The Lone Ranger – Kage’s ’94 X-Cab Leaf SAS and Bed Bob

[Josh40601]

sounds good....

and as for being "only 110 acres"...I gaurantee you can spend 2 days there EASY....

l8r, John

What he said.

 

[Kage]

13th Offroad Trip - Washita MX 12-29-12

I forgot how much fun it was to write my name in the snow

No real damage to report. I did mange to put a decent ding in the tailgate, and my fan appears to be trying to eat something as well, and I bent my rear DS again. Otherwise, no issues!. Heck, even the doubler stayed together!

Travel:

Things started out snowy in O-Town:

And the white stuff kept building up on the way down:

Washita, was beautiful with all the snow on everything. I'll let the photos do the talking for a bit:

I had to play around with the new camera some...

Link to the rest of the photos

This was the first 'snow wheeling' trip out in the truck and it worked rather well. Even the surplus tires surprised me at how well they worked in the snow (Slick stuff on the highway is another story).

I've been driving the truck quite a bit lately and I'm almost ready to call the doubler issue fixed. I'll let it ride a few more thousand miles before I claim victory...

 

[cdawall]

Good news is when your GY MT's wear down the MT/R's and baja T/A's are cheap as well for those rims.

Good to see its still chugging around somewhat surprised the tires suck on the road with snow.

 

[Kage]

Good news is when your GY MT's wear down the MT/R's and baja T/A's are cheap as well for those rims.

Yup! I think I'm going to be looking to buy a set late spring. Hopefully those will treat me a little better.

Good to see its still chugging around somewhat surprised the tires suck on the road with snow.

I think a part of that is due to my 'ever changing' alignment in the front, or possibly a shifted belt. After talking to a few other people running King Pin 60's, apparently its hard to keep them from adjusting the alignment themselves. Even though I've been marking stuff to make sure that things don't back off, I can still have the alignment change a good 1/4" after a few road miles. The king pin bushings are new (and in good shape), so I'm wondering if its just the nature of that plastic piece to deform enough to allow for the movement I've been seeing. Its usually not enough of an issue to worry about, but things can get a little interesting when hitting slick spots and bumps (like bridge abutments).

 

[Josh40601]

I love seeing this truck

 

[Kage]

14Th Offroad Trip – 2/23/13 Badlands Offroad

I’ve been playing offroad for several years now, but never had the opportunity to make the trek out to the Badlands in Attica IN. One of my friends finally laid it out there that we needed to make a trip out there this year. So with the wife making a cabin reservation, the trip was on!

Friday Travel:

The wife and I took off early from work on Friday to take the scenic route to Turkey Run State Park where our cabin for the evening was located. As we escaped IL, there was still a decent amount of snow on the ground:

The snow started to thin out as we hit the two lane north of Terre Haute:

Eventually we turned onto gravel roads:

And hit up a covered bridge:

More gravel roads:

And another bridge:

More Gravel Roads:

And another bridge (noticing a pattern yet?):

We eventually quit wandering around, and made it to our next stop, and where we were staying for the night, Turkey Run State Park:

Since there was plenty of daylight left, we hiked out to the suspension bridge, and tried to make it back to the ‘bowl’:

Going back into the trail:

We got to prefect our “Thin Ice Crossing” technique. This mostly entailed running across the creek as fast as possible while the ice gave way under foot (the stream was only about 3” deep):

With daylight rapidly waning, we went back to the lodge for dinner:

And then made our way to the cabin to wait for our friends to arrive:

The next day, the wife set out to grab some early morning photos before we made the trip out to Attica:

Once the troops were rallied, we set off North on the back raods:

Hey, another covered bridge!

Then some more back roads:

To the last covered bridge of the trip:

Back on the pavement:

We reached our destination:

Airing down while we wait for the last member of the party to show up:

We traveled about 15 miles in the park (don’t ask me where all we went, as I was just playing follow the leader). I do dig this park, lots of ‘casual’ trail riding areas, with some open play areas. There are also some sections of the park that are similar to the property my club has access too (mining tailings piles). The old 4.0 will still happily rev to 5 grand when asked too! Not too shabby for a motor with 238k miles on it.

