Independance ate my truck

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Author Message   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Posted on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 02:08 pm:    Decided to do indepenadance trail yesterday. That is a evil, evil, sadistic trail. I will try to post some pics when i get a chance. I understand why it is the hardest trail in Co. We saw 3 other rigs on the trail system...all were trailered in and they were real rock crawlers. Went with a Cherokee...6 in lift, 33" locked ft and rear. Me in a d1 2 in" lift, 265/75 locked ft and rear. The trail destroyed us. It was just over 1 mile long and we started at 11:30 thinking that we would have plenty of time. The first mile was very fast...we hit the bottom by 4;30 and I was thinkng that I would be home by 6:00 with 1/2hr drive time. Thats when things went bad. There was a large obsticle that I weged my tries between and turned my panhard rod into a nice v. No problem...I had a spare and 10 min later I pulled up behind the jeep. Time to move on and finish the ride. As we started the jeep's track rod broke. It didn't bend, it snapped at the link. He didn't bring a spare so we had to do a bit of trail side repair and got it rigged up enough to work. Onward we go. we had about 300 ft of up hill treacherous obsticles but I was feeling good about things. We got the jeep up about 20 feet and strung the cable and began winching up the first verticle. The problem was the rock face was higher than his hood...real tough to get a tire on that so we had to get him off camber. Meanwhile, his track rod broke again and severed his front left brake line. Fifteen min. to fix that and move on. Got 6 feet forward and the off camber put him into the side of the rocks. I had to come from behind and with a snach block pull his ass end out and he started moving again, then he started rolling the other direction and almost went over but I was able to real in the winch and keep him from rolling completely on his side. After we got him up to a flat spot it was my turn. Snaped my winch cable and lost every thing but 1 1/2 wrap. We clamped the hook to the remaining cable and tried it again and broke it again. Fast forward....got up to the wall and while attempting to clime it I broke the winch motor off.....winch out of commission, but finally made it to the flat spot in total darkness. It was about 8:30 by this point. The rest of the trail should be easy. And it was for about 25 feet and then we were back in the crap again. Jeep lost his ft locker and broke the track rod 3 more times but we eventually got him out of the trail. I was a different story. I got hung up on a rock and broke my track rod. I have 3 sitting at home and not one of them managed to come with me on this trip. I had forgot to put them back in the truck the night before.. Rigged the rod and tried to power over the obsticle...I was really wishing I had the winch. Pop....front right axle. Jeep comes back and tries to pull me...finaaly got me disloged but the the track rod broke again and I had no steering, I smashed the front right fender into a rock. Can't open the pass door and mushed my hood up, but I was over. Had to stop and pull my bumper away from my tire...it was making a horrible noise as I moved forward. With the bumper safely out of the way I strated again. Uh, oh....same noise, it wasn't my bumper making noise it was my left front axle. Now I am rear wheel dirve, no wich and my buddies winch is 8k, and was not very happy at this point, and we sill have 50' to go and it is 11:00pm and starting to get cold. High lift time. Lift the rear, rocks under the tires and drive off the lift. It worked, I am now 3 more feet closer. Had to use the lift 4 more times. Being scared to death of the high lift I am very carefull and always position myself as far out of the way as possible. Well, the lift slipped and whacked my hand, I thought it broke my hand, but it just hurt like hell. Now i am starting to worry that I may not be able to get the truck out. We were so tired and frustrated that I thought about leaving it an coming back today but we forged on. There was a big rock that I had to go around and required me to go off camber again. So off camber I go....and fell into the rock, wich was a good thing bacuse I was not completely on my side. I had to lok out the sunroof to see to my right side. This was a rather frustrating situation, I could see the trail head but i couldn't get to it. 12:00 am now. I'm thinking, "my wife is gonna be pissed" The jeep is at the trail head at a 90 degree angle from me but there were good trees. I radio him that I am in a rather precarious position so we ran a snach and hooked to the roof rack to pull my driver's side back down while I finish the turn. It worked and I got around the rock. 20' feet to go up a section that would have been extreemly difficult with a functional rig but with lots of rock stacking and winching we finally made it to the top. VICTORIOUS! I beat Independance. Of course my rig is not driveable or trail ready right now and probably won't be for a little while to come.   Brian Dickens (Bri) Posted on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 02:26 pm:    How much worse were the conditions than on a dry summer day? I am glad I did not tag along for that little adventure. Just think about what you would have broken if you hod those 35s that you're considering. I'll be back this weekend and headed down south, maybe I'll stop by to see the damage. BTW I am pretty sure that my next addition will be the DAP or Rovertym panhard and trackrod, I am sick of fixing those things and it sounds like after enough bending back and forth, they will just break. At least you both are OK.   Eric Pena (Evalp) Posted on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 03:23 pm:    Brian, that sounds brutal. I am also glad I did not tag along. At least you made it out. So did you get the truck home that morning? You didnt leave it up there did you? We need pics!!   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Posted on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 04:43 pm:    q   Brian Dickens (Bri) Posted on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 07:05 pm:    q what? ;-)   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Posted on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 07:52 pm:    Brian, I had written a whole 3 paragraphs about something and that is all that showed up and i was too worn out to re write it. Yes...we drove home. No snow or ice, it was a ery nice day but towards the end of the night we were so tired from moving rocks and working fixing things and spotting that it started to get dangerous. It could have been real easy to break an ankle or fall on a rock or something. The trail was rated 4++. I have no idea what taht means but it was really hard. Signs every where saying min. tow bill $350. Enter at own risk. and last hance to turn around. Now that a day has gone by, I am already looking back at the trip with fond memories. I guess I will have to do it again. Not till next year though.   