Barret Lake this year
- Thread starter Silverscout
- Start date
Craig
Active member
I looked at thread mocha posted. Heres a link to the reno4x4 site
deer valley trail open??
Here a photo taken today at kirkwood ski resort.
I think we will have a better idea late Friday afternoon on just what the conditions will be like
deer valley trail open??
Here a photo taken today at kirkwood ski resort.
I think we will have a better idea late Friday afternoon on just what the conditions will be like
Craig
Active member
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Mochamike
Member
So how did it go/what happened?
I went up the union/utica this morning at 10am.
My son ethan & I hiked/got rides all the way up to the slab sections along the creek just below alpine.
Then we hiked back.
No sign of the babs guys... No one saw them all weekend. (on sr).
The only snow we saw was on the peaks of the surrounding mountains. There are some mud puddles, & mosquitos were out in full force.
Although, we met some newbies in jeeps (31s, no lockers or gearing), who tried to enter from alpine & said there was a large snow bank.
Did meet some nice guys in jeeps/toyotas who were pretty much local (avery, vallecito, murphy's). They are the ones that gave us a ride/crossed the deep water crossing.
I went up the union/utica this morning at 10am.
My son ethan & I hiked/got rides all the way up to the slab sections along the creek just below alpine.
Then we hiked back.
No sign of the babs guys... No one saw them all weekend. (on sr).
The only snow we saw was on the peaks of the surrounding mountains. There are some mud puddles, & mosquitos were out in full force.
Although, we met some newbies in jeeps (31s, no lockers or gearing), who tried to enter from alpine & said there was a large snow bank.
Did meet some nice guys in jeeps/toyotas who were pretty much local (avery, vallecito, murphy's). They are the ones that gave us a ride/crossed the deep water crossing.
nico9
Member
It was a cluster for us lol. But we tried to meet them at deer valley @ 10 and they weren't there. So we drove to the 88 side of strawberry trail and there was no tracks through the snow on the trail. We figured that they didn't make it through so we went on a few trails at middle fork. Camped out there and drove home in the heat lol.
Craig
Active member
I just got back, I'm sure sean is still in route. Craig, dave and josh are hanging around loon lake waiting on aaa Matt and Jesse I'm sure just got home, pete left for home last night.
I'll will let cheese explain in his own words, but it was not his weekend thats for sure. We got pretty far the first day, but with the deep soft snow it made for slow going. We camped and the next day tried to get through but the snow was just too deep. Some places it was six feet deep. Very hard to even tell where the trail went.
It turn back a couple well built toyota's and some quads too.
The snow was melting fast creating large holes. So once we decided to turn back on sat, we got back to hwy 50 about 7 pm and decided to camp at loon.
We tried to call andy, but cell service was only near the top where we had to turn around. Not sure if he got any of the vm.
Dave was trying to text nico too.
I'll will let cheese explain in his own words, but it was not his weekend thats for sure. We got pretty far the first day, but with the deep soft snow it made for slow going. We camped and the next day tried to get through but the snow was just too deep. Some places it was six feet deep. Very hard to even tell where the trail went.
It turn back a couple well built toyota's and some quads too.
The snow was melting fast creating large holes. So once we decided to turn back on sat, we got back to hwy 50 about 7 pm and decided to camp at loon.
We tried to call andy, but cell service was only near the top where we had to turn around. Not sure if he got any of the vm.
Dave was trying to text nico too.
Scout-It-Out
Member
Just got home. Man is it hot out there!
I didn't make it to the blue lakes turn off until 10:40 am on sat. I figured I was too late and drove on towards lower lake. That's when I found out that the trail was closed. (yes I could have read the sign)
I seemed to remember strawberry trail mentioned so I headed over there. I was going to run it from 88 up to 50. That's when I met nico and chris (cag33). They said the trail was snowed over and there weren't any tracks. So we knew you guys hadn't come through. So we did some wheelin' north of 88 then camped like nico said.
I had fun! I'm glad I found somebody to wheel with. I was going to find some mild trails by myself and then head home!
Cell phones are worthless up there!!!!!!!!!
