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We made it back alive! It started raining sometime Thursday night, and didnt stop until very early this morning. It turned yesterday's Rausch Creek trip into the wettest muddiest trip ive ever been on there! We were joined by Ox in the mogster, and Joe with his beast of a 7.3 PSD powered bronco, both on 43s:
Despite the abysmal weather and it raining non-stop the whole day, we ran a pretty decent amount of miles, close to 10 if im not mistaken. Honestly did not get a ton of pics as it was pouring all day long, and we really didnt stop very much at all. We took the typical pathway into the East side, taking B to C to O. We detoured and ran CV trail while we were there  I absolutely walloped the driver rock rail! It took quite a hit, but it did its job well, the rocker & door remain unscathed    From there we went down and ran Topless for Tatas, and then made our way via B/E over to the west side, where we went down J, across 11 and then into Rock Creek we went!    Here we stopped for a soggy lunch break  ...and then further into the creek we went    Finally at the other end we decided to keep going and run Death Trap, which was completely under water
 Out the other end we picked up 19 and took it up to 11. At this point Joe's transmission was overheating so we escorted him back out 11 to H and up to Tower Road, were the front pump seal gave out and he started puking (extremely burnt) ATF. so his copilot stayed behind with the truck, and we brought him back to the parking lot to get his truck & trailer since it was clear the bronco wasnt going to make it back on its own at this point. After all that me & Ox went back out into the park and went down into the South side to run Cemetary, Boot Hill & Tomb Stone   From ther we went further in yet and ran down S1-4 over to Snake Bite and Camel Back, which is probably the tightest trail you could run a full bodied rig down! That one was a snug fit for my wide rig, but we made it thru w/o and body damage thankfully. However, we did manage to get a log up underneath the body, where it smashed my gas filler neck!  crumpled the steel neck, tore the rubber hose and popped it off the gas tank entirely, so im pretty sure my tank is full of water & mud now. From here we headed back to the parking lot and called it a day! So, first impressions are that the bronco did really good on its shakedown run. I have some minor issues with the engine tune that i have to correct before the next trail ride, and of course im going to have to drop my gas tank to clean it, and replace that filler neck! The trepadors appeared to work very well; it was a rainy slippery muddy mess and they seemed to hook well, and the tread pattern stayed nice and clean despite how muddy the trails were. Sidewalls are stiffer than the iroks and the tires seem to work better on a heavy rig as a result. Very curious to see how well they hook on dry rock! So here we go! For those that don't know, this event is currently on-going; it started Thursday and will continue through til Sunday. First off, let me say that the FSB presence at the Round Up this year was incredible! Tons of FSBs everywhere! Sorry I didn't get to say Hi to everyone, we weren't doing the whole pic thing, so we kinda just unloaded, aired down and went off into the park. Me & Ox decided to go on Friday, to get some wheelin in with Darrel, because he's usually one of the only FSB'ers dumb enough to keep goin wheelin with us! But seriously, we limited ourselves to one day because weve got another trip coming up, and usually one of us breaks something big Anyways, enough babbling, on to the pics! From left to right: me, Darrel, Ox  We went over to the NE side, and went straight to Outer Limits, which is wayyyy far away from everything. ...and unfortunately this is where Darrel the d.side motor mount, which lead to a torn trans mount, & the front d.shaft & trans linkage came apart. We had to pull him down off the climb. Getting the winch cable re-set, his truck deicded to roll away! Fortunately, I was parked behind him. Unfortunately, with the angle, his bumper went right under mine and we smashed his tailgate up pretty good. We also bent his front right leaf during the extraction process, but he has another at home so its not the end of the world. From here we were able to get the trans linkage and the d.shaft back together, and he was able to limp it out of the park under its own power.  We dropped Darrel's rig off in the parking lot, and he rode with me/ox the rest of the day. We went over to the south side to run Cemetary. I shot a vid of Ox coming up the hill climb/exit, he makes it look easy (it kinda was). From there we went over to the West side to run Trail 20 (awesome new-ish black trail), then 13a, then we cut thru Rock Creek and headed into Death Trap This runs out to 23, which loops around to the Power lines. But by then it was already 5pm, so we headed back to the parking lot and loaded up to go home. Not a lot of pics, but it was still a good day of wheelin; lots of good trails run, and we did ~15-18 miles so we definitely covered some ground. Darrel shot some pics/vids, so hopefully he gets them online soon!  There is a thread running over on FSB with pics from some of the other people that attended, you can check it out here. Some misc pics from Saturday: This was a pretty sweet EB with a 6bt under the hood!    Taking a break (literally) while the same EB replaced a hub. This was on DeathTrap, which is a pretty awesome trail.  Another cool EB on the trail with us today. Those 39.5s sure look small next to these rocks!  Deathtrap leads into the far end of Rock Creek. So since we had time while waiting for a locking hub, he decided to run the creek. I decided to follow.  Somebody was not having a good day, found a damn-near new ujoint in the middle of the Creek, missing a few caps. I bet someone dropped it.  Got to the other end, and stumbled upon some other FSBs, iuncluding Jim and his too-pretty-to-wheel bronco. So shiny!   