RE: Yahooo.. Had a good time in FL..
Well gang, I got nary a pic but had a great time in the woods. The Steel Soldiers turnout could have been better but one of our Pinz members, Chuck, invited some other Pinz owners and they made up for it. All together we had 5 Pinzgauers, 1 Mog, one M1031 contact maintenance truck and 2 deuces that being my little tractor and Mikes littler Diablo project. Mike put up quite a spread (=$$) for everyone. I got in just after dark on Friday and had a great night BSing around the fire. After stirring around on Saturday morning, Citizensoldier showed up with his Mom coming to have a look at all the insanity. After about an hour the first Pinz rolled out towards the trails with another and another to follow until we were all out on the trails. Went first to a watery mud pit. Proved to be not much of an overwhelming challenge for the cute but capable little Pinzs. Then we went through some trails through palmetto stump country. You really have to hang on to the wheel of a deuce in that stuff but since I'v had my share of thumb injuries, I did just fine. So we rode around these trails for a while and ended up circling a large field of cat tails. If you know anything about cat tails you know they only grow where it's wet. Since deuces aren't much in the mud, I hung closer to the back. From across the field I could see one Pinz go down and a few backing up. At that point Chuck come walking up. Seems he stuck his Pinz in another part of the property in a similar type of field. We took the tractor over there to see if we could free him up. He was stuck pretty good. I backed up to within about 20 feet and we hooked up the strap. After a half dozen jerks, I figured out that I was getting mired too and he wasn't moving. I unhooked the strap and was able to get the tractor out and turn it around. Backed it up into some heavy brush and ran out some cable from the winch. About 5 minutes later Chuck's Pinz was free. We motored back to the original field to see if the other guys were able to free themselves.. On the way back I could see the back axle of the tractor doing funny things so I figured something was wrong. Once we got back I took a look and found that one of the lower dogone bushings took a dump and the dogbone came off. That was just the beginning of this exercise. In my absence a couple of more trucks got stuck. 2 Pinzs were stuck as well as the Mog with implement tires. The Mog had also killed a battery trying to winch it's way across the cat tails. Did I mention that this field is also full of stumps? We were able to limp the tractor into position and hook onto the heavy Mog. By this time the Mog was running again. With much needed assistance from Lane (Citizensoldier) we were able to pay out about 150' of cable and hook onto the Mog. With the PTO in low gear we were able to free the Mog in a few minutes. Next we payed out a few more feet of cable and free'd up one of the Pinzs. The 3rd Pinz proved to be more difficult. It took all 200' of cable but we got ahold of him. The tractor was bringing him in without effort but we were unable to avoid some stumps. At one point was had to move the tractor and enlist a chainsaw to get a felled tree from under the Pinz before we did some serious damage. While the gang was dealing with the stump, several people joined in and helped reposition the dogbone on my truck. We got it lined up but couldn't pound it back over the fractured rubber. One of the guys had a rusty Hi-Lift jack with him. Hit it with some WD and it worked great.. We were able to press the dogbone back on with the Hi-Lift. (Now I haven't owned a Hi-Lift in years but I'll have another one tomorrow.) Some creative work with a small ratchet strap and paracord and the bone was held back in place (lasted all 200 miles home). No sooner was that done it was time to start winching again. We winched the stump that was cut,out from under the Pinz and went back to winching on the Pinz. About a 5 minute ordeal and the last Pinz was free. Did I mention I love PTO winches? They never get tired. At this point Mike had already went back to base camp and started cooking. We all headed in and had a feast of burgers, dogs, chicken and all kinds of trimmings and snacks. It was a great time to sit around, feast and laugh about the morning. Spent the rest of the afternoon just sitting about BSing. As I was loading up to come home, One of the 2 Waynes there put together a group pic idea and we moved all the trucks down to an opening and lined them up. After several pics a video was taken of all of the trucks passing by on the way down to the sand berms. I finished loading up and paid my goodbyes and hit the road around 1730. Made one stop for a sandwich for Jonathan and we headed south. Got home around 2230 with the dogbone still strapped in place. We had a great time and I'm certainly looking forward to it again next year. You folks up north, this is a great time to break the winter blaas and have some fun. Hats off to Mike for putting such a great event together and footing the bill to boot. He wouldn't take a dime towards the event but I'll figure a way to get even. Tons of pics were taken, we'll just have to wait to see them. Can't wait for next year!