Your WORST wheeling experiance

[LWB Samurai Joe]

I blew a rear third member on winch hill number 5 on Fordyce Creek once. Got to the top and had ZERO chance getting off that trail without help. Thankfully there was a guy there with a scary built (502) YJ who offered to pull me off the trail up onto a logging road that I could use to get back down to highway 80. I got a new third member and two days later ran the Rubicon. Always wanted to get back there and finish Fordyce.

Post script; front wheel drive was totally useless!!!

 

[Dain Bramage]

yea, yesterday pretty much sucked for me. busted my rear d-line in 2 on isabel, all by myself, no tools, and intermittent cell reception. that is my worst, so far.

 

[MIG'DHORSE]

A week after I got my toy, some buddies and I were ripping up logging roads (yes, logging roads. don't make fun it was my first time ever...) when we nearly go head on with a fullsize around a blind corner/hairpin. Well, this hairpin just so happened to wrap itself around an incredibly steep hill that spilled into the forest. As you could probably guess, my: a) lack in driving ability, b) dumb ass --was going too fast to maintain control after dodging the fullsize, and i high-center my truck momentarily on the edge of this rather gnarly drop. Once that moment passed, I found myself rolling into the forest. After a couple slow tumbles, my toyota found itself laying on a log, with the cab crushed. We were all okay, so we jumped out, only to find that the fullsize had left. I dont know if they saw what happened, or just high-tailed it out. It was nearing dark, so we ran down the road a few miles until a hunter gave us a ride the remaining 6 miles down.

From that... I learned a few things:

--how to work on my toyota. especially how to swap a cab
--don't be f**king stupid, i mean, what the hell was i thinking?
--logging roads aren't even wheeling, so why drive down them?
--slow down, caution.
--common sense. (i was young and dumb... gotta learn somehow)
--a winch is necessary. a winch and a cage could have saved the day.

it was a good first wheeling experience. I think I learned some priceless elements of life and death as well. I've loved it ever since.

 

[crash2]

Careful what you wish for. I WILL have the heep back together this spring :flipoff:

We haven't had a really bad day. If figure if you get your **** out to safety without having to spend the night on the trail, you haven't had that bad of a day

What do you call BYS?

 

[Money Mark]

Funny now, not funny then.

Sam and I left behind in the snow at the trail from E-bug to funny rocks in ’05.

Lost tire bead (Sam), No more gas (Me), Last in pack.......

Thank god I had an REI survival guide (to burn), a lighter, hand saw and as many dry tree limbs we could burn.

Sam's buddies saved our asses.

6 hours just waiting, 10 hours total........after the 6 hour day snow run.

CARRY EXTRA GAS OR GET A BIGGER FUEL CELL!!!

 

[CrustyJeep]

What do you call BYS?

I still drove it out. It coulda been a hell of a lot worse.

 

[crash2]

I still drove it out. It coulda been a hell of a lot worse.

:haha: :haha: :haha:

Front spring hanger ripped off frame-----front axle shaft broken----stuck between 2 trees(requiring 2 winch's) with one wheel de-beeded also bending rear axle.


:haha: :haha: :haha:

 

[notstock]

Just a normal day in the woods for Mr. Crusteaz:flipoff:

 

[JayH]

I had a loooong night on the Busywilde back in 2001.

At one point we blew a bead on one rig, got a log jammed up in between the drivers front wheel and body, ripping out the brake line, and found a stock toy with all four tires off the beads dead middle of the trail completly blocking it, all in the space of about 200 yards.

The brake line ended up getting pinched with a pair of vise grips after numerous failures at repair.

The first rig to take duty winching dead toy out of trail blew both primary and backup fuse on his charging system and took an hour to figure out how to shunt the system so we could keep him running.

All in all, we spent like sixteen hours on the trail and my wife had called search and rescue when we didn't show up the night before.

Looking back on it now, it was a good time... Learned a lot. And I have carried spare line, fittings, anda flaring tool ever since

 

[Jaydog]

Alright Crash, we are waiting on yours. :corn:

 

[TB-F]

Lary Fox getting killed in a rolover down chicken **** at rimrock. That's the only one that isnt funny now.


But ones that ARE funny now I could write a entire book on.


Here's one from a trail I wish was still open.

I believe it was 2000 On a dark and very very very rainy night in early November. A friend of mine who dosnt wheel but always liked riding with me said he wanted to go wheeling. It was a weeknight and nobody else could go so I decided we'd take a little spin up highriders, wich could be done fairly quickly by yourself. I dont know how many of you know the trail but it started with a 3-4' rock face that usualy had a little watter going down it, well this night it was a 2' deep watterfall. In those days my truck was nothing real special, a 84 xtra cab with 4" trail bastard lift, 5.29's f/r lockrights, 35" TXR's and a ramsey 9000# winch. Oh and a heluva lotta custom bodywork by various trees I had always been able to make it up the rock face, even when my truck had open difs, so I charged right up it and away we went up the trail. We were going along fine and had made it thru the first 2 watter holes on top when I heard somthing rubbing the tire. I got out to look and one of my ad a leafs was cocked sideways. I grabed my hammer to smack it back in to place but when I hit it... only half of it moved. Oh well I thought and smacked the other half back in place and continued on. A minute later I heard both halved hit the ground, crap. I tried to tighten the u bolts but nothing doing. So I kep going. We were almost at the end of the trail so oh well.

This is when they had first tryed to close highryders and had placed a few ecology blocks around the gate bypass and a few at the end of the trail, well driving around the block at the end of the trail the enevitable hapned and my center pin broke. I stopped and chained the axle in place and continued up the road to the gate. When I got to the gate I saw there new ecology block atempt and realized I wasnt going over it. I didnt know the nifty lock breaking trick then (and I'm not sharing now:flipoff: ) so I tryed to winch the lock off the gate, prying at the lock everything. Nothing worked. I decided that rather than screw with the gate all night I would head her back down the trail.

On the way back to the trail I had to re chain the axle 4 times and that was on a gravel road. When I got to the trail it was worse. I fixed it 3 times almost imidiatly after geting back on the trail and while going down a little hill, wich was then a raging river due to the rain, I looked back to see how my axle was doing. It was under the rear bumper on the drivers side I got out to asess the damage and saw, my axle was waaaay out of wack, and my rear driveline had came apart. I got the axle back in place with a mixture of hi-lift and winch. I then sat and tapped all my leaves back in line and found a bolt that fit thru the hole in the springs and jimmied everything back togeather. I couldnt tighten the u bolts down anymore so I found a plastic pepsi bottle and cut the ends off and wedged it under the u bolts and on top of the new center pin/bolt. Then I wraped the whole thing with a cinch strap to hold it all togeather. Next I re chained the axle from moving forward backward and from moving downward. Then I put the driveline back togeather wich I realy needed scuba gear for. After she was all buttoned up I drove the rest of the way off the trail and all the way home with no more problems

And I never did buy a new ad a leaf. I would just weld it back togeather every time it broke:clappy:

 

[Totalled]

Pulling a burnt up Blazer off of sackup in the pouring cold as rain brought the suck..

About 3 years ago I was out playing in the snow in Capitol Forrest. I think I was stock, open/open and on 30" mall terrains at the time. at about 8pm I went up the back road to the peak and ran into a grand Cherokee stuck and abandoned in the ditch half blocking the trail. I squirted past it and ran into a 80's toy on 31s that was in the ditch pointed up hill. I asked if he needed help getting up and he told me that he was coming down and spun around trying to stop so he wouldn't plow into the Cherokee. The tracks in the snow had turned into the packed white ice of death and it was about a 30 degree grade. I helped get him turned back around and headed down.. then tried to go back up the hill.. yeah. Got about 3/4 of the way up and the front end slid over to the cliff side.. I tried to back it up, baby it forward.. it kept sliding.. after a quick assessment we decided to try to swing the front around and head down. So I throttled it as my buddy pushed the front end and I swung around, and started to slide downhill out of control. I managed to get it pointed to the ditch and slid in behind the toy. The grade was soooo steep and with the ice you could not control yourself going down it. So we decided to creep down in the ditch.. the fresh snow made the decent controllable. We crept down and kept running into drainage pipe and had to come along ourselves over the humps. At about 3 am. We decided to stop for the night and try to get a nap and have another stab at getting out in the light. So we tried to sleep. I kept getting woke up by the wind... knocking snow out of the trees sending it banging onto the roof of my rig. I was dreading a tree coming down.. so I didn't sleep much and ran the rig every hour for 15 to keep ourselves warm. Luckily I always carry a spare carhartt with me so my buddy had a blanket to cover himself with.. since he's a twig.

At daybreak we found that the wind blown snow had taked up the tracks in the road and were able to crawl down once the hill flatten out out a little bit. We got out at rock candy at 11am. Thus.. I always carry emergency food/water, and clothes with me now. And I say **** that when I am coming up the road in the forest and the sliding around **** starts... that experience educated me about when to cut my losses and turn back when the **** starts getting too deep.

 

[Bunk1]

Moon rocks when i had 35's and push pull steering. Broke the j-arm. Friends bailed to find one while i removed the arm with no way to seperate the tie rod. It was just after noon when it happened. They finally arrived back around 2 in the morning...drunk of course. No j-arm..so the truck sat there overnight. It was 4 pm the next day when we finally made it back, truck was broken into but i took valuables..all they got was a few straps and clevis's

 

[jeepmauler]

Drive 24hrs to St. George,yardsale the front end three minutes into the first course,drive home.

 

[Alpine4x4]

Was up a local spot called wheeler. Was a nice day with about 2' fos now on the gorund and about 6" of mud underneath. After making it all the way up the trail tothe closeoff point up by the wheeler res. my friends truck dies on the hill. So i reverse down nice and slow..only problem is this hill is ice so i begin sliding uncontorlllably towards him. His truck wtill wont start. I end up stopping then trying to pull him and get his truck running. We tried compression starting for about 30 min. until we decided its no use. We then had to push his rig 400 yds down the trail so i could get around it. So we do this with no pwer steering, in 2' of snow on switch backs. Then the fun comes when it begins to snow. About 6" fell in an hour while we were there i **** you not. It was cold, his rig had some sort of electrical problem, no cell service, no way down. Finally got his ass out of the way and started home. Next day round up the friend and a friend who is also a mechanic. I take him up the "trail" the trail now has 2' of fresh snow and is veru difficult going. We make it up to his rig to find it 100% buried. After shoveling it out a bit and getting the electrical problem fixed we try and go home. Well my friend gets stuck turning aorund in the same spot he got fixed so i yanked his ass out again. FInally got off the mountain 1 tank of gas and a bonechilling i wont forget later.

Another time same friend busts his idler arm up a local trail called burch mountain. Im sick, 101 fever, vomiting and im the only one he knows who has the part. So i get it and go up to him. So on my way up i try tkaing the trail he went up. Done it a few times nothing big. Stupid me took the wrong line over reved and fried front spider gears! YAY! I went around on the main trial and came in form above to get his ass. Got him his part, got mechanic friend to bring tools we didnt have like a big ass breaker bar and got him fixed.

I only have about 5 more stories of saving this friends ass...his rig likes to break. Cya saturday fordfrk for the front end that still isnt fixed since summer!

 

[PORTER]

My first trip to Reiter with Mauler and Jobless. My buddy Torys driveshaft came out of slip and punched a hole in his automatic trans on BYS. Total winchfest for the next 6hrs. That fawking sucked the big one on a till then fun day.

 

[rockabilly]

I ran out of beer once, only once

 

[Not Jobless]

High Rider years ago shortly after having the Offroad Outlet instal the Warn XCL kit on my heep.

