First of all, a day before we we’re supposed to leave for Rausch, I was helping Evan finish up Amasa’s new JK. 35'' MT/Rs (he’s wise for choosing the MT/Rs), AEV lift, front/rear carriers, and above all ... SUPERWINCH EPi9.0s (a wise man I tell you). To my surprise, I didn’t know Evan took pilates and yoga classes. As he was loading garbage into a container, his foot slipped and he damn near landed on his back. If it weren’t for his classes, he wouldn’t of been able to have one leg in the container, the other on the floor, and holding his entire body off the ground with his super-human strength. It was quite amusing. So now you know, he might be using his spare time for other reasons...
We had agreed that we would try to leave by noon, but, as LIOR standards, we were late with Stephanie getting called into work (couldn’t leave until 3PM now), Evan and Mark not leaving until 2ish from what I remembered. From what I can see, Mike B., Howell, Dan, Bob B., left quite earlier since they were all there when I got to the hotel. I keep telling myself I won’t leave soo late because of all the traffic, I guess I didn’t learn my lesson. Huge traffic on CIP, Belt, Verrazano, 440, and some of I78. They were all waiting for me so we can all go to dinner together at the mentioned PUB. Somehow it changed and you can tell Mike B. felt broken hearted that we were going to end up at the new diner up the road. Amasa and Garret met us at the diner a couple minutes after we got there. As usual, we overwhelm the waitresses to the point that they need to take individual drink orders, PER PERSON, so they won’t get confused. Everyone fills up on grub and laughs as Howell starts a strip tease using a coat pole/hanger as a stripper pole to amuse the waitress. Must be a PA thing...We end the night with a couple of drinks back at the hotel and await the next day of wheelin’.
We get to the parking lot on time and sign up, air down, and all that jazz. Blaine meets up with us there and we have a driver meeting and agree to wheel a couple blues to stretch our legs and try to stay on the black trails for the most part with the option of a couple small red loops. We head out and encounter our first problem...ice. With the couple of nice days of 50-60 degree weather, we expected all the snow and ice to be gone, wrong! Slippery ice everywhere, snow covered obstacles, and HIGH skin-piercing winds. A Bronco gathering was in front us and had huge problems getting down a simple, when dry, green trail that was covered in ice. The last 2 trucks were playing bumper cars all the way down the trail, fun to watch. They didn’t get the point that when one thing fails, don’t do it again. He plowed into the back of the truck 3 more times only to turn around. We ended up taking the long way to the Rock Creek section where the trails awaited us.
We all made our way through blues and blacks without an issue until about quarter to lunch. Mark ended up bending a draglink into a complete 'U' in between 2 rock faces. With Evan under the truck and getting tools handed by Mike B., we were up and running in less than 20. We started playing around a large rock face where most us of made it, I, was not one of them. Denied a few times and denied at the boulder go around. My Staples 'easy' button on my dash wasn’t helping with crap!! It did help Gene get over the rock face though, after many failed attempts, Evan takes the button and hends it to Gene, he presses it and he makes one final attempt and makes it! 'That button has magical powers' I thought to myself. We were all looking at Amasa’s new JK’s scratches and fender flare dents. Another pretty truck bites the dust, welcome to the club! We had a quick lunch of sandwiches and Steph’s brownies and we were on our way.
Here’s where it goes downhill...we ended up playing around Rock Creek and decided to up the stakes a little. Why we up the stakes after 1PM, I have no idea. We try to enter Otter’s trail (red trail) that Mike B. says can take a couple of hours, or more, and is very technical and challenging. With Evan giving me peer pressure, I enter the trail. Within 50 feet, I hear a snap. Sometimes, within a day of wheelin’, I hear the Detroit unlocking and locking depending on the situation, so, I think nothing of it. Mark gets on the CB since he heard it as well and I take a look, no broken shaft. I try to continue on but my driver’s tire wasn’t moving, and neither was the passenger...oh God. We back up and get the JK on flat ground, pull the tire and unit bearing, the stub just drops out. Sheared cleanly as if it were cut on a bandsaw. We think all is well until Evan gives the tire a spin, lots of clanky clanky in the diff...not good. A thumbs up to everyone who helped on that breakage! I limp on the green trails to get to the parking lot and to my surprise, everyone didn’t continue wheelin. Garret helps me on the huge uphill ice sections since I was only in 3WD and sometimes only 2WD. My Superwinch didn’t fail me, thank God. It was after 3PM, but they all followed me back to the lot. Great group of guys I tell you, even the ones running BFGs and Warn winches, great I tell you. So, the club plays on some of the comp stuff up front as I air up. We load the trailers and head out before 5.
On the way to Cracker Barrel (what, you thought the name Cracker Barrel wouldn’t be mentioned on a trail report...HAH, sadly mistaken), my front end is making God awful noises. My heart sinks, I freak out, some say I looked like dog crap, and again, the LIOR guys come to the rescue. We had both wheels off the truck at once, Blaine and Evan disassembling 2 u-joints to separate the stub shafts, Mike B. and I trying to taking apart the truck and Howell holding the lights. We had separated the stubs, pulled the full shafts, reassembled the stubs, assembled the calipers, and had it back on the ground in less than 20. Again, we overwhelmed the waitress where she called for backup, a second waitress. We eat more grub and end the night. Nice drive back home with no traffic, high winds, my brake lights not working, and a sinking gut feeling hoping my front axle won’t grenade as I drove 70 MPH.
All in all, a great day of wheelin, fun with friends, breakages, and the like. If I missed some good sights from the middle or back, I apologize, can’t see much when I’m in the front. Now, I’m thinking Mike B. might be right, if you want to wheel and play with the big boys, you might need big axles. I’m still not running a Warn though! D60 in the future for the JK, I’m not sure but it does sound good right about now. Guess I'll be running passenger for the next few trail reports. I thank everyone who helped out in getting my truck in rolling order!
Broken-hearted 2WD Dimitri
