the great him
Elite Member
welp go grab your:snacker: and a comfy chair cause i just:keyboard: the chit outta this thread...
so yesterday i went on a little excursion to see some snow with the kids, on the way to taking them to their aunts to spend the day while i was supposed to go drop off some paperwork... anyhow it snowed here wednesday night(only about an inch), and my son wanted to go play in the snow. so i thought i would take the back way(same place i got some of the pics i posted in the 3rd gen pic thread -see http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-g...a-4runner-picture-gallery-372.html#post991767). well apparently it dumped snow up their, cause the snow was at least knee deep and almost waste deep in some areas. -9am, a lot more snow than i was expecting. but i had seen fresh tracks in the snow and their was a good clear path to fallow. problem number one. going solo - i know, i should have known better... i told my aunt and ryanmasuda where i was going and if they didnt hear from my by a certain time to let someone know something happened... i had plunty of food and water and the kids had warm cloths and changes of cloths, and several blankets. i also had a small propane torch to start a fire with and a full tank of gas(thank God).
-10:20am, well the snow got deep and the fog got thicker till it was basically a whiteout and so i decided to turn around and head back. glad i did, bacuase about 100' ahead the trail stopped, seames everyone else ran into the whiteout and turned back(this was almost to the point where the pics of my truck on the rock ledge were taken, its a near vertical drop for several hundred feet and the road becomes considerably narrower). on my way in i thought to myself, im glad im going this way not the other way, cause some of these hill im not so sure i would make going the other way... wow if i had only known. so now i was faced with eating my words and making the best of a not so great ideals. so i headed out and hope and prayed for the best. got to the first section of the hill and had to give it 3 or 4 runs/trys, but i made it... then their was a little break/level spot for about 100' then the last section, not as steep or long, but it had a slight left turn at the top that slopped towards the edge.
this is where things got interesting. as i was pushing forward my rear end kicked out(towards the edge -not as steep or far as before, but still about 10-15' down into some trees, brush and stumps ect.). i knew if i backed out -meaning let off the gas, i was done for and would surly be stuck as by now my back end was a good 15-20* out and the back left door was pushing new virgin snow. i was only like 40' from the top of the hill and flat open ground. so i kept pushing, and the rear end kept swinging further out and i started losing speed(kinda like a truck at a truck pull...). well finally i realized i wasnt gonna make it. and that was that, i was stuck, and in a position where i couldnt really move, if i tried backing up i would just slid off the road down into the trees, and i didnt have the traction to pull forward. i tryed airing down to 15psi to see if that would help, problem number two. i should of aired down as soon as i got into the snow and not waited):ybrick:, i didnt want to air down if i didnt have to,and didnt want to air down any more than 15 if i still had to drive on the road after this.
-11am, sitting sideways in the road at about a 40* angle in between snow and a slick place. well thankfully i had cell service where i was stuck, so i sent ryan a text telling him where i was and what had happend, then i called my wife and told her, that phone call actually went way better than expected being as though i has the kids with me(in a way i was kinda expecting a verbal a55 chewing -and would of gladly accepted it). she was calm and said "oh ok, well just keep me updated and let me know if you want me to come home and get the truck..." i told her no i will call some friends and see if they are free and can come help. well my first choice would of been a toyota... but all you guys either live so far away, or i doubt could even reach me or would just be smarter than me and turn around and go home lol, and my business partners truck just blew the head-gaskets (3.blow). another friend who has an older FJ40 and owns a couple bodyshops said he could come get me, but would have to use my red 85 as his FJ40 has no rear axle under it right now(another story for another time...), but he would not be able to leave work till at least 2pm.... well its better than spending the night i guess. i told him ill call around to some other guys i know and see if any of them are free. i called another budy, a guy i went to iraq with, hes for a lifted FZJ80 locked f/r, but he was at work and his gf had the cruiser, and he had the car for the day. i called another guy i knew who has a 4runner and he is running 35s, 3" lift and 2" bl, geared, locked f/r, ARB front bumper w/winch -its white and gold ive posted pics of it here before, he said he would come but he was down in south portland, i was in NNNNE vancouver up in the mountains, at least 1.5hrs away from him, and he didnt know the area... crap!
