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Pictures of the 6

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:03:00 GMT

I just realized that I never posted any post-lift pics from when I put the 6" Hell Creek suspension lift on my Grand Wagoneer. This post actually belongs back on May 12 when the lift was completed, but better late than never:

Redneck radiator fix - black pepper

Tue, 27 May 2008 20:25:00 GMT

Let me start by saying that yesterday I reaffirmed that wisdom often comes from unexpected sources. We pulled out of BMRA about noon yesterday and started west down 154 out of Gilmer towards Quitman. About 10 minutes into my ride my temp gauge started climbing, which was pretty disconcerting considering I had to drive all the way out to Lake Texoma to drop my camper and then head back home, which is about a 4.5 hour drive. I pulled into a little gas station 17 miles before Quitman and found a small but forceful stream of coolant shooting out of the top front of my radiator. After asking a few locals if there was any chance of getting a radiator repair done on Memorial Day around there I quickly learned that I was on my own.

I went inside the station and asked the pregnant cashier (with her pack of smokes on the counter behind her!). She said "Why don't you put some table pepper in there?" Ummm... "Like black pepper?". She confirmed that is what she meant and sounded surprised that I had never heard of this fix. She continued by reassuring me that it is a common fix for small holes and won't damage anything. Given my situation and knowing that I had very little to lose in this situation I skeptically took a large bottle of black pepper to the counter and she rang it up along with a jug of coolant. After letting the engine cool off a bit, I refilled the coolant and proceeded to put about half of the bottle of pepper in the radiator.

Knowing dang well that I was likely to be stopping on the side of the road in about 5 minutes, I started back on my trip home. 17 miles later the engine was still cool and I stopped for a moment in Quitman to see how bad the leak was. Nada... nothing! Not even a wet spot on the radiator where it was shooting out 20 minutes before. I decided the next goal would be Greenville. If I got at least that far, it wouldn't be that bad for my wife to come rescue me. In Greenville, it was still dry! The engine continued to stay cool the rest of the way home and I had no further issues.

So... next time a pregnant cigarette smoking woman from East Texas gives you auto mechanical advice, don't immediately discount it. She may have torn down more engines than you!

Jeep lift update and more compressor woes!

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:26:00 GMT

Last week I received my Hell Creek Suspension 6" lift for my Grand Wagoneer and set out to do the installation. When I went to get all my tools ready, I discovered the check valve on my air compressor had failed, so I decided to hold off on the work until I could get it fixed. A completely awesome IFSJA member that works on/with compressors hooked me up and sent the part I needed for free! As I waited for the part to arrive, I got restless and decided to start taking apart the front end sans air tools in the mean time to prepare.

The package arrived yesterday, so I hurried home to put the valve in and start on the work. The part was exactly right and my compressor was kicking again. However, as it started building up pressure I heard a hiss coming from the bottom and found that there was a small rust hole in the bottom of my 60 gallon tank! Craaaaaap. Now at best, I am looking at finding a tank and swapping over the motor, pump, etc from my compressor.

With that knowledge, I figured I should just accept the fact that I would be using hand tools only on this lift! Last night I almost completed the front end, with the only exceptions being replacing the pitman arm (need to get a pickle fork), hooking up the extended brake lines (needed brass washers for the fittings), and torquing everything down (need a torque wrench!). The front end is definitely more work than the rear, so if things keep moving according to schedule, I should be able to wrap it up Friday night or Saturday morning.

Removing the NP231 transfer case from a Cherokee XJ

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:51:34 GMT

This past weekend I grenaded the inside of my t-case, so last night I spent the evening in the garage pulling it out. I thought I would share my steps here since there were a couple of gotchas.

First off, the space is really tight around that t-case. I had been spoiled with the easy access to my Dana 300 in the CJ - of course I could sit straight up under the CJ as well! Without the space issue to contend with I probably wouldn't bother posting this, but hopefully this will ease someone else's frustration down the line.

Start by removing both the front and rear drive shafts. Remove the axle end of the rear shaft and slide it out of the slip yoke on the t-case. Then remove the t-case end of the front driveshaft and let it rest on the crossmember.
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Next you will want to remove the 4 nuts that secure the transmission to the crossmember from the bottom.
Remove harness connector from the t-case, and the t-case shifter linkage. I have heard some say to remove the speedo cable and vacuum line as well, but neither of those applied to me.
Now you will need to put a floor jack under your oil pan. I put a short 2x4 board on top of the jack lengthwise on the bottom of the pan to help distribute the weight a bit. I placed the jack as far forward on the oil pan as I could so I would have room to place a jack stand behind it (more on that in a moment).
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With the floor jack supporting the back of the drivetrain, you can now safely remove the crossmember bolts from the subframe and drop the crossmember.
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With the crossmember out of the way you will need to remove the tranny mount from the bottom of the transmission.
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Now it is time to lower the rear of the engine/transmission. You will want to pull it down as much as you can to give yourself some room at the top of the transfer case. *SLOWLY* lower the back of the engine until it stops dropping, then raise it back up a small amount to relieve pressure. Now place a jack stand under it to support the back of the engine.
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Now, find the 9/16" wrench in your toolbox that you like the least and get out a dremel or die grinder. Cut off about 1/3 of the open end of the wrench (at least on mine this was the right length). As close as you can to the chopped off end, grind out a small notch. Now take some strong wire about 1-2' long and tie it to the end of the wrench placing it in the notch. This will allow you to pull the wrench using the wire and will give you decent leverage. I found a small 1" diameter pipe to wrap the other end around to serve as a handle. Since some of the nuts are harder to reach than others, you may want to leave your handle only loosely secured so you can vary the length from the wrench. Now you can use your new wrench contraption for all the hard to reach nuts around the transfer case.
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Once all nuts are removed, you can gently slide the transfer case off and lower it to the ground. Please note that it is not exceptionally light. While it is a simple bench press for many people, you may wish to use a jack to lower it down when you slide it off.

