So today I went on a day ride with RANDY88FJ62 from my TRAILCREW club. We decided on Hungry Valley mainly because it was close and I had never been there before. Lame too, 45 mins from my house and I've never bothered to stop in and say hi. The day started out as just a big ole pain in the ass which I think was a precursor for what was to come. I forgot my phone and had to drive back making us an hour late to start. Which meant we still needed to be even later to get gas and food. And oh wait, the dog got a hold of his leash and chewed it up. Nice. Off to find a store and get another one.
So a few minutes later and we are at the Hungry Valley entrance and we are finally off the paved road. So to speak. It goes from paved to gravel to paved again several times. At the beginning of the park there is an off-road course that people can test out their vehicles on. There are three paths. One is just dirt, the second is a moderate concrete path with some flavor thrown in and the third is a rock garden that we were watching some ridiculously lifted beater trucks playing on. We just drove past.
The park itself doesn't really have much that is technical and its pretty small over all. I could probably do all the trails in a day. There is a decent flowing creek to cool off in and is great if you have your doggie along.
So, what I've learned:
• The stupid pencil air gauges are waaaay off. Randy had that and lowered the pressure in his tires to 22#. I brought out my ARB deflator and reduced mine to 18#. I double checked Randy's tires and each was between 25-27# so I reduced each to 18#.
• People need to know the trail codes for how many in their group. Sometimes they do it and sometimes they don't. Case in point: there was a motor bike rider who waves his hand with THREE fingers up. Easy enough, there are three riders in his group behind him. Randy didn't see it, rather wasn't looking for it and started to go into the path. On other occasions there were riders that did not inform us how many more were behind them. Thats how people get hurt.
• Be willing to pin stripe your truck before you go someplace you have never been before. And I don't mean the light marks that you can usually buff out, I mean the heavy gouges that the trunk of a tree makes on your truck. Its kinda like its slapping your ass on the way it and its leaving a mark.
• When you park your truck to go have some fun outside of the truck, make sure you lock and still keep an eye on it. I caught three guys dicking around with my truck. It "looked" like they were going for my NATO cans before I caught them and they took off. Reported their asses to the Rangers. who merely said, "its probably just a coincidence". Uh huh.
• GET SLIDER!!!!! I can NOT stress this enough. I took a nasty run going backwards uncontrollably and I steered into a group of brush to slow me down. Little did I know there would be boulders hidden under the brush. Well a few of those boulders smashed my running boards to where they were just barley touching the moulding. Bent all to hell now.
• When you bash your running boards....take them off BEFORE your wife sees them!!!
And finally a two pieces of tech:
1. While going up the steepest hill I could fine I had a boo-boo. Here is the info I have and please see if you folks have any suggestions as too what went wrong and what needs to be fixed. I was in 4LOW, tires at 18#, CDL was OFF and I just tooled up the incline. Everything was going fine, I was butt puckered for sure but there was no issue whatsoever...UNTIL...
The tires juuust started to lose traction because there is some loose dirt/sand towards the top. I could hear the tires start to spin and then I started sliding backwards. Now I thought it was because I was losing traction so I tap on the throttle. Nothing. Turns out the freaking truck stalled...at the top of the hill and like it was in neutral just started rolling backwards...FAST. I stepped on the brakes. Nothing. I stood on the brakes, literally NOTHING until I was on flat. I was eyes pinned to the rearview mirror the whole time making sure I stayed in a straight line without over correcting to prevent a roll. WTF was that. I figured something is up. Maybe it was me doing something wrong. I forgot about the CDL but still it shouldn't have done that. Then Randy took his 62 and crawled right up, over and back down again like nothing. And I was like, "F that!". So I tried it again. Up, up, no problem, and then it happens AGAIN!!! This time I give it more throttle to keep it going. Nothing. It stops and shuts off and then it goes into "neutral" again and this time I had to take a different line going backwards and I went airborne, backwards, onto some brush and rocks which took out my running board and luckily missed my transfer case and cats.
