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View Full Version : Rausch Creek (PA) 10-26-09



2000XJ
11-03-2009, 04:37 PM
Last Sunday (10/26/09) I went wheeling with the NJJC. I met some guys from NAXJA there coincidentally, but they were going to stick to Green and Blue level trails. My group ran blacks pretty much the whole day.

No major carnage to report. I lost an exhaust clamp on one trail, quick fix. Then on the last trail of the day I literally sheered the bolts of the tcase skid off, and had to remove it completely.

I'm happy to report that the tcase is working absolutely flawlessly.

Here are some pics from last weekend's wheeling trip to Rausch Creek in Penn.

http://zyzed.com/rausch_10-25-09/images/IMG_0707.jpg

http://zyzed.com/rausch_10-25-09/images/IMG_0708.jpg

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_77WdSEps0vY/SuX_mCswC7I/AAAAAAAAjic/FMuxTX4M3oE/s640/IMG_5054.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_77WdSEps0vY/SuX_nMXPuoI/AAAAAAAAjik/ngpdWb7le9E/s640/IMG_5055.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_77WdSEps0vY/SuX_qBsDoYI/AAAAAAAAji0/8O7KxS2S5m4/s640/IMG_5057.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_77WdSEps0vY/SuYHvNf6IFI/AAAAAAAAjo8/RfQzupfdywQ/s640/IMG_5101.JPG


More pics can be found at the following two links:

Picasa Web Albums - Margo - YJ Maiden Voyage (http://picasaweb.google.com/margo.ferri/YJMaidenVoyage#)

Rausch Creek 10/25/09 (http://zyzed.com/rausch_10-25-09/index.htm)

2000XJ
11-03-2009, 04:38 PM
How the day ended:



Resting
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_77WdSEps0vY/SuYH5kjl47I/AAAAAAAAjr0/3PVBGFwPHmE/s800/IMG_5123.JPG



Well here goes.....

The day started off great. I hadn't wheeled in a while, and was itching to hit the trails. I went over the XJ tooth-and-nail the week before and it was 100% ready to rock.

I drove out to RC that morning with my buddy, then met up with a few other club members and we caravaned out... just like old times. The ride out was nothing but uneventful, thank God, and we all got to RC aired down, disco'ed, etc. - you know the drill.

We got to our last trail of the day and we got to this (the pictures don't do it justice):
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_77WdSEps0vY/SuYHtXS9pKI/AAAAAAAAjos/3Nji4VaQ-Ng/s640/IMG_5099.JPG

My friend, his buggy, and the swampers, wanted nothing to do with that rock, and no matter how much he made that V8 work, it wasn't making it. If his front ARB was functional he would've crawled right over it. So after heckling the crap out of him and his non-functional ARB, I had to put my money where my mouth was. I got lined up nice, and gave it hell a few times. The 33" tires just weren't enough to get me over, I kept getting high-centered - even at wide-open-throttle bouncing off the rev limiter. On my last try, one of the clamps on the exhaust came loose, and I lost the muffler and tail pipe. No biggie, just fell off, something that I could fix in the staging area before driving home. I took the by-pass so as to not to continue to push my luck.

Later down that same trail, we were crawling through another section when I literally sheered the bolts off of my tcase skid. At this point, I drew the line and called it quits. I pulled off to the side, removed the tcase skid completely, and threw in the towel, knowing that I'd be driving the rig home today, and that I had a flight to catch in the wee hours of the morning.

At this point, something in my other friend's Rubi D44 busted, and the axle wasn't trail-fixable. He made it off the trail under his own power, but 2/3 of the way back to the staging area he started to smell weird smells from the Jeep, so I towed him back. Nearly back at the staging area, Phil tells me to stop because my driver side tires are wobbling. I don't think anything of it because as I've been told by other senior members of the club "always check your lug nuts before you drive your rig home." I got out, tightened up all my lugs, and got back to the staging area.

