The official 2012 I am not in Moab so I have to live vacariosly through you picture..

[BigSwede]

I don't have a lot of wheeling pics, but I'll post some scenery if nothing else. Apologies if my descriptions are redundant to anyone elses. I also grabbed a few photos from others where appropriate for narrative purposes, credit indicated under the photo.

On Sunday the 12th, Gill (NocturnalVX), CeCe (VXironwoman), Dave (Gizmo42), and my buddy Joe hiked to Corona Arch. Some of you may have seen the video of rock climbers swinging through the arch on a rope, well we got to see someone do it (CeCe wanted to do it in the worst way). Turned out it was a film crew for a Japanese singer called Becky. She was going to show up later in the day for a swing and they wanted to test it out.

CeCe at the arch (it's a lot bigger than it looks here)


View from the vicinity of the arch:


Gill


My buddy Joe


Climbing ropes on the arch


Dave and CeCe


Later that afternoon, I got under the Trooper to disconnect sway bars etc., and noticed oil covering everything aft of the tranny. The transfer case was wet, and given that a previous owner had stripped out the drain plug and substituted a rubber expansion plug, that seemed a likely culprit. But when I pulled the fill plug, oil gushed out of the t-case. Well there is only one place that could have come from, and sure enough the tranny was down on oil. The only explanation was a plugged tranny breather. The shop manual says next to nothing about the breathers, I couldn't even figure out where it was. Cue Jerry Lemond, he explained that it is a hard line that emerges from the tranny and dives into the shifter quadrant box (but he couldn't explain why). So I cut the breather and put a fuel line on it, goosenecked. There ended my first night wrenching in Moab.

[BigSwede]

Monday we tried La Sal Pass again with a large group - we tried it last year but ran into deep snow. This year snow levels are way down, in fact Moab has only had 0.65" rain in 2012.

On the talus slope




Crossing the stream. This is as far as we got last year.

Credit to CeCe


Credit to CeCe

We did run into a snowbank higher up, but it looked doable so Jim Paget had a run at it in his Jeep with 37s


Time for the winch. The snowbank was very dense, I could walk on it. And it had a frozen core that high-centered the first few rigs to try it.


I had the next biggest rig, so my turn.

Credit to Eric

Almost but not quite. Time for the strap.

Credit to Eric

At the summit


Me and Joe


Gill and CeCe


On the way down the backside of the La Sals, I noticed my power steering pump was getting loud. Sure enough, the pressure hose that loops over the belts and down next to the radiator was leaking. I guess these things happen on a 17 year old truck. Wonder of wonders, the first auto parts store I stopped at in Moab had the hose. So, another night wrenching, during the revelry of Chocolate Monkey night at the Stoop. The upper fitting is easy to reach, but the lower one is designed by someone with small Japanese hands, which neither I or Joe are equipped with. And the pressure switch took 3 strapping men with a vise grip to break loose to swap into the new hose. Thus the second night of wrenching in Moab.

[VXIRONwoMAN]

Nice pics and summary Steve!!! I can email you the full resolution photos if you'd like...let me know.