Power Wagons in the mist... and a submerged Samurai!

So, much like everyone else, the snow came in this past weekend. Not bad, but the freezing wind that came in behind it, once things cleared out did get ugly. My "official" patio thermometer that records annual highs and lows now has some new figures; High of 117 this last August, new low of 7 last night! That is a 110 degree spread!

Here are the trucks out front, riding out the storm as it rolled in.

Bonus Story: Samurai Arctic Exploration Sub?

Got a little cabin fever during the snow storm that blew in over the weekend. Decided to go out and take a look at the pretty scenery in the Samurai.

Cruised down to our little creek, drove out on the ice and promptly broke right through. That would have been fine, but I had left the drain plugs out of the floorboards last summer, and apparently the water was still rising, along with a pretty good current pushing under the ice shelf.

So, in short order, I was sunk in the swirling silt and stuck on the pumpkins. While my son went to make yet another "come tow us out" call to the wife with the Big Truck, I sat inside, with the motor running, bubbling away from the submerged exhaust. The water kept rising, first up to the pedals, then over the transmission hump, finally up to the bottom of the dash, and thus soaking my seat cushion. Arghhhhh.

Help finally arrived (thankfully she is used to this sort of thing with me) and rather than a lengthy winch procedure, I instructed them to just attach a snatch line and give me a tug, in the interest of getting my butt back on dry (warm) ground ASAP. Unfortunately, without wanting to risk sinking the big truck with a proper parallel pull, which would require the Big Truck also being on the ice shelf, we just went with a hasty pull, at about 45 deg angle from the shoreline.

One quick tug, to get things moving and it clawed it's way back out of the mess. Unfortunately, due to the angle of the tug, and the tire pressures dropping even further (into single digits) from being submerged in frigid water, the two right side tires pulled away from the rims and fully deflated, letting muck water inside.

But, the Sami continues to run like a champ! It drove itself all the way back home. When it thaws out, I will be able to get in there and see if my deep water rigging worked, or if my transfer case and pumpkins are full of sludge.

Time to pull the floor matts and clean out the drain holes and give the interior a good hosing out too. Of course, it let water in, but when it was time to drain, the plug holes were all filled with muck, gravel, old ear plugs, .22LR rounds and their boxes which had turned to slime and helped plug everything up.

Good times! Perhaps it is time for some fresh, pliable rubber. I thought those gnarly 30x11.50-15 Bias Ply TSL Super Swamper Bogger tires were about as nasty as one could get. Apparently, I could use even more. Or, just be smart and stay on solid ground, or perhaps better yet, at home during the next blizzard.

With a Spring over Axle Lift, plus taller shackles, the little 'Zuker usually has more than enough to keep it's interior dry.

Hard to tell from the "buried in the water" pics, but it has lots of rubber and air underneath it to keep it from being hung up.

Here it is, sitting in the driveway the next day, trying to thaw and let the interior dry out.

Plenty of flex, just enough gear reduction and small enough to be a total hoot and RARELY need help getting out of anything I manage to get it in to.

But, this makes the second time this year, the wifey had to fire up the Power Wagon, come out and find us and help us recover the little bugger.

A willing and capable wife AND truck. That is what I call heaven.

After one of last summer's quick Monsoonal downpours, we went out and ran up one of the local trails. All summer, these had been "rounded out" and only about 6" deep.

Headed into the sun, straining to see through a dirty windshield, I saw an approaching rain rut, but dismissed it, thinking it was the "standard issue" little dip.

Luckily, we were barely rolling along, as we dropped into a 4' wash out, not just some little rain rut!

Again, back on the cell phone. Wife and Power Wagon to the rescue.

She is acquiring way too much Ammo to tease me with this season.

Very nice pics man!! I want one of those little samurai's aweful bad, but good shape ones are hard to find in NB Canada, most are rusted to hell, or already look like yours, i wanna be the one to build it up!

I love it. Good thing that water wasn't deeper when you fell through though. At least it made for some very cool pics and a fun story.

Now, what did you hook the snatch strap to, and who had to reach into that cold water to hook it up?

One can't resist going out to play in the pretty, damp red sand!

This was just in 2WD. A pull of the lever into 4WD and it crawled up and away. Running relatively high pressures still (I just dropped to 35fr / 30 rr just to smooth out the washboard roads) it climbs like a Bighorn Sheep and floats along with the ride quality of a Cadillac! I save the 4-Lo and Lockers as my "virtual backup" when out playing alone. There isn't always a large enough anchor point around for the winch, but it always provides peace of mind knowing it is there.

