Fun in the Desert

Fun in the Desert – October 2011
We had four club members and one prospective member this year. Those attending were: Ric and Lisa, DuWayne and Tina, Mike and Lora, Rich and Corkey, and Steve Santa. The four OTR folk arrived Thursday evening and did a run on Friday. Steve got there Friday afternoon. Thursday during the night the wind blew REALLY hard and we put our slides in so as to be able to sleep and not worry about doing damage.
Friday
The Friday run was a loop called “The West Coast Loop”. This entails the start of Wrecking Ball, Bender Alley to Jackhammer North, then to the Mailbox on Sledge and out. We also had our friends Stu in his moon buggy and Steve in his FToy. They would only go with us to the end of Bender Alley and go do their own thing.
All was going well and we were having a nice day; that is until shortly after starting into Jackhammer. A couple hundred feet into the trail there was a bit of a waterfall. Ric was going up and lost traction and ended up on his side. There were no injuries, but Lisa was on the high side of the Jeep. We thought for a while it might be easier to get the rig righted with Lisa in it, but it was taking too long, so we got her out of the Jeep. The difficult part of the process was that we could not winch directly from the side of the Jeep. We used DuWayne’s winch, but our first attempt was not working. DuWayne was slipping in the sand and rocks, so we hooked up Rich’s FToy to DuWayne, so he would not slide. We also got DuWayne a bit closer to Ric’s Jeep. We used a High Lift on Ric’s roll cage to get it started to an upright position and also attached Mike’s winch to the rear. We would jack a bit, use DuWayne’s a bit and then Mike’s a bit. We were able to get Ric righted and were amazed at how little damage there was to the Jeep. He dinged the window frame, but did not crack the windshield and a little ding in the hood. The rear had body armour, so no real damage there. The driver side brake light might have some tell-tale signs to the event, but Ric was real lucky. The Jeep started right up and only smoked for a short time. He put a little oil in and we completed Sledge and got back to camp in time for cocktails with no further incidents.
Just before cocktails we all signed up for the Saturday runs.
Saturday
On Saturday the group split up in two. Rich was leading the Spooner run and the others did Aftershock.
Spooners
For the Spooner run there were only five other rigs. We left camp around 8:30 and were out of Spooners by 2:30. We had no breakdowns and it was a real nice group of folk. We had one father/son team that were really enjoying the trip. The dad would spot and the son followed directions; proving that some kids do listen to their dads. We did have one rig that caused the run to take a lot longer. He had Smittybilt sliders on the frame and those sure hung him up a lot. He also had a power steering pump that was not helping him too much. I am sure the sliders are gone as you all read this. Since it was still early, I enquired if the group wanted to go back to camp or wheel some more; they wanted to wheel. So on the way back we ran Boulderdash, Upper Big Johnson and Big Johnson and got back to camp before 4:30. What a great day. The weather was perfect.
Aftershock
After a good night's rest, Mike and Laura, Steve Santa, Ric and Lisa, DuWayne and Tina all lined up for Aftershock Trail. We left the dry lake bed at 8:00 in a group of about fourteen Jeeps led by John from Victor Valley 4 Wheelers.
As we were heading to the trail, I heard a sound like air escaping; sometimes loud and sometimes not. I thought it was coming from my Jeep but I had no idea where from since I don't have air lockers. Ric was behind me and I asked via the CB if it was coming from his Jeep... he said no he didn't hear anything. Well, it turned out it was from his Jeep, the roll over yesterday caused the air line feeding one of his air chucks for airing up tires to start leaking. It was in the front of his Jeep where he couldn't hear it (but I could!). We stopped and plugged it...fixed.
Right after we started up Aftershock, John the trail leader announced over the CB that he broke his tie rod. Thankfully, the guy immediately behind him had an onboard welding set up. It took about 45 minutes to get him going again. Then just as we were getting close to Depreciation Knob we heard on the CB that another Jeep had broken a tie rod and about the same time, John let us know he broke a front axle shaft. This time the guy with the broken tie rod was at the back of the pack. While John was removing the axle shaft (in preparation for completing the run in 3WD), the guy with the broken tie rod removed and brought it up the line and out came the welder again.
Kind of odd that we would have two broken tie rods and a broken axle shaft BEFORE we got to the most challenging obstacle, Depreciation Knob. It took a bit of time but we all made it up and over "The Knob" with no mishaps. The end of the trail was another couple hundred yards past Depreciation Knob. We then headed back to camp for margaritas or your other favorite drink, munchies, dinner, and bench racing. Another great day at Johnson Valley.