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Old 05-07-2012, 02:12 PM   #1
lupinsea
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Took the Jeep Out This Saturday + My Friend's JK Unlimited

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Walker Valley ORV Park
Near Mt. Vernon, WA

May 5th, 2012





This Saturday was a good half-day of wheel'n. I finally got my TJ out on the trails again after no wheel'n all winter. And my friend got to try out his new JK Unlimited (4-door Wrangler) that he got a few months ago. He's been working on modifying it this winter with a lift, some 35" tires, skid plates and such. This Saturday we got to try it out. And it's a good thing he put the skid plates on.

The weather was somewhat cooperative on Saturday with only some overcast skies and just the barest of light rain fall. Later in the afternoon the clouds opened up to reveal sunny blue skies. Yet the trails were nice and sloppily muddy. It made for more challenging trail conditions but then that is part of the fun.

We brought our two sons along with us and both had a great time out in the Jeeps on the trails. Nathan liked both the trail riding as well as the opportunity to get out of the Jeep. This happened frequently enough as we'd hop out to spot my friend in his JK over some obstacles. One of the first big obstacles was this steep climb over a slick stump root in the middle of a clear cut. In all honestly I didn't think I'd make it all the way up and over. The plan was to get the nose of my rig over the root and then winch up the rest of the way. But apparently I had enough traction. It took about 5-7 minutes of working it but I got my old TJ up and over. Then it was my friend's turn. After 15 minutes of trying we finally busted out the tow strap and I pulled him the rest of the way up an dover the stump. Despite his dual locking axles and mud terrain tires it was just the odd particulars of the trail that he wasn't able to get over this obstacles. Once past this we continued on another 10 minutes until our lunch stop.

Further down the trail things had gotten more chewed up during the winter as we exited the clear cut and the trail disappeared into the trees again. We came across a section of trial with some nasty rocks stick up prominently, particularly right where the oil pan and belly of the Jeeps would be going. Fortunately I was able to thread my Jeep around and position it to take the least punishing line through the rocks. My friend wasn't so fortunate. With his longer wheelbase he wasn't able to get the rig rotated on the trail and ended up dragging his skid plates and frame right over the rocks with this gut wrenching "screeeeeEEEEAaaaach! Thud! Thud! ScreeeeeeeeEEee . . . . "

Then, 100 ft later there was a drop over a slight rock ledge. I tagged my rear gas tank skid dropping over it but that was it. My friend, however, was treated to more scraping noises as his frame got hung up due to his reduced breakover angle. By the time we got done with this trail it was getting on into the afternoon and we only wanted to be out for a half day.

Damage to my Jeep was pretty much no-existant on this trip. My friend's JK, however, had some dented plastic bumper covers (expected, he's waiting on some aftermarket offroad bumpers), much scrapage, a torn front driveshaft dust boot, and bent control arm bracket. We'll reinforce the bracket before the next run and address the torn boot, too.

Despite the JK Unlimited Wranglers being on the market since '07, this is the first time I've wheeled with one on the trails. It was great seeing how it moved and worked its way through the trails.



My friend's JK Unlimited approaching the first major obstacle, the
slimy stump root ledge.




Trying to get up the stump root.




Finally, I hooked up a tow strap and dragged him up the last little bit.




It's a good thing the Jeep doesn't have a fancy interior. And it's a good
thin the Britax's cover is easily removable and washable.




Nasty rocks, particularly the one in the middle of the trail, right where the engine and tranny oil pans go.




It took some work but he got over it, but not without much scraping.




Pas those rocks . . . on down the trail.




MMmmm..... mud.




It's a good thing the tires stick out a much further than the body. Not a scratch.





Side Note: It is interesting, but with his 3 1/2" lift and 35" tall tires my friend only has 1/4" more ground clearance that I do with 33" tires and a 2 1/2" tall lift. By rights he should be at minimum about 2" taller than me but his gas tank skids hangs below the frame rails between the axles where as I run a low-profile skid plate. Also, despite nearly identical ground clearance under the belly of the rigs, he has about a 20-24" longer wheel base so his break-over angle is much reduced.

Which was borne out on the trails.

