AssBurns 2000 Limited Build Thread

[Tyler James Inc]

Your post wasn't quite clear about the $2,200 price including lockers [emoji23] I'm like "wtf?! ARB dual compressor is $2,200 now?! [emoji43]"
Option 2.
Damn dude, you really got to choppin. Tubs look real good. Nice work [emoji1360]

 

[AssBurns]

HOLY CRAP!!! That price can't be right! I paid $300 and change. As for the specs... I'll look because they used to be on there (I bought it in late 2016). At the time, I spec-ed it out and it was better then the ARB Dual. I don't remember the numbers right now.

Order Summary
Item(s) Subtotal: $309.51
Shipping & Handling: $19.49
Total before tax: $329.00
Estimated tax to be collected: $0.00
Grand Total: $329.00

SPECS:
http://shop.air-zenith.com/200psiob2-black.aspx
http://www.air-zenith.com/images_u/220200983135PMOB2 MANUAL.pdf

I did buy the ARB manifold when I got my gears and locker from ECGS and it works fine with this compressor.

That definitely looks promising! The issue is it is still $100 more than the ARB single, and still requires the $70 Manifold. I may consider going that route later down the line, but the added cost is not really something I am comfortable spending right now. I could get the dual Air Zeniths for almost the same cost as a single ARB! Could you imagine that amount of air flow?! I don’t think a stock alternator would approve of it though [emoji16]

Your post wasn't quite clear about the $2,200 price including lockers [emoji23] I'm like "wtf?! ARB dual compressor is $2,200 now?! [emoji43]"
Option 2.
Damn dude, you really got to choppin. Tubs look real good. Nice work [emoji1360]

Hahah yeah I should’ve cleared that up a bit. I figured everyone knew I needed new front diff gears and a locker at this point.
I’m convinced option 2 is the way I’ll go right now. That extra $335 can be spent on more important stuff rather than saving 10-15 minutes airing up.

Thanks for the compliment! So glad it’s almost done!!! Body/sheet metal work isn’t my favorite that’s for sure.

 

[rkntoy]

Taking 15 - 20 minutes to air up tires really isn't much of a problem.

I love my CO2 for the primary reason that I am usually airing up my son and his friends. I would be there for over an hour.

When I am by myself I usually use my Shittybilt 2781 compressor that is the first Shittybilt product I have ever been impressed with. Fills one of my 37s from 10 to 28 psi in a bit over 2 mins.

 

[theesotericone]

So glad it’s almost done!!! Body/sheet metal work isn’t my favorite that’s for sure.

I'm glad it's almost done and I've only been watching. lol

About that sheet metal stuff. Once I refill some coffers 37's are happening. Not as a DD tire but for harder stuff(Fordyce anyone). I was gonna ask if you wanted to help fitting those bad boys on my non body lifter rig. I'm betting lots of shit metal work and I'm pretty sure my sliders and rear bumper will need a shave. I've seen your welding skills so you came to mind. lol

I love my CO2 for the primary reason that I am usually airing up my son and his friends. I would be there for over an hour.

Bring it on the trip if you make it. Never hurts to have two many air sources. lol

 

[Black798]

Alright guys I need some opinions. I’m desperately in need of fixing my front end now before mine and [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION]’s Dusy Ershim trip in August. My budget right now is extremely tight because of all kinds of other life stuff (like gotta buy my wife a new car, just moved, starting newish career, etc) that I need to save money for. Originally my plan was to go with the Dual ARB compressor. Now I am rethinking things. Does spending over twice as much on the dual compressor make sense? I’ve learned the whole “Buy once, cry once” thing and would like to follow that great rule of thumb, but budget issues are what is holding me back from just pulling the trigger on it. Since that will basically wipe out my extra savings fund.

So a couple options I have. I’ve already done the cost breakdown including tax for everything.

