Scoutin the Pinelands part 3

[cookiedan@domain.elided (Daniel Nees)]

So then Dennis and Sele get back and we hook up the gold box and get on
our way. After another hour in the woods we come across this open area
with a little mud and some little cuts through the trees. I find this
one cut that is about a 75 deg incline and about 9' high. I go 4 low and
hammer it. Just as I'm getting up it my saggy springs and big step
bumper in the back get me and I bang into the ground. So, I back out of
it. Joe decideds that he can do it with his 4" lift. This produced some
really cool pictures of the front end coming off the ground with a large
chunk of dirt that the front axle brings with it. It took 5 attemps
before he could figure out the combo of power and speed. When he finnaly
clears the top he got a good inch or two of air under the tires coming
over. Dennis then tried it twice. Both times he put his front tires up
at least 6"! That was a really cool thing. He didn't make it though
because once the front tires come over , unless you have alot of
momentum your frame hits and you have no tire traction. So we then
headed back to the camp. Dennis's truck is running really rough. Once
back Dennis discovers that there is a half inch of water onder the dust
shield of his distributer. 
    That was Saturday. Today, we head back to that sand pit area so Joe
can try it out. When we get to the area I take Joe, Dennis, and myself
down another ATV trail where I procede to rip both mirrors off my truck,
and Joegot stuck, not in the sugar sand, but; on a tree branch that we
drove under! (I guess those lifts have their draw backs! :-) Once we get
back into the open pit area, Dennis hit a really hard bump, stalled the
truck, and knock over his 5 gallon can of gas all over the floor of the
truck. That effectively ended Dennis's day. He and his wife had to drive
back to VA with the gas smell and would have to stop alot to take on
Oxygen. So he had to leave around 10:30ish. 
   Then Sele came back and took us to another sand pit that had some
really cool steep hills that took alot of speed and power to musle over.
I tried this one hill that resulted in my high centering with all 4
wheels hanging! Joe had to pull me off. So, then Joe tries it. (Now, I
told him when he comes over the top to steer to the left because there
is another hill peak straight ahead od this one.) But, he got wrapped in
the adrenaline of the moment and clears the peak I was on only to get
dead high centered on the next peak with no tires touching the ground!
It is a great WHOOPS and I'll be sending a copy of it to KSoffroad and
Binder Bulletin. I then drug him off the hill. We decide to head to this
lake to play in the shallow end. On the way Joe can't get his truck's
front axle to disengage. Actually he has the Auto hubs and a bad U-joint
on his front drive shaft. The hub went while playing in the lastpit. It
kept popping in and out of engagement. And with his front U-joint going
it made driving impossible. So, after about 500 yards of this we decided
to pull over on the side of the road and pull the front drive shaft, and
lock the auto's up to stop the popping hub. That ended the days
wheeling. Besides we were heading to the dinner in an hour to eat
anyway.
(epilogue next)    

Dan Nees
cookiedan@domain.elided

   1979 Scout II 345, Auto, 3.07's, Lexan window's in TravelTop. One
Ugly and Trusty Truck!

1971 Scout II 304, D30/44, D20, power steering.

http://members.tripod.com/~IHCaholic/scoutindex.html