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Unplanned Adventure


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Clark,

That is a scary story.  I would just stay in place no matter what in that area.  I've seen what big, fast water can do in that basin and other evidence of the flash floods.

You remind me of a few years ago when I still had my Isuzu Trooper and I was going on the first stretch of Greg's Hideout Road as you just get off Pierce Ferry Road.  (There was no station then or groves!)  It was well maintained and I called it the fastest dirt road because you could go 60-70 before you got to the turn and then head down to the subdivided roads.

So I had not been there in a few weeks and I was zipping along that portion of the road and it now had a few 'dips' from side washes and before I could really slow down I hit one at a high rate of speed.  I heard a big thump but everything seemed ok.  I went on about my couple of days of prospecting and used the Trooper normally for a few months.

One day I went in for some local service at my mechanic and he told me to come over and look at what he had found.  The front left corner of the frame had a broken weld.  It had snapped on that high speed dip.  He couldn't fix it but he sent me to a muffler shop where they put a good weld on it that was still holding until the day I killed the engine on another trip.  That is a different story.

Mitchel

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On 8/14/2021 at 9:06 AM, mn90403 said:

Clark,

That is a scary story.  I would just stay in place no matter what in that area.  I've seen what big, fast water can do in that basin and other evidence of the flash floods.

You remind me of a few years ago when I still had my Isuzu Trooper and I was going on the first stretch of Greg's Hideout Road as you just get off Pierce Ferry Road.  (There was no station then or groves!)  It was well maintained and I called it the fastest dirt road because you could go 60-70 before you got to the turn and then head down to the subdivided roads.

So I had not been there in a few weeks and I was zipping along that portion of the road and it now had a few 'dips' from side washes and before I could really slow down I hit one at a high rate of speed.  I heard a big thump but everything seemed ok.  I went on about my couple of days of prospecting and used the Trooper normally for a few months.

One day I went in for some local service at my mechanic and he told me to come over and look at what he had found.  The front left corner of the frame had a broken weld.  It had snapped on that high speed dip.  He couldn't fix it but he sent me to a muffler shop where they put a good weld on it that was still holding until the day I killed the engine on another trip.  That is a different story.

Mitchel

Good thing you caught the frame damage there are a lot of things that can go wrong out there you post a good reminder about checking your prospecting rig from time to time Mitchel, we dote on our detectors to find the gold but there’re kind of useless if we can’t get to and from the gold fields safely.

60-70 What do you mean you could, lol… ha, I’ve crept up above 50 in the Jeep when I’ve got the road all to my self but much above that and you start to feel the short wide wheel base. The washboard is pretty bad right now and the faster I can maintain the smoother it rides, downside my exhaust flange bolts keep vibrating loose, no parts falling off yet. It’s going in for a transmission service next week when I get back in town but my guy says no problem if the fluid remained clear and I’ll do the diffs myself before I take it to him but I just had everything redone so I know all the seals and breathers are good, same with the hubs I just replaced everything so some new grease just to be safe.

now about that engine.

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