1) Just do it right the first time and go with the Dual ARB. Ya know, “Buy Once, Cry Once”.
Cost $2,260.56

2) Single ARB. I don’t plan to go to larger tires than the 35’s I have now (at least not any time in the foreseeable future. Need more power if I want more tire). Do I really need a dual compressor? What is a few more minutes gonna cost me in the long run? I’m just gonna drink a beer and wait anyways, right?
Cost $1,925.67
Difference $334.89

3) Just go with the Mini ARB for now and continue doing what I have been doing for the past couple years. I’ve been either using my CO2 tank, borrowing my brothers Viair compressor or bumming air from a friend. All those options worked fine so far. So just save the money now, and upgrade later on down the line once I have an extra $600 for a Dual ARB.
Cost $1,811.56
Difference from Dual ARB $449
Difference from Single ARB $114.11



I’d like to hear your guys’ options if you were in my shoes. I’m really leaning towards options 1 or 3. I can definitely pull off option 3, but is it worth just spending the extra and getting the dual?

Personally, I feel the dual is overpriced and not really necessary. Heres where I get that mind set. I have the single high output ARB. CKMA12. My buddy has the dual CKMTA12 in his 5th gen. We both have 33s, his on 17 inch rims and mine on 16s so mine is really a larger tire. Last time we were out he aired up from 15 to 37 psi and I went from 20 to 32 psi in the same amount of time for all 4 tires, around 15 minutes.

So yes the dual is faster, but it really isn't as big of a difference as they hype it up to be. I also am able to go from 10psi to 32 psi in around 30 minutes, and while that may seem like a long time it really isn't. It gives you an opportunity to give the truck a good once over and when you're in a group go around and bullshit. I have never found myself being the last one to be finished airing up and can only see myself adding a small air tank to have air tool capability in the future.

The other advantage of the single piston is it fits in the engine bay, the dual will be very difficult to cram in there. This might not be a big deal for some who don't mind the compressor being in the cab but for me, it was a big factor.

Bottom line is if you're budget is really tight, I say save the money and go with the single high output, you will wait a little longer to air up but I doubt you will ever have a problem with the extra few minutes. Or if you really feel you can stretch the budget go all out and do the dual and dont look back.

 

[S1996R]

I would use a viair and a small tank if you could. My old 82 toy hilux I had a Chevy efi v8 and used the A/C compressor as the air compressor with a 7 gallon tank in the tool box I could fill my 37's quick.

 

[snivilous]

Buy once, cry once.

There's a 4400 on MPC for like $100k. :hatsoff:

 

[AssBurns]

About that sheet metal stuff. Once I refill some coffers 37's are happening. Not as a DD tire but for harder stuff(Fordyce anyone). I was gonna ask if you wanted to help fitting those bad boys on my non body lifter rig. I'm betting lots of shit metal work and I'm pretty sure my sliders and rear bumper will need a shave. I've seen your welding skills so you came to mind. lol

Oh wow! 37’s huh? That’s ballsy. If you are like me where you hate your tires rubbing on anything even a little bit, it’s gonna take some serious work to make 37’s fit right. How much sheet metal are you willing to actually cut? Because it would definitely require quite a bit more than just a firewall tub. Obviously I’m pretty willing to cut some metal on my own vehicle and I personally probably won’t ever go to 37’s for that reason. I don’t like limiting my up travel with extended bumps because at that point might as well just do a body lift right?

Buy once, cry once.



There's a 4400 on MPC for like $100k. :hatsoff:

Gonna save some dough and just go single. I’ll cry later if I have to. Also not that I have the money but link to the for sale ad?

I would use a viair and a small tank if you could. My old 82 toy hilux I had a Chevy efi v8 and used the A/C compressor as the air compressor with a 7 gallon tank in the tool box I could fill my 37's quick.

I honestly have no room anymore for a tank so that’s unfortunately out of the question. I’ve thought about an AC or York compressor but that’s more work than I’m willing to do right now. It would be cool though, that’s for sure!

The other advantage of the single piston is it fits in the engine bay, the dual will be very difficult to cram in there.

Still debating where to put mine. I might put it in the cargo compartment in the rear since it’s recently been cut up a bit and won’t be much of a storage spot for me anymore. I do have quite a bit of room in the engine bay though since the EVAP charcoal canister is gone. We’ll see where I locate it though.

