Neighbor Mountain Fire Report to Come

Yep, I've been lazy.  Look forward to words and pictures in the near future.  130 plus hours on the fire line of two different fires.  Yup, I'm tired.  Oh yeah, I broke another bike.  Less than 8 rides on it.  I have to say that I am pretty disappointed in the manufacturer.  No response to my calls or emails.  It's not like I wanted a free frame, the hole in the downtube and matching one in my shin from a huge rock was definitely not a warranty issue.  I just was hoping for a a crash replacement rate.  Hell, I've owned six of their frames, and wanted to keep supporting them.  Thanks no eno.  Didn't even have the courtesy to tell me to go pound sand.  Meh.  New bike on the horizon.  Another UK manufacturer.  It will have gears and suspension.  Holy Crap the world must be ending.

Alleghany Tunnel Fire

Went on my first fire detail for the year.  A detail can last up to two weeks and your accommodations can range any from a tent to a hotel.  Luckily ours was on the hotel side of the spectrum.  Best Western of Covington Virginia was gracious enough to host us for 8 days as 600+ wildland firefighters spent 12 to 16 hour shifts each day battling different sections of the Easter Complex fire.  We were assigned to the Alleghany Tunnel Fires and would be the only engine crew to see all three sides of our fire.  We spent most of time supporting the Tonto Regulars, a hand crew out of Arizona.  We also did our share of hotlining around escaping hotspots that had jumped our firelines, and back burning with drip torches.

Day 1 was pretty much when everything went sideways.  High winds and low humidity, allowed to fire to easily ignite ground fuels and blow embers of fire lines that were supposed to contain the fire.  The fire managed to jump a sizable railroad track as well as interstate 64.

Day 2 we caught a spot fire while out on patrol  No resources could be re-routed to the location, so 3 of us ran to contain a 2 acre spot fire with a chainsaw, a leaf blower, and a fire rake.   Oh yeah, it was snowing.  The rest of the day would be spent back burning and patrolling.  We were also 1 of 2 engines assigned to night patrol, giving us our first 16 hour day.  The logistics group was kind enough to get us Pizza Hut for dinner.  Not just a few pies but an amount that looked like they had put their entire buffet into boxes and sent it to us. A group consisting of only 5 guys.  Thanks guys.

Day 3 we assisted Arizona's Tonto Regulars.  The Alleghany tunnel fires had now become part of the Easter complex, that included 4 major fires.  The fires were so large, that fire crews were being called in from all over the country.  I spent the day carrying a leaf blower for about 5 miles over pretty steep terrain.  Fires can pretty much be fought with leaf blowers in the east.  You can blow an 8 foot wide fire line in very little time.  The Arizona crew was not used to the amount of roots in the east or the amount of leaf litter.  Near the end of the burn, a spot fire jumped the line.  It was quickly contained as the crew attacked it with rakes and pulaskis, and blew a new line around the rogue fire.  The crew then proceeded to burn from the fire road, running the drip torches for about 5 miles.  That crew sure likes to burn stuff.

The remaining days were less interesting we continued to support Tonto, supplying them with fuel and flares.  I also learned that I have no business being on an engine crew.  I am terrible at sitting still for long periods of time.  I would see the hand crews out digging line and would want to join them.  Apparently the previous days of chasing fires was atypical work for engine crews.  At one point my engine boss told me I should get out of the truck and go for a hike.  I think they were getting tired of me constantly getting in and out of the truck.  Later in the week we supported a Hopi crew, continuing to try to find work for ourselves.  We were steadily receiving news of crews being sent home or reassigned as the fires slowly began to be contained.  We knew that it was only a matter of time before we would be sent home.  Especially with the forecasted rain for the coming Wednesday.

It was amazing the amount of hospitality that was shown to us by the residents of Covington.  Restaurants stayed open late to accommodate crews coming off the line at 10 or later at night.  Residents never failed to come up to us, and thank us for the hard work we were putting in.  Home owners would come out to the road, and ask us if we needed cold water or where they could donate water and food.  The local restaurant, Cucci's supplied us with fresh sandwiches everyday.  All of this helped keep moral high for the crews, as we battled fatigue.  Nothing like down home, southern hospitality.

Measure Once, Cut Twice

It's been an interesting past couple weeks getting the Bromanche up and running.  From the beginning I knew that I wanted to put some sort of traction device in the rear axle due to the truck being 2wd.  Being  new to Jeeps I wasn't quite sure what this truck had, due to a missing build sheet, and me misidentifying a few key parts.  For the last 4 months I had been under that the truck had a smaller weaker Dana 35 axle under it.  I had also been hearing a lot of popping during turns, making me wonder if a factory limited slip was inside.  Upon quick inspection, by a quick spin of the wheels, I concluded that it did not, because the two wheels spun in opposite directions.  This usually indicates an open carrier.  I did not stop to think that it may indicate a worn out LSD.  Also when draining the diff, I didn't see any glitter in it, so I never bothered to inspect the spider and side gears.

Fast forward to a couple weeks later.  The popping is getting worse.  I decided to pull the cover again and take a closer look.  I find that the spider gears are missing a few teeth.  Since there was no bits of metal in the oil either time that I drained it, I can only conclude the previous owner pulled the cover, looked at the damage, and sealed it back up.  Thanks guy.  Earlier in the week I had also purchased a used Powertrax Lock Right locker of of NC4x4.  It arrived on the same day.  I thought that this device would save the day because the way that it is installed requires eliminating the spider and side gears.  Win!  I break out the tools and proceed to try to remove the cross pin to remove spider gears.  The pin binds on the ring gear.  WTF?  Turns out the gear is a 3.73 as opposed to the 3.05 I anticipated and was thicker causing clearance issues for the cross pin.

Ok, what the hell is going on?  I thought only the D44 came with a 3.73 ring.....well crap.  I jump on to the interwebz and start looking at what all the Dana axle diff covers look like.  We have a match, and it's not the D35.  Sweet, I have a D44!  Crap, I have a D35 locker.  Upon further inspection, it does indeed contain a broken LSD.  Ok, what can we do?  Maybe I can buy a locker to replace the LSD.  $650?  FML!  Ok, how about replacing the LSD carrier with an open carrier.  Nope, will require a 1 ton press, a 375 dollar bearing puller and setting up the gears.  Looks like we are going to have to rebuild this LSD.  Oh wait, spider and side gears are nearly impossible to get.  On to ebay, I pick up the parts I need.  Great, I just paid more than the old locker for less performance.  And, now we wait for the brown Santa..

RIP Dumpster Bike

Well, after serving me for 3 years, Dumpster bike came to the end of it's life.  The rear triangle had ended up in a twisted state after dropping a chain that wrapped around the fixed cog.  Result, a tire that was trying to do it's best angle grinder impression of chewing through the seat stay.  Sad.

The Grand Rescue Trailer

I'm incredibly excited about this upcoming film.  It documents an exceedingly technical rescue in the Grand Tetons.  The rescue takes place in 1967.  The film will definitely make those currently working in SAR appreciate modern equipment, while allowing those who have been in the game a while to remember how sketchy the equipment used to be.