Thank The Man Above!!! (caution. pics included)

Hey, as of 6:45pm, we've had 3.54" of rain since a little after midnight. So, I went muddin' with my son. He took his '89 GMC (gotta nice 350 in it) and a friend, I took the Jeep and Sunshine. We ventured out towards Cheney Lake, about 15 miles from here, an area famous for it's nasty redjaw mud. The roads just getting there were great!! Slung a lot of sandy mud, bounced through a ditch or two, and after 8 miles, we were in redjaw. Still hadn't even touched the 4wd shifter. My son ended up in a ditch (he's only running 33" AT's) and had to throw it into 4wd. After we got home, he said he left it in 4wd the whole time after that till we got back to pavement. I put it in 4wd a couple of times just to sling some mud, and to show Sunshine the difference. She'd never been mudding before, but she's been with me in snow. Apples and Oranges, as far as I'm concerned. About 3 miles into the worst road, my son stopped. His truck was overheating, boiling water out of the overflow tank. So, that put an end to our day. :cry: After letting it cool down a while and replacing some water, we headed back to pavement and home. Here's him feeding the monster:



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After we got home, he told me that he had lost oil pressure about 2 miles out of town. Apparently, his beast wasn't used to Kansas mud (he's been living in Georgia until a few months ago), and the line to the oil cooler sagged under the weight of the mud, rubbed on the front driveshaft, and got cut in two. He isn't having a good day. Here he is trying to cool things off so he can work on it:

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I was very impressed with the new Mud Kings!! I drove the entire route (about 13 miles) in 2wd, except for the occasional times I shifted to throw more mud as mentioned before. I could throw dual rooster tails about 30 to 40 feet (which I'm sure helped lead to Stephen's truck overheating, as the front was completely coated with a nice 4" thick layer of mud). He shouldn't have followed so close to me! :lol: It was raining really hard by the time we reached pavement, and we needed to get his truck back to civilization, so I never got pics in the mud. By the time we got home, the rain had washed a lot of the mud off the Jeep.

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So, my first real mud adventure with good tires came to an all too sudden end. :cry: But, there will be more. Sunshine was upset, too, because I promised to let her drive the Jeep. I think behind all the gripin' and grousin' about me buying it, she really likes it. She drove it last weekend for the first time, but there wasn't any mud, and she didn't do any wheeling in it. I joined our local 4x4 club this week, and am looking forward to more adventures with them soon.

Sorry for such a long post, but when I get started talking about wheeling, I get carried away. Tomorrow is my 5th anniversary with Sunshine, so we're heading out to dinner tonight. For posterity's sake, and so you can now put a name with a face, here we are a couple of weeks ago:


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Happy Wheeling!!!!
 

Great post, Sparky!! I especially like the shot through your windshield - looks like it was LOTS of fun!! Hope your happy with them new tires. Did ya spot any funnels while you were out? or was it just a "normal" deluge?

mud
 
only a matter of time till she starts gripin and grousin that SHE doesn't have one... better start lookin for an additional jeep
 

Just a "normal" toad-strangler! Do the words "cow" and "flat rock" ring a bell? LOL!!! It's up to 4" now, and radar shows a lot more coming!
 
jeepmaster said:
only a matter of time till she starts gripin and grousin that SHE doesn't have one... better start lookin for an additional jeep

You're probably right! On the way to dinner tonight, she said she wanted to take the Jeep to another lake tomorrow. She said there's a little low-water bridge there she wants to drive across in it! Actually, I'm sure if it was an automatic transmission, she'd drive it quite a bit more. She won't drive a stick in the city. She's pretty good at it, though. Last weekend, when she drove it the first time, she lit'em up pretty good, then was fishtailing it down the dirt road! :lol: Drove it like it was meant to be driven!! My daughter-in-law wants one now, too. I'm thinking about picking her up tomorrow and taking her looking for one, just so she can get an idea of what's out there. There's a really sharp looking orange YJ at the same place I bought mine. I know it's in good shape without even looking, because I know those guys won't sell junk. It's a small used car lot, and they take a lot of pride in their vehicles they sell. They gave me a helluva deal, and I know they would for her, too.
 
What a great post! Sounds like you guys have some crazy mud up there in Kansas. Sparky, this thread is a great example of what our posts should be like. Great stuff.
Sorry about your son's truck though, but atleast it happened while wheeling.
 

Hee Haw what a post sounds like Sunshine is a future Jeeper to me. Glad you had fun and better for a GMC to have trouble than a JEEP. Good looking couple I must say. Happy aniversery! tug
 
Thank the lord we finally have a JEEP thread going on the general board. I thought it was all turned to politics and news for good.
:twisted:
Great thread dude and man I wish this jeep girl could get ahold of some mud like that! Whew, I need to relocate. Sand just don't cut it!

Lady
 
Sparky- I also live in kansas, about 40 miles west of McPherson, its been rainin since oh about 7 last night and its about midnight, non stop. not really sure how much we've got yet. I havent got my shackle kit and 31's on yet so i havent played that much. went down a couple bad roads today but nothin too bad. Great post by the way.

LR
 

Getting dirty and breaking stuff is fun! Getting dirty and somebody else breaking stuff is even more fun!!

Sparky, you need to slap a little lift on that YJ and go ahead and give it to Sunshine. You need an old J truck like they drove in the movie "Twister" :lol:

Looks like you guys had a good time. I've heard stories about the mud up your way, and I'm jealous. :p
 
LRwrnglr said:
Sparky- I also live in kansas, about 40 miles west of McPherson, its been rainin since oh about 7 last night and its about midnight, non stop. not really sure how much we've got yet. I havent got my shackle kit and 31's on yet so i havent played that much. went down a couple bad roads today but nothin too bad. Great post by the way.

LR
Well, maybe we could hook up sometime when you get things going! I'm about 20 or 30 miles South of McPherson. Shoot me a PM when you wanna do some wheeling, or email me at sparky-watts@prodigy.net.

We ended up with just under 5 inches, but they're forecasting more rain today again.
 

Sounds good. Me and some buddies might go up by Manhattan for some wheelin someday. I'll give ya a ring if we do. I ordered my tires today so they're comin in monday so i should be up and goin pretty soon.

LR
 
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