Elbe 01-0-08

[Gibby1]

Elbe 01-03-09

It was a long day of very little mileage....
The group left the campground heading for the busy. Jaydog and JRGaylor decided to run Sunrise and meet us over where the mainline starts. They ran into a few deadfalls across the trail that they had to clear out and about 400 yards in, JR's transmission puked all it's fluid out, starting a small fire where it hit the exhaust crossover. Jaydog was able to drag him out and back to the campground but it took at least 3-4 hours.

We of course had decided to press on since they were capable to getting themselves back to where they needed to be and we could still hear them on the CB.

While heading down the mainline, Buster, busted his rear driveline. He took the ears right off the driveline so a simple u-joint swap wasn't going to solve it. He pulled the driveline, we winched him around and pulled him back through to water/ice hole and were working on getting around him. The plan was for one guy to pull him back to his trailer and then head back out to meet us... That's when the fun really began.

A club guest, Kris, tried to slide around him and slide in to the abyss.

 

[Gibby1]

The Flop

I blame this on the spotter - me!
As he was trying to slide by I could see his rear tire start to slide out, so I yelled "HIT IT!" hoping that he could power his way through it since he was almost there. Well, the rear slide into the abyss and pulled the rest of the vehicle along for the ride.

And he's down.

Making sure everyone's OK and getting them out.

 

[Gibby1]

The recovery

Now understand something here... Chris looks to be sitting in about a foot of water only... At least that's what we thought.

Everyone got out safely.

He extraction was not so easy however as he doesn't have a cage up high to hook up to and there were no anchor points nearby to get a good pull.

It took us almost 3 hours to get him upright. We notched logs with a chainsaw - the first one just broke so we had to do it again. Pulled him out about a foot and flopped him right back in.

We found solid purchase farther up the hill and had him about 75" out when one of our straps gave way, and threw him back in the drink again.

I tried yanking him forward with my 12k winch, figuring that should pretty much pull him through anything, and it was... bu it killed 2 batteries before I was able to get him out. That sucker draws some CURRENT!

So finally we got him righted, fired it right up and after dispersing the cloud of blue smoke he was good to go.

By this time, it was getting later and we decided to take everyone back and try to run up Rainier Vista with the remaining crew. All we had to do was get me and another fulled locked yota back across the water hole... More on that later.

 

[Gibby1]

The recovery was challenging and we're glad that every vehicle in the group was fulled locked with good working winches.

Trying to find SOMEWHERE to anchor to pull him upright.

Making some progres, LOOK at all the cables in various positions.

One of the straps wasn't QUITE strong enough and back in he goes.

This is the inside of Kris' jeep looking in from the passenger window.

You can see that is a tough recovery.

 

[Gibby1]

Remember that hole that we thought only had about a foot of water in it...

I tried to cross the water hole from the angle that I was on and the truck kicked right, wanted to go through the hole that we just removed Kris from. Not wanted to stop half in an half out, I decided to try my luck at boating.

My son, Jackson said I could make it. That's what I get for listening to a 7 year old.

I was trying to cross this but the front tires headed right. Stay on the gas was going through my mind, not a good thing...

They told me NOT to turn right, so it just seemed like the thing to do :

Not my better side ;D

Removing the ice, it was in chunks 3-4" thick. The top of my bumper is about 48" above ground.

One of several times that I slipped and disappeared up to my butt in that icy, muddy mess.

The rear winch was not successful in pulling be backwards. It just pulled Snowgoon's truck forward.

This pic needs to commentary. I just plain need larger tires!

 

[zukkev]

Oooooops!!!:redneck:

 

[Gibby1]

My batteries were not in good shape as they'd not fully recharged, plus we could find the bottom of the hook to get free up front. We tried using the rear winch to pull me out backward but all that did was yank snowgoon's toyota towards the hole.

We finally got the hook free and I tried pulling out. Again, the batteries went and I let it go a little too long causing the engine to stall and I didn't have enough juice to restart. By this time my fan was hitting the water as was the serp belt so it was slipping on the alternator. The starter was also completely submerged.