I didn't make it to the blue lakes turn off until 10:40 am on sat. I figured I was too late and drove on towards lower lake. That's when I found out that the trail was closed. (yes I could have read the sign)
I seemed to remember strawberry trail mentioned so I headed over there. I was going to run it from 88 up to 50. That's when I met nico and chris (cag33). They said the trail was snowed over and there weren't any tracks. So we knew you guys hadn't come through. So we did some wheelin' north of 88 then camped like nico said.I had fun! I'm glad I found somebody to wheel with. I was going to find some mild trails by myself and then head home!
Cell phones are worthless up there!!!!!!!!!
Scout-It-Out
Member
Scouty
Member
Jesse and I thought you guys were right behind us when we left the spillway. Waited awhile at the loon lake campground then headed down the hill. Had a fun time this weekend, just can't believe it's almost July and we couldn't make it all the way through strawberry. At least we got to wheel a little bit on the rubicon Saturday night. Props to silverscout for putting his grocery-getter through its paces, worked like a champ. Cheese was a trooper too, I think we saw your flatbed chariot heading up icehouse road to your rescue. Once again great time with great company, hope to do it again soon. Sorry we missed the others.
Craig
Active member
I could hit the 805 repeater the whole time on the strawberry trail. Talked with both Mike and randy.
Unlisted video, so only you can see it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39iympo5tcw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtezsejvyng
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Jesse B.
Member
Cheese
Member
Here is the list of broken stuff.
1. Broken spool
2. Bent tie rod
3. Broken hub
4. Lost transmission mount and partially stripped / broken trans bolt holes
5. Busted transfer case (2 high is gone and there are clearly other issues)
6. Bumper ripped out 1” on driver side
7. Hook half torn out of frame
8. Re-set bead on tire (okay, technically this is not “broken”)
likely there will be more stuff as I pull things apart and look. I had noises coming from the front hubs, bearings, axle area before it got towed.
Here is the long version (story):
before we even got to the trail the trouble began. As we were getting off the exit at pollock pines my co-pilot (josh) and I notice some horrible sounding bangs. After the whole group spent an hour working on the rig we had accomplished nothing as the axle had spun inside the spool essentially stripping the splines inside the spool on the passenger side. I have spare axles, but strangely I did not have a spare spool (seriously, has anyone ever heard of this happening?).
I decided to run it that way anyway. With this I would have a front that was locked and one rear wheel… the other wheel (passenger side) was dead. This combination proved to be challenging (especially with snow and super bald tires I had on the rear). When the truck was leaning to the driver side traction was okay, but when it would lean to the passenger side I would spin and struggle having to be tugged or winched on several occasions.
The first section I had to get tugged through proved rough on the tie rod as it got bent up into a nice u. A little further on we had to do a lot of tugging to get her though the large creek / ravines that were in between snow banks. Toward the end of the first day I broke a hub trying to get through the last large one (we were able to get it up and parked for the night).
Saturday I fixed the hub, we straightened the tie rod, and hit the trail. Things started out well as we continued up thinking we might get through, but the further we went the more snow there was. In some of the really snowy sections I was struggling. I would back up and hit it again. In a few cases I failed to gain forward progress and again would get winched up. We finally got to the point of impassible for me and challenging / impassible for others. We broke for lunch and then someone pointed out my spare tire had a lot of tread unlike the other two rear tires so I put my spare tire on the side that still had traction since it did not matter on the passenger side as it wasn’t doing anything anyway. Why I did not put that spare on earlier is beyond me, but it certainly helped as we turned around and I was able to run all the way back down the trail without one winch or one tug (granted it was downhill). I did not get down without more issues however
as we climbed down the mountain (Craig e.) who was following me pointed out my tire was low just as I could hear it deflating rapidly. Most of us were running extremely low tire pressure to help in the snow. Apparently my spare was low enough that it let mud into the bead somewhere along the way. It was bad enough that we had no choice but to pull the tire off, pop the bead, clean a few handfuls of mud out and the throw the tire back on and re-seat / fill it up. Fortunately it was just mud in the bead so I cannot claim this was breakage, but again I was the only one with an issue here lol. A little further down I noticed it was acting funny again just not crawling right and making some strange noises / occasional bang. It wasn’t long before I noticed the shifters moving all over. I pulled over again and got under the truck to take a look. Problem easily detected as the transmission mount and bolts were all missing. One of the bolt holes into the trans had been ovaled / partially stripped out as well. We got the transmission aligned with the cross member found some bolts and bolted her back down without the mount. Then we continued down the rest of the trail.
