Spring Creek 5-20

[Rk Crlr]

What?!?! I have been home over 1/2 hour...where's the pics??? :D :flipoff2:


Casualties:
One non-CO4x4 CJ Flopped (minor body damage)
My steering box brace and license plate.
Jason's driver side fender (needed clearancing)

That's all I can think of.....
Although Monica(OffroadGirl) was up there in a later group...:poke:
:D

[jdbwrx]

Sorry for the delay. Driving home, eating, and vegging out for a while took priority! :flipoff2:

Here's the link to my Yahoo album. I will post the full res pics at work on Monday.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/vailmonkey/album?.dir=/3637scd&.src=ph

Great to get out with everyone. Murdock and I had a good time. Thanks again to David and Tom for patient spotting in the rock garden (and David for ballast), and Chris for use of his sawzall. :D

I anxious to see everyone else's pics.

Thanks again everyone for the good time.

Jason

[jtw2]

nice pics!
how did the flop happen? That's on winch hill correct?

[OffroadGirl]

Yeah I was there but without my Jeep, of course. It was kind of a bummer but it was cool seeing everyone. I saw Rk Crlr in the rock garden where I saw him last year so I'm pretty sure he's been there the whole time. How do you get Internet access from up there? It must get cold in the winter just hanging out at the rock garden.

We had one shock mount break off, but the weld wasn't good in the first place so the owner wasn't surprised. The rig that got through everything the easiest ended up being the only one that was open and on 33s (TJangler).

Another guy in our group got an 8.8 with an ARB at the same time I did, and his fails on him every trail, too. Today wasn't an exception, locker went out on him in the rock garden.

It was good seeing you guys up there!

[jtw2]

I see way to many ARBs fail on trails. It would be cool to be able to unlock at times but the Detroits never fail me.

[ColoradoXJ13]

nice pics!
how did the flop happen? That's on winch hill correct?

hell, I almost flopped there last spring getting winched up, you pick the wrong line...whoops....

[Rk Crlr]

At least Jason isn't slacking. Got pics up the first night! :D

That was the first rock/ obsticle. I think it can be the hardest part of the trail. Seems to get harder every year. This guy was giving it a bit of gas and was bouncing a bit when it went too far.
It was kinda interesting to see exactly where the breakover point was while winching him back upright.

Offroadgirl, I DO make it back to town occasionally. Although the net service sucks up there under my rock. :P
Glad to hear you guys made it through. We hung out up top for quite awhile and still didn't see you and were wondering.

I would bet those ARBS are failing do to weak tubes. ARBS do not like housing that flex. Get a proper truss on there and I bet it won't fail again.

[OffroadGirl]

I would bet those ARBS are failing do to weak tubes. ARBS do not like housing that flex. Get a proper truss on there and I bet it won't fail again.
That's a very interesting thought -- we're willing to try anything so I'm sure we'll both be following your suggestion. Thanks!

</hijack>

[Funrover]

Cool pics!!!

[jtw2]

That's a very interesting thought -- we're willing to try anything so I'm sure we'll both be following your suggestion. Thanks!

</hijack>


To that end, this looks good

http://www.colorado4x4.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=63992

[SilverCJ]

It was a good day of wheeling. I Enjoyed meeting everyone. Unfortunately, on the way home I noticed a lot of driveline vibration as a result of the trail. I looked and now my rear pinion angle is off. I bent my back right leaf spring pretty good which has made my rear differential angle up higher than it should be which has thrown my driveshaft angle off. Obvious signs that I either need a trackbar system or to say the heck with it and four link the rear. The problem is to do anything I have to reroute my whole exhaust as both mufflers are right in the way of where a track bar or four link arms would be mounted. Short term to get through the summer I think I may try just replacing the bent leaf spring and then as a winter project I may attempt to four link it. -Ben

[jdbwrx]

It was a good day of wheeling. I Enjoyed meeting everyone. Unfortunately, on the way home I noticed a lot of driveline vibration as a result of the trail. I looked and now my rear pinion angle is off. I bent my back right leaf spring pretty good which has made my rear differential angle up higher than it should be which has thrown my driveshaft angle off. Obvious signs that I either need a trackbar system or to say the heck with it and four link the rear. The problem is to do anything I have to reroute my whole exhaust as both mufflers are right in the way of where a track bar or four link arms would be mounted. Short term to get through the summer I think I may try just replacing the bent leaf spring and then as a winter project I may attempt to four link it. -Ben

Ben too bad to hear about that. I don't remeber you "getting after it" that hard. How bad is the bend? Can you take it to a spring shop and have it corrected, or are you looking at a new pack? The cost of wheelin... Good luck with that.

My front end vibes were worse on my way home, so it looks like I'm going to be attacking all the parts that can cause wobble. It out to be fun.

