Pilot Rock Trail/Carnage Report

[Mike]

What I am hearing is that we need to plan a new Dishpan run! :wink:

[aw12345]

Yup well ya gotta combine it with Cleggy, 2n17x and then up to Arrowhead for a quicky through Dishpan, makes for a nice afternoon's entertainment

[dirtman13]

Wow. What a trip. I'd love to see this Jeep that uses a 6" drop pitman What size lift is that a 9".

[Pikeman]

I was going to say if they are having the problems with Pilot before Dishpan just start off on Dishpan and then do Holcomb. I had a long day this past fall doing Pilot, Dishpan and Holcomb but it was a great time.

[freewaydan]

I was going to say if they are having the problems with Pilot before Dishpan just start off on Dishpan and then do Holcomb. I had a long day this past fall doing Pilot, Dishpan and Holcomb but it was a great time.

I agree! So do it on a Sunday

[rkwfxd]

Wow. What a trip. I'd love to see this Jeep that uses a 6" drop pitman What size lift is that a 9".

It is a 2001 TJ with 5.5" RE Long Arm and then he added bolt on rear spring pad locators which raised the back another 1.5" or so and so he added a spacer to the front to even it out. I know it sounds too tall but he has had it since new and has been building on it the entire time and doesn't seem to have any problems with any of the local stuff in Big Bear or Calico. I don't know if he has run all the hammers. He also has stronger axles and manual hubs and york air and a bunch of other stuff. He is the last one I thought would have a problem.

[rkwfxd]

So here is the update on my burned out winch motor/contactor. Warn never called me or e-mailed me back today so I did some on-line research. I pulled the covers off the contactor and the motor. I had already removed the cable. I got a little "in" motor and then clicks and then nothing. I got no "out" motor and no clicks. So I set up a test light to test the motor. It did not matter if I was going in or out, there was no power to the motor. At least according to my test light. So then I tested the test light directly to the battery and confirmed with was working. I also used the ground on the motor and then the positive on the battery to ensure that I had that correct.

Well since no power seemed to be getting to the motor, the problem had to be the contactor. Well before I start fiddling with that I wanted to remove one of the battery cables so that I did not accidentally shock myself.

As soon as I touched the bolt holding the winch cable to the battery with my wrench I knew something was up right there. The connections looked good and they felt good by hand, but with a wrench they were obviously loose. Heck, I did not even bother to tighten them up, I just wiggled the cables a bit and tested the winch. Full in and full out. No problems at all. So I re-routed the positive winch cable just to be a bit different and tightened everything up. I also noticed that my battery hold down bracket was a bit loose so I fixed that. I installed the covers back on the winch and tested it several times along the way with no problems. I laid out all 125' of cable, attached the hook to my wife's Tahoe and then reeled in the entire length up the slight hill in front of my house. Not much stress on it but the motor never warmed up and it never slowed down.

So yeah, I know it makes me look like a tool since I missed that on the trail but I figure I would go ahead and share with the forum so that the next time you guys are in the middle of a multiple break down rescue on the trail and something else goes wrong you will not forget to check, I mean really check, the small and obvious things like I did.

[DaK]

No worries... that is some good stuff right there, something to keep in mind.

[LuvToJeep]

Well it to took me a couple of tries to get thru Dishpan springs!!! First try broke a rear drive shaft on the falls, Second Blow a motor two weeks before a trip, Took that trip as a ride along and the jeep with us broke a rear axle at the falls. So last weekend finally made it thru and it was the best day wheeling yet. Thats why we keep trying its was a Great Lunch at Tent Poll campground!!! And with the snow and the great wheather it was a awsome day!! :smile:

[Roger]

Good info on the winch fix. Thanks for posting it.