Alpha Pit write up...& pics

[lowtideride]

Here it goes ...

Well after 2 months of pinging e-mails off of everyone in the Florida area..and lower parts of GA 5 wagons shown up. Which was about right with the 30 some e-mails and posts I sent out. Hopefully during the winter more cruiserheads will be up for a run at Alpha Pit and camping out.

After a few late nights of putting lower gears in Velveeta, i was stoked beyond belief to get out on the trails and more than a little worried because of the break in period and the fact that i would be breaking them in on the trail. I guess Alpha Pit would count as the 500 easy miles break in period.

Everytime we all hed out to Alpha Pit we get rained on ( I mean EVERY TIME)and with out fail while we we're packing up the rig to go the storm clouds moved in and it was pouring.

Soon after loading up Velveeta we left to pick up Jeremy aka "RIP" (known for falling asleep on long hauls) and since his been cruiser has been down for somtime hes also been the designated spotter on just about every run to Alpha Pit.

Pulling 2800rpms blasting down the highway, well blasting really isnt the word its more like crawling down the highway since we were only going 60mph. Half way there we pulled in to let the new gears cool down and to grab some last minute camping gear at wally world.

We all pulled into camp around 8:30 and not knowing if there was going to be a hand full of cruisers or none we drove around to look for and came up empty handed.
So, we set up camp and waited to see who would show and sure enough Steve and his deisel cruiser came chuggin, ( We were all stoked that at least one other cruiser had shown up).Around an hour or so later two more 62s shown up Omar and his family from New York. Being a wagon fan, it was sure cool to see a bunch of wagons at camp.

Lucky enough it was suprisingly really cool both nights of camping, enough so that you need a blanket. Morning we woke and all followed Steve to 326 since i forgot to bring a map. From 326 we met up with Corey and Trace at the Pilot sations getting food and airing down for Alpha Pit.

After shooting the breeze and airing down we set out for Alpha Pit. Since it wasn't raining the entrance hill which is almost impossible when wet was rather easy and trace and i made it up with out any problems.

Soon enough we were in to the canyon and taking the un-named trail down to the newly named trail "knuckle buster" the trail down to Knuckle buster is a fun one with many rocks and wash outs. Every time we come back the V in the rock is bigger and bigger from the water washing away the dirt and clay from the middle of it. If you slip off the V you will be sending both your door into dent city where the only way out is to scratch the hell out of the doors that are now pointing inward. But sine it was dry it was easy cheesy.

At Alpha Pit there is by-passes around everything so we took the by pass to the top of knuckle buster a trail none of us where ever on before. Be at the top of this rock face gives you the willies, because all you can think of is your truck rolling down the 100 feet into 2 feet of water..Steve walks up and says "you've got to be kidding me"...For this one i had to kick the lil lady out so my brother said he would ride alone. my brother and I took the trail down to the bottom of kunckle buster which is in 2 to 3feet of green water. the rock wall comes right out of the green water and into a gnarly off camber ledge with holes and trees on both sides. You have to hug the tree to the bottom left for the best line or you will slip you back right tire into a whole the size of a 50 inch tire. Heres where the lower gears came into play...and boy where they a treat. I tryed crawling it a few times with no luck, just a few tires in the air with soft landings. Trying to bump up over this gnarly ledge i got air born with the front tires and came down and blew a bottom bearing in my right knuckle. Which none of us took noitice at the time. A few more attempts and i was up over the ledge to have my truck shut off and roll back off of it and into 2 feet of water. When this happened i was in 1st gear and the compression of the engine gave a load hissing niose as it blew off a vac hose and cause my truck to idle funny. This i took as a good tim eto stop.

At the top of the hill we inspected the cruiser to here Trace yell I found it..."Your hose was off"..

After some quick lunch and to let the lil kids chase bugs around and make fun of my brother we were off to run Roll Over in re-verse. The exit last time which is the Entrance this way is WAyy off camber and throw your truck into a tree which rolled my rain gutter down and dented the C pillar. After that it was up up and away. Now this trail is off camber the whole way up, but the bad part is that it throws you whole truck into a 30-40ft rock wall painted with many shades of trucks that passed before. I was first in-line agian and cam with in a half inch for many feet of blowing out my glass to back right half of the cruiser. Right after making it through the section everyone was yelling because they all thought my glass was a gonner.
Trace was behind me and made it out un-scaved as well with a small smoke cloud aided by a leaky PS pump and some hot headers.

After making it out of Roll Over Rip took notice to same camber issues with my front right kunckle and the fact that it was shooting grease everywhere. We all thought it was a loose wheel nut so we ripped into it and found nothing wrong with the wheel bearings but odly enough it was a lower trashed knuckle bearing. With it getting late in the day and Steve having to leave to get back to work/home and my kunckle issues we called it a day and limped back to the pilot sations to air up gas up and eat up.

