alvarorb
Color Geek in Charge
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2003
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- Sacramento, California
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We went on the Dusy-Ershim trail this weekend.
The trail is 33 miles of tough terrain. Most of it over 9700'.
I'll do a full trail report later, now I just want to tell you what happened to my rig.
On the first day, on Thompson hill, I bent my rear panhard. I have no rear sway bar on La Cabra and backing up to get a better line, I got the bar with a rock and that was that. The e-brake system also got some damage.
I will order a new one from Christo and look for a diff hat for my rear diff. I don't plan to put the rear sway bar back on. I also need to look for a way to improve the e-brake system. It seems to mee that it's too exposed where it's at. Any ideas?
On the second day, I got some candy stripes on my rear driveshaft. No big deal, I just need to have it re-sleeved.
Early on the third day, while going over a rock the size of a book, the sector(?) shaft on the steering box broke. A clean break right on the edge of the box.
When analyzing the broken surfaces, we noticed that about 40% of them where dull, and the rest shinny. Which means this was in the process of breaking for a long time. Scary!
The break happened pretty much on the middle of the trail. The distance to pavement was maybe 15 miles one way and 18 miles the other way. We were very fortunate to have a satellite phone with us. After some calls, we found a used box in Sacramento. My wife went and got it.
Meanwhile, Rick Cortez performed the trail fix of the century. He placed 3 steel pins inside the broken pieces to add strength, then welded the two sides. It was amazing to see the parts line up perfectly. Rick is a true craftsman and I'm glad I was on the trail with him.
8 hours later and 2.5 miles from the end of the trail on a uphill rock garden, POW, my front right birf went. Again the Cruiser Gods where on my side. We had all the spare parts, including birf and inner axle, plus all the seals.
That night (Saturday) we camped at the trailhead and by 9am my wife had driven 200 miles to deliver the steering box.
After a good Norcal wagons breakfast we installed the box and were on the way home.
What I've described was just the damage to my rig. Others had some damage as well.
Regards
Alvaro
The trail is 33 miles of tough terrain. Most of it over 9700'.
I'll do a full trail report later, now I just want to tell you what happened to my rig.
On the first day, on Thompson hill, I bent my rear panhard. I have no rear sway bar on La Cabra and backing up to get a better line, I got the bar with a rock and that was that. The e-brake system also got some damage.
I will order a new one from Christo and look for a diff hat for my rear diff. I don't plan to put the rear sway bar back on. I also need to look for a way to improve the e-brake system. It seems to mee that it's too exposed where it's at. Any ideas?
On the second day, I got some candy stripes on my rear driveshaft. No big deal, I just need to have it re-sleeved.
Early on the third day, while going over a rock the size of a book, the sector(?) shaft on the steering box broke. A clean break right on the edge of the box.
When analyzing the broken surfaces, we noticed that about 40% of them where dull, and the rest shinny. Which means this was in the process of breaking for a long time. Scary!
The break happened pretty much on the middle of the trail. The distance to pavement was maybe 15 miles one way and 18 miles the other way. We were very fortunate to have a satellite phone with us. After some calls, we found a used box in Sacramento. My wife went and got it.
Meanwhile, Rick Cortez performed the trail fix of the century. He placed 3 steel pins inside the broken pieces to add strength, then welded the two sides. It was amazing to see the parts line up perfectly. Rick is a true craftsman and I'm glad I was on the trail with him.
8 hours later and 2.5 miles from the end of the trail on a uphill rock garden, POW, my front right birf went. Again the Cruiser Gods where on my side. We had all the spare parts, including birf and inner axle, plus all the seals.
That night (Saturday) we camped at the trailhead and by 9am my wife had driven 200 miles to deliver the steering box.
After a good Norcal wagons breakfast we installed the box and were on the way home.
What I've described was just the damage to my rig. Others had some damage as well.
Regards
Alvaro