Dave_Lucas (Dave_Lucas) Posted on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 11:36 pm:    DOH!!!!!!   muskyman Posted on Monday, January 20, 2003 - 11:53 pm:    sounds like a fun trail, glad to hear you got them both home.   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 10:10 am:    Here is a link of the trail. Not my pictures but they should give you an idea of what we were up against. http://community.webshots.com/album/60596010zuXegF   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 10:12 am:    http://community.webshots.com/album/60592765xkiMZb   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 10:13 am:    http://community.webshots.com/album/60542846wZdiJT   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 10:28 am:    I will try to get a couple of pictures of our trip up but I was so bussy spotting and trying to drive that I didn't take any myself. I need to see what Leonard got for pictures.   muskyman Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 10:44 am:    wow...now thats a trail! and to think pics often make a trail look flat and easy I can only imagine what it really looks like. cant wait to see the pics of your poor defenseless disco with punny 265/75's on that beast of a trail...very cool brian   Brian Dickens (Bri) Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 11:03 am:    That is a pretty crazy trail. It'll be quite a while before me or my rig is capable of attempting that. I am impressed that you made it in and out!   Eric Pena (Evalp) Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 11:06 am:    Well shit, Brian. Congratulations of running the hardest trail in Colorado! I can't belive you made it through and drove home...   Chu Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 11:21 am:    "I'm thinking, my wife is gonna be pissed" That's classic.   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Posted on Thursday, February 06, 2003 - 05:47 pm:    Some pics are now posted in the photogallery of the mis adventure.   Will Roeder (Will_Roeder) Posted on Thursday, February 06, 2003 - 08:31 pm:    wow.....it certainly did "eat your truck" nice carnage   adtoolco Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 11:31 am:    Big brass ones Brian...Wow! -Chris   Peter Matusov (Pmatusov) Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 12:53 pm:    good shit, Brian, i wonder how this trail is rated relative to the Hummers. really good shit btw, it is way nicer to snap a track rod than the knuckle... peter   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 01:00 pm:    Peter, It would be kind of funny to see a h2 on that trail. Of course the rock crawlers probably thought it was funny to see us on that trail.   Peter Matusov (Pmatusov) Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 02:38 pm:    Brian, I've a Q for you. On your gallery page, there's a few photos with file names suggesting they were taken on the way to Wheeler Lake. They seem to have some big rocks on the way; I don't remember seeing any. I only drove my disco to the last meadow, about 1/2 mi from the lake, but walked the rest of the trail. Is there another trail that goes there? If so, it must be on the other side of the creek. Peter   Peter Matusov (Pmatusov) Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 02:39 pm:    Oh, also another question. Are there very narrow spots on Independence, or a wider truck could make it through? In other words, longer wheelbase and larger track are assets or hindrances there? peter   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 03:01 pm:    Peter, I had to go back and look at those pictures. Some of them are from Mt Blanca and Minesweeper but the ones that said wheeler are from wheeler. The rocks are the first obsticle right after the old mine. There are two lines, the pictures are from the right side line (heading towards the lake) If you got to within 1/2 mile of the lake you went over the rock probably, or you may have taken a very bouldery trail that heads up a hill and bypasses the obsticle all together. If you took the bypass, you actually took a more difficult route. On Independance, wider is very bad. I think that anything wider than a disco would not be able to get through the trail at all. I think the biggest advantage would be big tires short wheel base and a good lift. The buggies that I saw up there were the little jeeps, non street leagal and one was a tube buggy that began its life as a pipe. I think the guys told me that they were using susuki drive lines. I would recomend this trail to anyone that wants the same fate as I. I will not attempt the trail again untill I am 35" and at least 3" suspension and 2" body, but I will have attempt it again. Next time I may take a support vehicle because I don't think it is possible to get through the trail without some kind of major damage. I am usually very prepaired but I there is only so much you can plan for. I will say this...I am very luck to have been able to drive the truck home under it's own power. Land Rover does make a supreem vehicle.   John Hamblin Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 08:33 pm:    TOTALLY AWESOME DUDE!!!   Prescottj (Prescottj) Dweb Lounge Member Username: Prescottj Post Number: 137 Registered: 12-2002 Posted on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 05:01 pm:    WOW!! I thought I was hot stuff with my Disco. that rocks brian you the man   Dave_lucas (Dave_lucas) New Member Username: Dave_lucas Post Number: 296 Registered: 02-2002 Posted on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 08:14 pm:    So Brian, when you going to be able to drive the disco again?   Eric Pena (Evalp) Senior Member Username: Evalp Post Number: 351 Registered: 06-2002 Posted on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 09:10 pm:    YA, I got sliders now (thanks Dave!!!) and am lookin to hit Chinaman's again to go over that tight spot and test those bad boys!!!!   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) On Probation Username: Brianfriend Post Number: 375 Registered: 09-2002 Posted on Tuesday, February 11, 2003 - 10:12 am:    Thanks for all the support guys. I drove the truck around the block last week and let me tell you it was SCARRY. I have some work to do in the front end. I am planning on working on it tonight a little bit. My motivation has been low because even after I get it drivable again I still have to deal with the cv joint issue. There is a thread going on right now about dodge caravan cv joints fitting in a disco. If I can confirm this and get some cheep parts I should be back on the road in now time. I am getting very antsy to drive again and I have some new equipment that I need to test Can't wait.   David Morin (Sporin) New Member Username: Sporin Post Number: 17 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 04:41 pm:    Kudos! That trail is so far beyond, my abilities that I can't even imagine . . . You've got more skill, and bigger ballz then me that's for sure.   Brian Friend (Brianfriend) Senior Member Username: Brianfriend Post Number: 455 Registered: 09-2002 Posted on Saturday, March 01, 2003 - 05:34 pm:    David, Thanks.....Tomarow I will take my repaired rig for a test drive, the first since the trail. I played and I payed.