Eureka 7/8/2011

[TonyM]

Deric and I decided we were going to try and find a route to connect Some part of Eureka, with some part of Hicks... after looking at some maps, we thought we'd have a pretty good shot at doing so.

It was Deric and his dog in the Durango, Zach and I in the Bronco... loaded to the gills with everything but the kitchen sink it seemed...

Friday on the way in, we followed the every valley that pointed in the direction of Hicks, and didn't find anything suitable for an alternative to coming out "The hill"... so we headed back to setup camp, and decided we were going to do some more exploring..

We were going to try and make a big loop on the Big O... but we got a little "Delayed". After hours of traversing rocks and boulders... we had to winch a boulder out of the way. While Deric was pulling up to get into position... his knuckle broke. We spent a few hours welding it back up, and decided to limp the durango back to camp (Thanks to all that was involved in staging the replacememnt knuckle...).

We spent most of the weekend in rigs, but we did get a chance to get some ground squirells, and got to see TONS of caribou...

We also ran into another group out there (Mike (SleadheadAK) and a couple friends), and they headed out Sunday morning.

On the way out Mon morning, I popped one of my tubes.... but we had it replaced in about a half hour, and were on our way again... Little ways passed Monument, I notice a strange noise coming from my front end... and after we got stopped, it looked like my wheel bearing was taking a shit.. but the wheel bearing turned out to be fine.... it was MY knuckle. It had pretty much broke, but hadn't seperated yet. So we weld on it the best we can, and it BARELY made it onto the trailer...

It was a great weekend.. we ate good, drank good, got to get some shooting in, and with the exception of Saturday (Rained most of the day), the weather was cooperative as well.

I'm leaving out a bunch... but it's getting late. Deric can chime in on anything I've left out...lol

Pictures to come... Here's a couple teasers for now...
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[TonyM]

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Yeah... I forgot... Deric broke off a bunch of his axle bolts too... we dicked around with that and burned a few hours as well on Saturday...lol
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[TonyM]

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[TonyM]

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[TonyM]

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[KINETIC]

Awesome pics and trail repair. Looks like a good time was had for sure.

Eric

[TonyM]

This was my knuckle mishap.... we both lucked out in that the spots where we had to do the repairs were not bad at all... no water holes or mud... mice dry flat ground for the most part...
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Oh yeah... and to top the weekend off.... Deric locks his keys in his truck right after he STARTS it.... :banghead:

[KINETIC]

Oops, I have done that before. Not cool. That is a nasty knuckle mishap. Glad you were able to work on it on dry ground. Looks like you're set up to get yourself home though, very cool.

Eric

[ryantowry_81]

holy knuckle carnage batman!

might be time to think about lowering your guys tie rods back down and just use the top histeer for the draglink, take some of the stress off the top 4 studs....

[JEH97LX]

What a sweet looking trip and thanks for posting up those awesome pics. The real question is, did you find the ever elusive connection before cracking the knuckle?

On a side note, I was hanging out with some cruiser heads last week for about 6 days or so in the Gakona (near Paxson) and McClaren (up Denali hwy) valleys and up to the respective glaciers. Some pretty good trails with a variety of difficulty up that way if you get that far out.

[Chevy Man]

Cough* rockwells*cough.

[dbeast71]

Cough* rockwells*cough.

Looks that way guys... Dedenbear might work for a while but duece's sound cool.

[TonyM]

The Ried Racing knuckles are waaay more beef than the stock ones... I bought a set back when I bought mine... I just never put the other side on...

Not only that, but the rocks were for miles... we really beat the shit out of our rigs on that trail... I was actually surprised thats all we had to deal with... :15:

[TRLR8DXJ]

So This was a great weekend to get out but, it definitely had it's moments of dismay.

Thursday night preping to leave fueling up the tow rig and all the fuel cans for the trail rig the gas attendent informs me that she has no recent diesel fill up that she can find. Only giving me reciepts for the gas. Leading me to question whether I filled my truck with gas instead of diesel. So after this information I'm force to tow the truck to my shop to syphon fuel out. Which I find I did what I thought I filled my diesel truck with diesel. She just apparently could not work the Register.

