Just got back from South Dakota yesterday. Went up on Thursday.
Friday we ran Kong and sections 4-5 of Hal Johns and the waterfall. We got a late start due to the rain on Friday and not wanting to wheel in the trail with it being really wet.
On Saturday, we ran Captain Crunch. We had a snafu with Robb's FJ45 buggy's valve cover gasket that day. Somehow the gasket mushroomed and it started puking oil out of the side when he would lean bad to the driver's side. Its a brand new LS3 motor, so we could only assume that somehow it wasn't installed right from the motor builder. So, we tore it down and RTV'd it. This was just inside the entrance to the trail. We also had a group in front of us as well. So, we sat at the entrance working on it and letting the RTV setup until about 2pm before actually starting the trail. Then we made pretty quick work of the trail. I did winch the big major obstacle around 100yards in with the huge undercut, but other than that I drove everything. Body panels are pretty well beat up at this point, but all in all I was extremely happy with how the buggy worked this trip.
Unforunatelty, I don't have many pics from this trip. And, only a couple pics from Capt Crunch. I'll post up some videos in a few of the waterfall on Hal Johns. But, its all I have.
Before the trip, I did a bunch of upgrade work on the buggy as well. I swapped out the 1675CFM Spal fan for a Zirgo 2875cfm fan to help cool the radiator. This served two purposes. #1, the motor runs at 185 all f'n day now. And, #2 the fan is 10x quieter than the Spal it replaced.
I also ditched the Hayden 405 tranny cooler for a new stacked plate Derale dedicated coooler. I relocated it under the rig and it did a much better job of keeping the tranny cool.
I also swapped in ARP studs up front on the hub/drive flanges.
I learned a few things on this trip.
#1 is that rear steer would be awesome. Robb's rig drove the section with the big undercut because of his rear steer. It sure as hell wasn't because of his 43" sticky SXs.
#2 If you're following guys with portal axles, let them get well in front of you so you don't drive their lines at all.
I learned this running Kong on day one, so it wasn't a big deal on Capt Crunch.
#3 South Dakota is my new favorite place to wheel. Its closer than Moab to me, and a hell of a lot harder.
#4 43 inch "Sticky" SXs stick to everything EXCEPT ROCKs.
#5 I love my Treps. They worked awesome up there. And, IMO, much better than even the sticky Krawlers that Mike and Dan ran.
#6 Robb is buying 42" Treps as soon as they are released.
#7 Every restaurant in SD says they have the best burger in town. However, none of them do.
#8 Every steakhouse thinks Medium Rare means they have to cook all the pink out of it and not flavor it at all.
One last thing. Huge props go out to Jason Paule at Twisted Customs. He let us use his shop at 8pm on Friday night to weld up a broken leaf spring bolt/hanger on Dan's FJ40.
