!MCR5! Story/Pic Thread

[mudaddict]

haha oh well ya it looked a lil sketch when i looked at it from below so oh well i had 2 spare birfs just took some extra time i didnt wanna spend workin on it.

[Hyena]

i take all the blame.  it would go well with the rest of my weekend.  i had to swtich out a whole nuckle right about old sluice saturday.  i was a little angry cause i had to do that last weeked to the other side.  it sucks.

[kiyul4130]

i have many pictures. if anyone wants full size ones that they liked that are clear and big let me know.
geno

glad im not him....

and i guess im glad im not him either.....  

helpin out chris

made it out..

[*** YELLER ***]

just a few pics for now story and more pics later

[MiniSimp]

Here's my long story:

Holy 

What a trail!!  I've never wheeled a trail so hard in my entire life, and probably won't ever do it again  I have to say first of all a big THANK YOU to Mark, without him my junk would still be sitting on the trail!  (I owe you dinner bro  )!

We got to the dam and everybody aired down.  We headed towards Gate Keeper were FFC's drive shaft slipped out, luckily Marlin had brought a long travel drive shaft and Mark welded that on.  Gate Keeper was fun I sucked  at the hill climb at the end of Gate Keeper but finally made it up.  The Slabs were fun but again I sucked  at climbing the stair step and crashed into a bolder backing down after not making it and almost damaged the box in the process.  After about my fourth of fifth try I made it up using the line on the right.

Watching Mark do Soup Can was fun, really glad you made it up  (I'll get you the video later).  The Little Sluice bypass was good until we got to the end when I watched FFC almost endo right in front of me, luckily Cruzilla was spotting for us (thanks Cruzilla  ) We all made it down safely    Right before we got to Big Sluice my right pivot block ripped off the axel, my left pivot had a crack going down the entire thing.  Fortunatly for me I was blocking the entire trail  and again Mark to the rescue  he jumped right on in there and was welding on the pivots and in about two hours we were ready to go.  Thank you to everyone who helped out with muscles and tools   I followed Black Dog and Blingin down The Big Sluice and that was a blast!  At the bottom after I changed my underware    we continued on to Rubicon Springs.  After not finding Dave (Old Yeller  ) I camped  at the Uni-Mog groups camp ground with my cousin Jessica since it was 1:30am and I didn't want to search for him anymore 

8am Saturday morning it was wake up Starbucks delivery Dave and Julie found us and they were only camped  200 feet from us across the river.  So we tore down our camp site, drove across the river and set up our tents with them.  After that it was about three hours of coffee drinking, story telling and bull  Then Dave had the bright idea  to try fishing but apparently 1 inch fish don't like marshmellows but the 4 inch crawdads did they grabbed the fishing lines with their claws and Dave brought them out of the water for a little ride.  What was funny was after they were put back in the water they would play dead and then scamper away backwards as fast they could once you touched them again.

Around 5:30 we went down to the springs for the BBQ raffle and Marlin.  Fireball was there with music ready and giving a speech    and asked some of the board members to come up and say a word about Marlin  luckily FFC was sitting front row and picked her right away to be first.  I proceeded over to the checkin booth picked up my tee shirts and packet and was very impressed to see Allpro stickers there.  I'm very glad to hear that both of you guys are helping each other out  Then in the chow line  and Dave and I had a short chat with Dave Wong and told him about the pivot blocks, he said "no problem those were the proto types I will give you a stronger set when you get back" which was very cool of him.  The food was the bomb  especially after a day of eating dirt.  By that time the sun was almost down and they were starting up the bonfire.  Immediately following the bonfire Marlin  got up and made a speech and then someone else got up and gave the history of the Rubicon.  The awards were handed out, one for longest distance traveled to get to the trail, which could only go to the Mammoths since they came from Florida  The other awards were, best equipped rig, hard luck award, and I can't remember the other one After that was the raffle and immediately after that we took off trying to beat the traffic back to the camp ground.  Once we got back we cooked up some smores on the camp stove, had a few beers  and then hit the sack  in preparation for the long day to follow.

