Well the 3rd annual New Years Badlands run is in the books. There was some damage. Mike (the new guy) added some character to the passenger side doors. Amazingly it looks exactly like the damage that I have had for 3 years. I guess he looks up to me and wants to follow suit.
Shoda, our odd ball out that was in the long bed GMC, destroyed both sides of the cab behind the doors and added a really good wrinkle to the front of the bed on the drivers side. It was actually comical seeing him bouncing off rocks and trees, thankfully he didn't care that much. He also decided to listen to our advice when Kevin and I said "sure, there is room for you to make it up and over and down that hill". Thirty seconds later he was table topped on the hill with all 4 wheels in the air! Fun times.
Now the real damage on the trucks had to come to mine once again. I started having tranny slippage 30 minutes from the park. Checked the fluid and it was about a quart low, added fluid but still had trouble through out the day. When we got back up to the staging at the end of the day I checked the levels again and I was once again low. This time it 2.5 quarts. I managed to make it home, but it was a worrisome trip. I have to run up the engine in second to around 4500 rpm's and then let off the gas to have it drop in third. Overdrive is nonexistent.
This is my second Tranny (first went around 190k). It was a salvage yard pick up for $200 with 160k miles on it. I had a shop clean it up, add new fluid and filter and install it. It has given me 70k miles and 3 years so I think it was money well spent. I will get it onto a buddies lift this week and get the tranny from my parts truck into it and then tear into this one and see what needs replaced.
Here is a link to my photobucket with all the pictures I took:
Photobucket Album