Every precious moment...

I am really enjoying the challenges of fatherhood. I might be at my most mentally sharp, if not also my most physically and mentally drained. In a way it works though. There isn't a lot of time or patience for wasted effort.

My blogging, unfortunately, has fallen a bit to the wayside, but it means that when I do have the occasion to sit down and post, there's evidently been a good amount of things to write about which have accumulated.

My precious moments, aside from time with my son, have been squeezing in the occasional workout and picking up a wrench to make a calculated adjustment or revision.

 I think we covered this in my last posts. I developed the annoying habit as of late, of bashing fairleads to bits. This was owing to way back when the mounting elevation for the winch plate was selected to coincide with an opening in the stock bumper. In hindsight, I should have looked into revising the position at the same time that I looked to ditch the stock shroud.

I had one more episode (technically two episodes) on the GLX trip in Indiana that steeled my resolve to modify the bumper to get the winch up and out of harms way and hopefully improve my approach angle.

 But I also developed a significant problem at Badlands as well. It wasn't apparent until I got home, washed the truck, and then observed a 'wet' spot still in the driveway several hours later. I had banged the oil pan enough times that the gasketing finally gave way. It turned into a months long ordeal to get a new pan.

 In the meantime, I was sent this incorrect part after two weeks of waiting, and performing near daily dialysis on my truck. It was a routine really. I'd top off the oil every 2-3 days, and place my plastic can beneath the truck anytime I'd be stopped for more than 15 minutes.

 After the wrong part materialized after 2 weeks of waiting, I figured I would try to take down the pan, clean up the gasketing, and then remount it. Except I couldn't figure out how to get it down without destroying it. And the attempt to liberate it only caused the gasketing to fail more and greater quantities of oil to seep out.

 Meanwhile, I had hoped that this was just splatter from the oil being whisked back aft at highway speeds. I was not so fortunate. I removed the diff skid and despite it's protection and the heavier duty cover, I had a leak here too. My hunch is that the sealant was not allowed to cure properly when my diff locker was installed and maybe a light bump was all it took to compromise this seal as well. Great.

The last item in my trifecta of pain at that outing (which was actually a great ride and I won a lot of gear at the raffle along with meeting good folks) was that my CB antenna connector got brutalized. For the short term, I swapped over the coax from the Scanner radio so that the CB could run off of that antenna. That was my final motivation to get the truck to keep her juices IN and to work the bumper. But I had to tackle these things based on priority.

 Found a Friday morning that was light and decided to run out and get some stock tube steel from BMG Metals. I really ought to open an account. It was a couple of weeks before I got to actually get to work on this, but at least I had collected some supplies. I had been meaning to bring the Rhino Rack Roof bars to store in the bed for such impromptu carrying opportunities. Fortunately, I was still able to get the steel up there on the rack while dodging the solar panel. I had hoped to only score a 5' section from the drop cut area of the shop, but the smallest section they  had was this 12' piece of 2"x4" 3/8 tube steel. It would have cost more to cut it then it was to buy the full available length. (Plus, supposedly they don't do a second cut on drop steel). I'm sure I'll find something else to do with the remaining length.

 Somewhere in the midst of sourcing steel, catching oil, and pursuing a couple of other ideas, my friend Dave tells me he's actually interested in buying an Xterra. For real this time. And not like the last 7-8 times where he head-faked me and then re-upped a lease on a RAV-4 or something else disappointing. This apparently was really going to happen.

Since I spend countless hours on forums and talking to other people who spend countless hours doing the same, I became a trusted advisor on this potential purchase. He went to see a truck that was advertised as being a Pro-4X. He didn't really know the differences in trims, but he wanted me to look at it since he didn't see the badge in the photos. Since he was buying used, it was possible that the prior owner had opted to de-badge as is sometimes the custom in certain circles. Anyway, we get there, they open it up, and after one quick look at the dash, I turn to the salesman to advise that there's been a mistake. Nowhere on the instrument cluster was there a button to manipulate the stock e-locker of the supposed Pro-4X. The dude argues with me, but ultimately I am vindicated when he returns to us (Dave had his wife and kids with him) and says, "The manager would like to speak with you". I was there in the capacity of "Luther, anger translator" on behalf of Dave and his family. Basically, a third party service does the invoicing and labeling of the inventory, and they made a mistake. And after some negotiating, a night's sleep on it, and a return visit, my buddy walked away with a pretty good deal on the S model as a result of the whole advertising snafu (and the fact that I saved the dealership from some pretty significant false advertising liability).

