Boncrshr with his Hustler 950 , Noel with his Max II , and myself , with my Max IV , found some OUTSTANDING places to ride at River Run park saturday .
This park is over 2,800 acreas big and you can,t ride all of the trails in one day or would you want to . But , we were not with out our share of problems .
This time out , we all rode down a new trail that none of us had ridden on before . In fact , this was the very first time boncrshr and Noel had met each other , or that any of us had ridden with three amphibs at one time .
This particular trail that we were driving on , had lots of LARGE mud holes on it . Most of these mud holes all had pudding mud in them , but it varied in consistency from hole to hole . This is the kind of mud where the tires can not get any traction in , because its so soft . As your tires spin , you just sink lower and lower , until you are high centered . 50 % of the time we drove through these mud holes , we could rock our amphibs side to side , and with much struggle and exhaustion ,finally drive our amphibs out .The mud holes with less than a foot of water in them were a BIG challenge .
As we were riding on this particular trail , Noel head a loud noise from inside the tub , so we all parked our amphibs near him , and decided to check it out . When Noel raised the upper tub to see what was wrong , he found out that his right front chain was almost off the sprocket . Lucky for us , boncrshr had lots of tools .
As boncrshr tried to walk the chain back onto the sprocket , Noel and I slowly moved his Max II forward . We tried and tried to make the chain walk back onto the sprocket , by pushing the Max II forward and backward , but to no avail . At that point , boncrshr suggested to remove the master link to make it easier to put the chain back onto the sprocket . I told Noel that to get proper adjustment on his chains , the wheels needed to be off the ground on the side we were working on . Plus it was easier rolling the tires with your hand than pushing the Max II backwards and foward .
As Noel waited , boncrshr rode with me as I drove my Max IV back to my Jeep to get a 4x4 block , my small hydrolic jack , and lug wrench . As boncrshr and I were driving back down one of the main trails , we came to a large mud hole . We had all driven through this same mud hole before , so I knew it had a hard bottom . When we were almost out the other side , I hit an under water rutt made by the big tire ATV,s , and then skid steered to the left . Bad idea !
As I tried to climb out of this rutt , the front of my Max IV got higher and higher , tilting to the right .
At this point in time , boncrshr yelled out " STOP " . I then looked back , and saw that the right rear of my Max IV was about to take on water , with boncrshr about to fall out . I then backed up , and took a different line . As I was driving out of this mud hole , I heard a bumping noise against the tub ?
We both get out of my Max IV , and find out that my right front tire is now off the bead .
Scott tells me he will walk back to where Noel is , while I limp my Max IV back to where we parked our vehicles , sitting as far left as I can , and load it onto the trailor . Scott has a LONG walk back . After I drive back to load my Max IV onto my trailer , I decide to see if the rear of the tire bead is off too.
It is not .
Maybe , just maybe with an extra pair of hands and some air pressure I can reseat my tire back onto the rim .
I see two guys unloading their ATV,s off the trailer and ask them to help me . The owner of the park has a air compressor with a long air hose out side of his shop . I drive my Max IV to the shop and use my small hydrolic jack to get my right front tire off the ground . As I air up the tire , the man I asked to help me , pulls the front of the tire against the bead . Pop ! The tire bead is now seated on my bead lock rim and I,m back in business . I load the jack , lug wrench , 4x4 wooden block , into the back of my Max IV , and head back to where I last saw Noel and boncrshr . When I,m almost to where Noel broke down at , I see no amphibs in sight .
Maybe they got Noel,s Max II fixed and are now driving to meet me ? I then decide to drive just a little bit farther . Its at this point I see both boncrshr and Noel driving towards me . Boy , talk about timming !
After we all drive through a mud hole on the main pipe line , boncrshr hears a pop ! We all stop at this point to find out what it wrong . boncrshr then raises the rear floor board , and finds out that his master link has broken , and his chain is now balled up around the middle sprocket . Not good !
After boncrshr straightens out his chain and tries to reattach it with a spare master link , he notices that one of the chain links is not straight . After boncrshr removes the kinked chain , we then decide to drive back and load his Hustler onto his trailor . At least he still has five wheels turning to drive back . This is one of the advantages of a 6x6 or an 8x8 .