Day 5....the long story

Day 5. May 25th.

Let the snow-wheeling begin!

Up and over the mountains we went. The snow got deeper. The sidehills
got steeper. The exposure got more severe.

To be honest this day ended up being just too much too quick for me.
Basically all my friends do is go snow wheeling they are on a whole
new level in there vehicle preparation and driving skill! This is the
first time I had had my little Willys out in the deep deep snow. I had
done a lot of snow-wheeling back in the day, but I was WAY behind my
friends. Basically I was a rusty driver in an unfamiliar vehicle, in
unfamiliar terrain. I flat got my butt whooped this day.

At one point towards the end of the day we where working this section
of sidehill going towards a campground high up in the mountains. My
tires where down to 2psi and the old Willys was just flat having a
hard time. It wouldn't stick to the sidehill and I constantly was
sliding downhill to the somewhat exposed section of the road edge. I
wouldn't get 'stuck' really but I just couldn't move more than a few
feet. I couldn't get the vehicle to climb back up on the snow by
itself. I would have to winch back up. That old belleview sure pulls
nice for a "6000lb" winch though! I am REALLY happy with that old
thing after this trip. Both my friends run 8274's and I can now fully
appreciate the modern brake system and power out motor. I have some
upgrades to do in the future!

One of my friends popped an outer bead off after taking a pretty bad
bounce. He was using the long pedal a bit through a section and took a
sideways hop on a sidehill section. The downhill rear tire took all
the weight of the jeep at speed, at about a 90 degree angle to the
bead, and pealed off. Both of the TJs are running what I call
Tape-Locks. A few raps of gorilla tape are added over the safety bead
area on the wheel to make the tire fit MUCH tighter on the rim.
Honestly, this flat works about 99% of the time. This lost bead was
from a BAD bounce at speed at probably 3psi or less. The TJ isn't a
light weight rig either at over 5000lbs fully loaded. He had no other
bead issues the rest of the trip. It was more driver error than
beadlock error.

We scouted up the road a bit and found much more sidehill and it was
getting worse. At this point I just called it. I was pretty much done
for the day...

We backtracked to a nice camp spot alongside the road still in the
'snow' section to limit holiday traffic