I'm on vacation here in Murphy, NC, and just made it for my first day of four-wheeling. I had quite a day, culminating in the destruction of my rear-axle.

I drove in on Trail 1 from the NC side, and turned onto the first segment of Trail 2 (where you normally come out, more on this later.) I drove to the top of Tipton ****, then turned around and went back. This is quite steep and narrow, but smooth so it is fairly easy.

I got back on Trail 1 and turned onto Trail 5 just after the Tellico River. I drove across the river, and up the ledges with no problems. The last time I was at Tellico, I had to pull winch cable about 5 times on this section, the radius arms kept slamming onto the ledges and hanging up, but I have new 35" tires instead of bald 33" tires, so the raised me up just enough.

I drove Trail 5 to the end, and turned onto Trail 4. The section of 4 after 5 has deteriorated significantly since my last visit, and I would rate it as being moderate, rather than easy. I continued on 4 across Fain Ford (Tellico River, where again last time I had to pull cable, and this time I didn't,) and followed it all the way to Trail 6. I then travelled on 6 back down to the State Line campgrounds. I have never been on this section, but the big Ford just bounced right on down the boulders. I could see that there would be a few tricky areas coming up, but I was fortunately going down.

Once I got to the state line, I turned into Tennessee, drove down the paved road, and drove up road 24, which is a bypass of Lower Trail 2 (Rock Garden.) When I got to the junction of 24 and Trail 2, there was a group of 3 heavily modified Toyotas (various sorts) travelling up lower 2, and two stock looking Toyotas sitting on bypass just before the junction. I sat and watched the 3 Yota's come up Trail 2, and then they blocked me from going either way. So I waited until they turned left onto Upper 2, (they took the two stock Toyotas with them,) then since they took the stockers, I followed. They stayed out of sight, until I came to a steep, rocky face with a ledge about half way up (I believe this section is called Bobsled.)

Just after this section was the point to which I had made it going the other direction, so if I just made it past this point all would be well. I watched the other trucks go up, but one of the stock toyotas just wouldn't make it past the ledge. He backed down and decided to turn around. They invited me to try and I did. I attemped it about 5 times too many, and the last time just as I almost came up the ledge, something in the rear axle broke and started clanking. Everyone there thought a driveshaft broke, but I backed down and everything seemed to be ok, until I went about 10 feet and it clanged, and then I went another 10 feet and it clanged again. I inspected the truck again and everything looked OK externally, so I figured it must be internal to the rear axle, and I had better try to get out of there ASAP while I could. The guy in the stock Toyota volunteered to follow me out, and we turned around and went back the way we came. As we went back to the road, I figured that the problem must be a ring gear tooth, as the clang came at the exact same point every time the wheel went around. Incidentally, this is about the only drivetrain part I don't have, I had a spare axle for both sides of the front, a spare rear axle, and a spare front driveshaft.

We got to the road, and I removed the rear driveshaft. The Toyota guy went back to the exit of Trail 2 (closest to Murphy) to meet the rest of his group and about 15 minutes later I followed. They volunteered the use of their campsite to repair my truck, and offered me a ride back to my cabin, but I felt with the driveshaft out the truck could make it the 15 miles it needed to, and it did, at about 20 miles per hour, and with a gradually increasing growl from the rear end every 10 feet.

Incidentally, there must be a Toyota convention going on there this coming up weekend, as I saw about 5 different groups of Toyotas (Pickups, 4-Runners and Land-cruisers, both short and long) and the helpful group I encountered told me that if I had any problem more people would be coming up, and I should get a ride with them back to the campground, and the helpful people would give me a ride to my cabin as needed. Although there were a few Ford cracks, they were quite nice about the whole thing (I did notice quite a few Toyotas being repaired as I drove through the campground the second time.)

 

OK, so I took apart the rear axle this morning after the rain stopped, and found a replacement third member this morning. The destruction was even worse than I imagined, both main bearing caps were broken off the carrier housing, and the ring and diff were sitting in the back of the housing when I pulled the third member out (I'll try to upload some pics.) Apparently the axles were holding it in for the 15 mile ride home. Both caps were twisted, so I assum the diff tried to back out of the case. In addition, about 5 teeth are broken off the ring gear, and the pinion is chewed up, but only missing part of one tooth (probably the chewing is from the ride home!)

 

I really need to get down there someday to check out those trails....Especially with a name like this.

 

ive heard about tellico, im in concord, closer to uwharri from what i hear, ive been to uwharri, but never for wheeling, just foothiking.... i want to go check it out, i get my new tires tomorrow, so we'll see whats going on..

 

Here's the busted ring gear:



and the carrier:



Here are two of me coming down Trail 6 (State Line,) some of the better ones are too large and I need to shrink them before I can post them.:

 

That ring looks like Sadahm Hussanes hideout after a bunker buster was dropped on it. It must've made quite a noise as it was grinding!

 

Yeah, looks like it took a "Bunker Buster" or two

 

Actually, it really didn't, or not in the way you would think. When I had the rear driveshaft in, it would just skip over that section, then the pinion would engage with a loud bang once every 10 feet (once per tire revolution.) Once I took the rear driveshaft out, it stopped banging, but started growling, quietly at first, but pretty loud once I drove 15 miles on it to make it back to the cabin. The growling was where the outside of the ring gear was scraping against the lower part of the housing, the carrier wasn't holding it in, and it was slowly wobbling with every revolution.

 

What kind of diff. cover do you have? If Stock, dont they make aftermarket covers with more support built in? Oh and nice pics.

Rand

 

Rand, that's a 9", no cover for the rear.....
Evan

 

My bad.. lol front access oops. Thats what i get for posting after i worked 12 hours .