Friday After wheeling and scouting all We set up camp have dinner and enjoy the fire. In the evenings my hands sometimes swell so I take my wedding ring off and put it on my pinky. Well one thing leads to another and I stoke the fire and sure enough I notice later my ring is gone. Hmmm....... Crap. the ring is in the fire so after sifting through the entire fire pit we find the ring still intact but with a little more "character".

Saturday we wake up early to get a good start on the day. While I'm fueling up for the trip I look down and see all 8 of my full float axle nuts sticking out 1/4-1/2" from the shaft. So I tighten them back in. Then go to the other side to find 5 of the 8 sheared off leaving 3 to hold the axle. After attempting to drill and easy out I was able to remove 2 giving me 5 for the rest of the weekend to run on.

Sunday We wake up early to make up for Saturday. Hoping to make our largest run of the weekend. Heading up and over a valley droping us into a boulder riddled creek bed where I proceeded to break my drivers side steering knuckle. Which after many satilite phone calls we found out that we were able to do a pretty good trail repair. Thank you everyone that dropped what they were doing and will to lend a hand fo a spare Knuckle!

Monday we gear up to head out and hit the trail about 10:30 once we reach the Nelchina river basin one of Tony's bogger tubes take a crap forcing us to debead the tire to install a new one. once we got up and over Monumet Tony notices more than normal front end noise which quick looks didn't yeild an answer. As Tony came up on me I noticed from my rear view that the toe on the Bronco was way out. So after thinking it was a wheel bearing we find the 2nd broken Knuckle for the weekend. So we welded it and headed back to the parking lot. Once parked in front of the trailer Tony notices the knuckle had completely broke through. Which luckly we were still able to load up on the trailer.

After we were done BS-ing about the weekend I go to hope in my truck that I had just fired up I reach for the Door handle and find I locked myself out with it running. So tony helped me pry my door open enough to get my VHF antenna in the door to hit the unlock button. FINALLY! We were able to head home.

I am going to post pics but my battery went dead friday morning leaving Tony to do the majority of the picture taking

[TRLR8DXJ]

More Pictures

[TonyM]

well it sounds a lot worse when you lay it out like that.... :15: :eek6:

[TRLR8DXJ]

well it sounds a lot worse when you lay it out like that.... :15: :eek6:

No, no! Don't get me wrong It was fun and a good weekend it was just very "event filled" and thankfully it truned out we (and when I say we I mean some more than others:30:) were prepared enough to handle what some would consider rather catastrophic failures.

[JEH97LX]

Seeing all those red gas cans reminded me of a hot tip on carrying fuel I learned from the cruiser folks. I got a couple 15 gallon portable marine tanks/drums which require a bung wrench. They are a bit pricey compared to the red cans (around $120 each at Marita), however, they can handle the pressure, don't leak and stink, and hold a lot of volume in a compact efficient space. The only drawback is the bung wrench and when full, they're heavy (90 lbs).

Also for an additional incentive, you can get attachments and use it to power a small outboard motor if you have a boat (be great for river running long distances). I can't find any good pictures or outlets online for an example picture, but I'm guessing they are standard fare at local marine shops (or drop by Marita marine).

[Irish_Inc]

Good report! And looks like their were plenty fun times to be had. Surprised you didnt hang out and look for a bear after seeing that pad!

[Jessco]

I picked up a few of the 15 gal fuel drums at Wasilla SBS a few years back. Don't remember them being so pricy. It's worth checking.

[TRLR8DXJ]

Well, took a quick glance over the rig to day and am getting afraid to look any closer. I found a 2nd cracked knucle and one of the rear leaf packs is shot. Apparently I was harder on the rig than I realized guess all I can look forward to is upgrades and improvement for the time being.

[TonyM]

omg.... that rear leaf pack is smoked.... when did you find that????

[dbeast71]

On the fuel drums you can buy the 15 gallons cubes made for it but they are pricey. Or the 20 gallon white drums from teh car washes are 15-20 bucks, that's what we used.