Rubithon 08

Anyone attending Rubithon this June 18-22? I'll be on the wagon run heading out Wednesday 8am.

Bachelor party weekend I hope you have a blast!

oh yeah, I'll be there with you in spirit!!!!

I was scheduled to go on the Rubithon run Wednesday, but brake issues weren't resolved until LATE Wednesday night. I was hoping to be packed up and ready to go at 5am to hit the 9am run Thursday, but that option got squelched when I was STILL packing at 4am (Yes, it's been a while), so I decided to try the Friday run with Marlin. Thursday evening found me with leaky power steering at the top of the switchbacks a few miles in on Ice House Road. So at about 4:30pm I turned around and retreated back down to Sly Park to try and tighten down my connections at the shop next to the Shell station (Super nice guys BTW).... bad idea as I wound up cracking one of the fittings tightening them too much :mad: . Marlin was very kind and gave my sons and I a ride to the local Napa to see if they could help out... no such luck. No one in Sly Park had any to replace it with, and Placerville C and H automotive were the only ones in the area with the possibility of having the JIC -6- fittings I need to hook power steering back up but they were already closed for the evening :crybaby: . Upon Marlin's recommendation, I removed the power steering belt and went full Manual to get to the Sly Park campgrounds. Manual steering and 35" tires REALLY SUCKS!!!! Friday had me taking the air box off and on to get better access at the lines, connecting/disconnecting, bleeding, and rebleeding the system 5 more times to no avail, and traipsing and wrenching around Sacramento in 104 degree heat :censor:. My two boyz were totally cool while I wrenched (one of the few times I like having bought them Gameboys). Finally I got some copper cone washers from Brake Hose and Fittings Etc. and a couple more fittings for spares, and a new power steering pump from Napa... which coincidentally only gave me power steering for 100 feet, then conked out again.

So after making my youngest cry telling him we're going home, some FOTR friends of mine convinced him that I was just kidding and we caravaned up to Airport flats (Power Steering was still nonexistent, but I figured camping and hiking in to the FOTR fence material collection at the bottom of the bowl beat the heck out of going home).


Some other FOTR friends of mine offer a little fire road excursion with a little hike, and then we'd caravan home. Well, my power steering started working that morning and only gave me an issue once on our Wentworth "hike"... We weren't even going to disconnect the sway bars or air the tires down... That went out the window when we were all having a blast cruising through Wentworth Springs. Wentworth is WICKED this year, and rock stacking and lots of high centering were abound, but no straps, strap ons, winches, or wenches were necessary to get our 3 rigs through.


Minor rock rub body damage, and blowed up thumbnail was the only carnage incurred. My power steering musta spit out the air bubble that was ultra-mega giving me fits while we were on the "fire road", and worked the whole way home... and is still working. We were also trying out using our slider as a kick stand... My buddy said his inclinometer read 40 degrees... He'd have flopped if it weren't for the little slider bulge in front of the rear fender:


And, yes, my son is shy like me... NOT!!!! He likes to ham it up when there's an audience, and he was in rare form at Loon Lake. Ironically the song by Sir Mixalot called "Baby got back" came on the radio at some point for some strange reason, and my son's busted into hysterics... instantly I had the below shot flash in my head...