From there we went over to Crawl Daddy:      That's more or less all I got form the day. You can view my full photogallery of pics from friday, here, and from saturday, here. Theres a thread on the whole event over on FSB, located here. The annual Bronco Roundup, at Rausch Creek! Hers the obligatory group-photo pic from Friday morning:  Me Ox & Darrel lining up for the trailride  Such a nice, clean, unbroken windshield:  Heading into the park:  This is where it got ugly. From here we moved on to Crawler's Ridge, and Ox broke his rig. Seems the bolts that hold the passenger side steering arm onto the knuckle sheared off, and he lost all of his steering:  What youre looking at here, is what happens when two massive Grade 8.8 bolts break, and the Mog steering arm comes off the passenger knuckle. Because both the tierod & draglink attach to it, it left Ox with basically no steering at all. I left to go get a trailer while several others from FSB stayed behind to help ox get up, turned around, and then back down off the obstacle, so we could extract him. They built this crazy contraption out of a come-along, several short chains & some straps to sort-of get it steering again, atleast enough to get it maneuvered down the bypass, after it got winched up & off the obstacle. During that time I unhooked my trailer from the tow-rig, hitched it to the back of my bronco via a home-brew hitch I built for moving the trailer around the yard, and then drug it all the way back to the scene of the incident:  During my trip out & back the rest of them were hard at work getting him turned around, so I could back up into the trail and we could load him up at the bottom of the bypass/exit:   From there we towed him all the way out of the park, over to the emergency exit near Route 209  Here we unloaded his truck, and drove back to the parking lot in mine, where we jumped in Ox's tow rig and came back for his bronco. I left my bronco hitched to the trailer in Rausch's lot overnight as me & ox were planning on coming back Saturday to go wheelin again anyway with my rig. 460 for the win, it honestly did not care at all that ox's rig was on the trailer behind me. It was pretty awesome to see. It took us 5 hours to extract his bronco and get back to camp which was half-decent I thought considering the situation, but it meant we missed dinner Friday night since we didn't get back until after 8. This was a rough day of wheelin for me & ox. Pretty early on, Ox broke an upper link mount on a hill climb. Later in the day, i broke my D60 completely in half! So here's what happened. I had just gone thru Smoothie & Milkshake, RC's nastiest mud holes, when i spotted the housing was cracked. There arent any rocks in those pits, so it must have been coincidence that i decided to look at the front, and see the tube sticking out about an inch. Well, i had a ratchet strap around both radius arms, but it didnt last long....about 1000' later the front-end just fell apart. Probably a good thing i was only idling along in 1st when it happened. A bunch of Toyota guys from Right Coast 4x4 (whom me & ox wheeled with the previous day) helped to get it back together so i could drive it out and get it on the trailer. As you can see, the passenger inner axleshaft is bent. So is the ring-side trunion on the ARB as well, so we're going to have to replace some parts on that too. Hadnt been out in a while, so me & ox decided to take a trip to Rausch Creek  Pizza Rock! This area isnt what it used to be, since it got logged.    I only took a few pics during the day as we were pretty mobile, but Ox got some more, which you can see over on FSB. Decided to go to Rausch Creek over the weekend with a few buddies. It was a day full or carnage! We went to "O" Trail first, where Keith immediately blew both beads:  Ox playing on a rocky hill climb on "O", this is right at the section where i bet Ox to run it from the passenger seat last time   These were some big rocks   The view from the new Green rated trail J1  Ox:  Keith:  Steve:  Jim:  One of the few pics i have of mine  couple turns later, keith is stuck   quick tug from steve and keith is free to continue on   RIP steve's transmission  Ox was in the lead, so he got to pull steve the rest of the way outta the trail.   Oh no!   Fortunately only the outer bead popped so it was relatively easy to re-seat.  After much winching & pulling to get steve off the trail, and then after we loaded steves back on the trailer, we headed back in. Ox playing on a hill right near 'The Gauntlet', one of the comp courses  ...and stop  Probably coulda got free if the dshaft wasnt sitting on that boulder  Keith to the rescue!  Me coming up on the climb to the right, while Ox gets free   ...and back onto the trails    sidehilling, but its lost in the pic, other than the way the tire is rolling under the wheel     Thats pretty much all i got. We got in some decent trail time, just didnt have the usual photographer (my brother) runnin around snappin pics. There is a thread over on FSB that has more pics from of the trip. My drivetrain held up, but the body wasnt so lucky. The half door. You can see i hit the cab corner too    Couldnt get the door open cuz it bent around the striker. Put the full door on and couldnt get it to close- to make a long story short i bent the corner of the cab to the point that the striker bolt moved in a full inch! I was only able to get the bolt adjusted out 3/4", so you have to slam the door to get it to close. The a-pillar:  ...and finally, the trans pan:
Bent so far up that this happened:
it would slip when shifting from 1 to R, when on an incline. I wonder why! Fixed the pan, threw a new filter on, and she is good to go again! Got some free time, so heres some more pics! At that point it was 4pm, so we said screw it and headed back to camp. Unfortunately, the next morning my radiator sprung a leak, so that ends our wheelin pics! There is still a ton i didnt post, so if youre interested, here are the galleries: Friday // Saturday. Ok, to continue where we left off      Dave:  Remove the 42s, replace with 35s, and suddenly the rocks look alot bigger!
 Bill:
Bang! Oops! The two bolts holding the rear of the gas tank broke!
Ok, at this point my bro's digicam got bumped into manual mode, and this wrecked alot of photos, over 150(!) of them. I brightened them up in photoshop the best i could so some are clear, some the colors are washed out, and some i still couldnt fix. This is why it took me so long to get these posted! This is Pitman Rock. Ox was the only one who was able to get on top of it, rest of us didnt have the ground clearance. From this side it doesnt look too bad, but its multiple steep staggered ledges with a muddy stream running below it. Ok that puts us a little past the halfway point for saturday's pics! Ill post up some more tomorrow! |
