UROC Extreme West Cedar City Utah

[RockMonkey]

Can't be good news, but I still can't wait to read the full report. Musta been rough courses, eh? Lots of high scores there.....including two actual 40's from you, indicating you didn't even get far enough through to pass a progress gate? Breakage?

Breakage? Yeah. Lots-o-breakage. We broke more things than I think we've ever broken before. Stupid stuff. Here's our day: Before the first obstacle I had to put my skidplate back on from the day before. The exhaust pipe was kinda in the way. Hmm, how did that happen? Oh well, carry on... I also replaced a broken limiting strap on my front axle.

First obstacle we were up second. We watched Jake make the first climb look easy, he had trouble on the second climb (took a cone), and then got absolutely screwed on some breakover rocks just before the end gate. He timed out within spitting distance of the end gate. We got up the first and second climbs quick and easy, got a little hung up on the rocks near the end gate, and even broke out the spotter strap just to be safe. Ended up with one point. The judge said we did it better than anyone the day before, so we were feeling good. The next obstacle we got up the tipsy weird climb with the big step in the middle and the out-of-bounds banner right at the top (which Seth hit). Dropped off the world, and turned around to head up the stupid bouldery canyon. We had 50 seconds left in the canyon when I landed on my rear driveshaft and bent both the ujoint ubolts enough that the joint fell out. Done. Crap. Okay, so we winched up to the top and got the driveshaft back on.

I went to line up for the next obstacle and noticed I had NO power steering. I couldn't turn the wheel at all. Following the stream of ATF showed us that the pressed-in low pressure fitting in the pump had falled out! We tried everything we could to get it to stay in, but it was just loose and fell right out. We had to take a 40 on the obstacle because we didn't have any time to fix it. We could have tried to drive it without steering (we wouldn't have gotten far), but we would have made a huge mess and dumped all the fluid on the ground, and ruined the pump (and any hope we had of making obstacle 8).

So we got a tow down to the Maxxis trailer where the plan was to use JB weld to glue back in the fitting. Then we noticed that the Alternator was sitting ON the frame, and the steering shaft touching the intake manifold. Uh, I think the engine moved... Looked around and found that the driver's side engine mount had partially broken out, and pushed into the frame, allowing the engine to sink a couple inches. We could have probably gotten either one of the two problems fixed before the last obstacle, but there was no way we could have gotten them both fixed, and we couldn't run with either one, so we ended the day with two 40s. Ouch.

So I had plenty of time to be a spectator and take pictures.

While you're reading this post I'll be writing my spectatorish observations below, and uploading some pics.

 

[RockMonkey]

I believe only one person made it up the wall all weekend, and that was on the end of a winch. The boulder at the bottom is gone so you just can't get a good run at it. That didn't stop these two from giving it a valiant effort. Seth had one good run at it, but fell back down, and then his engine didn't run well enough to really give it another good run. Don't know if he ever figured out exactly what was wrong with the motor.

Jake gave it a great try, but fell back too. On his second attempt the rear t-case output yoke broke and he was left with a floppy shaft.

He didn't seem terribly upset about it.

Tom Ahern and Rick Beard both smartly chose the safe route and made successful runs.

RJ Brown and Mike Bailey (who was running exhibition) both chose the middle line that ends in a horrible wedgy crack that has broken a lot of awefully good equipment. RJ timed out and backed down despite some spectacular attempts to free himself from the wedge, Mike Bailey had a rough time getting up to the wedge, and timed out well below it. As soon as he timed out he was able to drive right up to the wedge, and crawl right through it like it wasn't even there.

 

[RockMonkey]

Meanwhile... Jett Jaffe was on the easiest part of obstacle seven when he stopped, and the judge ran up with a bag of kitty litter. He was having transmission problems all weekend, so I assumed his tranny dumped all over. I found out later that his aluminum fuel cell developed a very long crack and dumped a few gallons of gasoline on the course.

At the same time Linda and Todd Adams were trying to get up the climb on course six.

Linda managed to get way off line and roll off the hill. She did a perfect roll and landed back on her wheels at the bottom. Not willing to throw in the towel, they gave it another shot, and rolled again. The second roll happened seconds after Big Sarge announced that if one driver could roll off this hill twice, it was Linda.

End of the first roll:

And the second (and a funny pic of Mikey):

Shortly after that Allen Ball made an exciting run up course six (the one that took out our driveshaft).

