heres a little trip report fer y'all... where to start?
after a two year project but only really working on it for the last three
months hardcore, spidey was nearly ready for the first trip off the property
as a semi-legal ride. i had almost everything done as of the week before the
rubithon. went up to the parents place up in nevada city, about an hour from
the backside of rubicon a week before the event. we were going in four days
early and planned to camp for a couple days by ourselves. a few of my
buddies were meeting us at the staging area near homewood on monday.
Gas tank fiasco-
saturday i finished up joining the two gas tanks and filled them up to see
if there were any leaks. 67 gallons of gas later i indeed found a leak from
the top seal of the bottom tank. Joy. empty both tanks into a couple of 55
gallon drums dad had for y2k, called the dealer and he had a seal for $2.90.
cheapest thing i bought for spidey in a long time. refilled them and no
leaks. only thing left now was to screw the door panels in and we were off.
Staging area and the trip into the springs-
met our friends at the staging area monday AM. there were about ten trucks
going in all together including the canadians in the brown diesel 60 and the
silver bj. we went in as a group but about ten minutes in i popped a bead
when i followed someone into a bad rut. seems i aired the new 38.5X11's  a
bit too low. they were at 10 lbs. we re-seated the bead, aired it back up to
15 and got going again. 10 minutes later i couldn't steer left but could
steer right forever. hmmm, upon closer inspection i noticed that a spring
pin had sheared and the axle was forward on the driver side about ten
inches. that explained that. a new spring pin was retrieved from the parts
box and installed. all four springs had loose U-bolts. scary. tightened them
all up and away we went.
Cadillac-
Cadillac is much easier on the way down...
got to the springs with no hitches after the spring pin and hit a swimmin
hole. took about two steps into the water and my foot slid along a nice
sharp rock and sliced a 2 inch gash in the ball of my foot. out came the
super glue and a bandage and i was all fixed although I hobbled around the
entire trip. Thanks to jason who is a fire engineer and EMT for his awesome
first aid kit and to wade for the super glue idea, it works quite well.
Up the big sluice-
we were headed to buck island to setup what would be our homebase for
several days until the runs started coming through. spidey walked right up
the sluice with nary a tire slip. About half way up my friend ken hanna in
his roach suspension coil spring conversion pretzeled his rear driveshaft.
since he engineered his suspension so that both shafts were the same length
he put the front one on the back. he neglected the most important part of
this plan by not bringing a spare, duh! then the weirdest bit of wheeling i
ever saw happened, i was in the 55 ahead of him with the strap ready to pull
him through the tough parts. he started up the sluice with one open axle
drive, basically one wheel drive. he drove the top half of the big sluice
without getting stuck once. i would never have believed it if i wasn't
there. you all are probably going "yeah right" but i was there and saw it.
anyway we made it to buck island and set up a nice camp near the falls.
lookin fer a welder-
in the AM ken went looking for a welder and soon found desmond who is a good
friend of my bro's so he lended his mobi-welder and we fashioned one of the
ugliest driveshafts i've ever seen. frankenshaft three. this being our third
on the trail driveshaft fab and all... basically two pieces of 2" angle
welded to the existing undamaged pipe. when it spun it looked like an egg
beater. it was strong and worked well the rest of the trip.
off to spider lake-
the boys were meeting some friends at loon the next day so they were taking
off early to go to spider for a swim and to get some entertainment at the
little sluice. i decided to go too but left a couple hours after them. i
headed out with my dog in the spider and stopped at the swampy part of the
trail right before spider lake. the (aqualu) canadians were hanging out so i
stopped to gawk at the 44's dana 60's and big blocks. they really dug my
truck and let me know by going over it with a fine toothed comb. those
canadians are really nice guys although a bit crazy (understatement) in
canada its illegal to have hand guns and none of them had ever shot one so I
got out the pistols and let them have a bit of fun. they were all wide eyed
and grinning by the time we were finished. i think i can get aluminum body
parts now for next to nothing :-)
Spider-
got to spider and took a dip, gave my friends each ten gallons of gas and
was heading back to the springs before nightfall. on the way back i met
Morgan Fletcher for the first time and a couple of other people who had seen
my truck on that big internet thingy.
The springs again-
i got to the springs before it got dark and set up camp. my bro is on the
comittee and knows the person who owns the cabin near smutville so we got to
hang out inside while mosquitos fed on the other campers. Friday my buddys
in the unimog arrived and we just chilled out for the rest of our time
there.
Sunday Sunday Sunday-
we were packed up by noon or so and headed back out cadillac. no problems
there except for a temporarily lost Whippet and Vizsla pair. An hour of
yelling and a drive half way back down cadillac they came running both out
of breath. we headed out and got to tahoe just as the rain and lightning
started. we were only going to nevada city but the clouds were black and
scary. i had no wipers but luckily it only sprinkled on us.
Greenhorn-
next day we woke up at my parents place with a trip planned to a really neat
place called greenhorn. its a beautiful river bed area with lots of nice
climbs and some rock crawling. i took both my 40, which i park in my
brothers garage for trips to fordyce (half hour away) and the 55. both
trucks did well. a neighbor kid of my parents drove the 40 and had a blast.
the semi eventful trip home-
we left the parents at about 8:30 tuesday and headed to the santa cruz
mountains. my wife wanted me to get milk on the way home so i stopped in los
gatos at about 11:30 pm. bad mistake...
i pulled out of safeway with a half gallon o milk and a cop jumped on me
tail. i had no plates on the back so i knew i was getting pulled over. he
came up and did the routine. a minute later he comes up " step out of the
car please" i get out "do you have any weapons on your person" "no" i get
searched. " are there any weapons in the vehicle?" "uh, yes sir, one .357
magnum, a .45 auto, a 270 winchester and a 12 guage..."
after a thorough search of my truck and all the guns splayed on the hood of
his car, he goes "theres alot of stuff wrong with that truck, lets see- a
broken front windshield, no plates, registration is from '98, tires stick
out too much, your drivers license needs an extension, no proof of
insurance, i suggest you get it home and take care of them. since you've
been cooperative i'm going to let you go.

i got home at 1:30 this morning.

its nice to be home...
-luke

ps. pix on the site soon
www.divequest.com/spider