Trail Report from my brilliant little adventure

by **_HeadOfTheBeast_** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:15 pm

I'm not sure if I'm doing this right or if it's in the right place, sorry if it isn't.

So this morning I decided to go out the the Coeur d'Alene Ranger Fistrict and tool around a little bit. The plan was to be sure my rifle was dialed in for elk season and to hit a couple mild trails to help me decide what to do as far as lift etc. everything I hit today was between a 1 and somewhere between 2 and 2 1/2 on the trail scale.

I went over the Fernan Saddle and then took the 406 to the 206 and hit some trails from there. For the most part things were good and I was impressed with the TB, but I definitely learned its stock limitations and have a busted muffler bracket to show for it. All in all it was a nice morning. I will try to add pics, but not sure if I can from my phone.

Edit: Okay, it looks like I bent something in the exhaust. Anyways, hopefully this will work.

End of the trail

One of the trails I was on opened up in to a small field that is used as a shooting range. This was the view.

More of the same

Not how I wanted the trip to end.

by **The Roadie** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:18 pm

Good wheeling. That isn't a muffler, it's the useless and redundant resonator. Replace it with a short pipe and tip. Profit!

by **_HeadOfTheBeast_** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:49 pm

I just wish it would have been more than a few hours. Shooting you a PM.

by **djthumper** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 11:18 pm

Chop it, a tip will work if it is long enough but most put a short piece of pipe and then the tip.

by **_HeadOfTheBeast_** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 11:45 pm

I think I'm going to see if they will fix it with my service plan for now. I'll cut that stupid looking thing off of there either way, though.

by **The Roadie** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 11:25 am

A service plan that covers offroad carnage would be amazing. Fibbing to the warranty company about the nature of the damage would be less so. :scratch:

by **JorDaneeKey** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 11:41 am

It was a REALLY big deer?

YouTube Videos · by **Trail X** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 12:07 pm

Did you back into something? Haha.

Looks like a beautiful area.

MY Youtube Channel · by **TBYODA** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 1:04 pm

JorDaneeKey wrote:It was a REALLY big deer?

Honest I was a deer! Hahaha just take a sawzall to it right at the bend.

by **_HeadOfTheBeast_** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 2:58 pm

Yea, you're right Roadie. I'm just going to remove it.

What happened was I tried to go somewhere that I shouldn't have tried to go stock. I was going up a trail and started spinning so I decided to give up and back down (I was only about 50ft or so up). Just before I got to the bottom I slid over into the rut and the resonator hit the ground and bent all to hell.

by **dvanbramer88** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 3:05 pm

_HeadOfTheBeast_ wrote:What happened was I tried to go somewhere that I shouldn't have tried to go stock. I was going up a trail and started spinning so I decided to give up and back down (I was only about 50ft or so up).

That's how the addiction starts. I think a lot of us have been in a similar situation once or twice. Even Bill has a couple stories about that.

by **_HeadOfTheBeast_** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 4:03 pm

Yea the Liftmeister kit is coming in the next few months. I'm pretty sure the TB gets better MPGs and donates all your loose change to children in need after it's lifted

by **HARDTRAILZ** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 10:34 am

_HeadOfTheBeast_ wrote:Yea, you're right Roadie. I'm just going to remove it.

What happened was I tried to go somewhere that I shouldn't have tried to go stock. I was going up a trail and started spinning so I decided to give up and back down (I was only about 50ft or so up). Just before I got to the bottom I slid over into the rut and the resonator hit the ground and bent all to hell.

My buddy did this in his TJ, but the exhaust folded all the way under the axle and killed the motor. Had to cut it on the trail to get it to run.

by **The Roadie** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:21 am

dvanbramer88 wrote:Even Bill has a couple stories about that.

The typical way my build and personal skill expansion went from 2004-2009 was:

