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Rausch Creek wheeling 5/20 carnage pics

gmc4cw

gmc4cw

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"Dont' follow me, I won't make it." :doah: thats what the sticker should have read from this trip. Julian and his daughter Taylor showed up at Rausch ready to wheel. unfortunately the truck was not as ready as we all thought. My truck did fine but somehow ended up on the trailer in peices. It wouldn't be wheeling if I didn't create a list of things I need to work on for next time.

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The day started like any other wheeling trip. With me under the hood tinkering with something. I think Chris (big94gmc) has pics. once my leaking valve cover was fixed we got down to having some fun.

These are some pics of Julian playing on a unnamed hill climb. The park rates this as a red trail. I personally feel that the reds could have been harder, but wheeling on 44's does take some challenge out of things. Maybe I should get some smaller tires.

At one point I got the back of my cab wedged against a tree at the top of this hill. bent it enough that I felt the back of my seat move. Pulled out the winch for the one and only use of the day.

Julian has some pics and will hopefully add them for you guys.

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Chris is a great navigator

If you ever have the chance to wheel with Big94gmc, hand him the map. He did a great job of making sure we knew where we were and how we needed to go to get to Rock Creek. :bow:

Rock Creek is a glacial deposit of stone. On Rausch creeks map it is not represented by a red line but a huge red area. In some spots its 30 feet wide between the trees, other spots its 100 across.

We dropped in near the top and stopped to take some poser pics. It's difficult to walk through the area but driving through on 44's is almost easy. It was fun but not challenging. Julian found a way to up the ante though.

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Have you ever seen a busted 60 knuckle in person?

I have and its not pretty. Especially considering we were in the middle of the hardest section of the park. I was parked watching Julian when Chris starts shouting STOP! STOP! This can't be good.

I can personally vouch for all the people who say hi-steer puts additional stress on the top of the knuckles. The solution was fairly simple but time consuming. There was no way we were getting the truck out the way it was.

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55 mph on the street and no death wobble.

Well my truck and Julians are very similar. So I got my truck out to the trailer and started cannibalizing it. I had to drive about a mile on the road. It was fun. The tires are freaking loud and it doesn't corner like my 2000 but I got back to the staging area without incident.

All the while Julian was disassembling his truck back in Rock Creek. We took my driver side knuckle and all the parts back in. We got to drive Julians tow rig down some green trails.:D Then walk the last 300 yards.

Of course it started raining while Julian wrenched and we all sat around making smartass comments. A couple of jeeps came by and hung out for a few minutes to watch the show. Watching them go through the area I undersatnd why it's a red. They have to take actual lines and think about what they are doing. We just go straight until something breaks.

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So...what was the solution.

EDIT: Guess we crossed each others path here. :doah:
 
So kids, what did we learn today?

1: Be prepared for anything. We took a situation that would have ruined many peoples attitudes and just kept working through it. I had a great time despite the set back.

2: take lots of pictures. hopefully Julian and Chris will jump on here and add to this. I also have some video.

3:Have fun. thats the whole point of going right?
 
gmc4cw said:
A couple of jeeps came by and hung out for a few minutes to watch the show. Watching them go through the area I undersatnd why it's a red. They have to take actual lines and think about what they are doing. We just go straight until something breaks.
Click to expand...

Funny, that's exactly what my jeep friends say about my rig.:haha:

Is Julian going to consider putting a stock style steering setup on after this mishap or will he be going with some stronger knuckles next time? What happened to him is exactly why I run stock steering with the hydraulic ram on the tie rod.
 
I followed Jullian about four hours out of Tellico..............bout worked my little truck ta death!!!

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TruckNutzDude said:
Funny, that's exactly what my jeep friends say about my rig.:haha:

Is Julian going to consider putting a stock style steering setup on after this mishap or will he be going with some stronger knuckles next time? What happened to him is exactly why I run stock steering with the hydraulic ram on the tie rod.
Click to expand...

I suggested leaving the setup he has now and just putting a second tierod back in the stock location. It looks like he cracked it at Tellico and Rausch just finished it off.

Debendears would be ideal, but they are really expensive. I'll let him post what he is going to do.

But stock push-pull might be the way to go.:haha:
 
YZEATER said:
damn. i'm guessing you have hydro assit? or full hydo?
Click to expand...

We are both running crossover with Hydro assist. If you look close at the last set of pics you can see our setups. I run the tierod and ram in the stock location, mostly because I'm cheap. Julian has everything above the springs.
 
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P5200060.JPGOh yeah that was a fun day!!!!!:rolleyes:
Other than the knuckle issues, I had a good day.
It was my first time up there and found some of the trails kinda tight (must be a Jeep thing) but enough water and mud to make it fun. I have to agree with Chas, the reds weren't that hard mostly because the rocks gave good traction even wet. The rocks themselves looked like old gray concrete.
The worst part was trying to fix the truck on the rocks, it just made everything that much harder. Oh and by the way don't drop anything you might need or it's gone for good:D
The best part is tearing up the mud holes with 44" Boggers knowing the next truck though might be a Wangler only running 33's:doah:

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