well had a great time at callantee. 2 good days of wheeling, No damage except a squeeky track bar and a scratch all the way down the hood. here is just 2 pics to wet your appetite.
this was just a small hill when we got there. nothing intense.


this was the recover of smileys truck, droped the rear into a washout. frontend got real light and wanted to flop over. this was the quick run before dinner that took 2 hours. we made it 1/2 mile down the trail before this, all worked out with some winch help


was just playing on some downed logs

Sorry I missed the fun and I'm glad you all had a great time. Is that second pic the same hill we had to turn around during a night run because it was too wet and slippery ( June trip)?
Pete

i blive it was, I think that doug may have mentioned something aout that

Pete, that pic is from the hill where we all came down that one day and then we stopped at the bottom and lined up for pics and then Lisa decided to play around on the little hill with the stream flowing on one side of it. Then we decided to turn around and run back up it and thats where I had some trouble as well...it was a lot more washed out this time I heard.

Anyhow I am back now too. Actually got back last night and wasnt able to run the Welder at night <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />which i wanted to but oh well.

Friday night we had a short but fun little night loop that lasted about a hour or two and then sat around the campfire eating smores and chatting. Then saturday we all got a late start...around 11am before we finally got going. I had a friend come in his CJ jeep and we decided to run the Red trail. it was a Pretty EASY trail. Pretty much a 2wheel drive trail with a few good hill climbs.

Well no sooner than did we get started out maybe 1/4 mile on the trail we stopped on a hill and waited for everyone to get caught up. Well when we proceeded to get going on the hill Kyle(the jeep cj) proceeded to go and heard a snap/bang <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> and only saw the front wheels spinning. Come to find out he had snapped the 4 bolts on his yolk right behind the transfer case on his driveshaft. So we had a front wheel drive jeep now. Then we proceeded to head up and get him turned around and I took him back to camp and he rode with me the rest of the day in the Monty.

Well we got back on the trail and continued on. We got maybe another 1/2 mile and I heard reports on the radio that Andre was having problems. Well we all walked up to look and inspect and it turned out his 4 bolts that hold the transfer case to the transmission and stripped out and his transfer case was no longer attached and was leaking tranny fluid. So MORE carnage on a reportedly very easy trail. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> At least all this didnt happen on the welder which we were talking about doing....man what a pig it woulda been to tow em outta that <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

Anyhow now we had a completely dead boat anchor to tow out pretty much with quite a few more hills and decents to go out. So we had a slow steady run back to camp. Joe was strapped to the front of the rodeo and a Trooper attached to the rear. Joe was complaining of this being an easy trail so this just made it more fun for him actually having to lock up and engage 4 wheel drive <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. He worked a little on a couple hills and made it pretty easily all the way back to camp.

Well then I was left figuring out how to get my friend Kyle in his front wheel drive CJ back home the hour and half to Wilkesboro, NC. so we covered up the rear output good enough and put it in front wheel drive and decided to set out. I told him I would follow him if he had any problems and I am glad I did. Cause we no sooner got into Mountain city and he was hearing popping noises from the transfer case. So we hooked up the tow strap and towed him home the rest of the way Redneck style. Then it was late enough and I was tired enough I opted to just head home as well instead of back to run welder. Everyone had ended on a bad note on the easy trail and I just had a feeling for some reason I didnt wanna push my luck <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" />.

Overall a fun time was had wheelin and it was a good weekend for me. I didnt get much pics cause it was a slow easy trail with a lot of recovery. Smiley and a few others were snappin pics and will post em up though i am sure when they get back.
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

dang guys, sorry i couldnt be there to help, thats kinda nuts because i told my buddy ryan right before we pulled out that i had an eery feeling about that jeep... i hope he gets everything fixed alright. I hope Andres stuff is alright too. Looks like Callaentee is the place to conquer for a some ppl now <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

the sad part is....that Kyle(jeep owner) has a lot harder trails on his property at home that he runs than this one. It was eating him up all day while he was riding with me that it happened on such an easy trail. Oh well, it just goes to show that no matter what vehicle you drive, or what trail you drive,....if you wheel em.....sooner or later you will break em...at the time you least expect to possibly <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />.

It comes with the territory right <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

thanks for the report. us homebound-ers get some vicariouos experience from them anyway.



what's with the bolts? are they just not up to the stress you all put them under; i mean are they not designed to actually take offroad stress, or is it that the ones installed are inferior quality? or?

is it something we ought to be aware of and 'upgrade'?

[[[EDIT: OR is it better the bolts snap as the weak link instead of something else?]]]
thanks.

here are some that we took:

http://mark.barreira.org/images/web/2006_08_26_Callalantee/

It was a great time!

Same thing happened to me on Golden Spike... ran the 'tough' sections of the trail with no problems, then my front driveshaft let go on completely flat ground. My bolts did't shear, though; just backed out. Apparently I forgot to use Lok-tite when reinstalling the front driveshaft after putting on my drop diff brackets. Needless to say, the replacement bolts Steve (lttlbddy) was nice enough to provide me with got a healthy coat of blue lok-tite before getting torqued down. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

[edit]Glad you guys had a good time... but everything about this picture is unsafe <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

http://mark.barreira.org/images/web/2006_08_26_Callalantee/IMGP1921.jpg

the distances are really deceptive in that picture. I know that the group of people in the background, as well as the group I was standing with were out of range of a lash back - and if I remember correctly, Doug was just snugging up the cable. We ended up putting a damper on the cable and the driver operated the winch...