13 March - Chinamens

[xjk9bar1]

We were talking about hitting Chainmen's on Saturday, 13 Mar at the initial chapter meeting last Sat. Well, let's do it!

Meet at Johnson Village at 10:30 (Springs folks - meet at Colorado Ave and 31st (Taco Bell ?) at 8:30 am to head out).

[Led]

Sounds great but you gotta come help me tweak my junk first :doh:
Led

[old_man]

I would be up for it but I have to get my driveline situation worked out. I got the tranny swap finished, but I guess when I shortened the rear driveshaft and did the SYE conversion, I must have gotten the shaft misaligned. I set it up in a jig and tack welded it at three places before I started, but now it will rattle my teeth out at 35mph. Tranny works fine.

I called around and everyone wanted $90+ just to balance a driveshaft. That is a bunch of BS. I am going to set it up on jack stands put it in gear and see if it is straight. If it isn't too bad, I will just put it in my press and do a bit of tweaking. Otherwise, I might just cut the tube off, get a new piece and start over. What a pain.

If it is straight, I might do the weight with a radiator clamp to find the balance point, then weld the weight. Nothing like a little shade tree mechanic fixin.

Heck, we could have our first BOD meeting.

[shaggys645]

I would be up for it but I have to get my driveline situation worked out. I got the tranny swap finished, but I guess when I shortened the rear driveshaft and did the SYE conversion, I must have gotten the shaft misaligned. I set it up in a jig and tack welded it at three places before I started, but now it will rattle my teeth out at 35mph. Tranny works fine.

I called around and everyone wanted $90+ just to balance a driveshaft. That is a bunch of BS. I am going to set it up on jack stands put it in gear and see if it is straight. If it isn't too bad, I will just put it in my press and do a bit of tweaking. Otherwise, I might just cut the tube off, get a new piece and start over. What a pain.

If it is straight, I might do the weight with a radiator clamp to find the balance point, then weld the weight. Nothing like a little shade tree mechanic fixin.

Heck, we could have our first BOD meeting.
Sorry this may not be the right section but Northern Colorado Driveline Service in Greeley went through my front driveline on my comanche for $200 and they said balancing was only like $50 Give them a call (970) 356-2723 Hope this helps.

[Nay]

We were talking about hitting Chainmen's on Saturday, 13 Mar at the initial chapter meeting last Sat. Well, let's do it!

Meet at Johnson Village at 10:30 (Springs folks - meet at Colorado Ave and 31st (Taco Bell ?) at 8:30 am to head out).


For those who don't know what/were Johnson City is...

Johnson City is a truck stop on the left side of Rt 24. about a mile before the T-junction at Buena Vista. Basically, you cross the Arkansas River and there is a large parking lot on your left at the truck stop. The trailhead is about 3 miles from Johnson City, so it is a great meet & greet & air down and disconnect kind of place.

For those unfamiliar with Chinamen's, it is not a typical Colorado trail in that it is more of a desert trail topping out at 9,000 ft. elevation as opposed to the typical passes/ledge roads we have. It is pretty much non-stop obstacles, but anything difficult is optional. Chinamen's is a great trail to test new mods or cut your teeth on more difficult stuff...if you don't make it you can just take an easier line. Really fun trail for a group of all abilities to get out for a day.

It is looking like this now may be a snow day, so we're watching the weather forecasts.

Nay

[Crunch]

I'd love to make it, but I found a crack in the bracket at the axle end of my track bar. Troy and I are gonna get it welded up Monday. Hopefully we can also get my spring perches and shock mounts welded up on the 60 so I can get it in.
Hopeful for next time,
Crunch

[Yucca-Man]

Can't make it - I've got a "new" D44 I'll be working on next week for install into the Jeep.

[4WDXPRT]

I'll try and make it...have in-laws in town so that makes it a little tricky. Love to get out there and wheel with Joey and Led. We can scope Carnage Canyon for BOTW4.

Randy

[Nay]

Looks like I'm in - not sure if the family is joining or not since the weather is going to be variable and the young 'un is only six months old. Should be a fun day.

Nay

[Grant]

Looks like I'm in - not sure if the family is joining or not since the weather is going to be variable and the young 'un is only six months old. Should be a fun day.

