April run

[Riad]

Originally Posted by Wayneraintree

Dan, now c'mon man, doesn't that thing have a hard top

AAAHAHAHAHAHA

[Blue77FJ40]

Yeth, I'm thuch a princeth.

While the rain is dripping down the back of your neck, I'll be relaxing in dry, warm, dry comfort. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Not to worry. GSMTR will get me back. It always rains there.

[Wayneraintree]

Originally Posted by Blue77FJ40

Yeth, I'm thuch a princeth.

While the rain is dripping down the back of your neck, I'll be relaxing in dry, warm, dry comfort. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Not to worry. GSMTR will get me back. It always rains there.

well, when I look at the forecast, rainy and 52 is not ideal but hey, it all else fails, we have enough wagons for cover

Wish I could join you for GSMTR, gotta find a way to make that happen

See you all Saturday AM or (or Friday night).

[ScottFJ40]

I'm in for blacks, will see you guys at RC Saturday AM.

[76FJ40]

Jeff,

Just fly to Knoxville and join us at GSMTR for a few days. I'm sure you can bring an ice chest full of beer as checked baggage - what else do you need?

[Wayneraintree]

Originally Posted by 76FJ40

Jeff,

Just fly to Knoxville and join us at GSMTR for a few days. I'm sure you can bring an ice chest full of beer as checked baggage - what else do you need?

I am working on something.. I may just drive the 60 down for the weekend (long weekend I hope) and drive some fire roads in it.... and of course the 's are a necessity

[zucruisers]

jeff you still plannin on campin? if not maybe we can caravan down saturday morning. i'll give you a call tomorrow, you should see the ford, it's changed just a teency wittle bit. we even put a muffler on it just to make you happy

[Wayneraintree]

Originally Posted by zucruisers

jeff you still plannin on campin? if not maybe we can caravan down saturday morning. i'll give you a call tomorrow, you should see the ford, it's changed just a teency wittle bit. we even put a muffler on it just to make you happy

I am camping either way so we'll see you there.... rain is not a deterrent for me but maybe you should ask me Sat. AM after 1" of it

mufflers are good feel free to call me today to finalize.

[Riad]

Here's the video:
Link1 or Link2 (189.4 MB, about 24 mins).

Only carnage(s) were mine. I have managed to break 2 U-bolts on my PS Slee slider . I had to take the slider off, throw it in the back and basically wheel with one slider. The middle bracket of the slider is also bent diagonally, so I can't just simply mount it back again. It definitely needs some fab work done to it.

Anyway, it was a blast wheeling with ya'll. Jeff we gotta do this again. Hopefully the weather cooperates next time .

[zucruisers]

Originally Posted by Riad

Only carnage(s) were mine.

arent you forgetting about my driveshaft?, lol...well it didnt break, but its as good as broken

does your tire coming off the bead count as carnage???

it was definitely a good day of wheelin, i can tell bc i am so ridiculously tired

[Wayneraintree]

The rain was, shall we say torrential at times and winterlike cold (Dan you missed a good time ) but the wheeling was great! The Ford was fun to watch and the cruisers did well. Thanks for the vid Riad, name the next trip date

[Riad]

oops . Thanks for reminding that. That's a result of being ridiculously tired. This morning I woke up with pain in all my joints. Yeah BTW: how's your drive shaft? I was surprised it was still attached . I had the similar situation with my previous truck, I had to take the drive shaft off and drive home with only the front shaft. The tire seems to be fine. I thought I broke the sidewall (again). That was a weird surprise. I guess I got the tire pressure too low. Oh, I also forgot to mention about my rear sway-bar connect. PS connect with bushings basically broke off. So I disconnected the driver side as well.

EDIT: Jeff, you should check out the Madison Conway River trail. I heard/read there's already a plan for this run (by Bob or the group). I'm not sure when though. If it happens this month then I "think" it would be little hard for me to be there as I am entitled to wheel only once a month (wife's law ). But again any thing's possible. You're gonna love this trail. So maybe we should put some thing together for Madison. I know guys are getting ready for GSMTR, just a thought for the next run.

[Curran]

Sorry that I missed you guys this weekend. I'm still waiting on replacement tie rod from Bud-Built. I should have skipped the powder coating.
Hope that everyone had fun.

[Klunky Chris]

man!
who spotted Riad into that ugly situation?!? (1st vid) was that you Jeff?
*shiver*
I hope you have skid plates under your X-fer Riad? That just didn't look good.... How did you end up getting out?

Sorry I missed the fun! Had to DJ Satrday, 80 needs for maintenance, and the 40 has been taking up all my time Hopefully I will be bringing IT to the next run

[Riad]

I actually didn't have a choice but to go through it . The left line was harder. My Tcase wasn't the problem at all. Matter of fact every thing else was clear but the sliders and their middle brackets. The popping noise you hear in the video is the u-bolt of the slider. Guys saw spark was coming out from underneath of my truck. The DS slider basically detached itself digonally from the frame with the rear most bracket still attached to the frame. I only have 2 U-Bolts in that slider (instead of 3) to accommodate MAF drop bracket . Yeah, I know...The middle bracket was hung up on the peak of the pointy rock. So I couldn't go left, had to go towards right to unhook myself. So the middle U-bolt popped and slider was going to the right and truck was going left. All the U-bolts are twisted and broken for DS. Ofcourse the middle slider bracket is twisted as well, as I said before. I was looking at it this morning, I couldn't believe that thing is twisted. I had never seen twisted steel that thick. Anyway, every thing else is just fine. No big deal. Sliders are made for that kind of stuff. It could have been my rocker panel . Jeff and every one else actually spotted pretty good. I don't have his clearance that's why it's little challenging for me . Jeff winched me out of that pointy rock (thanks again Jeff), then rest of the way I got out myself. I also bent my tie rod end, but I had spares for those. Sliders will be repaired and welded next week and I ain't trying blacks until I get 35s and 3 link so I can ditch those MAF drop brackets .

