Re: Tom's Weekend

[tsm1@domain.elided (Tom Mandera)]

>>frame held together just fine... so instead, I tore a strip right out of 
>>the frame!  A piece of chain and a come-along got me home.. *sigh*  
>
>Tommy, Tommy, Tommy
>
>You must have been on some trail ride. Sorry about your troubles. Maybe 
>the Fleckster will fabricate you a new frame. 

Funny thing, John... I was doing just fine with the numerous new dents and
scratches (heck, even when that tree branch jumped up and tried to stab my
Scout in the eye.. er.. driver's head lamp)..  My friend told me I was the
longest wheelbase he'd ever squeezed through this trail (I was in the
company of a CJ-7 and an Early Bronco).. I made it, but I'd like to blame
the dents and scratches on poor driving, and inadequate gearing...

Curiously, all was fine until we were coming *out*, on a fairly easy section
of the trail.. that's when I started rubbing the tire into the fender.  At
first, I thought "Wow, my lift springs finally settled!"... put they pushed
forward into the wheel well, causing the 33 to chew on the front of the
fender... chewing both the fender, and the tire.  I tried prying backwards
with my Hi-Lift handle a few times, but it always "fell" forward again..
when we reached the trail head (on our way out) we accessed the situation..
and found the spring mount had torn from the frame.

It was a great trail, and fun camping the night before... 

My friends (in the Early Bronco) keep shaking their heads... for some reason
they feel somewhat responsible for the carnage (seems every time I wheel
with them, I feel I hafta follow where they go (Hey, a Bronco did it... I
can too) and I end up breaking things...).. they also commented that they
couldn't believe I'm still fourwheeling... most folks would've given up.

Heck, while using the come-along to pull the spring into position, they
called out, "Hey Tom... did you know your transfer case is about to fall
off?".. seems the bolts had worked loose... they waited for me to flip out.
:-)  I just laughed and grumbled as I grabbed my 9/16 wrench...

Good thing Scouts are overbuilt to take my abuse... my old Chevy Luv fell to
pieces long before I reached this point. :)

Hindsight, I think I stressed the spring mount on Holy Cross City... I
remember it scraping on the French Creek crossing.. could've been broken
nearly the entire duration of my roadtrip, and only reared it's ugly head
while coming *home* from this trip.

I wonder what'll happen when I go racing this weekend... :-)

-Tom Mandera, Helena MT
With too many trip reports to write, and pics to scan!
http://www.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout
'72 and '77 Scout IIs