Friday, 12/9 Report

Paul and I spent a few hours getting things back in shape from the grooming session Saturday.  I'm recapping our experience for the benefit of the whole crew so we can learn from our mishaps.

First we attempted to put the new spacer on the Skandic ski.  You may remember Paul had to take the new one home to ream the inside to fit the pivot on the Skandic strut.  Well, once we got that done, we noticed the other ski was distorted.  The mounting bracket was badly bent, one of its spacers was broken, and the ski itself was warped.  The net effect was an extreme toe-in, with the ski not flat on the ground.  Luckily we kept the original skis in the cargo container, so we switched back to the original skis.  Paul took the damaged Simmons ski home to see what can be done to fix it.  You may not be aware that we replaced the factory skis with Simmons Flexi Skis on both the Skandic and the Beast to improve the steering when pulling heavy loads.

Next we went to work on the roller.  We found 2 of the 3 bolts that attach the disk (rim) to one end of the roller missing, and the third loose.  Thus the disk was flopping around inside the culvert and as a consequence, one of the 3 angle iron ribs that form the attachment of the culvert to the disks had pulled away from that end of the culvert, bending the rib, and pulling the pop rivet out of the culvert.

To work on things, we removed both stub axles (no small job) and got the draw bar and the fantail out of the way.   Paul was able to peen the angle iron rib close to straight, and we used a 1/4 inch bolt instead of a pop rivet to re-attach the end of the rib to the culvert.  Before we re-assembled everything, we took the draw bar frame over to a couple of trees that were spaced about right to backstop one side of the frame.  We hit the other side of the frame close to the hub repeatedly with an 8# doublejack without any effect on the bow from a previous collision with a tree on the trail.  That should give one a perspective on the impact force on the frame that caused the bow.

Anyway, we got everything re-assembled and then greased both rollers.  They are back in good shape, although one of the air spring levers and associated bushings is missing from the other roller ???

We hooked up the Beast to the Ginzu and #4 Alpine II to the TiddTech and swept Crooked John, Wulf's Cutoff, and Sugar Loaf, setting tracks with the Ginzu as we went. We hit lots of stumps, but we were rolling slow enough that we floated over everything except one that sheared the pin on the TiddTech.

Bottom line guys,  this early in the season, slow running is mandatory.  Wise procedure is to make a pass with without implements, "walking" thru questionable terrain, and then go back with implements, now being to see exposed hazards, and move at appropriate speeds.