- Joined
- Mar 20, 2005
- Location
- Morganton NC
Leslie and I headed out as planned on Thursday the 1st around 6:30 am. Not in any hurry at all. We stopped in Canton and did the Mickey D's breakfast, and were on out way again. That's when I saw smoke. I pulled over to find oil pouring out fro underneath the Van.
Upon inspection, I found that the van has an adapter to angle the oil filter away from the cross member. It was loose. It has a single bolt thru it to hold it on. Some sort of gasket, o-ring, or something has to seal it, nothing there. I ripped some small pieces of cloth to make a makeshift seal, but couldn't get it to stay in place.
So, we cut an o-ring flat gasket out of the road atlas, and some orange ATV on both sides, tightened it up, and it sealed. put in four Qts of oil, and were on our way.
We made it all the way to about halfway on 119 when the Van began to sputter. DAG-GUMIT, I didn't change out the gas filters. So off to the side of the road. We dug out the spare filter and put it on. Since we were headed up hill, the van didn't want to suck the gas up hill.
Batteries died,...I thought. I was about run over a couple times, so we decided to pull it with the Jeep to the other side of the road, where there was a place to get off to the side, out of everyones way, and much safer for me.
I hooked the welding extension/jumper cable to the Van and Jeep, and tried to start it, nothing. I cleaned off all the battery ends, still nothing. I tried jumping across the solenoid, nothing. I went underneath and took power straight to the starter,......Nothing! Starter was gone.
So, I headed to Harlan to get a starter. This was an experience. 44TSL's that are not centered on the weld on bead lock wheels. Home made unbalanced drive shafts, I kept it around 35-40MPH the whole way. Got the starter, and another gas filter, and headed back.
Got back to the Van and Leslie enlighten me about what happened while I was gone.
Seems that a couple of guys stopped to see if they could lend a hand. Leslie and Semi were sitting out next to the tree line where there was some shade. Semi fuzzed up, did the low growl thing, and put herself between the two guys and Leslie. Not something I have seen in her before.
She had not intension's of letting those guys close to her Mom. They got the message and stopped walking to wards her.
I am known for all I carry on the trails. I do not however carry everything. I carry a lot of stuff but leave the simple stuff to someone else.
I didn't have a 1/2" socket! A little old man on a four wheeler came riding down to where we were. I was under the Van so Leslie asked him if he had one. He said he wasn't for sure, but he couldn't see it. He told her to hop on the front of the four wheeler, and she could look and see, ............she declined that offer, but asked him to just bring the whole kit down.
Meanwhile, I was on the phone trying to see who might be coming my route. Got ahold of Yager! He was a couple hours out, and on another route, but could come my way if needed to. So, about 45 mins later, the little old man comes riding back down, he had a small red tool box, and he had a socket!
So I changed out the starter, put another fuel filter on, and it started right up. Pack up and head on down the road.
We got into Harlan, turned right on 421 and spit/sputter again. turned off onto another side road, got it turned around, and pulled out the tools again.
This time I changed the filter on the carb. I had one with me, but it was used. It wasn't any better. So I gutted one of the filters just to get me to the parts store. I got the new one installed and headed on into Evarts. At last, a 6 hour drive that took 13 hours!
Shortly after I arrived, Yager pulled in. Swapped stories and set up camp. We all went over to the corner Café' and had dinner.
Early Friday Morning, Andy Williams arrived and the Three of us went over to Registration and then headed to the trails.
We started out on railbed. I was the only one to attempt the waterfall, but I didn't make it. We went from there to lower rock Garden, crawled thru that, then to middle Rock Garden First section was tough.
After some thrashing, I made it up. Andy tried and was turned away, Mike tried, got stuck sideways and about rolled, so with the help of Mr Warn, he went on up.
Next was the middle section, of middle Rock Garden. We all made it up, but Mike broke a front shackle. Out comes the ready welder, and in short time it was fixed. We all did the upper section and headed over to upper Rock Garden. I was first through.
I just crawled thru, got wedged between two rocks and forced my way through. Mike is yelling for me to stop. 90w was pouring out from underneath. Took a look at it and saw where a corner of the crawl box was cracked. No problem, clean it up, JB it, fill it, and go on. NOT. Upon further closer look, it was cracked in several places.
