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Description:
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Three members but only 2 rigs as my Rubicon had a fire last week and I'm having to sort through some burned wires and hoses, etc. Hope to have it back on the trail soon.
We started out from the trail head at about 10:00 on a beautiful CO day. The main uphill obstacle area seems to have gotten a bit more dug out than any of us remembered and both rigs had to try a couple of different lines before we made it up. Paul busted a tail light and we should have seen it for the omen it was.
Shortly after this the first clue something was up was when the hood latch on Paul's flat fender went flying by me as I was sitting in the passenger seat. We took a look and noticed the right front body mount wasn't bolted in anymore allowing the front of the rig to flex more than normal, popping the hood latch. Nothing a bungee couldn't fix, so we kept on, not realizing the chain of events that had started. After some more rocky areas we smelled something burning and took another look. This time we discovered what not having a body mount can lead to. The radiator had busted its mounts and was hanging at an angle. When this happened the winch power cable got pulled across the battery shorting and melting the battery terminal and creating a hole in the battery.
Rather than continue we used several more bungees to put the radiator back in place, cut the winch cables out of the way and started back. The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful and we got Paul's '45 Willys flat fender back up on his trailer around 1:30.
As a tribute to Paul's spirit, his plans were to get back to his house and start tearing into the problems this afternoon to get ready for our next wheelin trip. I would have been heading to the liquor cabinet!
I figure we made it about 3/4 of the way through the trail and in spite of the mech issues enjoyed just getting out on a beautiful sunny day.
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