Moab - Oct 7-9th

So last weekend my g/f and I, along with her friend and friends brother went down to Moab. This has sort of become an annual trip for us (going on 4 years now). We've been planning it for about two months, and finally, with the condo rented, the Rodeo loaded up on a trailer, we headed out Thursday night. We didn't get on the road until around 8, after dropping the dogs off at the g/f's parents house.

Friday, we woke up and decided to do Gold Bar Rim, and then shoot on over to Long Canyon since I had done Long canyon last year with my 2 brother-in-laws and my g/f really liked that you drive under the large rock. It's obviously not a difficult trail, so that's why we were going to to Gold Bar Rim, since I haven't done that for at least 8 years. Well, the day didn't go as planned. We first dropped the tow rig and trailer off at Grand Tire Pros to have a tire on the trailer replaced since the treads were getting very low....as well as a new spare, since, upon borrowing the trailer from my g/f's dad, he realized the spare his company had for the past few years was actually the wrong bolt pattern . After that, we headed up Highway 191 onto the Gemini Bridges turn off. Everything went find until I started to move into the turn lane....then out of nowhere, the front driver's tire came off. I hadn't felt anything, nor did I have any idea what happened right away. At first I thought I hit a big pot hole, then my next though was that I blew a tire. It wasn't until I looked forward and saw the tire rolling off into the parking lot that I realized what was happening. THANK GOODNESS there was no oncoming traffic right then because I couldn't steer and veered right across the southbound lanes and onto the shoulder (still sticking out a little into the road).





I was pretty shaken, and inspected the damage. Luckily, there wasn't too much damage....mainly just a flat spot on the rotor.





The real damage happened from the tire. It rolled, and watching it go was seriously like a movie. It rolled across the highway and right towards a newer Audi and 4Runner parked in the parking lot. Somehow, miracously, it actually hit a berm and shot over both vehicles without touching either. I thought for sure it was going to come crashing down on the roof, or windshield and cause severe damage....but, I was lucky. However, after it launched over those, it turned and started heading east, into the parking lot....still at a good pace. Luckily it missed an older couple standing by their vehicle. Unfortunately it hit a pick up pretty hard. It ripped the fender flare right off and put a very large dent in the truck. The only saving grace was that at least it was on the bed and not the cab.

Here is the parking lot from in front of the Rodeo...the Audi and 4Runner are right behind the "No Motor Vehicles" sign and the truck it hit is the one above the short yellow pole.







I got the wheel back to the Rodeo and put it back on....I had to remove one lug from each wheel, and somehow we found one of the lost ones in the parking lot. We wrote out information for the truck and put it on his windshield. A Highway Patrol stopped to make sure we were ok. At this point I told him what happened, and asked if he should do a police report.....because I didn't want the guy in the truck to be screwed, but at the same time I didn't want to get screwed either. The office was extremely nice and he filled out an official report and put it, along with all my written info into a bag and put it on the windshield, and gave me a copy. The only other thing that was damaged, and will need to be replaced is that, one of the holes on the wheel developed a crack in it.





After some debate, and realizing I didn't have access to the trailer right away, we decided to drive it back to Moab very slowly....this was obviously going to kill the weekend. I made some calls and found that NAPA had a rotor (luckily it's a solid axle, and a basic D44 rotor) While I could've replaced it myself, I didn't want to kill the day for everyone else and finally got a hold of Ben Wilson from Wilson Fabrication and he said he could get it done. I also asked him about maybe, for temp purposes doing a small aluminum weld to the wheel, but he felt it was unnecessary since the wheel needed to be replaced anyway, and it cracked only half of the whole, as well as having 5 usable holes. We dropped the Rodeo off and headed out to do just Long Canyon in the other guys FJ Cruiser. By the time we got back Ben had the truck all done....Thanks Ben.

My only guess is that the lugs came loose over time....and I'm very lucky. I put the new wheels on back in May and drove the truck as my DD for another 2 months before getting the F150. I think in that, I forgot to ever retorque the wheels, and that is the only thing I can think of that may be the cause.

Here are the few shots I got from Long Canyon.