I was told it was 8am (that was a serious lie) when Julie woke me up.  After breakfast and a cup of Joe  we packed up camp.  There were some Jeepers there and one of them needed a gear oil pump so I gladly lent them mine while he was using that I torked down my stearing arm nuts to 80 ft lbs after hearing about Brad's incident on Big Sluice and was correct to do so as mine were also loose.

As we started up Cadillac (sp?) hill there was a small hold up on the first obstical, so we waited for about 10 minutes and then we were off. I went though no problem, then OldYeller went up to the 3 rocks, and bent a main leaf. The main leaf pulled the DS of the axle forward making it so he couldn't turn left. After about 10 minutes of thinking what we could do to fix it, OldYeller said to just hook up the tow strap and pull him up. So I got the strap out of the Toyota for the first time and we hooked it up to both of his tow hooks. I started out kinda slow, but ended up pulling him up Cadallic Hill in Low/Low Second at 3K RPM all the way until the pull-out at the U-turn (about 1/2 way) Never thought a Yota could pull a full sized Blazer, luckily he was still under his own power, but it was still a huge challenge. After that we let everyone go by and opened up my hood to let my motor cool down. We unhooked the straps and continued up the hill to the lookout. On the way to the lookout my engine light came on and stayed on for about 10 minutes before it finally went off  After we took some pictures at the lookout we continued out the last part of the trail. I gotta say, those lakes are beautiful!

We stopped at the staging area to cool down again and take a bathroom break. We then headed down the highway towards South Lake. Maybe 20 minutes into the drive I heard a HUGE explosion in my rear axle. At first I thought it was my perches breaking, but since I was still going strait it deffinetly wasn't that. As soon as I looked at the axle I knew what it was...My welded 3rd grenaded!!!! I pulled down the road about 100' to a safe place to change it out, and set up a small garage. I layed down a tarp, an oil drain pan, and some oil absorbing cloth under the axle. Cruzilla, Mark, and 2 Jarheads, dave and somebody else (sorry, don't remember your name) stopped to help me change the third. I told Cruzilla and Mark that I had it under control because I had all the tools and a spare third, but in the middle of working on the truck (held up with 1 jack stand and a Hi-Lift Jack) the truck shifted toward the road and fell on the pulled out axles!!! Thank god I only pulled the axles out 6" otherwise i would have been a little flat. So then Dave and his buddy stopped to see if we needed help and we added another hi-lift and a come-a-long strapped to a tree. Thanks for the help guys! OldYeller had to hit the 3rd like it was a rat trying to get one of his Ho-ho's, to get the 3rd out. The adjusting rings had torn the retaining clips off and moved most of the way out. After that was out I grabbed my spare third, which was out of the front of a 1983, which had smaller holes and a DIFFERENT BOLT PATTERN!!! Wish I had known that. Oh well, OldYellers wife was able to find 2 bolts that were the right size and Grade 8 and I slapped those on and rode with 2 bolts holding the rear driveshaft on. It drove OK until we left South Lake when it started overheating again. About a half hour before Jackson it started squeeking and smelling like burnt tires. About 10 minutes before Jackson my power steering went out. So at 9:30 we got to Jackson, after 12 hours of driving that day, and got a room at the Best Western for $80!!! Crap! In the morning we called AAA and had it towed on a flatbed to Tuolumne where it now rests, and probably will for the next 6 months until I can fix everything again. After that it was a 3 hour drive home to San Jose, where I was more than happy to see my beautiful Wife Cristie and my Son David! After 4 days without them, I missed them both a lot!

THANKS AGAIN: EVERYBODY!!!!!!! What a great trip!

[mudaddict]

haha its cool hyena i was just kidding shouldnt have listened haha ya pretty much rebuilt the axle on the side of the trail it was fun haha

[BLACKDOG]

i have many pictures. if anyone wants full size ones that they liked that are clear and big let me know.
geno

It looks like geno's diggin' for nose gold!