Funny, this being my first Winch equipped vehicle, I feel "naked" going out in anything anymore that does not have one. Although I am a firm believer in the "buddy system" when really going back in the sticks.

Hemi450hp said:

Now, what did you hook the snatch strap to, and who had to reach into that cold water to hook it up?

Click to expand...

Rear bumper has a recessed 2" receiver hitch I can use, with my massive slide-in hook (seen on the back of the Power Wagon) but this this time around, in the interest of being quick, we just used one of the two D-Rings on the rear bumper.

My son got the task of hooking it all up.

This is my fourth Samurai. Each build being better and bigger than the last. I completed this one about ten years ago, and it has been amazing. Finally did one pretty much 100% the way I wanted, with all the lessons learned from previous attempts.

Being from SoCal, we can get shells, like this one, with Zero rust. Bought it for like $400 with a straight body, good interior and complete. Though, transfer case was toast and motor tired. Perfect donor, as I dropped in a Sidekick 1600, rebuilt t-case with reduced gearing, "Lincoln Locked" the rear end, did the lift and added a full cage and four point race belts. Biggest expense was the wheel and tire package that I bought new, then the transfer case, long block and cage. Still, have well under $5k into it, and it embarrasses big built Rubicons and can run with Rzrs that cost 4 times as much... and I have a heater and roll up windows! hAHHAAA.

Here you can see the left side D-Ring above the exhaust. You can lift the whole thing off the ground from any of it's many attachments points, as it only weighs about 2k lbs.

When I really want a challenge, I go out and sink the whole thing up to the rear bumper! Truck, trailer and all!!!



Driving along the lake shore, I knew the water had receded and was trying to stay about 25' away from where the damp goo was underneath..

I stopped to look at a campsite and it broke through the top crust of dry sand into the quicksand type of pit hiding below. I was in 2WD, and when I sensed the rear wheels spinning, I put it in park, got out to look and by that time, it had sunk to the frame rail.

I was just airing down, going to engage the lockers and disconnect the trailer, hoping the truck would pull itself free, allowing me to come back in at another angle for the trailer, when a good Ol Boy in a Gen I Cummins One Ton 4x4 pulled up. Said he was passing by on the highway up above on the ridge and saw me in trouble. He came down to lend a hand.

Amazingly, after positioning his truck as an Anchor Point, chocking his wheels with some rocks and running my line out to him, that 12k winch pulled the whole mess out! I couldn't believe it. I didn't even have to move a shovel of dirt, or disconnect anything.

That factory winch set up (combined with some good American helpful folks) and you can do miracles. I would have still been there to this day digging out without them!

Barely made it off the Reservation (literally!) after running 15 miles of bad "road" back in Oct. when a freak early snow storm hit. I was out at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes near Zion National Park and freezing my butt off.

Got up and made a run for it, down the frozen, muddy, puddle filled trail headed back to civilization. Hit pavement just as the sun came up.

Beautiful. That Power Wagon tows like a Champ. Being injured, alone, frozen and way out in the middle of no where in the early morning hours long before sun up, there is no other vehicle I would have had confidence in to make it out.

Still am finding red sandstone mud in everything, from the trailer to the truck interior, but it sure was a great run.

nice pics

I'm glad to see you out using this beast!

Looks like a good time!!

Look at that truck work! Great pics! We need more play areas where I live.

Brakelate said:

With a Spring over Axle Lift, plus taller shackles, the little 'Zuker usually has more than enough to keep it's interior dry.

Hard to tell from the "buried in the water" pics, but it has lots of rubber and air underneath it to keep it from being hung up.

Here it is, sitting in the driveway the next day, trying to thaw and let the interior dry out.

Plenty of flex, just enough gear reduction and small enough to be a total hoot and RARELY need help getting out of anything I manage to get it in to.

But, this makes the second time this year, the wifey had to fire up the Power Wagon, come out and find us and help us recover the little bugger.

A willing and capable wife AND truck. That is what I call heaven.

Click to expand...

You have a good life my man, indeed. My wife can't even drive my PW let alone operate the winch. I've tried to teach her, but she thinks AAA is the answer even out in the middle of nowhere.