Offroad adventure turned nightmare.... sort of
So this past weekend I decided to take my VX out for a little offroad action. I took her out to a local spot call Butcher Jones here in AZ. A few buddies of mine came with to spectate, but my truck was the only "offroad equipped" vehicle. Now mind you, I STILL have no front prop shaft (waiting on parts) so my TOD is disconnected and I am running rear wheel only. I can proudly say that my little VX is a BEAST! I crawled up some pretty darn steep, uneven hills. My little truck flexed out like a big dawg. I surprised the hell out of my buddy who is somewhat of an offroad guru. I climbed a couple hills in 2 wheel that a lifted Suburban and his lifted Bronco counterpart couldn't make in 4 wheel! And i was crawling where they were taking runs at it. I have a feeling that a previous owner geared my truck down because the low end torque was surprising. I am running 4 inches of lift with a Calmini setup and 33" Nitto trail grapplers, but still, 2 wheel drive is 2 wheel drive.
So after a successful and fulfilling off road adventure (even stopped off at the lake and caught a few catfish), I was headed out of the desert and back to civilization. I came down a small decline on a fairly smooth trail about 2 miles from the exit, and my left front wheel kicks out at a 45 degree angle. Snapped a tie-rod end ball joint right off the spindle! FML!
Luckily the buddies I was with were a bit redneck and at least half McGeiver. The one buddy had a spool of bailing wire in his backpack (I mentioned they were redneck right?) and I had a couple ratchet straps in the back of my truck. We spent about an hour twisting on lengths of bailing wire with a set of vice-grips and topped it off with a nice wrap of ratchet strap. Not only did I make it off the trail, but I drive it (at low speed) about 25 miles back in to town and parked it at my other buddy's shop! He threw it on the rack for me the next morning, popped a new tie-rod end on and aligned it for me for nothing. Found out my ball joints, upper and lower on both sides, are pretty much toast, so that will be my next venture.
All in all, it was a very interesting , fun, and sketchy first offroad test for my VX.
