Photos/narritave from East Coast Safari 2011

[yellocoyote]

Aaron and I made the trip to Kentucky from NE Illinois - left home at around 5:30pm central time, and arrived to the campground about 4:00am eastern time. eek2.gif We set the tent really quick (in a place we weren't supposed to) and got in about 3 hours of sleep before we were to meet the others.

Friday morning we were a group of 4 - Cobolt-60, tjkj, ridenby, and us. I got more photos this day of tjkj and ridenby as they were behind me.

ridenby

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Cobolt-60 and myself

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tjkj

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I usually tend to get a good mix of scenic stuff as well as wheeling pictures... but I slacked on the scenic photos this time. Here's one of the few. We were heading up the mountain and out of the fog...

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The first muddy ascent...

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It was on that hill that I needed recovery #1 (trust me, there was a trend all weekend )

Continuing on down the trail...

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We stopped to consult the map and decide the next plan of attack...

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This day of wheeling was cut short about mid-afternoon when we discovered that the passenger side boot on my CV was about cut about 1/3 of the way around. Cobolt-60 was good enough to take Aaron into Harlan to see about a replacement boot/grease to see if we could repair my CV. Unfortunately, Harlan didn't carry anything in any of their auto parts stores. Instead, he ordered a remanned CV from NAPA that would be in-store at 8 am the following morning. We would need to do a quick CV change to be back on the trail once again.

 

[yellocoyote]

Saturday morning, Aaron goes back into Harlan to retireve the new CV. Instead of waiting, tjkj opts to tear down the passenger side of my KJ so we'd be ready to go once the new part arrived.

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The damage:

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Once repair was completed, we gathered together to hit the trails. Our ranks numbered at 8 KJ's.

The first half of our line up consisted of Cobolt-60, blackwidowkj, jhblackwell, and ridenby:

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And at the back of the pack was me, tjkj, dgeist, and audioboy (bad photo - there were a couple of trailers in the way ).

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Away we went...

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I didn't get too many photos on this day... we had a lot of things going on, and I didn't think about it. Hopefully some of the others can pick up where I slacked...

Regrouping at Middle Fork...

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Group shot!

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And this is where the day started getting ugly...

Just above where Cobolt-60 was in this picture was where his front differential met it's untimely death. p:

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We all either backed down or turned around to come down a rather steep set of hills to get back to Middle Fork where the incapacitated KJ spent the rest of the afternoon while Cobolt-60 rode shotgun with tjkj.

dgiest ended up being quite the rockstar navigating his stock CRD (w/skids and rails) through the trails with no damage. :badger_1:

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Followed by audioboy

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It's here where I stopped taking pictures. I approached an obstacle where others had passed before me. I had issues with it, and eventually gave it a little too much. We heard a series of banging/grinding noises. eek2.gif Unsure of what it was (steel diff and CV's were still intact), I opted to switch back over to 2wd and let jhblackwell's son, Scott pull me off the trail. Audioboy opted to escort us back down to the campground while the others continued the day.

Once back down to camp, we drained the front diff in search of metal fragments. At the time, we found some smaller slivers... and the thought was that I had probably sheered the splines off of the intermediate shaft on the passenger side. Aaron was taken into Harlan (once again) and picked up a couple of small magnets that I could stick to the drain plug in the diff to collect any residual fragments that didn't come out with the rest of the oil. We left it to drain over night.

Once I got up Sunday morning, I went to put the plug w/magnets in so I could fill the diff again. I got the magnets close to the drain in the diff when large chunks of metal hopped out... spider gears. (headwall)

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At the same time, Cobolt-60 removed the front skid on his KJ to inspect the damages... this is what he found:

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So, because the internals of my diff weren't as they should be and Colin's diff was cracked, we had a dual KJ CV removal-fest so we could both get home. Aaron was fantastic, showing Colin how to do remove the CV's on his... and essentially doing mine himself (while I worked on the upside battery tray/airbox). 4 CV's removed in under 4 hours!

Many thanks to those who helped us with tools, rides into town for parts, and comic/stress relief - it all helped!

We left the campground at about 6pm eastern yesterday, and rolled into our driveway at 3:30am central this morning.

Speaking from our experience, we had a fantastic time... even despite our mechanical mishaps. It was great to see people we hadn't seen in a couple of years, and meet the few people that I'd hoped to meet. Overall, it was a great group and we had a good weekend. I can't wait to go back again (maybe) next year and get on some more trails! (Cheers)




All of my photos here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150858536700052.745822.851890051&l=6a37b1201b&type=1

 

[OneOneNiner]

Awesome Jaym!
Good to see everyone joining together to help one another. Kudos to the crew.

 

[Luke]

What an adventure ... great pics!

 

[Jaber]

Great pictures and awesome team work!

 

[JLRockies]

The CRD will always be a rockstar in any level of build. It's kind of a big deal.

 

[yellocoyote]

That MUST be why yours is for sale in favor of the Toyota then...

 

[tjkj2002]

The CRD will always be a rockstar in any level of build. It's kind of a big deal.

To bad no one took pics of me pulling both CRD's up a hill at the same time.

 

[Dave]

Nice pics. Sounds like an awesome trip (except for the carnage part).

Dave

 

[KeswickDave]

Nice pics, nice Jeeps... would have liked to see that pic TJKJ!

Too bad about the breakage Jayme!

 

[yellocoyote]

It happens. Just working through the weaknesses now. It was a ton of fun, and really great to meet people. The teamwork was fantastic!

 

[rockymountain]

To bad no one took pics of me pulling both CRD's up a hill at the same time.

:happy175:

I would love to do this next year. How much hitting on the rails did everyone do? Just wondering.

 

[ridenby]

Fellow over on LOST ran a stock,except for skids and rails,Liberty. Went everywhere.

 

[yellocoyote]

Yeah, he did great!

 

[ridenby]

Liberty's at Harlan,Ky. Oct.7-9.2011

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[first&lastKJ]

Great photos, looks like you all had a good time.