My g/f's friend got more pics, especially of the truck under the big rock, but I haven't seen those yet.

Saturday we woke up, and I felt comfortable with the truck after talking to Ben, and feeling how it drove, that we decided to do a hard trail....so we picked Kane Creek. I've never done this trail before, and while I knew it was difficult, I didn't realize it was as difficult as it was. I made it just fine, however, we did some scratching and slight body damage to the FJ....but he made it too, after winching off me at the spot were they had to push the trail around the wash out. My problem with the trail was all the washed out edges. the Rodeo felt very top heavy and there were quite a few times I felt extremely nervous. My g/f was really nervous, and after running into numerous UTV's that said we wouldn't make it further along, my g/f got even more scared....but I was undeterred and wanted to make it all the way through. I'm working on getting more pics, but obviously, as the driver, you don't get that many





parked at the turn around below the nasty hill (is it called Hamburger hill?)


this is probably my new favorite picture of my truck.



I'm working on getting more pics, but that's it so far from the trail.

I was very impressed with the F-150 in terms of towing. I never weighed the trailer and setup, but I'd guess it was right between 6500-7K. The truck is probably just shy of 5K (last I measured was before all the reworking of the front suspension and it weighed in at 4680) I towed it down with the gas tank empty, and towed it back with just under 1/2 tank of gas in the Rodeo. The F-150 never once gave me issue and had plenty of power. I was able to do at least 65...and for most of Highway 6 after Price I was able to keep 70-75, and only dropped to around 60 going up Soldier Summit, and then on the way back going up the canyon out of Price....but I could've given it more...I just didn't want to kill the gas mileage too much. This is how I averaged...and here's what it looked like.

loaded up, dropping off dogs at the g/f's parents

That is really scary. Glad you are all okay

I can't see any pictures and I want to.

That's a bummer way to start out a trip but I'm glad you were able to salvage at least some of the weekend.

The photos aren't working for me on mobile. Not sure if it's just me but thought I'd give a heads up.

nnnnnate said:

That's a bummer way to start out a trip but I'm glad you were able to salvage at least some of the weekend.

The photos aren't working for me on mobile. Not sure if it's just me but thought I'd give a heads up.

Click to expand...

Hmm, i'm not sure what's going on. I can see them when I'm not even logged in. It's likely Google Photos. Sometimes, if you refresh they show up....but I don't know why the links aren't always working.

Here's the link to the album if they aren't showing up

https://goo.gl/photos/z834incbxsWT26pJ9

Scary story..

Also can't see photos.

I can see the pictures. What a scary situation. Happy know one was hurt.

Glad it didn't turn out any worse!

Had a driver front wheel come off at 80 MPH southbound on I-15 once and watching it go careening into oncoming northbound traffic was one of the longest, scariest few seconds of my life. When it cleared the other lanes it ended up in a clover leaf bowl where it broke a decent sized pine tree off a couple feet off the ground. Nobody hurt at all, when the dust settled. Sometimes, when I need something to smile about, I remember that nobody got hurt that day...

- DAA

Losing a wheel is one of my biggest worries. I know many people who have, and I check the lug nuts often, and on every car I buy. I once lost a wheel while test driving a used Jeep TJ from a large dealership.

Well bad news....I just heard from my insurance company....apparently when I bought the F-150, although I included the Rodeo on the policy, I put it as "suspended" I don't recall doing this, but I can't say I didn't, so it sounds that I'll have to pay for the damage to the other truck out of pocket I swear, just when I think I'm finally getting ahead something stupid comes up and bites me in the ass.

On a better note, here are a few pictures from my g/f's phone...the obstacle photos are all from the hill towards the end of the trail (someone on a UTV called it Hamburger Hill but I'm not sure that it has an actual name)

This was at the top of the 'V' wedge, which is about 3.5 miles into the trail. We ran into a bunch of UTV's and a few Jeeps here. The FJ got hung up on his trailer hitch and bumper here....to the point both rear wheels were off the ground. I had told him to take out the ball, but he didn't listen....until after he finally got dragged out of this.