Well, the other day my roommates decided they were gonna get a bunch of jeeps together and run a fairly mild to moderate trail that runs from phoenix to crown king. Just for giggles they wanted me to take Dale with just to see what hes made of and to make fun of this other guy who was bringing a stock 2000 explorer 4 door 4wd xlt. So we all headed out yesterday and had a really good time. There was about 20 vehicles in our group so we had plenty of helping hands to go around and to shoot the bull with. Didnt really hit any trouble on the trail, got over most things pretty easily and only high centered once. The explorer wasnt so lucky. Crushed a front fender, bent the front bumper, rocker panels are jacked up, broke the back glass, dented the lift gate, blew a tire, and did some damage underneath. He made it out under his own power but good lord that explorer was hosed. As for dale, he left pretty much untouched. I got a little boo boo on the front valence where i scraped a rock and i got some pin stripingfrom trees but otherwise im perfect. Under the hood though i got 2 issues, motor mounts are toast (they had been going bad but now they are shot so the motor really moves in gear) and apparently my front axle actuator doesnt work.The t-case was working, drive shaft was spinning, but the front axle wasnt doing squat. So in actuality i was running the whole trail in 2wd where the explorer needed 4x4 the whole way. Kinda got a laugh out of that. And i think the best part of the whole day was when the explorer high centered (for like the 5th time at this point) Dale had to pull him off!!!!And then to add some insult to injury i went over the same thing he got stuck on, in 2wd, and didnt get stuck. I did scrape my frame but i didnt get stuck. It took everything in my power to keep from laughing histerically. Anyways it was a fun day and when i get pictures from my buddy's camera I'll post them up.

 

wow!!! sounds like a smashing good time....some people don't know when to quit though....poor exploder...

 

Yeah, he really didnt know when to stop. Actually he was making most of us pretty upset because we kept telling him to take the easier stuff and he would always take the wrong line and get himselfstuck or he would purposefully go around the easy side just so he could look cool, until he high centers. What makes it worse is this guy has a built toyota that he usually wheels but it was in the shop. If saturday was any indication of how he drives off road in the toyota, i dont think i want to wheel with him again.

Anyways, i replaced one of the motor mounts last night that i broke. Rubber was all rotten and the mount had pulled itself apart. I will say that is a big son of a gun to get in and out. Tight squeeze and i didnt have any deep sockets in metric so i couldnt get one bolt back in all the way so for now its hand tight. Definately made a difference. I'll replace the other one in a week or so when i get back from vacation. While i was replacing the mount i did notice that the bolts the hold the caliper guide to the knuckle had backed out and i apparently lost the top one somewhere on the road so i had to get a new one at lunch today and i put it in with some locktite and also locktited all the other ones for both sides so they shouldnt be going anywhere. Kinda freaks me out because were it not for the mounts i probably wouldnt have noticed until going down the freeway on my road trip and Iprobably would have lost control or something. I guess the car gods are looking out for me, LOL.

As for pictures, my buddy still hasnt got them off the camera so they probably wont be posted until next week. I promise I'll post them though.

 

do you have any pics?

jimmyboy

 

Cool sounds like a good time, I haven't gone wheelin in about 3 weeks. Now we have a bunch of rain here in Appleton,WI ; but there is no where to go close, and I am doing some work that I want to keep the truck clean for a while yet. Maybe I'll get my buddy to go with me somewhere.

 

WE NEED PICS!!!!! Thanks You!

 

[sm=ttiwwp.gif]

 

Sorry guys, i really have been meaning to get those pics to ya all but the guy with the camera is being a lazy butthead. If i can ill get those pics tonight. I do have some pics via the virtual jeep club forum at this LINK. Some of the good pictures were posted by washington xj but he seems to be having issues with his imageshack accnt so sometimes they load, sometimes they dont. At any rate the pictures are spread across the thread so start with page two and then check page 3 and 4.

 

Some nice pics.
How did you like the BFGs?