I try to tell my wife that there is some benefit of my pursuit of this hobby.

 The part finally arrives and I went HAM on the oil pan and it dropped off just as nicely. I did have to buy a special wrench to access two of the bolts that are up above the frame cross brace. But it is otherwise an unremarkable removal and reinstallation effort despite my initial hiccups in getting the thing down.

 So as never to again go through this pain, I went ahead and ordered a full set of Hefty Fabworks skids. It is what I should have done originally instead of ordering the factory Pro-4X skid. I had the Pro-4X skid mounted when this happened. I was able to score the additional Radiator Skid from Rob with VAXC locally. It was a deal that was contingent upon receipt and delivery of his new bumper. We were even able to have it delivered to coincide with a trip that Tom was taking to head up north to Jersey. That all worked out really well. I ordered new sway bar bushings based on the way that it mounts behind the sway bar bracket (might as well swap out the old ones while I'm there). Just waiting on the Hefty's to arrive at this point.

 With the bigger issue now resolved, it was time to rework this bumper. It would mean that my fogs, radios, and winch would all be off-line indefinitely. I just hoped that a zombie apocalypse would not pop off in the interim. I was fortunate that the dead remained so during this vulnerable period. Also I was afraid of deer. Two very different but real apprehensions.

 With these things, I have to balance my duties of a father with my duties as a hobbyist. This was probably not the best positioning of both, although I assure the general readership that the child was further away than the photo appears to reflect. I could see him and work on the repairs.

 Dave walked out of the dealership after that first long night of negotiating without the X. I was a bit bummed, but knew that we had gotten basically the best deal available. Well, he went back the next day and got him down another $250 at his wife's urging, because "she really wanted the Pro-4X features and we will have to add these features now on our own dime". Now, before that night, I am certain she did not know what the features were or what they performed (I explained in great detail though.) We were going to mod this thing anyway, but she really did help to move the needle on getting the manager to offer a good deal to them.

 So Dave brought the X by that weekend while I was busy tearing my truck apart. I wanted to line the two of them up in the cul de sac, but I think at this point, the gasketing on the oil pan was curing and I couldn't add any oil for another 24 hours.

 I got the idea of the new mounting concept from the late night helping Steve put the bumper on his 4Runner. I was going to bolt up the 2"x4" to the stock frame horns using a welded tab to connect to the two remaining weld nuts that were in tact. Ultimately I would weld this cross-member to the frame horns. From there I was going to drill holes in the cross member to accept the through-bolting of the old bumper assembly and probably add a vertical connection point at some point as well.

 From the front, it didn't look bad at all. Instead of being tucked underneath, the cross tubing would be out in front.

 But in practice, I felt it stood too far out in front. Another complication was that I intended to mount the winch plate to the top of the receiver hitch cross beam, but the cross tubing was about an inch too low to accommodate the height of the winch. It would need to be relocated as well.

 Somewhere in this, I decided that the bed cage and toolboxes had to go.

 I think I had become dissatisfied with the inability to carry large items in the bed easily, the added weight of all of that steel, and the realization that I was probably never going to purchase a proper rooftop tent.

I also have this kid who needs a stroller and other accessories. No problem slinging them in the back of the truck during fair weather, but throw in the chance of rain and we're trying to cram everything into the cab. It wouldn't work if we were all going somewhere as a family.

 So I spent a solid weekend hacking away at mounts that were still holding their respective loads, but that had become problematic to routinely service. I decided that whatever I did from here on out was going to need to be serviceable and readily removed and reinstalled.

