THis is a short trail, only a couple miles. In Ben's FJ he was accompanied by his Wife Julie and their daughter. My buddy Rob came with me in my 4Runner. Conditions were a bit slick, but the rain held off. It was my maiden voyage since the lift and was the toughest stuff I have ever done. Ben made things look too easy, that is one mean machine he has. The dual winches came in handy as we ascended out of the valley and I broke a CV.

Heading down into the valley:
















Down near the stream.













Along the Stream:



Heading up and out of the valley:







This is where my CV Broke:





After trying to make it up this part in 2WD I got a bit frustrated and let myself back into the rocks behind:



Ben got to show off that sick dual winch set up:



Too bad we didn't get better pics however we were pretty consumed with getting the truck out. In the above pic you can see how Ben set his rear winch (with tree saver) to the large hemlock behind his truck. Then used the front winch to get me over the obstacle. We then had to reset higher on the trail for another pull. Finally getting up to 2wd land with the help of a snatch pull. Overall, very interesting and I learned a bunch about vehicle recovery.

We stopped at a small shale pit on our way out:







Ben got some MAJOR damage as seen here ::



And 2 happy passangers:



Ben thanks for helping out and I am really looking forward to the next opportunity to get out. I just need to get this CV fixed.

 

Nice pics and videos, looks like ya'll had a good time but....

The ground your on looks like a bunny trail so what exactly happened? Please provide some details leading to the CV carnage.

 

where were u in pa?

 

Great pics.

I am looking forward to the thaw up where I go, to much snow up there right now to do any exploring.

 

Considering that I am still very much inexperienced and still learning this was not exactly a bunny hill to me, however I am very much interested in exploring the cause of the failure and appreciate your help.

At the end of this video, where he goes up the last small hill, I lost momentum and got stopped just before cresting the top of the little hill.



This pic was taken after I broke and tried a few times to make it up in 2wd. Hence, not truely depicting my position where the CV broke. You can see some disturbance on the top of the little hill were the left tire was sitting and the rear wheels were trying to make it up the hill when I broke.



I was further up the hill than indicated in this pic and my backend was further down hill (more in line with the road).




I had the wheel turned hard to the right and was spinning the wheelstrying to make it up the hill on my second attempt after losing momentum on my first attempt when the break happened.

Overall, I am disappointed the break happened since I know this is nowhere near as hardcore as many members here use their rigs.

Some thoughts I had in referance to why this happened are:
1. Driver error - too much gas with the wheel cut hard and all the weight of the front on one wheel
2. CV age/mileage - with 86K they were due to be replaced
3. Toytech top plate spacer - I hope not since I like the level lift and have trimmed quite a bit already to fit these tires without rubbing, diff drop is installed, I saw no leaking from the CV boots after lift install

Please share your thoughts, but keep in mind that I am admittedly a noob so please keep it constructive.