 

[Rockdawg84]

I known that you have pretty much made up your mind about the compressor but I might throw out one more option.

I love my puma and it fills faster at 3.4 cfm @ 40 psi than almost anything else on the market for the size.
IMG_1587 by Sam Wright, on Flickr

Here is a great thread on it.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/puma-12v-compressor.166969/

with the removable tank it would be super simple to set up to run both your ARB's and to fill tires and even run some air tools.

and is a happy medium on price. $240
https://www.ebay.com/i/283005940134?chn=ps

Just another option. :lookout:

 

[rkntoy]

I'm glad it's almost done and I've only been watching. lol

About that sheet metal stuff. Once I refill some coffers 37's are happening. Not as a DD tire but for harder stuff(Fordyce anyone). I was gonna ask if you wanted to help fitting those bad boys on my non body lifter rig. I'm betting lots of shit metal work and I'm pretty sure my sliders and rear bumper will need a shave. I've seen your welding skills so you came to mind. lol




Bring it on the trip if you make it. Never hurts to have two many air sources. lol

Yup - without a BL you will be cutting (and cutting) for 37s if you don't want rubbing. And you are right about the bumpers and sliders.

Sign me up for Fordyce. Last time I did that one I got on it by accident during Sierra Trek with my 71 Blazer about 20 years ago.

 

[snivilous]

Gonna save some dough and just go single. I’ll cry later if I have to. Also not that I have the money but link to the for sale ad?

This is the one I was thinking you should get 4400 class Tribe 16 built top 10 Ultra4 #1111 up for sale

 

[AssBurns]

Got pretty much everything to do with the tubbed wheel wells knocked out this past weekend. Started off Saturday morning by fixing my wifes Chevy Cruze again... Had to replace the PCV Valve that is part of the valve cover. I just replaced this part in November 2016. After that I got working on the 4runner. I knocked out all the final patch work on some of the smaller areas, and just did a little more prep work. Nothing worth taking any pictures for, except some additional tie down points made from 5/16" rod. Still didn't take any pictures though.



Sunday I was able to spend all day on the getting it done. I started by covering that little hole in the middle of the floor. The upper links come through the floor about 1.75" at full shock bump so, I made a hump that was about 2" tall. I used a little thicker steel for this piece (14g), because it needs to take a little more abuse of throwing a heavy tool box on top of it, and it needs to really hold some rigidity since the brace on the bottom was obviously completely cut out. I wanted to make it more of a trapezoid shape to keep some triangulation in the mix for rigidity, and also so that its not as much of a blunt edge to get my toolbox hung up on as much when pulling it in and out. Also not having 90* corners, makes it easier to clean all the dirt 'n shit.

From there, it was time to prep everything for paint. I just used some acetone and a rag to wipe down all the surfaces and grocery bags over the shocks. Pretty straight forward. I used some of that Spray On Undercoating to spray everything. I can't remember which brand, and can't compare to something like 3M since I've never used this stuff before. I went to town on all the seams with a few thick coats on the inside and out. Then started with a few coats all around on the entire wheel well, both inside and out. This stuff seems to work alright. I wish it was a little thicker and more rubbery, but it will do. Eventually I will do some indoor/outdoor carpet on the wheel wells. Then painted the frame and bump stop cans with some semi-gloss paint.

Next was putting the carpet and plastic panels back on. I just rolled out the carpet and cut a small corner out on the passenger side wheel well. The rest I just pushed into place. I might cut it a little more to make it fit a little better, but idk yet. For the panels, it was just cut, fit, cut, fit, etc. until it was right. I did cut the passenger side a little much on the top (Maybe 1/2'-1"), but it will be fine. The drivers side came out much better.

Last thing was putting the bump stops in. I put a thin layer of anti-seize all throughout the cans to hopefully keep the bump stops from getting stuck and rusted in down the line. I am going to pick up my buddies nitrogen tank after work sometime this week and air up the bumps and shocks a little more. I'll take it with me on my next trip out to play around with the pressures. Eventually I'll get around to meeting up with my other buddy that turned some bump stop spacers for me to shorten the stroke to 3" instead of the current 4".

