rausch creek last minite snow run march 17th n 18th

i had a good time, thanks for saving me bill (even without your lockers). sometimes we keep pushing the envelope when we know we should stop, i need to learn to control that eventually. cant wait for the pics and video. kathy , i had a blast, you can drive my jeep whenever you want after i fix all the damage offcourse

Had an awesome time this weekend. Found out my ARB compressor failed on saturday morning and there was no quick fix for it. the trip up on Friday was insane! PA does nothing to their roads so the snow piled up quickly leaving tracks for your wheels and piles of snow between the tires and between lanes that piled up a foot or so. Counted 25 accidents on the way up including a chevy avalanche that tried to change lanes, lost control and came back into my lane smacking the concrete barrier. He just threw it in gear and kept going to get out of traffic. Later while it was dark there were lights ahead that didn't look right so I slowed a little, was being passed by a tractor trailer at a high rate of speed and found a trailer and truck jackknifed in my lane and the guy standing in my lane next to teh trailer! Truck passed me and I swerved into the left lane with not much room to spare. Kat was behind me and made it as well. Kat will have to fill in the rest of the excitement here. Nerves were shot, didn't sleep well. Next morning there was a mess of the parking lot with just one swipe by the plow to clear the parking lot. Mel at the Comfort Inn needed help as everyone had to shovel out the foot of snow. I helped mel shovel out a vet who was in the hospital with chest pain the day before and was going back that day. Shoveled, scraped and then pulled his car to the entrance. Later while Rich was putting a driveshaft on there was an older couple in a Nissan Quest with a flat front tire. She was grinding out of the ice by spinning the tires and got a flat. With the help of Kat we put the donut on the back, moved the back tire to the front and sent them on their way. then the couple was stuck and needed pushed out several times and finally got on their way. We headed out to Rausch Creek with 2 vehicles, registered and started on our way. I turned on teh ARB compressor only to find it would not build pressure and wouldn't shut off. Turned out a plastic check valve at the intake had crumbled and I would have to run open/open all day. Rich was having front locker issues and running a part time 4wd, part time limited slip and part time full locker. We headed up the far right trail behind the trailer and throttled our way up the hill with a lot of effort. There was almost a foot of snow up there. I followed Rich and we had fun flying thought the fresh powder in 3rd and 4th gears. Then hit some of the blue trails. Had to rescue a group of 3 vehicles from the 101 trail. They had all 3 vehicles stuck with no winches. We winched and towed them out and sent them on their way. Rich will have to filll in which trails we hit. I was having a great time and just following him wherever he went. Found Baltimore 4 wheelers out there and they decided not to do trail 1 beside the hill climb. Rich, always looking for a challenge, let me back to take a look. We went through with liberal use of the throttle. Met b4w on the other side, they were messing with the large bowl with the hill climb but going down the small side of the hill and coming back out the same way. Next we hit trail 5 through the bowls. That was an awesome trail in the snow. It took a lot of throttle coming out of the bowls being open/open but in the end we didn't have to winch. The last bowl was the most challenging due to the verticle rock on the left and tree on the right. No way to run at it as the slope would send you crashing into the flat rock. Lots of throttle and working the wheel for several minutes and we were free. It was awesome, tires smokiing, snow flying and quite an adrenaline rush! I had a great time really enjoyed the day.

bill , when will you post your pics. is there any way i can get a copy of the video's they should be assume

Day 2 Von, Kat, Bill.
We headed out past the campground up toward the coal road. Had to stop and fix a steering problem, Von's steering box had a few bolts back out. Headed out to J trail, Kat drove my jeep and Von followed. We went down into the west property and found fresh snow most of the day. Hit trail 13 backwards which was a drop off about 4-5 feet due to the new drainage work they completed. no issues through the trail for the most part. Went past Rock Creek and took pictures, ate lunch on the hood of my jeep next to a creek. It was very peaceful with very little noise out there, just the trickling sound of the creek. We headed up 13A which had some rough spots with the washouts. I guided Kat up a nice washed out area that had mud and rocks. She had to throttle hard, natural for her, and bump it in 3rd gear. It threw her sideways as she came up and we got a nice scream from her. Von walked right up with his huge boggers and lockers. Von made everything look easy all day. We finished trail 13 and Kat switched to Vons vehicle, he made her drive. We came up 11 and throttled up the little path to the power line trail and headed to the east property since it was about 2pm. We did the hill climb near frog hole backwards. Kat put forth great effort with lots of throttle with Von's vehicle but the hill was not letting it happen today. After a few efforts Von tried a few times and then made it up. I was next and after 3 attempts was able to make it up with a lot of throttle and it helped that Vons boggers cleared away a lot of the snow. There we went to trail 1 and made short work of it. We still had some time so Kat suggested we hit the unnamed trail straight across from the trail 1 exit. It's entrance was crowned with drop offs on both sides then you drop into a large bowl with a smaller hill on the left or you could turn right and go through the deep bowl and head for the hill climbs and the rocks. Von went first and found the right side drop off, took out the front passenger fender. He backed out and took a different line, he stopped before the bowl so I could get video but I fell into the same hole von did to the right. I took out my passenger side soft top rail and was wedged in pretty good sideways. I winched the front end around and back out the entrance, took the Von approach with a little more throttle and fishtailed my way through. Now at the bowl Von decided to take the easier exit to the left instead of the steeper bowl exit to the right. The right side was about 25' climb, the left about 15' climb with no running room.

