Elherbinator

So I can’t really do a real write up on the trip because I only experienced the trail with my “first group” of 5 including myself. That run was fun though. We made it to the top! No carnage or anything but we did have to endure the “shitshow” on the way back down. It was fun to have Noob Chris in the group. He and his LR4 performed really well and I always enjoy seeing the new guys stress out a bit 😂. I think he is well on his way to just being Chris and ditching the “noob” moniker. Unfortunately we had a Toyota group between us and the rest of the rovers, so we didn’t get to much trail time with everybody else, but we did get to enjoy a raucous campfire Saturday night with the rest of the crew. It was one of the loudest I can remember. Many drinks were drank and we somehow avoided having the camp host tell us to keep it down. Already looking forward to Bowman in a couple weeks!

It was a YJ that broke its steering. Wasn’t actually the steering arm though. It had full hydro steering and the bracket for the ram had broken off. So since the tie rod was still connected to both steering arms he was able to turn by using a ratchet strap on the outside wheel’s arm. He and his friend were pretty quick at getting clear of the trail considering. Too bad the other 20 were not. Believe it or not, he actually managed to get it fixed and pass all of us as we were airing down at Dinkey Creek Rd. Not sure what they did to repair it, but he was flying down the road as he left like it was a daily driver. IMG_8843.MOV

So it looks like we won’t be having any fresh snow to play in, but there should be plenty of remnants from our historic December 🤞🏼. Plan will be to leave Edison at 9 on Saturday and that should get us to Rock Creek Rd by 9:45. We will air down some there, but likely just to take some bite out of the road since I don’t anticipate much snow still being on Rock Creek Rd. Then we can air down to trail levels once we reach the trailhead. If anyone is planning on meeting us at the trail and not at Edison, then plan on being at Rock Creek Rd and Dinkey Creek Rd by 9:30am. We will be using the ham frequency 146.460 as per usual to keep it simple. That may change on trail if there’s a lot of chatter since that frequency is commonly used by other groups. I plan to be at Edison on Friday. See you all then.

Kids are welcome as well are wives and pets. We just have one rule, they are to be seen, not heard. Just kidding 😉. This is a very family friendly event event. There should be plenty of kids running around having fun.

We got some potential fresh snow in the forecast!

So last snow run to Bowman, I shredded my rear pinion gear on the ride home. It was kind of weird considering it was on the freeway and has had no known issues on the trail. I suspect it was a failing pinion gear based on examination, but I am not really experienced with examining used pinion bearing to really know. But either way it was something that needed fixing and a good opportunity for an upgrade. I was running KAM 4.10 gears (10 pinion gear teeth and 41 ring gear teeth) with 36” tires. I decided to go to Ashcroft 4.75 gears (8 pinion gear teeth and 38 ring gear teeth). The pinion break also did some damage to the Ashcroft air locker, so I had them ship me a few parts to fix that as well. I also replaced a failing ujoint on my rear driveshaft which had shredded some needle bearings and my rear brake pads. Waiting for parts and a couple specialty tools made this take forever. Finally got it done today and removed the front driveshaft to take it for a spin. So far so good. No weird sounds or behavior. I was a little nervous about driving it, but it feels great. I will be doing my front this weekend. Plan is to dismantle on Saturday and do the gears, then put everything back together on Sunday. If anyone is interested in seeing how it’s done feel free to come by and hang out. It’s often a job that many DIY guys still pay others to do, but it really isn’t that intimidating when you get into it. And with the proper beer you may be able to get me to help you regear your own.

Why is the HAM license worthwhile?

Looks like another money grab event to me. I’ve never heard of it, but their website leads you to believe it’s as big as KOH or the Baja 1000 😂

Every snow run we have people airing down to psi’s that are way too high. Usually the logic is that the new psi is low relative to what they run while driving around town and that’s coupled with a fear of losing a bead. This pic demonstrates the huge advantages of airing down. Obviously the footprint will vary based on tire and vehicle weight, but the relative difference remains basically the same. With the type of deep snow we will be driving in this year, you want a large footprint in order to keep from sinking into the snow. Soft snow also mitigates any side force that will force a tire to lose a bead or hard bumps that could damage a rim, so airing down low is usually safe when driving over deep snow. Losing a bead isn’t that big of a deal anyways. Just something to keep in mind especially considering we are lucky to have plenty of snow wheeling opportunities this season.

Since the Winter Fun Fest isn’t going on this month, we don’t officially have a trip until the Shaver Snow Run in February. I don’t have an operational Rover, so I can’t lead a trip, but many of you all do! So I encourage anyone looking to get out to start a new trip thread. It can be an overnight or a day run. A snow trip or something like Hollister or Bug Sur. If you haven’t lead a trip before, this is your chance. It doesn’t much to do, just a small bit of planning. Feel free to DM me for any help or advice, or you can just post up a thread and get input from the members. Taking to you Andrew, Mike, Robert, Nick, Gus…

The Winter Fun Fest has been postponed due to too much snow. Sounds odd, but it is what it is.

