Tennessee Red

[gasiorv]

Prepping the Jeep for being trail guide at the Jeep Jamboree in Hot Springs and I thankfully found that the Passenger side lower ball joint had failed and that the Pitman Arm had developed some fatigue cracks.

The ball joint was a spicer and only had three trail days on it. Pretty sure that it got overloaded on the No Limits trail with Garrett, that trail was tight and technical and the wheels were getting pinched pretty hard. You can see in the picture that the ball was pulled down pretty hard which forced the retaining ring out through lip.

I swapped out the lower and upper ball joints with another set of Spicer Joints and need to start looking for a Dana 60 for the front in the future.

Pitman Arm - My buddy told me that the axle shaft failure was life's way of saving me from a disaster after showing him the pitman arm cracks. I need whatever help I can get, so i will take it!

After looking at the pictures of the internal gear that I sent them, RCV contacted me and told me to check the splines on the shaft because they were most likely stripped as well. And sure enough, they were. I guess I was so focused on the cracks in the internal gear that I never wiped the grease off the splines and looked at them. Anyway, my neighbor has 2003 Rubicon with RCVs so he let me rob his front Driver's side shaft for the Jeep Jamboree. RCV has shipped a new shaft and it is on it's way.

 

[gasiorv]

With the Jeep all fixed and ready to wheel again. I made the decision to stick with the 37" BFG Reds for Hot Springs and headed out on Wed afternoon for Hot Springs. A friend of mine offered up his van for me to use in lieu of tent camping, he bought a Sprinter van and did a DIY camper van conversion and it was pretty sweet!

I stopped at Northwoods Mountain Bike Trails on the way to the Jamboree and got in a few hours of great riding. I love Northwoods! One of my favorite places to ride. With the van I was able to have a hot shower and a nice cold brew after the ride which was icing on the cake!

As far as the Jamboree goes, I was supposed to be a Moderate/Hard Trail Guide; however, the group this year was more into the moderate and not so much the "hard". My motto is "Easy doesn't make good stories" however this group took every bypass, oh well to each his own. So with this group the wheeling I did on Thurs and Fri was pretty easy, we ran moderate to hard trails but I was the only one that took all the hard lines and the rest of the group would take the bypasses. Saturday morning before packing up to head out several of the Trail Guides got together to go out and run some trails before we left. It was a fun morning and we ran some hard trails (Ingrid's Revenge, Headbanger, Shafner's Hollow, Slammer) and I really got to test how the stickies worked. I have wheeled all these trails on 35" and 36" DOT tires in the past (most recently in January) and I have made all the same lines on those tires; however, with the stickies I was able to crawl every line and not give it the ol' TN enthusiasm to get up the lines. I was very very very pleased with the ability to Crawl everything in lieu of having to bump it up over ledges. Not sure which is harder on the Jeep, the bumping (putting high loads into joints, fittings, welds, etc...) or the stickies actually hooking up and putting high loads into the shafts, ujoints, diff, drivetrain, but it is pretty cool to be able to crawl everything!

After we wheeled in the morning, I packed up and headed home. On the way home I stopped at Pinnacle Mountain in Little Rock and rode my mountain bike for a few hours. I had a great ride and it was just a perfect day (wheeling in the morning and Mt Biking in the afternoon). So happy to have great friends, a great family, and a very supportive wife who understands that my sanity requires some Vitamin D therapy.

 

[gasiorv]

Few pics from the trail guide Sat morning ride. It was a lot of fun and a great group. Pics are from one of the other trail guides and she takes some great pics!!

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Awesome report, Victor.

 

[Brianj5600]

Thanks for the write up. Are there other parks that you could compare to?

 

[gasiorv]

Thanks for the write up. Are there other parks that you could compare to?

Hot Springs has more rock and less clay compared to Hawk Pride. If it is wet you're jeep will come with much less mud on it than from an Alabama or TN park. It's a little bigger overall compared to Hawk Pride. Hot Springs is a great park and a highly recommend giving it a go.

 

[Woodrow]

Few pics from the trail guide Sat morning ride. It was a lot of fun and a great group. Pics are from one of the other trail guides and she takes some great pics!!
View attachment 512407

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Nice rocks, Victor. I see you still drive around with less than 4 tires on the ground frequently
Also glad you got a nice bike ride in. I'm planning a Mt. Ashland ride with a friend this weekend which should involve some fun DH (accessed by thousands of feet of climbing...). We'll see how the fitness is I guess.

 

[starkey480]

Prepping the Jeep for being trail guide at the Jeep Jamboree in Hot Springs and I thankfully found that the Passenger side lower ball joint had failed and that the Pitman Arm had developed some fatigue cracks.

The ball joint was a spicer and only had three trail days on it. Pretty sure that it got overloaded on the No Limits trail with Garrett, that trail was tight and technical and the wheels were getting pinched pretty hard. You can see in the picture that the ball was pulled down pretty hard which forced the retaining ring out through lip.
View attachment 512397

I swapped out the lower and upper ball joints with another set of Spicer Joints and need to start looking for a Dana 60 for the front in the future.

Pitman Arm - My buddy told me that the axle shaft failure was life's way of saving me from a disaster after showing him the pitman arm cracks. I need whatever help I can get, so i will take it!
View attachment 512398

View attachment 512399

After looking at the pictures of the internal gear that I sent them, RCV contacted me and told me to check the splines on the shaft because they were most likely stripped as well. And sure enough, they were. I guess I was so focused on the cracks in the internal gear that I never wiped the grease off the splines and looked at them. Anyway, my neighbor has 2003 Rubicon with RCVs so he let me rob his front Driver's side shaft for the Jeep Jamboree. RCV has shipped a new shaft and it is on it's way.
View attachment 512400

View attachment 512401

That would have been much less fun to recover from than the RCV

 

[gasiorv]

Nice rocks, Victor. I see you still drive around with less than 4 tires on the ground frequently
Also glad you got a nice bike ride in. I'm planning a Mt. Ashland ride with a friend this weekend which should involve some fun DH (accessed by thousands of feet of climbing...). We'll see how the fitness is I guess.

I was not in downhill/rock garden shape on this last trip but I did feel pretty good on some of the climbs and got a few PRs on climbing sections. Need to get more practice on the downhills and in the rocks to get back in shape to rail them. I actually just converted my bike back to SS and plan on hopefully get out later this week for some SS fun. Have fun on your ride!

 

[Woodrow]

I was not in downhill/rock garden shape on this last trip but I did feel pretty good on some of the climbs and got a few PRs on climbing sections. Need to get more practice on the downhills and in the rocks to get back in shape to rail them. I actually just converted my bike back to SS and plan on hopefully get out later this week for some SS fun. Have fun on your ride!

DH on a ss hardtail is about as hardcore as it gets, especially if its self shuttle