Day 3: Wheeling till the wheels fall off....
We woke up to a nice pouring rain and knew it would be the start of a great day. So in between rain showers Zach, Steph, and I packed up camp and said goodbye to Will and David then proceeded over to the awards ceremony in the stables. We hung out for a few minutes and talked with some of the other competitors then they proceeded to give out the awards. Everyone was in good spirits and lots of cool prizes were given out that were donated by local vendors. Here is a link to the 4X4 Cross racing results:
http://www.nc4x4.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65591Looking at the stats you can see that Cherokee's dominated the A class and A class ran faster than any other class and we also noticed that local people that had more time on the course and knew what to prepare for definitely had an advantage. If I had made it down for the pre-run I would have built my little X-90 a bit differently. There's always next year....unless they start racing bi-annually.....hint, hint!
After the ceremony Zach jumped in his white Sammy and I jumped in the X-90 and squealed tires (because the tires were leaning in at the top and the alignment was screwed, not because I was spinning tires) all the way across the road to the national forest trails again. We wanted to get in one last adventure before going home and I was itching to try running up Daniel in the X to see if she'd make it. We started in the central Rocky Mountain Loop trail head and I wanted to do some jumping on the hills and burms so I went first launching the X over every obstacle I could find. After all, I wasn't worried about damaging it anymore and if she made it through Daniel in one piece I'd be amazed. I led until we got to the U-turn switch -back where we stopped to play. We quickly realized we had an audience and they were laughing hysterically at us playing bumper cars and spinning tires thereby throwing mud onto each other's windshields. Zach was still in 2wd and started spinning up the trail past a bunch of the guys that were laughing and I followed right behind him still in 2wd as well and spinning all the way. It was extremely muddy with water pooling in between the hills and even with the 5.83 gears, spooled rear, and 31" Swampers on the back the X was not going to make it up the steep and muddy inclines without 4-wheel drive......but it sure was fun trying! I would nail the throttle and get to the top of a hill then unable to crest it I would have to throw it into 4-wheel drive before I slipped back down in the reddish-orange mud and pull up over the hill slam it back into 2wd and nail it again. This went on most of the way up the middle portion of Daniel until we reached the large clearing where we stopped for a few pic's and to play around in the rock garden and ledges:
Showing the battle scars from Zach driving over the X-90's fender I drove up an over a few of the steeper ledges and went sideways trying to pull up over the larger rocks. Having no front locker was no fun when it came to trying to slowly crawl the X over large rocks. We stopped for a few poser shots....WOW...Look at that flex! LOL!
We got a little farther up the mountain trail and I went through the harder section on the left side making it through everything until I hit the top of the rock garden. I tried the larger rock section several time and kept hitting it harder each time until finally the passengers side front tire was punctured and the tire lost all air pressure. Without a spare I turned around and figured she could three-wheel it back down the the way we came up since it was mostly downhill. Steering was no so easy with a flat tire and with all the jumping and bouncing around the front tires had already been rubbing on the inner fender and it was hard to turn which only complicated things even more. On the way down the hill it was very difficult to control it and it turned sideways several times on the steeper hills making me back up and straighten up the go at it again. Almost at the bottom of the long steep section the X-90 would not stop and slid into a tree stump that was off to the left side of the trail and it blew out the other tire and sandwiched the steering linkage between the frame and the pitman arm so she would not turn at all. Boy am I glad I disconnected the air bags!
The pic above is the result of the tree stump jumping out in front of me. Only a few feet down the trail were the same guys that were laughing their butts off earlier and they stared in amazement at the sight of the X then asked if we needed any help. One guy had a lifted Tracker and the other had a lifted Toyota and the Toyota pushed me over onto the trail and then Zach drove around me and we hooked up the strap. The headlights in this thing were already busted up and held in with plumbing straps and this broke loose all but one of the straps and the headlight ended up falling out so we picked it up and threw it into the floorboard with the other parts that fell off it this weekend. The passengers side tire was not doing very well and was continuously trying to escape off of the rim and making steering harder than it already was.
Without any steering control we had to shorten the strap up so it was close to Zach's Samurai and he drug me through the rest of the trail with the X-90 hitting every rock and tree stump all the way out until we got it to the parking lot. Below is a pic of how close together the vehicles had to be for Zach to keep the bent up front end aiming semi-straight.
We laughed a bit as I really was not worried about the X and we were just happy it made it almost to the top of Daniel. With what this vehicle has been through in the last few days I could not believe it made it as far as it did!
Once in the parking lot we left the X-90 sitting there and went to go get the truck and trailer from the stables camping area then went back. Once we returned there were two rangers in white trucks standing over the X-90 and staring at it. First I thought I was about to get a ticket for littering and then one turned at me and asked if everyone in the X-90 was OK. I just looked at them and smiled and explained that everyone was fine and this vehicle was never expected to make it off the trail under it's own power.
