The Lair

What if you aim for the knees?

 

Awesome! And I got your antenna spring in the console of my truck haha we need to set a meet that will actually work

 

The motto for yesterday ended up being "coulda been a lot worse" for the 7 trucks on the trip yesterday.

@ilubtimmyhos @twheat40 @Montauk17 @boogie3478 @TaKoToy @JR Cruiser

Drove down to VA for a trip to Flagpole Knob, which is a lookout on top of a mountain. We met up a s Sheetz nearby, and I did my prewheeling inspection and noticed one of my upper idler pullies was hanging on by a thread. Luckily there was an auto parts store a few hundred feet away who had one in stock, so 20 minutes later and I was good to go.





We get to the base of the mountain, air down, and start bombing the trails putting these new Kings to work. We start hitting small patches of ice here and there, so we slowed it down to play it safe. Make it to the first fun place to play around, and a few of us attempted the washed up hill, to no avail. It was just too rutted, so we beat feet and continued onward, eager to get going.

About 5 minutes later, it starts getting pretty icy. I'm in front and as soon as I rounded the corner, a moderate incline that was just a sheet of ice. On the left, the hill and on the right, a steep decline. @ilubtimmyhos and I start driving up, when I see his ass end kick out and he comes to an abrupt halt. I start backing up to hook a strap to him, and I start sliding backwards, just hoping I come to a stop because there was nothing I could do. I stopped, but now I'm at an angle too.

We all take a minute to assess our plan moving forward, and we decide I hook up my strap, and I hug the right side (side with a drop off) because there was a couple feet of unfrozen ground. We get going, and my ass end starts sliding right towards the drop off. I think being hooked to Adam helped me out here, and I was able to readjust and hit it again. We gain traction and just start chugging up this hill, with Adam having a couple close misses from ramming a tree.




Now we have 5 more trucks to get up. We send one at a time, and just about everyone at one point slid backwards 50' rather quickly with no control whatsoever. Luckily no damage, and all make it up just fine, albeit a little shaken up. We continue onwards. From now on there is ice here and there, and I had to pull Adam a few times, but everything was fairly routine until we hit the rock step up.

@JR Cruiser luckily had a change of underwear, because he needed it after almost rolling his truck. We had @Montauk17 turn his truck around, hook his winch up and pulled him up in a controlled manner. We all counted our blessings he didn't go over.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtMDLLHhHS6/

As we're nearing the lunch spot, we're getting mighty hungry because at this point, it's about 1:30p. There was one final hill to climb to get there, but of course that turned into the biggest adventure yet. I try snatching adam up, but no luck. We hook two snatch lines together to try and get me to better ground.




I get him up further, but due to the trail being a tight S, it wasn't going well. We found an alternate route through some small trees and wet grass, but it was open enough to fit our trucks.

I try and snatch Adam up, but as soon as there was tension on the line, it slid my ass end over about 4' right into some small trees. They managed to get wedged between my bed sides and high clearance bumper, and tore my ABS line going to my rear passenger tire. I get the chainsaw out and get it all cleared up, but then we had the issue of the fact I couldn't go backwards because the trees, and I couldn't go forward because there wasn't enough traction to pull both myself and Adam up. Why not disconnect the line you ask? Too much tension on it.

We bring Jerrys truck over, and he hooks a snatch strap to my front bumper, while I'm still hooked to Adams truck, and we get a little train going. It didn't work, however it was just enough to get me off the trees and relieved the tension in my rear snatch strap. We unhook, and Jerry and I drive to the top to act as anchors for Adam to winch. We winched up, I snatch him the final bit, and we made it. Finally time for lunch.

At this point we're all exhausted, but we got a roaring fire going and I cook us up some deer chili, meat courtesy of Jerry. We eat, have a beer and unwind for a bit, not wanting to get going again. Just enjoying the relaxation.

We put the fire out, load up and get going. Just a little more uphill until we start our descent. Made it along doing well, until the final hill climb before the top. The hill was like a skating rink, and I just couldn't drive up it with adam in tow. Just not enough traction. We unhook, but still not enough traction for me to get going. Hell, we could hardly walk up the damn thing. We get my winch hooked up and I make it to the top, and position myself to winch anyone that needs it. Next up, Adam. We get him winched up it, but his winch was pissed. It's only an 8k winch and we were putting it through absolute hell, but it was free, so if it died after we made it off the mountain, who really cares? After that, Brian. He gave it plenty of skinny pedal, and was ssooooooo close, but lost all traction. Just as I was getting my winch ready, he kicks on his locker and makes it the rest of the way. We were all ecstatic.




Next up, Jaimes. Made it about halfway but just couldn't get it, so we winched him. Pretty standard winch recovery, so not much to comment on. After that all we had left was Tyler, Jerry, and Rob. They really wanted to get the hell of the mountain, so they must've hit that hill going 20 mph and fucking flew up that thing. It was super entertaining to watch! We were all up in one piece, and now to start the descent.

