Took the Benz for its First Offroading Trip

"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
05/27/2020 at 15:06 • Filed to: two wheels good, Off-Road

I slapped together a Gambler style build then sent it! We converged on an offroad park in southern Illinois (offroad parks are open in Illinois and Indiana, with social distancing restrictions). It wasn’t a Gambler event but a few of us doing a very small convoy.

Despite only having all seasons, the Benz did pretty good! The undercarriage of the W123 chassis is pretty beefy and practically has skid plates in areas.

Unfortunately the left rear axle began clicking halfway to the offroad park. I initially thought it to be a bad diff and changed the diff fluid. The diff is fine, but it did need a fluid change anyway . The axle survived the weekend and the trip home. Thankfully replacing both axles won’t be too bad.

Mostly everyone stayed in tiny spaced out clusters and avoided contact, per recommendations for outdoor activity right now.

Damage report: In addition to the bad axle, I lost my starter solenoid, hood pull cable, and a bushing on my throttle linkage. Only the axle will be a pain to fix, but at least new axles are cheap!

Other casualties from the weekend include two seized engines (a Tracker and that Galaxie doing burnouts) , a hydrolocked Jeep, an El Camino on a Blazer frame that ate 4 distributors and 2 tire tubes, 5 dead starters on various cars, a punctured fuel tank (leaked 20 ounces every 10 seconds), a Festiva lost its rear subframe , and a destroyed oil pan. MVP? I’d say some kid who brought a bone stock and honestly minty Hyundai Sonata and showed the side by sides how to send it.

So all the carnage considered, the Benz was a tank! It even climbed massive darn near vertical hills. The first gear may as well be a crawler gear.

I finished out the weekend by selling one more asset. After thinking long and hard about downsizing and only going after bucket list vehicles , I sent the Goldwing to a new home. The Buell and the Burgman have spoiled me on how a 4 stroke bike made this millennium rides. I’ve been finding myself not wanting to ride the ‘Wing anymore. Two years, almost 10,000 miles of my own , and a little worse for wear...I managed to make money on it!

The new owner bought it as a first bike and it sounds like they’re going to cafe racer it. Well, good luck to them I say! :)

DISCUSSION (8)

jminer > Mercedes Streeter
05/27/2020 at 15:57

Your group is absolutely brutal on vehicles!

Mercedes Streeter > jminer
05/27/2020 at 16:11

They are! But all of them know how to fully rebuild what they break so they don’t mind. They trailered their stuff in so I guess it’s break the rig, drag it onto the trailer, then rebuild when they get home. I don’t have those kinds of skills, so I try to take it easy. Hence, the worst thing I broke on the trails was a starter solenoid vs whole engines for other people. lol

The cars with the seized/hydrolocked engines are getting some wacky engine swaps. I think the Tracker’s getting a rotary and the Galaxie an LS.

The baffling one to me was all the starter failures. Out of all the offroading events I’ve been to, I’ve never seen so many starters stop working before.

jminer > Mercedes Streeter
05/27/2020 at 16:20

Starter failures like that is definitely unusual, must be sunspots :)

I love the idea of a rotary swap in a tracker, a few have done that before and it’s a great thing to stuff into a small vehicle like that. I almost pulled the trigger on putting one in an old Willys but sanity prevailed and I sold the project instead...

Mercedes Streeter > jminer
05/27/2020 at 16:27

Or something in the mud! Haha

Oh yeah, the people in my team (and I guess it should be noted that some of the failures came from randos not in our team who brought junker cars instead of side by sides) are both insane and decently talented. A lot of these guys have engines sitting in their shops just waiting to be crammed into something so having their engine blow up on them is actually a fun opportunity.

I’m just like “remember, stupid, you have to drive this home!”

50ford500 > Mercedes Streeter
05/27/2020 at 16:30

I think we need a Miss Mercedes tv/YouTube show. Your shenanigans and adventures are too good for them not to be shared with all

GoodIdeaAtTheTime > Mercedes Streeter
05/27/2020 at 17:53

Out of all the tex t and pictures, the only thing I am envious of is your nails. I really miss having long nails, but it is not conductive to mechanic work. My ring finger nail is growing in nicely. Ouch.

Taylor Martin > Mercedes Streeter
05/27/2020 at 18:23

No idea there was such thing as an “offroad park” but now I’m planning myself a road trip, or at least looking into one.

Regardless, that Benz looks great on the dirt!

Stef Schrader > Mercedes Streeter
06/06/2020 at 02:59

Holy crap, this looks amazing. I need to do more Gambler-ing.