1) Go to a trailhead
2) Walk it
3) Say "NO WAY, BUT I'LL BE BACK" while shaking my fist at it.
4) Leave
5) Locate next available lift option (1", then 1.5", then 2", then 2.5")
6) Choose next tire (AT 31", MT 33", Extreme MT 33")
7) Open wallet. Install mods. Not cheap, being an early adopter of EVERYTHING.
8) Go back and conquer previous trail, learning at the same time how to drive trails at the edge of both my and the Roadiemobile's capability
9) Buy trail guides and Google for the next challenge-trail.
10) Add armor and more mods. Conquer new trail
11) Lather, rinse, repeat
12) After five years planning and obsession, and motivating a sidekick (Teebes), run what we can of the Rubicon and other bucket list trails
13) Relax for a couple of years and step back from the leading edge of aggressiveness and re-run old trails with new equipment to see how easy they are now
14) Re-evaluate whether I want to continue running trails alone - attempt to develop new proteges
15) Lose all local GMT360 sidekicks (Bacon, you were the last), consider joining local clubs using other platforms
16) Lose job for 15 months, burn through a lot of savings, get rehired for 25% less into a different and more interesting job at old company
17) Work insane overtime in design engineering to cement my usefulness and make myself as layoff-proof as possible
18) Find I no longer have many weekends I can get away any more. D'oh!
19) Currently trying to solve the simultaneous challenges of items 15, 17, & 18, with the budget constraints of item 16 and attempting to retire in 5 years max.

More than you expected to get as a reply, I know...it's my nature.

by **dvanbramer88** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:28 am

The Roadie wrote:
dvanbramer88 wrote:Even Bill has a couple stories about that.
The typical way my build and personal skill expansion went from 2004-2009 was:

1) Go to a trailhead
2) Walk it
3) Say "NO WAY, BUT I'LL BE BACK" while shaking my fist at it.
4) Leave
5) Locate next available lift option (1", then 1.5", then 2", then 2.5")
6) Choose next tire (AT 31", MT 33", Extreme MT 33")
7) Open wallet. Install mods. Not cheap, being an early adopter of EVERYTHING.
8) Go back and conquer previous trail, learning at the same time how to drive trails at the edge of both my and the Roadiemobile's capability
9) Buy trail guides and Google for the next challenge-trail.
10) Add armor and more mods. Conquer new trail
11) Lather, rinse, repeat
12) After five years planning and obsession, and motivating a sidekick (Teebes), run what we can of the Rubicon and other bucket list trails
13) Relax for a couple of years and step back from the leading edge of aggressiveness and re-run old trails with new equipment to see how easy they are now
14) Re-evaluate whether I want to continue running trails alone - attempt to develop new proteges
15) Lose all local GMT360 sidekicks (Bacon, you were the last), consider joining local clubs using other platforms
16) Lose job for 15 months, burn through a lot of savings, get rehired for 25% less into a different and more interesting job at old company
17) Work insane overtime in design engineering to cement my usefulness and make myself as layoff-proof as possible
18) Find I no longer have many weekends I can get away any more. D'oh!
19) Currently trying to solve the simultaneous challenges of items 15, 17, & 18, with the budget constraints of item 16 and attempting to retire in 5 years max.

You missed the time you got your Subaru stuck in the mud. You also missed when you actually sought out and bought running boards.

The Roadie wrote:More than you expected to get as a reply, I know...it's my nature.

I think a lot of us appreciate the shared experience and wisdom from someone who has been there and done it. I know I enjoy the long responses.

by **The Roadie** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:36 am

dvanbramer88 wrote:You also missed when you actually sought out and bought running boards.

Yah. Thanks for the timely reminder. :finger:

I was such a noob without a resource like ORTB for guidance. I actually thought running boards were REQUIRED not FORBIDDEN for functional offroading. Another bloody $500 down the toilet. I didn't know how many lifted vehicles had Lifts Meant For Appearance Only (LMFAO) installed and never left the vicinity of the mall. :facepalm:

One trail I went to the beginning of and HAVE NOT gone down yet is the 72" wide gatekeeper at the Pinyon Squeeze. And I tell all my proteges to NEVER even attempt that alone. All but one have heeded my words. :wallbash:

by **dvanbramer88** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:45 am

by **djthumper** » Wed Sep 18, 2013 3:03 pm

The Roadie wrote:One trail I went to the beginning of and HAVE NOT gone down yet is the 72" wide gatekeeper at the Pinyon Squeeze. And I tell all my proteges to NEVER even attempt that alone. All but one have heeded my words.

You forgot Rule # 1 when dealing with Marines... Do not tell them to never do something. They will do it!

by **DirtyBacon04** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:01 am

Wasn't that bad. Gotta little bit of trail rash and a lot of exercise that night. I can still say I'm the only GMT that we know of who has even attempted it. Maybe it was my diabolical way of getting Bill on a trail...

by **dvanbramer88** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:22 am

Yumarockhugger does the Pinyon squeeze somewhat often.

From his FB page

Sorry to crap on your parade.

And :hijack:

Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys