BajaNomad

Real Bajenos use Av gas

BajaVida - 9-16-2003 at 08:59 PM

You haven't really been to Baja unless you have had to fill up with Av gas:fire: to make it home.

My first trip to LA Bay was over new year's in 1978-79. A few days after a wild party at Papa Diaz' on New Year's we headed home. We had several days of rain in BOLA, but it was clear for the party--complete with a band all the way from Ensenada.

Four of us traveled in a 1968 Ford Falcon--camping gear and all. We took a lot less stuff then.

BOLA had a Pemex then, but due to the bridge washout at El Rosario, the gas trucks could not get in. We did not think about carrying extra gas because we did not know what the hell we were doing. Imagine 4 law students, and I was the only one who had ever been to Baja.

Papa Diaz agreed to sell us about 5 gallons of Av gas. As you old timers remember, Main St. in LA Bay doubled as an airstrip and it was a no no to run out of Av gas in the event some pilot needed to refuel.

That Falcon hummed with the gas. We made it to El Rosario, crossing the swolen river to the south which had washed out the old bridge. The water was so deep across the road bed that you could hear the water lapping on the bottom of the car.

Those were the days.

Has that happened to you?:cool:

David K - 9-16-2003 at 10:05 PM

Memorial Day Weekend ('79?), Monday: San Felipe was out of gas!!! Mobs of OTL (Over-The-Line) fans and all other vacations stuck waiting at both stations. I was on Shell Island camping with a friend and was returning north to find this mess. I tried to make it to the El Chinero/Crucero La Trinidad gravity pump, 30 miles north... but ran out half way there. A south bound motorist gave me some gas to get back to San Felipe.

It took my brain a few minutes to think of it, but the light bulb finally lit up: We went to Augie's Riviera Hotel which was the closest to the (then) San Felipe dirt airport's runway. I asked where the AvGas was stored... They pointed out the fuel dump nearby and the caretaker sold me 5 gallons (enough to get my Subaru 4WD Wagon to Mexicali).

I asked if any other motorist had bought AvGas that day. He said one other, who also had a SCORE patch (like the one on my hat)! We off road race people lucked out!

We passed two Pemex tanker trucks heading south. At Calexico, the border guards were quite miffed at the lack of traffic that day!

real Bajenos use Av gas

thebajarunner - 9-16-2003 at 10:43 PM

My travelling partner, Baja Vida is half right. never pass an airstrip or a flight location if you are low on gas.
However, I always had good luck in just asking at the local farm house. Every Baja desert house has a couple of 55 gallon drums of gas out back. And, if you ask real nice and pay a respectable price a few gallons are always available.
No real Bajeno ever, ever ran out of gas in the Southern reaches.
However, one night, past midnight, headed back from El Arco, every station closed past El Rosario, we felt that familiar sputter somewhere around Maneadero.
We had five gallons of pre-mixed bike gas for some bikers who broke before they got to us. We dumped that stuff in the truck and killed every flying creature for the next ten miles and all of Ensenada to boot.

BajaNomad - 9-17-2003 at 12:02 AM

....but beware of leaning out the engine.... aviation fuel having a lower specific gravity than automotive fuel.

Better to run a mix.

:biggrin:

--
Doug

cheapness costs in the long run

BajaVida - 9-17-2003 at 05:59 AM

The Baja Runner knows the crew we travel with. Two years ago we were too cheap to buy five gallons of gas from vendors at Punta Prieta and Catavina thinking we would make it to El Rosario from BOLA. Well we were almost right--about 5 miles short, so we had to run some premixed gas from a boat tank. We could have died had we run out of fuel at the wrong time (like passing safely), but we saved a few bucks. NEVER AGAIN!!!!

PabloS - 9-17-2003 at 08:05 AM

We traveled Baja Norte on Avgas in our dunebuggy, it just hated to run on Nova. we bought it in San Felipe, BOLA, GN, and San Fransiquito. It always required something besides pesos to get the pump going and I used to carry hats, t-shirts and little gold badge pins from the FD I worked for. That VW engine loved the high octane :bounce:

great stuff!! recall phx's big gas crisis last month?

capt. mike - 9-17-2003 at 01:23 PM

perhaps you heard of the pipeline break 3 weeks ago that shut down gas availability to phx az? well, the lines got to be crazy, many/most stations not getting deliveries - i said to heck with that - took my wife's car to the Scottsdale airport with a jerry can and transfered 6 gals at a whack from my plane's 90 gal tanks to her 15 gal infinity tank - no lines , no problems! then had the fueler simply replenish mine, he could not legally dispense direct into the car for tax reasons, avgas not taxed for road use. I tried to bribe him, too honest. no can do.

gas shortage resolved in 2 weeks - never had to deal with it, way cool....
i run my moto on avgas all the time - loves it!

