March MORG?

[NThyrring]

Thanks Alyson.

 

 

 

 

Rain or shine?

[DHappel]

I'll take shine please.

 

 

But yeah, we go either way.

[mirowsky]

BuckinghamBill:

 

I'm coming in a stock LR4 too (2013, white). We can slip and slide together.

 

See you tomorrow.

 

John M.

[AdvRovr]

I think it most of the hills should be dried out. We haven't had much rain for a little while in that area, and my soggy back yard has finally dried out as well. Probably will still have some good mud puddles, but after my experience at the annual I think I'll avoid those for now.

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Andrew Wood]

i am bringing a new winch line that I need to install, if anyone could help?

[Andrew Wood]

I am bringing my ground anchor which could be good fun for a demo. Ground anchors are a very important part of the recovery equtment you should take with you. There are going to be times when you need it. They are al life saver. If you have to winch your self out you will need some thing to hook your winch line to..

[Andrew Wood]

Andrew

[Lauroness]

I won't be making it out tomorrow but y'all have fun

[DHappel]

I've played with many different anchors, but of the seagoing variety.  

 

It might be interesting to check it out.  From what I've seen they look like a knock-down version of a traditional plow style anchor, just lighter.

 

As for the winch line, not a problem to spool it on if you've got half way decent access to the winch.  Just one bolt on the drum.  We can tension it by dragging another truck toward you, or dragging your rig up a slight incline.  I re-spooled mine last week by pulling my forklift toward the truck.

[DHappel]

Just as a reminder, I'll plan to be at the Starbucks in Patterson (I5 and Sperry) a bit before 9 tomorrow and plan to leave about 9.  Looks like the Chad will be there too.  Radio will be on 146.460 in case anybody else wants to run in with us.

[BuckinghamBill]

Just as a reminder, I'll plan to be at the Starbucks in Patterson (I5 and Sperry) a bit before 9 tomorrow and plan to leave about 9.  Looks like the Chad will be there too.  Radio will be on 146.460 in case anybody else wants to run in with us.

 

Don, I'm going to aim to be there at this time as well. Don't have a radio just yet, but I'll be in a Dark Blue LR4! Hope to see you there and ride in with you.

[Andrew Wood]

What a great trip! We did every thing! We played hard with a stock LR3 & LR4 on some tuff river crossings. We had 2 winching (demos) we even had some repair work on 2 trucks that worked out good and every one got home! I even got awesome help from Don ( who runs the trip ) who helped me put a new wiench line On the right way. Andrew

[BuckinghamBill]

Such a great day! Thanks for the warm welcome to the group. Looking forward to future events.

 

I put my photos and videos on Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3394n5puwyuha5v/AACcWy7cQ84ooexAcerfe81oa?dl=0

 

There's some good video of the mud pit as well as Chad's daring river ride on the bonnet to rescue Nils.

 

Anyone have a photo or video of my LR4 doing that first river crossing?

[Lauroness]

Almost seems like Range Rovers are always rescuing discoverys

[DHappel]

I have a few short videos here:

https://goo.gl/photos/rBDHavyJbRuEYcRN9

[DHappel]

The day started out great with a perfect drive through the valley out to the park - assuming you don't have a spandex allergy (seems the bicycle people though it was a nice day to go play as well and were clogging up the road).  Once at the park with everybody present we started out just on the fire road leading toward the lower area on the east side where the water runs pretty good.  Along the way I dropped into a pretty deep hole on a water crossing and didn't quite make it up the embankment on the other side, having to back up and take a different line.  Wish I'd had a picture of that since I had water well up on the tailgate, at least judging from the gravel I scooped up on top of the rear bumper when backing.  We wandered around a bit until we ended up at the far end and took a little run up 'Drew Hill', getting a bit tippy in the process.  After coming back down we found a woman in an older Chevy truck stuck in the creek.  She'd overheated her transmission and lost drive.  Her husband arrived on a dirtbike a moment later and we winched them back onto dry ground.  He got it cooled down enough to drive it out under it's own power a little later.

 

Nils had brought his rig up behind me and started backing out only to drop into the soft goo alongside the creek so I gave him a short pull back onto solid ground, I then opted to turn around instead of backing out to avoid doing the same thing.

 

Back again we did a bit of a hill climb and I heard some unpleasant clicking from the right rear of my rig - I believe I have a CV that's unhappy.  It never failed and didn't really make much noise thereafter but I decided I should take it easy the rest of the day until I could investigate it further.  I have a spare here at home should I need it.

 

We stopped for lunch and while we were there spooled a new bubba rope onto Andrew's winch using my rig as an anchor and pulling his toward me to tension the line.  I set my parking brake while we were doing this but then it wouldn't release until I pulled the battery cable.  Something I've known about for a while but haven't bothered to look into as it's an overly complicated system for the LR3/4.

