Completed: Blue Creek/Sanderson WV Trail ride

[Regulator1175]

Organizers words on route: "Thinking of starting in Quick at the High Wall, looping Sanderson and up Dutch Ridge A little stretch of hard road and then back through Falling Rock to Schoolhouse and then back to Pentacre." I am not sure if that will mean anything to anyone, it didn't to me.

Trail head: N38 21.700 W81 21.757

Route map:



I came down to Winfield, WV (just outside of Charleston) to visit some family following Carlisle. While here I decided to search out any local 4x4 club and try to make some contacts for future trips. In my research I found jeepinwv.com. After signing up for their forum and doing some reading I found a thread for a charity trail ride. They were asking for donations to help aid a local animal shelter. The ride organizer indicated that it would be "stock capable" and I decided to take my trucks maiden voyage, even though I am still running on street tires.

As it turns out, this was far from a "stock friendly" trail ride. Thankfully I removed the bumper cover because the radiator skid took some hard hits getting out of mud holes and a few difficult areas. Thanks Mike, I truly think your armor saved my condenser and radiator this trip!

We ran about 26 miles in a little more then 6 hours. There were some very tough hill climbs. I would guess around 60* inclines and some more then a couple hundred yards long. There were two occasions that we had to back down the hill and take another run at it because I lost power and momentum going up and came to a standstill. There were numerous creek crossings with water upwards of 24 inches. We saw alot of mud holes as well, some of the deeper ones had drive arounds, but most of them we had to power through.

It should also be noted that Tracey (my wife) drove(due to some unfortunate driving restrictions), with me directing here and talking her through the line when needed. We did hit one mud hole that was bit deeper then what the truck could handle and got stuck in the process. I think with real tires we could have climbed out, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. One of the larger Jeeps jumped in behind me, rapped a chain around my spare tire carrier, and had me out of the hole before I could even get out to asses the situation.

I suffered a bit of body damage as well. One of the creek crossings had a steep incline to get up the bank on the other side, and about 15 feet up it leveled off and you had to make a hard left and squeeze between two trees. Tracey watched the Samurai in front of us go through without any problem. Unfortunately for me, the Envoy is a bit wider and she got to close to the tree on the passenger side. I got some good rubbing on both doors and the body panels pushed in a little bit. I guess I am glad I decided to go with the Herculiner soon.

While on the last mile or so (25 miles in) we were on a longer creek crossing. The best I can figure is that I caught a rogue rock while in the water and it broke something in the CV joint. the outer boot had bearings rattling around loose in it. I immediately switched back into 2 wheel drive, and limped the last mile to the trail head. I am ashamed to say I sacrificed the tools for the kids suitcases. Next time they will wear one outfit the entire week, but I will have tools to be able to take care of my own problems. Thankfully, I got some help from a few of the Jeep club guys, and separated both of the CV joints and removed the half shaft.

This was a trail ride with about 20 other vehicles, so there wasn't much of an opportunity for posed pictures. However I will post some of what I was able to get, and link to the picture thread for the trail ride.



























Jeepinwv.com picture thread: http://www.jeepinwv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=22953

My photobucket folder: http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i288/regulator1175/Envoy/WV%20Trail%20Ride/

Videos are loading overnight. I will post a few tomorrow.

All in all it was a great time. I fully expect trail damage, so I wasn't worried about any of that. I actually am happy it happened on this run, it makes it easier to convince Tracey why I always keep tools in my truck, and the benefit of having some spare parts for the common failure parts on this platform. It will justify me spending more money in her eyes, which is always a good thing.

Am I Trail-Rated now?

[Regulator1175]

One further addition.

Later that evening my Grandparents church was putting on an evening festival in the community and one of the activities was a car and truck show. The buy in was a medium sized duffel bag to be donated to one of the local orphanages. I figured since it was for a good cause I might as well toss the truck in there.

Of course I didn't have time to wash it, so here is how it sat.



To the left of me was this truck.



I had alot of people walking through asking me why I would enter my truck in the show looking that way. My answer was "I built it to get dirty, not to be flashy and look good." I don't think the guy next to me appreciated that comment at all.

[The Roadie]

Nice picture of the poofy show poodle Ford next to your working husky dog of a truck. You should have tied a pink ribbon on his tow hooks if he walked away for a second.

Is he using EMT electrical conduit (1/2"?) for rock sliders?