Now that all that stuff is done, I need to finish buttoning up a few things. I had my brother order me a new fuel pump today, so that I can replace that this weekend. Then bleed the brakes, tighten the link jam nuts, and air up bumps & shocks, and hopefully cruise up the fire roads for a quick test of the new setup.

I took some measurements of things after I was done working on things for the day. Measuring the travel without bump stops, just shocks, it came out to 14.25". The axle sits 1/2" below the frame rails with the shocks fully compressed. With the bumps installed, it measures out to be about 13.5" of total travel with the axle about 1.25" below the frame rails at full bump. Not bad. Now I need to focus on the front end before I get too far into the rear end. I don't see a point in getting much more than that until I have significantly more travel up front to justify more rear end suspension. Long term plans are Long Travel (either keep IFS or go TTB swap). From there I would need a wider axle to match track width and fit coilovers/bypasses. If money permits, then a fabricated 9". If not, then maybe a Tundra 10.5"? Still don't know what the WMS is for those newer Tundras.

Also today I ordered an ARB Single High Output compressor from Amazon. It was Prime Day (What a joke that turned out to be!), so it was on sale for $30 off at $246.09. I also pulled the trigger on the front locker from ECGS. I went with an ARB, and obviously 5.29's to match the rear end. I ordered it a little later in the day, so I haven't spoken with anyone on the current turn times yet. I will call them tomorrow to see what they estimate. Pretty stoked to finally get this thing back on its feet and 4wd again. It's been 9 months without 4wd and almost 3 months since I've driven it. I just hope I don't get too excited and break something first trip out in my typical fashion...

 

[AssBurns]

Got pretty much everything buttoned up now. 4-link is done, along with the tubbed wheel wells and hydro bumps. Been driving it around the past couple weeks and it feels pretty good. A couple things that I noticed about the new rear suspension setup:
1) when I welded my coil buckets back in, I welded them in about an inch or so lower than stock. Didn’t have much of an opinion due to how the frame rails slope back down as you go further back. This resulted in a little higher ride height in the rear. Kind of a bummer since I have been wanting a lower ride height. I’m looking to find some stock Jeep JL coils to try out. They are tall enough and should be soft enough to give me around the 2” lift I want.
2) Even with the increased ride height, there is noticeably less body roll. Not anything dramatic but still noticeable. This is because I increased the Roll Center about 2” over what I had before. Once I lower my ride height, it’ll be nice.
3) At about 100% anti-squat, there is no squat when accelerating. Personally, I don’t like that part. Once I lower my ride height a couple inches, the A/S should go down a little bit (not as much as I’d like but better than nothing). To me, stock setup was pretty nice with about 70% Anti-Squat. If there were an easier way to lower that number for me without decreasing ground clearance, I would.
4) No Roll Oversteer! This was a big one for me. Ever notice when you corner, that you have to countersteer as the body rolls? That’s roll steer, and it’s super sketchy and annoying. Now I actually have a tiny bit of roll understeer. Super weird to get used to but it’s super predictable in the corners now. I still find myself anticipating countersteering as I go into corners, but realize I don’t have to anymore. Super nice!
5) Up travel and hydro bumps. Wow! Hydro bumps are super awesome! I used to have those 4-1/2” daystar bumps that gave about 2.5” of compression, but you still felt it ever time you made contact. Now these hydro bumps are so plush, I can’t even tell when they make contact. Up travel is awesome too. I tried to jump and only came within about 2” of full bump. It’s nice to be able to hit some hard stuff and not bottom out all the time, even with soft suspension. Right now I have just a hair under 9” of up travel at ride height. Once I lower the rear to where I want, I should be at around 7”. I think that 50/50 ratio with up/down travel will be perfect.

I was having issues figuring out why my fuel pump wasn’t working. It must have been an electrical issue, because when I jumped it straight to the battery, it worked fine. I couldn’t find the issue, so I wired the pump to a rocker switch, that is tied to my ignition. Not the best thing but it’s racecar stuff, so it’s fine.