So my new ring and pinions have been shipped from Ashcroft, but won’t arrive until next week. I am going to be installing the gears myself, so it won’t be done for the trip and I certainly won’t have time to get them broken in for freeway speeds by then. So I’ll be roverless, may still go up there and crash with Andrew since I already paid for registration and a shirt.

Looks like Robert caught the 4runner recovery on his phone. Even the end when he steered in to the berm 😂 IMG_8171.MOV

The snow run went well. It was a lot fun as most snow runs are and was very pretty with all the fresh, pristine white snow. Even with all the fresh snow within the last week, the trail was decently tracked and made it pretty user friendly for mildly built vehicles. We met up in Auburn at 10 and left with a caravan of 5 vehicles (JR in his D2, Robert in his D2, Oliver and Mark in their D2, Sasha in LR3, and myself in THE D2 😉). Along Highway 49 we had Nick in his Series join us. We met up with Mike in his 110 at the Washington Hotel and had our full group of 7 vehicles. Snow was present a pretty low elevations, so we aired up not far past downtown Washington. We were making steady progress and enjoying the drive for a while. After maybe 5 or 6 miles without having any issues we ran into our first obstacle in the form of a brown Toyota 4Runner, loaded up with all the overland goodies, helplessly stuck in the snow. We had been driving steadily for a while, so we used this opportunity to take a rest and relax and have some lunch. The 4runner was with another similarity kitted 4runner and another late model Toyota I believe. They clearly were a little out of their element (had a nice Warn Zein winch but no remote and neglected to turn their locker on), so we offered some advice and leant them a couple kinetic ropes to use. The unstuck 4runner was having trouble committing to the speed needed to fully utilize the kinetic ropes and pull his friend out of the hole he has gotten himself in, so I determined it would be easier for me get around the stuck 4runner and pull him out myself. With some spotting help from Mike and Robert, I was able to widen the trail a bit and get around. With 2 kinetic ropes attached to each other, I got up to a pretty good yanking speed and was able to get him out with the first try. I then proceeded to pull him up the hill. Unfortunately his steering or the offset nature of pull sent him plowing into a snowbank to the side of the trail. Luckily it was the high side and not the one that could have sent him down the side of the mountain. It was actually kind of funny if you got see it happen considering there wasn’t any damage to anything. Robert then pulled up behind him and pulled him back out of the snow bank and he was able to make it up to the turn around spot his friends were parked at. After getting by the Toyotas, we were cruising again at a nice steady pace without issue. Unfortunately that didn’t last very long. We again came across a couple of stuck vehicles who were seemingly biting off more than they were equipped to chew. This time it was a JK or JL Rubicon with big tires (37?) and a D5. For some inexplicable reason, the D5 was in front of the Jeep and was totally bogged down in soft snow. He had chains on his very mild all terrain tires in the rear, but he was going no where. Another Jeep showed up ahead of the D5 and tried to pull him up and out. The D5 didn’t move, the Jeep got stuck. The whole ordeal took a long time, but I basically ended up up driving around the first Jeep and D5 and then winching out the stuck Jeep that came down to help. Since we had to widen the trail to get around the stuck vehicles, we ended up having to drive through some deeper, softer snow to the side of the original snow. This soft and deep snow ended up sinking JR’s tires and getting him stuck beyond what his open diffs could handle. Nick and JR decided that this would be a good time to turn around since it was starting to get late and the snow was getting deeper and softer and we progressed. The campers passed on the high side of JR and we continued on our way while Nick and JR freed his stuck D2 and headed down the mountain. Not much farther up the mountain the trail became untracked and we decided to make camp rather than attempt to struggle forward to the lake. It was close to 4 and starting to get darker and colder, so it seemed like the prudent choice. Had we not ran into the other parties and saved a couple hours we likely would have tried to get farther, but that was not the case. Part of the decision to not go further was the fact that the end of the tracked up snow was adjacent to a really nice, flat, open area that we could comfortably camp. So Robert and I drove around for a bit to pack down the area and then we all set up camp under the last remnants of the dwindling sun. We had plenty of wood and sustained a good fire that night. It didn’t get too cold during the night and we even had a full (or full enough) moon that kept the camp pretty lit, so everyone had a good sleep. Oliver and Mark were even bold enough to sleep under the stars and neither of them lost any extremities as far as I know. Everybody slept in pretty good the next morning and things didn’t really start going around camp until about 9. We started a morning fire and while everyone was getting their breakfast together we started to get the sxs crowd rolling up. One guy got stuck apparently and they all just sort of parked on the trail like 15 yards from our camp. They were super obnoxious in nearly every imaginable way and stayed for what seemed like a couple hours. Between their blaring music, yelling, and reving, we pretty much were ready to get out of there by the time we had all eaten and packed. We had contemplated trying to get to the lake, but decided it wouldn’t be worth it, especially if we would be running into the huge group of sxs’s at the lake again. It was smooth sailing all the way the trail. We had to pass a few groups of sxs’s (must have been a big club run), but nothing really held us up. We ended up taking a break in a clearing a maybe 30 minutes to take a group photo and allow a Robert to hunt himself a Christmas tree. After that we headed down the hill. Sasha, Mark, and Oliver headed home while Mike, Robert, Jason, Merlyn, and myself headed to brewery for some food and drink in Grass Valley. The adventure wasn’t over however. While heading south on 80 through Sacramento, my rear diff gave out. It made a terrible noise so I pulled off the nearest exit. It was clear I would not be driving home. We ended up getting AAA to tow the rover home and we got a ride from Robert home. We were very happy to have Robert following behind when this happened. Hopefully I can get the parts for the repair soon and still make the most out the winter. All in all a great trip even with the carnage. IMG_8096.MOV

