Stick a fork in it, the 2023 NorCal Wheeling, Camping, and Fuckery Thread is done.

It was MCR weekend too, first one in 3 years I bet it was packed!

 

It was busy, and we had to do some waiting, but that's to be expected when you're going against traffic on the weekend of a big event. I had fun.

(Especially once my guts settled and head stopped pounding. I was feeling sick as a dog from around 1PM Friday through Saturday night.)

 

Really comes down to when you go to do it imo. If there's an event going on, yea it'll be a zoo.
But the times we've done it during the week, not on weekends, it's been super nice. Basically have the place to ourselves it feels like.
I get what you mean though. It's pretty frustrating when you have to wait hella long for like 20 jeeps to cruise through.

 

It's popularity makes it a difficult run. The mixture of skills doesn't help nor do the breakdowns. I went to Sierra Trek for a few years. I've always picked the SUV run because fewer people go on that. But one year, we came in from the Tahoe City side and camped near several lakes. We'd gone up to the ski resort borders, had lunch on Ellis, and come back down to (I think) Miller Lake to camp. Only ever saw the 5 rigs in our group and a bunch of hikers. Of course, it's not the hard part of the trail but still fun.

 

Photodump from the High Sierra Krawlers Rubicon trip with @El Taco Diablo and @Blue Canary.

Felt pretty good to have only needed to winch twice, both on in the pouring rain while coming up Big Sluice. Lost a valve stem on a rock just before the first winch, and bent my passenger-side slider kickout into the bedside and hammered my driveline sliding onto a rock at a narrow spot on the second. Luckily, I was carrying a spare driveshaft and it made it through the end of the trail. Thanks to @Radarninja for the driveshaft and Eric with the IMPOUND plates for helping me out with getting the replacement installed. Would've taken way longer with the tools that I had onboard, since I would've needed to drop both the T-case and diff skids.

 

been there. Have broken my drive shaft a couple of times now on the trail, once being the Rubicon. An impact, extensions, a wobble /swivel socket, and a wrench make the whole process go by so much faster.

 

I had all of that, and one 14mm ratcheting wrench. Both my 14mm were too big to seat well on the bolt/nut heads, and I didn't want to risk stripping them. Him having a second 14mm helped a ton, because I forgot to pack my crescent wrench. Definitely picking up some 3/8" sockets (all of mine are 1/2") and doubling up on a few of the box wrenches after this. Lessons learned, right?

 

ah got it. Yeah, youre making me want to double check my tool roll and see what I have in there. Both times I had to swap it, some of the other guys used their tools too so I can't remember how hard it would be using only my tools. I'll try using my trail tools next time I take off my DS to re-grease the slip joint

 

Awesome pictures as always Chris! That's pretty crazy about the driveline. Sounds like one hell of an adventure. A guy I work with has been trying to talk me into doing the Rubicon and now I'm more nervous than ever. Haha.

 

You'll be good. You've got a shorter wheelbase than me, and, honestly, the damage to the driveline was mostly because it was dumping rain while we were going up the hill (and I couldn't get my driver-side tires to stick where I needed them as a result). Everybody, including even the most built vehicle in our group had to winch up that obstacle. As far as I know, nobody else took damage on it, and I'm assuming there were some lessons learned from watching me go up it second (after the much shorter Land Cruiser). Also, there was downhill traffic waiting for us to come up another section below, and they were parked in what looked to me to be an easier path around the obstacle.

 

That obstacle wouldn't include a tree on the left, a large rock against the tree and a huge rock out right would it?

 

Basically, yes. As I remember it, looking uphill: 7-foot high granite outcrop on left with tree above, 5-foot high immobile granite boulder to right, 24-inch high immobile boulder just left of center. My plan was to put driver tires on the outcrop, climb, get a little offcamber to passenger side, put passenger tires on the smaller boulder, and then pass through. Just above it was a narrow section where you had to climb up and through a pair of 3 foot high boulders. Ended up losing traction on the outcrop and slipping down so that the smaller boulder was on-center with the truck.

edit: Adjusted the estimated dimensions.

 

Doing that section uphill in the rain doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Next time run it Loon to Tahoma. You go down Big Sluice and up Cadillac Hill. lol

 

Haha. I was thinking the same thing. I know exactly what you’re describing.

 

It's by far the hardest part of Big Sluice. Although it's easier with a short wheelbase and duals it's still challenging even if you get the line perfect.

 

FYI - these were clutch on our trip



The wing nut makes it tough to get some air chucks on. So, I bought these.



The nut instead of the wing nut should work better.

But either way they work... they can save your bacon.

 

I was one of those that stranded you but I gotta give you a shout out and again appreciate you and your crew’s huge help donating me that vice grip for my brake lines. I actually grenaded both my rear drum brakes but made it out the other side.

 

You are absolutely NOT one of the people I was talking about brother.

We were totally happy to help you 100% I am seriously glad to know you made it out.

Mechanical breaks happen, and that is absolutely not what I was referring to. Hell, we met up with a couple that had lost drive to their rear passenger wheel, and their winch smoked out, taking the alternator with it. We helped them for the second half of our second day and all of our third day, getting out.

Helping people on the trail is one of the parts of wheeling I most enjoy, actually.

Again... I'm glad to know your safe. I was wondering about you.

 

Still stuck in Truckee. Getting rear disc conversion and a drive shaft. But yeah you guys were awesome on the trail helping everyone out.

 

Is your diff ok? It was leaking pretty good at the pinion seal.