"Devil Rock"
Club trail run - June 2007

"I think that f'n thing is the devil and should be shown to the world." - Tooch

YOU GOT IT TOOCH! I even drew a little stick person in there to show everyone how massive it is!

Jeff breaks his shaft....
Club trail run - June 2007

About half way through the day, Jeff Santucci broke a stock rear D44 axle shaft. The cause was a rock pinned between the frame and the tire. At first the consensus was that the shaft broke, but after some close examination by Sean Maki it was determined that the shaft was not the only broken part. With only 3 wheel drive Jeff had to be towed the rest of the trail and on to a waiting AAA truck.

Maki Pinned Between Two Trees
Club trail run - June 2007

Sean Maki, the trail leader slid into this predicament.  There was a tree in front of him preventing forward motion, and a tree jammed between his rock slider and rear fender.  The only way to get out of this was to have Sean winch sideways using a snatch block.
 

Brian Breaks an Axle
Paragon Adventure Park, April of 2004

This was one of those "worse case scenarios" that people always ask about. We still don't know exactly how it happened, but Brian broke an axle shaft on the second day of our Paragon weekend. In order to get him out of the park, we strapped a log to his frame and he basically drove on three wheels.

Once we got to the parking lot, we strapped the Rubi to Andy's trailer and Andy towed him home.

Brian's Picture Gets Published in JP Magazine!
June 2005 Issue

A few weeks after the incident, yours truly sent the pic into JP Magazine and told them the story. I was hoping that they would write an article about New England Jeepz and how we are a hard core off-road club that isn't afraid of body damage...or axle damage.

Well, about a year after I sent them the pic, they finally published it in the "Sideways" section. This is a section where JP Magazine posts pictures of readers rigs. So, we didn't get an article. But at least we got published.

Brian Rescues Brian
Paragon Adventure Park, October of 2004

We were all driving along when we heard someone on the CB say "Brian we need help! We need help!" We looked around and before we knew it Brian B. came storming into what was basically a pond to rescue Brian C.

For a second, we thought that at least one of the Brian's was going to take a nice cold mud bath, but the rescue took place without such an incident.

And through it all, the Mrs. was smiling. You gotta love those Jeep chicks.

Bobs Axle Gets Wacked
February 7, 2004 9:00pm-ish

Here the story in Bobs words:

I was out wheeling with Matt and we were on some flat land under power lines, and I was going about 10 mph when my front right tire decided to break through some ice and drop into a 3 foot stream.

Matt came over the CB and said don't move my front coil spring is on the ground. I thought nothing of it because my XJ can flex so much that the coil could come out anyways but when I got out Matt and Mike were standing there, as I walked around my jeep they said don't be mad...

Well how could I not be mad. My 32" tire ripped some of my fender up, my heavy duty RE LCA held up and ripped off the LCA mount clean off the axle tube. And it bent up and twisted my upper control arm.

The whole right side if my axle was pushed back a good foot from where it was supposed to be. Got a free LP 30 the next day and everything was fixed about 2 days later. I love working at a shop.

Dana 44 Breakage
Rhode Island, October of 2004

Here is Matt's story:

I was trying to climb a ledge, probably 1.5ft tall. I got the front tires up with no problems thanks to the Lock-rite in the front but the rear tires just wouldn't bite the rock. So I gave it a little more gas and bang, there goes the Dana 44. I backed off the ledge and had to be pulled to the road by Wayne, Bob, and Dan...it was a team effort.

Laura Breaks Rear Output Shaft
Billy Mountain, March of 2004

Legend has it that Laura was driving up a very rocky part of Billy Mountain and heard a big bang. She thought that if she backed up and drove a little faster, she could drive through the rock. Well, you know how the rest goes. She ended up driving the rest of the trail in 2 wheel drive and had to be towed most of the way.

Some reports say that Laura was actually driving with her eyes closed when the damage was done. This has not been confirmed nor denied.

NEJ Hangs With Frogs
Paragon Adventure Park, April of 2004

Someone noticed these frogs, who were camouflaging themselves in the mud. We stared at them for a while and they just sat there. It sounds boring, but it was actually quite fascinating. After a few minutes, the hopped away. The end.