Power Line Road Trip
April 12th, 2008
(Trip Report & Photos by David Moerman)
I’d been wanting to revisit this trail for quite some time. I’m very grateful to Roger for planning this trip. Over the past few weeks I made numerous modifications to my Bronco & was trying to get it all done in a hurry. Matter of fact, I was up until 1:00 a.m. knowing full well that I was going to be short on sleep.
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Mark Stephenson & I rode our respective ’75 & ’76 out of town at about 6:30. We met up with Roger, Rick, and Robert in Superior right on time. It was a bit windy and cool – nearly chilly. The weather changed for the better throughout the day, eventually getting a little warm mid-afternoon.
The 5 vehicles (4 Bronco’s & 1 Jeep) met up in the camp ground. We aired down and headed out. The trail took us right through the middle of a drilling operation – up close and personal.
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Our first descent was quite steep & I was hoping that we didn’t have to return the same way. It didn’t take long into the run that Robert broke something in the rear. Perhaps an axle? Then it didn’t take much for the front to go as well. We got him turned around and he could coast down hill to the ‘easy’ trail. We all met at the bottom & I towed Robert back to his trailer.
Rick, driving the Jeep, decided to head home, leaving Roger, Mark & myself. After going into town for more gas we headed back in a different direction. We went up SR 177 a little ways and hit an almost hidden road off to the left.
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On a steep climb, Mark thought he had a transmission problem & we came back to help. It turned out that he just slipped out of gear. However, now Rodger & I are headed down hill and need to turn around. We had Mark back down so we could use a flat spot. Mark got himself right off the road into a ditch. I turned around only to tow him out. His angle was too great to allow his engine to turn over.
Back on the trail we stopped for lunch at a high spot near picture frame rock. From where we were we could see Weaver’s Needle & the Superstition mountains.
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Soon after lunch we were coming across a fork in the road & to the right we had an obstacle that looked like fun to try. I wanted to try & asked Mark if he did as well but he wanted to see how I did first before he committed himself.
We planned out the line & everything worked great. One of my latest modifications was installing Tera-Low gears. My Dana 20 went from 2:1 to 3.14:1 and boy can I tell the difference. The gears were purchased from Randy at Driven & I had Steve at Complete Offroad do the install. After my careful ascent Mark did the same climb with little a-do.
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We only had one more difficult climb left in the trip and it would prove to be an all day adventure. I broke my rear drive shaft. I hooked up my winch to Rodger and aided him with my front-wheel drive only. Doing so, I broke the left front u-joint. Only having my front right tire working and trying to winch up a rugged bolder strewn hill took all day. I’d make a car length & we’d have to reposition everything again. The winch would over-heat or my engine would get too hot and we’d take a break.
We all made it back to the highway just about sun-down. Mark towed me into town. Rodger graciously offered to tow me the next day but I opted for a Superior 24 hr. towing service. Mark & I got some pizza & a tow truck brought me back to my driveway. Not directly however. We made a stop at a bad car accident about 4 miles south of
Florence Junction. I tagged along to help the tow-truck driver & he knocked $100 off my bill for the one hour delay.
It turns out that I most likely broke the rear drive shaft with some axle wrap. The new gears contributing I suspect. The break in the front left u-joint turned out to have ruined the axle as well. New parts have all been ordered: a new drive shaft from Arizona Drive Line (Oscar) & new crome-moly front axles from Driven (Randy).
I would like to thank Roger again for planning the trip and for being so very patient helping me up that last hill – that took all day.
- David Moerman
