PEAK PUTTERS

Met up with Gibby from PNW/NW-W @ 9:00 this morning and headed out to Juniper. His group had 3 rigs and 3 quads. I'll add names and rigs later after I get 'em striaght. Trashy, Peanut, and bobracing came out with WT's "Toyota", and the Rodeo thing. It was to play, but b.r. took over and seemed to be having way too much fun, so we let him be. OG caught us on the way in and headed to the upper parking lot to set up. We stopped at the junction as I figured Gibby and crew had had enough abuse to the motor homes and campers by then. And Gibby stuck it. Shawnb (4runner) and RockMike (sammi) added to the rig count when we got there. Shawn had some belt issues that slowed things up for a bit, so just as we get going, here comes OG to check on us. Got to the upper area about 11ish, and Mrs. Gibby wants to know where we're going. I point to the dunes below us and say "Out there". She said something about home. I think. Any how, off we go to play. Everyone seemed to adjust to sand fairly well for a bunch of rookies. First time for all of them. Anyhow, I'm plowing around enjoying myself, and happen to look around for OG. And up on the hill I spy a blue Jeep with the hood up! Uh huh. Jimmy's in the house. I head up to check on the boy, and he's pouring gas in it. Ran out and it won't prime. Great. Then he mentions the power steering. Okay, what's up with that? Uh, blew a hose! Nice. Decides to do the prudent thing and load up. Good move. During the interlude with OG, I'd noticed that Gibby hadn't moved for a while down in the sand. Figure I'll go look. He's lost a brake line! They've just gotten him in 3 wheel stop mode, and we head up above again. While we're dicussing a run out to the north end, a gent comes up and asks if we can help retrieve a broke quad. Sure, we like to be good guys, so off we go up the draw behind him. Yup, broke wheel off. I have them toss it in my truck, and we haul it back for them, all the while with him griping about careless nephews. Get it off, and he wants to pay me. Nope, not how it works. So now we spot a black TJ below us, and if'n it ain't TJDave! He pulls in to join us. Finally. By now, Gibby and his crew are up against their schedule, so they load up and head out. No idea how much fun they had getting motor home out, but it was gone when we got back down to load up WT. Anyway, after some pretty productive bench racing, we head back out, too, load, air up, and hit the trail. I had noticed a sign down on the way in, but had too big a herd to stop then, and almost forgot till TJ and I were driving by it. We pulled off to inspect the thing, and it looked to have gotten smacked by a quad. Posts broke off at the ground. Dave has pix, and I notified the FCSO. All in all, it was a good day, even with the mechanical gremlins and rescue. I'm tired and will be ready again when anyone wants to do some sand!


Note: Pictures will be available from Gibby directly, and I'll get them up. My camera was dead this morning...

Oh, and Trash had a flat on the trailer, so they were a bit in arrears on the way out, but mad driving skills got them there okay

Nothing a little sweet pit crewing from bobracing couldn't take care of. Picked up a piece of the rodeo on the way past the driveway... Didn't make it 3 blocks before we had to stop.

Better late than never. I reached the tow rigs about 12:30ish. Aired down and flagged up and started my search for the sand people. Went in the back way so I did not miss anybody. Went up and down some hills. Actually went down more than up, on some. Anyway, came up to the big bowl and I spot a big blue pop up canopy with a red F-150 and some sort of mutated Toyota by it. Once I hit the lawn chair in the shade and sipped some lemonade, my day (or hour) of wheeling was over! A couple pics of the broken sign, and the big blue cover is about all I have. Had fun hangin out though.




Airing up..................................and Grumpy's butt.

Nothing wrong with kicking back in the shade sucking down a cold tea bs'ing with the boys... Unless some puttz parks his tj just right so you end up blinding an old man and burning the back of another neck with the suns reflections off of your windshield..... At least some of us are kind and caring enough to cut our roof's and windshield frames off to avoid such things...

Sorry for the retina fry and Alabama sun burnt neck. I did move the Jeep when I saw Grumpy's cornea melting.

The rest of my story:

Before Dave came upon me. . .
We had decided to park in the upper lot while the rest of the group unloaded down low so we had a fair amount of time to play before anyone else showed up.
I was having fun RAILING in the sand dunes with Will riding co-dog. We were playing dune buggy with the Jeep. Running the bowls, climbing out, jumping, side hills. . .running in 5th gear wide open through the sand. We were harnessed in and he had his Razor helmet on.

After a while, I started to wonder WTF was going on with everyone so we headed back to the parking lot to take a look. On the way down, I lost power steering. . .added fluid. . .lost it again on the way back to the upper lot. Discovered problem. . .and discovered that it will require a new pressure hose. I knew I was low on fuel so I had the can handy and when it ran out it took a while to prime the system. I think because it was pretty HOT. . .LOL. . .

It was time for us to head back anyway so we threw the Jeep on the trailer and headed for home. Saw TJDave on Peterson Road..

Thanks, Jimmy! So, what was the issue?

The metal thingy attached to the rubber thingy got some organic thingy caught between it and the steering shaft u-joint and pinched the aforementioned metal thingy where it goes in to the steering box causing massive juice squirtage of the unplanned variety.

Your descriptive powers overwhelm me

Mmm so the metal thingy is what broke.. You should have said something, I have a brass thingy that puts that metal thingy back together again...


Just a thought you may think about NOT getting the factory hose and having one built with replaceable ends and standard hydro hose. Set the pressure hose up with 6-an ends and life will be very easy and it will not cost much over the standard disposable hose.

ooo. . .Evan can make me one!! nice idea.

Nice pics!


Trashy, I love the trailer. I've been wanting to get me one like it for a while now.

OldGreen wrote:ooo. . .Evan can make me one!! nice idea.

Yup, all of my hoses on the truck use reusable ends even the brakes. The front brake hoses are 3-an and I carry reusable ends for it in case I tear one off. I am slowly swapping over the whole system to be simple to fix...

For the steering I use 6-an on all ends other than the pressure hose coming off of the pump. That one uses a compression fitting to adapt to the 'yota pump. When it dies I'll swap a TC saginaw pump in and go 6-an also. All fo the hoses have crimped ends but I carry a handful of reusable ones to fix issues.

That's how the race truck rolls too.