Fordyce Trail

Finally I went to do the Fordyce trail. Today was the first day that I took off work (except for Sundays) since the wedding. I decided that I could really use a little 4wheel therapy.
Fortunately for me I met a guy with a Scrambler that has an equal affinity towards wheeling as I do. Neither of us had done Fordyce so we thought we'd give it a try.
My good friend Ron joined us in his slightly modified YJ

This is the first obstacle (optional) I managed to do some pretty serious carnage here. I came closer to rolling here than I have ever. It would have been a long roll down the mountain.

In the process I popped a bead.

Nobody had any ether so we tried to reseat it with some brake cleaner and believe it or not it worked a couple of times. We just couldn't get the air into it fast enough to keep it seated. So on went the spare.

After swapping the tires I discovered that I had completely destroyed the tranny mount that I had just replaced last night! So time for trail repair #2. We took a small section of chain and robbed a couple of bolts from elsewhere to chain down the tranny/tcase to the skidplate. It worked great!

When we finally reached the first river crossing Tim took his Scrambler across first. He sits about three inches lower than me but is running 37's. He got about two thirds across when he hit the depths. The water went all the way up over his hood! He stalled out five feet from the shore. So he sends me next a "better way". I got started and about 1/4 of the way into it I hit the depths. The water went over my hood this time and the floor boards gushed with water. Thanks be for Fuel Injection. It wasnt pretty but I made it.

Needless to say there was no way Ron was going to make it so we did some scouting and found a safer way to get back. Tims Jeep suffered a couple of stalls getting back but made it with a little tug.
I definitely need bigger tires! And a snorkel.

Tims rig.