Black Hill Cruiser Classic

[BionicCruiser]

we're home! had a great time, broke my junk twice and still wheeled all three days! and only missed 2 obstacles. just got home an hour ago, so pics and video will be forthcoming. Jill has some great videos of my truck nearly rolling apparently... I blacked out those memories from the mental trauma.
I'll do a full write up here when the pics are ready.

 

[BionicCruiser]

oh, and I met this guy and his rig along with the 2 vehicles in the background. this really happened! I had thought it was video chopped!

 

[BionicCruiser]

some teasers- 1 for Marc- a rhino lined 100 series, Swede's pull points on his FJ40, and my boys realized on this trip that their seats reclined...

 

[BionicCruiser]

ok, here goes-
we left Sunday and arrived at the campground for the event on Monday afternoon. the event starts Thurs. so we hit the sites- Mt Rushmoore, Custard State Park(bison) and Spearfish Canyon. very cool sites and a beautiful area, considering it's all boring plains getting there especially.
Wed, I registered and did tech inspection...yes, I passed. I even bought a new fire extinguisher. we checked out the rigs at tech, I am among the big dogs, huge built rigs everywhere! some more stock trucks too, but the majority are built like mine. these guys are serious! some fun is going to be had!

 

[BionicCruiser]

I am unsure about the new terrain. they say it's different than what I've wheeled before, so I signed up for a moderate trail the first day. oh, this event is different than we are used to. the night before, a sign up sheet is put out with what trails will be offered the next day, an easy, moderate and hard trail. the hard trail for the day is Fruity Pebbles /Capt Crunch. Capt Crunch descript says- "if you are not a buggy and don't want body damage, don't bother"... I need a warm up. so "Jake" it is! we leave at 9am. the trail starts fairly easy with lots of head and chest size rocks. toward the end, it gets harder. at lunch the trail leader and front trucks attempt the hardest, end obstacles. near roll overs and winches come out... this is moderate! my turn is up and at second attempt, no front locker...the call is made-"your ram is torn loose and took the locker air line with it". damn! first day and carnage! on a moderate trail! the winch line comes out and I pulled the ram out on the side of the trail. luckily I had the port plugs to eliminate the ram and continue on regular power steering. I missed the last section of the trail 2-3 obstacles. at camp, I found several people with welders and picked one to help me weld it all back in place. Chris Miller (Millhouse on mud) did a GREAT job welding for me and I put it all back in and was ready for day 2 before dark. the locker line was fixed, but still leaked. it was determined that the locker started leaking by chance inside the housing at the same time. it was locking, but the breather was leaking air. good enough...

in video 2 note the call about the ram...


video- Jake1
video- Jake2

 

[BionicCruiser]

Day 2 sign up- I hit the hard trail, a 5+. it's 'Hal John's' I wanted to do this one for sure! there is reportedly 5 sections of this plus a super hard waterfall. section 1 is under water and can't be run. so sections 2-5 are on the plate. they say they start mild and get harder every section. between every section is the main/bypass road, so you can jump out if it gets too hard or if you break... so my stomach is a little knotted in anticipation and worry. 15 rigs start. we drive in on the 'bypass road' an easy-moderate trail called 'Calamity canyon'. then turn around at the bottom and go up the wash. 'section 2' isn't too bad, but has my attention. at take out 1, several rigs get out...WHAT! the tail leader has no front locker along with a 4runner on 40's, they duck out and spot.
section 3- goes well with a drive shaft twisted on someone behind me (I hear by cb). more rigs duck out at the end on section3.
section 4 is getting huge. the guy in front of me breaks a chromoly (sp?) rear axle. this is getting bad. in getting to the takeout point, he breaks a front axle...this is getting ugly! there is breakage all around me. I can't even count or remember all of it.

the last pic is frydaddy joking around.

 

[BionicCruiser]

in the end of section 4- I push a front tire off the bead. spare is put on. luckily I got a full size spare for this trip! more pics of section 4-

 

[BionicCruiser]

end of section 4- decision time. do section 5 with the big dogs, or tuck tail like a puppy.

 

[BionicCruiser]

section 5 is ahead and I am very apprehensive. Jill talks me into it. 4 rigs out of 15 are left. the rocks are huge now. in section 3, I latched onto Chris (Frydaddy on mud) for a spotter. on a split in the trail I take the 'bypass'. rocks as big as my tires everywhere (taller than waist high)! (vid 2 and 3 are the bypass)

hal john's1
hal john's2
hal john's3

after the diff hanger, I finish the bypass. these are some huge rocks!
hal john's bypass ending

 

[BionicCruiser]

on the last part of section 5, I see my front driver tire move back toward me as I push on a rock. the spotter sees it too and looks. a sheared spring center pin! the U bolts are a little loose, so we center the axle, tighten the U bolts and then do this-

end of Hal John's

I finished the trail under my own power! the last waterfall was just stupid tough and only the buggy did it. after several tries and using rear steer... we limped back for repairs...

