Josh S.
can't kick the habit
- Joined
- January 19, 2001
- Messages
- 1,899
- Reaction score
- 4
- City, State
- Seabeck, WA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '93 sport 4x4
hey hey now! Just for the record I wasn't hammered or nuthin, just had some beers...anyways, yah as steve was sayin, me and my buddy took off around 4am to mess around, and ended up goin a bit far off the beaten path. Started hearing some "not so nice" noises eminating from the front driver's side. After gettin out to check it out, I couldn't find anything was wrong except for my flappyass front fender rubbin on the tire. I tightened up the zipties a bit 
and kept goin. The noise was still there like mad. Got out of the rig again and got down on all fours with the light and all and saw that the front driveshaft yoke was lookin a bit shiny...I was like WTF? Then I noticed the top plate of the radius arm was cracked all the way through, and the bottom plate was "S" curved and halfway cracked through. We decided to keep limping, as it was late and we needed to get back to camp for sure. We went on for a while, and the radius arm completely broke soon thereafter. screw it, keep on goin cuz I don't want to be stranded. After continuing and driving in lostass circles till 615am, we quit and crashed out till about 9am. I got up and started hiking around to high points to see if I could see camp or any landmarks that resembled a way back to camp...nothing looked familiar. We continued on, and after about a mile of not being able to make even the slightest right turn without major noise and lurchage, I decided to call it quits. I slapped my hungoverass passed out bud and we grabbed our water and stuff and started walkin. There was a campsite way up on top of this hilltop in the distance, so we headed this direction and humped it about 30-45 minutes through the desert heat and rocks and hills up to the ridge where we found a father and son camped out. We struck up comversation and got on their good side right away. They hooked us up with some more water and put us going in the right direction back to camp...I didn't feel like walkin 7 miles as the temp was rising, so I just kept talkin to the guy about **** until he finally offered us a well appreciated ride back to marina drive. From there, after MANY thanks, we hiked up the road from the highway and made it back to camp. Ritsui's wife greeted us with their dogs, and then we tossed up the EZUP and got hydrated and ate. The guys rolled back in from their morning run, and after some lunch and planning, most of us headed out to search for my truck. After a bit of running around, we found the truck, sittin on level ground with the front driver tire leaning way into the wheelwell, with the driver side beam all twisted back with the absence of the radius arm...We all talked about it for a bit, then decided to take it apart and attempt to reweld it all back together. I tore it down and got it lined up with some bottle jacks, a strap, and the highlift holding up the truck. (thanks for the great ideas everyone that pitched in their .02) Then bent back the lower plate, got it as straight as possible and me and Jefe lined it up straight...Then i got a nice break while Jefe whipped out his nice ready welder in the middle of the desert. Very nice tool and definitely a life saver. Jefe was under there for a bit, with assistance from brother_of_jefe, who helped out by holdin the welding blanket around the shock to protect it(and probly some other stuff but i wasn't paying attention) After the welding process was done with, everything got thrown back onto the truck, the front driveshaft taken off, and we hit the road in 2low. Limped slowly back to camp, I guess a little TOO slowly cuz Stic-O had to give me a tug outta the sand once.(THANKS) we made it back safely to camp with a couple rigs tailling me to make sure I got back safely. Ate and relaxed, then headed out to the tunnel with exploderpilot and his chick friends. His new explorer(sirhk100's old explorer) kicked ASS out there, and I really had a total blast blasting through the washes and rolling by the highway. When we got to the tunnel, he headed through with little hesitation. Following a shorter wheelbase Jeep, it was hard to tell at times if his 4-door explorer could make some of the turns, but after the driver's rear corner and window came in heavy contact with the wall, he just kept on pushing and wedged that **** through no problem. I was watching the rocks slide along the rear side window and then realized, shoot! this thing's gonna break and shoot glass everywhere haha.
