I missed the Chocco ride yesterday as I had committed to a day ride at Adventure with some friends. Started with 8 rigs, all buggy types - 1 K5 blazer, 1 CJ on Rockwells and 49s, 5 Toyotas, and mine. At the end of the day only the Jeeps and 1 Toy were intact.
We started on 47-43, which is definitely a tough trail, esp. with recent rain mud. Definitely one for 37s and up and skinny pedal/wheelspeed in spots. Took a couple of hours r/t to camp, but no-one broke and only a couple of winch pulls. After lunch we decided to "play" on Area 51; carnage resulted for the Toys. Broken driveshaft, broken hub, broken rear ring-pinion. I was denied on the big notch to the far left, as was everyone but the big Jeep, and he had to work hard on it.
By then it was 5:00pm, so I and the K5 decided to do one more run. Trails 60 and 25. These were excellent for built rigs, basically gullies filled with moderate size rocks. I think locked rigs on 35s would have fun on these with a good challenge, with one spot needing a little skinny pedal and some spotting. We did it pretty quick and were back to load up at 6:00.
When driving back we got a call that the K5 had blown up his full-hydro PSC hydro ram and was stuck on trail 1. None of the other rigs have CBs, and we were surprised that he hadn't called for help earlier. I have the same ram for hydro-assist on my rig and could have swapped it to get him off the trail, but we were past Chattanooga when he called. //:hlp// Everyone else was camping, so hopefully there was plenty of help available, including the skid loader at the park.
I didn't break anything, but have a couple of fluid leaks to check out. Rear diff cover seeping, rear axle seal, and tranny all leave a few drops.
So there's a few more trails to consider for the next ride at Adventure for the built rigs. While challenging no real off-camber spots to worry about.