Anatomy of a Trail Fix

Broken parts are a part of four wheeling, and ingenious trail fixes are often necessary to get the vehicle back to the parking lot where it can be trailered home.

In a previous post I mentioned that one of the Jeeps in our group at Tree's Ranch, a TJ model (97-06), broke a rear axle trying to climb a ledge.  Luckily it was near the end of the day, and the trail fix was an interesting part of the run.

When a rear axle breaks on a TJ, the axle shaft comes out of the axle tube and the wheel begins to stick out from the side of the Jeep.  If it is not restrained, it will eventually separate from the Jeep.

The fix in this case involved two steps.  First, the rear drive shaft was disconnected, which made the Jeep front wheel drive only.

The second part was to take the vertical bar from a high lift jack (a 4' tall jack made for heavy equipment but beloved by four wheelers) and tie it across the tire using parts of a ratchet strap (the type used to tie town loads to a trailer).  One end of the jack bar was tied to the Jeep frame on the rear of the tire and the other on the the front of the tire.  As the photo shows, this lets the jack bar slide on the tire while holding the tire and axle shaft in place.  The tire was lubricated with WD-40.

Unfortunately, the jack bar tended to rise up on the tire as it turned, and one of the guys rode on the bar as the Jeep drove back to the road.  As the Jeep moved, the rider sprayed the tire to keep it lubricated.  The Jeep had to drive very slowly, obviously, and a trailer was sent to pick it up at the first accessible location.

Four Wheeling at Tree's Ranch

We had not been four wheeling since we left Michigan, and we decided to join the Jeep Nation club out of San Antonio on a run to Tree's Ranch, which is about 125 miles west of San Antonio not far north of the small town of Leakey.

Tree's is a 5500 acre exotic game ranch that opens one weekend a month for four wheeling.  It is in the Texas Hill Country, which has limestone hills several hundred feet in height covered with cedar and mesquite trees and cactus.  The ground is littered with broken pieces of limestone of all sizes, and the land is cut by creeks that are dry most of the year. Among the rocks live rattlesnakes and scorpions, although we did not see any on our trip.  As they say, the area is filled with things that stick, sting and bite. 

We ran the intermediate trails which required tires at least 33" in diameter up to 37".  (By comparison most full size SUV tires are about 28" in diameter.)  Our trails crossed creeks, went up and down very steep hills and followed dry creek beds.  The creek beds were filled with rocks and had numerous dry waterfalls that we had to climb or descend.  The adjacent photo shows my Jeep descending a waterfall.

As a testament to the difficulty of the trails, our run had a broken U-joint and transfer case yoke on one Jeep, a broken track bar on another and a severely dented rim causing a flat tire on a third.  We heard of a rollover on the extreme trail, but those guys are prepared for that with extensive roll cages.  The worst breakdown of the day in our group was a broken rear axle on a TJ style Jeep, which I will detail with a photo the following post. 

My Jeep, also a TJ, came through with only a severely dented front license plate holder and plate and a slightly dented rear license plate holder.  That happened when I got stuck between two rocks in a stream bed.  Another Jeep used its winch to bull my rear tires sideways to give me room to maneuver.  

Oh, yes, they say I almost rolled my Jeep on the same obstacle, although I did not notice it from inside.  Oops!

Tree's is an outstanding offroad facility, and we had a wonderful time driving the trails and socializing with the Jeep Nation folks.  We followed the day with a nice barbecue dinner.  I also won a tow strap in the door prize drawing after dinner Saturday night.

What I'm Going To Be When I Grow Up

I have always been interested in archaeology; and when the Walker County Historical Commission was looking for someone interested in attending a workshop on historical archaelogy, I jumped at the chance.

I joined the Texas Archeology Society (that's the way they spell archaeology) and headed down to Lake Jackson south of Houston the first weekend in March.  They had very interesting lectures by a professional archaelolgist on the basics of archaelogy, pottery identification, and the Jackson plantation and sugar mill.  

We ended the session with a field trip to the Jackson planation to view the ruins of the home and sugar mill, which sold a remarkable $600,000 of sugar in 1860.  The lady in the picture was our main lecturer and tour guide.

If It's Spring, It Must Be Time to Plant A Garden

Last year our garden was only moderately successful.  We put it in hurriedly and did not prepare the soil nearly well enough.  This year we are in our new home, and we decided to build raised beds with good soil.  Cec is taking the Master Gardener course sponsored by the Walker County Extension Agent, and we are applying what she has learned there.

I built two 6'x16' frames from landscape timbers secured with 60p spikes in pre-drilled holes and lined the sides with plastic to insulate the soil from the timber chemicals.  I finished the bed by topping it off with deck boards (not shown in photo) to provide a comfortable seat.  I also added vertical pieces of PVC pipe around the inside edges so I could make a cover frame by inserting and bending smaller diameter PVC across the bed.  We used it to cover the garden with a tarp last weekend to avoid a late frost, and it worked great.  

I have to mention the Makita 18v. portable impact drill that I bought to install the straps for the PVC and the deck boards.  I borrowed one from my builder last year to build a wood fence and was so impressed that I decided I had to have one myself.  The drill is very small and light and will practically drive a deck screw through a 1" board.  It is one of the most effective power tools I have ever owned.

The soil came from a mushroom farm near Madisonville.  They have to change their soil every 7 years, and they sell the very rich used soil to local gardeners and landscapers.  I used my Kubota tractor to scoop the soil and transport it to the beds.  Love my tractor!

We have already planted tomatoes, onions, peppers, squashes, canteloupes and turnip greens and will add climbing green beans tomorrow.  One of Cec's Master Gardener buddies is going to give us bamboo to stick the beans.  Most of our sets came from the Walker County Master Gardeners plant sale.  The tomatoes were 12" tall when we bought them!

 

How Many Turtles on the Log?

I count 25 or 26, but who can be sure?

We see some interesting sights in out little lagoon on Bethy Creek, but this is one of the more interesting ones.  It's right up there with the invasion of the pelicans in November.  We also see quite a few egrets and blue herons strolling through the shallow waters of the lagoon searching for fish.

Our lagoon is a dead end from quite a few pieces of flotsam.  We get fishing lures, bobbers (or "corks" as we say in East Texas), tennis balls, plastic jugs that many use for trot line floats, and last week a log.  

It was not long before the turtles discovered the log and climbed aboard.  They are very skittish making it hard to get a close-up photo.  This one was taken at 50 yards with a medium telephoto lense, and it was heavily cropped.