Clayton Christmas Carnage '12

That trailer is lighter than several others that I've pulled, I think it's only about 4,000#'s.
I went many years on the first set of tires, after the first blow out someplace on I-10 going to Arizona I replaced all 4 with new. That lasted for a few years then when Busa borrowed it to go to North Dakota to pick up the twisted Customs chassis he blew out both driver side (the side that sits in the sun at my house). Those two tires only have one Clayton trip on them, now two trips (pretty darn new). The two on the passenger side (the two that blew out this trip) have a decent amount of miles on them and were getting worn on the outer edges pretty good.
I made sure all five tires were at max pressure (80psi) before leaving for the trip, I also feel the tires on stops for fuel to see if they are warm and they never are.

In other news:
I lost my camera up there and Evan has my tarp / tie downs. I've accounted for most everything else.

Higgs pulled a klogger and ran out of fuel a couple of times

Jimmy also noticed that I spit a u joint cap on a front shaft after it was loaded on the trailer.
I also blew a bogger bead on green mamba, The scout rear shaft couldnt handle the combination of skinny pedal and power tire that was thrown at it on walk in the park!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KrazyKarl02

Carnage:

Flem - Rolled Disco - bent roof cage, bent sheet metal, busted tail light. Sunday he discovered he had broken some rear axle flange bolts
Frick - Huffed the motor, started making noise Friday, he ran it all day Saturday until about 5:00 pm, then while extracting him, we de-beaded a tire
Heath (my neighbor) - Cracked his transmission in half
Hippy - Think there was a broken anti-wrap bar
Sam (In Jimmy's rig) - Broken rear axle shaft
Fred - Spit a u-joint cap out on a front shaft
JB - Broke a front shaft, repaired and continued wheeling
BDR - Poked a hole in his transmission
Evan - mystery jeep no start issue
Klogger - Friday had to tighten the t-case yoke and replace a hydro-assist hose steering fitting. Worked great until Saturday night when I broke a u-joint strap, which sent the driveshaft into the break line. Repaired the driveshaft, but no brakes. Then while finishing walk in the park, rolled on side (from what I am told it looked violent, I was quite comfortable) Upon righting the vehicle the power steering pulley exploded, leaving me without power steering, charging, or cooling. Then the starter solenoid decided to break. While being pulled back to the parking area I was unable to steer and became intimate with a tree on the passenger side, more body damage. Sunday morning when I awoke I found I had cracked the frame on the passenger side, significantly, in 3 places, but there is nothing wrong with the radio!

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My 8 year old Optima finally gave up the ghost as well. My only other carnage was part of the Midnight Trail Klog of '12. My pocket knife served as the solenoid jumper during the Klogger defibrillation attempts.
Karl: "How much do you care about this knife Fred?"
Me: "**** it up Karl."

Attachment 19352

I broke the last of the ARP bolts right before my exit on 75. The revs went up, the speed went down. Engaging CDL at highway speeds makes some funny noises, but I got off the road, slid the axle out and continued home.

http://www.flemcodesign.com/pics/brokenbolts.jpg

This trip just keeps getting better every year.

Flem wins RRDH fo sho.

Klogger wins Most improved, or best showmanship. Or something.

Lurch wins good samaritan award. (along with Fred)

Blaze orange buggy wins most underwhelming award.

Ugly truck wins bang for buck.

BDR wins "I only broke getting out of the way for some Paris TX kid who thought his scout was a grasshopper" award.

Swamp donkey wins the Just won't die award.

Any others?

Also, I would really appreciate a link to any and all photos. I didn't have my camera at all this year. I know Jones, Lynda, Hippy, and Fred were taking pics and video. Sure there are others.

I have the strangest thing in the background of one of my cell phone pics, it's kinda blurry, just curious if anyone else saw anything strange.

If I have not told you personally, thanks to everyone that was at the top of the hill that night. It was a pretty challenging recovery and everyone was tired. But at the end of the day we get everyone's pile off the mountain.

The big red buggy pulled me up right
Paul gave me a tow down the mountain
JB winched me twice I think
Robbie winched me
Fred loaned me a pocket knife
Scott supplied a u-joint and u-bolts to get the klogger back together when I wanted to turn around at the base, wait a second, I retract my thanks to Scott, if it wasn't for him I would have just turned around :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seth

This trip just keeps getting better every year.

Flem wins RRDH fo sho.

Klogger wins Most improved, or best showmanship. Or something.

Lurch wins good samaritan award. (along with Fred)

Blaze orange buggy wins most underwhelming award.

Ugly truck wins bang for buck.

BDR wins "I only broke getting out of the way for some Paris TX kid who thought his scout was a grasshopper" award.

Swamp donkey wins the Just won't die award.

Any others?