Nay

Get those ice skates ready. :flame: must be freezing over. Nay on the trail? I don't believe it. Will have to see that myself. Next thing you know Fred will be joining us. Webwheelers on the trail. :party:

So with the big guns commiting to Chinaman's, i might just have to throw my hat in the ring.

Actually I have been helping a freelance writer with a rockcrawling story and have invited her to this trail on Saturday. She has other commitments but may change her plans so she can join us on the trail. If i fail to make it, i am sure we can find her a seat in someone's rig.

If the weather holds I plan on being there, damn Jeep has been gathering dust and it's time for a spring trail.

Grant

[4WDXPRT]

There was a great write up on Carnage Canyon in Buena Vista from some dude in New Mexico in the current 4Wheel Drive and Sport-Utility Magazine.

I just received it in the mail yesterday. He was driving a bugified CJ-5 I think and there were several CJs with him.

http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/toc/

There website isn't showing the latest issue as there is a red TJ I think on the cover...maybe waiting for it to hit newstands.

[Digger87xj]

Hey guys.... noobie to the board... most probably know me from CO4x4...

anyhoo, Me (Don) and Red Bull (Aaron) are going to make this trip sat...

See you at the Gunsmoke truckstop @ 10:30 :D

[RED BULL]

Right on! Looking forward to meeting some new people and seeing some old faces again. See ya at Colorado and 31st at 8:30... :D

[xjk9bar1]

Outstanding!!!!! Looks like we should have about 6 (7 if Grant can get fight off the dust bunnies).

Weather may even coporate...forcasting partly sunny skies w/ temps in the low 40's.

See ya there!

[Nay]

Get those ice skates ready. :flame: must be freezing over. Nay on the trail? I don't believe it. Will have to see that myself. Next thing you know Fred will be joining us. Webwheelers on the trail. :party:

Grant

Well, I do manage to run Chinaman's about once a year so you'd better make this one :guitar: .

Now that son #3 is trail ready (can hold his head up), you'll be seeing quite a bit more of us...taking the older boys wheeling is a lot more daddy-duty fun than wiping arses :puke:

Nay

[JohnJohn]

I'm in

[Nay]

I'm in

I'm a confirmed. Just me...the rest of the brood is going to kick back at home and enjoy the warm weather.

Nay

[RED BULL]

Well, unfortunately I have to pass on this trip. Meeting someone for a possible job at noon. I believe Digger will not be there either as he is swapping his torque convertor tomorrow. Have fun and be safe! :D

[4WDXPRT]

I'm going to have to bail on this run due to family in town...going down to Canyon City to check out the Gorge...Have fun and I hope the weather holds for you guys. Thanks for setting this up Joey!

Randy

[Digger87xj]

yeah :( not going to make it... I put in a higher stall converter on thursday and now I'm not getting lock-up command from TCM... have to figure that out B4 any long trips.

[xjk9bar1]

We started with a total of 16 rigs...a 1 TJ, JohnJohns Rubi, 1 fullsize Dodge and rest XJ's (ranging from stock to modified). The magazine people had fun, I don't remember the magazine or news group. Led pretty much pulled their stocker thru the trail...:) No one broke anything, a few recieved some rock kisses. We got started shortly after 11 am and everyone off the trail around 6:30 pm. The first boulder garden was fun as usual, some excellent flexing. The waterfall has changed w/ winter wash out (the elevator won - 3 and 0, Steph, Led and I just couldn't get the rear ends to climb due to the snow and mud), a few rocks including a boulder relocated changing all the old lines. The new exit presented a challenging obstacle. A nice stair type rock formation where your break over point plays a significant role. All in all, Chinamans' is still one of the best trails around "for new people to cut their teeth on", to quote Nay and to test your new modifications for the upcoming season.

[woodrock03]

Anyone have a recomendation for a cheap body shop that does quality work (do those two go together?), in the Colorado Springs area? I was one of the couple of stockers on the run (silver '95), and sustained a bit of damage on the passenger door/rocker. :bawl: Had a good time, and met some nice people. Found the run quite challenging, and couldn't believe what a stock XJ is capable of (and what an advantage a few mods like rock rails, a mild lift, and decent tires would be).

