Well a great week is coming to a close for Lenny, Daniel, and myself. We went to the Lone Star cruiser roundup with the cottonland cruiser club from Jackson, MS this week. Got there wednesday around noon and set up camp.
Thursday morning was registration and drivers meeting then we hit the trails. We started on the Aggie highway, kind of a scenic tour around the property, but soon got sucked into the Baertrax trail where Daniel found out just how unforgiving granite can be with a prompt flop on his side. We righted him back up and soon was on our way.
Later that day we met up with a couple FJ40s and a buggy and came down the waterfall trail. I was driving Daniel's rig by now so I chose to bypass the notch, a large "V" in the rocks where you have to have perfect tire placement or you end up with your side in the rocks and no other choice but to drive out. Well I got around that and the next obstacle was another, smaller notch with what I thought was no bypass at the time. Having no spotter and having never been in a situation like that before I did my best and immediately the driver tire slipped off, putting the front flare and half door in the rock. I got pulled out and the driver of the buggy (the owner of the park's son) took pity on me and spotted for me. I made it about halfway (about 2 sami lengths) before the passenger tire slipped off and put the passenger side in the rocks! At this point I was too far into it to be pulled out so I had to drive out, scraping the side down the ledge till I got out. once thru that and while waiting on everyone else to come thru, the guy in the buggy's sister backed into daniels sami, completing the new "carnaged" look. now it was on to the waterfall itself. I came down the middle, which is a tall ledge that is almost too tall for a short wheelbase like the samis. Both back tires got a little air coming down that one but we made it.
Then it was back to the camp and time for some grub and a run to walmart.
Friday morning we got up and hit the trails. We ran waterfall with the jackson cruiser guys the opposite direction from the day before. We got some better lines and made it up the waterfall with no issues. We took the bypass around both notches this time and then made it to the top.
I was riding with lenny this time and once up top we decided to follow a cruiser up a ledge, where lenny hit his rear driveshaft on the rock and sheared the rear output off his tcase. We were done for the day.
Once back at camp, we caught up with marlin from marlin crawler and mark from marks offroad to see about helping us with the case repair. Marlin got us started and then got pulled away. We quit for a couple hours for the raffle and bbq then back at it with mark sticking right there by our side and marlin checkin in from time to time. We got to a stopping point around 12:30 and turned in for the night (I say we but it was mostly lenny and daniel. I'd offer a hand some but mostly was there for moral support!).
Early this morning we caught up with the park owner (I think randy was his name) and found out he had a shop and gave us the key so we could go use his press to get the gears off the good output shaft and use it for the 6.5 gears in lennys busted case. We got back from there and got the case reassembled and slapped back in the truck and was on the trail by 2:30.
We started off on another scenic trail but the lure of the rocks soon drew us to more challenging obstacles. This time we were very careful in choosing our line, and ended up in a HUGE field of nothing but rock. It literally looked like a paved field it was so rocky. we were making our way up along a ledge and had to make a hairpin turn and daniels tire got caught on the rock, bending his spring and pushing his front driveshaft back. Soon after we noticed him leaking gear oil and decided his case was cracked. We made the choice to head back.
We then broke camp, loaded up the samis, said our goodbyes to the friends we made and got on the road. We stopped in brady, tx for some good bbq and diesel and are now on the road home, where I am typing this on my phone and getting carsick doing so (don't worry, I'm not driving!
)
Pics to come as soon as I can get to a real computer.
Katemcy rocks is a great place to test the limits of your truck and you cruiser guys are a great bunch and welcomed us zuki owners with open arms!
It was grest to get to meet some big names in the industry as well. .
Thanks for letting us wheel with yall!
Thursday morning was registration and drivers meeting then we hit the trails. We started on the Aggie highway, kind of a scenic tour around the property, but soon got sucked into the Baertrax trail where Daniel found out just how unforgiving granite can be with a prompt flop on his side. We righted him back up and soon was on our way.
Later that day we met up with a couple FJ40s and a buggy and came down the waterfall trail. I was driving Daniel's rig by now so I chose to bypass the notch, a large "V" in the rocks where you have to have perfect tire placement or you end up with your side in the rocks and no other choice but to drive out. Well I got around that and the next obstacle was another, smaller notch with what I thought was no bypass at the time. Having no spotter and having never been in a situation like that before I did my best and immediately the driver tire slipped off, putting the front flare and half door in the rock. I got pulled out and the driver of the buggy (the owner of the park's son) took pity on me and spotted for me. I made it about halfway (about 2 sami lengths) before the passenger tire slipped off and put the passenger side in the rocks! At this point I was too far into it to be pulled out so I had to drive out, scraping the side down the ledge till I got out. once thru that and while waiting on everyone else to come thru, the guy in the buggy's sister backed into daniels sami, completing the new "carnaged" look. now it was on to the waterfall itself. I came down the middle, which is a tall ledge that is almost too tall for a short wheelbase like the samis. Both back tires got a little air coming down that one but we made it.
Then it was back to the camp and time for some grub and a run to walmart.
Friday morning we got up and hit the trails. We ran waterfall with the jackson cruiser guys the opposite direction from the day before. We got some better lines and made it up the waterfall with no issues. We took the bypass around both notches this time and then made it to the top.
I was riding with lenny this time and once up top we decided to follow a cruiser up a ledge, where lenny hit his rear driveshaft on the rock and sheared the rear output off his tcase. We were done for the day.
Once back at camp, we caught up with marlin from marlin crawler and mark from marks offroad to see about helping us with the case repair. Marlin got us started and then got pulled away. We quit for a couple hours for the raffle and bbq then back at it with mark sticking right there by our side and marlin checkin in from time to time. We got to a stopping point around 12:30 and turned in for the night (I say we but it was mostly lenny and daniel. I'd offer a hand some but mostly was there for moral support!).
Early this morning we caught up with the park owner (I think randy was his name) and found out he had a shop and gave us the key so we could go use his press to get the gears off the good output shaft and use it for the 6.5 gears in lennys busted case. We got back from there and got the case reassembled and slapped back in the truck and was on the trail by 2:30.
We started off on another scenic trail but the lure of the rocks soon drew us to more challenging obstacles. This time we were very careful in choosing our line, and ended up in a HUGE field of nothing but rock. It literally looked like a paved field it was so rocky. we were making our way up along a ledge and had to make a hairpin turn and daniels tire got caught on the rock, bending his spring and pushing his front driveshaft back. Soon after we noticed him leaking gear oil and decided his case was cracked. We made the choice to head back.
We then broke camp, loaded up the samis, said our goodbyes to the friends we made and got on the road. We stopped in brady, tx for some good bbq and diesel and are now on the road home, where I am typing this on my phone and getting carsick doing so (don't worry, I'm not driving!
)Pics to come as soon as I can get to a real computer.
Katemcy rocks is a great place to test the limits of your truck and you cruiser guys are a great bunch and welcomed us zuki owners with open arms!
It was grest to get to meet some big names in the industry as well. .
Thanks for letting us wheel with yall!
