3rd Annual MrJim run

[enginerd]

Hope this works. There aren't too many pictures, as we were on the trail after dark.

 

A handful of pictures are here:

[MrJim]

We barely made a rumble on the trails this year at the 3rd Annual MrJim Run. We met in Cle Elum and it was Silverton, with Mr510 riding along, and Enginerd on his maiden run with NPORA. We soon discovered that the trail head was permanently closed to all motorized vehicles, except snowmobiles. So, we loaded up again and headed west to Thorp. We headed into the trail, which was brutally rocky and dusty. The rocks were the type that love to gash your tires open. They were mostly 8" or so triangular sharp rocks and we were hitting them pretty fast and hard as we rushed to find a trail that allowed us to wheel. There were restrictions on most of the trail system. We were barely underway, maybe 25 minutes into the trail when I saw about 10 seconds of light steam, followed by a pretty significant explosion under the hood of my MrJim Pathy. When we checked, we saw that the entire upper portion of my radiator had literally been blown apart. It never overheated. It just exploded. We are thinking it was just its time (17 year old plastic housing). Anyway, that pretty much ended the run for me. Silverton towed me to the trail head and Enginerd gave me a lift to where my truck and trailer were, so I could come back and pick up the Pathfinder. Considering that the shop that was supposed to be doing a rebuild on it all month had not even done a pressure test on the cylinders yet, we opted to deliver it to Mr510's shop for him to possible to the rebuild instead. Anyway, it was definitely a short run for me this year. I have never had a mechanical failure on the trails in all the years I have had my Pathfinder, so I figure I was due. It will all work out for the better in the end, so no worries. Here are a couple of photos.

 

 

 

[RedPath88]

Wow sorry to hear Jim.. and everyone else too. Guess this year was just not meant to be

[MrJim]

Its all good. I would be embarrassed if I had run out of gas or if my battery died. Instead, it is something crazy like my radiator exploding. It could have been allot worse. No body got hurt. My Pathy didn't get slammed off a cliff or crushed by boulders. The engine was already slated for rebuild and now its just gonna need a fresh radiator too. No worries. I had every conceivable tool and extra parts with me in case anyone needed assistance, but who would guess this would happen.

[mxracerjason]

Your radiator exploding worries me about mine. My Pathy has about 190k on the chassis with 10k on a new VG33. I would like better cooling with an aluminum rad but I hav'nt found a direct fit yet. Hope you get your's repaired soon

[5523Pathfinder]

I think thats a pretty rare thing for our rigs. Jims rig spent some time in anothers hands and did see a short stint in a Junk yard. Anything could of caused that. But, it nevers hurts to inspect once in a while.