Next thing was the air compressor. I installed that in the rear cargo cubby. Pretty straight forward except having to extend all the wiring. Nothing hard, just time consuming. Especially trying to solder 8-10 gauge wiring with a soldering iron that can’t stay hot enough to do so. It looks boogery but it’ll be fine. Got all the switches wired up everything works.

Got the locker installed pretty easy with my buddy, Danny’s help. (Not sure his name on here). We got it installed and the air line plumbed in. I went to go test it out and wasn’t getting my locker to engage. I double checked all my wiring and such, and all looked good. Then [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] said to pull the diff end of the air line to see if air is blowing out. Sure enough, it wasn’t. But it was at the compressor end. I looked along the frame rails and the air line wasn’t secured in the spot closest to the exhaust manifold, and came in contact, and melted. I ordered some 6mm couplers, and had it fixed within a few minutes. Yesterday I finally had time to test the locker out, and boy am I excited to do some wheeling. Gonna be a game changer for real!


Now this weekend I get to replace the steering rack, tie rods and rear brakes. Then pack for my trip to Dusy Ershim with [MENTION=135317]rkntoy[/MENTION] and [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION]. Super stoked!

Also found some cracks in my LCA. It’ll get replaced after my trip. As long as I’m not jumping, it’ll be fine.

Some Jeep JL coils that I asked someone to take a picture of. Perfect free height!

Flexy poser shots testing the locker.

As you can see, nice long smooth transition for rocks to slide on, and out of the way from the tire. Also at bump, the lower links sit above the frame rail, so nothing to get caught up on.

New muffler. I wish it was super quiet, but that’s all I could fit in that spot. I despise loud exhausts on 99% of vehicles.

 

[rkntoy]

Now this weekend I get to replace the steering rack, tie rods and rear brakes. Then pack for my trip to Dusy Ershim with [MENTION=135317]rkntoy[/MENTION] and [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION]. Super stoked!

Getting close!

I just need to dial in the links, wrap up my fridge platform, and get to packing. Of course my rear hatch now decided to stop working - it can wait. And work has kept me too busy to get the rear main seal done - hopefully I don't start losing too much out of it.

 

[theesotericone]

Now this weekend I get to replace the steering rack, tie rods and rear brakes. Then pack for my trip to Dusy Ershim with [MENTION=135317]rkntoy[/MENTION] and [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION]. Super stoked!

It seems like where all doing the last minute rig prep. I'll be in the garage most of the day tomorrow. Then Sunday will be a test run I hope. The Dusy is gonna be such a blast.

 

[rkntoy]

It seems like where all doing the last minute rig prep. I'll be in the garage most of the day tomorrow. Then Sunday will be a test run I hope. The Dusy is gonna be such a blast.

Yup - that's where I will be. And trying to get some work done with loads to do and a Board meeting on Tuesday.

Fortunately I have rock piles at the house to test on to save time for packing. I think my pup knows something is up. He probably thinks he is getting left behind again because he has been sleeping in my truck. With the half doors I can't keep him out.

 

[AssBurns]

Dusy Ershim Trail | 08/15/2018 - 08/19/2018

So a few of us [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION], [MENTION=135317]rkntoy[/MENTION], and two other Tacoma guys) have been planning this trip for quite a while now. Probably almost a year since [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] messaged me asking if I’ve ever heard of the trail. Well over the last year we slowly started getting the dates and plans put together. Pretty much all of us had some last minute repairs or modifications before this trip. And for me I haven’t had any sort of shakedown run since I’ve done quite a bit of work. I knew this was going to be one hell of a trip to be testing everything out. Especially with a 7 hour drive each way.


