• Jack-it Night: April 2024 RS Meeting Hey Guest: Wed. April 3rd is the next Rising Sun meeting, and you won't want to miss it. We're doing our annual offroad recovery equipment demonstration and trail skills training aka "Jack It Night." Meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. (early) Click here for all the details.

Not really a club run, but Billings Canyon 10-22

leiniesred

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I'll try to have a friend send some pictures, but I ran Billings Canyon on Saturday.

I got strapped once, early, but now I'm sure I could have made that as I didn't get strapped/again after that. I learned some new to me techniques on this trail.

"beyond crawling ledges" (double down 2nd gear, steer into it and floor it.)

It is OK to spin tires on dusty rocks. You just have to to get the dirt off before the truck will move.

Rocking truck only a fraction of an inch with the clutch/rollback/clutch/rollback technique is often enough in those "can't steer" situations to get the sterring wheel to turn.

Having extra eyes around can prevent a big problem. (I almost drove the right side into a 4 foot deep hole off a rock.)

I ran this with a bunch of full width, 1 ton axled buggies with little or no body panels and a built Rover D90 which also featured the requisit Dana60 rear axle. I had the smallest tires at 36, the rover had 37s and the rest were BIG.

Damage:
I did loose a taillight and beatup the right rear QP. I yanked off my front bumper corners with my hand because the tires rubbed on them a lot and annoyed me.
My gas tank is now more inverted U shaped than ever. I ground the weight off my rear driveshaft on a rock so I have a slight vibration back there.

Oh, and EVERY piece of protection on my truck got used on rocks.
Frame rails, t-case skid, rear bumper, sliders, diff cover, my front spring hangers, rear spring hangers, springs, axle housing, diffs, etc all have rock chalk on 'em. The front diff (high pinion) didn't lose any paint and the front driveshaft didn't find any rocks, but the rear DS and diff were on LOTS of rocks.

You don't NEED a winch for this trail as no one used one in our group or the group ahead of us. I would say 35s, not just 33s and up. And with <40s you'll probably have to stack a couple of rocks in 3 places Be sure to UNSTACK! and please don't stack rocks at the gatekeeper. If you can't make that spot (there are no winch points there for a reason) you really should turn back. The trail gets much more interesting after the first 1/2 of a mile. (total length is only 1.2 miles.) Also, the group ahead of us pinched a winch power line between the body and a bumper on a jeep causing a dead short that burned up 2 optima batteries. The fire was extinguished 2x. CARRY FIRE PROTECTION!

Billings Canyon is a beautiful trail with good signage built and wheeled by wheelers who care. Yes, we did have and use a "spill cleanup kit" for some minor leakage on a Jeep (Fixed with a dime and some quickset JB weld I had in my truck.)

I would run this trail again. I think I could work around the tail light rock I hit without damage next time. (but probably take some damage someplace else!)

Hope to get pictures later, LeiniesRed.
PS The mountian biking in Fruita is GREAT!

 

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Red_Chili

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Sounds fantastic!

But...

sign_worthless.gif
 

J Kimmel

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cool pics!

I got wedged on 21 road, long story short, 3 winches to pull out, managed to smash both b-pillars and rockers ABOVE my sliders...we called that one the vise. Thank God for one ton axles, I'm still impressed I got so messed up and somehow managed to not break a thing.

You guys left just a little bit early!
 

leiniesred

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pictures from Jovan's camera

Props to Jovan for taking all the pictures.
-LeiniesRed

The second quad will take some sharp eyes. Take a look at the sequence (Top left/top right/bottom left/bottom right)
Notice jeremy showing off how to power out of an endo by riding a nose wheelie in his 4runner. WOOT!
 

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J Kimmel

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probably the strangest occurance was when we were stuck(I mean me) one of the girls that was with us came running around the corner of the canyon, and a huge moose was behind her. He came and checked us out and left! :eek:
 

leiniesred

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Jovan sent pictures of the MOOSE on 21 Road

Here are 2 of the moose pictures Jovan caught.
 

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leiniesred

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Damage report

It looks like a .250 walled rear driveshaft is next for me. I think mine is currently .188 and It isn't ROUND anymore.
 

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J Kimmel

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see if they'll cut us a deal on two :eek:

Can't see the out of round on mine till I'm moving:)

oh and there's the completely dented slip yoke.
 

Red_Chili

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That cannot be a moose. Everyone knows OHVs and wildlife are utterly incompatible... It must be Chris in a moose suit. OK, smartmouth Bill switching modes...

You are lucky the moose changed his mind! They are not nearly as, well, socially sedate as deer or elk. You could have ended up with far more than an arched gas tank!

For what it's worth though, every year we go elk hunting in an area that is one of the most popular 4x4 roads in Colorado. Lot's of em, though admittedly the OHV traffic is a bit light in November. They seem pretty nonplussed by vehicles, having habituated to them.

Hunters getting OUT of vehicles, on the other hand.... they hit the afterburners.
 

Red_Chili

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Oh, BTW Rudester, ask me to tell you about the time I got charged by a moose in Canada. And never knew it. Till later. Followed shortly by a change of shorts.
 

Hulk

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Mooses! Er, Meese? A whole lotta moose? Hmmm...

Years ago, I went with a group of friends on a backpacking trip on Isle Royale in Lake Superior (near Canada). We had set up camp and went for an evening hike. Isle Royale is so thick with growth that even the animals use the hiking trails to get around. As it was getting dark, a moose jumped out of the brush onto the trail in front of us and just stood there! We were worried he was going to charge us. We stamped our feet, clapped our hands, flashed him with the camera flash, everything we could think of to dissuade him of the notion that he should come our way. We had a little stand-off for maybe 5 minutes (it seemed lots longer at the time). Eventually, he turned around and took a giant leap back into the forest.

Isle Royale is one of the lushest places on the Earth. It's like a North American rain forest.

There are a few other good stories to tell from this trip, but it will have to be verbal, so I can deny everything later. ;)
 

Uncle Ben

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Since this thread has already been hijacked to moose stories...

My moose story came from just last year. I was up near Tabernash scouting some area I haven't been to before. I found this powerline road that was very steep and the snopw was 12+ inches deep. I was turnin and burnin in Longgrain making fresh tracks in the snow (previous attempts by lesser vehicles had stopped way back at the beginning) and just as I reached the top of the hill I spotted movement. At first I thought they were Elk until I rounded the corner and seen this mamoth of a moose directly ahead of me. I snapped this pic through the windshield as I was still throwing snow hard and couldn't stop. The pic does this animal no justice! The snow here was at least 2 foot deep and it wasn't even up to his knees! After stopping about where he is in the pic I looked around. Lokks like there was at least 5 of them bedded down on the road I just came up and so rudely interupted! Monster size animals! dang cool thing to see!!!!!!!!
 

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Hulk

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Moose is big

Uncle Ben said:
The pic does this animal no justice!

The moose picture that I took on my Isle Royale trip had the same problem. You just can't tell how huge the animal really is. That one has a full rack too!
 
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