Finally got home about 8 AM yesterday morning. 22 hours from the cabin.
Trip was great, all of the guys were awesome to hang with. Here is a quick summary.
Met in Lake City Wednesday AM, attendees were Movinon, BDRAG, cbs001, fishguy, and myself. Waited on PhyGuy, but he couldn't get off early, was going to meet us in Ouray later that day.
Headed out to Animas Forks via Cinamon pass. Stopped in American Basin for a Photo Op. Had lunch at Animas Forks, and decided that California Pass/Corkscrew Pass was doable in the Raptor and would make for some great views and a quicker way into Ouray. About a half mile outside of Animas I nicked a big rock and broke a bolt for my ASFIR tranny skid plate off. Had an annoying bang for the rest of the trip. Wend up and over california pass, stopped at the falls on 550 for a photo op. Headed into Ouray, checked out the box canyon falls, then met up with everyone else for a few drinks at the Ouray brewery. PhyGuy made it into town and started ordering Patron shots.
Phyguy, myself the wife and the dogs, and a buddy of mine BajaDQ (jeep), headed up the Yankee Boy Basin/Imogene Pass road and found a place to camp for the night. Got some rain, drank some drinks, and had an overall merry time.
Thursday morning, go to leave camp, and my brake pedal goes all the way to metal, not good considering that we are going on mountain trails. We bleed them out
they seem better and we go on our merry way towards Imogene pass. We took a detour (wrong turn) on governor basin road, had to turn around, and eventually made it to Yankee boy Basin. It was a really pretty view.
BDRAG headed back towards Ouray.
Headed back down for Imogene pass. Stopped at a really awesome mine along the way, grabbed some ice out of the mine for the coolers, and headed up Imogene. At the top I discovered that my brakes decided to stop working again. Fortunately there was a big overlook with plenty of room to work on the truck and make a decision. We bled out about 12 oz of fluid, and I called some people to get opinions on how to proceed (We had cell service since we were on top of a mountain overlooking telluride. After a while I got up the balls to drive the hunk down into telluride. Phyguy stayed in front of me, in case I had a total failure I could crash into the back of his truck. It was all 4-Lo and first gear the whole way down, but we made it.
Started making phone calls to find a master cylinder because, that was determined to be the culprit. Randy was able to put me in touch with his parts guy Ryan, and I got one ordered and overnighted with minutes to spare. Spent the night in Telluride, drank way too much Patron. Movinon, and cbs001 started heading home.
Friday consisted of me terrorizing every delivery truck I spotted and the guy at the Shipping place where I had the box delivered. It came in just before noon, and I had the MC replaced within a few minutes, and bled after about 20. Found out that to bleed the ABS system you have to use a dealer computer to make the ABS system do a power bleed. Ooops... Brakes seemed good, so we went to the Hydro-Plant on Blackbear pass. It was a pretty awesome view, and not too tough of a drive (It's supposed to get really bad just above the plant, and you can actually only drive it from the Ouray side). Came down, parted ways with Phyguy, and started making our way back to Silverton via Ophir pass. Fairly uneventful trip over Ophir, then we headed towards Lake City. Alone, with suspect brakes. Didn't have any problems though. Got back to the cabin and packed up for an early departure to Texas.
Saturday the brakes were soft again. Bled out more fluid, and headed home. Got to Fort Stockton around 10 pm and started getting "Check Brake System" errors on the dash. Stopped and looked around the truck. Turns out the wheel speed sensor wire and the brake line on the passenger rear were super hot due to my cutoff exhaust not having turndowns. Looks like it could have been the culprit the entire time. We looked around the gas station for some sort of solution, and ended up at walmart. I bought a cookie sheet and some hose clamps, and built a heat shield out of them. It must have been the problem because we made it all the way home with no more codes and good brakes. Standby for pictures.
All in all it was an awesome trip.
Major thanks to Randy for getting me the parts, BajaDQ for sticking with us, and PhyGuy for helping me change the MC, get fluid, bleed the system, etc, etc... Stand up guy!
It was great meeting everyone else, and a big thanks for helping me get down the mountain without going off the side. Looking forward to planning another one next summer!
Damage report. 1 Completely blown front shock, Broken skid plate bolt, Replaced master cylinder, Melted Wheel Speed Sensor, Melted parking brake cable, shredded rear BFGs, damaged running board from clipping a switchback.
