XJ4IV
02-03-2013, 10:48 AM
well my buddy from work got his K5 a few months ago... and still yet to get his license he was anxious to go drive his truck so I said we can take it to hidden falls. he was very excited for this so friday evening we loaded up the K5 and sat morning headed over to the Falls with some frinds of mine from Dallas
K5 did pretty good all day no real karnage to speak of on a TOTALLY stock 86 carbed Blazer.
We started the day off kinda easy headed up to the tower hill for obvious first time wheelers photo op then headed down the back side of the hill towards the fence line and had a nice decension on a hill and on to the mud pit where he THOUGHT he would play... well as we arrived to see a cherokee stuck up to his axles in murky nasty mud we quickly squashed that idea and proceeded along the fence line back towards camp for a potty break then I asked if he was ready to step it up a tad to a more complex trail he quickly asked if there were bypasses to the more difficult portions which in some cases there were ... so we were off to Bronco Buster!
I drove the Blazer first to get past the first drop then I let him take over for the rest of the trail... I walked it in front of him and spotted as needed!
the truck did great so off to Karnage Canyon for a little mud for him and some rock climbs for my Dallas buddies and of course photo ops galore.
after the canyon we decided to head down the park road to hit No Name trail again I decided to walk and spot the trail for our newby!
made it throufgh 95% of the trail with no huge issues until the very end about 100 yards from the end of the trailwe hit a spot that proved difficult for the unlifted beast and my jeep only spotting skills... his passenger side differential and VERY low trans case skid proved to catch on EVERYTHING on this last part so after several attempts and the little bit of karnage we decided to back away from this part and hit the bypass... as we headed up the bypass that was very loose his all terrains decided to not grip the dirty and loose rock which pulled him sideways down the hill where he came to a 2 wheel rest... not sure HOW but for ONCE i had the tire pressure JUST right! and his whole truck was literally teetering on the drivers side wheels once we gave a SINGLE attempt to drive out of this predicament we realized that this time for REAL one more inch and we definitely would have flopped.
Cody was taking all this pretty cool... mind you at THIS Point he has had more seat time in 4 low than in 2 hi!
Now we devised a plan to have the ONLY recovery equipment we tied his frame off to a tree to prevent rollover and were able to flag some assistance from a RZR which thankful for his dedication however still proved to not be quite enough oomph... now we pondered how to safely remove the truck and not cause any more damage and along come the calvalry a slew of texas jeeps / Houston Jeep People now that we had TWO jeeps with a winch I knew exactly what we needed to do have one from the rear pulling backwards and have another from up top attached to his fram under tension to keep him from flopping ... this was the ideal solution to the problem!!! like clockwork the TJ pulled in as the JK payed out line to keep the K5 as close to level as possible we were able to safely bring the truck back down to level ground!!!
as we now stand looking at what we need to do to get out of the trail we decided to back up a little further and take a trail exit and head back to the park road... the whole rescue attempt took nearly 2.5 hours which put us close to 5:00 p.m. which was dinner time! so having blown a rear axle seal in the process and losing a substantial amount of 80/90 oil from the differential we decided to call it quits for today to save the axle gears!
we had a great time and very glad we got Cody to break in the ole K5 and so very glad my friends Steve and Michelle got to come visit with me for the weekend!
here are some more random pictures we snapped and videos as well... the smaller pictures are videos Just click the picture to view the video!
and again HUGE thanks to Texas Jeeps and Houston Jeep People
well our sattelite internet (Hughesnet) is FREAKING slow so pics are coming here in a bit!
K5 did pretty good all day no real karnage to speak of on a TOTALLY stock 86 carbed Blazer.
We started the day off kinda easy headed up to the tower hill for obvious first time wheelers photo op then headed down the back side of the hill towards the fence line and had a nice decension on a hill and on to the mud pit where he THOUGHT he would play... well as we arrived to see a cherokee stuck up to his axles in murky nasty mud we quickly squashed that idea and proceeded along the fence line back towards camp for a potty break then I asked if he was ready to step it up a tad to a more complex trail he quickly asked if there were bypasses to the more difficult portions which in some cases there were ... so we were off to Bronco Buster!
I drove the Blazer first to get past the first drop then I let him take over for the rest of the trail... I walked it in front of him and spotted as needed!
the truck did great so off to Karnage Canyon for a little mud for him and some rock climbs for my Dallas buddies and of course photo ops galore.
after the canyon we decided to head down the park road to hit No Name trail again I decided to walk and spot the trail for our newby!
made it throufgh 95% of the trail with no huge issues until the very end about 100 yards from the end of the trailwe hit a spot that proved difficult for the unlifted beast and my jeep only spotting skills... his passenger side differential and VERY low trans case skid proved to catch on EVERYTHING on this last part so after several attempts and the little bit of karnage we decided to back away from this part and hit the bypass... as we headed up the bypass that was very loose his all terrains decided to not grip the dirty and loose rock which pulled him sideways down the hill where he came to a 2 wheel rest... not sure HOW but for ONCE i had the tire pressure JUST right! and his whole truck was literally teetering on the drivers side wheels once we gave a SINGLE attempt to drive out of this predicament we realized that this time for REAL one more inch and we definitely would have flopped.
Cody was taking all this pretty cool... mind you at THIS Point he has had more seat time in 4 low than in 2 hi!
Now we devised a plan to have the ONLY recovery equipment we tied his frame off to a tree to prevent rollover and were able to flag some assistance from a RZR which thankful for his dedication however still proved to not be quite enough oomph... now we pondered how to safely remove the truck and not cause any more damage and along come the calvalry a slew of texas jeeps / Houston Jeep People now that we had TWO jeeps with a winch I knew exactly what we needed to do have one from the rear pulling backwards and have another from up top attached to his fram under tension to keep him from flopping ... this was the ideal solution to the problem!!! like clockwork the TJ pulled in as the JK payed out line to keep the K5 as close to level as possible we were able to safely bring the truck back down to level ground!!!
as we now stand looking at what we need to do to get out of the trail we decided to back up a little further and take a trail exit and head back to the park road... the whole rescue attempt took nearly 2.5 hours which put us close to 5:00 p.m. which was dinner time! so having blown a rear axle seal in the process and losing a substantial amount of 80/90 oil from the differential we decided to call it quits for today to save the axle gears!
we had a great time and very glad we got Cody to break in the ole K5 and so very glad my friends Steve and Michelle got to come visit with me for the weekend!
here are some more random pictures we snapped and videos as well... the smaller pictures are videos Just click the picture to view the video!
and again HUGE thanks to Texas Jeeps and Houston Jeep People
well our sattelite internet (Hughesnet) is FREAKING slow so pics are coming here in a bit!