Past Trail Rides of 2-Big Broncos 4x4 Club

The group photo

Overview

Participants
Those participating included:

• Shawn Clemons with Cydney Duncan
• Paul Daniels
• Rob Ellis with John Morgan
• T. J. and K. Marie Hodge
• Joe McNally and family
• Erik and Carla Rose
• Jim and Adam Westcot

We all agreed to find each other Friday night, November 3.  Adam and I arrived around 9 p.m. and checked into the Best Western Motel in Murphy, NC. Erik had stated he would be driving up Saturday morning, and Shawn and Paul had stated that they would be staying at the Peace Valley Campground.  A quick check noted that Shawn and Paul had been looking for us.  We went to the campground but did not find them.  We came back to the motel only to find Rob Ellis just pulling in, towing a trailer which had his rock-crawling tires and wheels strapped down to its bed.  Then we ran into T. J. who told us of the problems which Shawn had been having.  They had gone to Wal-Mart in search of storage tanks and siphon pumps for gasoline.  Soon we found Shawn, Paul, and Cydney, with Shawn sitting in a pool of gasoline trying to get his tank empty.  Something was said about needing to replace his fuel pump, but I'll let Shawn tell you in his own words from a post entitled "The Parking Lot Warriors of Tellico":

"Take this as a sign: if you're still making repairs to your rig only moments before you're supposed to hit the road for a weekend of wheeling, you'd better reconsider staying home."  And Paul --- thanks again.  Your patience and wrenching help were exceptional. (I'd also like to take a moment to apologize again to those I've ribbed over their trucks' parking lot dominance... more on that later)

Friday morning found me in the driveway at 7AM replacing spark plugs and cleaning plug wires in a last-ditch effort to alleviate my detonation problem. I gapped the plugs to .044, filled up with a half-tank of premium gas, and hit the road -- fingers crossed.

Paul Daniels, Cydney (my girlfriend) and I hit the road at 9:30, heading south for Tellico. So far, so good.  The Bronco was far from running like a champ, but it was running, and that's what counts.  The trouble all started about 120 miles from home.  Riding down the interstate at 70 miles an hour, the Bronco suddenly decided to shut down.  Then restart, and shutdown again.  Severe chugging ensued to the nearest exit (luckily only a short distance up the road), and we pulled off into a gas station in the Middle of Nowhere.  It seemed like the engine wasn't getting fuel, so I tapped the fuel rail bleeder, and was greeted with a rush of air, followed by a sputter of gasoline.

Surprisingly, there was an AutoZone a few miles down the road (the gas station was next to an abandoned motel -- never a good sign when you break down in the Middle of Nowhere), so we set out in search of a new fuel filter.  The filter was changed without incident (aside from a few chain-smokers that pulled up next to the fuel-spewing Bronco), we grabbed lunch at a Taco Bell, and hit the road once more.

Thirty miles later, the goblins returned.  As luck would have it, we pulled off the interstate and straight into a NAPA parking lot.  The clerk had nothing better to do (the NAPA was only 30 miles from the Middle of Nowhere, after all), so he came out to the parking lot to help us troubleshoot the Bronco.  Turns out he knew more about Broncos than any of us, and had dropped a new 351W into an '89 only a week before. Of course, "on that one, we ripped all this stuff [points to EFI intake] off and stuck a carb on there.  That'd prolly fix ya right up."

We checked the fuel pressure regulator (NAPA guy said to look for fuel in the vacuum line... if it's dry, the regulator is probably good), and opened the gas tank to check the cap.  The tank let off a loud hiss when the cap was removed, so a new cap was purchased along with a fuel pump ($200 returnable insurance policy).

I think we made it 25 miles on the next leg.  This time the Bronco nearly died climbing a long hill leading into a construction zone, so we were forced to the side of the road to rest.  A couple of minutes later we set out for the next exit -- stopped this time at a gas station and filled up the tank.  The Bronco was down to about 5/8 of a tank, so we hoped 12 gallons of cool gas would help out the pump.  The Bronco was spewing hot fuel vapor (and a good bit of liquid gasoline) out of the fuel filler at this point thanks to a very hot fuel pump.

