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Daktoberfest 2001 - Saturday October 13, 2001
Forestville, NY

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Note: This is a quick 'n dirty meet report. The initial "report text" is from a post to the DML by Andy Levy, and the rest is basically all pics with some short descriptions by myself (Jon).

Attendees
NameVehicleE-Mail Address
Jason Bleazard '95 Dakota Sport RC V6 4x4jbleazard@sympatico.ca
Norah Bleazard '95 Dakota Sport RC V6 4x4nbleazard@sympatico.ca
Jim Knox '91 Dakota Sport RC V8 4x4none
Andy Levy '99 Dakota Sport CC V8 4x4andylevy@yahoo.com
Ed McCarrick '00 Dakota Sport QC V8 4x4Edward.McCarrick@fredonia.edu
Jon Steiger '92 Ram W150 RC V8 4x4jon@jonsteiger.com


Daktoberfest was made a day trip due to schedules. Jim Knox, Jason & Norah somehow arrived before I did, even though they had twice the drive. Ed joined as well. The mudpit had dried up since July, so Jon and his father pumped 25,000 gallons (estimated) into it - raising the water level well above where it was this summer. But, things weren't churned up as much (or so we thought).

We got some great splashes in the water, and all 3 of us (Jon, Jason & myself) had trouble at some point in the pit. At the end of my last run, I had the throttle buried but was barely moving, and the engine didn't seem to be turning very fast. Must have upshifted. On my first run, at the end I started getting sideways and when I cranked the wheel to full lock in an attempt to straighten out, I got plenty dirty.

Jon told us to expect plenty of mud, as they'd had several inches of rain lately. Got into the woods and things were pretty dry. Unfortunately, as we moved down towards the ravine, all 3 of us had mechanical problems. Jason got the Check Engine light in the same spot he did in July and his t-case kept popping out of 4WD. Jon had ingested some water in the pit, and his engine was running pretty rough.

I had turned on the a/c as I was getting warm, and after a couple minutes I glanced down and found that my temp was up to 210! It was only about 70 degrees, which should have been no problem. I also noticed that the truck was unusually quiet. I have a Black Magic 150 and you KNOW when it's running - it thunders. But it was silent. At the bottom of the hill, we stopped to have a look and found that I had no fan blades. I lost all 8 of them when I hit the water in the pit (I assume).

Made it all the way back to Syracuse without a problem (70 MPH cools things nicely) except for sitting at the McD's drive-thru, but once I got out on the highway the needle dropped to where I wanted it.

--
-andy
Pictures
Click on any thumbnail for a full sized version
Yes, there is a truck under there somewhere. :-) Andy is under there too, the master of this particular mayhem.
Jason makes some waves of his own... ...and Andy fires back with a monster tsunami of his own.
Jason dives right back in. I churn through nice and slow, then displace some water of my own.
Yet another run through the pit for Jason, with Norah riding shotgun
A nice, sedate pic of Jason's Dak on the trail This is the point at which Andy realized something was amiss with his cooling system. You can't actually see it in this pic, but that fan has no blades. :-)
Videos
Click on any thumbnail to view/download the video - all videos are in MPEG format
Andy dives into the pit, then claws for traction on his way out

771K, 12 seconds
Andy comes back through the pit, creating the largest splash of the day, and swallowing some water in the process

1.1M, 19 seconds
Jason hits the water pretty good himself, and plows through

604K, 9 seconds
Jason splashes into the pit, and churns through, hitting some ruts partway through and getting a little sideways

1.1M, 18 seconds
Jason & Norah run through the pit one last time.

786K, 12 seconds
Jon takes the Ram through the pit

1.0M, 16 seconds
Jon goes back through the other way, getting a good deal of water in the engine in the process

924K, 15 seconds