By mid-afternoon Cole had smashed the driver-side fuel tank enough that the fuel pick-up no longer functioned (but still no leak). The lower portion of the fenders, doors, cab, and bed resembled a wrinkly prune. Cole had to enter and exit the truck like the Duke boys. Tom's Bronco wasn't in much better shape. Dan and Rob trudged on with little faltering or body damage while John and Sam goofed around with different lines in the back of the pack. It was obvious we weren't getting out of here until late in the night. Fortunately the clouds passed without a trace of rain.
The final 200 yards of the trail involved an uphill climb and a series of small switchbacks and ledges. Most of us just wanted to get out so we pulled the winch cable after giving one or two attempts at each section. Cole had given up trying to save the GMC's body; it could only get straighter now. Tom drove as though he had the same philosophy. We made it out without any further breakage.
Day NineWe had traveled over 1,200 miles and had been on some of the best trails the Southwest had to offer. We made new friends and found weaknesses of each vehicle. The Ultimate Adventure had come to an end. Sort of like when Mom was calling the kids in for supper, we all knew it was time to get back to our day jobs. A few goodbyes, some mention of a reunion and the next Ultimate Adventure, and we were on our separate ways.
Ultimate BuildupYou would think we would build vehicles for this trip that were super comfortable and reliable and that worked great on all trails. But that takes all the fun out of it. Instead we used our usual trail rigs.
Cole had installed a new engine in the GMC only two weeks before the Adventure kick-off. He added a Holley Pro-Jection fuel-injection only two days prior. As if that weren't close enough, the last two days were spent installing a Klune-V Crawler box between the transmission and transfer case and breaking a stock front axleshaft during testing. A new set of 4340 chrome-moly axleshafts from Offroad Design were tossed in the Dana 44 at Off Road Unlimited along with new seals. The crew there also replaced the worn-out shocks with Rancho RS 9000s. With the list of must-dos checked off and a list of like-to-dos taped to the dash, the GMC was ready.
John installed a set of new 35-inch Mickey Thompson Baja Claws mounted to M.R.T. heavy-duty bead-lock wheels on the flatfender. He changed everything resembling a U-joint and installed two new turbo mufflers. The Jeep averages about 1,000 miles to the muffler. He also replaced the early analog Pro-Jection computer with a new digital one-although he's not sure all the adjustment the new computer affords was really a good thing for his application. Finally, he replaced his front Dana 44 axleshafts with Warn chrome-molys.