jeepin.jason

Whew, what a blast! We got back sunday afternoon from another great trip to the Superlift ORV Park in Hot Springs, AR. This time we finally got our TJ out to the park, and we really put it through its paces! Jennifer drove the whole time and did great. We didn’t suffer any carnage, other than new scraps and scratches, but one of the guys in our group friday took a hard roll over an off-camber ledge. No one was hurt thanks to a tough Poison Spyder rollcage, but his windshield was toast, along with his hood and driver-side door.

Since this was a Superlift-sponsored event, there were camera crews on hand for Superlift TV as well as photographers for a few of the major 4×4 magazines. They were all with us on the trails friday, so we may end up on TV and/or in some mags! Woohoo! The guy who rolled will definitely be in there, haha!

We also finally got to meet BJ and his wife, who are the new property managers for the park, as well as Bret, the actual owner of Superlift itself. They were all great folks.

The biggest change in the park since we were there last is the completion of a huge new pavillion above the main office. Watch for a full trip report on Jeepin.com soon, in the mean time check out all the pics in my Flickr photos!

Today was the shortest and easiest trail we’d signed up for, and since Jennifer figured she’d probably be bored after yesterday’s challenging trails, she opted to stay in town with her folks and explore Las Cruces while I went out by myself to run trails. The trails today were indeed relatively easy, but there were a few fun challenging spots to play on.

Once again the order of the day was dropping down ledges, and once again I hit the crap out of my RE control arm drop brackets and C4×4 rear bumper corners. There were a few nice little ledge climbs too, but nothing like what we encountered yesterday. Unfortuantely since I was driving solo, I didn’t get a single pic of my rig today, though I did get some good pics of our buddy Rick in his XJ.

Aside from a very slight bow in one of my RE LCA’s from yesterday, the constant abuse really hasn’t done any damage to the drop brackets or bumper, it just kinda gets old smacking down on them at every big drop off. Funny thing is, it’s never really been an issue in the terrain we normally wheel in east Texas and southwestern Arkansas. But then there aren’t many ledge drop-offs in those areas.

Most of the folks in our group today were relatively inexperienced, so there was lots of spotting, and it was somewhat amusing to see people get nervous on the offcamber parts. Reminded me a lot of when I was just getting into offroading. Things did get a bit exciting when two old FJ40’s nearly rolled taking a bad line down an offcamber ledge. What I couldn’t figure out was why the second FJ40, which was right behind the first one, tried to take the exact same line that nearly put the first one rubber side up.

Even though the day was short (by 3PM we were aired up and on our way back to our hotels) and easy for the most part, I did have fun. It was a nice relaxing trail run that moved just quick enough to keep me from being bored (I’m usually just happy being outdoors on the trails, whether they’re hard or not), and it was a good ending trail run for the trip. Today’s photos have been uploaded to flickr.

It’s 10PM New Mexico time and after a long day of wheelin’ and a good dinner, the only thing I want to do right now is crash into bed. We had a great time today. The morning started with fog and rain, but within an hour or three it had burned off and the skies were clear and the temps warmed up. Our trail today was rated a “hard” hard, and I think it lived up to that rating. The obstacles were considerably more difficult than yesterday, and there were lots more of them. They were mostly rocky ledge drop offs, but we also had a few good ledge climbs too. Oddly enough, there were a lot of the same folks from yesterday in our trail group today, including the Poison Spyder crew and our previous trail leader, who played tailgunner this time.

I actually did more hiking than driving today… Jennifer snagged the driver’s seat while I was away from the Jeep too long during a morning break, and ended up driving for most of the rest of the day. She got to drive on all the best parts of the trails today, but it was ok as it gave me a good opportunity to snap some good photos and video. Funny thing is, despite running better trails and me hiking around with a camera the whole time, I ended up only taking about 98 or so photos today, vs the 150 from yesterday when I was driving. They’ve all been uploaded to flickr of course.

There were was really obstacle that we decide to bypass, and it was a huge ledge drop-off. Out of the 30 or so Jeeps in our group, I only know of 3 that went down the ledge. The interesting part was when the battery in a Scrambler came loose halfway down the ledge and flopped forward onto the inner fender well, causing sparks to shoot out from under the hood. No damage was done and the guys got it secured back pretty quickly.

Today was definitely longer than yesterday too, I think we logged about 50-60 miles total, and didn’t get off the trails until about 4PM. We racked up lots more scrapes and scratches on the body armor, and managed to put a dent in one of my RE LCA’s (the T&T Customs high-clearance long-arms on my buddy Rick’s XJ were looking better and better as the day went on).

Well, that’s all for today, time to hit the sack and get ready for our last day of wheelin’.

Today was our first day of trails, and we started out by hoping in on the trail that Rick and Tom (two of our friends from Dallas we came with) were on, even though it wasn’t one of the trails they’d assigned us at registration. Our trail leader, Rob, was cool and said it was fine it we joined in with their group. Including our leader, there were 25 vehicles total in the group. Clifton Slay from Poison Spyder Customs was also in the group, driving the PSC Unlimited Adventure rig sporting a set of Rocker Knockers with a new Slider bar design. We got the opportunity to chat with him and his fiance throughout the day and they were really nice folks.

