I had a great time! I was in Moab, Utah, this past week with my friends at 'Zu Zoo VI, which is an annual Isuzu gathering. I was a friend to many of them and riding as a passenger/spotter/photographer with them long before I bought my 4Runner.
Before you all freak out in search of pics, I did take a lot of pics, but they're on film. I'll get the good ones online in a week or two and I'll update this thread then. Meanwhile, lots of Isuzu folks will be adding pics from the event on the Isuzu Talk forum. There's some video of me that's currently on DV tape. I'll try to get that online too.
I led Steel Bender and Poison Spider Mesa. I also did Behind the Rocks and all of Pritchet Canyon. Last year I did Behind the Rocks, but this year it was more difficult since it was raining that day. I still did High Dive and White Knuckle Hill again. After you do those the first time, they're just fun. This was the first time I've made it up Upchuck. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" /> I'm very happy that I completed all of Pritchet Canyon, which is rated 5 on a scale of 5. I had to winch 3 times (Rocker Knocker, Rock Pile, and the last obstacle of the ascent). I was the only one in our group with puny 33" tires. I also accomplished my goal of doing the optional gully about 1/3 through Pritchet. That gully wasn't as hard as I had expected, but the front locker certainly helped. I did destroy an MT/R sidewall on a sharp rock near there -- it was my first flat with an MT/R in 60K miles.
After a few failed attempts to get up Rocker Knocker on Pritchet, I broke the outermost axle shaft of the front right axle. This is a Newfield axle for manual hubs. It definitely seems like it withstood a lot of torque before it died. The CV's survived fine, but the axle had a nice torsional break (45 degree split) that started just at the edge of the splines for the manual hub. This is the narrowest section of a manual hub axle. I was locked front/rear and powering into it at the time. I think I had a slight bounce on that wheel. It's cool you can see how deeply the heat treating penetrated the axle. I'll need to compare it to pics of Steve Hunt's breakage of the same outer axle shaft with manual hubs when he attempted Double Whammy.
I had a complete spare axle shaft with me. I swapped it on the trail in about an hour. I intentionally beached my 4Runner on a large rock instead of using a jack and jack stand during the fix. The only problem is that the axle breakage also mangled the needle bearings that help to center that axle shaft inside the hub assembly. I had no choice but to remove those needle bearings and continue in 4L without them. I still did a lot of hard wheeling after that. Toyota doesn't sell the needle bearings separately from the full hub assembly, so I'm now looking for a replacement for them. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="images/icons/frown.gif" />
This time I ramped a 755 on a 20 degree ramp. It was the 4th best IFS RTI at the event. I also checked my weight at a truck weigh scale - I was 5360 pounds total, which is over the GVWR. Good thing I have a lot of aluminum mods. But after I took out the camping stuff and some spare parts and tools, I was probably at 4900-5000 lbs on the trail.
On the last day, I also did part of Lower Helldorado. A friend in a Dodge Ram broke a U-joint, so we ended up turning around instead of completing the trail. But I still walked on foot through the trail. Looks like a fun trail that can be challenging, but do-able.
My new mods in the last 6 months: Performance Coatings ceramic on TRD headers, re-modified custom 1/4" aluminum skidplates, custom steel gas tank skidplate from ORS, Ace Hardware diff drop (now about 0.6" due to skidplate interference), totally re-mounted rock sliders on one side so far - bolt-on style bracket around 3 sides of the frame somewhat like Dandeman's but a little different, lug nut mount spare tire instead of Rockstomper giant wingnut, Spidertrax aluminum Hawse fairlead to go with Rockstomper winch rope, and revised version of a Ruari e-locker motor skidplate.
I've been busy, so now I can get back to continuing to plan for CO4RJ. A 4Runner trip to Moab would be fun, too. Sometime in the Fall would have cooler temperatures. We have to stay under 50 vehicles to avoid BLM permits, so that shouldn't be a problem for our crowd.