so now it was on to the list of guy i knew with j**ps... really not flowing well with the sticker i have on my back windows lol -think calvin stickers... so i called a buddy from the local 4wheeling club, i knew his wife had the day off -snow day for the schools and shes a teacher. by the time i got a hold of him it was about 12:30pm, he asked where i was, and said yeah give him about 20min and he would be on his way. -hes got a lifted cherokee on 35s ARBs f/r armored and has a winch. i really hesitated calling him because im not yet officially a member of the club, and i know these guys are big on not going alone, and not being in areas your not supposed to be in. now where i was was not illegal, and is open to vehicles, its just frowned upon by some as not everyone who is up their obeys the rules ect. well joey and his wife hopped into their rig and headed out after calling another member who has a TJ unlimited rubicon, who is planning on running it at the hammers (KOH) next year, its locked f/r on 37 iroks, beadlocks, onboard air, RCV axles, armored, winch ect -neither of these j**ps are really j**ps any more, they just have a j**p shell. so i had some time to kill, i let my son get out and play in the snow, i took my IPF light covers off and used them to dig in the snow and try to dig my self free, surprisingly these worked great, but i still need a shovel (and a tug). anyhow they reached me at about 1:30pm. all i see is this yellow TJ rounding the corner, snow blowing up over his rig and it was crazy...! i wish i had a pic or video of it. the snow i was in was like nothing to them, they just ate it up.
anyhow so my buddy joey(red cherokee) hooked up to me with a strap and just pulled me back up onto the road(after dropping my down to 8psi all around - i should have done this from the start) anyhow we all headed out joey in the front, me in the middle and josh(yellow TJ) in the rear -im sure making jokes about my toyota and the search and rescue sticker across the back. we stopped for some pics of our "epic snow run" lol and then headed out down the mountian... well once we were on our way down we ran into another mess, some idiots who skipped school to go play and smoke some weed in the snow had driven their ford exlpoder off the road down over the bank and had a little toyota with a tubed back trying to pull it out and behind them where two cummins dodges in the ditch, so the road was all blocked. so we pulled off into a gravel pit that is used as a "dump" and shooting area, problem number three. there is all kinds of crap in their from broken glass to hidden dangers/obstacles(like a log) thanks to all of the snow. well joey found that log at about 5-10mph with his front right tire, snap:damnit:. it seperated his ball joints and sheared his yukon axles. tore things all aprart. at first you couldnt see it and we only thought he was high-centered on the log. but as he tried to drive off, i noticed his front right wheel was not spinning. i knew he had lockers so something wasnt right. i told him to just stop, that something happened. josh came over and joey got out, we all looked at it. by now some of the people their came over to check out our rigs. josh hooked up to the back of joey with his winch and started to drag him back, and thats where things went south.
the upper ball joint shaft bent, ad the lower ball joint completely pulled out of the ear on the axle. the U-joint had snapped(but joey had a spare axle so no biggie there) but now was the problem that the wheel, hub and knuckle were seperating from the axle as we tried to pull him off the log. well now we were screwed, there way no way to get a truck with a trailer to us, no tow truck could get to us. and the crowed of pot-head highschoolers who had gathered became increasingly irritating. by now it was about 2:30pm and we decided to try and put things back together as best we can to limp the truck down off the mountian to the paved road and load where we could get it with a truck and trailer. this proved much harder than we estimated. after spending about 2hrs trying to put things back together how ever mickey moused we could even think of, nothing was working. i decided to take off and go back to my house, drop off the kids and the runner, grab some more tools, supply's and food, and jump in the truck and come back. on my way down the mountain, i met another of our friends coming up in his TJ -daryl to help out. by now there where so many idiot on that road/trail that i was about to start slapping hos.
by the time i headed back out it was dark, and i still needed to fill the truck with gas. joey had called another couple of friend -bill who has a 1ton diesel truck to go get his trailer and meet us at the bottom of the hill, and ryan to bring some of his tools up, his his knowledge of jeeps is much better than mine so he was more help anyways. i got back their a few min after bill, ryan had already headed up the mountian with his rig(another cherokee locked f/r... we tryed blocking off the road to prevent more people from going up but its hard to do when some of the guys have truggies on 42" tires and are running 2psi, they can pretty much go where they want, road or not. a few words with them were exchanged and we shook our heads as they drove off(one of them happened to be my neighbor... we knew joey was limping his truck down the mountain at this point, and sense his front right wheels was the gimp, he couldnt rid the ditch down to help keep his speed down, he had to ride the snow on the left side. (the ditch is on the right side and the cliff/drop off is on the left), so his wife opted to walk lol. joey told me not to even try to come up as the road was all tore up now by all this other people who couldnt be told that they wont make it... on the way down daryl(the guy i met coming up as i was going down) hit another rig and punched in the front of his rubicon unlimited(time for tube finders now i guess). anyhow after a long day i was finally home for good at about 9:40pm last night. it was a long long day, and thankfully joeys axle has a lifetime warranty on it so im not out any $$$, i just have to help him pull the old one, and install the new one, and sense im not really working, i think i can swing that one.
heres to good true friends -:hatsoff::cheers:
so yesterday i went on a little excursion to see some snow with the kids, on the way to taking them to their aunts to spend the day while i was supposed to go drop off some paperwork... anyhow it snowed here wednesday night(only about an inch), and my son wanted to go play in the snow. so i thought i would take the back way(same place i got some of the pics i posted in the 3rd gen pic thread -see http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-g...a-4runner-picture-gallery-372.html#post991767). well apparently it dumped snow up their, cause the snow was at least knee deep and almost waste deep in some areas. -9am, a lot more snow than i was expecting. but i had seen fresh tracks in the snow and their was a good clear path to fallow. problem number one. going solo - i know, i should have known better... i told my aunt and ryanmasuda where i was going and if they didnt hear from my by a certain time to let someone know something happened... i had plunty of food and water and the kids had warm cloths and changes of cloths, and several blankets. i also had a small propane torch to start a fire with and a full tank of gas(thank God).
-10:20am, well the snow got deep and the fog got thicker till it was basically a whiteout and so i decided to turn around and head back. glad i did, bacuase about 100' ahead the trail stopped, seames everyone else ran into the whiteout and turned back(this was almost to the point where the pics of my truck on the rock ledge were taken, its a near vertical drop for several hundred feet and the road becomes considerably narrower). on my way in i thought to myself, im glad im going this way not the other way, cause some of these hill im not so sure i would make going the other way... wow if i had only known. so now i was faced with eating my words and making the best of a not so great ideals. so i headed out and hope and prayed for the best. got to the first section of the hill and had to give it 3 or 4 runs/trys, but i made it... then their was a little break/level spot for about 100' then the last section, not as steep or long, but it had a slight left turn at the top that slopped towards the edge.
this is where things got interesting. as i was pushing forward my rear end kicked out(towards the edge -not as steep or far as before, but still about 10-15' down into some trees, brush and stumps ect.). i knew if i backed out -meaning let off the gas, i was done for and would surly be stuck as by now my back end was a good 15-20* out and the back left door was pushing new virgin snow. i was only like 40' from the top of the hill and flat open ground. so i kept pushing, and the rear end kept swinging further out and i started losing speed(kinda like a truck at a truck pull...). well finally i realized i wasnt gonna make it. and that was that, i was stuck, and in a position where i couldnt really move, if i tried backing up i would just slid off the road down into the trees, and i didnt have the traction to pull forward. i tryed airing down to 15psi to see if that would help, problem number two. i should of aired down as soon as i got into the snow and not waited):ybrick:, i didnt want to air down if i didnt have to,and didnt want to air down any more than 15 if i still had to drive on the road after this.
-11am, sitting sideways in the road at about a 40* angle in between snow and a slick place. well thankfully i had cell service where i was stuck, so i sent ryan a text telling him where i was and what had happend, then i called my wife and told her, that phone call actually went way better than expected being as though i has the kids with me(in a way i was kinda expecting a verbal a55 chewing -and would of gladly accepted it). she was calm and said "oh ok, well just keep me updated and let me know if you want me to come home and get the truck..." i told her no i will call some friends and see if they are free and can come help. well my first choice would of been a toyota... but all you guys either live so far away, or i doubt could even reach me or would just be smarter than me and turn around and go home lol, and my business partners truck just blew the head-gaskets (3.blow). another friend who has an older FJ40 and owns a couple bodyshops said he could come get me, but would have to use my red 85 as his FJ40 has no rear axle under it right now(another story for another time...), but he would not be able to leave work till at least 2pm.... well its better than spending the night i guess. i told him ill call around to some other guys i know and see if any of them are free. i called another budy, a guy i went to iraq with, hes for a lifted FZJ80 locked f/r, but he was at work and his gf had the cruiser, and he had the car for the day. i called another guy i knew who has a 4runner and he is running 35s, 3" lift and 2" bl, geared, locked f/r, ARB front bumper w/winch -its white and gold ive posted pics of it here before, he said he would come but he was down in south portland, i was in NNNNE vancouver up in the mountains, at least 1.5hrs away from him, and he didnt know the area... crap!