Trace, Corey, Jer, Steve, Chevy, Omar & the family thanks for coming.... it was a great trip and i cant wait to go back...We are planning a trip in about a month and half when its cools off a bit for Alpha Pit and we hope to see more cruisers and cruiserheads show up..

Me and my girl were stoked...thanks for a great trip everyone...

-Al

[lowtideride]

more pics of the run down...

[lowtideride]

[lowtideride]

[flowman]

Nice trip Al! Great to see the big cheese back in action! Didn't know Corey had a wagon--nice to see some GMSTR faces (even w/o dreads).

Glad the R&P job kicks ass!

[3puttcop]

ok start planning the next one, I will fix my hemoraging T-case and take leave time if I need to. We'll make it a covoy!

[FJ60_cruiser]

very nice trip!!! congrats to you and your cruiser !!!!

i just want to know if the dark brown fj60 that it's behind you in the pictures climbed that huge wall that you climb.

sorry about my english . i need a lot of practice

[brownbear]

cool pics, is that guys crouching underneath your cruiser with just a hi-lift holding it up?

looks like a lot fun. strange having a bottom knuckle bearing blow out. did you have a spare? or able to clean it up ?? got a pic of the bearing...?

[just-john]

Wow that looks like fun..

[lowtideride]

no the dark brown cruiser did not have the clearence to make it. we had a block of wood under the cruiser too...i'll have pics of the blown bearing tonight and nope dint have a spare, drove it home like that.

[lowtideride]

it was a wick awesome time i hope for my trucks to show next time...

-Al

[FL cruiser]

Awesome wheeling spot and a great time!!!
The only problem with going to a place like that the first time, is nowhere else I go after might ever measure up.
Thanks for initiating a couple newbies.
Even though I'm not as hard core as you guys, I had a great time watching you guys tackle the rock faces and other hard core stuff.
You guys wheel like wild men!
Learned a few things including the true purpose of drip rails...tree sliders!!!
Next time I will have better tires. Maybe I'll even bring the Butwoman (wife).

[FL cruiser]

A couple more pics.
I couldn't post the pic of the trucks together. My truck looks like a dwarf next to your trucks

[cruzerfetish]

wish I was there.....wish I was there! That looks awesome. I don't know if I can wait until the next trail ride. I might be going in a week or two. Dam'n I wish I hadn't missed you guys.

Congrats on a great FL trailride.

[2badfjs]

that looks like a very cool place to wheel al,
i love the jungle look.
if i'm ever out that way, we're goin!
nice job on the R&P set up
how'd you like the gears?

[iron_giant]

[quote=FL cruiser
...Learned a few things including the true purpose of drip rails...tree sliders!!!
Next time I will have better tires. Maybe I'll even bring the Butwoman (wife).[/QUOTE]


haha- it's all down hill from here (or up very steep-off camber, jagged rocks some people call a "line"!!!)

great pics

[macneill]

Mad Pix!

[IrideLowTide]

That was our fourth trip out there and the same 2 guys (cory and trace) have been showing up with one newbe (steve) this time. SERIOUSLY COME OUT next time guys, even though we had 2 trucks with us it was a Great trip!!! OH and if you come camp with us its Mandatory to wheel with us also...just kidding....
Thanks alex for bringing me with you....it was the best trip out there yet!! (though we both say that after every trip)

[lowtideride]

Sweet, Steve glad you wer stoked to come. You'll be on the first to be contacted of the next trip....if ya ever want to spring that thing over to the dark side let me know. har har har...

[lowtideride]

further inspection and removal of grease...i destroyed everything...pics soon.

its my birfday and i can cry if i want to.

[Eric_FJ40]

Hey Al:

That climb after the 2-feet of water - is that the same spot where the buggies were going up last time there?

Looks like you had a blast - sorry that I didn't make it, but it was better for me to sit this one out. I'm looking at going to Perry at the end of August now.

Eric

[lowtideride]

Sweet, I'll be there...

and yes that was the wall the buggies were on...i was so close to making it up.

[redrustbucket]

[redrustbucket]

Originally Posted by brownbear

cool pics, is that guys crouching underneath your cruiser with just a hi-lift holding it up?

Looks pretty dangerous now that I'm looking at the picture. At least we had a come along on the other side. Still woullda hourt if it came down.

[redrustbucket]

I picked a really safe place to spot from in that last pic too. Freakin' ninny!

[redrustbucket]

I'm pretty sure this is where your damage came from Albert.