Sorry about the crappy luck you had. And I'm sorry I did't get to meet you in person. I saw you around but anytime I wanted to come introduce myself and my wife you were busy and I don't like to intrude. Next time we'll get together. Your wife let me check out her legs, just before we started for Hell's Revenge. Very nice. And the artwork was awesome too.
Now to the little carnage I had that kept us from going on the "Scotts Big Adventure" and "Moab Rim".
We had a small bit of bad luck getting to Moab. But nothing compared to some. We were on HWY 160 going through the mountains when we came upon a sign very similar to this one.......
Only.....it said 7% and a speed limit sign with 45 mph and 25 mph followed. It's kind of hard to go that speed when you're doing 60 mph. I started to slow the truck down because in the near future there were two hair pin curves. For some odd reason, the truck didn't want to slow down. Something about hauling a trailer with a 3 ton vehicle on it.....it didn't want to go slow. I kept pumping on the brakes to slow us down but it didn't take much to build up speed again. Seems as if the trailer brakes weren't working. I was right.
Kim was looking for something to hang onto besides the grab handle on top of the glovebox. No dice. I could tell by the fear in her eyes that I had better do something....and fast. So, I started laying on the brakes hoping that there was enough pad to get this black beast to come to a stop. Over time, with a lot of shaking from the hot rotors, the truck was slowing down. The brake pedal started to go more towards the floor so I knew it wouldn't be long before they were toast. As we were approaching the "Runaway truck ramp" we were getting more slowed down but still couldn't stop. Well, after using what muscle I had left in both my legs, we came to a stop right at a scenic lookout. About 1/4 mile before the "Runaway truck ramp".
Now don't get me wrong. I've been scared before. But this made my butt pucker. I mean, you could have shoved a chunk of coal up there and it would have turned into a diamond in seconds. I couldn't imagine how Kim felt. I'm guessing two or three diamonds. But thankfully....THANK YOU GOD......we were stopped. We were so shaken up that we forgot to take a picture of the smoke coming from behind all 4 tires. The young couple that were taking pics of the scenery, stopped taking pics of the scenery. They were in awe of how much smoke was bellowing out. We were in awe that we were still alive and didn't have to take the ramp. It took some time but we finally got our thoughts together and knew it was time to move on. If the brakes were still there.
I immediately called my son-in-law to get some answers on what he thought had happened and how to get off the mountain. After some discussion, we decided it was best to unload the Blazer and drive them both down. And it worked great. While we were talking about the options, Kim took some pics of this small waterfall that was to our right, coming out of the mountain side a few feet up.
This was the scene on the opposite side of the road.
We drove to Pagosa Springs to load up the Blazer......and off we went.
We checked the route to Moab and noticed that we were going to get to town earlier than we thought. We called, Beth, the lady that was in charge of the cabin we rented, and asked if we could check in early since nobody had stayed there in quite a few days. She said it would be fine so now we really can't wait to get there. We are getting close to Moab and seen the road we were to turn on and head to the cabin. It was "Old Airport Road". Directions said to head East and then turn right at the T section. Mark your odometer and go 10 miles. There would be two driveways and we needed to turn into the second one. The excitement was building. Until. As we headed on to our 10 mile run, we were slowly going up. I could tell because her 2006 Z71 Silverado had a hard time accelerating without struggling. We experienced that when we went through the Colorado mountains. You know........your truck slows way down no matter how hard you push it? I babied her truck to keep it from overheating and it did pretty good. Especially for a truck with 188,000 miles on it before we left the house. Sometimes we couldn't go more than 5 mph but I wasn't going to push the transmission any more than necessary. But anyway, as we were only about 4 miles away from the cabin, the climb got steeper and curvier.
By the time we got to the cabin driveway, the gas pedal was all the way to the floor and we were only going about 2 mph. I could smell the tranny fluid from it getting too hot. And we lost all forward gears. I still had reverse and I was able to back it into the cabin driveway. All the way to the cabin. I thought the tranny was toast. And I was pissed. It was my fault for not asking, but I had no idea that the cabin was up in the sky somewhere. I thought it was down below on level ground. But noooooooooooo. I assumed and it may have cost me.
Thankfully, after talking with Beth, she let us move to one of the cabins down by the highway. A nice little cabin. Only.....the bed was in a loft so everytime you had to get up and go to the bathroom, you had to climb stairs. Now you young'uns probably won't have a problem with that. I'm not a young'un and I found that to be a problem in the long run. We won't rent a cabin with the only bed in a loft, but we still enjoyed the stay and the views.
