Read below to find out why!
 

Check out this link to the Goodyear Rock Crawling Championships!
This first link has incredible pics!!!!!!

Click here to see the entire selection of pics from Vernal Utah Series..

http://www.off-road.com/rock/vernal2000
 

Click here to see the main page:

http://www.off-road.com/
 

Click here to see the Moab Pics:

http://www.off-road.com/moab2000/card1/
 

Click here to see the second series of Moab Pics:

http://www.off-road.com/moab2000/card2/

Okay enough about that..
On to the Dusy Ershim Trail

Well we just got back from the Ership Dusy trail..
It was a disaster..
I barely got the new engine in and running just 1 1/2 days before we left, as the previous engine had a crack in the back of the oil galley in the block..A brand new engine, and it had to be pulled twice, to be redone..Twice in two weeks..
I still hadn't hooked up the new welder, plus tons of other things, like buying and setting up 25 feet of new welding cable with ends to match the new welder, and the 6 hour job of making the pull throttle cable fit in an already crowded engine compartment, as well as hooking up the chain to the fuel injection, which was pitifully incomplete from Premier !
I had to manufature my own from chain and other things that I rounded up at a hardware store the night before we left.
After several marathon sessions, it was finished and ready to go..The evening before the departure date..
I was able to test the 110 volt output by running the drill real quick..
But for some screwy reason I didn't put the drill into my Bronco tool box.. Big mistake!

Well the first interesting thing was that with all of the changes that I have made recently..The bigger tool box, the full roll cage, and the full bikini top has seriously take away from my ability to haul as much camping gear as I used to.
So Mike had to take a good portion of it in his rig..That will be taken care of on the next trip..I am looking into a lightweight aluminum rack that clamps on to my rollcage , as well as a rubicon rack which will mount over the spare tire, bolting onto the tire carrier which will enable it to carry two coolers, for easy access!

Just a lesson when you make alot of changes all in a short amount of time, expect problems..
Anyway after driving 6 hours to our first campsite, about 1/2 a mile away from the Dusy trail we camped the first night by Shaver Lake. While driving there I noticed that the air system wasn't working, then just before we arrived there about 6 miles short of our destination, the fuel injection started dying, and sputtering.. The Bronc's engine ended up dying in a sharp curve and the guy with us towed us around the corner to a small store parking lot, pulling us out of a bad situation. Thanks Mike..
We waited about an hour thinking that the fuel pump was hot because of the 105 degree heat and the long cliimb..
Well it started right up and ran fine for the next two days. We fixed the air compressor problem in camp that night, and went into the Dusy Ershim trail the next morning, with everyone seemingly running good, the Bronco sounding wonderful, the new cam very much in evidence, and everything working great, or so it seemed. We were off !

We entered the Dusy Ershim trail at Courtwright resevoir, and after airing down, proceeded thru some mild stuff to the first real obstacle that really decides if you should be on this trail at all !  It is called Chicken Rock, and if this is hard for you then you shouldn't do the rest of the trail.  It reminds me in it's own way of the GATE at the Loon Lake entrance to the Rubicon.

The entrance is really mean and great fun !
It will seperate the real wheelin rigs from the street toys really fast !

Here we are on top of Chicken Rock!

Just about 1/2 an hour after leaving Chicken Rock life took a big dump on me all at once !
We were 7 very hard miles into the Dusy right after lunch, " less than 50 feet from our lunch spot  in fact".
When my power steering box bracket snapped in half spinning the box sideways and shearing all of the grade 8 bolts except one completely off. It was a ten year old conversion from Vintage Bronco's that uses the Ford heavy duty 1/2 ton box..
I thought that it was bullet proof..NOT !  Nothing really  is, in this sport..
Well the top grade 8 bolt was 7/16 x 6" long and irreplaceable..Guess what?  I carry 4 of them now!
Anyway after seeing the break, and hearing the sharp crack of the bracket shearing in half, in a really easy spot I might add.
I tore into it with help from the guys with me only to find that just a very small part of the bracket had been holding for quite awhile, as only a bout a 1'16 of an inch of metal had actually been holding in a 1/4 " thick bracket..
It had been broken for quite awhile.  It just couldn't be seen because it was on the inside next to the box.
So we busted our butts for about 7 hours, and managed to weld it from the outside only,  as well as welding the long bolt togther, trying to get it off the trail, and into the camp site that we had just left from lunch.

Wanting to pull it apart again, and really fix it with parts from town..
But it only made it about 30 feet before it broke again,
causing me to use the winch to pull the wheels back and forth to steer it into camp..
Needless to say it was a very down time for me.  Trying to figure out the best way to fix my rig, and get out..
I felt so bad for the others who's trip was ruined. I really felt bad..
I have helped so many other rigs, and to have mine down like that was really a downer!

