Builds 1985 BJ70 Story and Modifications

[AlbertoSD]

Then we drove for about 1 hour on the trail and encountered a water crossing known as "Paso Las Babas" or "Little Crocodile Pass". Water normally gets about waist deep and it is a safe practice to walk the pass prior to entering with the vehicles as logs and debri might impact important steering components. A bunch of us walked the pass while the drivers listened for crossing instructions from the crew.

 

[AlbertoSD]

More of the "Paso las Babas"

 

[AlbertoSD]

And more

 

[AlbertoSD]

About 1 hour after the "Paso las Babas" we reached a second barge that was only capable of crossing two vehicles at a time. Iker and Robert's FZJ71 left on the first load and Fernando's FJ40 and Omar's FZJ71 on the second load. The barge takes about 45 minutes (one way), then it had to turn around to load the second group of trucks. Basically, crossing the two groups of vehicles takes around 3 - 4 hours.

 

[AlbertoSD]

More of the second barge

 

[AlbertoSD]

Omar's FZJ71 and Fernando's FJ40 on the second barge

 

[AlbertoSD]

And more

 

[AlbertoSD]

We ended up setting camp right after crossing the second barge (also known as "flotante") as it was getting dark and the difficult part of the trail was waiting ahead of us.

 

[AlbertoSD]

We woke up, picked up camp and got ready for the day. The goal was to get to a local place called "Tierras Blancas" or "White Lands". We started driving around 9:00 am and the jungle gets really thick soon after leaving the "flotante" area.

 

[AlbertoSD]

The trail was wet most of the times. It is important to remember that September, October, and November are considered the rainy season in Venezuela.

 

[AlbertoSD]

Soon after, we encounted a "Y" intersection. On the left side of the Y it was jungle thick and a bunch of debri from multiple fallen trees. On the right side, a mud-bomb that seemed thick, at least waist deep at times and about 300 ft long. A few of us walked the mud section and a decision was made to advance via the mud section (believe me...it was NOT the right idea....hahahaha)

The trucks entered and soon after had to be winched the entire lenght of the hole.

 

[AlbertoSD]

With mud up to the bumpers, all trucks started taking a toll in many different ways.

The team started working hard with the winches to quickly recover the vehicles and minimize the time sunk in the hole.

 

[AlbertoSD]

Iker's FZJ71

 

[AlbertoSD]

Omar's FZJ71

 

[AlbertoSD]

Robert's FZJ71

 

[AlbertoSD]

By now, you have probably noted that all the trucks had a bucket hanging out in the back. In this trip, the bucket is one of the most important pieces of equipment (believe it or not). The cooling system takes such a beating during the 140 mile trip that everytime you encounter fresh running water you MUST collect it with buckets and attempt to remove as much mud by showering the radiators with bucket-water. Can't say enough about how useful these buckets were...honestly.

It is also a good opportunity to "wash off" all the mud from your clothes, shoes, and body.

 

[AlbertoSD]

We also checked the vehicles while everybody got done rinsing the cooling systems of the trucks

 

[AlbertoSD]

About 1 hour after "cleaning" the trucks (about noon on the second day), Iker (Silver FZJ71) says on the radio that his truck is making a funny noise from the Transfer Case. Fernando and I stopped the convoy and walked back to Iker's truck to assess the situation.

We asked Iker to move the truck back and forth for a few feet so we could listen to the noise. We quickly realized that one of the bearings that holds the pinion on the rear axle had failed and the yoke moved up and down as Iker moved back and forth.

As you can imagine, this is not good news when you are in the middle of the jungle. Of the 70 mile trip (one way), we have only completed about 15 miles so far in two days.

Luckily, all the trucks in the trip had Full Floating rear axles and we decided to remove the rear drive shaft, remove the axle shafts and link Fernando's FJ40 to Iker's FZJ71 to aid with traction as Iker's truck will become a 4x2 vehicle until we can diagnose and repair the failure. Robert had previously made some hub covers in case of axle failure so the assembly could be protected from major objects entering the axle when removing the rear axle shafts.

A team worked in removing the right axle shaft, another team worked in removing the left axle shaft, and another in removing the drive shaft.

 

[AlbertoSD]

We had a lot of "visitors" while working on the truck

 

[AlbertoSD]

We kept driving with the goal of reaching "Tierras Blancas" or "White Lands" in mind. The mud-bomb and Iker's rear axle had pushed us a little behind schedule, but Tierras Blancas was still a doable goal at the time.