[SiS] Offroad Operation Enduring Realness III (OER III), August 6-8, 2010

[CT99XJ]

The local club I'm in (SiS Offroad) went to Rausch Creek for three days of wheeling, and with the intention of having participants bring supplies to make care packages for troops overseas. From my house to Rausch is 230-something miles- I figured I'd have to gas up at least once, but made it all the way there on three-quarters of a tank.

Pre-OER pic:


About 5 rigs met in Fairfield, CT and convoyed down to Rausch Thursday afternoon. We had to stop twice because my transmission decided to piss fluid onto my downpipe, but it happened after hard stop and go traffic, so we attributed it to the tranny being overfull, fashioned up a baffle to keep the fluid from dripping onto the downpipe, and kept going.

People showed up all through the night, ending with about twelve to fifteen rigs by Friday morning, with another four or so showing up before we set out to wheel. People split into three/four groups based on trail difficulty- as this was my first time down there and really the first serious wheeling I've done, I started in the easy group.

The group right before setting out:


First shot of the day:


No pics, but my upper radiator hose developed a pinhole above the clamp on the thermostat housing on the Pole Line, so I cut it an inch shorter and remounted it. Forgot to let the system burp itself and minor overheating plagued me throughout the rest of Friday.

Got to play on the Comp Course a bit:

[CT99XJ]

Watched some of the harder groups attempt Jotter's Way, Shoot the Moon and Crawl Daddy. Most pics here are from Shoot the Moon:













My rig was having SERIOUS overheating problems now, so we trail-fixed my e-fan and limped back to camp. Once there, I swapped in a new fan clutch (mine was completely fisted) and let the cooling system burp itself for about half an hour. Once that was done, a few of us went back to play on the comp course:





This picture was taken at the two-stepped section of the shock-crete mound. It took me a few attempts, but I got my front end on the top.

[CT99XJ]

Just because it was an epic shot:


The entire group (minus a few rigs) parked on the comp course for a group shot:





Oh, and Erik Miller happened to be there with his KOH buggy filming a promotional shoot:




Drive home was reasonably uneventful, aside from almost getting mashed into Jersey barriers by a tour bus that decided to merge into me at 65 miles an hour; once I finished ting a sideways brick, everything went smooth.

Or as smooth as two shot D30 U-joints, a fisted right-side unit bearing, and wicked toe-in can run ::

But I'd do it again in a fawking heartbeat

[Mudderoy]

Lots of great pictures!

[CT99XJ]

A list of all the carnage discovered so far:

both D30 U-joints

Right unit bearing

Scratches on Riddler cover, 8.25

Sliders scratched, dented, and otherwise abused

Right rear door met a tree and has some rash

Right front of bumper took a small hit when I slid off a wet rock and into a small tree, it shifted the bumper on its brackets and the right side sits higher than the left

Right front fender met a tree branch and got a gouge on the front corner

Right uni-rail has a ten-inch-long dent in it about 1/8" deep

T-case skid did its job many a time

Cargo carpet has been removed because of ATF spill (at least it won't rust now!)

Rear bumper tagged a tree and a few rocks

Left LCA bracket took at least one hit, not much damage but some scratches

Front diff cover took a hit

Steering is a bit out of alignment

[cantab27]

cool pics mate ..cheers for the post .....

[CT99XJ]

I found some new damage from this run- my crossmember is caved in in two spots. Still structurally sound, but no longer shaped how it oughta be.

Time for a belly skid, methinks.

[oderdene]

fantastic pics and great jeeps, thanks for sharing

[4.3LXJ]

Nice pics and looks like lots of fun there. Looks like now you have been bitten the the Jeep bug again and will be making more improvements for next time.