Ok, so for what I hope is the only casualty story from the El Camino Del Diablo trip.
Amy and I were driving along El Camino Del Diablo.
We were about 35 miles into the trail with most of the group ahead of us and behind us was Vince, Scott, Mario & Alex, Pasquale and Christina and Al bringing up the rear with the 2meter. We were rolling at about 8 mph when we drove over a bit of a dip in the trail, the type of thing you usually don't even notice! As our rear wheels rolled through the dip we heard BANG!! I said "Oh ******* I think we just blew a tire!"
I stuck my head out the window to look at the left rear tire but it was fine. The sound was the left rear suspension airbag EXPLODING! The top blew off the airbag and the frame was resting on the axle, we were DONE!
The most amazing thing was to see 11 vehicles full of enthusiasts jump into action. You could just hear everyone thinking
"cool something broke, lets fix it!" :jump:
As I crawled out from under the vehicle in disbelief Scott immediately came up with a plan to unload all the weight from the vehicle and load it into the Adventure Trailers. Then Mario crawled under to assess the damage, Al found some 2x4s in his truck, Vince got to use his saw and cut the wood into blocks, Scott and Greg used the Hi-Lift to jack up the truck, the wood blocks were taped together and secured to the axle with a ratchet strap, the truck lowered, the trailing arm secured to the frame with another strap to limit travel, the tires aired down further to absorb and we were under way!:victory: This was a great display of calm heads and level educated thinking that drew from years of experience.
Besides I think everyone was having way too much fun fixing the broken truck! Greg was making wise cracks! Vince was running around with his saw and a HUGE smile in his face! Christina and Amy were laughing! Pasquale was filming his next expedition documentary and Mario was having enough fun to roll around in the dirt to fix someone else's truck! :jumping:
As the rest of the group went ahead to camp Scott went ahead of Amy and I to scout the trail for obstacles while Alex, Mario and Al followed. We drove the last 6 miles to camp at 2-5 mph!
Camp was a welcome relaxation with Pasquale and Vince on guitars for entertainment some great dinner and a well deserved cold beer under the stars!!:beer: :camping:
We left the next morning and covered the anticipated 3 hour drive out to the highway from camp in about 75 minutes! The truck was feeling great and the fix was remaining solid. After some brief thought on waiting for a tow truck Amy and I decided to go for it. We drove the 180 miles home to Phoenix with a stack of wood blocks and ratchet straps for our left rear suspension! I believe we averaged about 45mph and at one point of flat straight road we topped out at 60mph. The concern for safety made me slow down but the suspension felt secure!
We stopped at home, unloaded our gear and drove to the dealership. After hearing our story the service department rep said that they had never had anyone do a road side fix like this before! The air spring will be covered under warranty and we will just go ahead and let them fix it that way. We will then carry a spare bag until we can move forward with replacing the rear suspension with heavy duty coil springs.
Not to be deterred Amy and I took Oliver:elkgrin: and our new "loaner" 2006 Land Rover LR3 for a road trip up to Payson for a great day of hiking on Sunday!:victory:
Thanks again for a great weekend!!!
Brian & Amy
Amy and I were driving along El Camino Del Diablo.
We were about 35 miles into the trail with most of the group ahead of us and behind us was Vince, Scott, Mario & Alex, Pasquale and Christina and Al bringing up the rear with the 2meter. We were rolling at about 8 mph when we drove over a bit of a dip in the trail, the type of thing you usually don't even notice! As our rear wheels rolled through the dip we heard BANG!! I said "Oh ******* I think we just blew a tire!"
I stuck my head out the window to look at the left rear tire but it was fine. The sound was the left rear suspension airbag EXPLODING! The top blew off the airbag and the frame was resting on the axle, we were DONE! The most amazing thing was to see 11 vehicles full of enthusiasts jump into action. You could just hear everyone thinking
"cool something broke, lets fix it!" :jump:
As I crawled out from under the vehicle in disbelief Scott immediately came up with a plan to unload all the weight from the vehicle and load it into the Adventure Trailers. Then Mario crawled under to assess the damage, Al found some 2x4s in his truck, Vince got to use his saw and cut the wood into blocks, Scott and Greg used the Hi-Lift to jack up the truck, the wood blocks were taped together and secured to the axle with a ratchet strap, the truck lowered, the trailing arm secured to the frame with another strap to limit travel, the tires aired down further to absorb and we were under way!:victory: This was a great display of calm heads and level educated thinking that drew from years of experience.
Besides I think everyone was having way too much fun fixing the broken truck! Greg was making wise cracks! Vince was running around with his saw and a HUGE smile in his face! Christina and Amy were laughing! Pasquale was filming his next expedition documentary and Mario was having enough fun to roll around in the dirt to fix someone else's truck! :jumping:
As the rest of the group went ahead to camp Scott went ahead of Amy and I to scout the trail for obstacles while Alex, Mario and Al followed. We drove the last 6 miles to camp at 2-5 mph!
Camp was a welcome relaxation with Pasquale and Vince on guitars for entertainment some great dinner and a well deserved cold beer under the stars!!:beer: :camping:
We left the next morning and covered the anticipated 3 hour drive out to the highway from camp in about 75 minutes! The truck was feeling great and the fix was remaining solid. After some brief thought on waiting for a tow truck Amy and I decided to go for it. We drove the 180 miles home to Phoenix with a stack of wood blocks and ratchet straps for our left rear suspension! I believe we averaged about 45mph and at one point of flat straight road we topped out at 60mph. The concern for safety made me slow down but the suspension felt secure!
We stopped at home, unloaded our gear and drove to the dealership. After hearing our story the service department rep said that they had never had anyone do a road side fix like this before! The air spring will be covered under warranty and we will just go ahead and let them fix it that way. We will then carry a spare bag until we can move forward with replacing the rear suspension with heavy duty coil springs.
Not to be deterred Amy and I took Oliver:elkgrin: and our new "loaner" 2006 Land Rover LR3 for a road trip up to Payson for a great day of hiking on Sunday!:victory:
Thanks again for a great weekend!!!
Brian & Amy
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