Redeemed: rngr's Trail Taco w/side of T4R

@hcook33 here you go. Probably some relevant stuff here for you. Everything referenced by page number on the first post.

 

So much carnage. So much fun. Trip I’ll never forget. Let me try to write this up.

 

Carter and Tim get in a pickle


Chapter 1.

Tim and headed to windrock with the goal of running T21 and School Bus (38). Both are double blacks and I’ve been wanting to hit them for a while. Started with T21. Apparently they had rain up there a couple days ago we didn’t know about. It was wet. Made it to this gnarly off/camber ledge that you have to approach at 45*, making it more off camber.



I slid off if first attempt and ended up sitting about 6” from a drop of a couple hundred feet. Thank God there was a big tree that stopped me.

Tim ended up having to winch me sideways and backwards uphill with Snatch blocks.



Decided we didn’t want to die so we Turned around and backed out.

 

Chapter 2.


We tucked tail and headed for T15 to T38.


15 was a breeze. We both walked it. Tim lost a mirror and I added some more texture to my bedsides. Saved an XJ with a busted DS.

 

Chapter 3.


We headed up Schoo bus (38). No big deal for quite a ways. Then it gets real real fun. Super steep. Big big rocks to navigate.


I was super pleased with my truck. She gnawed right through it. Got some good trail badges on “the rock” which is the main obstacle in this trail.


Being skinny pays... y’all remember that.

 

Ch4.


I’m going to let Tim pick up here. This was the biggest streak of bad luck I’ve ever seen. Crazy. It all started riiiiiiiight....


Here

 

This is a copy/paste quote from @tacotim448 in our group chat. Full. Blown. Dumpster Fire. bouble black diamond. One wheel drive plus a winch. 6 hours...

Truck was doing so good up to this point. Lockers were working flawlessly, which is unusual for me. As Carter mentioned his little billy goat traversed right up thru the toughest trail I’d ever been on. Which, even though a bit skeptical, gave me more confidence. I got to the point in the trail with the big “school bus” boulder and the truck climbed right up in and around and was about to exit when POP!!! CV busted, which was my fault. I was trying to readjust to turn back up the hill and when I rolled back my right front grabbed and pulled the steering wheel hard to the left, which was fully drooped out. I should have disengaged the locker ‍♂️. No problem, I’ve got a spare, Napa CV. Everyone says Napa is equal quality as OEM—right? Before we swap the CV we winch me up the hill a bit, to get me straight and it was slightly more level—slightly. Then we install the Napa CV. We have that in and out in about 25 minutes. Get started back up the hill and drive maybe 4-5 feet and POP!!! Sheared completely in half on the inner—WTF!?!? Ok, now we still gotta get off the trail and we’ve just entered the toughest section. Mind you, we started the trail at 3:30. So, we start winching. Carter and I got the workout of our lives, pulling line, winch up, readjust, pull line, winch up, readjust. I still don’t know how the Smitty Built made it. Continuing: So, we get about half way up and my driveshaft twists into a pretzel and gets bent into my gas tank. Nothing else to do but remove it. At this point we still have an hour and a half until dusk and we’re naively optimistic we’ll get to the top before dark. Who knew driving double black diamond trails in 1 wheel drive would be so difficult. Anyhow, a group of built jeeps come up the trail behind us and we slowly grinder our way up the the trail winch point to winch point—for a couple of hours, trying to find a spot they can get around and help pull me. We finally find a spot and the first fails. He just can’t get the traction to snatch me. We continue up the trail, winch point to winch point. Finally find another spot where we get another Jeep around and he’s got a v8 and on 44. We’re finally going to make some progress now—nope. Can’t get traction. Did I mention this is trail 38, with huge ass boulders and steep as fuck. So, we continuing winching. Jeep guys stay with us to help—I might like Jeep guys now, they were a great group. I think we finally popped out the top around 10.30pm and we limped my broke ass back to Nashville in 1WD, at about 40mph and I got home around 2am.

 

Sounds like a trip to remember, I know how much it sucks to break CVs, never twisted a drive shaft but I know it had to suck winching that far, sorry I missed this ride.

 

Oh boy, guess I won't be buying any NAPA CVs anymore

 

Crawl box tacoma on 33s FTW!!! Amazing what they can do right? Thate why it took me so long to acle swap and get bigger tires, they are too much fun IFS!!

Tim that sucks!! Glad you guys made it out of there safely!

 

She’s a wheeler for sure. Dude in the broke XJ after watching us walk up 15 - “I’m selling this POS and buying a Tacoma” lol.

 

And it looks sooooo unassuming is the best part. Like, it looks like it has no business anywhere near hard trails. I love it.

Few notes-

The LTBs are awesome. Side lugs grab all the things and up you go.

my DS is in bad shape. Going to have a new stronger one built.

 

Yea that's why I liked it. Roll up to go wheeling at an event and slot in behind dudes on 37s+ and get a bunch of wtf looks. By the end of the day you are the only one who didnt have to winch and hasn't pulled a wrench out. Load up your shit in the bed and drive it home 8hrs while they are strapping their junk to trailers.

 

Tim wins the "No fucks given" award

 

Kind of hard to see in the pic, but the DS isn’t round anymore. There’s a big dent about 8” long making it flat on that side.

@allmotorrex @Robertocritser @slander @Snowy anyone else...

I assume (and hope) this is the cause of my new death wobble. That’d be enough to cause it, right?

 

Is it drivetrain shake or steering shake? Typically death wobble is steering related.

Easiest way to tell is disconnect the rear driveshaft and drive it around in fwd. If its bent causing the shaking you will feel it all the time, especially at really slow speed (like idling in first). You will feel the bend if that makes any sense.

Could also be the swampers deciding the no longer like being round. My old ones had a mind of their own.

 

Does not feel like steering. Definitely worse at low speeds. Feels like I'm repeatedly driving over the same bump in the road. Like, I can almost feel the truck raise up and then fall down.

 

I would take the shaft off then and see if it still does it.

 

Goes out in the woods with a dude and comes back here talking about problems with his shaft...