 I watched a bed cap for two weeks in Baltimore that was exactly the color of my truck. The guy wanted $980 for it originally. I wrote to him saying that I had been seeing them in the $400 range, but they were either very far away or were for the long bed version. Although his was brand new, if he failed to get any better offers, I asked him to reach out to me to see if we could negotiate some on the price. He didn't respond to me directly, but in the next hour, his post had been modified to an asking price of $725.

I thought if I could wait him out another week or so, maybe I could get it for $600. Then one day, the post was gone. I had tracked a couple others and was, I thought, on the cusp of the deal for one in Jersey for an agreed upon price of $500 down from his $600 asking price. On the night before I was to drive up, he texted me to say that someone had paypal'd him $660 and that if it fell through, he would call me.

I felt bamboozled. It was certainly in his right to sell to whomever he wanted. But we had already reached a deal and I had promised to drive up in advance as soon as he provided me the location with cash in hand.

We were at a function at Dave's when I heard the news. His mom was there and she gave me the advise that, "if you see something you want, you have to go get it right then and there. You wait and it's gone."So when I found another one that was still being offered in Ohio, I did just that. I had seen it previously and ruled it out as too far away. Well, that day, they had dropped the price to $375. I asked if I could come then, but it was associated with a business that would not be open until Monday. So I worked a half day and drove out through 4 different storms and a handful of states to get my cap. All told, it was 10+ hours of driving from downtown DC, to Ravenna, OH, and back home. It was worth it. Only downsides to the deal at the moment was that the locking mechanism needs to be rekeyed. I was able to troubleshoot the jamming latch on the driver side.

 This is just a truck I saw in the area that looked pretty good. I do this when I can't go wheeling.

 I had quite the ordeal getting my antennas back online. I wanted the mounting to be independent of the bumper from now on. Adding the cap on the back created the dilemma of where to mount them. I first ordered the Firestik hood channel mounts, only to find out, upon installing them, that there was insufficient clearance between the body/fender and the mounting tab to accommodate a conventional PL-259 or whatever coax connection. So I had to go back on Amazon and order the special coax with the lug terminals. Then I was stubborn and thought that I knew better how to attach them and was getting intermittent signal. I believe, now upon humbling myself, that I have completed troubleshooting the installation.

They are a bit higher and wonkier looking than I wanted, but as with most things that I do, I just tell myself that it adds to the charm.

I decided to semi-permanently leave the cross bars mounted. I have enough clearance at the garage at work to get in and out without worry. Plus, I can tuck the antennas underneath the lead bar and they stay there without any additional measures needed.

When I get around to ordering sand ladders, I'll leave the sand ladders stowed in the bed of the truck, and if there is threatening weather, I'll deploy them to the rack to protect the solar panel beneath (from hail and the like).

 Primed.

I was having the damnedest time getting the tubing to cope and join. I am not particularly proud of what I had to do to get the attachment to work. For that reason, I abandoned the notion of adding the outrigger/wing sections to the bumper. Quite frankly, my skills as a fabricator are not quite up to snuff to pull it off. I was able to add what I think is an appropriate brace to the stinger hoop. This will have to do for now. I was running out of time and needed to finish SOMETHING. I was bumperless for about 2 weeks.

 I wanted to mount my lights independent of the bumper as well.

There was stock stud and nut here that appear to be associated with the radiator. I undid the nut and washer, attached the bracket and refastened. It is holding there like a champ.

 I won another set of lights from OffroadGorilla.com at a recent event. I want to mount them somewhere near the front of the truck aimed perpendicular to the direction of travel so I get some left to right illumination. I've not yet found a suitable anchor point. But that will be in the works.

 My dad came over to free me up to get a few of these details buttoned up. When Jenn has work, it really isn't safe for the kid to be around grinding and welding. So I am appreciative of my dad coming over to watch the little guy. I still was on diaper and feeding duty, but it really helped to be able to get some wrench time in to button this up. This was over the long Memorial Day weekend. It was my last best shot to get something workable completed prior to the start of another work week.

 I was going to try to fashion together a resurrected fair lead from the scraps of the prior carnage, but I decided I didn't have time to cobble anything else together. I bit the bullet and just ordered a new one.

