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Pics and story from Rubicon this weekend

2K views 26 replies 13 participants last post by  rockcrawlinredneck 
#1 ·
I was up there with Glen (rockthedog), Clint (88 Mangler), Bill (bkcruiser), Bill (cardinal fang), Steve, Jim, and the Ricks. This is my story...

We arrived at the campsite at about 3:30 on friday and after unloading the cruiser and setting up the tent it was more like 4:30. After such a long drive on the various highways through Auburn, Cool, and Georgetown, we were itching to get on the rocks. We headed out with a 4runner on 35s with a solid axle and an old chevy pickup on 42" iroks. The guys in the chevy were a father-son team and the son had recently moved back to California from Georgia. They were both named Rick, this made things easier to remember. They were lots of fun. We decided to start at Loon lake and make a short loop back to the campsite by coming down and out Wentworth Springs. It started out simply enough. We were all experienced and had no problem cruising down the relatively simple trail. Going down wentworth is a little tricky due to its vague markings and my inexperience with it. The only other time I had been on that section of trail was in the middle of the night. Ihave no clue how Phil and I got through there before without getting lost. Everything was going well...

On my way down a ledge, I had heard a noise. It wasn't too loud, I had simply figured that my bumper hit a rock or something. I continued down the path but soon noticed that I couldn't turn left. Hmm...I better get out and take a look. My steering box had pulled itself off the frame.

Uh oh.

That is one of my biggest fears below the knuckle studs breaking. How do you fix this? Only 2 of the 3 bolts had broken so it seemed that a heavy helping of ratchet straps was in order. I had one on there and it moved a little back into place but the fix was definitely not going to get me back to camp. Josh gets in there and has the bright idea to use the winch. 9500lbs of
pulling versus 500 on a ratchet strap has to work. And it did. I was able to make it all the way back to camp with no other problems. Of course, the box wasn't lined up perfectly so the steering shaft would get hung up on the frame crossmember as it was going on to the steering box and temporarily suspend my ability to steer. After some wiggling, it would again be free and
I was able to steer. Josh and I feasted on Kielbasa and Chili that night. Don't ever choose to eat that meal with Josh. Bad, bad news. Anyways, the task for the next morning was to get me back on the trail.

Luckily, Bill (bkcruiser) had converted a 12V cordless drill to connect to a car battery came in to save the day. My steering box mounts with 3 bolts. 2 are blocked from going all the way through the mounting plate by the frame. Amazingly, it was the one that was accessible that the threads had stripped out of. The top bolt had simply bent and the other bottom bolt head had broken off and was removable with my fingers. In order to fix the mount, I simply drilled the bottom hole that was stripped out to the next size and now have a bolt all the way through. The reason why it failed was due to the original bolt being way too short and not having enough thread engagement. The new mount is vastly improved. For safety though, I kept the winch wrapped around the steering box. Now it's time to wheel!

One of the guys with us, Steve, requested that we take the McKinstry bypass to get the Sluice Box faster to watch the action for lunch. 10 bumpy dirt road miles later and we're on the trail. We arrived at the Box without any problems. There were many snow drifts and huge puddles. For most of the trail, there was a little stream of water running down. As we passed soup bowl, on the way to the box, my eyes grew and I got excited. I would have to wait until after lunch to give it a go but I knew I had to give it a good try even though my steering box had threatened a safe journey home to Chico the previous day. The video of my first try ever is on YouTube but there was 10 minutes of lead up to that video of various tries and getting lined up. My second try up soup bowl was a failure. With the skid plate on, I just didn't have the clearance to make it. Since that second try, my wheelbase has grown by about 3.5" on both ends and the skid plate doesn't fit anymore so I'm running bare belly. This combination of factors created a situation that enabled me to drive up soup bowl faster than I'd ever seen. On our way in, I had watched a jeep built way bigger than mine spend quite some time bouncing around before finally making it up. My MT/Rs grabbed and got me up really fast. I thought I would be there trying to climb for a while and w as pleasantly surprised.

Rick in his Chevy on 42s went up after me and was able to gun it to the top after a few tries. His extra size and weight required more momentum but he was able to deliver it. The third and final one of our group to make the climb was Clint. His front tires climbed up the second ledge with the help of 5 big boys and me pulling on a tow strap for extra traction. It was his first time up after not making it one time before. He was as excited as I was after making it up.
 

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#4 ·
nice story ben,breaking stuff seems to be a common problem:shaking: but back to the garage and alittle surgery we wheel again, and so on and the process starts over:laughing: its a passion. i cant wait to get mine done and make a trip. front end looks sweet, u test ur tube against anything aloung the trip?
 
#7 ·
nice pics ben. had a great time.
 
#11 ·
i thought it was too ross.... but it isnt the box, its a spot on the wentworth side of the trail


fun trip by the way....we ate like kings, i brought my buddy dan that has never been crawlin . hes building a one ton rig so it was time for him to get his feet wet....... he cooked some killer meals , so i guess i'll be bringing him again:grinpimp:


notice the vice grips on clints brake line next to the broken studs? his ss braide line got pulled aprt the day before.......

clint i want my vice grips back:D


good tune up for rubithon..... i think i'll be planning this every year.
 
#15 ·
looks like a good time

knorrs boys (flaked out )):shaking::shaking: -------
I"m depressed now !! good video Ben , see you guys soon !!
 
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