So, Dave, how did this happen? Well, we were on the Mississippi Views trail in Pittsfield, IL, and were going up a nasty wash that few made it up. I heard a snap about 300 feet before the climb out of the wash but didn't think anything of it. My air lockers were " on. " We hammered up the hill, made it, turned off the lockers and didn't move. What the hell!

First, the front driveshaft pulled apart, hence no front wheel drive. But why didn't the rear wheel turn? It didn't take long to figure out that I had a broken axle in the rear. This was made more difficult to diagnose due to the fact that we had been wheeling in a farmer's field and there was cow shit all over (and I do mean all over) the underside of the Jeep.

While working underneath I heard this hissing noise. Earlier we had driven over the bones of a dead horse (our leader wanted to get it crushed up so the rains would carry the bone fragments downstream.) Well, underneath 1/2 " of cow crap in the tires, was a 3/4 " rib bone that had gone through the tire. Double Damn!

I could still drive with the broken axle since this Dana 35 doesn't have C-clips. We drove back to the campground and proceeded to replace the axle with a spare that we carried so we could flat tow back home. Needless to say, that week we bought the trailer!

So, a broken axle (caused by a bad electrical connection turning the rear air locker on and off under load), a pulled front driveshaft, a bone in the tire and cow crap all over the Jeep and me. I got the City Boyz " Bloopie of the Year " for that one and also earned the nickname " Bones. "

My helpers in the photo are Steve and Kris. Kris' contribution was taking the two quarts of very cold and stiff gear lube in to our motorhome, and placing them in the microwave to warm them up so we could put the goo back in the diff. It's a good thing we didn't spill the gear lube or didn't have to heat up any whale sperm or we would have had some uniquely flavored food from the microwave for a while.

I love wheeling!