 This is how she currently sits. I actually really like the mismatch of the cap. I'm not changing it. It's like the guys who have the tan softopper truck canopies or the military cargo trucks with the canvas tops. Mine just happens to be a hard top.

 I took this picture to illustrate how my boy gets tucked in back here. There was a question on one of the forums about car seats. The guy was a bit embarrassed to ask about something that wasn't a sexy mod, but I think that is one of the best functions of a forum for hard-to-find answers to things that many of us may have to contend with. Here, my little guy is sitting there snug.

He's coming up on a year old. I had thought at that point, you could turn them to forward facing seats. But that was a misinterpretation of a prior disclosure. The American Academy of Pediatrics is now clarifying that it is ideal for a child to remain rearfacing up through their 2nd birthday or until they exceed the height and weight of available rear facing seats. Even if the kid seems scrunched, they say, it is still a safer position to protect their head, neck, and spine in the event of a collision. I wasn't buying it, but then they said, essentially, that kids spend the first 9 months of their development balled up in a woman's abdomen, and then the next few months of life desiring to be swaddled when sleeping. They can sit in a car with their legs flexed without issue. Point taken.

I finally got around to working the seal on the differential cover. I was previously fond of stating that I was "too chickensh*t" to remove the cover for the bolt-on style of protection and that's why I opted for the rear differential skid. Well, with a cover that was leaking, I had to muster the cajones to do something about it. Nothing flew out and hit me in the face or anything crazy.

The one challenge I had when I tried this previously was that the 10mm (allen/hex key) drain plug was frozen in place. It had not occurred to me then to try to PB blaster it. So I subsequently went out and found a socket driver with an allen attachment so I could put it in my impact wrench. I also then PB blastered as prep. Well, the gun and the socket were too tall to fit under my differential (NEED MORE GROUND CLEARANCE--- ARRGGHHHH!!!). I was trying to jack up the rear bumper, but since I enclosed the bumper, I couldn't really get one side at a time. I don't like jacking from the center because the truck has tried to teeter before. Ultimately I decided to run out and get the ramp stands. I drove back on the ramp. Hit it and it immediately broke free. (I probably could have gotten it just with a straight allen after the PB set up). Anyway, it was easy after that.

I still don't know how to access the front differential fill port. Depending on how hard it is to get to, I may still pay for someone to do that. But for the rear differential, I cannot believe that I've paid anyone to do this for me. It is actually worse to me than paying for the oil changes (which I no longer do).

At some point, I'd like to learn how to repair/replace the axle seals. I imagine somewhere in the next 100,000 miles, those will go. And I would like to know how to do it myself. Time is certainly at a premium, but I am learning time and again that, for certain things, no one is going to take more care and interest in doing the job correctly than you. So if it is within a common man's means, I ought to be doing it is my take.

That's all I got. The little boy actually sat still long enough for me to pen this full thing. Good job, son.

Til next time.

P.S.

I have a few more runs this year and some vacation time coming up that'll put me on the beach for some sand driving.

One will be at Southington Offroad Park. Really looking to have the skids buttoned up in time. The other is actually an Overland Challenge. I'll be using the Southington Run as a shakedown run for some of the changes I've made to the truck. Then we'll go live and actually compete with another teammate against as many as 19 other teams.

4-11-15 Great Lakes Xterras (GLX) Spring Fling- Badlands Off Road Park. Attica, IN

This was the third furthest trek I've ever made to do some offroading. Somehow, I forgot about Moab and had this in the 2nd rank. The Michigan-Canada excursion holds that  honor.

It was about 11 hours drive with stops for fuel. Veronica does not have nearly the range per tank that she did back in '12 when we trekked out to Utah, but she also couldn't do what she can do now. I guess that's a fair tradeoff.

This was another ride that I was not planning to do. I had joined the GLX facebook group back when I was planning on doing the Drummond Island, MI run last year. Sadly, I didn't have any takers from the group (or any group for that matter), but I kept my eyes generally on what this group was up to all the same. (Avid followers of this blog know that I ran up to Drummond solo and battled valiantly against deep mud for several hours before finally arriving at the Marblehead formation).  I had first been introduced to the club while down at the National Xterra Meet in TN back in 2013.  One of their main officers, Ryan, has been to a few of the east coast events that I've been at, but we weren't in the same trail groups and didn't interact much then. But I figure it is kind of a mutual courtesy thing to be aware of the other groups' activities and look for opportunities to link up.

