jeepin.jason

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.