I looked in my volumes of "Guide to Colorado Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails", by Charles Wells to see what Chinamens is rated (Easy, Mod., Diff.), but it's not listed. How does it rate? Just curious.

Thanks,
John

__________________

[crjeeper]

Any pics from the trip? Need some vicarious trail carnage...... :cheers:

[Led]

Its a mod
Led

[Nay]

I looked in my volumes of "Guide to Colorado Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails", by Charles Wells to see what Chinamens is rated (Easy, Mod., Diff.), but it's not listed. How does it rate? Just curious.

Thanks,
John

__________________

Wells would rate Chinaman as difficult. It would easily be a top five trail in his first edition book, which was written before the new breed of extreme trails gained in popularity.

Nay

[Nay]

Led is correct...Chinaman's is a moderate trail by our definition...Charles Wells' books are geared to the standard newbie SUV driver, for whom Chinamen's would rate as "you can actually drive on this???". In other words, Wells is very conservative in his trail ratings.

Nay

[Nay]

As others have noted, we had a huge crowd. My mythical web wheeler status seemed to be a huge draw :^). So of course I led the trail so I could chicken out of any tough lines without Led being able to see it. OK, I didn’t chicken, but did get totally hung up on my long arm mounts on the double stair obstacle and needed a tug to get back off. Time for a front locker to play on that stuff, and probably a redesigned longarm setup down to more of a 3 link mid-arm.

After the obstacle I noticed a weird noise at throttle and with a little bit of speed (it sounded kind of like a pigeon warbling), particularly when the suspension was leaning to the right. I couldn’t figure it out, and ended up driving home with it making the noise on and off (no longer sounding like a pigeon at highway speed...or maybe a pigeon on speed...). I was wondering if I’d fragged a transmission mount, but it turns out I had mashed the catalytic converter up into the body when I got hung up on the stairs, and so it was vibrating the body like crazy. Nice, simple (and cheap) crowbar fix for that one.

Anyway, the initial climb up the trail is really getting dug out, as are other parts of the trail. Of course, we had the advantage of running it “unpaved” as Led put it...too early in the season for the excessive rock stacking that stock-ish groups do to get through...and that made it more fun. There was snow in spots, but nothing deep, although the one major off-camber spot was wet with frozen mud underneath and snow on the upper side. Nice bit of pucker factor, but nobody seemed to have problems.

We hit the trail at 11:00 am and were off at 6:00 pm...pretty good time for a group of 17 (after the stocker with the reporter headed back down). It was 3:00 pm by the time we left the Waterfall, which is maybe 20% through the trail, so we made up some time getting up to the Stairs at the top of the loop. The Stairs are a Double Whammy (Moab) type obstacle, and only Led succeeded in taking a line from the far left, although it walked his rig about 8 feet to the right as it tried to climb before pulling up. Impressive line, though. It was easy to see why the MT/R has become the tire of choice for rock crawlers. From the Stairs it was just about all downhill...rough...dug out...and pretty slow going. But the Stairs more than make up for the loss of the old obstacles now closed off on private land, and overall I think Chinaman’s is better than ever.

It takes about 90 minutes to get a large group of almost entirely highly built rigs through a good obstacle, so we had a lot of downtime. But the weather was absolutely gorgeous and it was a great crowd. It was nice to get out and meet so many people, although I probably won’t have too many new names and faces correctly matched for next time since there were so many of us. I stopped taking pics after the first major obstacle since we had so many photographers out there...maybe somebody will get a good set up today.

And finally, my attempt to find the most out of the way place to buy Powerball tickets (it is always the remote convenience store that sells the winning ticket) failed miserably (well, I found a place but my numbers stunk), and hence I am at work today writing this trip report instead of relishing in my new status as multi-millionaire. :cool:

Nay

[woodrock03]

Took a few pics with a cheap digital :photo: I had stuffed under the rear seat - left the good digital at home - figures :doh:


All in all they're not too bad though, should give an idea of what it was like out there.

Cheers,
John

http://community.webshots.com/user/woodrock03

[xjk9bar1]

Took a few pics with a cheap digital :photo: I had stuffed under the rear seat - left the good digital at home - figures :doh:


All in all they're not too bad though, should give an idea of what it was like out there.

Cheers,
John

http://community.webshots.com/user/woodrock03

Thank You!!!!!!!