 

[BionicCruiser]

big thanks to the Canadian crew for their help that day for the repair help. someone from colorado was going to town for bolts to cut up for lockrite pins that were ALL sheared on Hal John's (one of the other carnages I forgot about, and he was 1 of the 4 that finished the trail), they got me a spring center pin and the Canadians supplied the grinder, jacks, some tools and a hand with replacing the pin that was broken in 2 places.

I heard that someone was still out on the moderate trail with a FJ40 knuckle that stripped all the studs out for the steering arm. he got back in with a new knuckle at 3am, so I was feeling lucky to have been able to fix my junk at camp twice. that guy with the knuckle turned out to be Eric that did the roll above that I mentioned. that in itself is an crazy story!

 

[sl33p3]

good times man, looks like you need a bigger 40.

 

[BionicCruiser]

thanks John, but I think I'm down to fine tuning now on the 40. it's big enough. I do need to get rid of the fender flares, they are going to get ripped off on a rock someday. it nearly happened last week. I saw perfect ways to do tube flares at the event.

so, in the Canadian group I mentioned was Peter Straub (behemoth60), and Bryan Kathan, who helped me most. more on him later.

day 3- I signed up for the hard trail again, Tback/Bikini, 5/5+. it was much farther away, so we trailered the 40 along with 3 others. a jeep was our trail leader this day, Kirk. he knows this trail extremely well and has run it in excess of 10 times this year alone I heard. we started off with some really off camber stuff and a steep climb. this trail is on a ridge line, most others are in the wash, so exposure here is bigger. it added some...umm...'excitement' to the obstacles. Jim, a DTC memebr in the tailgunner spot, broke a pinion on the first climb. plan was to get his trailer later and drag the rig out backward (keeps the pinion from grenading the carrier).
we continued on. the rocks were big, but not as big as the day before. the challenge was how they were laid out, and climbing hills/ridges at the same time. on a very tippy downhill, I nearly roll the 40 twice. almost everyone in the group had the same experience.

tippy hill

we ran bikini first IIRC, but didn't do the whole thing. we bailed and went over to T-back in an attempt to get more shade. it was very hot/sunny that day and not as many trees in this area. there was a good view of Mt Rushmore in the distance though.

 

[BionicCruiser]

right after lunch, Jason, in a mini truck, broke 2 front leaf springs. almost everyone winched this hill. a small handful drove it. one was a 40 in front of me. I hit the same line and couldn't get up. I pulled out the winch for the second time during the event. it seemed to hang up short and long wheel base vehicles alike. a mini truck ended up flopping on it's side on this one. Jill missed it on video as she had just filled up the card in her camera, but there will be 2 others available soon from other people. I'll post it here when it goes up.

 

[BionicCruiser]

we cut T-back a little short too, since it was just sooo hot and we needed to be back for the raffle and dinner. I got no more breakages that day...Whew! we made it back to camp and went to the dinner. it was delicious! the raffle was fun to watch. the canadian crew brought some prizes and had a hilarious presentation. their prize pack included camp chairs with maple leaf designs, a 'metric' 6 pack of beer (2 were missing), full long johns with a trap door and their club logo on it. funny stuff.

we ended up hanging out with some people from Minnesota and Kentucky(the ones that helped me weld my rig the first day) in the evenings. they were a fun, colorful bunch!

this event was much smaller than I am used to. but the benefit was that we could meet and get to know so many more people. we camped next to the guy who owns Bump It Off Road, (he sells 100 series armor Marc. get you some) Rising Sun members, a Nebraska firefighter, Canadians galore, and so many more. our kids made new friends too.

here's a few more of the cool rigs we saw.
1. Peter Straub's BJ74, right hand drive (Jared, you paying attention?)
2. Ted and Wendy in a cool 4runner
3. Rob's buggy (his daughter and Kian were nearly inseparable after day 2)

I'm still loading video to insert above, so recheck my last couple posts later. Jill got some hi-def vids on her new camera and they are taking hours to upload.

 

[BionicCruiser]

forgot to add the pics.

 

[sl33p3]

...on a very tippy downhill, I nearly roll the 40 twice. almost everyone in the group had the same experience.

tippy hill

.

fresh drawers please at 18 seconds!...and another set at 30seconds!

 

[pappy]

fresh drawers please at 18 seconds!...and another set at 30seconds!

EJECT! EJECT! EJECT!

Of course you realize there was a slight weight imbalance sitting in the driver's seat.

 

[marcfj60]

we camped next to the guy who owns Bump It Off Road, (he sells 100 series armor Marc. get you some)

If I did that, you'd have one more reason to harass me because I probably wouldn't wheel any more than I already do.

 

[BionicCruiser]

you can even hear Jill breath in quick at those spots. the first one I intentionally let it run out quick, the second one, the spotter was telling me to hold the brakes. not sure which was worse. and yes I needed new shorts after that.

Marc, at least you'd have 1 less excuse. the guys sells his stuff way under what most others are selling for. it looked like good quality too from what I saw.