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Wrecking Ball Trail
Publish date: Sep 1, 2005
By:  Dave Ryngiewicz
Source: Toyota at Off-Road.com

This is our first run on Wrecking Ball. So we were excited to see what it had to offer. Some of us have run the other Johnson Valley trails before and really looked forward to give this new one a try. The hammer trails in Johnson Valley are renowned for the challenges and fun they provide. Wrecking ball well describes this trail, just consider body damage as part of the trip! Having read some of the magazine coverage on this trail it was clear this was going to be a tuff trail. Some groups start out just  trying to keep body damage to a minimum, but as the trail starts taking it's toll, it becomes a battle to just make it through. This trail favors short wheel based trucks but with some extra work I was able to get through.  Some spots require three point turns but my 115" wheel base with the lift and bed chopped 10" was able to make it through. So much for people saying it's only for short wheel base trucks! Saturday morning, four  XTOYS members, Ken Johnson, Pete Bitto, Rich Sherwood, myself Dave, and a friend John Edmundson met at the dry lake bed to start our first trip on the WRECKING BALL trail. It took us a little while to find the beginning of the trail, but John and Pete get us there. The first obstacle was Toyota pickup in the trail, not nearly prepared for this trail, he lets us go by.  After making our way around the pickup we ran into 3 Jeeps, ok this is going to be a long day. We have no choice but to stay behind them even after one breaks a tierod end.  After a few little dumb mistakes they get him running. This trail does have some really nice big rocks to try and avoid. But we all ended up with at least a little body damage and battle scares. It seams the further we go the better or worse it gets. Like other Johnson Valley trails it's one obstacle after another without letup. Ken and Myself are still a little new to rock crawling but at least we have dual Marlin cases. Pete has dual cases also but more time on the trails then us, Rich has the Marlin ultimate setup, and John  has his auto transmission. Most of us were running 35 BFG MT's. Except Ken, he had 33 AT & IFS.  A few of us paid the price of playing with rocks,  broken parts.  Ken starts out with a busted right front inner axle shaft. After we go a little further his left front tierod end pops off the ball, so we take the wheel off to figure how to remedy this without a  spare.  Pete hammered it on and it stayed together for rest of the trip. Next  it's my turn to give up a few parts to the rock gods. With John spotting me up a straight rock climb I heard a pop. Hmm, guess what it was and witch side? Yup passenger side birfield. The was my first broken birfield  and never having changed one before, Rich jumps in to tackle the job, with a spare used Marfield. Thanks Rich!! It took him about 1/2 hr to change it. Later Ken and I had both slid on the rocks in such a way that we both put our driveshafts onto the rocks, but not enough to damage them, lucky us. This is not a good  the place to loose a drive shaft. On our way again, getting to the harder part of the trail and closer to the end of the trail and daylight. And of course we ran out of film long ago. After running this trail it's nice to know that nerfs & bumpers are money well spent. While we experienced some minor body damage our nerf bars and bumpers saved us from any serious damage. The Wrecking Ball trail is well named.
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Source: Toyota at Off-Road.com, 9/1/2005
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