goldensd
10-27-2008, 11:54 PM
Well me and my buddy tried to squeeze in one last trip of the year.... Bad Idea!!
My buddy just recently finished building an old Scout on 35's w/ a 350 and coilover long-armed rear.
We planned on heading up the Barrett Lake trail this weekend. Plan was to head out on Friday night and get most of the way in (6 mile trail), so that we could spend most of Saturday relaxing and hanging out.
Well for starters, on the way in Friday night my power steering pump pretty much blew apart. I guess the "West Texas Offroads' modification" isn't such a good idea afterall. Luckily, it blew at about 7:00 and only about 1/2 hour from an Autozone, so I was able to replace it Friday night. We swapped the pump, and then proceeded to the trail and did some night wheeling for a while before finding a pretty nice camp spot and called it quites.
Saturday, we took our time getting going, and then hit the road with about 5 miles left to the lake. All went well for the next 3 miles except for some overheating issues on the Scout. We got the the rock garden and stopped to eat lunch at the bottom, and allowed another group of rigs to jump ahead. We then followed in my buddy first, and the things was awesome. We pretty well walked it through the hardest lines, that none of the other rigs were able to make. I then followed and made it most of the way up the same lines, but my front locker wasn't working, and I couldn't get out of a tight spot about half way up without slipping the wrong way. Ended up slightly bending my tie-rod and having to winch myself out.
From there everything went to shit!!!! We proceeded on through the tough stuff, and then as soon as it flattened out I stopped to do a once over for any other damage, and my buddy kept rolling. I got back in and headed up the trail only to see him walking back looking very defeated. I got to him and got the "I'm Fucked".
I get to him and proceed to his rig to find that the truss on the rear axle broke free from the axle, the axle spun and broke the shaft on the pinion gear, and snap one of the coilover shock shafts. OH SHIT!!!!!
Well, we were able to chain it all up enough to back it down to a flat spot of the trail, to get a better look. After a few attempts to lock the thing in place enough to get off the trail, we pretty well concede to have to pull the entire axle and go fix it. We pulled the axle, and loaded up my rig and headed for home. Running pretty well as fast as I could, it was a 5 1/2 hour one way, 2 on trail and 3 1/2 on road. Got it back to my place at 1 am, I showered and crashed for a few hours, and my buddy started tearing down the axle, and then went to his house where he had the originaly gear set to slap in. I got up in a few hours and proceeded to weld up the truss and the shaft on the coilover, he then got back, and we got another gearset put back in, grabbed another buddy and headed back.
We got back to his rig at 4:00 and got everything back together by 6:30, and started heading out w/ 4 miles to go. He did have have twin sticks on his transfer case so having was able to bounce between front and rear wheel drive to deal with different ratios. All went well for a while, and then he busted a fuel line. Wasn't major and got is fixed pretty quick. He still had some overheating issues that we had to stop and deal with every once in a while. We continued on until about 1 mile from the end and it really went bad. At some point a motor mount had snapped, and he got twisted and the fan went into the radiator and busted a bad hole in it. This happened at about 10:30 Sunday night, and he was already running very hot when he lost it all. So we decided to at least get him to the trail head. He just ran it to get off the obstacle he was on, and then I tied him on and started pulling him out. All went well, and we got him to the last obstacle that is about 100' from the gate, and he got a tire jammed that I couldn't pull him over. Went to start the rig to drive over it, and the battery was dead. So we through a rock in and moved the strap and I tried to pull again, and ended up popping a bead. We had to change the tire, and I turned around to give him a jump so he could just drive off the trail.
Also, in the middle of pulling him out, I hit a rock wrong, and bend the outer lip on my rim by about an inch. Luckily, I already had a 2 lb sledge out and laying on the floor and was able to get to it and beat it back in before it went completely flat.
So we got off the trail, I changed a tire and aired the rest up. We grabbed all of the stuff off of his rig, parked it and headed for home. We finally got back to my house at 3:00 in the morning, with his rig still at the trail head waiting for a truck trailer pickup. I had to be back up at 5:00 and drive the 1 1/2 hrs back to Sacramento for a 7:00 safety meeting. Needless to say I wasn't worth much at work today, but WOW what an expedition.
Best news of all, at the end of the weekend, the ZJ made 16 miles of trail, 700 miles of asphalt, and the only thing I know if is a balljoint out, a small bend in the tie-rod, a front locker that is not engaging (probably small electrical issue), and possibly a couple control arm bushings out.
WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!
My buddy just recently finished building an old Scout on 35's w/ a 350 and coilover long-armed rear.
We planned on heading up the Barrett Lake trail this weekend. Plan was to head out on Friday night and get most of the way in (6 mile trail), so that we could spend most of Saturday relaxing and hanging out.
Well for starters, on the way in Friday night my power steering pump pretty much blew apart. I guess the "West Texas Offroads' modification" isn't such a good idea afterall. Luckily, it blew at about 7:00 and only about 1/2 hour from an Autozone, so I was able to replace it Friday night. We swapped the pump, and then proceeded to the trail and did some night wheeling for a while before finding a pretty nice camp spot and called it quites.
Saturday, we took our time getting going, and then hit the road with about 5 miles left to the lake. All went well for the next 3 miles except for some overheating issues on the Scout. We got the the rock garden and stopped to eat lunch at the bottom, and allowed another group of rigs to jump ahead. We then followed in my buddy first, and the things was awesome. We pretty well walked it through the hardest lines, that none of the other rigs were able to make. I then followed and made it most of the way up the same lines, but my front locker wasn't working, and I couldn't get out of a tight spot about half way up without slipping the wrong way. Ended up slightly bending my tie-rod and having to winch myself out.
From there everything went to shit!!!! We proceeded on through the tough stuff, and then as soon as it flattened out I stopped to do a once over for any other damage, and my buddy kept rolling. I got back in and headed up the trail only to see him walking back looking very defeated. I got to him and got the "I'm Fucked".
I get to him and proceed to his rig to find that the truss on the rear axle broke free from the axle, the axle spun and broke the shaft on the pinion gear, and snap one of the coilover shock shafts. OH SHIT!!!!!
Well, we were able to chain it all up enough to back it down to a flat spot of the trail, to get a better look. After a few attempts to lock the thing in place enough to get off the trail, we pretty well concede to have to pull the entire axle and go fix it. We pulled the axle, and loaded up my rig and headed for home. Running pretty well as fast as I could, it was a 5 1/2 hour one way, 2 on trail and 3 1/2 on road. Got it back to my place at 1 am, I showered and crashed for a few hours, and my buddy started tearing down the axle, and then went to his house where he had the originaly gear set to slap in. I got up in a few hours and proceeded to weld up the truss and the shaft on the coilover, he then got back, and we got another gearset put back in, grabbed another buddy and headed back.
We got back to his rig at 4:00 and got everything back together by 6:30, and started heading out w/ 4 miles to go. He did have have twin sticks on his transfer case so having was able to bounce between front and rear wheel drive to deal with different ratios. All went well for a while, and then he busted a fuel line. Wasn't major and got is fixed pretty quick. He still had some overheating issues that we had to stop and deal with every once in a while. We continued on until about 1 mile from the end and it really went bad. At some point a motor mount had snapped, and he got twisted and the fan went into the radiator and busted a bad hole in it. This happened at about 10:30 Sunday night, and he was already running very hot when he lost it all. So we decided to at least get him to the trail head. He just ran it to get off the obstacle he was on, and then I tied him on and started pulling him out. All went well, and we got him to the last obstacle that is about 100' from the gate, and he got a tire jammed that I couldn't pull him over. Went to start the rig to drive over it, and the battery was dead. So we through a rock in and moved the strap and I tried to pull again, and ended up popping a bead. We had to change the tire, and I turned around to give him a jump so he could just drive off the trail.
Also, in the middle of pulling him out, I hit a rock wrong, and bend the outer lip on my rim by about an inch. Luckily, I already had a 2 lb sledge out and laying on the floor and was able to get to it and beat it back in before it went completely flat.
So we got off the trail, I changed a tire and aired the rest up. We grabbed all of the stuff off of his rig, parked it and headed for home. We finally got back to my house at 3:00 in the morning, with his rig still at the trail head waiting for a truck trailer pickup. I had to be back up at 5:00 and drive the 1 1/2 hrs back to Sacramento for a 7:00 safety meeting. Needless to say I wasn't worth much at work today, but WOW what an expedition.
Best news of all, at the end of the weekend, the ZJ made 16 miles of trail, 700 miles of asphalt, and the only thing I know if is a balljoint out, a small bend in the tie-rod, a front locker that is not engaging (probably small electrical issue), and possibly a couple control arm bushings out.
WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!