The rangers were actually cool about it and left the parking area as Zach used his Samurai to push the X sideways and line it up with the trailer. With the steering locked up, the passengers side tire flat, the drivers tire almost off the rim and the power steering pump puking fluid we tried to drag it up onto the trailer with Zach's Sammy, but it did not work and neither did pushing. So we put the pass side tire on the front and fought with the steering until it was straight enough and actually ended up 3-wheeling it up on to the trailer and strapping her down. WE pulled Zach's Sammy on the trailer and strapped it down as well then headed to the outpost to clean ourselves up and check over the truck and trailer before heading home. In the parking lot I have a guy ask "What happened to that thing....and what the heck is it?" I explained it was a Suzuki X-90 that we torture tested at the race and on the trails all weekend and he laughed and kept staring at it as I walked inside to clean the red mud off of my hands and arms. Zach, Steph, and I all jumped into the Dodge and started the 5 hour trip back home. On the way back we discussed how much fun we had all weekend and how well the X wheeled even though it was only lifted 2 inches and how much fun it was to drive and then we discussed what to do with it next..... fix the IFS, fix the steering, straighten the frame, and do some major body work? transfer the parts into another vehicle? light it off and have a bonfire? This vehicle is way too much fun to just take apart....Hmmmmm.............
DAY 3: Undestructification (is that a word?)
We made it home late Sunday night and the next day about two o'clock on Monday afternoon I managed to get the X90 into the garage on three wheels and a rim. My boxer, Annie thought the rim smelled really good as I checked over the badly beaten X90.
The more I mud I cleaned away from the frame, body, and suspension the more damage I found. In addition to the issues we found the day before the front crossmember on the drivers side also was pushed back about 3 inches, the lower crossmember was bent backwards and upward about 6 inches, the drivers side frame horn was twisted then tilted downward, and the front frame sections were actually buckled in three places!
There was no way in the world to repair the IFS so after staring at this thing and checking her over for almost an hour I made my decision on what to do with her. Now that I had a plan I got to work on unbolting most of the IFS and the steering.
Surgery was going quickly until the bent up parts did not allow the control arm bolts to be extracted so they had to be cut off and ground out of the crossmember.
The front aluminum 3rd member, differential housing, diff mounts, driveshaft, and other associated parts were removed. In this pic it is easier to see that the drivers side frame horn is twisted and you can also see a bit of the bend and twist on the drivers side of the rear crossmember if you know what you are looking for. Hmmm, wonder why the tire rubbed the fender? LOL!
Next the torch came out and all of the strut mounts were cut off of the frame then grounded down flush. Lots of scrap parts left over! It was getting to be evening and so I stopped for dinner and to think on how to repair/rebuild the buckled frame and crossmember parts.
The next morning about 9am ....still lagging from the lack of sleep all weekend, I decided to use a hacked up old Samurai frame to rebuild the X-90 frame and do a solid-axle swap (SAS). I bent and beat and twisted the X's frame as straight as I could and had to cut large sections off of the underside of the frame. It's not the prettiest work and I would have preferred to use standard box tubing, but this was getting done FAST and on the CHEAP! The Samurai frame sections had to be moved to directly under the Tracker frame (they are not the same width) and then the frames were clamped the together and fully welded and gusseted with 1/4" plate for strength.
Some scrap 3" X 3" angle iron was used to buld a new crossmember in the front and strengthen the front of the frame. For the suspension I had a Trail Tough missing-link YJ kit lying around from the same frame and I used it along with an old set of Jeep Wrangler YJ springs and some old Con-Ferr shackles to hang the springs from the frame. I grabbed the old front Samurai housing I pulled out of my Turbo Samurai a while back that was gusseted for racing and jumping. I bolted it in Spring-Under-Axle configuration since I only wanted enough height to run 31" tires under her. Next the 5.83 gears were swapped into the Samurai housing and the stock shafts and knuckles were installed. Then I bolted the stock X-90 driveshaft into the front with a 1" spacer. I moved the front axle 2" forward, but a 1" spacer would have to do as that is all I had. With the frame strengthened and the axle installed I installed the factory rotors and calipers on the Samurai front end since they used the same mounts and then welded a set of Ford Shock towers, that I pulled off of the same old Samurai frame, onto the X90 and installed a pair of 32" long travel shocks on the front. For the rear I added a 2" spacer on top of the rear coil springs to level out the vehicle and by about 5 pm Tuesday evening I had here rolling. Next the steering box had to be moved forward and down several inches and the steering shaft had to be extended and by about 7pm she was not just rolling, but actually driving around the yard.
This was about as fast as I could do a solid axle swap and about as cheap, too! Here is the first test of the suspension and all I could find to flex on was one of my old trailer tires. The Trail Tough front missing-link shackles in the front seemed to work really well and it was much, much more flex than she's ever seen.
So with all the work that was put into resurrecting the X-90, well, it was time to torture test her some more!
OFF TO THE ZOOKIMELT ... at the Badlands in Attica, Indiana!!!
PROJECT XXX is for Sale: $2500 cash
Serious inquiries call Sean directly at (757)685-6161 or come see it at the ZookiMelt July 9th through the 12th.... I don't want to bring it home!!
For those of you that remember Krusty the Tracker, here is a link to the original torture tested Tracker that made me respect Tracker's, Sidekick's, and X-90's sooo much click on the link below:
KRUSTY the TRACKER ...Joke or Not?
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