We will be burning wood. Bring lots, it will be cold

check out the route I have in the pics above. We go what I guess would be downtown Washington. That would probably be the easiest place to meet up if you coming from 20. They have a Hotel there and maybe a restaurant or a bar. From there we head up Gaston Rd. So if you just get directions to the Washington Hotel then that would get you to where you want to be. My guess is we will be there about 11:30 It will essentially be a snow covered road. It won’t be a trail like Bald Mountain, so the 110 will be fine.

I just use a ground tent. If you haven’t done cold weather tent camping, I would suggest a relatively small tent if you have the option. Big tents have too much space to keep warm. RTT’s are fine for a lot of trips, but not ideal for this one since we will be heading out wheeling for the day and returning to camp. Ground tents are convenient since you can just leave everything setup when we head out for the day.

Note the picture of the map with directions. I am Not sure we will be passing the spot you are referring to. You might as well meet us at the 76 station. It’s right off the exit

So I called Donna, Andrew and I are now good to go for the Siberian run. If anyone else wants to join us, sign up right away. There are only a handful of spots left for the Siberian run. 4 other runs have already filled up. This is not the type of event you can procrastinate on.

I’ll email Donna and get switched to Siberian. All the same to me. Of course another solution would be to step up to 35’s 😉

I booked spot 227 Friday to Monday, although I’m not sure I’ll actually be using it all those nights.

I am all signed up. Here are the runs that Andrew and I signed up for: Saturday- (1) Frostbite Extreme (2)Klondike Extreme (3)Siberian Express Sunday- Iceberg

It’s “ok”, just make sure you have recovery points and decent tires. By decent, I mean at least All Terrains with plenty of tread on them. Like always, trail conditions will play a role in what deciding what becomes practical or not. If it dumps a bunch of fresh snow the week of the trip, that could make it pretty much not doable for the more stock vehicles. Some years, the LR3-4 types make it all the way to the top without issue. In general we get plenty of LR3-4’s coming on this trip regardless of weather. How far they get varies.

Now that we are starting to really get into winter wheeling mode with these storms coming up, I thought it would be a good time to get us thinking about this trip. This is always a really fun trip for all levels of Rovers and is always a unique trip depending on the snow conditions. Where: Camp Edison Campground and running the Bald Mountain Trail When: February 19-21 The plan will be to run the trail on Saturday. So people can come up either Friday and camp, or drive up early on Saturday and meet us near the trail. This trip is open to all Rovers. Vehicles will need to have recovery points in the front and rear. Besides that, any running Rover with decent tires can make the trip. If you’re thinking about making some upgrades, then a winch, beadlock wheels with mud tires, and lockers come in really handy for snow runs. DM me or post up any questions or concerns on this thread. More details will be posted as we get closer to the date. Reserve your campsite here: https://www.camplife.com/campground/Camp Edison IMG_4215.mov

So the plan at this point is to meet up Saturday morning at 10am at the 76 gas station in Auburn (401 Grass Valley Highway, Auburn) From there we will head to Bowman through the Town of Washington and up Gaston Rd. The plan will be to get to the East end of Bowman Lake and camp. We may not get all the way there, we may not get even close, but that’ll be the plan. If the plan doesn’t work out, then we will find a place to camp along the way. Then we will head out Sunday morning. Those who want to make a day trip out of it can always just pick a point in the day and turn around and head back. So please post up if you’re coming and if you’re going to be camping or just doing a day trip. The weather should be good for us and the snow should be pretty deep. Bring wood, warm and dry clothes, plenty of recovery gear (kinetic straps if you got ‘em), bring a good sized shovel (small folding types are useless), air for your tires, and the normal assortment of spares. If you have any specific questions you can post them up or DM me.