TurboMinivan
Still plays with cars
- Location
- Lehi, UT
This won't be a trip report so much as a brief summary. Simply put, there is no way I can expound on all the details of the adventure--and it was an adventure, to be sure--because it would take me a full week of typing just to cover it all. To explain it with one word, it was epic.
We ended up as a group of five vehicles:
-My TJ (35s, dual lockers)
-omgbecki: TJ (33s, dual lockers)
-YROC FAB: buggy (bald tires and maybe 80 HP, but that didn't matter since he apparently has 200:1 axle gears)
-Kyle: TJ (33s, rear locker)
-Chris: JK Unlimited Sahara (35s, open/open)
Were you alarmed by the above list? If not, you should be. I had run this trail before, so I figured I would be fine. I knew that omgbecki and YROC FAB had both seen it also, so I figured they would be okay as well. I had never 'wheeled with Kyle before, but he told me all about how he has done Fordyce Creek multiple times so I figured he would make it through.
That leaves Chris. Last week, I told Chris all about Hanging Tree and its vehicular requirements; I even explained why they were crucial. He said he wanted to run it. I asked if he was locked. He put on this huge goofy smile and said no. I thought he was kidding--after all, I just explained it all to him. As we were unloading and airing down, I found out he wasn't kidding--he is open/open. In a barely lifted 3.8L JKU. With stock gears.
This was going to be a challenge.
On the plus side, everybody had a winch. Throughout the day, we would use at least four of them (some more often than others). Lots of straps got used, also... sometimes two or three at a time.
I brought a Jeepless passenger along, my co-worker Cole. Cole has never done any sort of "real" Jeeping in his life. I was hoping to make some sort of impression so that he might want to go out and buy a Jeep of his own. I don't know if he'll ever buy a Jeep, but he swears to me I made quite an impression.
Kudos to hardline90 because he totally called it in my other thread. For those of you who think you know this trail, think again. All the rainfall we've had this spring caused lots of erosion along the trail. LOTS of washout. In many places, the low spot of the trail was now at least a foot lower than it used to be relative to the terrain immediately next to it. In other words, there were many places where what used to be a two-foot-high rock was now a three-foot-high rock instead. For most of us, we just dealt with it and managed to find a way...
... except for our low-rider JKU. He drug, smacked, banged and got high-centered on damn near everything. At least he took it all in stride. Seriously, he kept damaging more and more of his poor Jeep and all he would do is smile and say things like, "well, that gives me an excuse to upgrade!" Then he'd laugh. Speaking of damage, how bad was it? For starters, he managed to cave in the right rear door...
Later he would get a rock gouge all the way down both passenger side doors. He chewed up all four formerly-virgin wheel flares, then he ripped the right rear one clean off the vehicle (and it took the wheelwell liner with it). He cut one valve stem early on. He crushed his muffler and tailpipe. He destroyed his alignment; his steering wheel is now about 80 degrees off. He also scraped up his hard top but thankfully didn't completely break or crack it.
Shortly after buying his JK, Chris bought a take-off set of OEM Rubicon rocker guards and bolted them on. They worked fabulously in that they never flinched under the pressure; he sometimes kept grinding on them as he would maneuver forward-back-forward-back and they took it like a champ. However, they weren't enough; he needs sliders with tubing that sticks out from the body to give him some more clearance.
A few random photos...
YROC FAB doing what buggies do:
Chris grinding his way up the 4-ft ledge via winch power:
Kyle managing to turn a non-obstacle into a near-major disaster:
Me planning out exactly how I'll blame my spotter if I tip over here:
omgbecki quietly gettin' it done:
We had pulled away from our trailers at around 10:15am. Once we got back, loaded up, and returned to the Maverik it was 8:50pm. It was a very long day.
We ended up as a group of five vehicles:
-My TJ (35s, dual lockers)
-omgbecki: TJ (33s, dual lockers)
-YROC FAB: buggy (bald tires and maybe 80 HP, but that didn't matter since he apparently has 200:1 axle gears)
-Kyle: TJ (33s, rear locker)
-Chris: JK Unlimited Sahara (35s, open/open)
Were you alarmed by the above list? If not, you should be. I had run this trail before, so I figured I would be fine. I knew that omgbecki and YROC FAB had both seen it also, so I figured they would be okay as well. I had never 'wheeled with Kyle before, but he told me all about how he has done Fordyce Creek multiple times so I figured he would make it through.
That leaves Chris. Last week, I told Chris all about Hanging Tree and its vehicular requirements; I even explained why they were crucial. He said he wanted to run it. I asked if he was locked. He put on this huge goofy smile and said no. I thought he was kidding--after all, I just explained it all to him. As we were unloading and airing down, I found out he wasn't kidding--he is open/open. In a barely lifted 3.8L JKU. With stock gears.
This was going to be a challenge.
On the plus side, everybody had a winch. Throughout the day, we would use at least four of them (some more often than others). Lots of straps got used, also... sometimes two or three at a time.
I brought a Jeepless passenger along, my co-worker Cole. Cole has never done any sort of "real" Jeeping in his life. I was hoping to make some sort of impression so that he might want to go out and buy a Jeep of his own. I don't know if he'll ever buy a Jeep, but he swears to me I made quite an impression.
Kudos to hardline90 because he totally called it in my other thread. For those of you who think you know this trail, think again. All the rainfall we've had this spring caused lots of erosion along the trail. LOTS of washout. In many places, the low spot of the trail was now at least a foot lower than it used to be relative to the terrain immediately next to it. In other words, there were many places where what used to be a two-foot-high rock was now a three-foot-high rock instead. For most of us, we just dealt with it and managed to find a way...
... except for our low-rider JKU. He drug, smacked, banged and got high-centered on damn near everything. At least he took it all in stride. Seriously, he kept damaging more and more of his poor Jeep and all he would do is smile and say things like, "well, that gives me an excuse to upgrade!" Then he'd laugh. Speaking of damage, how bad was it? For starters, he managed to cave in the right rear door...
Later he would get a rock gouge all the way down both passenger side doors. He chewed up all four formerly-virgin wheel flares, then he ripped the right rear one clean off the vehicle (and it took the wheelwell liner with it). He cut one valve stem early on. He crushed his muffler and tailpipe. He destroyed his alignment; his steering wheel is now about 80 degrees off. He also scraped up his hard top but thankfully didn't completely break or crack it.
Shortly after buying his JK, Chris bought a take-off set of OEM Rubicon rocker guards and bolted them on. They worked fabulously in that they never flinched under the pressure; he sometimes kept grinding on them as he would maneuver forward-back-forward-back and they took it like a champ. However, they weren't enough; he needs sliders with tubing that sticks out from the body to give him some more clearance.
A few random photos...
YROC FAB doing what buggies do:
Chris grinding his way up the 4-ft ledge via winch power:
Kyle managing to turn a non-obstacle into a near-major disaster:
Me planning out exactly how I'll blame my spotter if I tip over here:
omgbecki quietly gettin' it done:
We had pulled away from our trailers at around 10:15am. Once we got back, loaded up, and returned to the Maverik it was 8:50pm. It was a very long day.
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