After cruising through the tunnel trail, we hit up some more little trench dealies, and observed as Jo Bunn got narly and went for the gold in the trenches. He had no fear of being stuck or wedged in a bad place. I recall on etime where he was heading up at a pretty high angle, and was just throwing dirt from the rear tires, seemingly stuck...BUT after some finessage, he backed up, worked it, then gassed that 2nd gen and powered it up the hill. Good job!
Came back to camp next, with me in the back of exploderpilot's rig, hauling balls down the wash, taling Steve, who we had a hard time keeping up with! Stic-O was hauling some serious ass, and defintely impressed the heck outta me and Jason. The whole night on any of the runs it was sweet watching steve cuz he just kept trying and trying if he couldn't make it up something, eventually hauling so much ass and giving it mass gas that somehow it slammed on through. Mad props dude, you know how to mash it!
Sometime later after dinner we headed back on a night run, with me back in jason's truck. With Jefe or stic-o in the lead most of the time, we made good time and went all over, playing in trenches, going up a lot of off cambe rside hills, and low traction areas where hauling balls was necessary if ya didn't have yerself a locker. Although I was secretly quite jealous of all the guys that could actually take their rigs out that night and day, I still had an awesome time riding along and watching everyone do stuff that amazed me that these rigs could do. These explorer4x4 guys really impressed me with technique but also not having a problem totally hauling ass if thats what it took to get up somethin. Hung out back at camp till late with a massive fire, then crashed hard in the tent after almost falling asleep under my rig. I slept like a damn baby till about 8am, then got up and packed up fast cuz there were a lot more dark clouds than the clear night before had to offer. The guys were headed out for their last morning's run and I was just about packed up, so we said goodbye and they took off. I decided to drive all the way back home and say screw gettin it towed and sittin between my buddy and some stankass towtruck driver for 3 hours. We made it the whole way with NO problems, and my alignment was hardly even off!!! I was very pleased to make it back home and extremely stoked to make it back to camp!!! Thank you to EVERYONE who helped out or offered to help me out when my truck was broken. I couldn't have done it without your guy's help and coulda still been wandering around in the middle of the desert
Good to see you guys again and wheeling was great! I've already tracked down a front driveshaft from TDG, then gonna talk to Camburg tomorrow and get some new top/bottom plates then repair those arms ASAP. I need to wheel again
and kept goin. The noise was still there like mad. Got out of the rig again and got down on all fours with the light and all and saw that the front driveshaft yoke was lookin a bit shiny...I was like WTF? Then I noticed the top plate of the radius arm was cracked all the way through, and the bottom plate was "S" curved and halfway cracked through. We decided to keep limping, as it was late and we needed to get back to camp for sure. We went on for a while, and the radius arm completely broke soon thereafter. screw it, keep on goin cuz I don't want to be stranded. After continuing and driving in lostass circles till 615am, we quit and crashed out till about 9am. I got up and started hiking around to high points to see if I could see camp or any landmarks that resembled a way back to camp...nothing looked familiar. We continued on, and after about a mile of not being able to make even the slightest right turn without major noise and lurchage, I decided to call it quits. I slapped my hungoverass passed out bud and we grabbed our water and stuff and started walkin. There was a campsite way up on top of this hilltop in the distance, so we headed this direction and humped it about 30-45 minutes through the desert heat and rocks and hills up to the ridge where we found a father and son camped out. We struck up comversation and got on their good side right away. They hooked us up with some more water and put us going in the right direction back to camp...I didn't feel like walkin 7 miles as the temp was rising, so I just kept talkin to the guy about **** until he finally offered us a well appreciated ride back to marina drive. From there, after MANY thanks, we hiked up the road from the highway and made it back to camp. Ritsui's wife greeted us with their dogs, and then we tossed up the EZUP and got hydrated and ate. The guys rolled back in from their morning run, and after some lunch and planning, most of us headed out to search for my truck. After a bit of running