My favorite part of the park was the quarry play area. This seemed to be the consensus with the rest of our group as well. It’s hard to find big open areas in the Midwest where you can just go climb anything you see.

While there was snow/ice on the ground when we got to the park, there was still a surprising amount of traction to be found. Things got very sloppy as the temperature warmed up later in the day, but it wasn’t too bad to get around in.

Travel for the day:

Photos from the day (no I’m not even going to try to put things in order):

Nope, no way this truck is fitting through those tubes!

Group shot:

No carnage to report from the group. I did pull my hubs apart when I got home to find that water has once again gotten into things (I miss unit bearings). All the vehicles (truck included) made the trip without any hiccups.

Compiled video from my camera and the wife’s (mostly from the quarry area):


A few go pro vids from the guy with the white XJ:

 

[Josh40601]

My favorite pic of your truck. Ever.

 

[railman]

I like the Badlands....was where I took my Ranger for its shakedown trip after the SAS

if you liked the Quarry...then you would Love The Wishbone Ranch

l8r, John

 

[99RangerOffRoad]

Man I wish I had money to buy your truck when you had if for sale.

 

[Kage]

My favorite pic of your truck. Ever.

Thanks! I kind of like it myself

I like the Badlands....was where I took my Ranger for its shakedown trip after the SAS

if you liked the Quarry...then you would Love The Wishbone Ranch

l8r, John

I probably would, they just need to move the park closer to me!

Man I wish I had money to buy your truck when you had if for sale.

Everything is for sale if the price is right! But I'm not really minding holding onto it right now.

Well I've been DD'ing this thing for the past 9 weeks (or so), and three wheeling trips. So far the doubler is holding itself together, so I think that issue has been resolved finally.

The truck has a new qurik now though.


Only third gear can I push the shifter past the detent, all the other gears have a nice positive stop to them. I'm not sure WTF happened here as I don't jam gears/powershift this thing. It doesn't seem to effect the function at all, so I'm planning on letting it ride.

I've never had as much trouble with a drive line as I've had with this M5OD and doubler setup. I'm starting to think that ford just can't make a decent 'light truck' transmission

 

[Josh40601]

Had the same problem. The little plastic pieces on the tips of the shift forks were broke off. Pulled the top plate, put new plastic pieces on, fixed. This was on my 2wd

 

[Bray D]

Nice write up. I'm glad you guys had a good trip and I'm still bummed that I got sent out for work. Regardless, it looks like you guys got to see a lot of the park.

Turkey Run looks awesome! I'll definitely be checking that place out this summer.

 

[Kage]

Had the same problem. The little plastic pieces on the tips of the shift forks were broke off. Pulled the top plate, put new plastic pieces on, fixed. This was on my 2wd

Bummer, so it looks like dropping the trans is in my future then. I'm planning on putting that off for awhile (at least until it warms up) right now it still works just fine.

Nice write up. I'm glad you guys had a good trip and I'm still bummed that I got sent out for work. Regardless, it looks like you guys got to see a lot of the park.

Turkey Run looks awesome! I'll definitely be checking that place out this summer.

Thanks!

Turkey run does get a little crowded in the warmer months, but its still worth checking it out.

 

[railman]

Wishbone is just a little further than Interlake.....but, I understand...

l8r, John

 

[Kage]

Wishbone is just a little further than Interlake.....but, I understand...

l8r, John

1 hr 45 mins to Interlake vs 4 hrs 15 mins to Wishbone is more than 'just a little further'

I wouldn't mind making it down there one day, but at that distance/time that puts it at an overnight trip which is a bit harder to make that happen due to time/funds. Its much easier for me to swing day trips to the 'local' parks.

Maybe one day though....