yankee 112308

[nuclearlemon]

had a great time. got a bit of a late start, not pulling out of the parking lot, or what was the parking lot before gilpin cty filled it with huge piles of rock (don't know where we're gonna wheel if we get good snow again), until 9:30. by 10:30, we were pulling onto the road. yep, not a lick of snow to be found. we stopped at the top for a photo op....ignore the sun....rudy's not dancing with joy for the nice weather...he's trying to keep from freezing something off

from there, we headed off to loch lamond. only other time i'd been up there was when the farmboys hitched up and we made it the extra forty feet. this time, we made it all the way to the lake. bit more snow...still f'n cold! the shot of the waterfall should tell ya that tho. one lone ice fisherman was out there freezin' his...well you know the rest.

lexi was having a blast, as was dakota...glad i brought them

 

[nuclearlemon]

this innocent little tree was the only obstacle outside of two or three drifts. all did fine going over, but coming back, myself and yoder got stuck trying to crawl over it. a little throttle and we popped over. rudys rig, of course, laughed at the little tree.

good shot of yoder coming down the hill. not slippery at all, but a little pucker factor from being off camber and steep downhill.

from loch lamond, we headed for kingston peak. we were torn between trying to clear the road and the lack of time to actually get anywhere when someone pointed out we were on the wrong road anyways

finally on the right track again, we found ourselves heading into fog,

 

[nuclearlemon]

which would turn to snow, which would turn to white out conditions

see if you can spot the fjc in front of me.

need a little help?

look at the next picture.

pic three isn't a camera issue...that's what i saw when i could see

this was the only really tough part (outside of seeing the trail in white out conditions). rudy made it through, but us low folks had to winch. and winch to the right all you want, your rig slid left and off the cliff

 

[nuclearlemon]

shortly after this, i lost my brakes

we found a leaking hardline and cut off fluid to it, but still no pedal. tried to bleed it a bit and still no pedal. needless to say, it was a long slow drive home and i'm pretty sure my tranny hates me now cause i made that puppy work.

some of the 80 guys might be see why my line went. for those non cruiser guys, a bit of background....there was a group purchase on mud for the 80 front right sway bar brackets. apparently the brake line is secured to them and when they break off, which apparently they do, they brake the line. my brake line wasn't secured to that bracket so i should've been fine. EXCEPT, the bend in the hardline sticks out those few millimeters too freakin' much and when the sway bar bracket broke, the head of the bolt that goes through the bushing must've caught the line.

learned that was design engineering mistake number one. design engineering mistake number two was the step backwards toyota took when they went away from the automatic adjusting e brake. design engineering mistake number three was when they decided it would be a great idea to make the ebrake only adjustable if you remove the wheels

remember...everyday is kick an engineer day (sorry matt). and if it's a little japanese guy who's just laughing his ass off at the pissed of american, kick him an extra time for me

 

[Romer]

I'm glad your fine Ige. I was very lucky on the Rubicon that only one of my mounts broke and I removed the swaybar all together to prevent that from happening.

Your truck should be fine. Remove the front swaybar and replace the lines. You can just get the front brackets from Landtank if you want them and save some $$$, or you can run without a swaybar.

 

[Hayes]

We were over on Yankee when you were running Kingston(I think)...

We caught some of your CB chatter about the brakes, sorry to hear but glad you made it home safe.

 

[rover67]

looks like it was fun!

sorry bout' the brakes Ige.... glad you made it home fine

 

[JadeRunner]

Spectacular run! I had a great day. It was a triple run. Yankee, Loch and Kingston. There were 4 of us. Steve, Ige and Brian in his FJCruizer. I liked Brian's Mickey T Mud Terrains and might have to buy a set cause there're different and cheaper..

Yankee was dry. We made it to the top with a strong cold wind. Headed to Kingston, then I decided we should check out Loch Lomond which was just up the road. It was open and I took us around the Loch loop. The main road back down was gated so we headed up through our first snow conditions and checked out the Lake. We then had to take the loop back down again, then went on to Kingston Peak. We encountered a blizzard up top but the snow smoothed out the bumpy road a bit. Coming off timberline towards he north side was tricky. We hit a deep snow stretch.

In the pictures you see of us stuck. What doesn't show is the fact that we were close to tipping over and rolling down. I let Steve lead coming down. He was able to blast through this drift clean, but Ige got squirley and was teetering on the edge. Steve strapped her but she kept sliding and was very precarious. She did what she had too to back up a little and power straight up the hill to right herself. Ige didn't think much of it but I was watching the whole thing was quite concerned in what I how tipsy she was. It would be a long roll down.

Brian hit it and got sucked into her tracks. I did not want to see the same precarious thing happen. I insisted on getting Ige backed up close enough for the winch to get a direct angle up. Winching the engine back up onto the road was the key and I knew it. With the winch doing the work we got his front end up and he was safe.

I was concerned we could hit another obstacle and have to come back through. The only winch point up here are other vehicles. So we sent Steve up ahead the ensure we could make it off the mountain. That's where the Ham really came in nice and clear as he disappeared around the ridge. Steve gave us the go ahead so I hit it.

I flew into the same tracks and buried myself on the side of the road like the others. I had to climb out the window to hook up the winch. Then I couldn’t get the seat belt on due to the incline which was a bad feeling. I winched off Brian at as a steep an angle as possible and carefully got back on the road. That was a good feeling.

Then, when we started to move again on the shelf in the blizzard and Ige couldn't get her 80 started. Thank goodness it was a quick battery connection issue. At the next stop, Ige's reports she has no brakes. She broke a line or something and had to use her e-brake to get home. We worked on it the best we could. She had to limp home on her e-brake. I heard her on the Ham as I was pulling the garage so I know she's fine.

 

[JadeRunner]

more

 

[JadeRunner]

and more

 

[Hayes]

Who was driving the first gen?

 

[leiniesred]

Who was driving the 1st gen?

That rig is so old and has so much trail-time; it drives itself these days.
I just sit in it and mess with the radio.

-LeiniesRed

 

[bh4rnnr]

Looks like a fun run! Ponderd going, but ended up oversleeping. Next time.

 

[subzali]

Wow! Looks like a great time! Wish I could have been there!

 

[AxleIke]

Awesome!

Pics never due trails justice. Gotta say, none of the trucks look tipped at all. I'm sure it was spooky in person.

 

[Uncle Ben]

Awesome!

Pics never due trails justice. Gotta say, none of the trucks look tipped at all. I'm sure it was spooky in person.

I thought the same thing but I know exactly where that spot is and the picture definitely did it no justice!

 

[Crash]

That rig is so old and has so much trail-time; it drives itself these days.
I just sit in it and mess with the radio.

-LeiniesRed

Heard any Rattlesnake Pete late Steve?

 

[corsair23]

I thought the same thing but I know exactly where that spot is and the picture definitely did it no justice!

Eh...It isn't even dark - Point the other way and imagine Nakman there, in the dark, trying to bust through on the Spooky Night run 2 years ago. I thought he was going for a painful ride, sideways down the hill

The picture definitely doesn't do that spot justice.

 

[J Kimmel]

looks cold nice to have a heater

 

[nakman]

And precisely why we didn't try to take 24 trucks through there a few weeks back.. however it's good to know that if you can make it past that one spot, you can do the whole thing, eh? Glad you guys all got out of there safely.