I cut my bumper on the right side to match the driver's. On trail mods are more fun though!:D

[Rk Crlr]

SilverCJ What engine are you runnging? I got rid of dual exhaust on my 360. Discount muffler has a great high clearance "Rock Crawler" system; you'd have one exhaust that works great.
Hope the drivetrain issues weren't enought to mess them up. I can't figure out where you did that. You weren't heavy on the stupid petal. :)


Back on topic...where are those pics?!?!? (besides jdbwrx) :flipoff2:

[SilverCJ]

I'm running a Chevy 350. I think this trip probably made it worse enough for me to notice it on the highway on the way home but this has to be something that has been slowly getting worse for awhile and now it is just noticeable. Not having a track bar in the rear has let the springs slowly get worse and worse is my bet. On the back right you can now actually see where it bends up right before the front right eyelet it is mounted too. It is bent up right before this which probably accounts for the changing pinion angle. I also found spots on the yoke of the driveshaft where it is dented in from where when I flexed it must have put it at a bad angle and rubbed. Long term I will need a trackbar setup to fix it. I will look into the exhaust because it will require me running one high clearance exhaust system. I should have looked at how yours was run..I did notice you had like 3" pipe which looked good and it sounded great. I think short term I am going to just trying to replace that one leaf spring and see if doing that will get me through the summer and then in the winter I will have to reroute the exhaust and devise a trackbar setup. I don't think I have done much if any damage to the drivetrain yet but I definitely have to get it fixed before I take it out again. The only real abuse it got this last trip was a couple times coming out of the snow I knocked the rear diff real hard and it stopped the jeep and I had to back up and change angles. I was keeping momentum to get out of the snow and hit it harder than I normally would be going in a rocky area but again, I think this was just the last straw that finally bent it enough for me to notice the vibration. Oh well, it was fun and I just hope to get a quick fix (leaf spring) so I can enjoy the summer wheelin' and then worry about rerouting everything in the winter!

[SilverCJ]

Yeah, it's bent pretty bad...definitely have to get a new leaf spring. I also noticed that I have a crack in my steering brace...common on CJ's I guess. I have to decide whether I am going to weld it back and make it work longer or upgrade to the heavy duty brace and spend the money on it.




Ben too bad to hear about that. I don't remeber you "getting after it" that hard. How bad is the bend? Can you take it to a spring shop and have it corrected, or are you looking at a new pack? The cost of wheelin... Good luck with that.

My front end vibes were worse on my way home, so it looks like I'm going to be attacking all the parts that can cause wobble. It out to be fun.

I cut my bumper on the right side to match the driver's. On trail mods are more fun though!:D

[jdbwrx]

It never ends...

[SilverCJ]

Yeah, thats the truth...Fortunately its a blast when everything DOES work!

[Rk Crlr]

Lol, so make that 2 CJ steering braces!
I'll have to replace mine. Actually, both the aftermarket brace and the lower stock stamped piece. :eek:
Guess I was kinda hard on the old steering :D

FYI I am thinking of getting the Sam's Offroad one as it is 1/2" compared to the others I found which are 3/8". It is actually cheaper than some of the others as well. :thumbsup:

[87xjco]

I counted 10 rigs and all really good people to wheel with. I didn't get alot of photo's but here's a few
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/spring%20crk%2005-20-06/DSC00496.jpg
The rock garden, Becky handling the cruzin illusion rig like a pro
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/spring%20crk%2005-20-06/DSC00497.jpg
The Xota did good. But it did die on me once and I had no spark. Thanks to greg, he showed me the trick of disconnecting the CPS and re-connecting it. Then I had spark again and no troubles since. Weird renix Jeep system.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/spring%20crk%2005-20-06/DSC00502.jpg
Took some good driving and spotting to get this XJ through
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/spring%20crk%2005-20-06/DSC00500.jpg
More of Becky making it look easy
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/spring%20crk%2005-20-06/DSC00499.jpg
I relied on the always great spotting by Tom for most of the obsticals
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/spring%20crk%2005-20-06/DSC00509.jpg
The group at the end
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/87xjco/spring%20crk%2005-20-06/DSC00515.jpg

I have hi-res. photo's if anyone wants them e-mailed just pm me. That last group photo looks real good when it's not re-sized.
Terry

[Rk Crlr]

Nice photos Terry.:thumbsup:

Thanks for posting them.

[SilverCJ]

That's good to know. I was looking at this one http://www.rockcrawler.com/techreports/bigdaddy_cj_steering_bracket/index.asp

but it is also 3/8" so maybe I will go with the Sam's offroad one as well. Thanks, Ben





Lol, so make that 2 CJ steering braces!
I'll have to replace mine. Actually, both the aftermarket brace and the lower stock stamped piece. :eek:
Guess I was kinda hard on the old steering :D

FYI I am thinking of getting the Sam's Offroad one as it is 1/2" compared to the others I found which are 3/8". It is actually cheaper than some of the others as well. :thumbsup:

[Cruzin Illusion]

I just wanted to say Becky and I had a great time and couldn't have wheeled with a better group of people. I will try to send out pictures today to those who requested them. I hope we can get together again to go wheeling.

SilverCJ and JDBWRX: If you guys need help fixing you rigs just give me a call

[jdbwrx]

I updated my Yahoo gallery with the pics Tom e-mailed me. Here is the link again:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/vailmonkey/album?.dir=3637scd

Thanks again!

[Cruzin Illusion]

Thanks for posting the pictures Jason:)

Tom

[Rk Crlr]

YAH! More pics. :D