Topic: Marlin Crawler Crew Report: Tin Bender Jamboree, April 25-27

[BigMike]

Here is Rocky's brother Ryan's Tacoma Truggy. Man that thing went everywhere and anywhere they pointed it!


A very well balanced machine if you ask me!

[BigMike [OP]]

The begining of Wrecking Ball was rather wide and offered multiple lines. Watching two rigs go through the same place at the same time was common:



All roads lead to one..


Here Louie gets some hang time

[BigMike [OP]]

As mentioned earlier, Bevin decided to leave his White 1985 shortbed back at camp, which worked out great because Rick prefers to let someone else drive his truck while he spots it. He claims that this way it becomes his 1:1 R/C Truck and that he can see what works and what doesn't work with his rig Great idea Rick!




Bevin sure was happy to wheel your truck!

[BigMike [OP]]

And now the show stopper arrives!!



No seriously, I really did STOP the show, I got so stuck, I got hung up on my catalytic converter!!


It was not good. So a new route was chosen and the decision to stay close to the wall was made

Ahh, that was a much better line

[BigMike [OP]]

Most of the trails out at the Hammers result in views similar to this:

Ahhhh, I can't see where I'm going!


And when you can't see where you are going, stupid things like this happen


And when stupid things like this happen, a quick tug is enough to prevent any permanent damage



I could tell that I had not wheeled since last Sept. at MCR6. For the first half of that day I felt totally out of place. I kept getting stuck and making bone-head mistakes. Then it felt like something clicked and suddenly I had regained my wheeling mojo that I put away for 7 months

[BigMike [OP]]

Here is a cool sequence of Al finding a bad line and then discovering a better one








Ahhh there it is, I rediscovered how to use my truck to its fullest potential!



I also discovered that resting at a 15-degree down hill angle results in my front Crawl box to be about 2 quarts above the fill line. Man I love that sight tube!

[BigMike [OP]]

Well that is it for now, it's late and I gotta hit the hay

I will finish my Wrecking Ball Trip Report tomorrow

Good night all

[Rocksurfer]

Great write up Mike, I can't wait to see the pics going up the last waterfall.

[desertoy]

Nice writeup Mike. I had a geat time wheeling with you guys. Thanks for coming out and especially thanks for helping with the event.

[BigMike [OP]]

Continuing just a bit...


This picture makes me think "Where is the road?"


Here Al is carefully observed by a man from the North and an offspring of Marlin


The MTRs continue to impress me on 8"-wide wheels. They never worked this well on 15x10. But on 15x8, look out! Huge difference in performance in my opinion. I ran 5 psi all weekend long, no beadlock, never lost a bead and I never heard any air squeaking out. This weekend has got to be the most impressed I've ever been by the MTRs.


Here we see another example of 2-paths-leading-into-1 on Wrecking ball

[BigMike [OP]]

About 2/3-way up the Canyon, members from this forum caught up to us! It was extremely cool seeing LILBUDDY, RAMROD, Hyena, TacoRunner, and kiyul4130

[BigMike [OP]]

This gives a good idea as to how steep the Canyon can get at times. This is less than 1 truck length and yet it is nearly more than 1 truck height in elevation change

[BigMike [OP]]

Here is Matt again, our good customer. He really had a tough time this day. First he had trouble with his ARBs. I believe he had air pressure, but the ARB air solenoids were not working, possibly a wiring problem. So as clever as he is, he had some extra line connectors and modified his power tank hose to plug directly into his air lockers.

Then after he lost his ARBs and had to fix them, not much more up the trail and he lost a drivers front bead..

I tried the flammable-gas method with a lighter, but we were using some heavy type of brake cleaner that just puddled in the tire, the nozzle was not arid. So that didn't work, and it took about 4 or 5 guys holding the tire and we finally got the bead to seat. It seemed like a lot of work but we got it back on


Then just a bit more up the trail Matt got way sideways - more sideways than in this pic - and it took us quite a while to get him through this squeeze.


If you recall from page 1, Matt has a 4.3l Chevy Vortec engine, and apparently his rig was on it's side long enough to fill his drivers side cylinder bank with some engine lub



And the locals came out again to check out the action!

[TIMS89CRAWLER]

sweet pics mike looks like u guys had a blast... wish my junk was finished so i could have made it....next time i guess

[BigMike [OP]]

Here is some more action heading up to the waterfall

I can't wait to see the pics going up the last waterfall.

