The last trip offroad was awesome. I showed up a bunch of V8 buggies and jeeps with 42-44" tires; they could go everywhere I could.... but it took them 10 times longer
. The cut tires worked great, I could tell a huge difference, have to do the fronts now. I also got it registered and insured, and I have been driving it quite a bit on the road - gotta love AL.
I flogged the Mutt relentlessly all day; I literally couldn't have been harder on it. I was catching air, crashing down on rocks, and bouncing off trees.... wide open assaults on the difficult trails, which was basically all of them. I can't believe the powerpack stood up to the abuse I dished out; I had to repeatedly rev it until the valves were floating, dump the clutch, and hammer it to squeeze enough juice out of her to bash my way up the steep sections. She just asked for more.
Here's my buddy with whats left of his Bronco. I remember when he bought it bone stock.
Here's a couple of the rigs we wheeled with; they both suffered breakage. The green/silver one destroyed a front Dana 60 Lockright locker and a rear driveshaft, and the red/black one had ignition problems and broke a front Dana 60 axle shaft.
The guy with the Rockwell buggy in the background drives it like he hates it. It is hysterically funny to watch him beat on it.
One of the harder sections. Photos don't do it justice.
Of course, when you beat your rig like I do, there will be breakage; on the last trail of the day I grenaded the front left Milemarker hub.
This is all that's left of my front bumpstop.
Upon closer inspection, I found I had destroyed a rear driveshaft u-joint.
The set screw on the front transmission yoke kept backing out, so I modified the slip spline on the driveshaft to accept this spring. Hopefully this will keep the yoke from slipping out of the transmission and draining all the oil.
Here's some of the rock rash. The driveshaft protection is doing it's job.