CLC February 2015 Run - China Wall, Saturday 28th
- Thread starter Fitzgerald
- Start date
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El Secretario...El lamo...
I'm out tomorrow so that I can go to work
I have the wheelin' bug lately, though. I'm going to have to sechedule an "emergency night-snow wheelin' " trip ASAP to make up for this.
I believe this will progress into a 322 snow run. It's going to be just a couple rigs, driving all the way to China Wall just seems far. So bring something to grill, we'll bash some snow and have a fire. Gonna be good times. Hop onto our side of the fence if you're in the middle 
Fitzgerald
Hey! Where'd the mountians go?!?!?
- Thread starter
- #24
Wow, what a beautiful day. Hope you guys are having a blast. 
SAS
Seeking higher vistas
Luke breaks trail for the first half of the journey.
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Big rocks grow in the strangest places.
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If you didn't notice, there is lots of snow!
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Leon takes the lead to break trail.
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Big rocks grow in the strangest places.
If you didn't notice, there is lots of snow!
Leon takes the lead to break trail.
SAS
Seeking higher vistas
It was relatively uneventful (no winch, no straps) to the midpoint/end of trail near the reservoir where we took a break for lunch. Leon cleared the fire pit as Luke and Jake cut firewood.
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Lunch around the fire.
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We took a short hike and found Tim ice-fishing on the reservoir. Nice guy, and was informative about the area.
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Around 1-2pm, we departed. Almost immediately, we started having issues. Leon called upon "Mr. Warn", and while Luke and I subsequently winched/strapped through this particular obstacle, Leon installed his tire chains. Here, Jake straps a tree for the first of several winch pulls.
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The 60, being "open-open", took the strap several times--six, seven, eight? This was only possible because Leon had tire chains to grip the frozen trail surface. Both other trucks were winch-equipped, and could therefore self-recover, though Leon didn't require the winch after installing the tire chains (hint, hint).
I'll try to upload some video of the winch action.
Overall, great day on the trail. We arrived the start point at dusk, and exited the trail minutes after nightfall.
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Lunch around the fire.
We took a short hike and found Tim ice-fishing on the reservoir. Nice guy, and was informative about the area.
Around 1-2pm, we departed. Almost immediately, we started having issues. Leon called upon "Mr. Warn", and while Luke and I subsequently winched/strapped through this particular obstacle, Leon installed his tire chains. Here, Jake straps a tree for the first of several winch pulls.
The 60, being "open-open", took the strap several times--six, seven, eight? This was only possible because Leon had tire chains to grip the frozen trail surface. Both other trucks were winch-equipped, and could therefore self-recover, though Leon didn't require the winch after installing the tire chains (hint, hint).
I'll try to upload some video of the winch action.
Overall, great day on the trail. We arrived the start point at dusk, and exited the trail minutes after nightfall.
Sugar snow is a real PITA. I've never rigged and strapped so many times in one trip. I've got muscles in my legs hurting, that I never knew existed.
I was giving up somewhere in the middle, after pulling my winch full out, four times to get up one hill. The middle picture is Leon pulling Tracy with three 30 foot straps, and one 8' all linked together.... Yeah, 98 feet of strap! Just so he could keep flat ground for traction. If Leon hadn't had the sense to bring chains, we'd all still be down there. Great write up and pics guys, really neat seeing it from some different perspectives. I lost count of the number of strap and winch pulls. Some of the pulls on Tracy found me on hills as well and required many bumps to get things moving and sometimes once we got moving it was very slow, kind of a game of inches and feet at times. Had to let the chains chew down to grab something in the deeper and steeper stuff. I agree with Luke, without chains that would have been an entirely different run, at least on the way out
SAS
Seeking higher vistas
Great write up and pictures! It looks like you guys had a great time, I wish I could have made it out yesterday.
Fitzgerald
Hey! Where'd the mountians go?!?!?
- Thread starter
- #36
Guess that's why all of the Baja buggies and Trophy Trucks are solid front axle...... oh, what....
Holy barnacles batman, that's a whole lot of snow. I would think china wall would have had less snow then that. Very cool pics.
Well they also don't have solid axels on the razr's either. Wight savings and I think easier to fix as well unless your gears break. All the extra work I will have to do to the jeep vs the fj it won't be cheaper to build at all. Not sure how the Toyotas axels are but the saying on the jeep forums is starting to hit home. Just empty every pocket. It's all learning for me.
Well they also don't have solid axels on the razr's either. Wight savings and I think easier to fix as well unless your gears break. All the extra work I will have to do to the jeep vs the fj it won't be cheaper to build at all. Not sure how the Toyotas axels are but the saying on the jeep forums is starting to hit home. Just empty every pocket. It's all learning for me.
Oh ya and if you also have the money you can make your solid axel ride like an ifs along with being able to rock crawl with the best of them. It's all in the shocks and engineering.
Fitzgerald
Hey! Where'd the mountians go?!?!?
- Thread starter
- #40
IFS!!!.......