By the time we made it to the trailhead and got everyone aired down and disconnected it was about 10AM. The majority of the trail was relatively tame, with a few challenging spots, but the highlight of the day was an obstacle aptly named ‘the V-rock’. It’s an obstacle composed of two huge chunks of rock that lay across the trail, forming a big v-notch you’ve got to go over. There were two approach routes to the v-notch, one coming in from the lower right that required you to get up on the v-notch and pivot to the right to get straightened up, and the other was an offcamber turn-in to the left which would get you lined up to hit the notch straight on. With excellent spotting from our trail leader, nearly everyone in the group made it through the notch without needing to get strapped. That’s definitely not saying that everyone had an easy time, just that most didn’t have to get strapped.

After getting everyone through the V-Rock, we headed back up out of the ravines and took a break along the crest of a tall ridgeline to enjoy the views before heading back out to the trailhead staging point.

The carnage list for the day included a Warn stub shaft on a Bronco, a stock tierod on a TJ, and the rear u-joint on an XJ (not ours).

150 new pics have been uploaded to flickr.

Well, we hit the road bright and early at 5:30AM and met up with the rest of our group (4 vehicles total) at 6AM. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t so bright—we drove in thick fog until after 9AM. Overall though the drive really wasn’t that bad.

Once we got west of Fort Worth is was fast cruisin’ through west Texas… which if you haven’t driven through there… is just flat, and more flat, then some oil wells, and then more flat… until you finally get to the foot hills and mountains of the Pecos area. The terrain is still desolate semi-desert, but it’s definitely more interesting that staring at at an endless flat horizon. Of course, my wife and her mom slept in the back of the Denali for most of the drive, and for about an hour or two after lunch, everyone in the truck was asleep but me. Thankfully that was about the time we hit the hill country with the more interesting scenery.

We arrived in Las Cruces, NM, after almost exactly 10 hours on the road. Considering we stopped for gas three times and spent nearly an hour for lunch at a little steak house in some po-dunk town, I think we made excellent time.

Of course, we were also pushing 70-75mph most of the way, and our Denali XL was averaging a whopping 6mpg most of the time. One of the guys in our group was towing with a brand new Ram 2500 Cummins, and I was really wishing for his motor. On flatlands or hills, he could have easily left us behind, all while getting probably 2x the mileage we were. Oh well, Dodge doesn’t have a full size SUV, and other than the Excursion, there’s no fullsize diesel SUV’s.

Once we got to Las Cruces we headed straight to the fairgrounds to check in for the Chile Challenge. We got our registration sent in late, so we didn’t get all the trails with our friends that we wanted, but we may still be able to get on them depending on how many folks actually show up at the morning line-ups. Man there were some slick rigs (both trail and tow) at the fairgrounds, I hope I get the chance to see some of them (the trail rigs of course) out on the trails.

Pics from the drive and registration are on my flickr account.

Whew! Less than 12 hours until we leave for the Chile Challenge in Las Cruces, NM, and we’ve basically still got to do all our packing!

I’ll be posting daily reports here and pics on my flickr account each night, so be sure to check back to see and read about the day’s adventures.

Finally! After nearly a year, we finally got the TJ back out on the trails, and we also got to test out its new 4.88 gears and rear ARB air locker. After missing a club trip to Gilmer the last weekend in January, we decided to head out this past weekend with some friends for a little campin’ and wheelin’.

Aside from some mud on friday from rains earlier in the day, the weather was near-perfect—clear skies, a light breeze, and temps in the 60’s during the day. We took it relatively easy on the trails, hitting many of our old favorites, and generally tried to have fun without getting too crazy. The new gears and locker worked great. The 4.88’s made a huge difference in compression braking on decents, and made for some nice controlled crawling everywhere else. The rear ARB also worked great, though I’ve still got to get the switches mounted—right now the wiring harness is just hanging out from below the dash with the switches sitting in the cupholders, doh!

In addition to breaking in the 4.88’s and ARB, we also got to test out our new Base Camp 6 tent from REI. The tent is really nice, with more room and a far better rainfly than my old RedHead brand tent. The enclosed vestibule on the front of the tent is great, it’s actually big enough to sit under in a camp chair. The nights got a bit chilly, so we also got to try out our new Coleman Blackcat Perfectemp space heater. It runs for about 7 hours on a regular 16oz propane tank and does a pretty decent job of keeping a tent warm at night.

You can check out all the pics from our trip here.

Whew! What a trip! The weather was great, and the wheelin’ was even better. We ran 3 and 4 diamond trails (5 being the hardest) all weekend and did some of the toughest terrain we’ve ever wheeled. My skids and rocker guards definitely got a good workout, and I did manage to snag a bit of body damage on the left rear quarter panel and rain gutter thanks to a tree and a little too much throttle. Oh well, nothing that can’t be fixed or covered up with plating. Man I really need a safari rack with roof sliders…

photos: http://jeepin.net/photos/hotsprings_0510