Day 0?
I get off work, haul ass home and finish packing the last minute stuff, drop of the kids at my parents, get gas and more ice, then hit the road by about 7pm. Right on time. Drive the 7 hours up to Courtright Reservoir and attempt to find the group at 2AM. After a few circles around all the campsites, Andy heard me and turned on all his truck lights for me to spot out in the distance. Everyone was asleep at this point so my wife and I each cracked open a beer a decided we need to get some rest. We both didn’t want to setup a tent, so we set the way for the rest of the trip by sleeping under the stars. This was way better than sleeping in a tent, and to have my wife be on the same page was pretty awesome.

Truck mostly packed besides clothes bags and some food. I figure I had maybe 700lbs in total? It was a lot and my motor definitely felt it.

Some beers for the trip. Bells Two Hearted Ale was recommended by [MENTION=28464]eimkeith[/MENTION], and it was damn good.

 

[AssBurns]

Dusy Ershim Day #1 | 08/16/2018





Woke up this morning and said some hellos to my Tacoma buddies that I've wheeled with before, and got to meet [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] for the first time.

[MENTION=135317]rkntoy[/MENTION] met up with us in the morning at our campsite (Voyager Rock Campground) at about 9am. We chatted for a bit while getting everything together and was on the trail by about 10am. We heard it’s important to get an early start because the next Campground was 8 Miles away at the top of Thompson Hill. We were also told don’t underestimate Thompson Hill. First obstacle was Chicken Rock. This wasn’t hard by any means, but it was an extremely steep granite slab that is maybe a hundred yards long. A lot can go wrong quickly if there is a problem on that hill. We all made it up no problem.

From here there are plenty of obstacles, but nothing super difficult as long as you pay attention to your lines. This section got us thinking that we were going to make camp way earlier than we expected, but we were definitely underestimating Thompson Hill. This hill is about a mile long of steep loose climbs with large boulders and ledges all the way up the hill. We started up it taking our time and one obstacle at a time. Eventually we all had some spots that were tough, and would need some rock stacking (Even with everyone being dual locked). I really got to put the front locker to the test here, and boy is it nice to be able to flip the switch and keep climbing. After a ways up, [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] broke a CV. It was kind of a shitty spot to try to fix it, and we thought we were close to the top, so he decided to try to limp it in 3wd up to the top. Well that was definitely not our best judgment. After another little ways up he was struggling again to get up an obstacle, so we go look and it the other CV was broken now. He was trying to get up a loose ledge in 2wd. Not happening. So instead of breaking more shit, and knowing we were very close to the top at this point, we hooked up the strap and I pulled him to the top of the hill. Luckily we were past the worst of the obstacles on this hill, but it still wasn’t any walk in the park to get up. Once at the top, we were only about a 1/4 mile to camp, so we decided to fix it there since it was getting later in the afternoon, and we were all pretty beat. Camp this night was at Thompson Lake. We all just relaxed for a bit, ate some dinner, then [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] and [MENTION=135317]rkntoy[/MENTION] fixed the CV axles while the rest of us proceeded to relax and drink some beers around the campfire. I was wearing sandals all day on the trail, and I jabbed my toe into a sharp stick earlier in the day causing a nice little hole in the front of my big toe. I just walked it off and let the dirt wash the blood away. Well later that night when we were hanging around the campfire, I noticed something looked funny on my toe, so I looked and sure enough, I still had a small piece of that stick still in my toe. I was walking around for hours like this and didn’t even notice! I wish I got some pictures of it.


Chicken Rock. Pictures do not do this justice on how steep it is.

The forest is dense right here

Some bridge we crossed, I think on the first day.

Some big dome of granite

[MENTION=135317]rkntoy[/MENTION] motoring on up the hill with his 37’s and dual cases

Camp for the first day

So a couple lessons we learned that day were:

1) Don’t underestimate Thompson Hill. It can end up being half of your day.

2) If you break something, fix it! Don’t try to limp it further. Especially on Thompson Hill.

 

[AssBurns]

Dusy Ershim Day #2 | 08/17/2018





We woke up knowing this was going to be an easy and possibly shortest wheeling day. So we had no rush of getting out of camp early. We hit the trail a little after 10am and started cruising. My wife wanted to drive so I rode passenger all day, and that was pretty relaxing. We cruised through a few cool meadows and some dense forest areas, with some obstacles scattered throughout. We came up to Summit Lake, and hung out for a bit until the bugs started to swarm in and get annoying.