So, that ends my day. Yager pulled me to the top of the hill and I coasted all the way down to the bottom. Yee hawwwing a lot since I was trying to keep my speed up to make it down. Once down, Mike hooked back up and towed me to camp.
Once back at camp, David was there (3DKrawler). W started looking for someone who could weld aluminum. Found a guy over in Harlan who was willing to stay and fix it. David and Andy got it out, and, well it was trashed. No fixing it. Called the guy back and let him know we were not coming.
Started looking for another 231, One guy had what we needed, but I thought the price of $200 was a bit steep. Found another guy with about 6 231's, but all were Chevy, and had a 5 bolt pattern instead of a 6 bolt pattern. Was bad, he only wanted $75 for his.
SO, last resort, to get me on the trails, was to go back without the crawl box. While David and Andy installed the Dana 300, Mike and I worked on the drive shafts. Had to shorten the front, and lengthen the rear. Around 1 am, we were done.
Off to the trails again. This time we were more. Todd C and Todd W had came up late Friday, so we now had Myself, in my Jeep, Mike in his, David in his, Andy in his Yota, and Todd in his Cherokee on one tons.
We went to some other rock gardens and played a while. It started sprinkling rain and the wind was blowing pretty good. We left there searching for more fun stuff. The trails are marked OK, but the map isn't that great in my opinion. Too many trails not marked on both.
We ended up back on middle rock garden. We were all denied because of the slick stuff, just could not point and drive where you wanted or needed to. All made it up the middle section, and then on to the upper section once again.
David popped a bead, and messed up his drive shaft.
Todd's T-case took a dump, and well, I broke my adapter between my tranny and t-case. Long story short, before we got me turned around, the case was all but on the ground. it would have been if it hadn't been for the front drive shaft holding it in.
Out comes the t case of another trip on the strap to the top of the hill. After all of this, if I could have found another adapter, they were willing to put it back together to put me on the trail again.
There is no substitute for great friends.
We hung around camp until time to go to the dinner and raffle. Was probably the smallest turn out I have ever seen at a SFWD event. Probably only 50 or so people.
Nothing big was won, but a few of out group did win something.
Back to camp, swap lies and tell stories. Big rain came for a few mins, and stopped.
Sunday Morning, pack up, and head back. I made it the whole way with no break downs!
Upon inspection, I found that the van has an adapter to angle the oil filter away from the cross member. It was loose. It has a single bolt thru it to hold it on. Some sort of gasket, o-ring, or something has to seal it, nothing there. I ripped some small pieces of cloth to make a makeshift seal, but couldn't get it to stay in place.
So, we cut an o-ring flat gasket out of the road atlas, and some orange ATV on both sides, tightened it up, and it sealed. put in four Qts of oil, and were on our way.
We made it all the way to about halfway on 119 when the Van began to sputter. DAG-GUMIT, I didn't change out the gas filters. So off to the side of the road. We dug out the spare filter and put it on. Since we were headed up hill, the van didn't want to suck the gas up hill.
Batteries died,...I thought. I was about run over a couple times, so we decided to pull it with the Jeep to the other side of the road, where there was a place to get off to the side, out of everyones way, and much safer for me.
I hooked the welding extension/jumper cable to the Van and Jeep, and tried to start it, nothing. I cleaned off all the battery ends, still nothing. I tried jumping across the solenoid, nothing. I went underneath and took power straight to the starter,......Nothing! Starter was gone.
So, I headed to Harlan to get a starter. This was an experience. 44TSL's that are not centered on the weld on bead lock wheels. Home made unbalanced drive shafts, I kept it around 35-40MPH the whole way. Got the starter, and another gas filter, and headed back.
Got back to the Van and Leslie enlighten me about what happened while I was gone.
Seems that a couple of guys stopped to see if they could lend a hand. Leslie and Semi were sitting out next to the tree line where there was some shade. Semi fuzzed up, did the low growl thing, and put herself between the two guys and Leslie. Not something I have seen in her before.
She had not intension's of letting those guys close to her Mom. They got the message and stopped walking to wards her.
I am known for all I carry on the trails. I do not however carry everything. I carry a lot of stuff but leave the simple stuff to someone else.
