Fall Strawberry Trail Maintenance Run - Saturday November 7th

SMcCutcheon said Thank you very much for allowing us to join the group for today’s trip.  We had a great time, and enjoyed the hospitality.  Even though this was our first run, everyone made is feel incredibly welcome, just as if we had been members for a long time.  We could not have had a better experience.  Thank you to everyone who helped spot for us, give a small pull when needed, got us through with no damage, and only the occasional scraping noise.

I'm glad you and your son had a good time. You did great!

k-jeep said Made it home just fine. After airing up the front tire the second time on the trail it held the air. My passenger rear, on the other hand, was leaking at a dent in the wheel at the inner bead. Aired it all the way down, made sure it was clear of debris, and then wacked it with a BFH. Both tires held air from the CalTrans station to Amador Brewing and then home. 🍺

Looks like I will need both new wheels and tires this winter.

How did this happen Kevin?

Back safe too. Good to see everyone. My friend Josh and I had a great time - even though we had to leave early. Already looking forward to the next time.

Jeff_R said

k-jeep said

Made it home just fine. After airing up the front tire the second time on the trail it held the air. My passenger rear, on the other hand, was leaking at a dent in the wheel at the inner bead. Aired it all the way down, made sure it was clear of debris, and then wacked it with a BFH. Both tires held air from the CalTrans station to Amador Brewing and then home. 🍺

Looks like I will need both new wheels and tires this winter.

How did this happen Kevin?

My guess is that it happened on Fordyce, plus years of hard wheeling. I didn’t do anything extreme yesterday and they hold air when fully aired up. They leak at the inner bead when aired down.

Sorry Sean that your club entry lunch was a bit of a bust, if there is anything I have learned in the last 2 years in the club it is that anything can happen but the club always sticks together and makes sure everything works out, like Kris (and I assume others in the club) making sure everyone passed safely and got through v-rock whether you are in the club or not, cant wait to hear about getting the new 4 door stock Ram truck through v-rock and then the gatekeeper we made more difficult while he was on the trail in the meeting this week!

We did enjoy our sandwich down the trail a bit Sean and let me be the first to welcome you to the club as our newest member! And the first to complete it while we are meeting virtually. I know we have several others close to it as well, looking forward to more trail lunches!

Brian said

Guy and Lynda said

Guy is home. Dale deposited him home about 8:00.  Thank u to everyone for helping him!!

Glad y’all made it all home safe and had a good day!

L👧

Where’s the Jeep?

we made it home about 5:30

Good question Brian. Lynda made the call for a tow truck while we were at Strawberry pass (text worked there) & was told it would be at least 4 hours before they would show up. Caltrans let Dale & I use their land phone, since there was no cell service there. Surprisingly, by the time we made the calls, the tow truck showed up & was ready to hook-up! Because the weather was turning bad, they towed it back to their home base in Gardnerville, NV, which is where it sits currently. They will bring it to Cameron Park when the roads clear, which most likely will be today or tomorrow. Dale dropped me off in Cameron Park. Because of COVID-19, you are not able to ride with the tow truck driver & must provide your own transportation, so Dale stayed & saved the day. But, if you're alone or don't have the means for communications, I think a well-invested move would be for the club to invest in a satellite phone for emergencies and or situations like this. Caltrans was there & kind enough to let us use their phone (& also offered to leave the Jeep there & would keep an eye on it), but it could have been somewhere else where a phone wasn't available. A cell phone can be a savior, but simply not the ultimate answer. As far as the track bar breakage is concerned, it needs to be assessed & determined why it's failing & get it repaired correctly, once a for all. There is a reason why it's failing, & need to get to the bottom of the cause. MC Motorsports is not the answer.

The trail was full of vehicles, which by comparison to all other times, was troublesome on a narrow trial. The lower group (from 50) spent an hour on maintenance & 3 hours finding means to get by uphill or downhill traffic (us or them). In my experience on this trail, this was by far was the worst situation that could have happened.

Lynda suggested to post some signs, a week or so ahead, warning people of delays that may result from our maintenance efforts, that may help the situation. At least other people would be aware of having to wait & know why.

Maybe holding our maintenance run a little earlier may also help too. Besides moving rocks, that's all the time we had for maintenance.

I thought I would share some of my pictures from the trip.

Just got back into town.

Yeah all that work moving the boulder was undone in 10 minutes from the Toyota Desert Rats. The Power Wagon could have easily made it through.

Thanks Guy for letting me ride up and Jamie for the ride back.

Sorry to hear about the tie rod issue. Must have happened just after I transferred to Jamie's rig. Talking with Jamie on the ride back and your experience, I think I will look for somewhere else to install my gears.  I used go to S&H 4WD in the 80's and I know they are still around. I may try them.

Sloguy said Just got back into town.

Yeah all that work moving the boulder was undone in 10 minutes from the Toyota Desert Rats. The Power Wagon could have easily made it through.

Thanks Guy for letting me ride up and Jamie for the ride back.

Sorry to hear about the tie rod issue. Must have happened just after I transferred to Jamie's rig. Talking with Jamie on the ride back and your experience, I think I will look for somewhere else to install my gears.  I used go to S&H 4WD in the 80's and I know they are still around. I may try them.

Thanks for the company John, it was my pleasure. Yes, it all happened after you jumped in with Jamie. We stopped & strapped it up further up & limped the rest of the way in to the Caltrans yard. I think MC Motorsports & most other shops simply don't know what the problem is & especially how to solve it. They have done lots of other work with no complaints at all. I think the Power Wagon would have had problems on other parts of the trail going down, but you never know. Glad to hear you made your trip, after all the delays we had.