We hit the trail again and made it to East Lake by about 1pm or so. We hiked the short ways down to the lake and hung out for a bit, debating on what to do the rest of the day. It was either stay here at East Lake or try to make it to Ershim Lake. Ershim Lake is supposed to be a better campsite and lake but that also means it could be crowded, and another 4 miles of unknown difficultly made us not want to have another super long day. So we just hung out for the rest of the day at camp and by the lake. [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] went and caught us some dinner, while we just relaxed and watched from the other side of the lake. That evening, we all cooked a little something to share amongst each other along with the fish that [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] caught. Definitely a good dinner. From here we just BS’d the rest of the night until the last of us trickled off to bed.

Ranger at Summit Lake

Us hanging out at East Lake while [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] does some fishing on the other side of the lake somewhere.

Camp #2 at East Lake

This turned out to be a much needed relaxing day after the long day we had yesterday.

 

[AssBurns]

Dusy Ershim Day #3 | 08/18/2018


We knew this day we had a little more ground to cover if we wanted to make it more than a few miles. Ershim Lake wasn’t too far away but we wanted to get past that and on to the next camp site. We got up a little earlier this morning and was feeling well rested. We hit the trail at around 9:15 this morning and started cruising. Most of the obstacles weren’t anything super difficult but still difficult enough to keep you really paying attention to the lines you take.
After a few hours we made it to Ershim Lake. I can see why people like to stay here. There are log tables setup, log benches made, and a beautiful alpine lake less than 100ft from camp. From what we heard, it can get crowded and become quite the party if there are enough people there. Could be a good or bad thing depending who you are. We ate lunch here and relaxed for a few minutes, then headed back into the trail.
A little ways in, we came up to Divorce Rock. This is a large granite mound that you ride the ridge, then turn down to the right at the end. Not anything hard but if you don’t pay attention, things can turn bad, quickly. I was behind [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] and noticed that he was on top and his passenger front wheel was turned full lock but his front end was moving towards the driver side. I immediately yelled out on the radio to "Stop moving!" Something was definitely wrong. I run up to notice that both wheels are turned opposite directions. Passenger side outer tie rod is broken and bent down about 90°. He really couldn’t have picked a worse spot on the trail to break. He was on top of the ridge, at a slant towards the side that goes down about 30-40 feet. We wanted to see if we can get him a couple feet forward is a little better/flatter position, so we hooked up the winch to a tree to the side to see if we can pull him over and forward a bit. That just ended up not working out well, so we kept tension on the winch, and hooked up a strap from his slider to a nearby tree, so in the event the truck were to slide, I wouldn’t go very far. Out came [MENTION=135317]rkntoy[/MENTION]’s handy bottle jack, and a few minutes later we were back on the trail.
Smooth sailing from here, for about another 1/2 mile... Still behind [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] and I see him stop. Turns out the CV broke on the side the tie rod broke. My guess by the way the outer cup ripped open, is that when the tie rod broke, the CV over extended and cracked the outer cup. It just took a little while for it to actually fail. Well at this point, he has already used up both of his spares, so thankfully we share the same parts, so I gave him one of my spares. Got it swapped out and kept going the rest of the day until we got to Mallard Lake.
Took a very short break here to use the last restroom of the trail, then proceeded out decent down to Lakecamp Lake. This trail section is pretty gnarly, with some big boulders that just seem to constantly be right in the way. Luckily we were going downhill, so gravity was on our side for the most part. Once to the bottom, you are at Lakecamp Lake. This is a pretty cool but small lake that has a big marshy meadow all around it. We made camp here for our last night on the trail. Not a whole lot we did that night besides just cook dinner and hang out around the campfire reminiscing about our last few days, talking about wheeling, and all around BSing for a few hours while enjoying some drinks.

Notice the front tire turned all the way? Yeah that’s a broken tie rod. Also notice the sketchy spot that it broke? Not the best spot for a trail repair.