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Robbie get the "Most dedicated to get rig on trail" along with "Shortest trail time" award

Is there an award for successfully running more hard trails than ever without major damage? On Saturday Busa, Lynda and Higgs ran up Blacksheep, then up Cakewalk, then over to Goblers knob and ran redneck millionaire and plucked. After that we ran upper slims slope, all before dark. Friday we ran the creek trails. Both nights we did night runs.

On the way down the mountain from upper slims right before dusk i'm pretty sure a saw bigfoot. Not 100%, but it might be worth a call to the bigfoot hunters

Good wheeling for sure!

Oh - on the way from redneck millionaire to upper slims we had to go around one of those broken big rigs and I got my ear wacked off by a tree branch springing off the cage:eek:. Award for best bodily harm? I suppose I can't nominate myself:rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KrazyKarl02

Scott supplied a u-joint and u-bolts to get the klogger back together when I wanted to turn around at the base, wait a second, I retract my thanks to Scott, if it wasn't for him I would have just turned around :D

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Sorry!!!:beer:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KrazyKarl02

If I have not told you personally, thanks to everyone that was at the top of the hill that night. It was a pretty challenging recovery and everyone was tired. But at the end of the day we get everyone's pile off the mountain.

The big red buggy pulled me up right
Paul gave me a tow down the mountain
JB winched me twice I think
Robbie winched me
Fred loaned me a pocket knife
Scott supplied a u-joint and u-bolts to get the klogger back together when I wanted to turn around at the base, wait a second, I retract my thanks to Scott, if it wasn't for him I would have just turned around :D

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Don't forget about the "Tandem Driving" I head it was a nice upper body workout

Quote:

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Originally Posted by redcagepatrol

Robbie get the "Most dedicated to get rig on trail" along with "Shortest trail time" award

Is there an award for successfully running more hard trails than ever without major damage? On Saturday Busa, Lynda and Higgs ran up Blacksheep, then up Cakewalk, then over to Goblers knob and ran redneck millionaire and plucked. After that we ran upper slims slope, all before dark. Friday we ran the creek trails. Both nights we did night runs.

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I accept the "most dedicated to get rig on trail" but have to disagree on the "shortest trail time" since Seacrest or Heath takes that one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by redcagepatrol

Is there an award for successfully running more hard trails than ever without major damage? On Saturday Busa, Lynda and Higgs ran up Blacksheep, then up Cakewalk, then over to Goblers knob and ran redneck millionaire and plucked. After that we ran upper slims slope, all before dark. Friday we ran the creek trails. Both nights we did night runs.

Good wheeling for sure!

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Man, I really wish I would have been ready to roll with you guys on Saturday morning. Had to change a hydro steering fitting and tighten up the pump belt.

Ran Gobbler's Knob/Redneck Millionaire/etc the past 2 years and was looking forward to doing it again this year but oh well. Glad I got to make the Friday night run on Black Sheep with y'all though...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CheapJeep

I accept the "most dedicated to get rig on trail" but have to disagree on the "shortest trail time" since Seacrest or Heath takes that one.

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I think I wheeled about 4 hrs total before exploding and probably half of that was standing around/watching.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AggieTJ2007

Don't forget about the "Tandem Driving" I head it was a nice upper body workout

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Manual assist steering

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seth

Swamp donkey wins the Just won't die award.

Any others?

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I tried. I do not think that motor has seen 4000rpms ever. But I definetely needed them while tandem winching Frick up that hill, you know to keep the alternator charging:D MURICA!

Ran Walk in the Park 3 times! I really like that trail. Lots of non stop up hill

Ran Mamba Ext., Wet Wild, Zig Zag, Jeff's Ledges, 8 pt, Cake Walk.

Had a great time. Solid times with great friends.

Can't believe I almost lost the Ranger on the way home from Tator Hill. I got lucky.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JB

Had a great time. Solid times with great friends.

Can't believe I almost lost the Ranger on the way home from Tator Hill. I got lucky.

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I agree, this is definitely my favorite trip of the year, getting to catch up with great friends.

I am glad the Hippy was in a better state of mind than me and didnt let me ride in that thing.

and when brian got home he threw up in his bed.... house smelled terrible when i got home. what did yall do to my brother this weekend>?

My trip report...


Had an awesome time and great wheeling. What makes this the best trip of the year is all the people that attend, always great to see everybody.


I want to say Thank You to Cooper, Jerry, Karl, Jones, and everyone else involved with organizing the shirts and Memorial for CJ. Really awesome to have everyone come together and do this, especially having Coop on the line... Some great memories with CJ were shared. One in particular was Frick's account of the cop car urination, I had completely forgotten that a certain individual, ahem, "asshat" was amongst the perpetrators.... CJ, Frick, Clayton, Coop, and yours truly.

Backseat of CJ's perp getaway vehicle that night.....