Curran, it was a blast, especially with the rain, you sure would have loved it. I surely thought you joined the rover guys but when I saw ther were 30 of'em in the trail, I blew that thought . You gotta come next time.

[Klunky Chris]

well it's good to hear you didn't have any major damage!

Yea, that's why I custom built my sliders and mounted them through the frame. Nothing hanging down to catch on, and they will NOT be moving around.

[Wayneraintree]

Originally Posted by Klunky Chris

man!
who spotted Riad into that ugly situation?!? (1st vid) was that you Jeff?
*shiver*

I was spotting and feel like it could have been avoided somehow but I am new to 80's on blacks so... that was a tough spot for sure and like I said on the trail.. things got really serious really fast since that was the first trail we ran Riad had it beat other than that one rock into his slider... without a front locker on 34's

[Blue77FJ40]

Do you remember what trails you went on? They didn't look familiar.

Was that rock creek or a section of trail heavily rocked?

[Wayneraintree]

the rocky section is a black loop off 1A and the descent is the blue trail off crawler ridge...

[Klunky Chris]

Totally!
I've had this conversation with other 80's owners and it tends to be a common issue. There are all kinds of *different* things that need addressed on an 80. Even a great 40/55/60 spotter can get into trouble if they aren't familiar.

Control arms seem to be the big issue. You don't want to be dragging them over things or beating on them. A leaf spring might take it ok and has inherent *springiness* to protect it.

Plus..... when you break something on an 80, it's like 5 times the $$$$$$

I'm sure you did fine Jeff. I was just giving you a hard time.

You should have seen me here watching that vid. It was like a bad horror movie
"no! don't go there! the killer's right over that rock stupid! You're gonna die!!!"

mom was in the other room and heard me. She came out to see what was wrong.

looked like a lot of fun though!

[zucruisers]

did anyone get any pics or just the video??

[Riad]

Originally Posted by zucruisers

did anyone get any pics or just the video??

I think Tom and Angelo(?) did. Jeff did you bring camera? Can't remember.

[Riad]

Originally Posted by Klunky Chris

Totally!
I've had this conversation with other 80's owners and it tends to be a common issue. There are all kinds of *different* things that need addressed on an 80. Even a great 40/55/60 spotter can get into trouble if they aren't familiar.

Control arms seem to be the big issue. You don't want to be dragging them over things or beating on them. A leaf spring might take it ok and has inherent *springiness* to protect it.

Yeah it was a blast. I haven't heard any one breaking/bending those control arms, yet. I think, the only weakest point in those control arms are the bolts and the bushings (based on my wheeling style), which I check periodically and carry spares in the truck. I carry half the garage in the truck (as Dominic says ). Now this is based on just dragging on them. If one were to heavily pound on them, I don't know what would happen. I try not to pound on them but occasionally it happens. I never got hung up on those arms thus far. I avoid sitting on them that's why I'd rather drag on them. I agree, 80 has spots where it gets hung up. I think I have discovered all the spots but some times it's inevitable. Rear bumper and the diffs are definitely the ones. However, getting hung up on the slider bracket was a surprise to me although it makes sense. Now leaf springs are also not a good spot to drag on. Their weakest link, in my experience, are the lower shackle bolts and the U-bolts. I have broken a few and seen a few broken .

[cruise4070]

Cool video! It sure was a lot colder than it looked!
I do have maybe 5-6 pics. will get 'em posted asap!

[Hildy]

Man, I wish I coulda made this run, but I'm still driving around uninspected. Rausch Creek is a little too far to take a chance with that. But anyways it looks like you guys had a lotta fun. I got about 2 mins of that video, I'll have to go somewhere with broadband to download all of it. Now lets see some pics! I wanna see that truggy.

[Wayneraintree]

there are a couple more here..

[zucruisers]

there's a few more pics here and here

-hildy why don't you just stop by sometime and see it for yourself, you're what 5 or 10 minutes away?

[BROKEROB1]

That looks like some serious fun!! Riad, I saw the title and thought about your last "major trail carnage incident" and thought the worst. Glad to see you came through this one pretty unscathed Let me know when you guys plan another trip and I am in. I went up to Paragon last month and wheeled with a bunch of Rubi's. I just got some new MT's and I would like to break them in.

[Riad]

Originally Posted by BROKEROB1

That looks like some serious fun!! Riad, I saw the title and thought about your last "major trail carnage incident" and thought the worst. Glad to see you came through this one pretty unscathed Let me know when you guys plan another trip and I am in. I went up to Paragon last month and wheeled with a bunch of Rubi's. I just got some new MT's and I would like to break them in.

Yeah, don't remind me of that one . Why do you think I don't have 6" lift . That would be sweet, let's hook up next time .

[Proven]

Your video makes me sea sick...