Thirty miles later found us at another gas station, this time with 30 gallons of warm fuel in the tank.  There was a car wash up the road, so we took a minute to hose off the tank, as it was becoming clear at this point that the fuel pump was dying quickly.

Twenty-five miles later the Bronco sputtered into a rest stop (amongst several hundred acres of burning forest... watch where those embers go), and another 15 miles later the Bronco rolled (literally) into a Subway.  Over dinner, Paul suggested that we leave the gas cap off.  It seemed like a good way to allow hot fuel vapor to escape (the tank was hot to the touch at this point), and the pressure build-up probably wasn't helping the situation.  This idea helped immensely, as the last 90 miles were made without incident.

We pulled into Murphy at about 8:30 pm, 11 hours and 330 miles after leaving home.  We parked the Bronco in the Best Western parking lot and set out to find a couple of empty jerry cans and some hose to drain the tank.  Finding neither, we proceeded to Wal-Mart, returning with some big fish tank hose and three 6-gal plastic cans.  By that time T. J. and K. Marie had arrived, and T. J. offered to run back over to Wally World for the bulb-type fuel pumps (thanks again, I still owe you for those).  The tank took forever to drain, during which time several gallons were spilled and ran under a Lexus ess-yoo-vee parked next to the crippled Bronco.

The tank was a PITA to remove, but the pump was quickly replaced, the tank reinstalled, and the fuel replaced.  Of course, by this time it was 2AM.  Time to go to bed and hope we can be up in time for the 8AM trailhead meeting.

Turn the key on the Bronco.... no fuel pump. Relays click, but no whine of priming pump.  (Maybe this is a quiet one).  Crank the Bronco, nothing. Break out the multimeter and check for voltage... good.  Check for closed circuit on the pump.... nothing. Uh oh.

2:07 am.  Tired.  Bronco broken.  Smell like gasoline.  Go sleepy.

I had a dream that night... something about smelling gasoline and working on the truck.  I awoke to find my gasoline-soaked hand in front of my face.

We were back up the next morning and over at the Best Western by 7:30.  Thanks to Jim W's floor jack, we were able to drop the tank without draining the fuel, repaired a broken wire inside the tank, and had the tank back in the truck in under 45 minutes.

"We had breakfast, washed our hands four times, and set off for Tellico."
      Submitted by Shawn Clemons

I only wish we had some pictures of all this mess to go along with the story.  But, I have to tell you, stories like this that make me glad I'm a carburetor man.  Needless to say, with the deadline being 8:00 for registration on Saturday morning, Shawn and Paul had to fend for themselves for an organized trail ride.  They 'did their own thing' after finally arriving at Tellico around 10:00 a.m. Paul Daniels trail report recounts their 'parking lot adventures' and goes on to tell about their trail ride.  As you will be able to tell, their adventures were not over with the parking lot:

We packed up and were on our way to Tellico.  We got to the Trail Head, aired down and were on our way.  I don't remember the trails we took but they were for the stock to slightly modified vehicles.  We made it through to 5 unscathed except for Shawn's rear anti sway bar.  It was ripped off on a rock so we stopped to remove the rest of it.  Once we got to 5 (I think) I pulled up on the side of a trail next to the drop off to another trail to get out of the way of the group coming up.  As it turned out I parked on a silt soil and it was giving way under my rear tire.  So I need to use the Winch to pull myself up out of the hole I started to dig.  By the time I got myself out the other group had gotten up so we headed down.   We got down near the bottom when we saw an EB that was having starter problems.

We waited for him to get it started and watched him go backwards over a tricky obstacle.  Then it was our turn and he was in a hurry for us to get through because he was trying to help another EB out that needed welding.  Shawn went through and got caught up on his radius arm. The EB tugged him off.  Then it was my turn so I came down and just as my front tire came to the edge of the rock he told me to punch the gas and I would just hop right over the rock.  I didn't say it but I thought he was crazy but he seemed sure of himself.  So I punched it WAAAAANNNN CRUNCH and I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, literally.  I couldn't go forward or backward.  Shawn tried pulling me off but that didn't work either.  So once again I had to use my winch.  After a little struggle it finally pulled me off, as I worked my way forward I was told my rear tire climbed four feet up a tree and back down the other side.

