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My Wheeling this weekend started with me attempting to tow my jeep to the gas station the night before. I had just installed 6" springs in the jeep and found that I had a LOT of death wobble. After a few SCARRY test drives and the re-installation of the steering stabilizer. I was GTG (Good to Go)
We (My Nephew and I) arrived at Peggy Sues diner a little after 8am and took a nap until noticing that Matt had arrived. We introduced our selves and went inside for a very good breakfast to start our day.
After breakfast we unhooked the jeeps and introduced our selves to Justin and decided what trails to run and in what order, we then proceeded down the highway to the staging area.
Once there we aired down we continued on to Mule Cutoff. After a few wrong turns and a side trip through a few arches (My Nephew got a kick out of that) we ended up on Doran.
This trail is passable by stock jeeps with the exception of the Gate Keeper obstacle and they can expect some body damage and some stacking of rocks (massive points lost for this.lol). After looking at Gate Keeper and deciding that neither Justin nor Matt were up for it I decided to forgo it also (It's definitely on my to-do list now though). We took the by-pass and started up the small waterfalls.
Everything was going swimmingly when I head this hi-pitched boing from behind me. I get out of the jeep and head back to justin to find his rear drivers side spring on the ground. After a few seconds of head scratching as I have never seen that happen we proceeded to back him up and re-inert it.
After putting it back in 3 times in 50 feet, we decided to turn around and head back down.
After saying good bye to justin Matt and I headed back down Mule cutoff to check out some mines in the area. I decided that since My Nephew has never driven before (he's only 12) that he should be able to handle a 5speed with 4:1 and 4.56 in the pumpkins. We were going slow after all.
Everything was good until we started up the by-pass and the front passenger tire ended up in a rutt follwed by the rear passenger tire. After killing the engine I look right and see that I can touch the ground and we are darn near on our side. Not a problem, We switch drivers again, put it in first and crawl up and out of the rutt. lol... I think it scared him as he didn't want to drive anymore. lol...
We got up to the bismark mine in one piece and took a look around. it's a neat place if you have never been there. lots of history.
After playing in and around the mine we headed down to Wall Street. However we can now confirm that the road is Washed out. You can probably get a buggy through it but the BMW mini sized rock in the middle of the wash out would make it really difficult.
After a beautiful day 4Wheeling we are taking stock of what we learned.
1. 35" tires, 6" of lift and NO steering stabilizer are NOT Safe. you definitely NEED the stabilizer
2. Weld metal clips on the front and rear springs to keep them in the vehicle
3. bring extra shock mounts
4. bring lots of warm cloths as the temps were in the 40-50's all day
5. even though I've never needed one, I will be getting at least one winch for my jeep
6. 18lbs of pressure in Mickey Tompsons Baja Claws in a LOT. need to air down to somewhere south of 10psi. It was like riding on a buckboard.
Pictures of the day can be found at:
http://gallery.me.com/gijoel#100228&...lack&view=grid
Thanks to Matt for putting up this run. It was a very enjoyable time
Joel
We (My Nephew and I) arrived at Peggy Sues diner a little after 8am and took a nap until noticing that Matt had arrived. We introduced our selves and went inside for a very good breakfast to start our day.
After breakfast we unhooked the jeeps and introduced our selves to Justin and decided what trails to run and in what order, we then proceeded down the highway to the staging area.
Once there we aired down we continued on to Mule Cutoff. After a few wrong turns and a side trip through a few arches (My Nephew got a kick out of that) we ended up on Doran.
This trail is passable by stock jeeps with the exception of the Gate Keeper obstacle and they can expect some body damage and some stacking of rocks (massive points lost for this.lol). After looking at Gate Keeper and deciding that neither Justin nor Matt were up for it I decided to forgo it also (It's definitely on my to-do list now though). We took the by-pass and started up the small waterfalls.
Everything was going swimmingly when I head this hi-pitched boing from behind me. I get out of the jeep and head back to justin to find his rear drivers side spring on the ground. After a few seconds of head scratching as I have never seen that happen we proceeded to back him up and re-inert it.
After putting it back in 3 times in 50 feet, we decided to turn around and head back down.
After saying good bye to justin Matt and I headed back down Mule cutoff to check out some mines in the area. I decided that since My Nephew has never driven before (he's only 12) that he should be able to handle a 5speed with 4:1 and 4.56 in the pumpkins. We were going slow after all.
Everything was good until we started up the by-pass and the front passenger tire ended up in a rutt follwed by the rear passenger tire. After killing the engine I look right and see that I can touch the ground and we are darn near on our side. Not a problem, We switch drivers again, put it in first and crawl up and out of the rutt. lol... I think it scared him as he didn't want to drive anymore. lol...
We got up to the bismark mine in one piece and took a look around. it's a neat place if you have never been there. lots of history.
After playing in and around the mine we headed down to Wall Street. However we can now confirm that the road is Washed out. You can probably get a buggy through it but the BMW mini sized rock in the middle of the wash out would make it really difficult.
After a beautiful day 4Wheeling we are taking stock of what we learned.
1. 35" tires, 6" of lift and NO steering stabilizer are NOT Safe. you definitely NEED the stabilizer
2. Weld metal clips on the front and rear springs to keep them in the vehicle
3. bring extra shock mounts
4. bring lots of warm cloths as the temps were in the 40-50's all day
5. even though I've never needed one, I will be getting at least one winch for my jeep
6. 18lbs of pressure in Mickey Tompsons Baja Claws in a LOT. need to air down to somewhere south of 10psi. It was like riding on a buckboard.
Pictures of the day can be found at:
http://gallery.me.com/gijoel#100228&...lack&view=grid
Thanks to Matt for putting up this run. It was a very enjoyable time
Joel
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