That opportunity came this past weekend. I am less and less of a road warrior these days. Most of the outbound routes to go west I've now covered. So the appeal to see something new has lessened some for me. That used to be a big motivating factor when I first started the blog. It was probably 75% of the motivation to head to Moab. I had never driven that far west, and then this random event gave me a reason to do so. And then 4x4 driving bit me...hard. (It also happens to be some of the best off roading you can do stateside).

So it was going to be a long drive. I wasn't going to really know anyone. It was going to be far. And if I broke anything, it was going to be rough going. Yeah, I'll pass. And I did pass.

And then my wife showed me her calendar for the next month. And it was going to be more solo daddy duty and no weekends wheeling or wrenching. This past weekend was THE only weekend for like the next two months. In that case, I HAD to do something worthwhile.

And suddenly, it wasn't too far. It was going to be a nice long break. And since it was so far, I was justified in staying the night to camp. And since I was going to have several solo overnights with the kids over the next month, it was ok if mommy had a couple of solo overnights just over this weekend. Gas prices are also the lowest they've been in a while. This time last year, I think we were in the $3.39 range or so for regular. Gas was in the $2.39 range. No time like the present.

If I was going to make that long of a trip to do some offroading, there was no better time than the recent present. Funny how that logic shift happened.

I've been wanting to go to Badlands since I first heard there was a Badlands. I also envied the group photos I had seen pop up on the GLX page following their prior events that I'd been monitoring. As I now know, their most iconic photos were being taken at the Rock Quarry section of the park. And the Rock Quarry makes Marblehead look like that one coin-op fire truck ride outside of a grocery store by comparison. And I had fun at Marblehead and there is a fantastic view at the end of it. But really only one or two trucks could be on it at a time. Several entire groups occupied the Quarry simultaneously and there were lots of obstacles of varying difficulty all within an area accessible by trucks ranging from mild to wild. Enough of the jibber jabber. I'll post some of my photos.

There were two photographers with the group. I may  have to take some time and pirate a few photos later for inclusion in the Year-in-Review video that I'll be working on.

 The park and campground were very easy to find. I took the Friday off so that I could start making the drive during daylight hours and hopefully arrive with enough daylight to pitch my tent.

 That objective was met, but I took too much time socializing and not enough pictures before nightfall made photos rather impractical. Another factor was the WIND. I've not had to erect a tent in such high winds before. Fortunately, I was greeted with much hospitality and James gave me a hand at times just holding something steady so I could make connections.

There really isn't a photo to correspond with this next tidbit, but the trip almost was cancelled - for me at least- about 4 hours into the drive.

I was in West Virginia, possibly WV part two as I crossed into and out of WV twice traveling along 70 West. Anyway, the midwest had been getting rain during the week. We started seeing it on the east coast just as I departed around 9am. After about 4 hours of varying intensities of downpours, ranging from just mist, to drizzle, to torrential, and moderate, I was getting a little unnerved. I didn't want to arrive and be in for an absolute slog fest through mud replete with gratuitous winching. But at this point, I had already announced that a crazy Marylander (I've adopted MD now) was going to make the trek. A guy was also bringing some discounted, used half shafts that I wanted to purchase as trail spares.

Back to the point, on one of the numerous seemingly endless cycles of ascents and descents, I came up behind a minivan slowly chugging their way up the hill. I went to accelerate past them to the left and the truck just shuddered, sputtered, lost all throttle response and just coasted. I fed more throttle and nothing, then a jerk, a sputter, a little more effort, coast, etc. It was VERY disconcerting. So I was able to signal and coast back into the right lane and then onto the shoulder. "What's wrong girl?". Even Maddy woke up and was like, "This is NOT the business".

