U4WDA 2009 Winter Trip Report

[Bucking Bronco]

I guess I will get this started, I have lots more to come but that will have to wait till I get home with a faster internet connection.

It has been a great weekend that is not yet over. lots of good wheelin with some mild wet weather. The trails out here are great and every one seems to be having a good time.

My weekend started off not so good. I got to the trail head and went to maneuver my Expedition and the trans has no forward gears, but we continue on wheelin hoping when we get done it would have fixed itself. Needless to say the buggy went with Mark, and John our trail boss dropped his trailer and we put my Expedition on my Trailer and he took it back to my hotel.

Now to finish our weekend me and the wife rely on Marks uncanny ability to know everyone just by looking at the jeeps in the parking lot of the hotel he was able to secure us rides with Brett who chauffeured us around for Saturday, while mark towed my buggy to and from the trails.

After a wet day Friday the wife had enough and spent Saturday shopping (spending money that could be fixing transmissions) with Mark and Brett's wives (She had a lot of fun Tell them Thank you)

We still are having fun despite the trans and it would not have been possible without everyone generosity so Thank You to everyone who put this event together and most of all Thank you to Everyone who has offered assistance in getting my vehicles to and from the trails and also taking them home and especially for putting up me.

I am truly grateful and overwhelmed with everyones generosity.

Thanks Again

Anyway BLA BLA BLA Here are a couple videos and I will try and get more ASAP

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[mbryson]

Quality You Tube there.

 

[Meat_]

Its been a fun weekend

We are north bound in Mona atm, we had an hour nap in a hail storm somewhere around Holden

Yeahs!

 

[mbryson]

Here's my daily reports. GREAT hosts and great trails.

http://www.marbryson.com/jan09.html

http://www.marbryson.com/jan09-day2.html


A couple of my favorite shots.

 

[LT.]

What an exciting looking trip!! Marc, you have done it again! Great article with some of the most breath taking photos. It really is a pleasure to read your articles.

LT.

 

[Bart]

I'll add in a bit. It was raining so hard on Thursday night I couldn't bring myself to load the buggy up so I bailed out on the trip up Ash Creek on Friday. By doing that I got to finish wiring my fuel and speedo gauges. : ) I know, they are a must for buggies.

It kind of cleared up on Friday so I loaded up and was on the road by the crack of noon. I talked to Dean when I was in Cedar City and he said the group was still in Ash Creek so I went to the end of the trail and tried to find the way into it. After a half hour of scouting around in the mud I called no joy and loaded back up and headed to the U4 Park area. I met up with Meat and Bodine and went to dinner with them and a bunch of the U4 people. I finally got to meet Steve Edmunds there and saw JoJo on the other end of the table, but never really introduced myself.

After a great steak and shrimp dinner Meat dropped me off at my camper where I spent the night outside the staging area. It rained a good part of the night. I was up in time to head out to the buggy trail in St George at 7:00 in the morning. I joined Todd Little, Craig Stumph, Dan, Parker Garret, Curtis McNeal and a few others there. It was like a reunion of good friends and former competitors.

The trail started out mild but one rig was having flooding problems. A little later on as the obstacles were getting more fun the poor guy busted a front piniont yoke, u-joint, and he decided to head back out.

The further up the trail we got the better the obtacles got and some of the full bodied rigs were taking a beating. Then on of the Bird Team rigs sheared the spud shaft on his front drive line and the work began. His group and a bunch people worked for a few hours to get him about 300 yards then it was decided he'd leave the rig there, pull the front drive line and take it down to get welded and come back up the next day and drive out. Luckily we were close to a canyon that exited the main trail and because it was getting late most of the group left that way.

Todd, Craig, Dan and myself stayed to finish the trail. The biggest obstacle was a narrow slot where you wedged both tires into the sides and forced your up and through. It was rough and when we got Todd through he was able to get up above the obstacle and pull cages to unwieght the rigs a bit and help us through. It didn't take long for our small group to get through, but it was 5:00 by the time we hit the long dirt road back to the trialers, and 6:15 before I got back into St George. I fueled up and hit the road home.

All in all it was a great trip, although wet and muddy. I bent a sway bar link lost a c-clip off one of my Atlas shifters. The buggy was fantastic. I love it, I love it, I love it. BTW, BFG Stickies ROCK!. Sorry Dan, I had to throw that in. ; )

 

[Bart]

Oh yeah, where was Bucking Bronco???? I can only assume from his trip report he didn't have a tow rig on Saturday. : (

 

[mbryson]

Oh yeah, where was Bucking Bronco???? I can only assume from his trip report he didn't have a tow rig on Saturday. : (

He was stuck with me on The Maze. No tow rig. It's coming home this morning behind a 550 Cat . I didn't feel my Jeep even close to worthy for the buggy trail. There were a couple of decent obstacles for him, but he didn't have much trouble. I do think he learned "throttle commitment" quite well, though.

Did Parker Garrett go out with you guys? We had a pretty fun day on John's Trail on Friday. Curtis is always entertaining.

Steve's buggy is on my trailer at the moment. I need to find a close scale to check my weight before he pulls his rig off. I was pretty happy with the PowerJoke's performance hauling two rigs. I could tell I had a load, but it took it pretty well. I used up a little more fuel than normal.

 

[Bart]

Thank goodness you had room on your trailer to help Stephen out. Yeah, Parker was there the Curtis' group. He still has his single seater.

 

[Meat_]

He ran the Maze with mBryson, which worked out well since Steves buggy was on Marc's trailer

 

[mbryson]

Thank goodness you had room on your trailer to help Stephen out. Yeah, Parker was there the Curtis' group. He still has his single seater.

Parker drove the obstacle above in Steve's first post. He had to work at it a little. Steve was certainly entertaining on the same obstacle. He pretty much climbed it and then did an abrupt right turn to come down. Mr. McNeil was thoroughly entertaining on the same obstacle.

Reminded me of a "money pit" in Farmington a few years ago without the vehicle carnage and he and Scott didn't have to roll the Jeep back over.

 

[mbryson]

....... we had an hour nap in a hail storm somewhere around Holden

Yeahs!

Thanks for sparing us any more details

 

[Bucking Bronco]

Ok so I made it home. We were going to stay and wheel with Meat and Bodine and send the expedition home with the great group Wasatch Outlaw Wheelers on one SWEET setup. but after all the problems with the Dodge we were not going wheelin so we decided to head home with the Outlaws

Here is a pic of the setup It was the best trip home from a trail I have had, comfortable warm and good conversation

 

[Matt]

I got a few pix!

 

[notajeep]

What a sweet trip!! Great trail and good friends, old and new.
Here are some of my pics. They are all from the sat buggy trail called Natural Diaster (SP?)

None of the obsticles have names according to Todd. So... in no paticular order.....


Line up

Mine and Bart's rigs...

Bart gettn it done...

Next hard spot,

Todd making it look easy...

Me getting no love from the backwards Iroks in the same spot.

 

[notajeep]

Next randon hard spot. This is where team bird broke the front drive shaft.

If I post these in the right order, it looks like I walked right up... :greg:

Bart in all his old guy coolness...

Random trail Pic...

 

[notajeep]

This is the last optionl part of the trail. At this point most everyone had broke or bailed, so there was just Todd, myself, bart, and craig left to take on this last obsticle.

It was TIGHT!!!! No room to do much of anything except rub the rocks..

Even with the portals and rear steer, this gets tricky fast.

Starting my way up and in.... So far so good. Everything is where it is supposed to be.

Still doing ok.

Getting a little more wedged in. What you cant see in these pics is that there is an undercut that the front drivers tire wants to wedge under, and with all the other pressure from the side, there is not much you can do to avoid it.

Now I have fell in the hole and my front is wedged.... :/

Todd, knew a little trick that helped us all get through a little easier.

And finally up and out.

One big walk in the park for Craig.

 

[Samuraiman]

You Guys are my Hero

Can I have an Autograph http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20090125/NEWS01/901250326&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

 

[Meat_]

Bodine didn't seem to take many pictures but here's a teaser from Saturday (the day of the death of the driveline)

Me driving Bodine's Cummins. AYL shot HD of this obstacle



All of his Friday pics got left on a computer in Ivins.... should have them soon.

 

[jet_aj]

Todd making it look easy...

Dang, this looks like a lot of fun was had by all, wish I could have made it.

So does anyone know what transmission is mated to this Subaru motor in Todd's rig? That thing looks like a lot of fun!