I got video of this which will come later. After several attempts he got a call and took a break, he said the magic words “I really haven't broken anything yet". Then there was a call from Lynne at the office as well, she had "spike" stuck at the bottom of the hill at the camping area. She said the keys are in it and perhaps a different driver might have better luck. Von was ready to try again and said “this is an axle breaking hill". He tried anyway and this time near the top and almost out we heard a snap and crunch. No it wasn't an axle shaft it was a rear pinion gear and the driveshaft was hanging down. I went back out the exit and to the other side of the bowl to winch him out. Von's winch was broken at some point on the trail and not functioning. I put my bumper on a tree and started winching but it was a lot of strain. Von helped with the front and then we heard another crunch. This time it was the drivers’ side axle shaft. We finished winching up and Von removed the rear axle shafts and rear drive shaft. He still sometimes had one wheel drive on the front passenger side. I backed in and we used a tow strap to pull him out of the park. We got to the camping area and found "spike" stuck in the middle of the hill. Kat gave it a try and found the vehicle had just rear wheel drive and occasionally the front would pull. After several efforts we were able to get "spike" up the hill. Next Von got the one wheel driving some and I helped by pulling in 4th gear low. We made it up the hill first try. It was a lot of fun with the jeep at full throttle and sliding back and forth the whole way up. I got him to the front office where he loaded onto the trailer. One wheel drive wasn't enough to get on the trailer so I backed my spare against his and pushed him up. He had a rear tire half off the trailer but after a couple little bumps from the side with my spare tire he was sitting straight. It was an exciting day wheeling in the snow and I had a great time out there. There is never a dull moment wheeling with Kat and Von. We had dinner at the Goose and ended our day. pics to come soon.

I will post the pics on imagestation so you can download them. I could also email them if you would like.

On the way home the roads were dry so I was really feeling the vibration from driving on 36" IROKs with heavy beadlocks. After 100 miles the vibration started to get worse and worse and then is felt like I was getting a flat tire. I took an exit I knew that had a sheetz a mile down the road and the steering was getting worse, felt like the front drivers side tire was almost flat. I pulled into sheets to see what was going on and checked all the tires with good news, no flat. I checked the steering linkages and rod ends, no problems. Suspension bolts and Heim joints were also fine. I happend to check the lug nuts and found the drivers rear wheel had one lug nut broken off and it was still caught in the wheel rock ring. Then I noticed that the other 4 lug nuts were loose and about 2 turns from coming off. I have wheel spacers on the rear and this was the first time I ran those. I took off the tire, removed the wheel spacer and put all 5 lug nuts back on. Checked the other side and found 1 lug nut loose. I know I torqued those down to 125 ft # of torque before I left, I'm quite particular about that. The lesson here is if you run wheel spacers you should use threadlocker on all 10 lug nuts. Drove home without any other issues and magically the vibration went away as well.

bill when I used to work at a tire shop, and people used to put on new wheels or wheel spacers we used to torque them down then have them drive around for a while come back the next day and torque them down again. sounds like you guys had a good time.

rockdw72 wrote:

bill when I used to work at a tire shop, and people used to put on new wheels or wheel spacers we used to torque them down then have them drive around for a while come back the next day and torque them down again. sounds like you guys had a good time.

This has to be done on any NEW alloy of cast wheel. Steel wheels do not have to be done but the alloy and cast due to the materal will work themselves loose. We have the customers sign that they need to bring the vehicle back after 50 miles so we can retorque the wheels. Once this has been done the first time it is not necessary to do everytime but its not a bad idea.

I have seen many of wheel off's in my day and some were not a pretty site.


Jeeps call for 85 to 118 foot lb's.. We use a torque stick that is 100 ft lbs and then recheck it with a torque wrench.. I always laugh when i speak to a older tech who says they can tell how much the cp gun is puttin on it.. Yeah OK!!!


Great point!!

After I took off the spacer and fueled up I went inside to pay and found that the bus that pulled up beside me while I was working on the jeep was full. Had to wait behind the Raystown cheerleading team to pay for my gas. Had to be about 50 of em buying all kinds of junk food. I just wanted to get home.

Well writen Bill, you managed to make me feel trail sick (in a good sense) I haven't wheel for a while and you guys know that is a rare thing for me. In Four yeares of hardcore wheeling I've only missed 4 weekends that I recall. I new of this trip and was praying for you guys to make it out safely. Glad you did. Nice story too. Gave me the chills just thinking about all that snow

I'm there, I need my trail fix soon. I am going out of my mind..

Good story Bill. It was an awsome time on Saturday. Sorry i missed the action on Sunday. Kat thanks you again for the use of your driveshaft.

Link to my pics. videos are ready for upload but had problems with the net last night. I have a few good ones. There is one of Von that I edited for length and gets right to the action that would be a great addtion to the portal.
http://www.putfile.com/rockn93yj

that putfile is a nice site because of the video download option. NICE PICS also,i put my spare front axle in today and took my rear diff. out......beleive it or not, my ring and pinion gear teeth are ok. i just snapped the main pinion shaft in two. it is kind of neat to see how something that thick can just snap. must be a whole lot of force esspecially with lockers. ohh well, i will get it fixed , not before the april run though.

Videos are up!
http://www.putfile.com/rockn93yj

Awesome videos! Really clear

i still need to buy a new ring anp pinion gear set and a pinion bearing, but at least my carrier and locker is a-ok

Bill,
I'll get to working on the portal section for the vids. I havent got to see them yet. As i cant get on that site from work. I will have to get it done from home. I will to get it up by tomorrow night.

bill, i cant figure out how to download the video's, i thought putfile allows you to do that. is there any way you can put them to disk for me and i will get it from you another day. nice job, you must of spent some time on the editing. i just ordered 4340 axles with a yukon super joint ans a ring + pinion with new bearings. sunday cost me $550.00. oh well. i still have to install it. but at least i will have heavy duty axles now

I couldn't down load the videos from work either. I will try to copy to disc and if that doesnt' work email it to you.