This is when things got quite funky to say the least. My brake pedal got really mushy, so I had my friend who is a certified master tech take a look at all my lines, the reservoir, and drive it around. Everything checked out fine, I drove it again, and there were no issues at all.

I aired up, re-checked all of my lug nuts, did a top-down, front-back check of everything like I do when I drive it home and everything was A-OK - or so I thought.

We jump on the road as we're leaving RC, and I hear this really loud banging noise - sounds just like a loose rim after wheeling. Gee, I already tightened them, must be something else. I get out, and sure enough the driverside front tire is loose again (driver side rear was nice and tight - still). I look at it, because I swore that I was getting those damn lug nuts as tight as I normally do, but the tire was still wobbling while I had the axle on the bottle jack. Turns out that the mounting holes for the rims had all wallowed out. This actually destroyed the lug nuts on that unit bearing, damaged the unit bearing, and damaged the bolts that hold the unit bearing on.

I get the axle shaft and unit bearing swapped out for my pre-setup spare that I carry, throw the spare tire on, and get going.

We get up to the Paragon exit, fill up on gas, and then I get a call from my buddy asking me why I'm going Southbound instead of Northbound. I was tired, frustrated, etc. I turn around, get going on 81 Northbound this time at exit 141, and literally a mile onto the highway I heard:

BANG BANG PINK PINK, felt a nice shake and shimmy - along with a colorful variety of words that I said out loud. I quickly threw on the hazards, pushed gently on the brake because I knew that I lost a tire and didn't want to careen out of control. Since the rotor was loose, the caliper had nothing to bite, so I lost a little pressure on the brakes, slammed the trans into the 1/2 gear and pulled off the road.

It wasn't fun, I was beyond pissed. My two buds turned around after they got my call, and stuck it out with me until AAA showed up 1.5 hours later. I couldn't swap in my spare D44 axle shaft because the caliper looked like it was F-ed to say the least, the backing plate was bent to hell, and I had no other spare tire/rim to use at this point.

I made it home by 12:30, checked out the rim that was on the rear tire - and sure enough, that one too had all the holes wallowed out causing the failure.

In all honesty, I'm honestly extremely thankful that the tire rolled off to the side of the road about 20 yards in front of me and that my vehicle didn't go out of control - and that neither the XJ or the tire caused and accident or killed anyone.

In retrospect, it sounded alot worse than it turned out to be. The vehicle stayed pretty level and easy to maneuver due to the momentum and how well balanced it was. Once I got to about 20 MPH or less is when I finally felt and heard the tire-less rear touch the ground. At this point I was already far enough onto the shoulder where I was out of harms way.

Luckily less than 24 hours later I was on a beach in Mexico, in a pool overlooking the blue ocean with a heavily liquored drink in my hand, and doing this:

http://images2e.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp53838%3Enu%3D3439%3E789%3E256%3EWSNR CG%3D3283433857347nu0mrj

http://images2e.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp537%3C9%3Enu%3D3439%3E789%3E256%3EWS NRCG%3D328343385%3B347nu0mrj

I wish I had my XJ:
http://images2e.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp537%3C9%3Enu%3D3439%3E789%3E256%3EWS NRCG%3D3283435257347nu0mrj

Anyway.... it's all over now and I'm ready to jump back into the swing of things :rock:

Melissa
11-03-2009, 08:57 PM
WOW, that would be too eventfull for me, thanks for the story and I'm glad you were alright!!

AJ99
11-03-2009, 09:17 PM
wow man sounds like you had a good time. Glad your ok.

2000XJ
11-28-2009, 10:32 PM
I know I've been MIA for a few weeks around here, but I have been busy with work, interviewing for a new job, and with my Jeep Club stuff... but hopefully I'll be back regularly again!

Moving on....

Thanks guys! I did have a great time on the trail ride, and obviously a great time in Mexico.

All I have to say is that good friends always go a long way - it was great to have company until AAA showed up that night.