"I only wish I had a camera.  The rest of the trail was cake."
     Submitted by Paul Daniels

The majority of us (Erik, T. J., Rob, and myself) arrived at Tellico at around 8:00 a.m. the morning of November 4.  There we met Joe McNally who was there with his family from Michigan. He was driving an 87-91 Big Bronco.  We discovered that Joe was a Ford employee, had recently been an engineer in the 4X4 Superduty division, and now was an engineer in the Mustang plant.  At any rate, he soon decided to join us, so that we did in fact end up with our original number of seven Big Broncos at Tellico.  Rob Ellis was much better equipped than the rest of us for Tellico.  He had been there several times before.  He joined a group that was headed for such famous Tellico sites at the 'helicopter pad', 'guardrail', and 'schoolbus'.  That meant that the group that I rode with consisted of T. J. Hodge, Erik Rose, Joe McNally, and myself.  Our group leader was Brandon Goforth.  He drove a stock Early Bronco.  There were a couple of Jeeps with us, and some other ebs, including a white, slightly modified '71 model, driven by Harry Rawlins.  Harry was the Ford rep who was officially representing Ford at the Fawl Crawl. We rode some of the milder trails, but still saw plenty of adventure for our inexperienced eyes.  The majority of the pictures are of the trail ride which Adam and I took.

The group photo

The group photo I took at the staging area, showing the Ford banner that Harry Rawlins brought.  The bulk of the rigs are Early Broncos.  The Big Broncos are on the left.

the portion of the group where the Big Broncos were at the staging area

Erik Rose and Joe McNally. The rear corner of my rig is visible, in front of a view of Rob Ellis' rig

What a crew! Erik Rose, Joe McNally, Carla Rose, and T. J. Hodge

Move it!

Here we've just been called to clear the area for group pictures to be taken.  Erik Rose's rig is visible behind Erik.  Joe's rig is visible on the far right (white, trimmed in maroon).

Left to right: The rigs of T. J. Hodge, myself, an Early Bronco, and Erik Rose

Rob Ellis' rig, and the back of T. J. Hodge

The 'dutiful wives', K. Marie Hodge and Carla Rose

Ready to hit the trail

An interesting shot

Next to Joe McNally's front left fender is an Early Bronco that was driven by Brian Brooks.  This tilt to accomplish maintenance was done by his air bag suspension.  Interesting to see what it can do.  More pics of this rig will follow.

We are finally about to hit the trail.

The order is Brian Goforth (red Early Bronco in the distance), Joe McNally, another Early Bronco, Erik Rose, and myself.

Just a little closer shot

The first place Brandon took us was to the top of 'Rock Garden', probably the most treacherous and difficult part of Tellico.  Here we stopped to watch several Early Broncos that had been drastically modified maneuver in and out of boulders, often riding on the tops of them, sometimes working their way in between them.  Here are some comments from Erik and T. J.:

"We made it to where we were to watch the highly modified rigs go up rock garden in good time, which gave us time to move around and find a good spot to watch before they got there.  It was great to watch them go over some monstrous obstacles."
      Submitted by T. J. Hodge

"We made it to the rock garden, and watched some rigs come up.  It was truly amazing.  I have never seen it done in person before. I wished I had a Bronco that would do that."
      Submitted by Erik Rose

Erik Rose is in the foreground

Easy does it. You don't want to flip over backwards!

What does the next rock look like?

We're badd, we're badd!

He almost makes it look easy

One more little hump and we're almost there

After the thrills of the 'Rock Garden', we began our own adventure, riding on level two trails, nothing to compare with 'Rock Garden', but still pretty exciting at times.  At one point on the trail, we found ourselves challenged by what I referred to as a 'mini rock garden'.  For me, this was the most exciting part of our trail ride.  I made it over these rocks unscathed, but not so for T. J. Here's his description:

"On we went to some real trails.  We made it almost unscathed.  The 'almost' was when I shattered one of my aluminum steps after failing to make it over a rock and bouncing back on top of it.  Hindsight tells me I should have gone into 4-low.  Oh well, I guess it gives me an excuse to remove the other one and put on some Andy's rock guards!  I'll have to find some way to mount a removable step on them for my wife, though. (maybe a stepstool on a rope?)"
     Submitted by T. J. Hodge

Actually, I went to Tellico equipped with a set of Andy's rock guards.  I had removed my aluminum steps.  Now that I have gone to a six-inch lift, I have had to reattach the steps.  I mounted them under the rock guards. Of course, whenever I go rock crawling, I will remove them.

