During the course of the may long weekend shakedown run where I snapped my rear pinion, my truck wasn`t the only one to suffer some damage.

After my rear driveline let go, I decided to see how strong my homemade square tubing front driveshaft was. My friend Simon had all the beverages in his `89 Xtracab


so I gave chase with only front wheels driving. When he couldn`t shake me, he decided to stop abruptly in a mud hole to

ahem... shoot the shtuff as we say. Unfortunately, I was too close behind him (he later admitted he even tried to back up!) and could not stop in time. It was all in slow motion. I looked over at my passenger and said we were going to hit. I reached for the CB mike to tell Simon to get the hell out of my way but it was too late. I had tried to swerve around him but the ruts kept me from doing so and my ARB bull bar`s fairlead guards drove into the right side of the box.

The impact took out the tailgate and tailight and repositioned the whole right side of the box

3 inches forward and buckled the sheetmetal behind the wheel. There was nothing more than a small chip in the powdercoating on my ARB! I felt really bad especialy since I had helped repair that box and even painted the freakin`thing but that`s what happens when you horse around in the mud.

Despite the mishaps, spirits were still high and Simon was not dissuaded in the least about going hardcore into the gooey stuff.


There`s a 36" Super Swamper in there somewhere! He needed Marc to winch him out with his Sidekick but it was all good.


We all can`t wait to get back out there!

Toughguy