Paragon...Yea...Right...

[Freebird01]

Well for those of you know me understand that my luck basically sucks and today is no exception...

Let me give yall my rundown of my Paragon experience for today!!!

First off remember that at 9:30pm friday night I managed to change the oil...put my towbar together...string my towing light cord...get some basic tools together...and double check for my tow strap and shackles..

7:30am saturday...pumped and have been up since 6am gettin ready to go...get everything hooked up and pull out to pick up my friend paul. had a little glitch in that I went to pull out got about twenty yards and realized the t-case is still in gear since the wheels werent turning. jump out and pop it into neutral double check everything and keep going everything seems ok...a thought i will end up regreting...

pick up paul and stop for breakfast quick at a mcdonalds....take off for paragon. got mixed up in hazelton and took a wrong turn. forgot to turn down 924. after stopping to ask for some quick directions i went back on the road and we got to paragon right at 10am. came down the road to the parking area and the samurai ended up pushing my F150 sideways on the ice and i was within 3ft of a brand new chevy tahoe from NY when i stopped...talk about sweatin it.

get situated and start takin apart the tow bar and see something hanging...it is now that i realize i am truly screwed...the rear driveshaft was hanging!!!!!! guess my little morning mishap must have grenaded the slipyoke and it didnt come apart till about the time we pulled into the paragon parking lot. (it was either the towing mistake of the previous saturday testing the locker)

anyway...after consoling with the paragon guru's i was directed to bonners boneyard up the road. they had two zuks. one was two new and had the large flanges (zuk guys you know what i mean) and the other one was 11" off the ground and couldnt get the shaft to spin to get the bolts out. it was then that paul and I decided to give up and go home.

we get back to paragon and Scott aka capengoggles (super great guy!!! thanks and i apologize!) was waiting with his rider on me and we told him no dice. so i go under the zuk to pull the rear shaft so i dont have to worry about losing it and find out i somehow lost the out yoke nut and just slid the yoke off the t-case...go to look at the front driveshaft and realized that the bolts that hold the flange to the tcase front output sheard clean also. this prolly was damaged from the previous saturday that i managed to miss in my hassened repairs.

so now scott gets herded back into the fold and goes wheelin and paul and i try to leave tail between our legs. to add insul to injury the goodyear AT/s's that came on my truck when i bought it suck ass in the snow and we got stuck in the parking lot. after much wheel speed and working back and forth we finally got out and left. on the way home missed the exit for 80 west and ended up on a 30 mile detour. once we got back on 80 the rest of the day was smooth sailing. got back to my place and put the zuk back in to the garage and left it there?!?!!?

did i mention all the tire kicking and swearing that was done during all of this?????

lets hope next time its a bit warmer and things go better....

i hope everyone else had a good time and im anxious to get together with you all when i dont have a lame duck!!!!!!

[mybigredjeep]

DUDE I FELT SO BAD FOR YOU WE WERE SITTING IN THE PARKING LOT WAITING FOR YOU.............WE FELT SO BAD. YOU SHOULD HAVE SPLIT U AND UR FRIEND UP AND THEN GONE WHEELIN WITH ALL OF US..................SORRY TO HEAR BOUT IT.............SEE ON THE FEB RUN.


jEREMY

[XEON]

Holly crap man! I felt so bad for you. I was really looking forward to see you wheeling with us. It was a great time! Hopefully we will see you on the next trip. Sorry about that crapy slip yoke :(

[Freebird01]

well...my philosophy is "build it...break it...build it better!"

I found a Toyota CV front shaft for $50+shipping. All i need to do is make up some adapters and ill be good to go again..

this just gives me a reason to clean out my garage so i can do the CJ spring swap.

ill be there next run and this time im pullin the rear driveshaft before i tow it!!!!

[badzook]

Wow,

That sounds like a real dissapointment. Sorry to hear about all of that.

This will enhance your preperation plans for the next trip. I ditched the idea of flat towing years ago. If I don't drive it there, I use my flatbed trailer Alot.....

Here's why...
My trailer has brakes on all four wheels. It is rated for 10k lbs with large 15" tires. It only weighs 900 lbs. I have a controller in the cab of my van so I can use it to stop if I need to. There's plenty of room for Tools & Spare Parts. I had one incident years ago flat towing a rig where the weight of being pushed down a long & steep hill caused me to burn up the brakes on my 3/4 Ton tow rig. I almost lost the whole mess. Then it cost a bundle to get it towed and fixed ( more than the cost of the trailer). That money would have been better spent on the trailer in the first place. Lesson Learned..

The incident you had on the ice would not happen If you had brakes behind you to stop the pushing effect. Also, In my experience,
I've wheeled with a few other Zooks and alot of the breakage I see on the trails renders the Zook not flat towable. I've flatbedded other peoples rigs to thier homes ( actually, twice now) while my wife Drove my zook home.

Hope you have better luck next time... Test drive your rig for a few days to get the bugs out of it before the next trip..

Just chock it all up to a bad experience that ended safely with nobody hurt...


Hope to meet you on the next Outing..

Good luck.

badzook

[Freebird01]

well...i drove it to work on friday and thats 32 miles one way and had no issues at all.

i wasnt planning on hammering on it bad enough to break it either....i will have a flat bed eventually but unfortunatly budget determines method sometimes..

next time hopefully will be better!