Moab 10/5-7/06

SAMI

Formerly Beardy McGee
Location
SLC, UT
*Apologies for the tardy report...:D

I met up with Paul "stripeshirtman"(who just got off the mission), Robbie "SUPERFLY", and Joe... not sure if he's on RME... anyways we headed down to Moab late Wed. night with Robbie's '85 exo'd John Deere edition 4Runner, and Joe's '99 supercharged 4runner in tow on the gooseneck trailer...

We were meeting up with some of the guys from TTORA who drove from Cali, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, and some other places... funny thing, we never wheeled with them once in the three days we were there.. due to weather and breakdowns.

We tried to catch up with the TTORA guys for their second trail of the day which was Metal Masher, around 11:30. They ended up getting of of Cliffhanger at like 2 or 3pm... so we were way ahead of them on Metal Masher.

While on Metal Masher we were slowed once or twice due to a faulty driver's hub in Joe's rig... plus his OX locker was being stubborn. Due to the hub going in and out of working, Joe was on the winch for the first few major obstacles until it was fixed right later on trail.

Robbie tackled the RockChucker and had it in about 3-4 tries. Once he knew where his tires were best placed, he walked right up it... Then Widow Maker was shut down by both 4runners. They made Widow Maker look dumb.

The storm started to get pretty bad once we were off Widow Maker. There were strong flowing rivers where there probably hadn't been for decades... lightening and thunder all around we tried to navigate our way off the trail back to HWY313... took a bit longer than it should've. the ending of Metal Masher is somewhat confusing(it's been 3-4 years since i've been there).

We made it to HWY 313 without getting terribly lost or drowned in the floods. We stopped to take some pictures of the waterfalls coming of the cliffs in Dead Horse Point Canyon, just a mile or two up from the camp ground that was at this point a massive raging river.

Back in town we found some food, and waited out the storm at the Motel6. At some point in the night, Joe's 4runner was making an awful sound... turned out the ring and pinion went south. the next day, Friday, we searched for a new set of 4.88's with no luck... orded some in for the morning to either pick up and install, or just pick up and install back in SLC...

Friday morning the rain continued, and Robbie's 4runner wouldn't run. It got fuel, spark, air... but wouldn't run... finally toward afternoon time, someone checked the distributor cap and noticed the spring loaded contact was gone.. back to CarQuest(who rocks BTW) and we had what we needed to get going again. By the time we got the 4runner going the storm was bad enough that you'd have to be an idiot to go wheeling... so we hung out in the parking lot all night with the other TTORA guys til the cops came. then hit up Denny's around 1pm...

The next moring we picked up the 4.88's and decided to leave them alone til SLC... we hit up Poison Spider Mesa with some fullsize k5's and other big rigs... plus some Jeeps.. i felt like we were completely surrounded by c-clips. one of which broke not more than 5 minutes into the trail..

first bigger obsticle we watched a tire carrier spindle from SL4x4 shear off:-\ .... we showed the jeep guys how it's done with the John Deere rice burner rig...

Eventually we ran into a group of about 10-15 FJCruisers. two of which were part of some toyota fj trail team. they travel the country for a year and wheel every single weekend... and if you're 21 you can drive the fj.. so i drove the last half of PSM in an FJ Cruiser... with a lift and bigger tires that thing would be awesome.. i loved the way it rides and handles...

anyways, then we headed out to load up and skip town around 5pm...

great trip... not much wheeling, but by far one of my most memorable trips yet..

The last pic is of Joe's Duramax.. it was or tow rig...:sick: rest in peace... need a 14 bolt w/ discs??;)

-Jason
 

Attachments

  • robbie.jpeg
    robbie.jpeg
    87.3 KB · Views: 33
  • joestuck.jpeg
    joestuck.jpeg
    94.3 KB · Views: 38
  • onthewinch.jpeg
    onthewinch.jpeg
    70 KB · Views: 23
  • joewrenching.jpeg
    joewrenching.jpeg
    71.7 KB · Views: 30
  • joemirrorgulch.jpeg
    joemirrorgulch.jpeg
    92.4 KB · Views: 46
  • robbiescenic.jpeg
    robbiescenic.jpeg
    43.2 KB · Views: 8
  • storm.jpeg
    storm.jpeg
    47.5 KB · Views: 14
  • flood.jpeg
    flood.jpeg
    82.1 KB · Views: 24
  • cloudsonmesas.jpeg
    cloudsonmesas.jpeg
    25.9 KB · Views: 11
  • joeswreck2.jpeg
    joeswreck2.jpeg
    77.5 KB · Views: 81

SAMI

Formerly Beardy McGee
Location
SLC, UT
Why didn't you take the blue beast??

The stars weren't aligned just right for my rig to make it... :-\ water pump went out right as i was gonna head out of town, so i left it behind.

What's the story of the crash?

anyone who get's onto 215 from Parley's Way(2100 S) knows how annoying that light at Wilshire and Parley's Way can be... Joe did us all a favor.. at the expense of his dad's truck, and his right leg... he's now got a titanium rod in his femmur.

Joe was heading east onto the freeway(through a green - he had right of way), and a guy was heading west, turning south onto Wilshire... the guy turned into him, tried to turn back out of it but was far too late as Joe smashed into him head on more to the drivers side... sending Joe straight into the traffic light support.

If he were in his 4runner, he would've surely died. so maybe his broken 4.88's might have saved his life??;)
 
Last edited:

SUPERFLY

CaptainRob
Location
sugar house
wow, i just noticed this thread i dont mean to bring it back from the dead but that trip wasway killer, it was really cool to see the waterfalls. it was probably a once in a lifetime chance to see moab like that. i cant wait to go thanksgiving
 

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
WOW, the pic of Joe's truck is amazing. I can't believe was out 2 weeks after that walking around on Chainsaw.
 
Top