Lonewolf's 1998 Jeep Wrangler Sport

[JMT]

Next up was a trip to Fordyce, me and @Alex01 wanted to enter at the committee crossing and exit at meadow lakes, so essentially do the rest of the trail we hadn’t done. There was some snow on the ground and it made everything slightly more difficult. The water crossing was pretty deep and was almost coming in over the top of the half doors!

View attachment 479319

View attachment 479324

View attachment 479320

View attachment 479325

View attachment 479321

View attachment 479322

View attachment 479323
The wheeling was great , we had to use a bit more wheel speed than usual to get out some of the slick rock faces but all in all it was great until it wasn’t. We got to winch hill three I decided I would try the hard line 1st after about 20 minutes of trying I decided that since I didn’t make it more than 8 feet it wasn’t happening. Alex was next up he made it all the way till the last climb and we heard something let go, it ended up being his front axle shaft U joint.

View attachment 479331
There is no way he was going to be able to back up or winch backwards so we figured the only way Forward was up! I was turning around to take the bypass to get up top to winch him forward and midway up the climb something snapped in my front end and I lost 4wheel Drive and had a horrible grinding noise. Needless to say I was out of the game, luckily there was a broken Toyota and a Jeep on 42s at the top so we were able to use them as a winch point and get Alex to the top where we could make repairs. That was a feat in itself because he ended up overheating his winch so bad it stopped working and almost flopped sideways.
View attachment 479334

View attachment 479336

View attachment 479337

That’s a rockin’ trail! Great stuff! I love seeing this trail. I hope you guys go back and conquer.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Sounds like an epic trip! You never remember the trips that go well. But you remember, and will be talking about, trips like this forever.

But tell the truth, LW - you took the bypass with the intent of high-tailing it out of there and leaving Alex behind. Good thing you broke or poor Alex might still be sitting there…

 

[Alex01]

We were able To get him to the top and pull out the broken u joint and made the choice to go back downhill as he had only 3 Wheel Drive and I had two wheel drive unless it was a hard climb I would put it in four and cringe at the sounds coming out of the front axle. It was a long process but we made it down to the Crossing where I got stuck going downhill and I needed Alex’s assistance but he was stuck coming up hill. It added about 30 minutes to the day of just trying to make it a few feet. Alex ended up strapping me all the way out and we made it back to the trucks in mostly one piece.

My damage from the day was unknown broken axle parts, a ripped soft top and bent my steering.

Good times. Great way to end a summer wheeling season, though it looked like winter that day, and set us up for a winter rebuilding season.