SUV Eagle Lakes Run turns into Fordyce Rescue Run 6-29-08

Well, this run turned into a rescue run for a J**P friend of mine who broke a chromo rear 44 axle on Winch Hill 1 on the Fordyce Trail. I went to his house Saturday night to pick up his spare axles from his garage (dumbass towed his crap up and didn't load his spares), and left for the hills at 5am Sunday with a couple of other rigs. We arrived at the first water crossing, and guess what gave out... MY stinking POWER STEERING AGAIN!!!!!!! This time it was the box puking ATF... So I pulled off the belt, cleaned up my puke, and muscled it the rest of the way pulling most of the stitching off of my stock steering wheel in the process. We got my buddy his axles, he installed them and we continued on. I looked at WH1 and decided that an alternate 2 ledge obstacle of a bypass (if you wanna call it that) was the lesser of 2 evils, and broke a hub getting winched up the first ledge. A quick change to the slugs I keep for spares from the original waggy set up I pulled off when I first did my SAS, and we were wheeling again. The only other drama on this trip were a few double pumpkin hi centers requiring a quick winch to get over. I feel like Popeye now and can barely move my hands from an entire day of manual steering over the most unrelenting terrain I have been on to date, but the Rescue was a great success... and I got to chalk up my first attempt at the 1st half of Fordyce as a success as well. I'll post some pics when I get them... I forgot my camera, and had to rely on a friend's for shots.

Replacement steering box $100
Replacement premium hub, and spare $100
Original Waggy slugs and caps as spares for the spare, and hand delivering a friend his spare axles for his busted rig... Pricele$$

dang man your new user name should be rescue man Isnt that like 2 rigs less than a few months

Dayum, I forgot completely about the Waggy flop, yank, flop, drag... You had me thinking for a minute, and then... BAM memory kicked in... hahahaha

cougarfreak to the rescue! Sounds like Fordyce, that place can be pretty savage.

The most difficult wheeling I've done to date. It's relentless, and constant. you get no breaks, except the ones you don't want. Must be why the freaks with 44+ tires like wheeling there.

yeah, I like it alot.. My only time on Fordyce was in my Blazer. At that time I only had 1/2 tons, 4.56 gears, posi front and rear (rear was pretty much open), th350.NP203, 2" lift and worn down 33" SSR's. So it was pretty much stock.. We wheeled in past the 6 mile marker.. I can't wait till I can wheel it with my current setup.

Yeah I just went to Fordyce for the first time a few weeks ago and I fell in love. I used to go camping at Bowman lake and around that area, but now that my truck is capable I don't think I will ever go back to bowman. going to just go to fordyce instead!!