Took saturday off and drove out to TSF on friday night for the Cruise the Woods '08 event. I was assisting with a checkpoint. Planned on meeting up with DirtyGipsy to caravan to the camp ground. On the way out of Portland I put it in 3rd, locked the converter and gave it a little juice to get up the hill (traffic was too slow to go into overdrive) and really started getting some vibs from the rear tires. It was the worst I've ever felt and it wasn't going away. I exited a couple miles later because the vibs weren't going away and I couldn't find a speed/load that would reduce it. I thought maybe I had a ujoint going but I check the ujoints, lugnuts, ubolts, leaf bolts, steering even though it was definitely coming from the back. After confirming there was nothing loose I got back on the road and just kept it easy and got this weird cyclical vib coming in and out. Just as I reached the exit road to meet up with DirtyGipsy he pulled up to the stop sign so I kept going straight and he pulled in behind me and we made it into camp. We went back out and got some firewood, made a fire and chatted for awhile. The next day we woke up early and got our instructions for the event and I followed another member to our checkpoint. We wheeled up the trail that the group would be coming down.
I didn't end up fitting under the tree.
While we waited I changed out my burned out headlight. We didn't have much to do and ended up closing down our checkpoint due to time constraints so we wheeled a trail on the way back to camp.
Fellow member's FJ80
The event went well and I stayed another night in the hopes to do a little wheeling the next day. The group got up, got a few things taken care of and those left went on a couple trails. Dora's not a virgin anymore, she's been mounted.
Came up to the mini rock garden and had CreeperSleeper spot me. The throw for my doubler is off so I couldn't get it in stupid low but Dora did just fine. Here's a couple of shots on the garden. I'm going do a little picture whoring.
Up top on SaddleBack mountain (I think)
If you are interested in other pics from the trip you can see them here starting with post 39:
Cruisn' The Woods 2008
On the way home I got the same vibs so I resolved to yank the tires and pull those BBs out of the tires that I just put in last week. After I got all that done I was curious and took it for a drive. Vibs gone! I took it on the freeway this morning up to 70mph and very little vib! So I'll be driving around without any balance. Don't get me wrong, they aren't glass smooth but have no where near the vibs I was getting before, it just feels like the vibs from the big lugs hitting the road with no thumper (Bambi reference) syndrome.
Let me say that the diesel performed GREAT! I filled up before the trip and came back home with 1/2 tank left. I never had to give it full thottle although mud will be different. So far I really enjoy this combo and look forward to getting out more often. Wheeling an auto is great, especially one that stays where you put it.