Wheelin' at Prairie City (Sacramento) [**pics and video inside]

[Revivalist]

Had some fun yesterday out at Prairie City in Sacramento, CA. . . . I was looking forward to checking out this OHV park for a while. It had some nice rocks and steep hills to play on. . . . a nice change of pace since all we have are snow trails around here in Fresno right now. . . .

Like most OHV parks, it’s not really as fulfilling as being on a good trail out in the mountains. But at least I could do some rock-crawling instead of snow-wheelin for a change. . . .

The only thing is that I couldn’t air down my tires because I forgot to bring my Power Tank and I didn’t want to get back on the street with low PSI. . . . So I just did what I could on 35PSI. . . .

I started by exploring some of the little trails. . . They had some fun little hills. . .





Then I went on to check out the rock piles. . . . Of course, I had to get the poser shot. . . .








I figured I’d see if I could crawl over the whole length of the rock pile. . . .











Just for fun, I decided to take some video clips. . . . But I was out there alone for most of the time so there was no camera man. . . . I just kept putting the camera on a any flat rock I saw in front of me and let it run. . . . So here’s a little video I put together highlighting some of the fun. . . .


http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...movie100mb.flv


Unfortunately the end of the day didn’t turn out so good. . . . . After playing on the rock pile, we decided to go climb the stair-steps hill obstacle. (Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of it.) . . . On my first try up the stair-step hill I BLEW UP MY REAR DIFF!!. . . .

It happened while I was rolling backwards. I was trying to back up so I could get a little more momentum. While I was backing up the rear starting bouncing a bit, and then one of the rear wheels fell in a little rut and suddenly I heard "SNAP"! . . . . I was in the lowest gear. So I think that falling in the hole put a sudden forward torque on the wheel but the drive shaft wouldn’t budge in the low gear so the ring & pinion gave out instead. . . . I’ll be pulling out the 3rd member tonight and taking it over to Marlin Crawler. . . .

Speaking of, I remember him telling me once that the R&P gears are always weaker going in reverse for the rear differential. . . . I guess I should have been more careful to go veeery slowly while backing down the hill. . . . .Live and learn I guess. . . .

[snook]

sick dude..ya i love prarie city i go and ride there all the time

[banthis]

Good job faggin up tacoma TECH.

[red90runner]

sweet rig, but that was the most painful 4wheeling video I have ever watched. The music made me want to go find the fastest moving car I could and jump out in front of it.

[Revivalist]

Well, the carnage report is in . . .

I just got through pulling the 3rd member and axle shafts. . . . It turned out that the rear passenger axle shaft snapped. . . .





It always amazes me how those things snap off so smooth. . . .





The 3rd member seemed to be ok except the adjusting wheel was a bit warped and the broken piece of the axle needed to be slipped out. . .





From what I can tell, the r&p gears seem alright also. . .





I'll take everything over to Marlin's tomorrow morning and see what he says. I'm thinking that maybe I need to get some chromoly shafts for the rear. I would rather not have to repeat that experience again. . . .

[The Rockslut]

Is that a crack on the machined surgace of the carrier or just a hair?????

[Shefron]

Originally Posted by Revivalist

Well, the carnage report is in . . .

I just got through pulling the 3rd member and axle shafts. . . . It turned out that the rear passenger axle shaft snapped. . . .





It always amazes me how those things snap off so smooth. . . .





The 3rd member seemed to be ok except the adjusting wheel was a bit warped and the broken piece of the axle needed to be slipped out. . .





From what I can tell, the r&p gears seem alright also. . .





I'll take everything over to Marlin's tomorrow morning and see what he says. I'm thinking that maybe I need to get some chromoly shafts for the rear. I would rather not have to repeat that experience again. . . .

Man I know that sinking feeling in the stomach. I blew up the front diff but turned out just to be a bearing failure. Replaced bearing and was good to go.

Looks like it's time for a full floater conversion kit

[Revivalist]

I was just thinking of upgrading to chromoly shafts. . .

Where can I get more details on this full-floater conversion kit?

[2oldtosk8]

Originally Posted by red90runner

sweet rig, but that was the most painful 4wheeling video I have ever watched. The music made me want to go find the fastest moving car I could and jump out in front of it.

Originally Posted by banthis

Good job faggin up tacoma TECH.

Why you guys gotta be jackasses?

[Revivalist]

Originally Posted by The Rockslut

Is that a crack on the machined surgace of the carrier or just a hair?????

It wasn't a crack. But thanks for looking out. . .

Originally Posted by 2oldtosk8

Why you guys gotta be jackasses?

Don't worry about it man. . . . There's always gonna be people who act/talk like that. . . .

Anyhow, I took the 3rd member and broken axle to Marlin's. He's gonna lend me a stock axle. I'm thinking about going with some chromo-moly axles when he gets them in. . . . The thing is that eveyone I talk to say that its extremely rare to break a rear axle, even stock. . . . So I don't know if I want to spend the extra $420! . . . .

I also thought about going with the full-floater conversion but most people (including Marlin) don't suggest it because it doesn't really offer a lot of advantages. Sure I can change out axles more easily and the load is transfered to the housing rather than the shaft itself. But since rear axles don't usually break, it doesn't really seem worthwhile to me. Especially for the price.

[Buddha]

Welcome to the club my friend.

I too broke an axle in the exact same spot, just after the splines. My advice . . upgrade. I stepped up to the full float/disk brake option and I will never go back. I can't stand drum brakes! If you don't want to spring for the full float set up, at least upgrade to chromo shafts in the rear.

Tim

[Revivalist]

Ok, that makes sense. I think I will go for the chromos when they are available from Marlin. I'd rather buy from him since he's local, he can help with the labor of pressing them, and because he's just an awesome guy. The whole crew over there has always been so friendly and helpful. . . . For now I'm gonna put in a stock axle that Marlin is lending me. . . . Hopefully they get those chromos soon. . . .

As for the full floater, I just can't see enough benefit to justify the price. I figure that if the chromos will never break anyways, then the only advantage is the disc brakes as you mentioned. But the whole conversion is gonna be at least $700 plus the price of the chromos. . . . Is it worth it? . . .

One more thing . . . I would like to get rid of that stock e-brake line in the rear. When I was done wheelin', I saw that I bent it upward which put tension on the brake line. That means the e-brakes were being applied that whole time without me even knowing it. I really hate that e-brake design. I was thinking about getting the t-case e-brake from All Pro but someone suggested an even better idea . . . line locks. . . . He said that I could install line locks for the front and rear so that I could just push the brake pedal all the way down, flip the toggle switch for the front and back, and have a 4-wheel e-brake. . . . That would be stronger than stock and it would get rid of that pesky e-brake line in the rear . . . Any comments on that?

[]4RunnerKid[]

sucks about the breakage... but at least you're finding the weak points in the rig. glad to see prairie is still open. i used to go out there all the time... i'll have to make a trip out there next time i'm up north visiting the parents. any good crawling out there now? last time i was there i think there was one or two small rock gardens, but that was it. i heard some bigger shit was in the works... but who knows.

[gunmetalxj]

I didn't really catch when you broke or how? Any video or pics of the break?

[sharpie1k]

nice taco. If you are ever up in the area again at Prairie, gimme a PM. I go there once a month or so to shakedown some crap. Granted, I drive a heep, but we can be friends