[fishsticks]

He goes out, breaks his truck on a trail, does field repair and gets back to pavement.

Then he has the nuts to immediately enter a car show... unwashed.


I say a rank is in order.

[Regulator1175]

Nice picture of the poofy show poodle Ford next to your working husky dog of a truck. You should have tied a pink ribbon on his tow hooks if he walked away for a second.

Is he using EMT electrical conduit (1/2"?) for rock sliders?

Not sliders. They are actually running boards on a homemade hinge set-up. Here are a few more pictures of the shiny truck.









This one was also his

[bartonmd]

Matt,

Glad the rad protection helped out! Looks from the mud on it like it hit some stuff, even on the higher front part... With no plastic bumper cover to deflect (not that it helps THAT much) and no rad protection of any kind, that would have demo'd the bottom end tank of your rad...


So you talked to the guy, right? was he like 4' 9" tall? It's been my experience that guys who run 12 foot tall show poodles are usually pretty short... Dachshunds have the same issue... Little dog syndrome...

Mike

[Trail X]

Very cool!

Your truck's war wounds are pretty cool too. CVs are pretty easy to replace, so no worries there - I'd like to see what failed in the CV joint... musta been a pretty hard hit. Did the door ding go through the paint? That's one reason I extended my sliders as far as I could away from the sides of the vehicle - tree protection. Sometimes you have to weave the truck through trees and are only a few inches away - not much room for error.

Thanks for the coords of the trail - looks like old logging trails mainly?... maybe I can convince the wife to hit that sometime we're down there - we normally take her car though, much better mileage.

One final thought - using the chain is fine as long as they don't shock load it. Make sure they ease up very gently - then use only tire traction (no momentum).

You think you deserve trail-ready? Hmmmm. I think so. Now you just need two more trips to be off-road rated.

Nice writeup by the way.

[Gordinho80]

Nice write up! Nice pics!

[Regulator1175]

JD, alot of the trails were actually old mine trails. There was a long section that we were driving next to the remnants of an old set of rails.There was also a section of recently graded trail. They are running a gas pipe over the mountain where we were, so we ran some of the road they had built for access.

I will get a picture of the parts when I get back to the house. I have them in a trash bag buried in the back of the truck. From what I could tell as we were pulling stuff out, the cage was the part that failed. Before we separated everything you could feel the bearings rolling around inside the rubber boot.

The body damage is into the paint, I will get a picture after I get it washed. Thankfully, the damage now justifies the rock rails in my wife's eyes. In fact she told me we need to get them on soon to avoid that in the future. For this being primarily a guys hobby, I am seeing the benefit of bringing the wives along. Kyle's wife is saying she wants it strait axled after riding along. My wife is ready to open the wallet for rails, tires, and more protection.

You will see another creative use of those chains and a winch in one of the videos. I know I stayed way back, I didn't feel safe with it at all.

Here are a couple of videos:

[MrSmithsTB]

Too bad you don't get to boast a "Dirtiest In Show" trophy. Nice outing, and welcome to the trail carnage club.

[fishsticks]

Little dog syndrome...

I've heard it referred to as something else before.

[KE7WOX]

Little dog syndrome...

I've heard it referred to as something else before.

[OregTrailBlazin]

Awesome!! Props for the dirty truck in the show!!

I always like to compliment those guys in the big trucks... "Man, That sure is a 'pretty' truck".. Although, its almost got me into fights!! Then again some actually take it as a compliment

[Regulator1175]

Awesome!! Props for the dirty truck in the show!!

I always like to compliment those guys in the big trucks... "Man, That sure is a 'pretty' truck".. Although, its almost got me into fights!! Then again some actually take it as a compliment

That's exactly what I said to him when I got out of my truck. "That sure is a pretty truck. To bad it says Ford on it." I then proceeded to tell everyone that questioned why I had a muddy truck in the show that "I built it to get muddy, not to look pretty." I think the only reason he didn't try and start something was because of the cast on my foot.

The fact that I am 6'3" and 275lbs and he was 5'10" 175lbs may have had something to do with it as well.

[Regulator1175]

Trail Scars, following the bath. I sure wish I had a set of rock rails on my truck.

[HARDTRAILZ]

That shit will buff out...once you pop the dents out. Looks like it hit pretty good. I was thankfull for my rails. I have no paint left on the outer edge, but they prevented that...

[DJones]

"I built it to get muddy, not to look pretty."

I like that quote.