2. The second issue was after the malay Randy and I were looking over the truck to see if there was any leaking or other damage. He found dripping power steering fluid. I looked at all the hoses and found no leak. Then I looked at the top of the cap, it had poured out from under the cap. Now the cap was tight. So was it the angle I was at that made it come out? Was it pressure that made it force its way out? I have no clue.
So a few minutes later and we are at the Hungry Valley entrance and we are finally off the paved road. So to speak. It goes from paved to gravel to paved again several times. At the beginning of the park there is an off-road course that people can test out their vehicles on. There are three paths. One is just dirt, the second is a moderate concrete path with some flavor thrown in and the third is a rock garden that we were watching some ridiculously lifted beater trucks playing on. We just drove past.
The park itself doesn't really have much that is technical and its pretty small over all. I could probably do all the trails in a day. There is a decent flowing creek to cool off in and is great if you have your doggie along.
So, what I've learned:
• The stupid pencil air gauges are waaaay off. Randy had that and lowered the pressure in his tires to 22#. I brought out my ARB deflator and reduced mine to 18#. I double checked Randy's tires and each was between 25-27# so I reduced each to 18#.
• People need to know the trail codes for how many in their group. Sometimes they do it and sometimes they don't. Case in point: there was a motor bike rider who waves his hand with THREE fingers up. Easy enough, there are three riders in his group behind him. Randy didn't see it, rather wasn't looking for it and started to go into the path. On other occasions there were riders that did not inform us how many more were behind them. Thats how people get hurt.
• Be willing to pin stripe your truck before you go someplace you have never been before. And I don't mean the light marks that you can usually buff out, I mean the heavy gouges that the trunk of a tree makes on your truck. Its kinda like its slapping your ass on the way it and its leaving a mark.
• When you park your truck to go have some fun outside of the truck, make sure you lock and still keep an eye on it. I caught three guys dicking around with my truck. It "looked" like they were going for my NATO cans before I caught them and they took off. Reported their asses to the Rangers. who merely said, "its probably just a coincidence". Uh huh.
• GET SLIDER!!!!! I can NOT stress this enough. I took a nasty run going backwards uncontrollably and I steered into a group of brush to slow me down. Little did I know there would be boulders hidden under the brush. Well a few of those boulders smashed my running boards to where they were just barley touching the moulding. Bent all to hell now.
• When you bash your running boards....take them off BEFORE your wife sees them!!!
And finally a two pieces of tech:
1. While going up the steepest hill I could fine I had a boo-boo. Here is the info I have and please see if you folks have any suggestions as too what went wrong and what needs to be fixed. I was in 4LOW, tires at 18#, CDL was OFF and I just tooled up the incline. Everything was going fine, I was butt puckered for sure but there was no issue whatsoever...UNTIL...
The tires juuust started to lose traction because there is some loose dirt/sand towards the top. I could hear the tires start to spin and then I started sliding backwards. Now I thought it was because I was losing traction so I tap on the throttle. Nothing. Turns out the freaking truck stalled...at the top of the hill and like it was in neutral just started rolling backwards...FAST. I stepped on the brakes. Nothing. I stood on the brakes, literally NOTHING until I was on flat. I was eyes pinned to the rearview mirror the whole time making sure I stayed in a straight line without over correcting to prevent a roll. WTF was that. I figured something is up. Maybe it was me doing something wrong. I forgot about the CDL but still it shouldn't have done that. Then Randy took his 62 and crawled right up, over and back down again like nothing. And I was like, "F that!". So I tried it again. Up, up, no problem, and then it happens AGAIN!!! This time I give it more throttle to keep it going. Nothing. It stops and shuts off and then it goes into "neutral" again and this time I had to take a different line going backwards and I went airborne, backwards, onto some brush and rocks which took out my running board and luckily missed my transfer case and cats.
2. The second issue was after the malay Randy and I were looking over the truck to see if there was any leaking or other damage. He found dripping power steering fluid. I looked at all the hoses and found no leak. Then I looked at the top of the cap, it had poured out from under the cap. Now the cap was tight. So was it the angle I was at that made it come out? Was it pressure that made it force its way out? I have no clue.
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That is a deep scratch.
