First, I had a great time as always. Thanks to everyone who put time and effort into making it a success.
On Saturday after the instruction period the 201 group started out as one bug group of 17 vehicles. This turned out to be too many in one group so after doing wahoo we split up into two groups. I led the group who wanted to do Corum which was
Charles Galpin and dog - '94 D90 on 33's
Allen Myers & kids - 07 2DR JK 35s
Patrick Wilson - 2012 JKUR with 35 KM2s
Patrick "ping pong" Martin - 87 XJ mostly, 37's
Virgil Moore and Bradley - 98 xj 35s
Doug Stephens and dog - LR Disco 2 on 35's
Loic Fabro - D90 / 33"
Edward Salas & Rob Cavaleri - 2005 TJ on 35's
Things went well up Corum with some spotting. At one point Allen damaged a valve stem so we swapped his spare in. It was a good learning moment that the stock jack is actually quite useful for tire changes, and safer and easier than ratchet strapping the axle to the frame and using a high lift. At some point Virgil broke the outer axle shaft in the right front and had to winch a little to complete it. We later found out Patrick Wilson had broken a shock and damaged his driveshaft which have a nice spiral shaped dent in it :) After Corum Virgil went back to camp and we went down Cobra, where Allen decided to head back to camp. The rest of us ran trickle and decided to call it a day.
Chip, Doug and I took the dogs for a swim and were approached by a young man from camp 6 who needed help welding a sheared lower control arm and the office had suggested he talk to us since they knew we could do trail welding. Chip and I went and took care of that for them. I should have taken pictures but didn't (all day). Let's just say I wouldn't want my name associated with those welds (I need to add some thinner rods to the kit) but I hit the bracket with a BFH a few times after to test it and would have risked my life driving home on it. Hopefully he made it home ok :) The weather held out all day and we had a nice time at the camp fire that evening.
On Sunday the 201 group was smaller and consisted of the following:
Charles Galpin, Vance Middleton and dog - '94 D90 on 33's
Patrick Wilson - 2012 JKUR with 35 KM2s
Patrick "ping pong" Martin - 87 XJ mostly, 37's
Doug Stephens and dog - LR Disco 2 on 35's
Dana Gramling and family - '07 FJ Cruiser on 35"
Jim Atwell - Jeep Cherokee, 33 x 10.5
Morgan Franklin - 94 YJ 35"
Rich Quaye and passenger (sorry I forgot your name) - TJ Rubicon on 32's
Although I had originally hoped to run v-trail, a few of the group wanted to run something easier. In hindsight I should have just split the group and had the others join the 101 group on trickle, but Vance convinced us to go to squealer and sissy. I say this because on a Sunday morning I would prefer to do a known entity that had easy bailouts than go on trails I don't recall. It turns out squealer has gotten very washed out and after Dana watched me rub my rear quarter panel on a tree, and then my fender flare on a rock was quite rightly concerned about body damage on his FJ. So we spent some time stacking rocks and threw a large log into a rut to keep the vehicle away from the tree. As he approached the obstacle a large rock started moving so we pushed it free and into the rut and then did a whole bunch more stacking of rocks to be able to go over it. Dana skillfully made it through and then the rest of the trail without a scratch. But this was rather time consuming and I had exceeded my monthly quota of exercise so we decided to turn the rest around (some could back out) and head back to camp. Vance found it educational and I hope the others did too. All in all it turned out ok, but the main lesson learned is go with what you know on Sunday morning, or go easy :)
charles
On Saturday after the instruction period the 201 group started out as one bug group of 17 vehicles. This turned out to be too many in one group so after doing wahoo we split up into two groups. I led the group who wanted to do Corum which was
Charles Galpin and dog - '94 D90 on 33's
Allen Myers & kids - 07 2DR JK 35s
Patrick Wilson - 2012 JKUR with 35 KM2s
Patrick "ping pong" Martin - 87 XJ mostly, 37's
Virgil Moore and Bradley - 98 xj 35s
Doug Stephens and dog - LR Disco 2 on 35's
Loic Fabro - D90 / 33"
Edward Salas & Rob Cavaleri - 2005 TJ on 35's
Things went well up Corum with some spotting. At one point Allen damaged a valve stem so we swapped his spare in. It was a good learning moment that the stock jack is actually quite useful for tire changes, and safer and easier than ratchet strapping the axle to the frame and using a high lift. At some point Virgil broke the outer axle shaft in the right front and had to winch a little to complete it. We later found out Patrick Wilson had broken a shock and damaged his driveshaft which have a nice spiral shaped dent in it :) After Corum Virgil went back to camp and we went down Cobra, where Allen decided to head back to camp. The rest of us ran trickle and decided to call it a day.
Chip, Doug and I took the dogs for a swim and were approached by a young man from camp 6 who needed help welding a sheared lower control arm and the office had suggested he talk to us since they knew we could do trail welding. Chip and I went and took care of that for them. I should have taken pictures but didn't (all day). Let's just say I wouldn't want my name associated with those welds (I need to add some thinner rods to the kit) but I hit the bracket with a BFH a few times after to test it and would have risked my life driving home on it. Hopefully he made it home ok :) The weather held out all day and we had a nice time at the camp fire that evening.
On Sunday the 201 group was smaller and consisted of the following:
Charles Galpin, Vance Middleton and dog - '94 D90 on 33's
Patrick Wilson - 2012 JKUR with 35 KM2s
Patrick "ping pong" Martin - 87 XJ mostly, 37's
Doug Stephens and dog - LR Disco 2 on 35's
Dana Gramling and family - '07 FJ Cruiser on 35"
Jim Atwell - Jeep Cherokee, 33 x 10.5
Morgan Franklin - 94 YJ 35"
Rich Quaye and passenger (sorry I forgot your name) - TJ Rubicon on 32's
Although I had originally hoped to run v-trail, a few of the group wanted to run something easier. In hindsight I should have just split the group and had the others join the 101 group on trickle, but Vance convinced us to go to squealer and sissy. I say this because on a Sunday morning I would prefer to do a known entity that had easy bailouts than go on trails I don't recall. It turns out squealer has gotten very washed out and after Dana watched me rub my rear quarter panel on a tree, and then my fender flare on a rock was quite rightly concerned about body damage on his FJ. So we spent some time stacking rocks and threw a large log into a rut to keep the vehicle away from the tree. As he approached the obstacle a large rock started moving so we pushed it free and into the rut and then did a whole bunch more stacking of rocks to be able to go over it. Dana skillfully made it through and then the rest of the trail without a scratch. But this was rather time consuming and I had exceeded my monthly quota of exercise so we decided to turn the rest around (some could back out) and head back to camp. Vance found it educational and I hope the others did too. All in all it turned out ok, but the main lesson learned is go with what you know on Sunday morning, or go easy :)
charles