In response to everyone's curiosity (Mayfield)....a narrative of our Rausch trip:
We ran several trails in the morning, blues and blacks (12, 20, 13A, 17) The Jeep did great, we were running with two other guys who were in fairly built TJ's, one a comp rig. We were running out from the West property back towards where the trails connect to the south area. We hit up Trail 17, which was a hill climb, red on the map, but black on the sign. Wasn't bad at all.
Moved on, and decided to check out Crawl Daddy, a Red trail. We walked it, and from what we had already completed, it seemed appropriate, with a tougher obstacle towards the top of the trail. We started running the trail, and got a bit bound up, and the top link mount sheared off the front axle, which in turn caused the driveshaft to snap. Effectively, the three link front became a two link front.
Imagine the front axle/pinion being able to flop about in whichever direction it pleased. We were able to rotate the pinion up to a somewhat acceptable level, and used his winch to limit the rotation in one direction. We proceeded to try and drive back down the trail, but the steering sucked due to the shitty caster angle of the front axle. After a series of tries to get the Jeep on its way out of the trail, the winch rope (synthetic line) snapped, got pinched among the front end mess. One of the guys with us helped winched Zach back and forth, until we were able to finally get out.
It took us almost 4 hours to move the Jeep 150 feet to the bottom of the trail. In the process, we got the jeep turned around and headed forwards down the rest of the trail. In doing that, the pinion had not rotated down, but all the way up (vertical), and got into the lower radiator hose, effectively draining all of the coolant out of the engine. Then we had to hook a winch to his axle to pull the pinion back around. This is after the steering line sprung a leak and emptied itself of steering fluid.
Eventually we got to the bottom of Crawl Daddy, and were pulled via tow strap along some green trails to an emergency exit, which was right off 209. Rode back to camp, got the truck and trailer, and got home.
On the upside, no starter issues, suspension worked well while it was intact, new winch proved more than useful. Thank god for a tow rig and trailer, and for the emergency exit.
