Another weekend report, more problems

[ERV JR]

Well I had alot of fun, but the first day out I had tube in my right rear tire and the valve stem ripped off the tube. Stupid me left the jack and ratchet at camp so walked back and took the golf car back to change the tire. Fixed intime to go to the lake for the firework show. Next the wife and sis inlaw took off in the mornin in the trooper thru the trail to the lake to set up to get us a spot on the beach. After a few hours of us all swiming on having fun so lady came walking out the trails and asks for help ,said they had a truck that was stuck and just needed a "little" tug or pull to get out. Turns out its a 3/4 longbed chevy on a single track fire road, the edges of the road were really soft wet sand and he decided to make a u-turn there and got the thing stuck up to the diff cover. I told him i would not be able to help but he insisted I try ,so on the second tug my tow strap popped off and tore the connector off for the cooling fan which i didnt know. I went back to the beach swam and had a few more beers only to see the same lady come walking back and asked for a ride to her camp to get a jack since they were still stuck. I gave her a ride back and on my way back to the beach the cooling bypass hose from the head to the radiator hose burst as a result of the fan not working. i wasnt watching the gauge since it was a narrow single track on the side of a cliff. Parked the trooper off the side of the trail in a wider spot ,of it was 95 deg out also. Got a ride to my truck ,drove into town and bought some hose. Got a ride back to the trooper fixed it and got to the beach to load up all our stuff.Went for a morning ride and on the shift the roll pin for the shift fork shattered, really shattered into 5 pieced and fell out so i only had second. i had a few machine screws in the storage comparment so I used that and a sliver of the roll pin and tapped that in and was on my way back.

All in all it was alot of fun and got to enjoy a good weekend camping with the family.Now I am going to have to try to use a sidewall patch and fix my tire or try a tube agin ,but dont like that idea since i couldnt find the right size the first time and the valve stem ripped off.

I also noticed that my trailing arm mount brackets were cracking at the weld, I belive this was due to a poor fit. I can see that there was a gap that was just filled with a poor weld bead. i am going to take this thing apart and gusset and brace a few things,also mount a jack and tool box to the roof rack, build rock sliders, and rebuild the rear cage