 

On we went up-hill and I was about ready to take a small cut-through over to another trail that would take us back down toward the park entrance but there is a tight spot with a wash on the down-hill side you definitely don't want to fall into (unless you like multiple rolls down a long hill) and a sharp jagged rock protruding from the uphill side that makes it a tight fit.  I recalled the last time we went through that particular spot a Series truck opened up a fender on that rock, so discretion being the better part and all that, we went around and circled back down along the Ridgeline trail toward the creeks again.  Along the way, we went down 'Don Hill' where a couple years ago in the mud I went for a wild toboggan ride.  I'll have to see if I can find the video of that one so everybody can get an idea of the difference between a wet Frank Raines and a dry one like today.

 

Once down we stopped by the obstacle course and mud (really more water) pit where Nils and Chad took turns trying to empty it out.  I don't think either achieved Erin's epic level of splash though.  At the least they certainly didn't get nearly as dirty since I could still tell what color their trucks were.  

 

On down a bit more to the creek and Nils took an 'alternative' path going up the river.  This was going well until he dropped the front into a deep hole.  Now we know why he wears shorts all the time...so he can go wading without getting his pants wet  Chad came to his rescue while a group of dirtbikers gathered for the show.  No problems, once pulled back a truck-length he was able to take a different line and come out just fine.  I do wonder if his alternator will remain happy for long though.  At least the deepest water was on the driver's side and the alternator is on the passenger side.

 

Back to the entrance where we aired up and each headed home.  We did pull Bill's driver front tire off to extract a small rock stuck in the brake shield making a lovely noise while being serenaded by a base-heavy mexican beat courtesy of a group nearby.

 

All in all a pretty good MORG.  Excellent weather and despite the camping area of the park being very crowded we didn't see too much traffic on the trails.  And as always, it's just a beautiful drive through the valley coming in from I5 - I love that area in the spring. 

[DHappel]

Here's the video Pedram shot of me coming down that same hill we all crawled down a couple years ago.  For reference, the truck was in low 1st with hill descent engaged.  The was just zero traction and any attempt at braking meant wheel lock and going sideways so I just gained speed the whole way down.

 

It's hard to describe the slime of a wet Frank Raines.  It's sort of a thin layer of snot that's just short of ice levels of traction.  I recall being at the top talking to people out my window about 'should I or shouldn't I?' when I realized I was going like it or not - the front tires were over the edge just a bit and I was already sliding at that point, just at a snail's pace.  Under normal conditions you wouldn't have even realized I was on a hill and could have easily stopped and gotten out of the car or backed up.  That day the weight of the rig was just dragging me over the lip.

 

 

This is *not* how to do it.  About the only thing right here was that I didn't lock it up and roll.   At least it was a fairly short hill so I didn't have time to really get scared, I was too busy trying to steer and at least sorta control where I was going.

 

And no, nobody else dame down the hill that day.  They wisely went around.

 

[mirowsky]

Don:

 

Thanks for another great MORG.

 

FYI: That noise probably was a pebble in my brake. It came and went for a while, but went away by the time I got to 580. Thanks for the info about the cause and what to do.

 

I have attached a couple stills of the mud breakers near the end.

 

John M.

[DHappel]

Yes, rocks in the brakes are very common.  They usually get caught between the rotor and dust shield and seldom cause any damage but are annoying.  Most of the time they work themselves out eventually.

[GraemeWare]

 

This is *not* how to do it.  About the only thing right here was that I didn't lock it up and roll.   At least it was a fairly short hill so I didn't have time to really get scared, I was too busy trying to steer and at least sorta control where I was going.

 

And no, nobody else dame down the hill that day.  They wisely went around.

 

 

The video doesn't do it justice .... the still shot taken from that shows you were airborne on one side at least ....

 

Graeme

[DHappel]

Just on the one side.  I'm pretty sure I never had more than 2 wheels off the ground at one time.

[erinw.rrc]

Here's the video Pedram shot of me coming down that same hill we all crawled down a couple years ago.  For reference, the truck was in low 1st with hill descent engaged.  The was just zero traction and any attempt at braking meant wheel lock and going sideways so I just gained speed the whole way down.

 

It's hard to describe the slime of a wet Frank Raines.  It's sort of a thin layer of snot that's just short of ice levels of traction.  I recall being at the top talking to people out my window about 'should I or shouldn't I?' when I realized I was going like it or not - the front tires were over the edge just a bit and I was already sliding at that point, just at a snail's pace.  Under normal conditions you wouldn't have even realized I was on a hill and could have easily stopped and gotten out of the car or backed up.  That day the weight of the rig was just dragging me over the lip.

 

 

This is *not* how to do it.  About the only thing right here was that I didn't lock it up and roll.   At least it was a fairly short hill so I didn't have time to really get scared, I was too busy trying to steer and at least sorta control where I was going.

 

And no, nobody else dame down the hill that day.  They wisely went around.

 

 

One of my favorite NCLR videos of all time.  HAHA!

[DHappel]

er...yeah...not my finest hour.

[JFuller]

Looks like a great time had by all.  

[AlysonH]

er...yeah...not my finest hour.

Driving in Frank Raines when it's muddy? Not really anyone's finest hour especially if they're going down hill. At least no one was hurt and it is kind of nice that we can all laugh about it now.