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Fearless Leader Gets Incredibly Lucky

Chief

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Well if I've had a run of nothing but bad luck it appears to have turned the corner.

Avalance and myself went out to Moses Lake on Sunday and did some off-roading on the dunes. There was hardly anyone around and it was good fun. Although I enjoyed my time out there the area is littered with trash and resembles more of a post-apocylptic wasteland than the scenic dunes of Oregon.

Anyway as we're driving around a pre-scout mission on foot alerted me to a very sharp drop off that was beyond 45 degrees and went anywhere from about ten feet on the western side and tapered down to a smooth drop of below 20 degrees on the east side.

As I drove up around this obstacle and turned around I pointed my Av to what I thought was the shallow drop area. My only complaint about sand dune driving, there is nothing to make a point of reference to and well, I was too far west.

I slowed down as much as I could and the Avalanche dropped like a rock off of the 45 plus degree angle that was 3-1/2 feet to 4 feet down. The nose slammed down, sand came up, I heard some horrible popping noises gave it gas and cleared the obstacles.

I got out expecting the worse. When brmiller dropped over the razor back I cleared it unscathed at low speed. Here I was traveling faster and went down more than double the distance into harder sand.

http://www.chevyavalanchefanclub.com/attachments/Chief21.jpg

Amazingly my Avalanche was almost unscathed! The front end was perfect despite the sandline coming up to the license plate (notice the sand on the plate and embedded in the tow hooks). Not even the DRL housings buckled from the pressure. I did loose more foam from the rear bumper, which was filled with sand, and I did loose the small diamond step plate from the driver's side of the rear bumper. The tabs were hopeless cracked. However that was the extent of the damage (and who needs foam anyway).

Everything operated fine after the incident including my lights. Don't know WHY I was unscathed but Lance told me there was quite the poof of sand as I came down. The picture doesn't give the angle justice but the white sand exposed is where my under carriage and rear bumper was digging things up as I came down.

WHUMP!

http://www.chevyavalanchefanclub.com/attachments/Chief22.jpg
 
You were lucky Fearless - you might not want to try that one twice :) - it has been a long time since I was in Moses Lake - I was stationed in Bremerton and had shipmate from Moses Lake, so we would run over on the weekends to water ski.
 
I don't think I will EVER understand why the flimsy lower brackets on the front bumper cover didn't buckle. But I'm not one to ask questions - just glad I didn't end up with a fat repair bill.
 
OK Chief, that's twice now you went over a ledge and didn't check it first. Is there going to be a third? >:D

Gl;ad to hear nothing was seriously damaged. What do you think Brendan will think when he reads this story :9:
 
flynhigh said:
OK Chief, that's twice now you went over a ledge and didn't check it first. ?Is there going to be a third? >:D

Gl;ad to hear nothing was seriously damaged. ?What do you think Brendan will think when he reads this story ?:9:

Ahhh, but I did check it this time - lost my bearings in the empty void of the dunes. If you look at the picture had I been 3 feet more west the damage could have been quite severe, 3 feet more to the east and I would have been right on the mark.

Lesson learned for next time - need a spotter for these kinds of situations.
 
flynhigh said:
Gl;ad to hear nothing was seriously damaged. What do you think Brendan will think when he reads this story :9:

Actually, using the pic with Little Chief as a guide, I'm not surprised that you managed this one sans damage. The damage to my rig did not occur because of the drop, but the pummelage when I hit the other bank. Remember that in the brmiller dune incident involved two banks--one I flew over too fast, and one I smashed into on the other side of the waterway whe I couldn't stop soon enough.

Chief--while I'm sure you had major front suspension compression and kicked up a lot of sand, you did not have the opposing bank to contend with. I'm not starting a "my impact sucked more than yours" war--just an observation based on what could arguably be "pictures that don't do it justice" (aren't they all?).

Congratulations on your continuued avoidance of All That Is Nasty.

BTW, frame damaged has been confirmed in the amounts of 9mm and 11mm upturned front frame rails. See link below for updated pics and story from today's visit to frame shop.

Brendan
 
Yeah what Fearless Leader said I was fallowing the Chief and all the suden I saw his front end do a noise dive and I heard a POP and I thought ohh no so when he stoped we looked no damage to the front you lucked out big time
 
The WAAG will help with the front end. Vary litttle affects the WAAG. I know I scraped mine on the botton. Thats another story.
 
I thought you were stuffing supporting member stuff to ship this weakened? ;)
Well you probably didn't have enough volunteers to help ya package, since you only an one other AV with ya ;D
 
Alaska_AV said:
I thought you were stuffing supporting member stuff to ship this weakened? ;)
Well you probably didn't have enough volunteers to help ya package, since you only an one other AV with ya ;D

No, THIS weekend coming up assuming the goodies arrive for stuffing...
 
brmiller said:
Actually, using the pic with Little Chief as a guide, I'm not surprised that you managed this one sans damage. ?The damage to my rig did not occur because of the drop, but the pummelage when I hit the other bank. ?Remember that in the brmiller dune incident involved two banks--one I flew over too fast, and one I smashed into on the other side of the waterway whe I couldn't stop soon enough.

Chief--while I'm sure you had major front suspension compression and kicked up a lot of sand, you did not have the opposing bank to contend with. ?I'm not starting a "my impact sucked more than yours" war--just an observation based on what could arguably be "pictures that don't do it justice" (aren't they all?).

Congratulations on your continuued avoidance of All That Is Nasty.

BTW, frame damaged has been confirmed in the amounts of 9mm and 11mm upturned front frame rails. ?See link below for updated pics and story from today's visit to frame shop.
Brendan

Brendan you bring up a very valid point. The drop was much lower but there was a second side to it AND one would have to believe that the sand where the water was flowing over was rock hard (otherwise how could the water be on top of the sand). I don't take it as my wounds are worse than your wounds and I'm sorry to here about the 1 cm (yikes) up turn on the frame rails. Ouch!

I still consider myself incredibly lucky as my front impacted the ground and the weight of the Av along with forward momentum should have done some damage. I mean I didn't even loose a DRL/Foglight bracket and we've had many reports from other members who have done far less and cracked the housings.

I was darn lucky...
 
Skidd said:
Geez Chief in my language it apperas that you were kissed on the (insert word for male genitals here) by a fairy. (y)

ROTFLMAO!!!
 
Skidd said:
Geez Chief in my language it apperas that you were kissed on the (insert word for male genitals here) by a fairy. (y)

Listen mate, I'm only interested in the fairer gender thank you much... ;)
 
Moses Lake used to be such a great place to camp and fish. Sounds like it has gone down hill in the 15 years since I used to spend my weekends out there.

Now I hear from by buddies that some crazy guys in pickups are leveling the dunes.
 
Fearless Leader said:
Listen mate, I'm only interested in the fairer gender thank you much... ?;)
Hey I didn't specify what gender your fairies had to be, personally mine looks like Tinkerbell but if it helps you just think back to that scene from Ghostbusters with Dan Ackroyd. ;)
 
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