I didn't have a 1/2" socket! A little old man on a four wheeler came riding down to where we were. I was under the Van so Leslie asked him if he had one. He said he wasn't for sure, but he couldn't see it. He told her to hop on the front of the four wheeler, and she could look and see, ............she declined that offer, but asked him to just bring the whole kit down.
Meanwhile, I was on the phone trying to see who might be coming my route. Got ahold of Yager! He was a couple hours out, and on another route, but could come my way if needed to. So, about 45 mins later, the little old man comes riding back down, he had a small red tool box, and he had a socket!
So I changed out the starter, put another fuel filter on, and it started right up. Pack up and head on down the road.
We got into Harlan, turned right on 421 and spit/sputter again. turned off onto another side road, got it turned around, and pulled out the tools again.
This time I changed the filter on the carb. I had one with me, but it was used. It wasn't any better. So I gutted one of the filters just to get me to the parts store. I got the new one installed and headed on into Evarts. At last, a 6 hour drive that took 13 hours!
Shortly after I arrived, Yager pulled in. Swapped stories and set up camp. We all went over to the corner Café' and had dinner.
Early Friday Morning, Andy Williams arrived and the Three of us went over to Registration and then headed to the trails.
We started out on railbed. I was the only one to attempt the waterfall, but I didn't make it. We went from there to lower rock Garden, crawled thru that, then to middle Rock Garden First section was tough.
After some thrashing, I made it up. Andy tried and was turned away, Mike tried, got stuck sideways and about rolled, so with the help of Mr Warn, he went on up.
Next was the middle section, of middle Rock Garden. We all made it up, but Mike broke a front shackle. Out comes the ready welder, and in short time it was fixed. We all did the upper section and headed over to upper Rock Garden. I was first through.
I just crawled thru, got wedged between two rocks and forced my way through. Mike is yelling for me to stop. 90w was pouring out from underneath. Took a look at it and saw where a corner of the crawl box was cracked. No problem, clean it up, JB it, fill it, and go on. NOT. Upon further closer look, it was cracked in several places.
So, that ends my day. Yager pulled me to the top of the hill and I coasted all the way down to the bottom. Yee hawwwing a lot since I was trying to keep my speed up to make it down. Once down, Mike hooked back up and towed me to camp.
Once back at camp, David was there (3DKrawler). W started looking for someone who could weld aluminum. Found a guy over in Harlan who was willing to stay and fix it. David and Andy got it out, and, well it was trashed. No fixing it. Called the guy back and let him know we were not coming.
Started looking for another 231, One guy had what we needed, but I thought the price of $200 was a bit steep. Found another guy with about 6 231's, but all were Chevy, and had a 5 bolt pattern instead of a 6 bolt pattern. Was bad, he only wanted $75 for his.
SO, last resort, to get me on the trails, was to go back without the crawl box. While David and Andy installed the Dana 300, Mike and I worked on the drive shafts. Had to shorten the front, and lengthen the rear. Around 1 am, we were done.
Off to the trails again. This time we were more. Todd C and Todd W had came up late Friday, so we now had Myself, in my Jeep, Mike in his, David in his, Andy in his Yota, and Todd in his Cherokee on one tons.
We went to some other rock gardens and played a while. It started sprinkling rain and the wind was blowing pretty good. We left there searching for more fun stuff. The trails are marked OK, but the map isn't that great in my opinion. Too many trails not marked on both.
We ended up back on middle rock garden. We were all denied because of the slick stuff, just could not point and drive where you wanted or needed to. All made it up the middle section, and then on to the upper section once again.
David popped a bead, and messed up his drive shaft.
Todd's T-case took a dump, and well, I broke my adapter between my tranny and t-case. Long story short, before we got me turned around, the case was all but on the ground. it would have been if it hadn't been for the front drive shaft holding it in.
Out comes the t case of another trip on the strap to the top of the hill. After all of this, if I could have found another adapter, they were willing to put it back together to put me on the trail again.
There is no substitute for great friends.
We hung around camp until time to go to the dinner and raffle. Was probably the smallest turn out I have ever seen at a SFWD event. Probably only 50 or so people.
Nothing big was won, but a few of out group did win something.
Back to camp, swap lies and tell stories. Big rain came for a few mins, and stopped.
Sunday Morning, pack up, and head back. I made it the whole way with no break downs!