We got out of strawberry around 7pm Saturday evening and the group wanted to head up to loon lake / rubicon. We headed up and although she seemed to be running a little funny it was really uneventful and we got up there around 9pm. Had a lot of fun that night.
Next morning we were all ready to head back home. I’d had some trouble getting her back into 2wd when we left strawberry which is only unusual as I don’t normally have trouble getting it into 2wd just out of 4-lo when I have been wheeling for a bit. Anyway, on Saturday morning I had to put it in 4wd to get out of the loon lake camp site. Then when we got to the pavement things went south quick. I could not find 2wd it was just not there so I put it in 4-hi and realized it too had issues. In 4-hi the front end was squealing and the t-case was howling at very low speed if I tried to go faster it was even worse. If I unlocked the hubs there was no rear drive until I put it into 4-lo. I was able to drive it a couple miles in 4-lo with the transfer case howling and screaming until I could get to a safe spot. Craig e. Drove me down further so I could get cell service and I called aaa for my tow. 2 hours later my truck arrived and it was on the flat bed for 198 miles… good thing I have aaa premier which gives me one free 200 mile tow a year (I think I got my money’s worth there)!
Despite all of the trouble I still had a great time and thank everyone for their help!
I am going to start fixing her this weekend if possible
1. Broken spool
2. Bent tie rod
3. Broken hub
4. Lost transmission mount and partially stripped / broken trans bolt holes
5. Busted transfer case (2 high is gone and there are clearly other issues)
6. Bumper ripped out 1” on driver side
7. Hook half torn out of frame
8. Re-set bead on tire (okay, technically this is not “broken”)
likely there will be more stuff as I pull things apart and look. I had noises coming from the front hubs, bearings, axle area before it got towed.
Here is the long version (story):
before we even got to the trail the trouble began. As we were getting off the exit at pollock pines my co-pilot (josh) and I notice some horrible sounding bangs. After the whole group spent an hour working on the rig we had accomplished nothing as the axle had spun inside the spool essentially stripping the splines inside the spool on the passenger side. I have spare axles, but strangely I did not have a spare spool (seriously, has anyone ever heard of this happening?).
I decided to run it that way anyway. With this I would have a front that was locked and one rear wheel… the other wheel (passenger side) was dead. This combination proved to be challenging (especially with snow and super bald tires I had on the rear). When the truck was leaning to the driver side traction was okay, but when it would lean to the passenger side I would spin and struggle having to be tugged or winched on several occasions.
The first section I had to get tugged through proved rough on the tie rod as it got bent up into a nice u. A little further on we had to do a lot of tugging to get her though the large creek / ravines that were in between snow banks. Toward the end of the first day I broke a hub trying to get through the last large one (we were able to get it up and parked for the night).
Saturday I fixed the hub, we straightened the tie rod, and hit the trail. Things started out well as we continued up thinking we might get through, but the further we went the more snow there was. In some of the really snowy sections I was struggling. I would back up and hit it again. In a few cases I failed to gain forward progress and again would get winched up. We finally got to the point of impassible for me and challenging / impassible for others. We broke for lunch and then someone pointed out my spare tire had a lot of tread unlike the other two rear tires so I put my spare tire on the side that still had traction since it did not matter on the passenger side as it wasn’t doing anything anyway. Why I did not put that spare on earlier is beyond me, but it certainly helped as we turned around and I was able to run all the way back down the trail without one winch or one tug (granted it was downhill). I did not get down without more issues however
as we climbed down the mountain (Craig e.) who was following me pointed out my tire was low just as I could hear it deflating rapidly. Most of us were running extremely low tire pressure to help in the snow. Apparently my spare was low enough that it let mud into the bead somewhere along the way. It was bad enough that we had no choice but to pull the tire off, pop the bead, clean a few handfuls of mud out and the throw the tire back on and re-seat / fill it up. Fortunately it was just mud in the bead so I cannot claim this was breakage, but again I was the only one with an issue here lol. A little further down I noticed it was acting funny again just not crawling right and making some strange noises / occasional bang. It wasn’t long before I noticed the shifters moving all over. I pulled over again and got under the truck to take a look. Problem easily detected as the transmission mount and bolts were all missing. One of the bolt holes into the trans had been ovaled / partially stripped out as well. We got the transmission aligned with the cross member found some bolts and bolted her back down without the mount. Then we continued down the rest of the trail.We got out of strawberry around 7pm Saturday evening and the group wanted to head up to loon lake / rubicon. We headed up and although she seemed to be running a little funny it was really uneventful and we got up there around 9pm. Had a lot of fun that night.
