I couldn't make the Winter 4x4 Jamboree this year, for the first time in many years, but a small group of us decided to take advantage of the MLK weekend and head down to Sand Hollow on Saturday. Matt (upno4) had just finished an incredible build on his LJ, and built his son's (Jake) LJ with his old parts. Another friend Dave had just installed a Tera mid arm kit on his JKU and wanted to test it out before adding the built front 60 and rear 14 bolt he has sitting in his shop. My son in his JKUR on 35s joined up also. We got down to Sand Hollow about 4:00 and went to the water tanks to unload and get ready. It was there when we ran into Nick (Jinx), LJTim, Shad, and Dave (GreenJeep) who were all just getting off trails.
We unloaded and headed straight to Milt's Mile where we all had a blast. We finished well after dark but everyone made every obstacle without incident. I did try the middle Monkey and had a great spotter and line, but when I got vertical my trans pump must have starved and I couldn't move. It was a great run to start the weekend.
We met Sunday morning at 9:30 out by the tunnel and headed to the Maze. Dave (GreenJeep) was late meeting us but managed to catch us at the beginning. He was in my old tan CJ and upon arrival had problems with the Speedway shifter. I felt bad we didn't have time to fix it but I was able to get underneath to shift and get him turned around and heading out. We were making pretty good time on the trail, but did bypass the big wall. I've never seen that much sand on it and didn't want to push it that early in the trip. We made it to the wedge where I got Matt too far to the right and laid him on his left side. It was a tricky recovery but ended up with very minor damage after. About that time Kevin Boren and crew came by and cleared that part with ease, and followed us to the lunch spot, You Gotta Be Nuts. We stopped for lunch and let them by. No one in their group or ours attempted YGBN. We made it past that spot and up to the climb with the sharp left turn and the BIG hole, where we found the group ahead of us stopped for lunch. Once we got moving again we dodged a few SxSs and finished the trail.
We then went down to Double Sammy and finished the afternoon running it without incident, and finished with everyone coming up the Chute. Matt was having fun in his stretched LJ and made every optional hard obstacle with ease. It was fun to see him finally in an amazing rig after he's built so many for other people and helped with all of mine. He's had some parts like his Atlas and rear ProRock sitting new in his shop for 10 years. One of the hightlights of my weekend was watching my son Eric in his lightly built JKUR on 35s cleaning every obstacle and driving like a pro. He definitely has some skills. Unfortunately he had to work on Monday so he headed home that night.
The next morning we decided to do 777, which none of us had done. Kevin had an appointment that morning and was able to meet us pretty quickly after the start. It was great to have him and his son, along with all the local knowledge to lead through the rest of the trail, including the new upper section that wasn't on my CartoTracks GPS. About a third of the way in Dave broke a right front U joint on his front end and had to turn around. It was no big deal because he does have a built Ford 60 just waiting at home to go in. We made pretty good progress until almost the end when Matt's drag link decided to fall out of the pitman arm. Apparently the nut had been hitting the frame and it broke the cotter pin and stripped the TRE and nut. Kevin and his son (sorry, forgot his name) loaded up in my Jeep, finished the trail and then ran into town and picked up a new TRE and returned. It was fixed quickly and we finished the day without incident. Big thanks to Kevin for joining us the last day sharing his spotting talent and area knowledge.
All in all it was great trip and really fun to do all of those trails with a small, capable group.
We unloaded and headed straight to Milt's Mile where we all had a blast. We finished well after dark but everyone made every obstacle without incident. I did try the middle Monkey and had a great spotter and line, but when I got vertical my trans pump must have starved and I couldn't move. It was a great run to start the weekend.
We met Sunday morning at 9:30 out by the tunnel and headed to the Maze. Dave (GreenJeep) was late meeting us but managed to catch us at the beginning. He was in my old tan CJ and upon arrival had problems with the Speedway shifter. I felt bad we didn't have time to fix it but I was able to get underneath to shift and get him turned around and heading out. We were making pretty good time on the trail, but did bypass the big wall. I've never seen that much sand on it and didn't want to push it that early in the trip. We made it to the wedge where I got Matt too far to the right and laid him on his left side. It was a tricky recovery but ended up with very minor damage after. About that time Kevin Boren and crew came by and cleared that part with ease, and followed us to the lunch spot, You Gotta Be Nuts. We stopped for lunch and let them by. No one in their group or ours attempted YGBN. We made it past that spot and up to the climb with the sharp left turn and the BIG hole, where we found the group ahead of us stopped for lunch. Once we got moving again we dodged a few SxSs and finished the trail.
We then went down to Double Sammy and finished the afternoon running it without incident, and finished with everyone coming up the Chute. Matt was having fun in his stretched LJ and made every optional hard obstacle with ease. It was fun to see him finally in an amazing rig after he's built so many for other people and helped with all of mine. He's had some parts like his Atlas and rear ProRock sitting new in his shop for 10 years. One of the hightlights of my weekend was watching my son Eric in his lightly built JKUR on 35s cleaning every obstacle and driving like a pro. He definitely has some skills. Unfortunately he had to work on Monday so he headed home that night.
The next morning we decided to do 777, which none of us had done. Kevin had an appointment that morning and was able to meet us pretty quickly after the start. It was great to have him and his son, along with all the local knowledge to lead through the rest of the trail, including the new upper section that wasn't on my CartoTracks GPS. About a third of the way in Dave broke a right front U joint on his front end and had to turn around. It was no big deal because he does have a built Ford 60 just waiting at home to go in. We made pretty good progress until almost the end when Matt's drag link decided to fall out of the pitman arm. Apparently the nut had been hitting the frame and it broke the cotter pin and stripped the TRE and nut. Kevin and his son (sorry, forgot his name) loaded up in my Jeep, finished the trail and then ran into town and picked up a new TRE and returned. It was fixed quickly and we finished the day without incident. Big thanks to Kevin for joining us the last day sharing his spotting talent and area knowledge.
All in all it was great trip and really fun to do all of those trails with a small, capable group.
