THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

Last spring I went to Moab and broke an axle in Pritchet Canyon. And soon found out that with out the middle axle fully enguaged the 712 is basicly useless, which was very suprising to me. Anyway....After troubleshooting the axle and finding that it was broke I spent a while trying to open up the half axle with no luck. The priority of the project was demoted many times during the summer with putting in a yard and other summer activies.
With out much time before the fall season at Moab starting I needed to get my Pinz on the trail. With procrastination on my part I finally got a hold of Alex Valanche and come to find out he is starting his own Fabrication/Maintenance shop. He flew out on Wednsday night to Salt Lake City and minus bleading the brakes, had the Pinz ready to go that night. I couldn't belive it. It was one of those nights that everything went right. He didn't even have to use a press to get the gear off the axle. I was amazed what is did with out the ideal tools. It was awesome. Everything was going so good I thought we should go to Vegas instead of Moab to play the tables...
After bleeding the brakes the next morning the crew was off to Moab and had a great time. Here are some picts:































We ran Gold Bar Rim to the crack and Steel Bender all the way to Kenns Lake. Both awesome and recommended trails for the Pinz. It turned out to be a great weekend. Perfect sleeping weather out under the stars. The Pinz was awesome, ran flawlessley even towing a Jeep out of Gold Bar Rim in the dark over 5 miles. Trying to get a few more trips in before the snow starts to fly. I just had to thank Alex for his help. With out him I would still be banging on that stupid half shaft. Anyway, hope you like the Picts....

Great Pics, running gold bar backwords has to be tough. I would hate that first large drop in the 710. Any pics of the ledge on Steel bender. We went up it but down . Did you ever complete pritchet, that would prob be a first in a pinz. We have always wanted to but been affraid. Where did you break?

KINSPINZ wrote:Great Pics, running gold bar backwords has to be tough. I would hate that first large drop in the 710. Any pics of the ledge on Steel bender. We went up it but down . Did you ever complete pritchet, that would prob be a first in a pinz. We have always wanted to but been affraid. Where did you break?

That ledge on Steel Bender was awesome. The only time we did it before was on 4 wheelers and we have to winch off that lone tree on the top and the 4 wheelers were almost dangling. No pictures though. It's a pretty harry decline especially with the cliff. Alex and I blead and adjusted my breaks and I felt like I could stick to anything so it wasn't that bad.

We got to the end of pritched but with a blown axle the 712 was almost worthless. I tried to winch up the last waterfall and that is where I blew my winch. So we almost made it.....I still want to try it again now that I am back to 100%.
The axle broke an the hot tubs. I don't have a picture here at work but I found the same place on the mog site - http://www.rockymountainmoggers.com/200 ... k0302.html Scroll all the way to the bottom, the last two pictures. I got caught in the holes off camber. The whole weight of the truck was on the passenger side middle axle and I was still pushing it and that is when it broke ...Good times though.

Sounds like fun, How do you think the 710 would do on pritchet?

KINSPINZ wrote:Sounds like fun, How do you think the 710 would do on pritchet?

I don't know...thats a tough one. You would need a winch if you wanted to make it over some of the stuff. I couldn't do the last half of the trail on 5 wheels with out my winch so I think the 710 might have some difficulty. Its worth a shot though. The wheel base of the 712 is one of the most underated aspects that I enjoy.