I tried to re-enter traffic and she sputtered again. No warning lights. No grinding or anything. Just no response either. At least not the type of response you want on the highway. I shut the engine off and thought for like 3 minutes about what it could be. Is the transmission slipping? If so, why now?

I decided that if the truck turned over, I would keep driving. If she didn't turn on, I was done. Started up without hesitation. Fed her some throttle and she leapt gingerly forward like nothing was even the case. For the next 4 hours, I drove like a grandma in the right lane and about 3mph below the speed limit. I passed no one. A couple of times I fed her some throttle and there was no hesitation. It was so weird.

 So now I had a dilemma. And I thought about the dilemma all the way until we got to the campfire. It is irresponsible, in my esteem, to go wheeling with a group knowing you've got service issues. I at least wanted to show up and buy the half shafts and then maybe talk to someone about what happened. I had looked for a Jiffy Lube along the way, thinking maybe I needed a transmission flush and to let someone look at the quality of the fluid coming out. But that would have caused me to arrive after dark. I decided to chance it.

 In chatting with Brian around the campfire (someone else had first dropped the buzz word "limp mode" while I was searching for potential causes of what I had encountered on the phone) I volunteered my experience. "You've got a snorkel right? And you said it was raining?" Apparently, if your mass air flow sensor detects a lot of water or moisture in the air stream, it will send your truck into a limp mode like condition. No signals, no lights. Just power and performance loss.

And it made sense in a way. Not long after she shuddered...maybe 20 minutes or so, I was into dry weather and pristine pavement the rest of the way. She didn't hesitate once. My wheel position sensor is a bit wonky from getting snatched sideways and possibly having held onto the wheel during that recovery. I had thought maybe that had somehow caused my ABLS to engage, but it wouldn't engage without illuminating.

So knowing that as a potential cause for the power loss, I felt emboldened to at least ride the trails, but just take it easy. In that sense, I had determined it was reasonable to attend as a spectator to review the trails and conditions at the park for subsequent trips or visitors interested in the terrain.

 Maddy came on the trip because the Mrs said she was NOT going to watch baby and doggy solo. Daddy does it. But that's ok. We are only brave enough to type that because Mommy doesn't read Daddy's silly blog.

 So I was expecting temps in the mid-40s. I don't camp below 40 degrees. I unknowingly camped below 40 degrees. I fell asleep on my arm incorrectly and woke up to the pins and needles feeling. Ok, fine. As soon as I shifted my arm, circulation returned. My left foot, on the other hand was a different case. I had just gone to bed in socks and was in my sleeping bag. Well my right leg was drawn in closer to my body, but my left leg was at the far end of the bag right up against the side of the tent. I took off my sock and my foot was ice cold. I did NOT just f*ck around and get frost bite! I tried rubbing my feet for like 15 minutes trying to get sensation back into my toes. Nothing.

I got up and walked to the campground bathroom thinking the motion would jumpstart circulation. Nothing. I put my foot underneath a freaking hand dryer and was still getting nothing.

So, it was like 5 in the morning. Still dark. I didn't want to start my truck and be the only wimp that had to run his heat. But I was also like, "I like having toes." What to do? I also then got worried about Maddy. I normally let her stay in the tent with me. But last time, she did the Macarena on my face 4 times during the night. Ok, maybe she just walked in circles a couple of times, but it was nonetheless ON my face which was annoying. I wanted to make sure she was ok. Well she has fur and was chilling comfortably in the truck which was toasty from her body heat. I cuddled up with her and tucked my feet underneath her body. After an hour like that, I could feel the toes on my left foot.

 This is the condensation which then iced over when the temps dropped abruptly overnight.

So here I was huddled up in the truck with my dog, worried about being embarrassed in front of a bunch of dudes that I don't even know. Come to find out, several folks actually had their trucks running and slept in them at some point (after having pitched tents), a couple of guys had a special tent setup with a heater, and others made similar accommodations. I guess what it comes down to is: don't mess around and get frostbite trying to be tough.

 Once the sun came up, things quickly thawed out. I took some video of the ice on the black parts of my rear tailgate thawing and evaporating into mist right before my eyes as the rising sun cast its warming rays over the rear of the truck.

