do so because the vehicle won’t fit in the garage with the lights in the upright position, however, laying them down also decreases wind resistance and will improve your gas mileage, especially in low powered vehicles. Wild Coyote (Larry, Jr.) will be installing a rota bar on Trapdoor’s Bronco in a few days.

As mentioned earlier, the light kits from Warn include wiring. The wiring bundles are identical in all the boxes so if you are wiring up three sets of lights, all those wire ends coming through the firewall at you are the same color. You can’t tell which ones go to which lights. For that reason, we purchased new wire with three different colors. (The best price and selection we found was at Home Base north of Mississippi on Abilene). 14 Gauge wire is sufficient for each pair of 100 watt lights.

The first step in mounting the light bar on Trigger was to mount the installation kit. The next step was to determine how much of the light bar needed to be removed. We had to cut six inches off each end. The light bar is one-size-fits-all, but to make that work requires some time pushing a hack saw. For Trigger, the light bar had to be 44 inches long.

All six lights were mounted while the bar was still on the work bench. Holes were already available in the bar for four of the lights but new holes had to be drilled for the other two. The lights were then spliced together in pairs and one wire from each pair went to the passenger side end of the light bar and connected to a four-prong connector we obtained at Radio Shack. Our four prong connector had three prongs used. Each of the three prongs was spliced to one pair of lights. The two inside lights were on one prong, the two floods on another and the remaining two lights on the third. That's when the hard part began.

The connector on the light bar must somehow be wired to three relays, one for each pair of lights. Where you mount those relays will depend on your vehicle and personal choice. In our case, they went under the hood on the firewall. Routing wires from the light bar to the firewall under the hood required disassembling some of the interior parts. At this point, it was time to pause for a moment of planning.

We had to decide what other items needed to be wired while we had the interior of the vehicle apart. CB antennae wires and GPS wiring became a part of the off road light project.

Once we decided on everything required, we drilled a hole in the roof and ran the wires down the passenger side door post to the vehicle floor. At that point, our wiring harness split off in two directions. The Antennae wires were routed behind the back seat to the center console where the CB and GPS units would be installed. The three wires from the lights went through the floorboard to the frame underneath. They were fished inside the hollow frame to the engine compartment and connected to the relays.

Once again it was time to pause for planning. Three wires had to be routed from the relays to the switch panel inside the vehicle. The switches also require a 12 volt source. In addition, 12 volts will be required for the CB radio and the GPS units. We also like to have a three prong accessory adapter which is hot even when the key is off.

The first decision involved finding a good location to run wires from the engine compartment to the console. We chose a location in the floorboard that would remain concealed by the carpet.

We used the wires from the Warn kit to provide our connection from the relays to the switches. A 12 gauge wire was routed from the battery, through the hole in the floorboard, and to the center console.

One thing installers often forget is to ground the light bar. The installation kit does not provide a adequate ground. We ran a 10 gauge wire from the light bar to the inside of the vehicle and grounded it to the body.

The holes we drilled were sealed with RTV. The final step consisted of attaching the wiring to the battery and running a test.

The new Magellan GPS 4000 XL GPS System

Last year I became particularly attached to the Magellan 4000 GPS. Now they’ve gone and made it better. All the features I liked in the 4000 are still there with the addition of upload & download capability and full-rubber waterproof armoring.

The feature I use most on the 4000 is the dual position displays. Since I work entirely with UTM readings, I need that one handy. On the other hand, some folks insist on working with Latitude and Longitude, so the stories I write must include those readings as well. With the 4000, both can be accessed with the press of one button.

Another very handy feature is s the long battery life. I have gone for full-day-long hikes on one set of batteries. Many GPS units run only four hours on a set. The new 4000 XL claims a 24 hour battery life.

I also used the plotter screen a lot last year, especially while hiking. I enter in a destination and the 4000 marks it with a dot. As I begin hiking, it draws a line on the screen following my progress toward that destination dot. In the meantime it tells me how far away the destination is and how long it will take to get there at my present speed. There are lots of other nice features. For example, if you want to know what time the sun will rise or set on a particular day, simply enter the date and the response is instant. It will also tell you how much of the moon will be visible. Something I hope Magellan adds on the next version would be to display the times of the day or night the moon will be visible from current location.

The 4000 XL can store up to 200 user entered locations and five different routes with up to 20 legs per route. With the new upload and download capability, I could provide a diskette containing all the GPS positions for any route. All you would do is connect your 4000 XL to your computer and download my diskette. The 4000 XL would then guide you along the same route I took.

I think I’m going to like the GPS 4000 XL.

Happy Trails

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