Day Two...
Well we made a list and the next morning Mike drove me back out of the trail and into town, to get parts.  We bought about $200.00 worth of everything that we could think of.  Taps, dies, extra long high speed drill bits, chain,  pickle fork, tons of bolts and nuts,and more.."They didn't have grade 8 in the size that we needed so we bought them out of grade 5 .." We even rented a drill.  Because someone didn't bother to put her drill in her tool box.  AAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH
We had to go to two different stores, Napa, and the local hardware store, to get 90% of what we wanted..
Then after driving 2 1/2 hours,  including an hour and a quarter of hardcore wheeling back into our camp, I was ready to tear into it.  We immediately started to pull the rig apart.  The first problem was that the injection picked this time to crap out for good, and wouldn't start anymore.   It turned out after testing the entire system , pulling fuses, bypassing parts of the system, replacing relays etc,  that the computer had burnt out, and was cutting off power to the pump.
It would provide power at startup and cut off the power after 5 seconds.  Too weird..
So we bypassed the puter and ran direct power to the pump full time, putting it in full rich mode, but it did get us back..
It actually ran well enough all things considering.  So about two hours after getting back we can now pull the ps box, we ended up loosening all of the belts, and pulling the bottom pulley off of the crankshaft " Mikes idea", so that we could pull the box out of the bottom and not take a ton of stuff off of the top, like the battery, and tray, and power steering pump and brackets, as we needed to keep the belts tightend to use the welder and air systems..We needed to drill the broken bolt out of the box, then use an easy out to back it out..Well the rented drill had a bad switch and the 3rd time that we used it it burnt out..
Talk about being up shit creek without a paddle !  We ended pulling the drill apart and Mike tested the leads with 12v power, while I held the cord against the battery's positive lead..We finally ended wiring the drill up direct and removed the switch completely.  With one guy holding the box, me drilling, and another guy plugging and unplugging the drill in when power was needed, we drilled and drilled and drilled !  An hour later we had the bolt out of the box.  Just before the sun went down I finished grinding the box out to take a larger bolt, and nut, and I was ready to weld the next day!
This is the end of day two.  Mean while Robin (a friend of mine) and the kids were exploring the lake and stream surrounding our camp.  To make matters worse and a little more extreme there was a small forest fire burning up on the ridge across the meadow from us.  Robin and the kids noticed this in the evening of the second day, just as it was getting dusk. Needless to say it caused some concern, and we were lucky that it didn't get any real wind, that could fan the flames.  After we left and made it back to Shaver Lake we went to the Fire Dept and told them exactly where it was.  They were going to drop an emergency team of fire jumpers in to put it out..
 

Day three..
I got up full of enthusiasm, because I felt that it would be done right, and end up stronger than before.  I was right..
I needed to grind down the edges of the brackets so that I could get good penetration, so I used Mikes air as mine was disabled from pulling the box out...Well after about a half hour his compressor locked up, sending a screeching racket through camp.  I had to run across the clearing to shut off his motor to stop the racket !
If it's not one thing its another.  So I put the die grinder bit in the drill and fired up my engine to finish the job..
NOW WE ARE READY TO WELD !
First I welded the bracket up both sides, and also the top which I couldn't reach the first time. I was able to get deep penetration, unlike before. With the box out it was so much easier.. Then I welded a brace into the end of the flange bringing it out to the crossmember for more strength, which Mike and I cut to fit by hand with a hacksaw on a rock !
Then when that was done, I beat it real hard with a big hammer making real sure that it held,
then slid the box back in and it fit perfectly !
We had to file out one hole just a bit to avoid stripping the threads on one of our new bolts..After that was in, it was just a matter of bolting the bottom pulley back on, hooking up the ps lines and steering linkages, filling the pump, and testing the system..  It actually steered easier than before if you can believe that.  We also made a cage out of heavy duty chain, that wrapped around the top and bottom of the ps box, and around the frame so that if it broke again, it would hold it in place enough to steer it off of the trail, and not damage anything.  Needless to say we didn't need that but it was nice knowing that it was there.  It performed flawlessly, and  really felt like it was back to normal..  We finished at 11 am, and broke camp after lunch. Leaving at 1:30 and arriving home at 8:30 pm, after driving straight through to Sacramento.  That was our fun for the weekend.  Needless to say it wasn't fun, but it is good to know that you can get yourself out of what was a really bad situation, with the right tools, and ingenuity!  I am so glad that I bit the bullet in Moab and purchased  the Premier Power Welder when I did,  and for my father teaching me how to weld when I was young.  Thanx Dad !
An interesting side note, when we were done, I asked Mike if he was getting a welder now,
and he said, " First I need to learn how to weld ".. He has a point there..LOL
He also told me when we were back at my place, that what had happened to me had really opened his eyes, to the stuff that he needed to change, as well as the tools that he carried..As he said, " That could have been or any one of us, and you have more tools than I've ever seen in any rig, and the knowledge to fix anything, and it still wasn't enough.  YEOW ! "
That is for sure..It was finally my turn!!