Return from Fall SMORR trip, stories, pics, carnage!!

[gmanpaint]

I made it back home sore & tired as all hell. What a weekend!

Took all morning to get loaded and on the road. We were up wheeling till 2 am. I might unload the rig next weekend.
EDIT: I ended up unloading, and giving the Black Hole a thorough wash down. Found a rock in the pinch point of the control arm & cross member.
After I get some rest, I will get some video & pics up. Hope all who went had a great time, and will get together again in the future. For those who did not make it out, maybe after seeing some of the pics, you will want to try to make our next outing.
It was great meeting a few new wheelers. I have to thank Mr. & Mrs. W for coming out & hanging with a bunch of nuts in the middle of the woods for a weekend, you guys were great! Awesome chili, thanks again!

Brad put on a heck of a show with both his HULK of an Explorer & his Razor S machine. Wow those things can wheel! Your EX is a beast. Watching it crawl backwards up a nasty washed out level 3 in the dark was impressive as hell.
Thanks for the helping hand this weekend Brad, couldn't have made it without it. The home BBQ grill was a first, and it whipped up some kick ass meals! I got to try something new, and I have to say, the BBQ beans with Angus beef was very tasty, Thanks!

Minimal carnage on the trails, bent T-case skid, broken tag mount, broken driving light, some tree bark stuck between the wheel & tire, and I lost my video action camera somewhere on the night run on a level 4 run up black mamba, somewhere before V-notch.

 

[T3h H4r3]

Attempting to get the last of my pics uploaded to the photobucket account. Haven't had much luck getting my videos uploaded to youtube as of yet. Will work on that tonight when i get off work. Gman, i have that decal on the explorer now, thanks for giving it to me. No damage to my rig except some of those trails (mainly that Halloween night run) beat up my running boards pretty good, wish i would have taken a picture of them when they were all pushed up. Sucks to hear that you lost your roof mounted camera, hope it doesnt cost too much to get replaced. It was neat to see other peoples vehicles and the mods that they have done to them. I didnt expect to see a monster truck, or should i say SUV, though! Im not sure who has the dark blue ranger, but that thing is a sleeper 4x4 machine. From first glance i wouldnt have expected that to be able to do so much with so little ease. Most fun I have had at SMORR yet! Will definitely go to the next run that is setup.

 

[techieman33]

Were home, hopefully I'll get some pics up tonight, video might take a couple of days though.

 

[crazyflights]

Well -tore down driverside front end, and spindle is shot, knuckle missing alot of metal, not much left of axle shafts. I got to thinking, when we were trying to get unstuck, i think some loose gravel rode up on the tire then fell down in front and with the water some of the smaller creek gravel must have got in the pivot area to do this kind of carnage-also it may have not been working for quite some time while we were truing to recover, never really looked out at that wheel.??? Either way it actually faired pretty good for the abuse and was extremely happy with it now, have few more things planned for it , which should beef it up a little more, and next time i will bring my spares.

RZR jumping was little ruff on the back-but today feels pretty good, actually been outside riding quads, and we went and killed an 83 f150 in the woods.

 

[Elessar65]

and we went and killed an 83 f150 in the woods.

...Picturing you stalking and sneaking up on a truck, shooting it, then stripping the "meat" engine and drivetrain...

 

[Benji-Man]

Just got home, from an awesome weekend. The fun meter was off the chart.

It seems that I need to be added to the list of carnage. It seems I lost 3rd gear somewhere at SMORR. I will look for it next time we're there but probably won't find it, ha-ha. I drove back to STL in second running about 4000 RPM the whole way. I'm going to search the tranny forums and see what I can learn. It may just be a silenoid not functioning.

I too will post pics after a few hour of rest.

Again, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone for an awesome weekend. I will do this again. Greg, Thank You, I hope I didn't leave to many pencil shaving in you passenger seat.

Note to Self: Don't bring a go-kart to a Nascar race.

 

[techieman33]

I don't have any carnage to report, mine sat at home in my parents garage all weekend:

I think my brother probably has a couple of new scratches in the paint but that's probably about it, and my moms explorers front bumper was scratched trying to get it up the rti ramp. After watching that attempt stock 3rd gens have no business on anything tougher than a gravel road:thumbdwn:.

 

[dkchrist]

Got home about 5 and started to unload the truck. I washed the truck at Seymour and headed home.

