Saturday Run Sept 2000

Friday night hit us with a furry. there was a twister go though Pine Lake camp ground killing about 10 and for us in Calgary we got drenched not once but three times before the sun came up. my HZJ75 sat out in the open with the top off. the day before was 32c and that night my loving wife says " you should park that in the garage". "naw, it will be fine where it is", says me. famous last words. the next morning, Jarrat from Brooks shows up at 8, my son-in-law was down from Edmonton and myself decide to go for a run. it was still a light drizzle so Jarrat hooks his 40 behind his Jeep Cherokee and i hook my Yellow 45 behind my wife's Mazda van. (the white 75 don't have a tow bar).

off we go for some fun in the mountain mud. Jarrat had just welded the rear gears and was running some healthy 31" mud tires. the cruiser towed very well until i hit gravel just by Bar C ranch. i was very surprised that little van could pull a 5000+ lb. truck but when we hit the gravel hill, WOW, did our progress slow down. she was fishtailing like crazy trying to pull it up the hill. once we unhooked we locked in (no airing down for me) and off we went.

by now the sun was out and a beautiful day was in progress. the first turn off of 'lost knife trail' (don't you just love the names of the trails out here) was nothing but mud. the trail was completely under water and when Cory (my son-in-law) immediately drooped the yellow tank to the frame in 2 body lengths we decided against proceeding any further down this trail. we could have made a bit more progress but then we would be tearing the earth to soup and accomplishing nothing. the trail does get extremely hard shortly after the first mud stretch, around the first corner then you run into a couple hundred feet of side hill muskeg and after that another short section of mud then some more skag. so we towed Cory back onto the trail and turned back to 'lost knife trail'.

for Jarrat this was a thrill, being from Brooks, where there is nothing for even small hills, this was exciting. i love the look on the faces of the beginners when the first experience what their trucks can actually do.

his truck performed admirably for most of the day, more on that later.

it was quite cool to watch Jarrat challenge the slick mountain mud with his 40 and seeing the 45 tank rumble along behind. it reminded me of a young animal stretching it's legs for the first time and the mother watching ready to jump in if needed. when we got to the last of the slick mud we decided to roast some hot dogs over a open fire. there we are in the middle of nowhere, having a hot meal and enjoying the association with the mountains all around us. just too cool!!

after lunch we headed for the 4 corners. man, have some idiots torn up the back country. why people do this type of nonsense is beyond me. mud runs in the middle of skag fields. it is just depressing. i have been 4x4ing on these trails for over 15 years now and in the last 5 years it has gotten to the point where i don't like to make these runs anymore. i like the runs where nobody has appeared to use the trails for 20 years. now that is ambiance.

so when we got to the 4 corners we continued north and Jarrat got to learn how important it is to listen to your spotter. i was guiding him over a rut which allowed his tires to grip only the outer couple of inched of his tires. at one point he decided he knew better and low and behold his back tire dropped in and his front tire was a good 3 ft off the ground. it wasn't like he could hurt his truck or himself, but you should have seen the look on his face. the truck dropped in so fast and his jaw dropped almost as fast and as far. i found it quite funny but he didn't. he was a bit freaked but he had learned a valuable lesson. after we got him back on level ground he followed the spotter exactly.

the yellow beast just puttered all day, man i love that truck!! so after that we decided to climb a couple of hills so we could get a better view. Jarrat asked me to drive since his carburetor had been acting up on inclines. not a problem as we puttered up some nice steep hills. word of caution for all you cruiser heads. NEVER say man is my truck running good today. Jarrat said that and no sooner did he say it then the front tire fell off. nope the lug nuts were still on. the outer wheel bearing was totally gone. all we found was one roller from the outer bearing.

so what would you do?? you are out in the middle of nowhere with no replacement parts and you really don't want to leave the cruiser out there.

well you can't tow it with no front tire on. so i did the next best thing. i jacked up his truck until the 45 could back under his front bumper with my pinto hitch. i lower the 40 down after taking off the other front tire. with the entire weight of the 40 front end on my pinto hitch we ended up with about 2 inches of ground clearance under his pumpkin. i had about 1/2" clearance between my rear wheel wells and my tire. we wrapped his winch cable around my hitch so he would not side off.

now i was thinking over the last few months that my 45 with a F motor was under powered and due for a replacement, but that motor pulled the 45 and the dead 40 up the hills at about 900 rpm like it was a brand new 2F. grunt like there was no tomorrow. i love my truck!! Jarrat was in the 40 in case i needed him to use the emergency to help slow us on the steep inclines but not a problem. that 45 pulled him like he wasn't even there. yes we dragged bottom a couple of time and yes i rubbed my fenders a couple of times but all in all the setup worked beautifully. it took over an hour to get him out of the bush and on the main road.

once we got to the road and where the other vehicles were left we unloaded some weight from the 40 and chained the two together for safety, i proceeded to tow him another 2 1/2 hrs home. we kept the speed down to 50 mph and checked the cable and chain every few miles. i phone my loving wife and we had hot pizza waiting for us when we got home.

so all in all we had a great day, we over came adversity and all returned home safe and sound. that is the important thing.