Mike Humfreville - 9-17-2003 at 04:34 PM

The Bahia de Los Angeles Pemex station was operated by Patricio as long as I can remember. In the mid and late 1970?s they seemed to almost always have plenty of fuel. But one year they were completely out. Like you, we bought aviation fuel and purred back to the border. The 1980?s were mostly abundant fuel years as I recall. But then there were continuous shortages of gasoline for several years running. As soon as a tanker would top off old Patricio?s above-ground tanks he?d run out and it would be several days before more would arrive. He told us there were only 5 trucks delivering gas for the entire peninsula back then.

It was a real bummer to have a week-long fishing trip bump head on into a no gas situation. We had to dispatch someone to Guerrero Negro just so we could have boat fuel.

But, it wasn?t all that bad when we compare it to the days before pavement. Then we?d drive ?til we were on fumes and happen onto a ranch where we?d ask the grizzled old hand if he could sell us some gas. They measured it out by siphoning in from 55 gallon drums into 5 gallon ?latas? and from there into your tank. We always filtered it through a chamois to remove the abundant particulates. But at least the locals were honest and by measuring into the latas there was no pump and gauge to discretely cheat you.

There were several locations along the old road that dispensed gasoline out of the tall old hand pumps. Remember them? The kind where you would manually pull a lever on the side and fill a large glass container at the top. Once it was full, you could visually measure the quantity through the glass and then drain the fuel into your tank. I believe there was one of these at Mama Espinoza?s in El Rosario. My fading memories also place one in Mulege, way back.

I miss those days.


[Edited on 9-18-2003 by Mike Humfreville]

av gas

thebajarunner - 9-17-2003 at 05:07 PM

Mike, there was one of those glass/gravity pumps at San Ignacio, just as soon as you crossed the lagoon, on your left.
The 5 gallon can tranfer thing was never quite as honest as it seemed.
We bought gas at the junction at Chapala from a guy who had piles of drums stacked there and siphon to the 5 gal. can. Only problem was that he had stepped on the can pretty hard, probably held no more than 3.5 gallons...
We called that place "Rip-off Junction."
Still call it that, 30 years later. Now there is a very good Llantera who will air up all the tires you let down en route to Gonzaga and back, not sure about gas.

Baja Vida

The Grosso Family Cafe

Mike Humfreville - 9-17-2003 at 05:58 PM

They may well sell gas at the junction (Laguna Chapala), but they have no pumps or signs advertising it. I wouldn't count on it. The llantera is handy as you point out; it's the only thing going for many dry miles. The restaurant has great huevos con machaca. We were eating there with a group of pals en route from Gonzaga to Bahia de Los Angeles and a TAXI, yellow and everything pulls up with his meter running and a family that had had an accident further south. Then an ICE DELIVERY truck pulls in to deliver ice for cooling their beer and sodas. It was so busy it was like being in LA rather then the heart of Baja's central desert.

BajaNomad - 9-17-2003 at 07:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Mike Humfreville
In the mid and late 1070?s...

Got taxes on your mind????? ;)

BajaNomad - 9-17-2003 at 07:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Mike Humfreville
We were eating there with a group of pals en route from Gonzaga to Bahia de Los Angeles and a TAXI, yellow and everything pulls up with his meter running and a family that had had an accident further south. Then an ICE DELIVERY truck pulls in to deliver ice for cooling their beer and sodas. It was so busy it was like being in LA rather then the heart of Baja's central desert.

I just love surreal moments like that.... certainly one of the things that add to the allure of spending as much time there as possible.

:coolup:

--
Doug

BajaNomad - 9-17-2003 at 07:21 PM

You all continue to make me cringe at the thought of running straight av gas in a vehicle/bike jetted to use automotive fuel.

If you only knew all the stories I've heard from people who leaned out their engines by doing this and burned a piston, etc.

Be careful, allow for the difference needed in jetting.... or await the same fate.

When given the opportunity, use a blend of racing gasoline and premium pump fuel for performance and cooling (mostly 2 stroke).

...or, just run the racing gasoline straight!!! Of course, I always recommend TRICK Racing Gasoline.

:coolup:

--
Doug Means