We finally hooked up two 8k winches to my front bumper with snatch block to double the pull, did some fancy anchoring including help from another group to anchor the guys that were pulling. I was sure that my bumper was going to get ripped off. They got it up high enough out of the hole that with a jump I was able to get restarted and assist with driving out.

Now, it was time to go home... we thought.

 

[zukkev]

This story gets better? Do tell.....:corn:

 

[Gibby1]

We still had to drag Buster back with front wheel drive only.

There were several groups that had been stuck along mainline that day, sliding off the maintrail. Well you all know what what does. It just sucks your rig right off the trail into the soft stuff where the last guy was. We had to pull cable a couple more time to get everyone back to the campground. We found multiple spots where trucks had slid off he mainline and even the 9 road into the ditch, that we didn't see when we'd headed out that morning.

So, I get back to the trailer and I'm over heating... strange. I have low batteries without much time to recharge, I'm very close to over heating, snowgoon is with me and we need to air up his trail rig and the flat tire on my trailer. He's going to let JR use his trailer and follow in his trail rig - he's street legal but was at 3 lbs in his tires.

I'd turned my truck off to let it cool while we're moving things around, and then NOTHING when I tried to start it. We tried jumping, NOTHING so I figured that my starter got toasted in the water. With some creative use of jumper cables we got all the tires inflated and my rig winched up and secured on the trailer, about an hour or more later... Meanwhile, back at the ranch, JR was sitting in his rig playing a DS waiting for us to get back to haul him home.

It was a lot of fun with a great group of people :awesomework: , but not a lot of wheeling

When I got home, I threw the charger on the get the batteries back up to snuff and just for fun, tried to start it. It fired right up... Something's awry with my starter as it always seems to have problems when the engine is hot. Sure enough my coolant was low and I'd just topped it up before heading out. I'm going to have to replace my overflow bottle with a recirculating system. Markus just did his and I think it'll solve the problem of coolant just spilling out when it's running warm.

The engine is FULL of muddy junk. I think I'll take it into Crash to have him fix something. This would be just about the right time and it get's the best cleaning job that way:cheer:

 

[Gibby1]

We have a lot more pics to load. When everyone's standing around watching one rig, you know what happens. click click click click click click click...

These pics were all from snowgoon. Amy's just hooking up her camera now so that I can get her pics.

I know Toyrunner also took a bunch and he was with JR and Jaydog most of the day.

 

[crazybluerider1]

Sounds like you had a good time

 

[Horus]

Excellent story and pics Gibby. Thanks for sharing them. :beer:

Now I want to go wheelin. :booo:

 

[Fordzuki]

Great pics and commentary. :awesomework:

 

[KarlVP]

You know what they say.

"ELBE HAPPENS."

 

[Ceg]

Excellent story and pics Gibby. Thanks for sharing them.

X2. Wow!

 

[Bunk1]

Didnt read none of it....But it sure looks like ya'll went somewhere where you shouldnt have been. Carnage galore

 

[dirtygoat]

I just saw that hole on New Years Day...:redneck:

 

[Money Mark]

Didnt read none of it....But it sure looks like ya'll went somewhere where you shouldnt have been. Carnage galore

I'll break it dowm for ya.

Driver #1 "I can drive on/through ice covered, deep mud holes.......oh wait, no I can't."

Driver #2, 3 & 4 "I can winch you out......oh wait, no I can't."

*ten hours later.....*

:haha: :redneck:

 

[CHOP SHOP]

I'll break it dowm for ya.

Driver #1 "I can drive on/through ice covered, deep mud holes.......oh wait, no I can't."

Driver #2, 3 & 4 "I can winch you out......oh wait, no I can't."

*ten hours later.....*

:haha: :redneck:

"My First Winch" by MATTEL:cheer:

 

[okeedokee]

Nice pics thanx for sharing Don't listen to any one you guy had a good group and can go any where and try any thing .
Just cuz you guys where not there don't bash on somebody from pics
Duane