Carnage:
Scuffed Front bumper valance
Tweaked rear shock mount
Some rash on one of the Alcoas
Some general rash on the bumper and undercarriage

It was a great weekend! Benji, your a grade A dude and it would be an honor to wheel with you again. Greg, Eric, and Benji, guys rock in getting us out of the late night jam.

 

[gmanpaint]

Missouri--2
Transmissions--0

What a bummer. Sorry Matt, Benji, looks like some wrenching ahead for you guys.

Both night runs was some crazy stuff. We all made it home, I think all of us learned some things as well.

I learned over all, how cool it is to be wheeling with a great group of people. We had a variety of rigs out this time, from stock to rock. All had a good time, all brought back some story's to tell.

Benji-aka "Bulldozer" was just awesome out in the thick of some hairy wheeling. He just said, "Tell me where you want the rocks, & I will get them there". Then off he went, rolling 200 lb boulder's in the water to where we needed them, amazing! He also supplied the entire group with enough wood to burn for the entire trip. Awesome! I think my Oh **** bar has his hand imprinted in it permanently

The "Blazing Saddles" campfire was a chuckle a minute. Daniel made a new friend with the Smoke creature, it just followed him around like a lost puppy dog. Watch out for them bean burns guys..lol.!

We got a group of ghouls trick or treating, at the campfire, that was a first for me. They were all decked out in some fancy costumes and looking cute as can be. Very well mannered and thanking for every piece of candy they got, my hats off to the parents.

 

[techieman33]

Hey guys if your uploading pictures to the group account please put your screen name at least at the beginning and ending picture of your set, and at least once on every page would be nice. That way if someone wants a high res version they will know who to contact to get it.

The pics my dad took are all uploaded there now, and I will upload videos tuesday when my brother gets them to me.

Now on to the pics you've all been waiting to see.
This was as far I my dad could make it up the hill, he started rubbing on the lower air dam.

Idling through the mud so it wouldn't get dirty

On, or should I say off the RTI ramp. He hit the front bumper before it even got a tire on the ramp

And on to the carnage it may not look like much but it's a lot on an otherwise spotless 3rd gen with 20k miles on it. The leather doesn't even show any wear at all yet, and the back seats look brand new.

 

[gmanpaint]

The group hanging around the RTI.

Brad warming up
(dead links)

Now he is ready
(dead links)

 

[Elessar65]

Looks like you guys had a blast. Now that my truck is finally coming together I'll have to get out there with ya sometime.

 

[jg09]

And on to the carnage it may not look like much but it's a lot on an otherwise spotless 3rd gen with 20k miles on it. The leather doesn't even show any wear at all yet, and the back seats look brand new.

lol, that's some... er... insane "trail damage"

 

[techieman33]

lol, that's some... er... insane "trail damage"

For that explorer it is, it's a true grocery getter. It only leaves the garage to go get groceries on occasion.

 

[Twiztid]

i'm sorry i missed out on one h**l of a good trip with all my bothers and sisters, looks like you had a great time. But things took alot longer than thought in st. louis but i'm proud to say that i have new grandson that some day will start making the trips with me i hope. and we named him michel r. Benidickt Jr 7 lbs 8 1/2 ozs

hope to see you all in the future, steve

 

[Turdle]

Looks like you guys had fun. The weather sure did get nice for you.

So, what about the candy and spook trail ? any trick or treaters out there?

 

[techieman33]

We had maybe 7 trick-or-treters, they were all organized into one group and came to us around our camp fire. And they got loaded up everyone started giving them huge piles of candy when they realized there were only a few of them. We didn't see any kins of spooky trail out there, but maybe we missed it there, we didn't go down a whole lot of trails since most were washed out pretty badly from all of the rain.

 

[Benji-Man]

My list keeps growing, as I was laying underneath power washing the mud I found a little piece of SMORR that I brought home with me. Wedged between my driver side lower control arm and my CV axle. The deck of cards is for size reference. It's just a trip to pick n pull. The tranny issue i'm still searching for clues. Yet I'm still not detoured from returning for another meet, after it's fixed of course. Had I listened, and cleaned my truck in Seymour as proposed, I would have found the rock and the axle would have lived. This carnage is my fault, and my stupidity. See what happens when a city truck goes to the country.

 

[gmanpaint]

Have a pic of the carnage? Looks like it was just tearing up the cv boot from all the black on it.

Hate to say I told ya so, but...........

 

[crazyflights]

Hmm, that sucks! but my rock was bigger.