 

[RockMonkey]

They ran the Super Modified Main event first (saved the best for last ). I thought it was too easy, but it may have just been that the top six super mod teams made it look easy. Brandon from Sky's Extreme and the Team Climax guys both made straightforward runs at the course. The second climb was a tough one that both teams spent a lot of time working to get between the cones. Both of them ended up taking the cone on the passenger side of the second climb (you can't see the cone in either picture).

After these two runs Todd and Jennifer Little got smart and drove out of the course, and completely around the second climb, and hooked the same cone that the first two teams could not avoid. They finished the course with a lot more time, and a lot fewer backs than the first two teams. Tony K and Jason Berger followed suit and both made quick easy runs at the course.

Cody Waggoner had a big enough lead he didn't even have to show up for the main event to take the win. He was there to have fun and put on show, though, so he charged up the first climb on the first try, and finished the obstacle including the going straight up the second climb, rather than around.

 

[RockMonkey]

The real show was the modified class main event. The obstacle was a tough one, with a climb out of a mud pit to the top of a rock too narrow to stay on top of, a sharp downhill right turn with a cone in exactly the wrong place, a big sweeping u-turn, and a climb up a big undercut ledge.

Rhett Fergason, in sixth place, was first. He never managed to make the climb out of the mud pit. He tried a couple different lines but never found the sweet spot to climb it. The only real easy way to get up to the top was blocked by two cones.

McNearny put on a great show. Here's how it went:

He made the climb look stupid, first try.

Then he fell off the too-narrow rock, and got high centered. Right after he was able to back off the rock some wires under the dash started sparking, a bunch of smoke, and then FIRE! Yep, actual flames right there under (through?) the floor on the passenger side.

The fire went out, there was some furious rustleing of wires, and eventually the rig was restarted, with less than a minute and most of the course left to go. He flew off the rock, and made the right turn on two wheels.

Somehow he managed to break a Dana 60 Axle joint on the easiest part of the obstacle, and then he rolled dropping down into the canyon before the last climb. Best show all weekend. You can see his broken joint in the foreground of the second pic.

Allen Ball and Dallas Stumph both took two cones on the first climb, and one on the last climb, but managed to complete the course with seconds left.

Ted Grady hit the start gate, then smartly took the two cones on the climb, but then fell off the ledge early and hit the cone on the right. At that point he was officially done with his run, but he finished the course anyway because he's that cool.

In a similar situation as the supermod class, Tom Ahern didn't even need to attempt the course to secure the win. He made the run anyway, and showed why he was in first place, by making by far the smoothest and cleanest run of the bunch. They left no one with any doubt that they were the best modified class team this weekend.

 

[I Lean]

Couple questions:

Who's spotting for McNearny, and why is he in a Maxxis jersey?
Who ended up spotting for Seth?
What is your overall opinion of the courses? Too hard, or was it just a bad-luck weekend?

 

[RockMonkey]

Couple questions:

Who's spotting for McNearny, and why is he in a Maxxis jersey?
Who ended up spotting for Seth?
What is your overall opinion of the courses? Too hard, or was it just a bad-luck weekend?

Same guy that did last event. I can't remember his name right now, but he likes Maxxis.
His brother.
I didn't think the courses were that hard. We just had horrible luck keepingthe rig together. I did hear from other people that they thought the courses were really hard. And the overall scores seem to indicate that the courses were hard. I feel like we could have done every obstacle if we didn't have so many stupid problems.

 

[sibeta]

Branden, did you see Carl Nelson in Cedar? I read on Pirate that he might have taken a nasty roll in his bronco, well if that was the nelson they were referring to, any word?

 

[Bart]

Bummer about your luck Braden, sounds like you were in the thick of things until the motor mount went south. :-\

 

[ROCKRUNNER]

Wow! Great coverage braden. I will give you an update on how our weekend went. The first obstacle of the day was #3 I followed R.J. Brown and he blew his tranny and 40 min later we ran and couldn't make it through the wicked crack (needed about a 3 foot stack of rocks) I think only 2-3 made it all weekend. SCORE (36)

#4 is a nasty climb that everyone had issues getting up you have to take the cone to make it. We timed out after 7-8 tries at it. SCORE (36)

#1 was a course that was fairly easy just long (all the courses were long) I had 15 seconds left to finish pulled up to line myself up for the gates in reverse but timed out with only 3 seconds needed to finish. The conclusion was I could have made it if I didn't straighten out. (driver error) SCORE (32)

#2 We took the supermod line and aced it with no back up until the end and couldnt get over this 12" boulder because my engine started crapping out and took several backs to end with a (4)

On day two we were still in the running everyone was doing terrible. I knew if we could have a good day we could be in the top 5. But that is when our bad luck really started.