Coop, Frick, "asshat" displaying the dual TAMOR Salute!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...48383_9807.jpg



As for my 2012 Clayton experience...

Having to replace the oil pump in the Camaro 2 weeks before the trip then breaking the #2 intake dual valve spring 1 week before the trip really fooked up my wrenching schedule.

In basically 2 days I put new axles, brakes, tires, lights, and wiring in my trailer, then put a new transmission, shifter, hydro steering ram, hydro lines, front output flange on Stak, anti-wrap bar bracing, built a new transmission mount, changed all fluids, and reinstalled Stak, driveshafts, skidplate, etc...

I finally rolled in to Clayton around 11:30 am on Friday and got ready to hit the trail. Luckily, Scott and Busa checking out the new shifter revealed an issue that would have sucked to try and fix once on the trail. The S clip that attaches the rooster comb to the plunger on the valvebody was worn and had enough play in it to disconnect. I was able to drop the transmission pan with the skidplate still on and fix the issue. I have to thank Scott and Busa because had they not checked the shifter I might have been laying in a creek bed trying to fix it. Thanks to Flem as well for taking me to NAPA for atf and everyone else for offering help/hanging with me.

Back up and running Friday night, Scott, Higgs, Busa, Nick, Landon, and myself ran Black Sheep. The set screw on my steering wheel shaft broke, had a spare bolt and quickly fixed it (Thanks Landon and Nick). It rained but still had a damn good time.

Saturday morning I changed a hydro line coupler (90* coupler with a straight fitting will leak) to the correct one and tightened up the pump belt. Steering came back to 100%, hell yeah... The PSC field serviceable fittings kick ass, buy them. Hit the trail with everybody, pretty fun to have a big group of rigs all together. Think we did Backside Slope? and something else. Watching Rhyno dominate on his fourwheeler was impressive...must be the beard.

Cake Walk. JB and I were up front, got to the top and watched everybody come up. Uglytruck, Lurch, The Belle, Cook's Monster, Discofever, etc never fail to put on a good show. Standouts had to be the Krosby Krew, the Klogger pinning it up the last ledge and Frick's DrummingTruggy provided the highlight entertainment.

Lunch time. It was cool having everyone there since I didn't even know who all had made the trip yet. Sasquatch sighting was EPIC! Haven't laughed that hard in a while.

JB and I head out thinking everyone was following, look back to find out we are alone. Decide to run a couple more difficult trails to end the afternoon. We ran Green Mamba Extension and Walk in the Park in record time.

Back to the A&A for some grub, WTWE, and campfire Memorial for CJ. Good Bull.

Night run crew assembled and head back out to Walk in the Park....Probably not the best choice of trail for a couple rigs in the group. This became evident as carnage ensued for the unlucky. Glad that Karl and everybody else in the Klogger was okay. When the dust settled and back at the A&A the clock showed 4:30 am. Only rigs to make it back unscathed, Lynda's Barbie Jeep, Swamp Donkey, and my Barn Burner.

I particularly enjoy night wheeling and know from multiple experiences that a long night is usually to be expected. Having been on the carnage end of night runs in the past has made me appreciate the people that stick around to help with extractions. The club's O.G.'s like Scott, David O, Busa, etc have always made sure everyone makes it back. I enjoy doing my part to "carry on the torch" and keep it going.

we had safety training at work today and had to go around the room identifying unsafe things we witnessed or did over the weekend.

I derailed that meeting quickly.

Had a great trip, lots of carnage but a lot of good times as well. Thanks to Robbie for the ride down the mountain, and nick for getting Evans up and going and down the mountain as well as on the trailer during the night run. Tater hill was a good time, really enjoyed it. Also thanks to Sam for the trail seat in the scout. Thing can conquer some trails, power tire caught up to it in the end. Looking forward to next year!

Mine are up:

http://s186.beta.photobucket.com/use...Clayton%202012

The strangest thing happened on some of the photos...it's like something was screwing with the camera causing the color to be washed out and the pics grainy. :shock:

By the way, I'm looking for a good caption for this one:

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps5cadf048.jpg

That's awesome

Thats a sweet pic
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps0d9137e2.jpg

Ha, this is like the Klogger is dead and is ascending into the bright light that is rig heaven.
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps4a6394cf.jpg

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps89f6a103.jpg

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Damn Fred, there are some awesome pictures in there, good job!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JB

Ha, this is like the Klogger is dead and is ascending into the bright light that is rig heaven.

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Go into the light Carol Ann! There is peace and serenity in the light! :D


Thanks for the compliment Sam. Just like every year, I wish I would have gotten more pics.

photos and vids
http://s406.beta.photobucket.com/use...Clayton%202012

Eric's (Hippy's) photos and videos are up

https://picasaweb.google.com/branton...I6glNrmq-T6fA#