We stopped for lunch on the trail. Brandon Goforth is wearing his characteristic cowboy hat. We can see the back of Harry Rawlins, displaying a Ford Trucks logo

It's too bad most of the pics are not of any of the 'real action', but it's hard to take a picture when you're teetering on the brink of destruction yourself!

Back on the trail again

Harry's sneaking around a corner just ahead of me

You can see the back of Harry Rawlins' white Early Bronco.

"An action shot" How about a Tellico waterfall! Actually the 'fall' is only about a six inch drop, as those are leaves on either side

At one point we did have to 'ford' our way across a river.  Fortunately, the water was no more than hub-deep, the officially approved fording depth for Broncos.

After the trail ride, we had time to return to the motel and check out some of the rigs that had made the trek to Murphy. There was a number of Hummers there.  They were there having their own off-road event.  I heard that several of them suffered major damage.  They're definitely too big for Tellico (and they call us 2 Big!)  Most of their owners have more dollars than sense (pun intended).  We also saw an unusual Big Bronco/Ranger.  It surely was ugly, but it could go anywhere!  The owner had taken a '79 Bronco, removed the body, and attached a Ranger cab to it on springs for comfort. It had no lift.  None was needed since there were no fenders. The owner used 44 inch boggers with only 5 pounds of pressure.  It could go anywhere.  That said, a picture is worth 1,000 words.

See what I mean!

That evening, we attended a banquet at the local steak house.  Harry had persuaded Ford to come up with five $500 gift certificates to the Ford Motorsports catalogue to five lucky winners of a drawing.  Also, Ford picked up the tab for dinner, probably about another $1,000!

At the banquet

Standing are Mark Shainman, president of ECBR, Harry Rawlins, and Toby Till, one of the ECBR executives.  Toby had worked closely with Harry in lining up Ford's support of this event.

Sunday morning we all got up for a group shot and individual shots of the seven of us.  All, that is, except for Rob Ellis.  We couldn't get him up early enough, so he missed the shoot.

Picture a Civil War setting, such as the Battle of Gettysburg. The Battle is about to begin.  There is a mist covering the battlefield in the early morning light.  We can barely make out the owners/riders and their Broncos as they stand next to their steeds, ready to mount up and begin the battle.  LONG LIVE THE BRONCOS AND THEIR FAITHFUL RIDERS!

The Seven Magnificent Big Broncos at the Fawl Crawl (minus one)

Paul Daniels

Shawn Clemons and the lovely Cydney Duncan

I told Cydney to stand next to the more dependable item, choosing between Shawn and the Bronco.  See what her choice was!

Adam and me and Bronco makes three!

Erik Rose

Joe McNally and son Bubba

T. J. Hodge

Notice no wives were present for these pictures.  They were still working on their beauty sleep.  Cydney had no choice but to be in the picture because we went right to the campsite where she and Shawn were staying.

I think I'll let T. J. Hodge sum it up:

"It was great meeting everybody and I can't wait to get my 2BigBroncos stickers on the truck. Let's hurry up and have another event so I can break more stuff and upgrade!"
     Submitted by T. J. Hodge

It looks like he got his wish, but this probably wasn't what he had in mind.  He just completed another trip to Tellico, and he wrote:

"Well, I think Tellico claimed my transfer case this weekend."
     Submitted by T. J. Hodge

Oh, well, I guess that proves you need to be careful what you ask Tellico to grant you, because it might just come around and slap you on your backside.  Rob Ellis can attest to the number of front axles on his rig that were claimed by Tellico.

Respectfully submitted,
Jim Westcot - shadetree351@home.com
Savannah, GA. 1987 XLT Bronco