As for the waterfall itself, sorry to disappoint ya RS, I actually didn't even know what or where the waterfall was. All I know is I came up to a nice rock section, I poked my head out and asked Louie "which way is the fun way", and he directed me up the far right side. Here is a sequence of me going up the far right:










I recall my front driver's tire started coming off the ground, but the truck controlled it well and it quickly came back down.

Now I know what the waterfall is, I will try to go up the middle route next time!

[BigMike [OP]]

Bevin decided to follow my line, and he claimed his front drivers tire came at least 3 feet off the ground and he thought for sure he was going to roll it. He was totally tensed up and he had that real serious look on his face. And believe me, when definitely not a good time for jokes.




He was all smiles afterwards

[BigMike [OP]]

Next up was this crazy sidehill rock squeeze where everyone took body damage on (or were saved by their cage)

Check out Tyler getting some air time. His passengers side cage is all up on the rock and he ended up adding 2 or 3 more dents to his fender and behind his cab



The whole idea is that you are supposed to straddle this gap, but it is hard getting the rear end just in the right spot....

Here I got my truck lined up just right! Look closely at how the rear tires are keeping my truck elevated:


What happens is everyone's passenger's rear tire slips off that ledge and WHAM! the rear drops a good 4 feet and you have no more passenger's side A-pillar, cracked windshield, wasted mirror & door, and because this is through a left corner, you have to keep cornering to get out, and you wind up taking out the whole side of the bed.



But fortunately Rick gave me a PERFECT line through that section and I was the only rig in our group who successfully straddled that squeeze.

[BigMike [OP]]

And after watching this, Bevin got pretty upset because he was going to bring his truck and no one told us about this section (good thing Bevin left his truck at camp!)

So Rick thought up a sly plan: Purposely direct his rig directly into the squeeze and see how Bevin reacts to it:



This is when Bevin realized Rick was up to no good:


But Rick's 4Runner did a great job through that squeeze:

[BigMike [OP]]

And that is it! Thanks for reading my trip report!

From this entire weekend, the only damage of any kind were some small scratches:



That's not too bad, Wrecking Ball and Jackhammer and all that happened were a couple scratches.

I have now done Jack, Sledge, Claw, Johnson, Outerlimits, and Wrecking Ball and the only body damage I've got are these scratches Yes, I am proud of this


Thanks for reading!! See ya on the trail!




BigMike

[BigMike [OP]]

Hey guys,

I just acquired over 2 hours of video from the trip, so I will see if I can get some time this weekend to put together a nice video compilation!

[MiniSimp]

I demand more pictures of your new crossmember!

[BigMike [OP]]

I demand more pictures of your new crossmember!

You will get nothing and like it!

The only way to get those pics is to try to follow me on the trail

[DTB]

I smell a challenge

[CrazyYota]

When can we expect these? I need one bad, New Prototype T/Case Rear Output Seals NIce pics

[kiyul4130]

the 2nd video clip is awesome. i liked that.

edit: i just saw the picture of my truck you took bigmike. thats where all the carnage started. to bad i couldnt keep up and not have my whole truck fall apart on me and almost the end of the trail. guess theres next year  8)

[dizzydevil]

It wasn't too long into the morning when we looked back...


And found the ROCK BRAWLERS behind us hot on our trail


And we did our best to bunch up to stay as far away from the ROCK BRAWLERS as possible 

HEY! That's not nice......  it's just a name        maybe













j/k kool pics and thanks to everyone for helpin to flip joey back over

[Rocksurfer]

As for the waterfall itself, sorry to disappoint ya RS, I actually didn't even know what or where the waterfall was. All I know is I came up to a nice rock section, I poked my head out and asked Louie "which way is the fun way", and he directed me up the far right side. Here is a sequence of me going up the far right:

I was looking at that area as a better route to get out instead of climbing the waterfall.

[BIGBIRD]

 AWESOME JOB DUDE!!!, THAS ALL I CAN SAY, you added all my pics. so i have none to add. great wheeling with you and everyone else.   i think BEVAN mey need new batteries. to control my 1:1 rc  for next year, lol.  long drive but worth it every year. again, props to the report. you could print it  and sell it.  cu man

[OOPS]

Nice thread Mike.

I ran Wrecking Ball on Saturday and forgot my camera back at base camp. It was a good run and the Tacos at the end were great. This is the only picture I have and it is me trying to make the last waterfall. Tried three times and finally pulled cable.

[BigMike [OP]]

That looks really tough, I can't wait to try that line!