Due to the winching, our order of trucks got a bit mixed up, and now Adam and I brought up the rear. As you get to the top, there is a spiderweb of trails all leading to the same place, and Adam and I managed to get separated from the bunch. No big deal, it all goes to the same place and we'll meet up in a bit. We try and reach them on the HAM radio, and all we hear is Tylers worried voice and bits and pieces of what he was saying ".....Jerry.....truck sideways........slid.....". We hook up my external HAM antenna, start talking to them and the battery on the radio dies. CB won't reach them. We have no comms, and it's starting to get dark, so we keep a cool head, and focus on our task at hand. It just so happened to be a fairly steep descent, covered in ice with a hill on one side and a drop off on the other.

I have Adam pull up to where I am so we can figure out how we want to proceed. I'm standing next to my truck when I hear "RANDY" I look up, and see Adams worried face. I glance at his tires and see his ABS trying to work to get him to stop. It's not working. I take a step back and say aloud "This is happening." Sure as shit, Adam slides right into my truck going about 5 mph. We just die laughing, because what else were we supposed to do? There was no real damage. My swingout and his bumper is tweaked a bit, but everything works as it should. After that we decide to pull his ABS fuse to disable his ABS so he can have a little more control on his slides.

I start the descent, 1st gear, 4lo, and remind myself to not lock up the tires. Can't steer if tires are locked. Right off the bat, I just start sliding. Luckily it was a pretty straight path, and there were a couple grooves that kept my truck in line. I modulate my brakes and gas and make a pretty controlled descent, and park up and out of the way. I get out of my truck and stand way off to the side in case Adam comes barreling down and hits my truck. Luckily he had an uneventful descent and made it down safe. At this point I notice I have service, so I call my wife and tell her what's going on and that I might be spending the night on the mountain if we can't get off. I didn't want to get stuck in a place with no service, only for her to start freaking out wondering where I am, and who would blame her? I try and call Tyler, and luckily I got through. I told him Adam and I were safe, and he said they were waiting for us.

Now we're at a fork in the road, so we do a little scouting and figure out exactly where to go. Now Adam is in front of me, so he goes first. I wait a minute and follow him. Much more controlled this time and I creep down in 1st gear. I meet up with Adam, who exclaimed that he did a full 180 slide and ended up in a dirt bank. Thank goodness it was that side, and not the cliff side. We keep on trucking, and by the grace of god the trails started being less and less icy. We finally meet up with the others, and a huge wave of relief came over all of us now that everyone was accounted for.

At this point, only another mile or two until we hit asphalt, and thankfully the trails were ice free. We air up, and hit pavement at about 7pm. Almost 10 hours to accomplish what should take 5 hours.

 

seriously hahaha it will have to wait a couple weeks cuz im on call until next Monday. boss man is in Mexico so the lines are transferred to my phone lol and I have to go to my parents either the 9th or 23rd of Feb. once I find out which weekend, I will compare it to my on call schedule and then we can set a date. same place where it was suppose to be last time and same time, just need to pick a day. I will post up in the Ottawa thread about it

 

Start plotting all the work after 5pm to collect your overtime pay for mods

 

Any other fleshy part that wont hurt as much?

 

Sounds like quite the adventure. Glad everyone made it out. The HAM bit got me on the edge of my seat! Bedside looks like it'll buff out.

 

No worries to wait lol maybe i'll have my new rubbers on by this time so I can show them off

I have something on the 9th and also the 23th lol maybe we can push it to March break? Planning that much ahead l, no reasons to not come haha

 

Gotta be careful with the scaler they can divot up the metal pretty quickly.

 

The ass? IDK I don't want someone making it hail on me!

 

holy crap hahaha sounds intense! glad everyone is okay and nothing major was broken! sounds like a big bag of road salt would have came in handy! r maybe an entire salt truck hahaha I might have to keep that in mind for winter wheeling lol I laughed when you said "this is happening" hahaha

 

Go join her then you'll have longer once she gets out.

 

Yeah that's when we started getting a little worried! We all purchased larger batteries and car chargers for them so that doesn't happen again.

Funny you mention that, I was thinking the same thing!!! I have 100 lbs of salt I could've brought that may have helped a little bit.

 

yeah and I need it so I can afford this new bumper hahaha im at 5 hours at time and a half and still have 6 more nights to cover

March it is hahahaha will have to be the 2nd or 16th or 23rd

 

and be sitting in cold water! hahaha never understood baths lol I would rather not sit in my own dirty water I prefer just sitting down in the shower lol

 

Fucking epic day man you had me with the story. Once again great to meet you and I hope to wheel with you again!!

 

That doesn't seem to have been an enjoyable trip

 

It was fun typing it out! Epic trip for sure, and hopefully our next trip isn't quite as intense.

 

When Adam yelled at you I thought it was gonna be your truck started descending without you in it!