No, for the first time I’ve seen, dozens of attendees got together to help out what seemed to be a pretty dire situation, sacrificing most of (if not all of) their trail riding and planned activities for the day. What am I talking about? Well…
On Saturday, on what turned out to be the best weather for a MogFest in my four years attending this awesome event, there was severe trail breakage in a really bad area. A Pinzgauer 712 attempting to climb some of the stair steps on the Doran trail (which seemed to be a much more interesting trail then in previous years) managed to break not one, but two axle housings in a space of about 2 seconds while perched in the middle of the obstacle. I’m sure many of the attendees will share hundreds of pictures of the semi-catastrophe, but I will share the story, as I was the dolt who managed to achieve the dubious honor of the worst trail breakage ever at MogFest.
After attending the Friday scenic run with absolutely zero issues, I decided that on Saturday, that my wife and I (who was attending for the first time this year.
) would go play on the Doran trail which was the medium trail. About 4 miles into the trail, as we attempted to climb the second set of stair steps, the right front and right middle tires started contacting the body of the truck, which in turn caused the tires to try to climb up the Pinz… Something had to give, and it both axles’ housings actually spun around, tearing the housings around the locating bolts. Suffice to say that the trail run for my wife and I were done. I’m not sure exactly how many people helped out in this nine hour extraction, which entailed dragging the now crippled truck down two sets of stair steps backwards, doing a turn table maneuver involving two other vehicles to spin us around forwards and then finally getting the big Unimogs to drag our sorry rear ends through the tight canyons back to camp. Not to mention the crew working on the truck which was now holding the axles in place with bits and pieces to make its humiliating journey back to camp in one piece.
The damage? Two axle housings, one brand new tire, one locker actuator, both front and rear bumpers are a write off and guess what? The truck will be back right as rain in the next month. When you see the pictures, make sure to check out the angle of the front tire, I guarantee it’s a different view of then you have seen before.
The upside was that we got to see the dedication and camaraderie of this group first hand in helping out a friend in need. The other upside was that for the first time, we didn’t have to wait in line for dinner on Saturday night; some of the thoughtful folks back in camp sent us up some hot brats and other foods so that we wouldn’t miss out.
I want to thank everyone involved, there are so many to thank that I won’t single out anyone for fear of minimizing anyone else’s contributions. You guys and gals made what could have been days worth of extrication much easier and quicker and helped my wife to keep her sanity.
Btw, if you have pictures, please send them to mike@ramonamotors.com and once again, our heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped us out, we couldn't have done it without you!