Next morning we were all ready to head back home. I’d had some trouble getting her back into 2wd when we left strawberry which is only unusual as I don’t normally have trouble getting it into 2wd just out of 4-lo when I have been wheeling for a bit. Anyway, on Saturday morning I had to put it in 4wd to get out of the loon lake camp site. Then when we got to the pavement things went south quick. I could not find 2wd it was just not there so I put it in 4-hi and realized it too had issues. In 4-hi the front end was squealing and the t-case was howling at very low speed if I tried to go faster it was even worse. If I unlocked the hubs there was no rear drive until I put it into 4-lo. I was able to drive it a couple miles in 4-lo with the transfer case howling and screaming until I could get to a safe spot. Craig e. Drove me down further so I could get cell service and I called aaa for my tow. 2 hours later my truck arrived and it was on the flat bed for 198 miles… good thing I have aaa premier which gives me one free 200 mile tow a year (I think I got my money’s worth there)!
Despite all of the trouble I still had a great time and thank everyone for their help!
I am going to start fixing her this weekend if possible
Craig
Active member
Hey details, details, you can't post fix-a-ticket and not give details. We're all in the same boat. Was it for the mud flaps flapping?
scoutdude80
Moderator
trailers for everyone
. _______ .... ______________|
/............
is it time for the cheese to be retired from the street and be chauffeured everywhere?
. _______ .... ______________|
/............
is it time for the cheese to be retired from the street and be chauffeured everywhere?
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235frog
Member
No, I guess with all the times I came down on my rear bumper that I shook one of my shoddy electrical connections loose and caused my rear taillights to short out. Brake lights, turn signals, and headlights worked, so I didn't notice til chp pulled me over around fairfield. I was a little nervous because if he wanted I am sure he could of made a laundry list of things that should be "fixed." I guess I finally need to delve into the wiring mess the po did.
Here are some more pics from the trip:
dave completely high-centered
Me
Sean's grocery getter
Craig
Cheese before the door got crunched
And Matt
The rest of the pictures I took:
http://s256.photobucket.com/albums/hh165/peteskeehan/strawberry%20jun10/?start=all
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scoutdude80
Moderator
Dude, you live dangerously taking kate’s car wheeling. I remember how careful you were at hollister. But then again, tommy was in the car.
Mochamike
Member
I have. Same thing happened to me...
Big clank. Ds wheel wouldn't turn. Pulled it apart to discover the stock spicer shaft stripped out a Yukon spool.
Glad you made it home ok.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showpost.php?p=8447091&postcount=25
Cheese
Member
"cheese before the door got crunch"
like you can tell it is perfect in that picture lol
"bet ur glad I didn't use the tow in hollister"
I get one 200 mile tow a year which I just used and then I also get 2 or 3 100 mile tows so no worries still have some tows left
"I did that to my stock spicer shaft stripped Yukon spool"
is that why you are now running full width or did you fix the spool? Did they warranty the spool?
C-
like you can tell it is perfect in that picture lol
"bet ur glad I didn't use the tow in hollister"
I get one 200 mile tow a year which I just used and then I also get 2 or 3 100 mile tows so no worries still have some tows left
"I did that to my stock spicer shaft stripped Yukon spool"
is that why you are now running full width or did you fix the spool? Did they warranty the spool?
C-