I went four wheeling with a couple of friends on veterans day. (Doug in a Jeep, Thomas in a Dodge Power Wagon and me in my '89 zuki) There's a mud hill the jeep was trying to get over and finally made it with alot of hard work. He was sitting on top taunting the rest of us, so I took a running stab at it 40 mph to be exact made it all the way up no problem and in a three speed automatic. At the top there's a firm & solid berm in which I got some major air on, nose in the sky tail to the ground my friend Doug said when I passed him the truck was in a perfect 90 degree angle and 25 feet of hang time & on re-entry the rear wheels made contact the same time as the bottom edge of the rear bumper. I bounced a couple of times and did a u-turn at the top of the plateau to drive back to " the launch pad " only to see my friend Thomas and his Dodge Power Wagon trying to do the same as I did. He almost made it but, when he hit the berm the front end bounced and he almost did an end-over-end backwards, the truck came to a sudden stop at the pivot point of no return and came slamming back down forward. Needless to say he was stuck really good, Doug tried pulling him up the rest of the way up for about an hour or so and Thomas wasn't helping much slinging mud everywhere burying the truck even further.
After another 20 minutes of this I piped up hey why don't I give a go at it. Now you all know what they're thinking, Doug said no F^%*#ing way if his jeep can't do it then I couldn't because I'm smaller. I hooked the tow strap to my frame and told Thomas to put his Power Wagon in the lowest possible gear and let it idle it's way up and not to touch the gas pedal no matter what, I dropped my automatic into 1st and engaged my four wheel drive of the first time that day with it in 4 low and gave it juice slowly, it pulled him s-l-o-w-l-y up the rest of the way up while Doug was jumping up and down laughing. Thomas finally made the top of the plateau with the rest of us and you know what? Thomas was filming this on his camcorder from the cab of his truck smiling ear to ear. After the day was close to the end we went back to the shop and I pulled my rig on the lift to see what damage I might have done on my harsh re-entry.
Here's the damage report:
1. Missing chrome exhaust tip (vanity)
2. Chunk of plastic broken off bottom of the bumper. (cosmetic)
3. Stress crack at the lower right rear shock mount. (minor)
4. Fresh oil leak at rear main seal. (not to sure what to think only has 1,289 original miles)
Prognosis still driveable after I re-welded the shock mount, the rest is cosmetic and the oil leak is something I'll have to watch over time. Plus we have a video tape to remember a part of it by.
Happy Zukin'
