My last 'Mud' adventure was at a place called Strawberry Island. Its right on the banks of the Fraser river here in BC. Damn I had fun, but 2 years later I'm still cleaning the mud off. I spent the day being the tow mule for most everybody I was wheelin with as I was the only one there with recovery straps, shackles, built bumpers etc. Most of the hard parts are steep eroded banks going down into big bowls, and this is where the fun begins, because once you're in the only way out is up. No probs for ole tRusty though, when in doubt- gas her out!
The last hole of the day is a real deep mother and when we got there, there was a K10 with 40" hawgs and a burned out winch stranded in the middle, and right beside that was a 4Runner with a 350 and 42" swampers also stuck. On the far side of them the hole is deeper and on the near side it is a little shallower, and since I had done this hole a couple of times before I tried it again. Well it was a little deeper than the last time I went through, I made it about 80 feet(halfway) and sunk 'like a rock' (pun intended). After a few vain atempts in reverse I called for the strap and got yanked out. Now my pride was on the line, so hammer down and try and beat this hole!
. Well I made it another 20 feet or so and at least a foot deeper and got yanked again!
At the end of it all I had a high water (mud) line on my truck above the body side molding.
The final tally for my Mudding? well as I was leaving the power windows no longer worked, the starter quit, I broke 2 exhaust hangers and now had a wicked collector leak, all in all it looked cool/sounded horrible. I had to get a litle tug to get it re-started for the drive home (one more thing I like about a 4 speed).
I spent 2 1/2 hours at the pressure washer ($30) and I still find mud under the truck now and then. 5 months later my rear axle seals,wheel cylinders, shoes, adjusters, and every other little piece in the rear brakes was toast. The only part I could save was the drums. These brakes were only a year old so I was pretty ticked off. The starter was an easy fix, I removed it from the truck, disassembled it and just washed all the mud out of it and its worked fine ever since.
If I ever go mudding again I will completly disassemble an clean my brakes as well as wash the damn thing 3 or 4 times a week until I know there is no more mud on it antwhere.
Rene