It's November, the new girlfriend is with me, it's about 10pm, it's dark snowing, cold and I'm up there with Mauler in his Blue Cherokee (that would be the 1st one) John in his old red CJ and a few others.

We had just gone through one of the water holes on top and all of a sudden I have no steering :wtf: So I get on the CB, yet even I had one back then, and let everyone know I had to stop. Well after crawling around in the snow, mud & water we came to the startling conclusion that the drivers side upper/lower control arm mount welds had failed...Offroad Outlet :looser: ...

The new GF is kind of freaked so we stick her in with John (which freaks her out more I think :redneck: ) and they head back down with Mauler and Tom (aka Captain America...aka Mr. 9") to head back to Toms and pick up the gas generator & welder.

By the time they made it back to Woodinville and then returned to High Rider it was more than just a few cold hours spent in the Heep. The Jeep had the half doors & bikini top on as well...you have to remember, this was back in the day when I was hardcore like Karla It had also snowed at least 6" since they were gone. So with all the extra weight of the generator & welder in the cherokee, with 31" tires, Mauler manages to blow a tire on his way back up the trail.

They finaly get up to me and we fire everything up and Tom, laying in a stream of running water and mud, welds my front end back on.

It was 9am the next morning before we got back to Woodinville.

There was another time on Tight Ass that the sector shaft sheered off the AGR box but that wasn't very eventful :redneck:

Neither was the time the ring gear fell off the carrier at the tippy top of Izzy :redneck:

And then there was the 1st rock crawl at Vantage...where after not completing the 1st three obstacles I destroyed my dana 30 front end...both inners, both outers, both u-joints and the intermediate shaft :redneck:

 

[hwcurtice]

Not sure if this counts....

Wife and I had a Plymouth Colt wagon. We went out for a snack at McDonald's. We then decided to take a short cut through the back. Heck, there were ruts there, after all. Yep, you guessed it, we bottomed out and even though we tried to get the tires out of the rut, we eventually had to call for a tow to drag our sorry butts out. Oh, and this was with our kids in the back seat too.

And we laughed all the way home. And every time we drive by the same spot.

 

[Bunk1]

High Rider years ago shortly after having the Offroad Outlet instal the Warn XCL kit on my heep.

It's November, the new girlfriend is with me, it's about 10pm, it's dark snowing, cold and I'm up there with Mauler in his Blue Cherokee (that would be the 1st one) John in his old red CJ and a few others.

We had just gone through one of the water holes on top and all of a sudden I have no steering :wtf: So I get on the CB, yet even I had one back then, and let everyone know I had to stop. Well after crawling around in the snow, mud & water we came to the startling conclusion that the drivers side upper/lower control arm mount welds had failed...Offroad Outlet :looser: ...

The new GF is kind of freaked so we stick her in with John (which freaks her out more I think :redneck: ) and they head back down with Mauler and Tom (aka Captain America...aka Mr. 9") to head back to Toms and pick up the gas generator & welder.

By the time they made it back to Woodinville and then returned to High Rider it was more than just a few cold hours spent in the Heep. The Jeep had the half doors & bikini top on as well...you have to remember, this was back in the day when I was hardcore like Karla It had also snowed at least 6" since they were gone. So with all the extra weight of the generator & welder in the cherokee, with 31" tires, Mauler manages to blow a tire on his way back up the trail.

They finaly get up to me and we fire everything up and Tom, laying in a stream of running water and mud, welds my front end back on.

It was 9am the next morning before we got back to Woodinville.

There was another time on Tight Ass that the sector shaft sheered off the AGR box but that wasn't very eventful :redneck:

Neither was the time the ring gear fell off the carrier at the tippy top of Izzy :redneck:

And then there was the 1st rock crawl at Vantage...where after not completing the 1st three obstacles I destroyed my dana 30 front end...both inners, both outers, both u-joints and the intermediate shaft :redneck:

Right on, Bonus stories.