This is a picture story of the Vehicle recovery done by TJeb, Topgun Dave, Frosty, Recon, Dan, Nate and Myself on Father's Day 2002.
We all showed up after Jep put the call out that the bronco had rolled 5-7 times down a steep (50%) grade on the B-29 trail. When we arrived Frosty and I found Recon and Topgun already in place and looking the situation over. We assessed the Bronco as a 100% loss prior to the rollover and was now hardly worth the extraction effort. We drove to the top and Recon and Dave pointed out to Frosty and myself how the trail system is set out for the area. Interesting stuff and lots of trails to be explored.
We got a call from Jeb on the radio that they were now at the Bronco with the owner Paul. They had gotten some spare parts for the brakes but unknown to us the missing distributor and battery were actually stolen not taken out to prevent theft! Now we had a totally dead Bronco with two flat tires stuck 50 feet from the trail on a 50% slope. This was getting interesting.
Here are some pictures of our winching setup. Scary is not even a good word to describe it. We had the triangle of death spread out to over 100 feet. But with cautioun and slow movements we freed the wreck.
As you can see the bronco is totalled. It rolled from the lone pine tree in the first and third pics. Flopped around for a good 100 yards or so.
Now that the wreck is out on the trail we clamp the brakes with vise grips. We had the stuff to repair it but the existing lines were in such need of care and maintance that they were impossible to replace without damaging other brake componenets. As a after thought this would not have mattered since the rear brakes were inoperable from lack of upkeep as well.
We put TJeb and Frosty to the rear of the hunk to try and slow it's decent. The slope is so steep that even with all 8 tires locked the old bronco drug them to the bottom. It was some scary stuff and not at all safe with no braking help from the yellow turd. Here are some pics of the braking attempts.
More…… it just kept getting worse and worse.
We got it to the bottom of the hill and left it for safety reasons. The Driver/Owner Paul ran into TJeb and almost flipped the bronco again. Nothing is worth getting someone hurt. So as Paul gathered up what he could from the junkpile Frosty and I made our way back to the road. At the road we discovered that Frosty had lost a bumpstop and that I broke my rear trackbar bracket. Frosty was good since it was not a critical part of the suspension. My TB however is. So I decided to bind it down with a X brace from a come-a-long and ratchet strap. This still provided movement in the bounce plane but limited it severely in the jounce plane. No big deal since I was on the highway now and cruising home.
I leave you with some shots of the view from the top and a lineup of the Bronco Recovery Team that made the early morning trip to help some guy that brought a rolling turd into the woods of Alaska.
