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Let's get the 'woody' thing clear before continuing. In case people think that they might start reading a Penthouse Forum style story or something, it's not going to happen... The 'woody' thing refers to Phil Gough's new ('87) Wagoneer with the nice wood trim package. The rig actually looks not too bad, but what fun would it be not to raz someone (especially Phil) over his new look. Trim package aside, the wagon has a 6" Tomken lift, 44 rear end, 3:55 with locker, custom drive shafts with tailshaft eliminator and sits on 32x10.5 Bfg m/t's, lot's of goodies.
Our day started off at the annual 4wdabc's toy run. It's a run where contributions of toys and food find their way to the households of those that really need help this time of year, it's a cause worth attending and cruising to.
Our first intentions for the day was to head to Chilliwack Valley after the toy run, but due to Phil having to pick up his Wagoneer out in Maple Ridge, we opted to hit the Stave Lake area. We picked up the Wagon, Phil did the paper work stuff, and being the true wheeler that he is, headed for the hills and snow. Our first play site was an old, small gravel pit part way up the road. Everyone cake-walked up the small hill climbs except for me (Andrew) in my YJ. Turns out my front end wasn't engaging, the vacuum switch on the transfer case wasn't being "hit" fully,,,, I just had to pull the shifter back a little past it's usual travel. That seemed to be the answer - until I replace it. Phil also suffered his first problem with the new rig,,,, his tranny dipstick kept falling out. Minor stuff...
We continued up the road and started hitting some snow. We called out on the radio to see if Larry Soo and Chris Waterman were up ahead (we had seen them at the toy run and they told us they would be up in the area). Ran into them a couple of minutes later,, stood around in the snow for a bit, let the dogs sniff each others rears, had a brief snowball fight and all decided to tag along and check out a side trail a few Km back.
Larry takes the hard route through the 'ditch'
Can't see from the picture but he is smiling
Andrew drops into the first obstacle
To get onto the trail there was a small ditch and then a byrne about 20' after. Wil Gindra ( he was with Larry) was first through and pretty much cake-walked it. Larry was next,,,,,, he for some reason missed the trail completely and dropped his right rear tire off of the culvert and into the deep part of the ditch. We all looked back to see him go for the see-saw ride and luckily stop in the right position, with his left front tire hanging a "few" feet in the air. I was next, I had problems at the byrne part. Whichever way we tried to reposition me for a different line, I kept either banging my spring hanger or trans-x skid plate on this one rock buried in just the right spot to screw me up. Tug'em time. Phil cruised through with only some mild scraping on the troublsome rock. Raf had just installed a new Curry 9", detroit locker rear end and decided to give it a shot. The ditch wasn't a problem but the byrne was just a little too peaked for the 31" tire's clearence, he knew before he tried but figure what the hell, give her a shot. Raf, Mel and Jason all jumped into Phil's rig for the rest of the ride.
The rest of the ride was lots of fun, just slugging away in the snow. I had to air down a few times, my M/T's are getting a little worn and were losing traction quite a bit. Ended up airing down to 9psi and also threw on some make-shift chains,,, 3/8 rope. It worked great, no more spinning, got that idea from http://www.offroad.bc.ca/ site. It was starting to get a little late and Wil's Toy finally got bogged down and wandered off the side of the trail. Larry having a winch, gave her and managed to squeeze by Wil, turned around, and winch him back onto the trail.
Raf makes an attempt at the byrne
"the rig sits pretty good"
Phil enjoying his first 'woody' fist looks tight, but a little high ;)
We all meandered back to the two obstacles and watched Phil get himself hung up on the old faithful buried rock. It hung him up between his lower track arm and his tranny crossmember. Some other wheelers were driving by and stopped to give us a hand. They hooked up a winch to the front of Phil's rig and we hi-lifted his rear end, another jack under his frame rail and a spare tire in one of the holes. Stood around for about an hour to figure this out, and off he was, the new rig had it's first "temporarily slowed down" experience and survived..... The rest of us all drove through without a problem, Larry and Wil chosing a harder line over the byrne, which seemed to turn out to be the easier line in the end.
Another great day of wheelin', charity, and company. Looking forward to 1999.......
Chris's modfied YJ made the run with ease
Doesn't look bad but the location of the "stuck" caused some problems..
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