Flats pics

Broncman

Member
Joined
May 1, 2007
Location
Western North Carolina
Thanks guys for the open invite. Here are a few pics I took. Got some video but that will take a while.

aimg.photobucket.com_albums_v260_toxicar_papaw1.jpg
 
Really had a blast!!!! "Pinky" amazed me!!!...I really love to wheel...Thanks to Rock Corps for making this happen, awesome job to all of you!!! Can't wait to see more pics...
 
Big thanks to the Rock Corps for putting on the event. We had a blast-put more abuse on the rigs in one morning than they had in many months :) Thanks to "Up-n-Over" for the welding tip "tip". My buddy's broken three link should go in our shop this week to be replaced by a 4link.
 
Thanks Ken. Can't wait to see the rest of the pics.

Total last min trip for me. Talked to some friends down in Asheville and they said they were going to go down. I had not heard about the event at all. So, what the heck, let's go. Fri morn, pull tarp off bronco, no battery...hmmm, oh yeah, the optima wouldn't hold a charge, so took it back to Advanced a few weeks ago for a replacement. Their tester said it just needed charging. I told them it had been on a charger for 3 days and nada. They said they had a 'super' charger and that's what the tester said, so they can't replace it unless tester says so. OK. so left it there 3 weeks, went over Fri morn. They take the battery off their 'super' charger and plopped it on the counter, "here you go." I said, please test it. "But the super charger says it is fully charged."

She puts the tester on it, "Replace battery." Hmmmm, she says. OK, we'll replace it. Where is your receipt. It was taped to the battery when I dropped it off. The date on the top clearly says 11/08, so still under optima replacement warranty...yada, yada, yada, an hour later I walk out with new optima. Get home, decide I need to lay the batt on its side for better firewall clearance, battery cable is 3 inches too short. Back to Advanced for cable. Hook it up and bronco cranks right up after not being cranked since Nov. Big cob webs all over inside under tarp, girls don't like spiders, but clean out the bronco anyway.

So we load up truck and trailer, my girls 9 and 11, and myself, and head to Asheville around 2:30 from Fuquay. I took 64 to 421. When I hooked into I-40, it was a parking lot. Just after it cleared out around mile marker 190 or so the sky fell out. I mean it was serious rain. My daughter said, "I can't see the road at all." People were pulling off left and right both sides of the road and causing issues by not pulling all the way off the road. It rained cats and dogs for a good 1.5 hours. Cars hydroplaning all over the place.

A normal 4 hour tow to my buddy's house in Gerton took 6.5 hours. The whole time it was raining, I kept thinking, 'I should've gotten the top sewed up...' --seats are still wet.

So, Ken was in our group, riding with Karl, his son Jonathan riding with me and the girls, Papaw and Larry Jr. in Papaw's Ranger truggy, and Tim and friends in YJ. We left Fairview BP about 7:30 and picked up Tim on the I-40 on ramp at Exit 53.

Pulled into the Flats around 8:15 or so. Was really easy to find and get to. Right off the exit. Big parking area, was pretty muddy, I was worried about getting out with truck and trailer, but it was dry enough when we got done.

We had fun, but it was a bit disorganized to start. Since it was first time there, we were waiting for a driver's mtg as instructed when we paid and got the wristbands. Finally someone came by on a 4-wheeler and said to the group of us standing around talking, why haven't ya'll left yet? Just go wherever you want to. We had been waiting about 1.5 hrs by that time. Good to know for next time. Would have been nice to have a quick intro or at least some instructions written down on how to get to trail heads.

Was muddy from all the rain on Friday. Throttle was your friend. We wandered around for a bit trying to find trail 2 to start. This looked like the longest run on the map, so we figured we'd start there since we didn't know where to go.

Our group was 2 Ranger truggies, 60s front and 70s rear, detroits, one with warmed over 302 multiport, C4, atlas on 40 inch Krawlers; other with propane fired 400, C6, 205/Klune-V on 44 swampers. A 4.0l YJ on rockwells and 42s Swampers; and me in '68 Bronco, 5.0, C4, D20, 60/70, and 42s Swampers.