We started on # 6 a simple easy course but long everyone was getting good scores because it wasnt that hard. It starts with a verticle climb and on top there is an out of bounds banner so you would need to turn hard to avoid it. My spotter didnt see it and I couldnt see it because I was facing straight up and we hit it giving us a (40). This one was hard to take but my spotter does'nt have much experiance and it's my fault for not making sure he new about the banners! Know we new we were out of the running so we were going to just have fun!

#7 was very long and very few people made it we did really well we were spakin it but couldnt get out of the mud pit should have taken some cones and went around. The engine problem started again and we could'nt power out of it. SCORE (28)

#8 Was the wall and the engine problems continued. We have the power to make it the engine was just giving us hell. I think it is a sensor or vapor lock issues will try to find out as soon as possible. SCORE (38)

#5 There is a rock garden and a wall if you dont pick your lines wisely you can get hung up pretty good. That is what happened I had no power to just throttle through and my spotter wasn't really helping to stack rocks to get me out and we simply timed out kind of embarrasing I wanted to finish strong but it was just that kind of weekend.

The event was awsome it was hot but not unmanagable UROC knows how to put on a show. Not that many spectaters showed up wich leads me to believe the future of the sport lies in night events. We had bad luck and very few others didn't the courses were hard but doable.

My rig I am very happy with (very stable) and IS capable of being at the top the next event just need to find that sensor that is going bad.

For those that don't know this was our first time really wheeling the Tacoma with a little practice, a fully capable rig, and little tweaks there is no way we shouldn't be able to bounce back and do very well in Arizona. I hope to see you all again real soon!

 

[RockMonkey]

Branden, did you see Carl Nelson in Cedar? I read on Pirate that he might have taken a nasty roll in his bronco, well if that was the nelson they were referring to, any word?

Yes. Carl did awesome the first day. He actually was in first place going into the second day! I wanted him to win, but he had a rough second day. They didn't finish a single obstacle. I heard he had a nasty roll, but I didn't see it happen. I think the Bronco is okay, and I know there were no injuries. They finished in 9th place.

 

[RockMonkey]

Bummer about your luck Braden, sounds like you were in the thick of things until the motor mount went south. :-\

Yeah, we were right in it until the two 40s at the end (we were in 4th place before that). It's amazing we were even doing that well, we only had one obstacle the whole weekend that nothing was broken on the rig. We only got one point on that obstacle. Oh well, we've had pretty good luck in the past. It was bound to catch up to us eventually. We'll get it back together for the next event and start kicking butt. The good news is that when it was working I really liked the way it performed. I think we've got a good rig, I just need to fix the stupid stuff and then learn how to drive it.

 

[Todd Adams]

Braden,
Thanks for the great event coverage and I don’t mean of just Linda’s roll. The courses were way to tough for our Jeep but as usual Linda had a great time especially on #6.
Todd

 

[JoeT]

Geez Braden what did you not break? Sorry about the starters. Let me know on the motormounts. How's the altenator doing?

 

[RockMonkey]

Geez Braden what did you not break? Sorry about the starters. Let me know on the motormounts. How's the altenator doing?

Hey, no problem. One of those starters saved me a $40 core charge! The alternator is currently sitting on the frame... :-\

 

[JoeT]

I might have another altenator if yours is toast, I'll need to dig through the box-o-parts. Are you making new motor mounts?

 

[SuperRanger]

Great coverage Braden!

Tough luck on the breakage, better get the bugs worked out before Supercrawl!

 

[Milner]

I might have another altenator if yours is toast, I'll need to dig through the box-o-parts. Are you making new motor mounts?

If not I have one from a 96 ZJ if you want it.

 

[troutbum]

pics

Do you have pics of the failed motor mount?

 

[RockMonkey]

I might have another altenator if yours is toast, I'll need to dig through the box-o-parts. Are you making new motor mounts?

I think I might be able to jack the motor back into place, weld up the mount, and add some gussetts. I would prefer not to make a whole new mount. I think my alternator is fine.