Sunday's Carnage
Tim Hardy: Broken hub spring, popped tire bead
Fred Perry: Side flop, transmission leak, coolant line leaking, broken lower link bracket, rear driveshaft U-joint lost on highway, fuel-pump wire meltdown, shattered driver-side window
Patrick Deming: Rear Air Locker line plugged
UA Z71: steering-box sector shaft broken teeth, destroyed rear driveshaft
Jonathan Cooper: Cut tire, broken caliper bracket and brake line fitting
Nate Williams: Two broken rear shock-mount eyelets
John Lambert: Broken rear ring-and-pinion and transmission
Tom Boyd: Sliced tire, broken hood latch, broken lower control-arm bolt
Jeff Mello: Broken winch line
Mark Brancieri: Broken winch line
Tom Allen: Ripped off front fender flare
Keith Bailey: Wheel beadlock rebuild
A day on the trail is tough on editors. We usually exert more energy in one day than we do all month, chasing rigs up and down the trail trying to get the best photography. It's especially hard getting up after a good hot lunch. Somehow we lucked out and Brad Wagner, owner of the Pizza Place in Lusk, Wyoming, catered the trail lunch and fed everyone in attendance some amazing calzones. Everything tastes better outdoors. Somewhere along the Hal John's trail Rick Pw and Fred Williams sat down for a break. We could have sworn we heard the thoughts in their heads. Fred: "Damn that was the best calzone ever. I need to find that guy and eat another one." Rick: "Mmmm, that sure was scrumptious. I could go for a nap right about now. No, better yet, a frosty cold Corona."
Day 3: Monday, July 7
Pounding The Pavement-From Sturgis To The North Dakota Badlands
It's no secret that this group is a bunch of automotive fanatics. We love fossil-fuel-propelled vehicles with solid axles and a transfer case, and that includes using them for long road trips through the middle of nowhere. Day 3 of the Ultimate Adventure was spent traveling across the Great Plains from Sturgis, South Dakota, to Dale Hagen's small ranch in the Badlands of North Dakota. Now don't get us wrong. When we say "small ranch," we only meant that it was small in comparison to some other ranches in his neighborhood. Dave's ranch is 3.5 sections. One section equals one square mile and is 640 acres. That's 2,240 acres of Hagen property. To us city folk that's impressive.
 The most unique vehicle and...  The most unique vehicle and coolest rig award goes to Tom Allen, owner of PSC Steering. His '67 Kaiser M715 limped into Sturgis the first day of the event, but with a little wire chasing and some distributor work the truck wheeled like a champ the rest of the event. We were continually amazed how Tom and co-driver Carl Yarbrough were able to get this massive machine to go everywhere they pointed it. |  Jeff Mello and his wife Julie...  Jeff Mello and his wife Julie were our chosen husband and wife readers, and a great addition to the crew. They are far from new to wheeling. In fact Jeff has been a competitive rockcrawler ever since the sport started years ago. Their style of wheeling was always entertaining; they pulled off one of the most gripping vehicle rolls of the event, but you will have to wait until part two of the Ultimate Adventure coverage to see it. |  It's expected that after a...  It's expected that after a trail run on the Ultimate Adventure, especially Hal John's, there's going to be some vehicles that need repair. Like a NASCAR pit crew and a swarm of army ants, we began repairs on the steering boxes, sector shaft, and disfigured driveshaft of our UA Z71. After scrounging around the Twisted Customs shop for a new sector shaft, and having another driveshaft made, the truck was back in the convoy just a few hours later. |
Our more than 200-mile drive north wasn't uneventful. Since none of the vehicles are allowed to be hauled from point to point by trailer, mechanical things just give up, especially since we wheeled the heck out of our vehicles the day before. Some of the lucky few in the crew actually got to repair a few minor parts alongside the highway. Tim Hardy had a rear axle bearing seize up on his Samurai just outside Sturgis.
 It's the little problems on...  It's the little problems on events like UA that are the time killers. Everyone joined in to help after a rear upper control-arm bolt broke on Clifton Slay's TJ. This little repair took hours to fix. Our motto for trail and parking-lot repairs is Improvise, Overcome, and Adapt. |  Feature Editor Ali Mansour...  Feature Editor Ali Mansour is a bottomless barrel of jokes and wisecracks. The guy's got more energy than a Jack Russell puppy. Part of the fun on UA is the steady stream of jokes and horseplay. While John Lambert tried to keep a straight face and repair his Sidekick's rear differential, Ali danced around behind him keeping him amused and smiling. |  Our road trip to Regent, North...  Our road trip to Regent, North Dakota, was long and interesting-the vast open range and grasslands in this part of the country are amazing. We sometimes drove for an hour at a time and didn't see anything other than a lone ranch house, antelope, deer, and livestock off in the distance. We didn't think there was anyplace like this left in America. |
Now that's not a tough repair under ordinary circumstances, but the bearing fused with the axleshaft, making a simple roadside repair difficult. As we careened down the highway, the constant chatter of CB static made it feel as though the UA crew were the 1st Armored Division making its way to Bagdad through the desert. The garbled transmission of the radio could barely be made out. Between the crackling static we could occasionally make something out about a vehicle dropping out of formation and needing assistance. "Roger that. Another vehicle dropped. Fall back with them and make sure they are OK, and get them back on the road ASAP."
Our first stop was the little town of Regent, North Dakota, for lunch. They knew we were coming and rolled out the red carpet. Regent is a great little place to spend some downtime relaxing and having a good lunch. The town was also our turnoff for the Enchanted Highway so we could confront Rick's giant metal highway monsters. The creatures are actually part of a collection of the world's largest metal sculptures. They were placed alongside the highway by their creator, Gary Greff, to boost tourism in the area and help the struggling little town survive (www.enchantedhighway.net). The town of Regent was founded in 1910 and is just a dot on the map. A great majority of Main Street is now an incredible museum, which includes the general store, doctor's office, a schoolhouse, and a large building that now houses artifacts, knickknacks, and farm gadgets from life in the early 1900s.