Spoken like a true F-150 driver!

 

My ***** is bigger than yours... :)





Wow nice skidplate damage.. I'd have been changing my pants after that..

Rand

 

Me too.. Probably my shirt and certianly my shoes and socks too. That mud looks nearly waist deep!

 

I'll probably make something to hold the 80' of rope I have left to the drum but not until I get rid of this bumper and put the old winch mount back on. OR if you can find a link to the thing for the line, I'm going to buy one so I don't have to worry about the lug on the end of the rope. On my winch, it attaches to the side of the drum and there's no way to attach it so that it won't tear up the rope.

John, that pic was probably taken when I first got stuck so it definitely got much worse than that. I have a picture of the high-water mark on the carpet before I took it out and it's quite impressive.

Carl, I have good news and bad news about the CB. The bad news is that it was in the truck when it filled with water... The good news is that I let it dry out and it still works. I'm going to pick up some cleaner from Radio Shack and spray it all out to make sure it's nice and clean if you still want it. The mic is what got wet but the box that goes under the dash is still sealed in it's box and appears to be dry. I can take it out and test it if you like.

 

Thank God for chest waders!!


That's my brother on the left.

 

This is what worries me about taking my poor truck to Wharton. John you got a lot more ground clearence than most of us. The worst part about being an XLT is having carpet and not vinyl.

 

Luke, with the photo mapping software I get around Wharton pretty good -- just ask Tom. If you decide not to take on an obstacle, and there is no bypass, I will drive around to get you and lead you back to the "pack", whatever that involves.

MOST, though not all, hazards have "work arounds".

 

Chris and I had run this exact same trail not even an hour before I got stuck but we were going thru the easy way the first time. The second trip thru we did things that we hadn't done otherwise (like the hole I got stuck in) which is where the problem came from. If you're careful, you can avoid things like this quite easily.

More pics... This time from the cleanup effort. You can see all of the pics at http://www.tombarcia.net/Wharton042505

Skidplate/shovel:

My interior carpet is grey. Notice how much of the gatorage bottle you don't see:

The first 2 are before... The third is after:



Before and after. Notice the dents, then the lack of dents:

 

WHOA! Compare my "floating junk" picture to yours:

YOURS


MINE


YOU WIN!!!!!!

 

Well Tom if you put the old winch mount on...
Its going to about 6# heavier from all the welding on it lol.
Heck I even painted it



Oh and how are you going to get the muck out of the insides of your doors...
I'm sure some probably entered the door vents
Rand

 

I pulled the rubber stopper from the bottom corners and only the passenger side drained. It no longer sounds like there's water in the door.

John, my stuff is floating in mud.... At least you had water.

 

You guys coulda made it outta that mud with the Rangers... with the alignment of the moons and stuff.

 

Holy mudpie Batman thats really dirty.

Whered the dents come from, some erroneous trees in your way?

Well Tom it looks like you get to post a "How-to remove 50 gallons of mud from a Rangers interior and all your foglights too!"

LOL...at least you made it out OK and everyone is fine and not hurt!
Thats always the bottom line.

 

This is awesome!! I just got an email back from MasterPull telling me to send them my broken rope and they'll fix it for me free of charge!! I don't know how they're going to fix it, but that's awesome customer service!!

 

Your carpet must STINK now!

 

No worries, mon -- his truck stunk before ...

 

That's great! I thought they'd do something for you.

Hey, in your sig you forgot to mention the MIA flashlight-that-saved-your-life.

 

WOW, thats some crazy off road dammage you got there.
BTW....how do you get water inside the car?
Did you open the door?

 

I've heard nothing but good things about MP, and this proves it. you've got me worried though Tom...do you feel the rope breaking was your fault, or the rope? I got the 10500 hydro which will basically never stall, and I'm thinking about sucking it up and going with new 3/8" SL. Do you think that would have happened on a straight pull, all things done right?

So long as the CB works, I'll take it Tom. REally don't care about it's past, just the here ande now!

 

Hey, man, duck some more bullets and read all he wrote, lol. He thinks the bolt on the drum did it. He's going to go with a different system for holding the end on the drum that uses some kind of velcro stuff. You probably know what it is.

Hey, Carl, did you see I got the axle in and all? All's well. Thanks for pointing me at that, it's really been an "experience".

 

Ok I will go. Although I am still looking into a Bodylift which will help with the water in the cab thing. Oh yeah Tom your best bet for cleanup will be to completely remove the carpet and pressure wash it. I actually wanna do that to mine just cuz itz not grey anymore.....more of a brown now. Well John this summer your gonna have to help me out some with my modifications.
-Luke

 

If i lift this ranger with an RCD 5" lift kit, run the 33" tires would I be able to make it in and out of that stuff no problem? Or would a 3" body lift be a nice addition? I would be shot if my truck came out like tbar's no joke. Those dents, lights, & interior would be enough reason for my dad to kill me lol.

 

Carl your 10500 will stall.
at about 11500lb if its similar to my 9000 which stalls at around 10000
when the line pressure hits 1500psi it stalls and diverts around the winch motor.

That being said if you do stepup to 3/8 make sure you only get say 90ft
otherwise it will jam and be a be-itch to spool.
www.peakempire.com had the cheapest prices on amsteel blue
if you call and tell him you are on pirate4x4.com he gives you about 5-10%
lower prices than the website.. just fyi
Oh and hydraulic winches dont produce heat so no hi temp stuff is needed.


Rand

 

OK, since everyone is going to jump all over my post, (like I'm back in Basic ) allow me to clarify for Tom...

Do you KNOW that the reason the rope failed was becasue of the bolt/end, or is it a THEORY. Again I ask, do you still like the rope and do you think it would hold on straight/proper fairlead pulls?

Rand, I know the hydros stall, it can't pull forever! I should have said that they are not limited by your alt/battery and heat, so they will pull 100% of their rating.....well, as long as you power steering is up and you have gas!
How do you like the MM so far?

I'm sticking with Masterpull, though I think Amsteel is a close second in terms of syn lines. MP is stronger, and from what I have seen/heard their customer service is second to none.

 

The break actually occurred on a straight pull and the way it mangled the lug plus the location of the break, I'm 99% certain that the lug caused the break. This is the first time that during a hard pull it had to spool the rope over the lug so I've never had this much SuperLine our before. I had used the winch earlier in the day for a straight pull to get my brother out of a good stuck and there were no problems with it. I will definitely buy a new SuperLine if this one wears out tho. As far as the 3/8 goes, with the big winch I would probably go with the larger line. The Milemarker should come with 3/8" steel cable so you shouldn't have any problems with capacity.

Luke, no worries man. Just don't be the first one in the line and you'll almost never get stuck. Pay close attention to the line of the truck ahead of you and see how they do. My carpet is out and washed and trying to dry. I realized last nite that I need to flip it over and spray it again on the padding side and let it dry again but that's no problem. I did remove a lot of the padding because there was no way of getting the mud out of it and getting it dry. We'll see how this goes. Worse case, I'll order the rubber floor.

karrbass4life, it doesn't matter how big your truck is, someone bigger always tears up the holes. In Wharton, there are people running around on 44" boggers that run thru some of these holes tearing them up. The one I was in was so soft on the bottom that it probably would have eaten a set of 44" tires. Would a huge lift and big tires have gotten you thru John's hole?? Maybe. But remember that John's truck is about 5" taller than mine.