WOOT!!! what a day that was!!! i always have a blast and actually hit some areas of Superstition i had not hit before especially the whoops section that just got smoother the harder you hit the gas!!! aside from Polar's kickass photos none of us took shots as we were just having a blast hauling some serious *** thru the desert. words really can't describe it, you just have to experience it really, which is really why i really don't say much about our daily desert excursions. it was finally great to get Polarbear out there so he could have some fun romping. as for me and the truck, hehe, got a wild hair up me arse and saw an MDR (mojave desert racing) Class 7 truck, me thinks, hauling *** thru a whoop section and was dying to hit. i thought, fvck it, let's hit it. peeled out, started hauling *** towards the section only to see the whoops a little bigger and tighter. had to slow down. then the section got a bit smaller at which point, i gassed it and hit it and the suspension just soaked it up. again, just does so much better at a higher speed, then out of f*cking no where a HUGE *** whoop appeared and that was the end of it. launched right off the face and while trying to brake before it i was airborn (literally) and i'm thinking whilst airborn i hit the brakes and brought my front end down and buried the front end in the hardpacked desert terrain. it was like a scene in a movie where a plane crashes in the sand. sand blanketed the windshield and flew in both windows, the cooler in the back seat exploded shooting ice everywhere hitting the windshield, making me think the tempered windshield had exploded in a million pieces. it was the feeling of shock that hit me and me co-pilot, who a split second before the big whoop, said..."look out!!! that looks big!!" LOL.... he had, for a second, thought we had flipped over, but as the sand cleared the windshield and the sunlight had reappeared and the mighty titan continued to drive on, he realized we were still upright. me, i was still trying to get my bearings. motor was still running and steering felt responsive and suspension was active so i thought, holy shat, what the hell did we launch off? despite the feeling of survival, i just knew there had to have been some sort of damage i sustained. sho nuff, after finishing the section off, got out and checked out the front only to see coolant spewing out like a stuck pig. wheels all duck-footed, camber set like a CORR truck. the extent of the damage so far is the lower portion of the bumper is bashed in which subsequently bent the bumper brackets a bit in and several components, i.e. a bracket where the coolant overflow bottle attaches to broke and cracked the bottle at the bottom leaving a crack the size of a quarter-slot in it. a-arms pushed up into the metal part of the fenders, coil-buckets bent, but frame is fine and front lower crossmember is fine. repairing the coolant overflow bottle, one thing i recommend everyone having in their toolbag is a tube of JB weld putty. that self-hardening putty is the sh!t...!!! knead till uniform in color apply to crack and wait 2 minutes till it hardens like steel. sure enough, hard as a rock in 2 minutes. re-installed the overflow bottle, filled it up, then drove over 100 miles back home and it held up the whole way home, barely. one thing i failed to do was thoroughly sand the cracked area down, since i had no sand paper (forgot to get at kragen) just fingered some sand on the area. didn't quite do a good enough job but just enough to get me home. so when i got home, i put it in park but left the motor running, popped the hood and sure enough the overflow bottle was at max but looked down and saw the jb weld putty starting to show signs of coolant seeping thru, but she held nonetheless. the next morning, coolant everywhere... LOL... well, so i must get a new coolant overflow bottle and they ain't cheap. friggin' 52 bucks for the damn thing. i'll pick it up on wednesday and R & R. coil buckets will eventually be replaced with improved shock hoops and the bumper will be replaced with a prerunner bumper which had i had one would have served its purpose. so for now, the bashed in bumper will serve as a badge of honor for launching.
can't wait to get back out there!!!! i'll just have to remember to watch out for that section...:teethmast and oh yes, the mid-travel kit is on the end of January or February, with shock hoops soon after. a bit late, but that's okay...:jester: hahahaha... oh yeah, thank god the airbags didn't go off or i'd have one sore melon right about now... :huh:
but most important, im glad you stayed upright.