so now it was on to the list of guy i knew with j**ps... really not flowing well with the sticker i have on my back windows lol -think calvin stickers... so i called a buddy from the local 4wheeling club, i knew his wife had the day off -snow day for the schools and shes a teacher. by the time i got a hold of him it was about 12:30pm, he asked where i was, and said yeah give him about 20min and he would be on his way. -hes got a lifted cherokee on 35s ARBs f/r armored and has a winch. i really hesitated calling him because im not yet officially a member of the club, and i know these guys are big on not going alone, and not being in areas your not supposed to be in. now where i was was not illegal, and is open to vehicles, its just frowned upon by some as not everyone who is up their obeys the rules ect. well joey and his wife hopped into their rig and headed out after calling another member who has a TJ unlimited rubicon, who is planning on running it at the hammers (KOH) next year, its locked f/r on 37 iroks, beadlocks, onboard air, RCV axles, armored, winch ect -neither of these j**ps are really j**ps any more, they just have a j**p shell. so i had some time to kill, i let my son get out and play in the snow, i took my IPF light covers off and used them to dig in the snow and try to dig my self free, surprisingly these worked great, but i still need a shovel (and a tug). anyhow they reached me at about 1:30pm. all i see is this yellow TJ rounding the corner, snow blowing up over his rig and it was crazy...! i wish i had a pic or video of it. the snow i was in was like nothing to them, they just ate it up.
anyhow so my buddy joey(red cherokee) hooked up to me with a strap and just pulled me back up onto the road(after dropping my down to 8psi all around - i should have done this from the start) anyhow we all headed out joey in the front, me in the middle and josh(yellow TJ) in the rear -im sure making jokes about my toyota and the search and rescue sticker across the back. we stopped for some pics of our "epic snow run" lol and then headed out down the mountian... well once we were on our way down we ran into another mess, some idiots who skipped school to go play and smoke some weed in the snow had driven their ford exlpoder off the road down over the bank and had a little toyota with a tubed back trying to pull it out and behind them where two cummins dodges in the ditch, so the road was all blocked. so we pulled off into a gravel pit that is used as a "dump" and shooting area, problem number three. there is all kinds of crap in their from broken glass to hidden dangers/obstacles(like a log) thanks to all of the snow. well joey found that log at about 5-10mph with his front right tire, snap:damnit:. it seperated his ball joints and sheared his yukon axles. tore things all aprart. at first you couldnt see it and we only thought he was high-centered on the log. but as he tried to drive off, i noticed his front right wheel was not spinning. i knew he had lockers so something wasnt right. i told him to just stop, that something happened. josh came over and joey got out, we all looked at it. by now some of the people their came over to check out our rigs. josh hooked up to the back of joey with his winch and started to drag him back, and thats where things went south.
the upper ball joint shaft bent, ad the lower ball joint completely pulled out of the ear on the axle. the U-joint had snapped(but joey had a spare axle so no biggie there) but now was the problem that the wheel, hub and knuckle were seperating from the axle as we tried to pull him off the log. well now we were screwed, there way no way to get a truck with a trailer to us, no tow truck could get to us. and the crowed of pot-head highschoolers who had gathered became increasingly irritating. by now it was about 2:30pm and we decided to try and put things back together as best we can to limp the truck down off the mountian to the paved road and load where we could get it with a truck and trailer. this proved much harder than we estimated. after spending about 2hrs trying to put things back together how ever mickey moused we could even think of, nothing was working. i decided to take off and go back to my house, drop off the kids and the runner, grab some more tools, supply's and food, and jump in the truck and come back. on my way down the mountain, i met another of our friends coming up in his TJ -daryl to help out. by now there where so many idiot on that road/trail that i was about to start slapping hos.
by the time i headed back out it was dark, and i still needed to fill the truck with gas. joey had called another couple of friend -bill who has a 1ton diesel truck to go get his trailer and meet us at the bottom of the hill, and ryan to bring some of his tools up, his his knowledge of jeeps is much better than mine so he was more help anyways. i got back their a few min after bill, ryan had already headed up the mountian with his rig(another cherokee locked f/r... we tryed blocking off the road to prevent more people from going up but its hard to do when some of the guys have truggies on 42" tires and are running 2psi, they can pretty much go where they want, road or not. a few words with them were exchanged and we shook our heads as they drove off(one of them happened to be my neighbor... we knew joey was limping his truck down the mountain at this point, and sense his front right wheels was the gimp, he couldnt rid the ditch down to help keep his speed down, he had to ride the snow on the left side. (the ditch is on the right side and the cliff/drop off is on the left), so his wife opted to walk lol. joey told me not to even try to come up as the road was all tore up now by all this other people who couldnt be told that they wont make it... on the way down daryl(the guy i met coming up as i was going down) hit another rig and punched in the front of his rubicon unlimited(time for tube finders now i guess). anyhow after a long day i was finally home for good at about 9:40pm last night. it was a long long day, and thankfully joeys axle has a lifetime warranty on it so im not out any $$$, i just have to help him pull the old one, and install the new one, and sense im not really working, i think i can swing that one.
heres to good true friends -:hatsoff::cheers:
Last edited:
