We took our annual trip to the dunes for New Years as a family. It's something we always look forward to as things get crazy from Thanksgiving through Christmas it's good to know when you're done it's time to head to the dunes!
Loaded up and headed over with nothing eventful, the ol' dodge just chugged along like normal. I actually calculated my mileage this trip and knocked down 12.5 mpg which I think is spectacular for holding 55-60 mph the whole way and there's some good hills as you get closer to the coast.
Didn't have any damage that stopped me but I do have stuff to fix. I got stuck in a not so great spot up against a fence out in the dunes and it was really steep in every direction so in order to get out I was full on gettin' it with my little old small block. I locked the ARB in for good measure and held it in second and juuuuust as we were getting towards the top I could tell I wasn't going to make it so I slammed it into first and spun it to the moon. Not sure how many rpm we were turning as I wasn't even watching my tach at that point but it was a lot for my tired engine. After that I noticed some oil dripping out of the drain hole in the bellhousing cover. It seems to have stopped but I figured the really steep angle and high rpms caused it to puke out the rear main.
Also I was pretending I was Robby Gordon and went bombing through this really nice smooth but whoopy (I said whoopy) section and the back end pulled off the ground and it landed just as we were hitting another whoop. I ended up bottoming out the front end really hard and it pushed my steering ram up into the exhaust crossover pipe from the driver's side and pinched it between the ram and the engine mounts on both sides so it's all pinched shut. I'll have to run the truck over to the exhaust shop and have them cut it all out and re-do it.
Finally, during the above mentioned whoop section the latch on my toolbox broke and the lid opened. I lost a bunch of good stuff! The stuff I'm aware of is about 6' of that field service "blue line" hydro hose that's crazy expensive, like $15 a foot. Also my cool valve stem puller/deflator, my 50' coil air hose, my nice first aid kit, gloves... the list goes on and on. Crappy but what are you going to do... just have to replace it all.
Loaded up and headed over with nothing eventful, the ol' dodge just chugged along like normal. I actually calculated my mileage this trip and knocked down 12.5 mpg which I think is spectacular for holding 55-60 mph the whole way and there's some good hills as you get closer to the coast.
Didn't have any damage that stopped me but I do have stuff to fix. I got stuck in a not so great spot up against a fence out in the dunes and it was really steep in every direction so in order to get out I was full on gettin' it with my little old small block. I locked the ARB in for good measure and held it in second and juuuuust as we were getting towards the top I could tell I wasn't going to make it so I slammed it into first and spun it to the moon. Not sure how many rpm we were turning as I wasn't even watching my tach at that point but it was a lot for my tired engine. After that I noticed some oil dripping out of the drain hole in the bellhousing cover. It seems to have stopped but I figured the really steep angle and high rpms caused it to puke out the rear main.
Also I was pretending I was Robby Gordon and went bombing through this really nice smooth but whoopy (I said whoopy) section and the back end pulled off the ground and it landed just as we were hitting another whoop. I ended up bottoming out the front end really hard and it pushed my steering ram up into the exhaust crossover pipe from the driver's side and pinched it between the ram and the engine mounts on both sides so it's all pinched shut. I'll have to run the truck over to the exhaust shop and have them cut it all out and re-do it.
Finally, during the above mentioned whoop section the latch on my toolbox broke and the lid opened. I lost a bunch of good stuff! The stuff I'm aware of is about 6' of that field service "blue line" hydro hose that's crazy expensive, like $15 a foot. Also my cool valve stem puller/deflator, my 50' coil air hose, my nice first aid kit, gloves... the list goes on and on. Crappy but what are you going to do... just have to replace it all.
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