Mud Bogging.

[Pete McGiveris]

This is a super crazy story that happened to me yesterday, and I swear, it's all 100% true.

So, if you've been reading the "Rides" section, you'd know I have a Jeep, lifted up 6 inches, on 35 inch tires. A typical mud bog rig. So, yesterday, with not much else to do, I decided to call my cousin and go for a little mud bog. It started out pretty well, the first mud hole we can to we ran through it without a problem. We started to get bored, so I knew of an awesome sand pit to crawl around in. Not a whole lot of mud to be found there, but still some fun was to be had.
We arrive at the sand pit, and immediately I climbed a pretty insane hill, whose height if I had to wager a guess would be about 60 feet, with an incline of roughly 35-40 degrees. Coming back down the hill, I spotted a mud hole in a sand pit! What are the odds? Score!
So, I slowly drive into the mud hole, testing it out, when I happened to look out the side door.....wow, that's not mud, that's clay. I immediately tried to back out, but by that time, which wasn't much time at all, we were sunk up over the front bell housing, and stuck. Not a problem I though, I'll get my cousin to call his friend, who's got a Jeep.
No such luck.
"My cell phone is out of minutes"
Awesome time to tell me.
So, we began walking, trying to find someone with a phone. We stumbled upon a man who was nice enough to let us use his cell phone so my cousin could call his friend. No luck there either. His friends Jeep weren't licenced for the road. So, the man with the cell phone, whom we'll call "Road Side Jesus" was nice enough to offer the use of his 5 tonne gravel truck to haul me out. Awesome, I thought, if that thing can't get us out, nothing can.
So, back at the sand pit, we get the Jeep hooked up, and we're ready to roll, I put the Jeep in 4 low, and he begins to pull. Well, 4 things happened. The back end of the dump trunk bounced, the front end of my Jeep made a sickening klunk, nothing moved, and then, finally, the part he had the tow chain attached to broke.
He informed us that he knew the part was broke (good job "Road Side Jesus" trying to haul me with something you know is broke) so he put a chain around the rear axl. We tried again, with mostly the same results. The Jeep moved alittle, the sickening clunk was still there, but this time, the chain snapped, hitting my Jeep about an inch below the window, which would have smashed the window out for sure.
So, by this time, we knew some digging was going to be involved. We sholved out the frong bell housing, and had to, using planks jack the Jeep up out of the muck, then put planks in the tire ruts. Using this method, we did eventually get the Jeep out, but for whatever reason, Jesus decided to take me for a spin. He drove for about 5 minutes straight, after I had emerged from the clay.
So, with the Jeep out, I offered the man money (he didn't accept) and we decided to go on our way, but the sickening clunk was still there. Unable to drive too far, I call a tow truck to haul me home....after a 30 minute wait.
While I was on the flat bed, putting the Jeep from neutral, to reverse, the shackle holding the Jeep where it was snapped, and the Jeep almost began to roll foreward, with me still on the flatbed.
On the drive home, we start talking about what could be the cause of the clunking, and the inability to drive over 5 kph without feeling like the Increidlbe Hulk is trying to kick through my floor. Well, we figured it was the yoke on the front driveshaft, which means that it's not a huge job to fix, and it'll cost maybe $50, not bad. To figure this out, we'd just take the front driveshaft off, and drive it for a second, to see if that was indeed the problem. Simple, right? No, the ratchet seized up. And, as many ratchets and I know I've got, I simple cannot find another one, that isn't 50 years old, and certainly not one that works.
So, I had to borrow my father's truck, drive my cousin to his house to get tools, and drive back. Upon getting the driveshaft off, we took it for alittle spin, but a horrible thing happens, the front wheels will randomly lock up, and some small part of the clunking still exists. So, the gear set in the frong end itself is the culprit. Now, I'm just killing time until I can rip it apart with a friend, and have at it. I'm half frightened to see how much it's going to cost, but one thing is for sure, I think my mud bogging days are just about over.

[Yaz Pistachio]

Ooh, that sucks. Hope it doesn't cost that much!

[summer]

wow, that's quite the day... but I wouldn't let it deter you from mud bogging once your jeep is fixed, especially if it's something you really enjoy.

[Yaz Pistachio]

Yeah. If you enjoy it, don't let one mishap bother you. You'll go out again.

[Clarence]

Oh man, Tim I feel so bad for you, I'm gonna give ya a call.

[Forky]

Hope you get it all fixed
and go on mud bogging.

[Eff]

I feel so bad for you.

Now i feel bad for you, I'm gonna give YA a call

[Pete McGiveris]

Well, I hauled the front bell housing apart, and if you've never seen a front end of a 4 X 4 spit teeth at you when you haul the front cup off, well, it's quite a sight. I had to take a picture, because I've never quite seen anything like it. I mean, I'm not a super mechnic or anything, but I've never seen every set of gears with that many teeth broken off. So, I'm going to fix it up, I've got another set of gears on the way, and I'm gonna sell the thing. Recoup some of my losses. Sorry to be so long winded everyone, I just thought yesterday was quite possibly one of the weirdest days of my life in terms of pretty much everything going wrong, and I pretty well had to document it somewhere.

[Wesley]

Dude, that is what the forum is for. By sharing, you can document what a weird day it was, and when you are having better times, you can look back and laugh!

[Eff]

So, by this time, we knew some digging was going to be involved.

Yeah.. that made me laugh, sorry Pete.

[Dowster]

I've had a few post like that one here, don't worry at all about being long winded. It's better to get it out in writing that be frustrated all the time. Vehicles can really drop you in the shazam!, sometimes quite literally...