BADLANDS, Indiana 9-19-15

[4speedfunk]

As always...the Badlands did not disappoint.

GreatDane met me at 10:30am...and the two of us headed for the bush. It rained like mad the night before, and there were not too many people that day which was nice. We headed to the northwest quadrant and almost immediately some tool on a dirt bike ran into GreatDane's drivers-side...trashing the rearview mirror. So that was a portent of things to come.

Later in the day we got stuck behind two vehicles along the south fence. Both had flooded out and were blocking the entire trail. So being a super-genius and all...I decided to take a bypass trail that had a 4-foot drop off into a bottomless mud hole. Huge mistake. I nosed over so hard that the rear wheels were barely touching the ground, and the entire nose was under water. The rear wheels just spun in the air...and the front wheels were tractionless at the the bottom of the pit. Right in between...my crossmember was completely grounded, and it became the pivot point of the entire vehicle. The worst part was the nasty frog-water I was stuck in. The winch was under-water, and I really didn't want to jump in...so I repelled down from the rear bumper and attempted to get to the winch. It does have a happy ending...I eventually got out thanks to the help of GD, his girlfriend, and numerous straps and such.

[video=youtube;M9bFUxB2ofg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9bFUxB2ofg&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[Woodtick]

Very nice,we will have to meet up down there before it gets to cold.

 

[06 H3]

Nice!

 

[Pappibri]

Glad you got it out ok. That was a nice little drop off....

 

[Bigunit]

Wow! Great recovery.

 

[4speedfunk]

I actually had a nine-minute video of the process...but it was too big to upload to YouTube, so I shortened it to show just the before & after. The long version showed me poking myself in the eye with a stick...stripping off my shoes...repelling down the hood...fumbling around in the water...finally falling into the water...dropping the winch controller into the water...denting my hood (twice)...and eventually driving home. Then two-hours later...I realized my ditch bag (with tree strap, snatch-block, and shackle) was lying in the weeds next the mud hole. Merry Christmas to whomever finds it.

The following day, was clean-up day. I pulled the winch line completely out, power-washed it, let it dry in the sun, and re-spooled it properly on the drum. I also washed the winch, and soaked it down with aerosol silicone (wire-drier), and blew it all out with compressed air. It was quite a job. I spent an hour with a screw driver...poking all the mud out of every nook & cranny on the entire front end. I gotta say the Chinese Smittybuilt 12K performed perfectly even when completely submerged. Its probably time to lube the ball joints, tie-rods, and creeper joints on the links.

 

[H3nightrod]

Sounds like a great time, wish I was there to enjoy.

When is the next run so that I can skip work?

 

[3Hummers]

Looks like a high dive off that ledge. Always glad to hear about the good outcomes.

 

[GreatDaneHummer]

Thank God you designed that bumper to be so user friendly underwater. It was a great trip, I think WoodTick was going for the Cliffs in 2 weeks? Maybe we can get a good group together for that.

* Mirror fixed now but after washing and wax the dirt bike scraped up my paint pretty bad. Body shop wants $300 to fix it. $500 plus dollar trail damage all from one ------ dirt biker.

 

[cgalpha08]

I was always afraid one of those yahoos were going to come around a corner and go smack. The south part of the park by the quarry is supposed to be atv/dirtbike free.

Man now I want to go wheeling.