We met up with the rest of the club and found out that the only trails open were a 4+ and a 5, both of which were more than I wanted to tackle. I have completely rebuilt/redesigned the front suspension and wasn't wanting to do anything stupid to it right of the bat. Well that went out the window and we got to be stupid almost immediately. My Jeep is a 3+ rig, on a good day it will do a 4 rated trail and this wasn't a good day.
This was a trail builder, trail repair and cut in some new sections. Turns out what we were cutting in was impassable for most of the Jeeps on the trail so I don't feel to bad about ending up on the winch. A LOT.
Da wife got me a Gopro for my birthday and this was the first chance I got to play with it, I did edit out most of the cable pulling.
The first vid I left the winching on there to show what happens when you make it up the hill and catch a bad hop and end up wedged between 2 trees. One in front and another right behind and they were a Jeep and 6" apart. No way to steer out of it, so you use the winch to drag it sideways out of trouble.
That limb that hit the Jeep was loud inside the cab, it sounded like something broke and freaked out both of us. Passenger was a friend of mine that had never been exposed to rednecks in rollover prone vehicles off in the trees. He had a good time and I promised him a more successful trip next time.
This next one was kinda fun but still stressful on me and the equipment. I don't mind running it hard on occasion but I don't like having to do this on every obstacle. If you keep doing stuff like this something is going to break.
When we finally got over the top we had to stop and let the guy in front of us lose his argument with the snotty grease covered hill in front of him. After watching the vid I realized I should have waited until he got winched out of the way before going over that notch. We had a lot of momentum after clearing it that would have helped with our argument with the snotty greasy hill. We lost that one too.
Last vid is what happens when stubbornness and determination get ahold of ya.
One more try I said, next time I say that just kick me in the nuts. It'll be cheaper and less painful in the end. That gravely poppin sound near the end was the passenger side axle shaft u joint exploding. It tried to take the axle shaft with it but while the ears were a bit bent I was able to salvage it. The shafts in this thing are aftermarket chromoly and are not as cheap as stock ones but are a lot stronger.
We were able to remove the broken bits and limp off the trail and make it home so it wasn't horrible but it still sucked. I will have it repaired for the next outing in a couple weeks and I hope to have a better day.
A bad day on the trails beats a good day at work every time though.
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