Friendly disclaimer - This is just a fair warning to anybody that decided to go wheeling with me. If I trailer my 4Runner, chances are good that everyone's rigs will not have any breakage and everyone will get home without assistance. But if I decide to drive my 4Runner, chances are somebody's luck is no going to be good and you'll be headed home via trailer or tow truck
EROCK wanted to get out wheeling before he had to head back to Canada. We really wanted to find some deep snow and go snow bashing. But the Central Mtns are having a weak snow season so far.
I left Pueblo @ 6:45am for EROCK's house. Max speed in my 4Runner is about 60-62 mph. At that speed, the front end hops very bad down the road due to the out of balance. Any sort of uphill grade would require a downshift to 3rd gear and 50-55 mph speeds.
I lost a D ring clevis on C-470, right before EROCK's Broadway exit. It must have vibrated itself loose. I went back to look for it but didn't find it.
We gassed up and headed to Central City. I had a full tank leaving Pueblo and burned 3/4 of it going from Pueblo to Denver (100 miles). That's about 10 mpg.
Pulling I70 in second gear, right hand lane, using EROCK as a blocker was also a ton of fun. I left it in 2nd gear, probably 5K rpm for 17 miles and 30 minutes pulling up the steep parts. Engine temp stayed rock solid, that's always a bonus. Even the Central City Parkway took 2nd gear for most of those 8 miles. Gotta love the 22RE :supz:
We met DIRTCO at the cemetery west of Central City. The wind was horrible all day. Like CUbuff4Runner said, if you don't have a good map of this area, good luck. EROCK had the traildamage.com GPS track in his GPS. We relied on that all day. Hardly any snow on the trail, super wind blown, 2-3" crust, and dry dry sugar snow under it. We did find a couple deeper drifts that we busted through but nothing major.
EROCK had alittle contact with a tree and his driver's side tire. I was right behind him and it didn't seem like that big of a hit. He was having some major issues climbing the next hill. He got out and found this....
That doesn't look good.
Broken driver's side high steer arm
EROCK trying to decide what to do for the trail fix
OBA works great for air tools on the trail
DIRTCO's super clean, newly built SC'ed 3rd Gen 4Runner on 35's
EROCK removed the ram from the tie rod
And took his tie rod from the high steer location and bolted it the stock steering location on the knuckles. If he would have broken the passenger side, this trail fix wouldn't have worked since the drag link attaches to the passenger side as well. We were glad it was the driver's side.
He thought he would be able to drive it home. It was still towed in bad and made for a darty drive through Blackhawk. We made it down Hwy 6 a couple of turns and he pulled off. It wasn't driveable. He called a tow truck and 2 hours later, he was loaded up and on his way home.
EROCK's tow ride home
I continued on my way to Pueblo after getting EROCK's Jeep back in the garage. It was a brutal drive home with my headlights barely working and pointed way outta wack and 55 mph speeds. Just remember for next time, if I'm towing, you will be fine. If I drive the 4Runner, you might want to think twice