Things I barely scraped over or completely cleared he was dragging his frame over. It would make the most gut wrenching, metal-on-rock screeching noise. Also, while the longer wheelbase didn't give him problems much on the tight turns, it did make it a little more challenging to get his rig positioned on a good line.
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Old 05-07-2012, 02:52 PM   #2
rumatt
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Cool stuff. Two questions:

1) I'm no expert, but huge rocks scraping down the underside of the vehicle can't be good for it right? How often does this cause significant damage?

2) How often do you have problems that you can't fix on site? Have you ever had to abandon a vehicle?
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Old 05-08-2012, 02:01 PM   #3
lupinsea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rumatt View Post
Cool stuff. Two questions:

1) I'm no expert, but huge rocks scraping down the underside of the vehicle can't be good for it right? How often does this cause significant damage?
Usually not . . . but on a Jeep it's not too bad . . . if you install some skid plating.

It all depends on where the rocks hit.

The transfer case is decently protect and the engine is usually far forward enough that it's harder to tag the oil pan. And if you're scraping the frame rails? Pfft whatever. It's just a big steel beam, so a little paint gets scraped off.

Let's see, my rig is pretty lightly armored and in 8 years of offroading. . . hm, I think the worst I got was some bent control arm brackets on the frame, a torn rubber driveshaft boot, and a dented oil pan (still no leaks). The brackets were straigtened at home using a pipe wrench and flanges welded on to help strengthen them. None of this damage happened on a single trip. So of the three things they've all be spread out over 8 years of use.

To give you an idea. . . for all the abuse my Jeep has seen . . . it's cost less to keep it repaired and fixed up than our BMW . . . and I've had the Jeep a lot longer than the BMW.


Quote:
Originally Posted by rumatt View Post
2) How often do you have problems that you can't fix on site? Have you ever had to abandon a vehicle?
It happens.

But the only time I've seen a vehicle need to be abandon was my own and that was because I was out by myself without any other vehicle.

I shattered my transfercase and had to abandon my vehicle on the side of a mountain. But that was more of a freak occurance. Turns out, the t-case had no fluid in it. The output shaft fiinally weakened and snapped. When it let go it tore up the inside of the case and the whole thing had to be scrapped.

If you have two Jeeps you have a good chance of self recovery. Which is what happened since a tow truck will NOT be able to reach the Jeeps. Thus I learned the Jeeper's motto of "Never wheel alone".

I've seen much carnage on the trails and rigs are very rarely abandoned. I've had a friend who had rolled his Jeeps, causing the driveshaft to spear back into the t-case breaking the case into pieces to the point you could see the chain and gears inside. We unbolted his driveshafts and I just towed him home, 150 miles over the mountain passes.

Another guy had one of his control arms tear off. We just wrapped the winch cable around it to stabilize the axle and then (slowly) drive the Jeep the 40 miles into town, including about 4 miles of trail and 10 miles of gravel wash board roads.

One Jeep had both leaf spring shackles fatigue on him at the exact same time on the front axle after a decade of wheel'n. Again, axle was winched down and they managed to drive 10 miles on some intense 4x4 trails back to camp. While they were heading to camp I heading into town to find something to jury rig the shackles to get him home. Within maybe 4-5 hrs of the breakdown we had the parts back at camp and the rig fixed.

One rig caught on fire (REALLY old CJ-7 with a leaking carburator) about 9pm as we were nearing camp. After putting the fire out we towed him the rest of the way to camp, then slept on it. By the time breakfast was done the next morning the carb was cleaned up, tuned up, and put back together, running better than it had in 2 years.

More recently, another friend of mine burned out his starter when he was stuck in a deep puddle and turned off his engine. Too much water, and when he tried to restart it the starter fried. I towed him back to pavement. Then we had to drive 40 minutes closer into town to be in cell range to call AAA for a tow truck.

Anyways . . .

You get really good at improvising and self recovery. There is also a very good support network . . . it's called other Jeepers. You do what you can to not break down but everybody is in the same boat on the trails. You don't abandon your friends or even strangers. People are pretty good about helping each other out.

But you also need to be a little philosophical about the whole thing.

I mean, look at where you're driving your rig. You just need to accept that as careful as you are sometimes something might happen that damages your vehicle.
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Old 05-08-2012, 05:46 PM   #4
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I was a passenger in my friend's F250 when we broke the steering link about three miles from civilization. Took us about 3 hours to drive it to an area where a tow truck could pick it up.

Me and one other person spent the three miles outside the truck kicking, I mean steering, the passenger front tire Funny now, but not fun while we were doing it.
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