Atleast you're in good company!

Hang in there Neo, we got home and it is now 26 degrees. Wish we were back in Moab

No...Thank you. You were all great, and I will always remember how everyone on this trip stuck it out, stuck together, and made it an incredible event.

Can't wait to go again.

Next on my list:

Escalator
Golden Stairs (I'm going to own those fukkers next time)
Potato Salad
Tip Over
Body Snatcher

Thanks everyone:
Alec, for getting me off the trail
Alan, for being a great trail leader
Adam, well, you're just a tie rod master
Ken and Co-P, for your support and kindness
Rocks...we're not done having fun yet.

I feel like I'm writing this for the Oscars

I'm sorry I couldn't help out on GS. After turning my ankle... well, you saw...

Only two runs on your list are of a concern to me, Stairs and PSH. The diffs MUST be strengthened or you'll have the same problem.

Just my opinion, but I think I'm pretty close to correct.

I bet you're home before I am.

I agree. I was shocked how quickly they imploded. The weak point on the obstacles like the Golden Stairs should be wheel spin. The diffs should have easily been able to handle not having enough momemtum early enough and have just spun out the wheels. But the drivetrains just seemed to bust right under a little excess torque.

wheel hop is wery wery bad , now we know how far we can push them , they are great crawlers but whatch out if you try to power thru and start getting wheel hop cant wait to come back in aug with the nor. cal. group at least now we know when to wench them up stuff the lil ones did pretty damn good IMO

Neo,
I don't think it has anything to do with wheel hop. I was standing 2 feet from Bebe's rig. Bebe did not hop. She simply gave it some gas a little late when here wheels were already press up against the top and bottom ledges. That shouldn't have been a problem. She didn't get close to hopping her wheels. The front enter just broke right off the bat under torque. Also, I didn't see you with any wheel hop either. Same thing - just some extra torque and the drivetrain seemed to crumble.

You are right about the H3s doing well tho. They walked everything with ease all week. But something needs to be done to strenghten the drivetrain.

So, in theory, you pull up to brick wall and slowly apply torque and the diffs will pop? Is that sort of how it happened?

It wasn't a violent breakage and no wheels turning over? Do we know what broke? Teeth? or shattered ring? or what?

Neo, do you remember what was going on when yours went down and how it felt/sounded initially?

Exactly.

I was 10 feet from Neo's rig when it blew too. He wasn't even up to the top of the Golden Stairs yet (where both wheels would have been press up against a ledge). I think something happened earlier to weaken his drivetrain because he wasn't doing that much when his front and rear exploded.

So much for the underpowered comments

Bebe was telling me that the H3 has some special crap to transfer the torque around between the front and back. I think it might have something to do with that. Her front broke under very little actual pressure. She didn't rev it that hard, nor for very long. It broke almost immediately.

In hindsight, is it possible that the 2.56:1 transfer case ratio would be better than than the 4:1? Less stress?

I'd go with 220 or 221, whatever it takes.

4-low, I'm sure. Who would that obstacle in anything else?

Yeah, I would think it was 4lo and that locks up the t-case. The system operates similar to the H2.

I am curious if it popped the ring gear totally or if it spun some teeth off. If it shattered the ring under those circumstances, that could be a problem. I could possibly see losing a tooth off a gear and it failing that way but it's so odd that it happened on 2 of the same vehicles at the same obstacle.

There may not be enough teeth on the ring and pinions.