Had  blast this weekend.  Was a little worried at first, because I didn't have room in my bed for my spare 3.0, but I figured If worst came to worst Mark could fab one up for me  I rolled into Loon around 1030 or so friday morning, and wheeled into the springs with the Mammoth group. Had a few small mishaps with a couple of rigs, but overall, our group was pretty much break free!!  THe worst thing that happened to my rig was my pass. springs fanned out and started popping past my gas tank skid plate, and made a hell of a racket!! other than that, the 3.0 Killer was break free!

[kiyul4130]

Everyone wanted to see it all weekend, here it is breaking in the fresh paint.  

not new paint, but the body use to be a little more straight.

[*** YELLER ***]

OK the whole Cadallac hill is easy post that I recieved prior to my departure was great but lets remember that its a full size GMC JIMMY  nothing was easy I almost rolled 3 times going down and 2 times going up . But in retrospect I recieved no major body damage , just a bent main(and free) leaf spring, some new complimentry pinstirping thanks to the RUBICON trail had a great time all weekend the Marlin crowd was awsome (except the friken' train horns ) had some sketchy spots due to the size of the rig. But I have convinced the wife that a four runner is in the future for just such an occation and with MINI's help I think we can build a great rig like his truck. More pictures later it was great to meet some of you.

[locktup]

I would like to put out a big thank you to marlin!! I broke a birf going up the other line next to thousand dollar hill, he pulled me out and had me follow him to almost the box before he had to go back and help the bronce from blue devil. well i kepf going with the passenger side birf broke taking it very easy well by the time i got down the hill form the box i lost all steering and notcied i sheered all 4 studs off the pass side knuckle. we got the truck up and started taking the tires off when marlin started coming down and offered to help out in my situation. he helped me get some new studs in the knuckle but as we were doing that he notcied the pass side birf was also broken so i pulled out both spare axles and birfs i had and we repplace both and got some new studs in the knuckle and got back out on the way by the time we were doine working on the truck it was about 6 30. i would also like to thank tommy aka 4.3 headache who also stayed with us and follower us out. we didnt get out of the trail until about 8 30. so i would like to thank marlin alot for staying and helping me out and getting my truck back out and get it back to the trailer. so thanks marlin alot it was well appreciated! here is a couple pics before the broken birf and as we are working on the truck.

Was I pushing you up the slabs? Did you take Cadilac out? Glad to see you made it home ok

[Shamb]

this guy was very drunk and thought this would be a good idea. that equaled a broken R/P

thats funny because he watched us all cruise up Soup Bowl and didn't want anything to do with it. He was in a group of nice NEW Chero's that were pretty built. They all by passed Soup Bowl.

Since we're blaming ppl then I'd say locktup jinxed me at the spillway before we left!!  haha j/k

we were chatting about dusy and he told me that Geiger blew out an air shock on that run... then I blow one about 100 yards out of old sluice.
no biggie!

[BLACKDOG]

I think he was the guy that broke on Cadillace too!!  Not sure though, but it looks like him

[kiyul4130]

we were chatting about dusy and he told me that Geiger blew out an air shock on that run... then I blow one about 100 yards out of old sluice.
no biggie!

i am never talking about what i should have done before i hit the trail ever again! i jinxed the hell out of myself. i was noticing all the allen type diff plugs when i got the trail which i have none. i said to my buddy i should get some of those. 15min into the trail i ripped one out. marlin hooked me up. and an hour or so before the trail i talked to my passenger again thinking i should have taken out my cab windows. leaving the con heading up cadillac i broke out my window....!!!!! lame

[mudaddict]

haha ya locktup that you were pushing me up the slabs i forgot about that until now. well as locktup and i were heading up the slabs my truck would not engage into 4lo so he had to give me some generous pushes up the slabs until it just wasnt gonna work anymore due to the terrain, thanks again jason for the help. i got under the runner after you kept going up the hill and noticed the linkage looked a lil funny and marlin did point out the linkage poped out of where it should ahve been so i was not engaging besides the fact my t case was prob to hot due to no cooler because i had broken it on a previous run and have not had much time or money to get a new one.

