Shakedown run gone bad

73 Wagoneer on 38's with all the fixins, occupied by Wild Bill and his dawggie "Blue",
97 4Runner on 35's with some of the fixins, occupied by yours truely, and my sons J-Cub and G-Cub.
Both rigs fresh off the jack stands, and both with some brake issues, but nothing immediately major. Bill had been to the River Bottom before and his directions he remembered took us through Colfax. We get to the intersection of YouBet Rd. and Red Dog Road, and Bill's notes ended there. I phoned my lovely wife as I had left my directions, posted here, on my desk... great place for them, yes??? NO!!!! Any way, it sounded like we needed to continue down YouBet road... wrongo!!! We ended at a camping site called Penninsula ?? campgrounds that had a sign saying "Closed until April"... well last I checked it WAS April, but who's counting? Anyway we phoned our illustrious Pres. Jason and he looked at the map to see where we were, and where we needed to go. It was about 10pm and, with fresh new directions, we wanted to get to the River Bottom to set up camp.

We headed back to Red Dog and down the correct path leading to the River Bottom. This is where all Hell broke loose... OK maybe just brakes, but who's counting? I was leading Bill down the narrow dirt road at approximately 10:45 when suddenly I see his headlights next to me... I accelerated to get out of his way only to look in my rear view and see his headlights make a 3/4 turn... He pulled a Dave... translation: He had rolled it. Apparently his brakes let loose and he tried to put his bumper into the side hill to try and stop only to have the monster 38's climb it flipping him. Blue made a great circus dog running from the passenger seat, up the passenger door, across the ceiling, and down the driver's door where he sat with that ever comedic bubble above his head saying "WTF?Huh?" I came to a stop and ran up to see if they were OK, and thankfully they were.

We both have winches, but mine was merely hooked to the battery. The fairlead was sitting on my floorboard waiting for me to install it and the hook laying next to it. The control cable Dave so graciously donated to my cause also needed to be modified to work with the plug on my 8274. All of which I felt were not essential to a shakedown run... won't be making that mistake again!!!! Bill's winch controls are under his hood in the engine bay currently inaccessible due to his current position on the road... He'll likely be changing that on his next build. Out came the strap and shackles. I hooked to his truck, considerably heavier than mine mind you, and pulled. After the second unsuccessful pull, we get company. Who pulls up, but a local in a Ford Super Duty. Sweet, we thought.

This is where it gets real interesting. We disconnected the strap from my truck and the locals Scott and Joe (I forget their real names, but these'll do for the sake of the story) proceed to hook the ends of the strap to their hitch ball. I was having none of that (That's all we needed was a projectile hitch ball flying through the grill and motor and cab... OK, SLIGHT exaggeration, but it could happen), and suggested they take the receiver hitch out and thread the pin through the ends of the strap inside where the hitch normally goes. Not rocket science, I thought, just good wheelin' common sense. Their comment frightened me further when they said "Hmm, learn sumthin new every day. I'm kinda drunk so I'm kinda slow, but that's a great idea". Our knights-in-shining-Super-Duty suddenly went blessing and curse.

After properly hooking the strap, they dragged Bill's Waggy from behind a 3 foot stump it was going to have skewer his floorboard (smart move). This sheered his front passenger center pin, but had his rig sideways in the roadway making it easier to roll him back onto his tires. I had enough room to get by and suggested I go uphill of the rig and hook another strap to the Waggy to ease it down so it doesn't continue rolling down the steep hill we were on. Nobody wanted anything to do with that, they just wanted to get it over quickly... careful whatcha wish fer!!!!

I backed up where I and my kids watched in horror as they pulled the Waggy back onto all fours, then onto the drivers side smashing both doors and side windows, then onto it's lid at the bottom of a ditch... Yeah, knew that was coming!!!! Bill's next words were commanding me to get my "$%^&ing winch working!!!!!".

The next 45 minutes had the Super Duty yanking and tugging to get the Waggy back onto it's tires so they could drag it back up onto the roadway. By this time there were about 30 hecklers yelling "pull harder!!! Keep going!!! Rip the bumper off!!!" I thought Bill was going to start throwing down, but he kept his cool. By the time I had my winch working they had pulled Bill's severely smushed Waggy back onto the road... and the crowd went wild!!!! then disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. We parked it on the side of the road at the end of a switchback where I pitched camp. It was now about 1am, and Bill took my 4Runner back to Vacaville to get his Super Duty and trailer. After an hour nap, he headed back our direction and pulled up at the scene of his disgust at about 8am. We loaded up his rig onto the trailer, strapped it down, and broke camp. He handed me the keys, leaned the seat back and went to sleep.

Apparently the "honey moon" depression didn't last long as he was on the phone half way through the trip home hunting down another Waggy to graft to his still beefy frame and drivetrain.

The whole time I was wrestling with the desire to take pictures and video, but wisely thought that idea wouldn't go over to well with Bill. In the interest of good friendship, I kept the camera in it's case.

We arrived back at his place where his lovely wife was holding a baby shower for their soon to arrive baby boy... The looks were priceless.

Wheel on!!!

Wow Chad... that's crazy!! I'm sorry it didn't work out for you guys, but that's deffinitely a trip you'll never forget!!

That sucks, but what a great story!!

sorry to hear about the damage to the waggy!!
hope those guys that yanked bill out will get the same treatment next time their stuck

The good part of this story is that he has 3 4door waggys lined up from various donors at major bargains, and all are newer than what he had (reads: power brakes, windows, doors locks). We're going to help him get it back to wheeling status in a weekend soon. 5 assistants and some pizza and beer and let the wrenches and bolts fly!!!! I'll get some pics of the end result (rolled waggy) sometime this week and post them. I just can't let this thread sit without a pic or two!!!!

Thats crazy

Alright, I finally got out of the garage, and over to Bill's to tear down the Green dead Waggy, and prep the donor body and frame. We were too busy to take pics while we pulled the motor, tranny and t-case (alright, you caught me... I forgot my camera but I did get some shots of the old and new a few days before!!!












And the new donor body and frame from an 84:

Damn, that sucks!! Looked like it was really straight too..

Holy cow that thing really was toasted! That's crazy!