 I went to bed early and missed these arrivals.

 This truck is a work in progress. It's 2WD and didn't wheel.

 The ice on top of another campers tent.

 I have an affinity for yellow Xterras.

 So I barely survived in a tent; this dude was chilling, literally, bundled in a hammock like it was not a problem.

 Other areas of the park. Very popular with the ATV and UTV crowds.

 Brand new MTRs on Daniel's X making their maiden voyage offroad. 35s. Stuffed in the wheel well.

 With some excellent spotting (and not too shabby driving), I got up to the upper level of the Quarry and got a picture of our group on the lower tier as well as a Jeep group that was experiencing some mechanical difficulties. I can't make any Jeep jokes because I also had mechanical difficulties, but not offroad. Not on this day.

 Veronica made it.

 I could barely walk down the slope. She climbed up with no drama. No one climbed this face though. It is near vertical.

 I don't recall what was happening here, but it doesnt look flattering.

 A Mazda RX-7 came to this section of the trail. At first I thought he was messing with me. "Hey man, do you know where the rally is?" I directed him to talk to these guys. I didn't know where anything was.

 Our group split up and rejoined a few times. I was supposed to tail gun all along, but a Jeep that wanted to be with us, but kinda didn't want to be with us, wanted to be in the rearmost position "...so that the Nissans can all be together." Well, at some point they lost their phone on the trail and dipped out for a few hours. And I regained the tail position.

 Back here getting a little off camber and taking my time while some guys figure out their lines up ahead.

 Flex. Unless it is snowing, don't take flex pictures in a parking lot. Bring your truck to a trail or park and get some real flex going.

 Breaking for lunch. The groups came back to the campground.

 There was a creek crossing. Everyone took the bypass to emerge from the water. I was in the back taking truck selfies and missed how the convoy had gotten to the other side. One guy  hung back getting photos and I offered him a seat. As we neared the crossing, I asked which way did everyone take. There were at least two Titan-swapped trucks in our group and a fair amount of lift amongst all but maybe one or two trucks. Everyone had gone right. The path to the left seemed pretty innocuous. I was told there was a ledge that was a bit annoying right as you tried to emerge from the water. I decided i would experience this ledge. Unlike last trip at Flagpole, where I had just wrecked my most recent fairlead, I would not go skinny pedal if I felt there was a chance of getting hung up. I skinny pedalled at Flagpole and obliterated my fairlead. Here I nudged the ledge and met some resistance. I was able to get my front wheels partially up, but then the still wet tires struggled to hook up with the terrain. We were stuck-ish.

Not a problem. I engaged three switches and Veronica daintily sauntered up onto the rock outcrop and out of the water. My passenger remarked, "It's that easy, huh". So I thought. Lost another fairlead in the process. I actually have enough salvaged parts of a fairlead to rebuild at least one. That wouldn't be the last of the carnage.

 Not all of the participants actually wheeled. That's ok. We were at about 11 trucks actively on the trail. Any more would have been unwieldy unless we split up. And I generally liked the grouping as it was assembled.

 We entered this very muddy section and almost had to abandon our leader and his truck. It wasn't quite that serious. Even with my compromised winch fairlead, I was able to hook him up on a straight line pull and get him out of the muck without much fanfare.

 Coated.

 Ryan's truck was a bit cursed on this run. He had a shock malfunction. There was a garage there that fixed it (or at least made it manageable). Then there was the mud stuck (but that could have happened to anyone in the lead. It happens to me EVERY time I lead it seems like :)  ). Then when we got here, his engine cut off and the starter was malfunctioning. Fortunately, he was in a manual and we were able to do a couple of push starts to get through this area.

 We went to a stream trail which was really cool. Instead of just crossing a stream, the trail actually is the stream bed. You enter and exit a few times, but are generally traveling upstream like a salmon attempting to spawn. I actually had to use my lockers again when I opted out of the bypass which was very heavily wooded and took a bit of a underwater climb up a ledge if that makes any sense. It was fun.

 Closeup of the initial damage. It got worse at another point for which I was able to obtain better picturs from another attendee.

