Tin Benders Jamboree

Tin Benders Clean Up April 2007

Cork and I attended the Tin Benders Clean Up this last weekend on Means Dry Lake. I got there Thursday morning, with the intention of helping some with the early clean up and building of a drag for the road. Ended up watching them build the drag from the old camp trailer that had been burned just the down the road from where we frequently camp. The first attempts at dragging the road showed that there was not enough weight on the drag. They put about three large tires on and it helped, but there were still a lot of whoops left on the road, but shorter.

On Friday morning Stu Crawford showed up with a coupe of friends. Stu had been on a couple of runs with the club. John Cary had forwarded an email asking if he could join the group. I communicated to him that the group was one rig and I would be happy to show him and his friends around on Friday. Well, they arrived around 8. Stu has a nice Rubicon (with only 3800 miles on it), that is pretty well equipped. He runs 36s. He had another friend, Curt, that had a TJ on 35s. Another couple came and were the passengers in the two rigs.

After meeting one another and airing down, we headed out. Took them to Big Johnson to get them warmed up. A couple of rocks got in the way, but all were mastered. Went down the sand slide and on to run Claw Hammer. Pointed out the new FOH trail. I had walked this trail a few weeks ago and it is pretty awesome.

Claw Hammer took a lot more work. We had a group catch up to us just before the top. I had taken my F-Toy over the top ledge, but felt they would be better off and safer taking the trail to the left. They agreed. The holes have gotten deeper and it is not so easy to get to the top. But we made it. At the top we had lunch and decided to do Sledge.

So, off to Sledge. I have run Sledge three times in the last couple of months and it was quite a bit harder this time. Plus, by this time of the day there were a lot of rigs on the trail. Some got impatient and decided to turn around. We kept on going. A bit before the plaque, Stu heard a loud pop. He had a hub fuse go. Finally a hub fuse that worked. Some might remember that mine did not a few years back and broke the ring and pinion on the CJ. Anyway, took a while to learn how to do the repair. We were having issues with getting all the splines to line up. Needed to unlock the locker, put the transfer case in 2WD and then you can easily rotate to get them in. We used the winch for Stu and Curt at the Plaque. Pretty much no more issues. We took the by-pass and back to camp. Probably a bit after 4 by now.

Curt and the other couple loaded up and went their ways. Stu spent the night. Garry Hall was also with us, but no rig.

On Friday the Tin Benders Clean Up was a huge success. They cleared out six cars. Three on the lake bed and three near where we had camped. Plus all the trash that had come from the trailer that was burned and became the donor for the drag. The had a very large trash bin on a flat bed for misc trash and a large pile of various metal that had been collected. I believe they made multiple runs to the dump. I would not be surprised that they were not able to get all of this out until Monday.

On Saturday Stu ran Outerlimits. Garry and I drove over to watch the fun on Back Door and Resolution. Stu’s day was very long. He did not get back to camp til after 5, leaving around 9 in the morning. The run started bad for the group of 17, when the leader was broke leaving the lake bed. The remainder ended up wandering for a while. Stu’s group of 4 found the trail and started up, but one of the rigs broke and had to go back to camp. The remainder of those finding the trail did not catch up to them until the end of Outerlimits.

Stu relaxed for a short while, loaded up and was gone before dark.

From our camp on the road before the drop we could watch the activity on the lake bed. There was never any significant wind the whole weekend to speak of. We had an occasional dust devil, but no sustained wind. Real clear sky. Late afternoon was real nice to sit in the shade of the motorhome with a drink in hand.

On Sunday there was a National Hare and Hound that went by the lake bed. Cork and I drove out to the check point and waved at my club members (and son) as they went by. Cork mentioned that this was the first time she was at a check and did not have to work it. After all the people we know went by, we headed out. I parked the motorhome off 247 near Bessemir Mine Road and we drove in to where the race was being staged to watch all the finishers (and to let mom talk to her son). It was really hot Sunday and there were a lot of guys who cut there races short due to exhaustion.