around, we found the truck, sittin on level ground with the front driver tire leaning way into the wheelwell, with the driver side beam all twisted back with the absence of the radius arm...We all talked about it for a bit, then decided to take it apart and attempt to reweld it all back together. I tore it down and got it lined up with some bottle jacks, a strap, and the highlift holding up the truck. (thanks for the great ideas everyone that pitched in their .02) Then bent back the lower plate, got it as straight as possible and me and Jefe lined it up straight...Then i got a nice break while Jefe whipped out his nice ready welder in the middle of the desert. Very nice tool and definitely a life saver. Jefe was under there for a bit, with assistance from brother_of_jefe, who helped out by holdin the welding blanket around the shock to protect it(and probly some other stuff but i wasn't paying attention) After the welding process was done with, everything got thrown back onto the truck, the front driveshaft taken off, and we hit the road in 2low. Limped slowly back to camp, I guess a little TOO slowly cuz Stic-O had to give me a tug outta the sand once.(THANKS) we made it back safely to camp with a couple rigs tailling me to make sure I got back safely. Ate and relaxed, then headed out to the tunnel with exploderpilot and his chick friends. His new explorer(sirhk100's old explorer) kicked ASS out there, and I really had a total blast blasting through the washes and rolling by the highway. When we got to the tunnel, he headed through with little hesitation. Following a shorter wheelbase Jeep, it was hard to tell at times if his 4-door explorer could make some of the turns, but after the driver's rear corner and window came in heavy contact with the wall, he just kept on pushing and wedged that **** through no problem. I was watching the rocks slide along the rear side window and then realized, shoot! this thing's gonna break and shoot glass everywhere haha.After cruising through the tunnel trail, we hit up some more little trench dealies, and observed as Jo Bunn got narly and went for the gold in the trenches. He had no fear of being stuck or wedged in a bad place. I recall on etime where he was heading up at a pretty high angle, and was just throwing dirt from the rear tires, seemingly stuck...BUT after some finessage, he backed up, worked it, then gassed that 2nd gen and powered it up the hill. Good job!
Came back to camp next, with me in the back of exploderpilot's rig, hauling balls down the wash, taling Steve, who we had a hard time keeping up with! Stic-O was hauling some serious ass, and defintely impressed the heck outta me and Jason. The whole night on any of the runs it was sweet watching steve cuz he just kept trying and trying if he couldn't make it up something, eventually hauling so much ass and giving it mass gas that somehow it slammed on through. Mad props dude, you know how to mash it!
Sometime later after dinner we headed back on a night run, with me back in jason's truck. With Jefe or stic-o in the lead most of the time, we made good time and went all over, playing in trenches, going up a lot of off cambe rside hills, and low traction areas where hauling balls was necessary if ya didn't have yerself a locker. Although I was secretly quite jealous of all the guys that could actually take their rigs out that night and day, I still had an awesome time riding along and watching everyone do stuff that amazed me that these rigs could do. These explorer4x4 guys really impressed me with technique but also not having a problem totally hauling ass if thats what it took to get up somethin. Hung out back at camp till late with a massive fire, then crashed hard in the tent after almost falling asleep under my rig. I slept like a damn baby till about 8am, then got up and packed up fast cuz there were a lot more dark clouds than the clear night before had to offer. The guys were headed out for their last morning's run and I was just about packed up, so we said goodbye and they took off. I decided to drive all the way back home and say screw gettin it towed and sittin between my buddy and some stankass towtruck driver for 3 hours. We made it the whole way with NO problems, and my alignment was hardly even off!!! I was very pleased to make it back home and extremely stoked to make it back to camp!!! Thank you to EVERYONE who helped out or offered to help me out when my truck was broken. I couldn't have done it without your guy's help and coulda still been wandering around in the middle of the desert
Good to see you guys again and wheeling was great! I've already tracked down a front driveshaft from TDG, then gonna talk to Camburg tomorrow and get some new top/bottom plates then repair those arms ASAP. I need to wheel again