 So I didn't know there was going to be a raffle. I LOVE raffles. I had my eyes set on the heavy duty snatch block. I focused all of my good luck JuJu on winning it. It paid off. It was the first prize drawn and my number was selected. Funny thing was, my ticket came from a second purchase of tickets. I had bought a handful initially and made selections, but I didn't feel I had focused a high enough percentage of the tickets on the prize I truly wanted. And it nagged me and it ate at me until I bought two more at $5 each. I placed both in there and the first from that series won. Had I not reupped by $10, I would have lost out. I also got a tire patch kit. I generally believe in carrying one, if not two, spare(s). But Will S. got a kit before our last run and it made me think that maybe it is worth having one in a pinch. I didn't want to buy one outright, but when I saw that there were two available as prizes, I thought it was worth dropping a ticket in the cup. One ticket won.

I tried to get a few extra straps and I tried to win some autodeflators that I was going to give to Steve S. if I won, but I did not win the extra straps or the deflators. Steve will have to obtain his own deflators.

 This is what's left of my fairlead now. how did that extra carnage happen?

These are action shots from this guy Chris. I obtained them for this blog in no particular order.

 I damaged my fairlead making this climb. I saw Ryan do it earlier and I thought "That's cool. That's some Rubicon type stuff." But I wasn't going to try it because my truck acted like it wasnt' even going to complete the drive initially. We know why now. But basically i was playing it cool.

 Well, we came back by this spot later in the day and Ryan gets on the radio, "Will, you got lockers right? You should do it." It doesn't take much to egg me on. "Ok"

 Well I first nosed up to it and my bumper projects a bit low and out. I wasn't even close to getting my tires to hook up with it. Ryan says, "I can place a rock or two". He places them and I'm still like right there. "Sorry man. You fairlead is like right there in the way." I responded that the sh*t was already toast and we'd spent like 5 minutes setting up. I should try to do the climb. I attempted open open first, as I now always do. Wasn't going to happen. I flipped three switches, and this girl climbs and climbs. And then high-centers. HA! With a shorter wheelbase, the Xterra rear wheels can hook up with the last depression and propel the truck up and onto the top shelf. With the longer wheel base, my rear tires were like 3/4" too far back to get any appreciable grip to propel. Plus, I was like resting partially on my drive shaft. I do not have a spare one of those accessible. Or a trail welder. (Yet).

Doesn't it look like my rear axle might be in pain?

When I look at my rear axle in this picture, (or what i see of it evidenced by the rear wheel), I'm just like, "Does that hurt?!" I guess it is sexy in the same way that some women can pull off wearing high heels. You know it hurts but they do it to get a rise out of you maybe (or maybe 'cause it makes them feel sexy and it is NOT about you admiring them). Well, I hope that Veronica feels sexy in this photo, because she is. 

 In addition to folding up my fairlead, I also sheared part of the CB radio's coax antenna just below the connection. Because I'm running two whips (one for scanner and one for CB), I was able to quickly swap the coax feed from the scanner to the CB and restore radio contact. Trail MacGuyver.

 Splashing through the mud....in a one man open truck...

The truck and I BOTH look so focused here.

Too bad we didn't focus on NOT knocking my oil pan loose. I have a loose oil pan now. I know that it is loose because oil does not stay in anymore. I only noticed once I got home. I washed the truck. Came inside to do my taxes. Went back out to swap on my highway wheels and tires because the Duratracs were overdue to be rotated (only by 1000 miles or roughly the distance of this trip) and I noticed that the driveway was still 'wet'. It wasn't water.

So my truck is on engine dialysis where I am cycling in new oil to replace the captured lost oil. Although I'm sure the gasketing could be reworked or new RTV sealant could be applied, I want to get a brand new pan and fix it once. Then, since they are so difficult to come by, I'll keep the old one as a trail spare. So that's lemons out of lemonade.

And now that my taxes are done and the govt. did not pillage me this time, I can probably pull the trigger on ordering some real skids which I should have done in the first place.

Longer post and past my bedtime, but well worth it to be back blogging again...and wheeling.

Enjoy. Until the next one.

-will