Pre-Run Report Dec 2019

I was wanting to get out and see how my new tires would work in deeper snow as well as how the snow conditions were. I recruited a few members to go with me as it is not a great idea to go out by yourself especially In the snow. With John Vandergrift’s rig down for the count I invited him to ride shotgun with me. John arrived at my place a few minutes early with Cheryl and Ryan pulling in shortly behind. We got under way in short order with our dog barking at us from the window surely waking Casey up inside the house.

We met up with Chris and Heidi in Darrington at the gas station and got all fueled up and headed out. We got to the parking area/ boat launch and aired down with Chris unloading his Suzuki from the trailer. Now Cheryl and Ryan have not wheeled in the deep snow with their new lift kit and pitbull rocker tires. Chris too had different tires n his rig this year and sporting 37 Iroks he was in for a good ride. We were all running new set-ups, so we were anxious to get up into the snow.

We got up to the snow at about 3000 feet and it didn’t get deep till we got higher than about 3800 feet in elevation. The it got pretty deep and was snowing all over the place. The snow must have been 3 feet or deeper in spot so it gave us a good test of our equipment and we all tried different tires pressures and steep angles to see what we could do. We got up to the end of the trail and with it dumping so we took a short break for lunch and then headed back down. I wanted to check out a spin off trail I had gone down last year. And once we got to the turn we could see another rig up in the trail. He was with another guy and they were breaking trail down this road. We hooked up with them a bit down the road and we followed in behind them until the trail ended. We got turned around and headed down the mountain. It was roughly about 3pm ish maybe a hair later and I was thinking this would be a nice day with no break downs. Good wheeling in deep snow and a nap maybe a couple hours away? We made it down to the parking area with no issues got aired up and Chris and Heidi loading up his rig on his trailer. Chris even made the statement he didn’t have any break downs. Cheryl and Ryan exited out the parking area to his the road and I was shortly behind them.

I got out on the mountain loop road and went slow to be sure we could see Chris in his truck and trailer being us. Sure enough after a tiny bit of going slow we saw him pulling up the rear. Cool were all heading home. I got down a pretty long straight away and looked in my mirror and could no longer see Chris’s truck…… Hmm time to slow down and wait up for him? Well he didn’t and wasn’t catching up. So with Cheryl and Ryan leading the way I radioed to them something must be up? We pulled over and waited. Still nothing so we flipped a you-eey, also known as a Tamer Turn to get back to Chris. We found him on the side of the road with smoke pouring out of his trailer wheel well. Well Chris being the guy he is went to work quickly. He had already disconnected the trailer wiring and we all were hoping it was just an electrical issue with the brakes? We got out and started going down the road again. It was clear Chris had other problems and we got pulled over in a decent spot for all three rigs to get off the road.

Chris went to work getting out his jack and get the wheel off the ground and it is not spinning very well. He got the outer wheel bearing off and the hub would not come off. Chris and the rest of us struggled and banged and tugged and pried the hub off and the inner wheel bearing came out in pieces. The decision was made to send Cheryl and Ryan with John into town for some trailer wheel bearing parts, while Chris and I tried to get what was left of the wheel bearing off the spindle. It took us a bit, but we were able to pry off the remaining piece of the wheel bearing with it popping and flying off out into the road. We had to wait a bit but finally got a call from John saying they got a trailer wheel bearing kit and would be back in less than an hour. Once they all got back with the rest of the parts Chris had to clean the spindle up bit with a file he had. Apparently we had damaged it a little bit when we had to pry the old one off. With a few trial fits and a little more fitting Chris got it all back together with the new parts. It was starting to get a little bit late once we got back on the road. We made it all back down to Darrington with everything working as it should. All in all it was a good day with great friends good rigs and fun times. And the next time someone says something about no break downs, say it from home with a text or email…LOL Thanks to all for a great day and looking out for each other!!

Gary M
TT256