[Yota4life]

....

[Yota4life]

Brads broke knuckle and Pat getting it in reverse, i took it after it started dropping it looked crazy

[Yota4life]

.....

[Yota4life]

Me making my way down

[Yota4life]

more..

[motorider228]

hey nathan, did drew end up going with you guys?

[KYOTA]

not new paint, but the body use to be a little more straight.

you did a hell of a job driving all weekend, your run thru soup can was awesome!! I had a blast wheelin with all you guys 

[kiyul4130]

you did a hell of a job driving all weekend, your run thru soup can was awesome!! I had a blast wheelin with all you guys 

thanks. id have to say that was the funnest part of the trail for me.

[Ramrod]

yotawill and charley on the way back

my truck on top of caddy hill

saving my friends runner after almost sliding off the side of the mountain

kevin showing me what he 3rz is made of

hyena, cliffcatancass(?), and others fixing hyenas knuckle studs

parked waiting for others midway through big sluice

cruising home

charley behind me on the drive home

yotawill kicking back on 80

angela trying to act happy at 3am on the slabs

[KYOTA]

that sidehill SU-UXXX!!!

[olivedrab85]

Damn i was out in front a bit through that part no one told me Paul got all tense there. We'll blame it on the SLUICE HECKLER and friends honking and yelling there way through our pack!

[Ramrod]

yeah both tires slid all the way off and it was really tilted but the ifs hung up on one last rock and saved him. we all pulled from the side pillar as kevin pulled foward with the truck.  all the girls were freaking out after that and didnt want to drive through there

[KYOTA]

I know theres a bypass at the edge of the lake but it was underwater, is it not cool to take that bypass when its underwater? we checked it out and figured we better stay out of the water and went thru the sidehill

[Yota4life]

What part of the trail was that? Must have been on friday before i met up with you all

[4RnrRick]

BTW!  Was I the only one who heard the jack-ass blasting what sounded like a train horn at all hours of the night?!?!  That was annoying!

Nope, your not the only person - I found someone blowing a horn in the Springs (could of been the same person or someone else) and I talked to him   - basically we just agreed to disagree about him blowing his horn.......  







Well for me the trip started at 6:00am Thursday morning. (thats when I woke up . Left my place around 7:30am and met up with Elotisp (Billy) and his co-polit Mike (from Utah - he flew in the day before). We got on the road about 7:45am (just south of Eugene, OR). Ended up eating some burgers on the road and found out it was 100+ degrees outside! Nothing like driving your trail rig on the road with no AC and a flat belly (Since the cat is above the belly pan it like your sitting in a oven all day) for ~500 miles.  We got to the Sacremento Airport about 4:30pm to pick up my co-pilot - Alex from CRAWL Magazine (he was flying in from southern Cali). From there we headed over to the KOA in Placerville and got there around 6pm ish..... Billy was able to talk them down to $20 a night to park his tow rig there. We BS'd  with the Mammoths for a bit then we headed into town for some Pizza. After that we set up camp (tarp, air matress, and sleeping bags [no tent] since it was really warm) and set the alarm clocks bright and early. We also figured out that Billy's CB didn't work in his Sami - after he found a blown fuse and got it replaced in the dark - everything was good.

So we got up around 5:15am ish and nobody was moving....(Mammoths said they where going to make some eggs and sasauge to modivate everyone to get up bright and early.) We packed up everything and still nobody was out and about (6:00am) so we just decided to go do our own thing on our out time schedule.

So we found a Denny's for a cheap and filling breakfast. We also didn't know where the last gas stop was so we actually ended up filling up the rigs twice that morning. I have only been on the 'Con one other time so I couldn't remember where the last gas stop was. We got to the Forest Service Ranger station at 8:30am and waited a bit for them to open to get our fire permits and FREE spill kits.