Finally saw a host club member and found out how to get to trail 2. Once we got out on the trail, there were plenty of club members at each obstacle to help folks. That was nice. Forgot, 2 for $1 sausage biscuits were really good while waiting around. Delicious.

We buzzed up trail 2 no prob. The "Hill" on trail 2 was MUDDY! It was first thing in the morn and no one had been up yet. Karl in his Krawler truggy gave it hell and finally got up after a while. I tried three times, but wasn't getting any traction and I didn't want to scare the girls off first thing, so heeding the 3 try rule, I went around to the top. Papaw in the swamper truggy tried a couple of times and followed me around. Tim in the rockwell YJ tried, but he is NP435, so not enough HP with the 4.0l motor and rockwells to keep the tires spinning.

There were some big horsepower rigs that we watched come up the hill behind us. I think the club they were from was the Big Dixie Boggers? Big orange 4 seater buggy with 502?, black CJ5 with orange, and the nice red FJ buggy. They powered on up no prob. Love the rev limiter...:)

They came back down and around to run Old Stumpy. We followed them down and around. There was a decent climb and then a ledge or two. You wanted to stay left, but it threw you to the right and then the back would jump left just as the front jumped right. Karl got up this part good, lots of ponies. Then was working big time on the upper obstacle that we couldn't see from the bottom.

Tim in the rockwell YJ went next. He just doesn't have the wheel speed with the 4.0l. He finally winched up and apparently had broken something, as he was gone after we got up.

So after he winched up the first obstacle and was waiting for Karl on the 2nd obstacle, I decided to try the bottom section. So hit it medium a couple of times to feel it out, Then hit it hard twice and bounced up over. Papaw told me to point and mat it, so that's what I did. My 9 year old (after wiping the mud off her face) said, 'that was awesome! Let's do it again!"

After Tim winched up the 2nd part, I thought I saw the line and hit it hard, didn't make it, so backed down and hit it harder, was clawing up and suddenly, no go, motor was reving, but no tire spin. Wasn't a drive shaft as it was all 4 tires....used my expert trouble shooting skills and determined it was broken. Figured out high range worked, all four were pulling in high range, but no low range. So winched up and drove out in high range. Can't really complain, was the original D20 and it has been abused for at least 15 years hard by me. Now the scramble to get it back up and running before the Bronco Roundup on June 25th in Gore, VA.

After I got to the top, found out Papaw had broken his 3 link on his truggy, so went down and around to see what was up. His ready welder wasn't working right, so he only get a few tacks in place before he gave up. He backed out a bit and it broke apart again.

I headed down to the parking lot to see if anyone had a welder. Found 'Chip' who had a Premier Power Welder. And he headed up to find them. I got all loaded up on the trailer and just as I was finishing up, Papaw and Karl pulled up. He ended up using a ratchet strap to hold it in place and drove it down.

Loaded up and headed back to Karl's. Got everything unloaded and trailers unhooked. Went to dinner. After dinner I was going to pull the truck up to the house and get loaded up to head back in the morning, truck won't start (96 stroke). Crank, but no start. WTS light comes on, tach is moving while cranking. Pulled chip off, still crank, no start. Ran great, just dead now. I'm stumped. (96 stroke cc). CPS is new, and with the tach moving during cranking, most say this eliminates CPS. New IDM last July, prob not even 3k miles on it since, and with WTS coming on (which doesn't happen when IDM is dead, at least last time) don't think it is IDM. No check engine light is on. We're stumped. ITS sensor is fine too. Any ideas, help is appreciated. If it was a gas motor, I would say someone took the coil wire to screw with me.....

All in all, fun trip, we'll go back, should be fun when it is not super muddy. Thanks for putting this on.

Shannon
 
We had planned on a drivers meeting, at 9 am, but only a handful of folks at the parking lot, so in order to be at our assigned area before the guests got there, we headed off into the woods. Sorry about the confusion. We had handed out maps to all rigs thought that would be enough to get you where you wanted to go. On and BTW I don't have a premier, I have a ready welder too. Used it several times, and ran out of wire, a friend had to go to town, and got me another roll, then dang red tops wouldn't charge back fast enough so after several repairs, I was dead.
 
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