Finally, the small carnage:
When we first arrived at the gate, to pay to get in, I could hear a small clacking noise. Nothing loud but it was still there and I had no clue what it was. We paid, got into the parking lot and the noise was gone. I popped the hood and seen no evidence of anything going on so I shut it off and we started airing down the tires to get ready for the trail. After the tires were aired down I noticed
@muddysub's wife standing by the restrooms. I remembered reading the CK5 ink thread and wanted to see her legs "Tattoos". Beautiful artwork for sure. She was very nice not to slap me since I could have been some complete stranger just being a pervert. But I assured her I was with the group. Of other perverts.
We were getting ready to get on the trail so I started up the Blazer and the clacking noise got louder. I thought, NO WAY. Not now. Why me? Ended up being the fan blade hitting the shroud. I don't know why all of a sudden this would start now. It never gave me fits before. But with the help of some brothers, we were able to cut away what was necessary to fix the problem. Nothing major. Just enough around the bottom of the shroud. Stevens' dad was standing by in case we needed any more assistance. He gave us a thumbs up and off we went. Of course, the rest of the group was already out of site but we slowly caught up. What an awesome climb up that fin. Kim thanked me heavily for the "Oh sh!t handles".
We made it up with ease and couldn't wait to see what was next. After some wheeling with the group, and going up some more of the trail, I could hear a grinding, clunking noise. Every time we would go up, the noise could be heard. When driving on level ground or descending we couldn't hear any noise. I wasn't sure what it was....maybe the front LS trak lock? Wouldn't it make noise no matter what level we drove? I kept going hoping for the best. We were able to handle the rest of the trail with only noise once in a while. The noise seemed to fade away some but was still there. After the trail we loaded up and headed to the cabin. I looked under the Blazer and checked for ujoint failure or any other signs of damage but found none.
We drove it to the BBQ without a problem. No noise. After eating, and before the raffle drawings, I asked Jack
@DickeysK5 what he thought it was. He said to check for play at the ujoint in front of the transfer case. I was hoping that was the problem. Simple fix. I carry spares. I even carry extra spark plugs. Somebody needed one on the trail and I felt good that I could help a brother out. But after we got back to the cablin, I couldn't find anything wrong with the ujoint. The shaft turned nice and smooth. No noise at all. Well, back to the drawing board.
I debated all night whether or not to drive the Saturday trail and decided that safety came first. I didn't want to be going up some steep climb and something brake. Leaving me useless and possibly rolling back and causing harm to my wife or anybody around. I showed up at the parking area, driving her Silverado, where they were getting ready to take on "Scotts Big Adventure". I talked to Scott and Nicole and let them know that something wasn't right with the Blazer so we weren't going on the trails. They felt bad for us but knew that was the best thing to do. We said our good-byes.....and went back to the cabin.
Since we weren't going on anymore trails, we decided to take on the Arches National Park. It was awesome and we had a great time. When we were done, we headed back to the cabin for the night. Enjoy a nice meal and have some alone time. Sulk, really. We really wanted to do some more trails but I was at a total loss as to what the grinding and clunking noise was. I remember someone saying to check the gap between the CV joint and crossmember. I believe it was someone talking to Jack before they were going on the trail. So I got a flashlight and went out to look. And sure enough. There was the noise maker:
Both ears of the CV joint were being ground off. Every time we went up, the droop would cause the shaft to be pulled down and the grinding began. Since I'm getting ready to replace the 350 TBI with a 454 Vortec, I decided to wait and take care of the problem at that time. I've got to move the crossmember anyway so some modification will be happening. Plus I'll need to send the front drive shaft in to be lengthened and they can take care of that while they have it.
We are very fortunate that we had very mild carnage. It could have been a lot worse if we continued with the trails on a weak section of drive shaft. Thanks for all the tips on finding the problem.
We will be back next year. We..................................already reserved a cabin in Moab Rim RV park for BB18.
I met and talked with Wade,
@ktmoutfront, after we arrived on Thursday. And I told him that I will be retiring in less than 5 years, and I would like to help with Blazer Bash in any way I can. Hopefully by then I'll have some trail experience. So I plan on sticking around for a while.
Scott and Nicole, THANK YOU for keeping Blazer Bash alive and well. It was our first and it will not be our last.