So we got to the Loon Lake Damn around 9:30am I think. Took us a bit to find the actual trail across the slabs but we did after we watched for the paths other rigs where driving. Billy ended up doing a nice wheel stand in his Toy axle equipped Sami - he actually set the rear spare tire carrier on the ground and balanced for a second before the front tires came back down to the ground. Then right past the slabs when we first got back into the trees I stalled the 3rz and I tried starting it in gear (like I have done a thousand times with other motors) and I blew the main 120 Amp fuse in the engine bay fuse box and left me dead in the water. Luckily I had a 80A bolt on fuse with me that I was able to swap in fairly quickly and I think I only backed up the line a few rigs deep. (sorry - it couldn't of happened in a worse area since there was no other way around right there).

A bit after that ,before Walker Hill I think, Billy kept getting hung up by a few small rocks. We couldn't figure out what was wrong until we noticed that a rock had unlocked his left hub. We locked it back in and he was back on his way.  We also picked a square plastic gas can we found in the middle of the trail and straped it to the flat bed. We never ran into the owners of it so we set it by the stage at the springs and they announced it over the loud speaker. I still don't know if that got back to the owner.... then we ran into our first major road block at Soup Can. There was a bunch of full width toyotas going up it, and several ZJ's that drove around it. I tried it and I pretty much walked up right it. I was really surprised - I didn't get a chance to try it the last time I was on the 'Con. Then after that I somehow ended up back infront of everyone else that was there before use...... I couldn't complain about that so we kept going and decided then to try to make it to the springs that day.

Then we headed to the Sluice Box - not much action was going on there so we just got back in the rigs and continued on. We missed a turn somewhere on the sluice box bypass and ended up going down old sluice. No big deal until Billy had another fuse problem and his Sami wouldn't run. They got that straightened out fairly quickly and was back rolling again. but a bunch of mild build XJ's had passed us. Right about then they got to some harder obsticles in teh old sluice they where having a problems with and we felt they would be there for a while. So we found a well traveled bypass and passed them and got back onto the trail. Right then I ended up putting a rock into my driver door. I was shocked to see it go into the door a couple inches only to pop back out on its own after I stop truck to assess the situation. after stacking a couple rocks, I was back on my way with only a scracthed up door and a very small ding.

We got to Buck Island and had some more trouble trying to find the "proper trail" to get over to the spot where we could cross the dam. In a few minutes we got back on track and Billy ended up driving up a pretty steep face on three wheels infront of some jeepers and they where cheering him on. About half way around buck island, Billys rear swing-out spare tire carrier/bumper got really loose and we where getting hungry. so we stopped for lunch and for a quick repair. took a bit to find some good bolts to replace the ones that stripped out in the bumper, but we did. right about then Marlin and probably 20+ rigs passed us. No worries - we had everything under control.

Got back on the trail and then Billy's power steering got really noising. Ended up just being a loose fitting and the reservior was low on fluid. Then after that Billy got hung up on a rock pretty good and totally screwed up a valve stem. We didn't know it then but when we got to the springs we figured out that it needed to be replaced since he drove from buck island to the springs with no psi in that tire.

Oh and coming down Big Sluce got a bit tight for my fiberglass fenders in a couple spots, so I had to stack some rocks to keep them in one piece. When we got the the Springs (6:30-7:00pm ish), Marlin offered to fix the valve stem and wouldn't take no for an answer even though we had the tools to do it ourselves! So we pulled the tire off, Marlin helped us break the bead and he replaced the valve stem. and then we put it back on. After that we BS'd for probably well over an hour about 3rz motors and what not. after that we make camp in the dark (since we talked to Marlin too long) and ate some dinner my coleman lantern and then went to bed.

The next day we just hung around the Springs and didn't really do anything - it was pretty nice!!! But my highlight of the day was getting the first ride in the helicopter. I had never been in a helicopter and in the past I have always wanted to try it.... but I never did. And after talking to Marlin - he had never rode the helicopter tour here either, but this year was going to be different. So we all got signed up (Myself, Alex and Marlin). Marlin actually paided twice - once trip with us and the next trip with his Wife and Bevin. I also got a chance to meet quite a few other board members.

Then it came to the Dinner, Raffle & Bonfire. Dinner was great but the beans tasted funny to me..... The guy with the blown motor got the most carnage award. The Mammoths got the longest traveled award, I nominated Christine (Marlins wife) for the most giving participant (I think thats what it was called) since notbody else really stepped up and Marlin wouldn't accept the award himself. Then it came to the best equipped truck and Marlin nominated my truck (quasimodo) for that. So I had to get up and talk for a second - I hate talking in public and especially about my own junk..... So I was up there with three other people: one was drunk RamRod - with "my truck gots some stuff" comment LOL, and the manufacture that offroad trailer with a microwave being pulled by a beat up IFS truck and someone else with staun beadlocks that I forgot his name. It was cool for some many people to cheer on my truck and I'm still a bit confused on the IFS winner.... I'm not sour about it, but I really didn't think it was going to him. The raffle was cool - I didn't win anything but the money went to a good cause. about then the PA System died and I missed some of the other stuff. that evening I ended up talking to BigMike and Marlin most of the night until I finally crawled into bed around 1:00am.....

[4RnrRick]

We woke up before the butt crack of dawn (4:45am) and got out of camp at 5:30am. we wanted to make sure we where one of the first rigs out since I had to drop Alex back off at the Sacramento Airport and I wanted to drive back home that eveing to sleep in my own bed. Well it wasn't more than 5 minutes out of the Springs and Billy ended up blowing a bead on his Sami. so there we are right infront of a couple tents just out side of them main camp site area trying to put a bead on the rim in the dark. for the life of us we could not get the bead to seat with OBA or flamable brake cleaner. we finally just put the spare on and got back on the trail. Only 2 rigs passed us in that time. Then somehow we missed the turn to go up cadillac hill. luckily we ran into a couple campers about 1/2 - 3/4 mile down the trail from the turn and they got us turned back around. by this time Billy's tires had burped out some more air so we decided to do a tire check because we didn't want to blow a bead on Cadillac. We didn't have any problems on the way up but I know I got REAL tippy in one section that got our hearts pounding. I think we got to Lake Tahoe around 9:00am ish. and we got to watch TONS of cyclists ride around the lake. there must of been several hundred - probably more than that. Got back to the KOA at 11:30am to get Billy's Tow rig. I think we got Alex dropped back off at the Airport around 12:30 pm.

From there we pretty much headed home. 30 miles before Yreka, CA my exhaust broke almost all the way off from the header collecter. and it was right about 6:00pm on Sunday. We couldn't find anyone open other than Walmart in Yreka that might have somethign that I could fix it with. so with some brain storming - we took some "QuickSteel" (its a puddy that dries in 15 minutes and it hard like steel) to mold and fill the gap in the exhaust header. then we took a metal paint pan and cut it up to wrap around the header and the down pipe and used a bunch of hose clamps to hold it all together. It worked out pretty good! then we got back on the road. about 1 mile before the Oregon border Billy lost all his tail lights on his tow rig and trailer and he got pulled over by the CHP. They troubleshoot it for a bit and the officer told them to put their hazards on and get out of here...... so thats what they did. after they caught back up to me, we troubleshoot it and figured out that some of this trailer wiring had worn through the insulation and shorted out. we taped it back up and got everything working...

I didn't get home until 12:30am Monday morning. So this is our carnage list....

My truck:
Chipped Windshield (darn semi truck)
Blown 120A main fuse
Small Dent and scrapped up driver door
Leaking PS fitting
Broke exhaust downtube off of header
Lots of rock rash

Billy's Tow Rig:
Blown fuses

Billy's Sami:
More Blown Fuses
Blown Bead
Leaking PS fitting
Strpped bolts on rear bumper/tire carrier

Since Alex from Crawl was riding with me - I took very few photos, so I don't have any to share right now. Once I get some from Billy - I might be able to post up some.

Over all I had a good time - but it was alot of driving for me! Especially since I drove my trail rig down there and back.