I got home last night. The trip has been pretty good as far as I can tell. I got in on Thursday night, set up the tentcot, played games on my phone for a bit, then went to sleep. On Friday morning I prepared the rig for some driving and met up with everybody at the cabin. This is my rig sitting at work waiting for me to go:
The first thing we hit was rail bed. The waterfall section of it had a lot of moving water and the ledge was about 4' tall but everybody made it up easily. The rest of the rail bed trail went smoothly. After that we all played around on the lower rock garden, which also went well. Greg hit a hill climb by the lower rock garden but I don't know it's name. Nobody saw him run it but you could hear his motor from a pretty good distance. Sam gave it a try too but was denied. Nobody else gave it a go. This is Sam on one of his attempts.
Next up was can opener/upper rock garden. The can opener section was more dug out than I had seen it before so the rocks were "bigger". For whatever reason my rig seemed to fit better and it went smoothly. A few other guys mentioned that it went better for them than it had in the past. After that trail I noticed that my drain plug was damaged. I thought that the head of the bolt was ripped off and the body (threaded section) had been pushed up into the housing. It turns out that it was actually the magnet that was pushed into the housing. Greg helped me pull the flanges and then I went back to camp to tear down the front axle (pulled inner axles, rotors, spindles, third member etc.) to get the magnet out of the housing.
Here's the culprit:
After that was back together I joined up with everybody for a little night wheeling. We raced around the mountain at mach 1 for a little while then went to a rock garden called white tail. (I think) I was last in line an everybody seemed to be running it pretty smoothly but I broke a rear axle shaft. Even just one year ago being along and broken on the mountain would have made me pretty uneasy. However, it was warm, I had a PB&J sandwich, and water. I figured I was fine for a long time and started using my winch and a small tree to get myself up the hill. I was almost out when Greg came back to check on me and tugged me the rest of the way. (Thanks Greg)
The axle was damaged at Uwharriecross and I asked on a few different forums and I wrote to Bobby Long. Everybody said to run it. The correct answer was "Replace it, you'll be lucky if it lasts two trips." I wasn't really getting on it or anything, it was just weak. Before:
After:
So I got the axle shaft out on Saturday morning, put in a spare, and rejoined the group. This time I went wheeling with Cassidy and Eric (probably not known on this forum) but it wasn't long before I realized my rear locker wasn't engaging. The indicator light said it was fine but it certainly wasn't locked. With that, I decided that three problems was enough for one trip so I broke camp and headed home. I'll get my lazy butt off this couch in a few minutes to take apart the rear axle and figure out why the locker isn't working. With luck, I won't need any parts and I'll be back at Harlan next weekend.
The first thing we hit was rail bed. The waterfall section of it had a lot of moving water and the ledge was about 4' tall but everybody made it up easily. The rest of the rail bed trail went smoothly. After that we all played around on the lower rock garden, which also went well. Greg hit a hill climb by the lower rock garden but I don't know it's name. Nobody saw him run it but you could hear his motor from a pretty good distance. Sam gave it a try too but was denied. Nobody else gave it a go. This is Sam on one of his attempts.
Next up was can opener/upper rock garden. The can opener section was more dug out than I had seen it before so the rocks were "bigger". For whatever reason my rig seemed to fit better and it went smoothly. A few other guys mentioned that it went better for them than it had in the past. After that trail I noticed that my drain plug was damaged. I thought that the head of the bolt was ripped off and the body (threaded section) had been pushed up into the housing. It turns out that it was actually the magnet that was pushed into the housing. Greg helped me pull the flanges and then I went back to camp to tear down the front axle (pulled inner axles, rotors, spindles, third member etc.) to get the magnet out of the housing.
Here's the culprit:
After that was back together I joined up with everybody for a little night wheeling. We raced around the mountain at mach 1 for a little while then went to a rock garden called white tail. (I think) I was last in line an everybody seemed to be running it pretty smoothly but I broke a rear axle shaft. Even just one year ago being along and broken on the mountain would have made me pretty uneasy. However, it was warm, I had a PB&J sandwich, and water. I figured I was fine for a long time and started using my winch and a small tree to get myself up the hill. I was almost out when Greg came back to check on me and tugged me the rest of the way. (Thanks Greg)
The axle was damaged at Uwharriecross and I asked on a few different forums and I wrote to Bobby Long. Everybody said to run it. The correct answer was "Replace it, you'll be lucky if it lasts two trips." I wasn't really getting on it or anything, it was just weak. Before:
After:
So I got the axle shaft out on Saturday morning, put in a spare, and rejoined the group. This time I went wheeling with Cassidy and Eric (probably not known on this forum) but it wasn't long before I realized my rear locker wasn't engaging. The indicator light said it was fine but it certainly wasn't locked. With that, I decided that three problems was enough for one trip so I broke camp and headed home. I'll get my lazy butt off this couch in a few minutes to take apart the rear axle and figure out why the locker isn't working. With luck, I won't need any parts and I'll be back at Harlan next weekend.
I'd say that was the turning point of his weekend. Anytime yall want to come back, let me know.