Good luck!

Lugnut's wheelie picture from last weekend

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:04:41 GMT

Someone from the Jeep club just posted up some new pics from last weekend. One of them was of my buddy Cary (Lugnut) pulling his front wheels in the air on a climb. He had a new long-arm suspension on this trip and was so flexy he didn't realize he had gotten any air until we told him. Here is the shot:

It is really hard to get perspective of the terrain in shots, but this one actually shows how steep it is. Here is a shot of me cresting just a few feet above the same point and it just looks like a dirt road!

Wheeling trip report from the LSJC Election Run at BMRA 3/9/07-3/11/07

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:40:36 GMT

This past weekend was the election run for Lone Star Jeep Club at Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area in Gilmer, TX. There were somewhere around 80 Jeeps at the event. In addition to our club, the Hummer club was out there, plus a large number of ATVs, so it was a pretty busy weekend in the park. The weather was perfect with highs in the 70s during the day an lows in the 50s at night, so it couldn't have been more ideal for tent camping. The boys and I camped on Friday and Saturday night (more on this later) and we had 3 pretty full days of wheeling.

Friday -
We got checked into the park about 3:00 and made our way down to Old Camp. I have a number of good memories of camping down there and it was the first place I ever camped with Hudson. Even though the majority of the club was camping up in New Camp and in Camp LSJC, we thought it was a good choice. As we rolled in there were only about 6 or 7 people on the far end of the site. We set up our camp and headed out to wheel. We did a warm-up on a short 4-diamond trail named Jeep Eater that takes off up and out of Old Camp. I was prepared to be disappointed by my open diff, but to my surprise and pleasure the the XJ just clawed its way to the top without any issue. From here we headed back on the main road towards the top of Clyde's Ravine.

Heading down Clyde's we met up with a group of Jeeps heading down ahead of us. We fell in with them and made our way down toward the base of the infamous Dewoody, which is generally considered the hardest trail in the park. About the time we came around to the top of Dewoody to gaze down it, we began hearing some of my friends from Van Alstyne who were headed toward us. We negotiated a meeting point and intersected on Spider Ravine. Before long I saw James Clark make his way over the hill in my old CJ which he is buying from me. It was the first time I had seen I had torn it down and turned it into a 1-ton rig. It was really hard seeing someone else in it, but at least it was one of my buddies! Our now larger group headed up and around Venom Loop. As we made it around we began taking the fairly challenging climb out of Spiders. If you happened to read my trip report from December, this is the climb that I simply couldn't make it up. On that trip, I ended up taking my only body damage at this spot, taking out a front amber light and bezel, pushing the front fender back a bit and putting a small knock into the rear quarter panel and taking out the brake light. This time being open I figured I was going to have to take a strap and get helped up. This time around, when it became my turn, I went hard and kept the throttle pretty heavy. The Swampers dug in like crazy and we bounced and rocked our way up and out. Hudson had backseat bets going on with his brother that we weren't going to make it and I was glad to prove otherwise.

James was a few Jeeps behind me and I got out to watch the CJ hit it. James got to the exact same spot that owned me in Decemember and begain having problems. When it comes to problems, James' answer usually comes in the form of an accellerator and this was no exception. You could hear that Vortec spinning up and James began hopping up and down in the CJ. On one of the drops there was the all-too-familiar sound of metal shattering. In that one moment James ended up with breakage that took the CJ down for the weekend, including a broken driveshaft u-joint, a destroyed carrier bearing on the skid plate, and a busted front output shaft on the transfer case. Big... big.... bummer.

We headed on back to camp after this and began dinner. I noticed that the small group of campers across from us had grown to about 20 college aged kids and the beer was already flowing pretty hard. They were just barely getting warmed up. I made Ramen and sandwiches for the boys and myself. As we were eating, loud partying was completely filling the air. I cringed as I heared such colorful phrases as "I t*tty f*ck*d your mom, you b*tch *ss mother f*ck*r!!!". Not exactly the best spot for me to have my 4 and 6 year olds. By this point the bass was occassionaly rattling the gear in my tent. About 10:00 or so (which is the cutoff time for wheeling in the park), they all decided that it would be a good idea to go wheeling in both 4x4s and ATVs. As they pulled out Hudson said "I wish they wouldn't go wheel after all that beer. Don't they know they could get killed?" Yes, my 6 year old said this, which told me he has really been listening to me all along.

Thankfully during this next couple of hours the boys went to sleep... and slept hard. As I went to bed sometime later, the group returned just as I was zipping into my sleeping bag. Things went back to full party mode. It was ridiculous. At one point about 3:30, one of the guys got on an ATV and started doing donuts in the middle of Old Camp about 40 feet from my tent. After he shut it down, he convinced his buddies that it would be a great idea to go on another wheeling run. They departed at 4:00am blaring "Sweet Home Alabama" in one of the rigs, which was followed the only hour of sleep I got. I went to sleep thinking... "Man, I hope they go try Dewoody. I really really do." Unfortunately this wasn't the case and they made it back alive at 5:00am. The party was BACK! This went on until I finally got up at 7:00, completely enraged. I got the boys up and made ziploc omelettes us all. We then headed up to the front of the park 8:30. As we started out of Old Camp the party crew was just getting their second wind, and heard a loud "WHOOOOOOOOO!" and when I looked over the guy next to him was doing a beer bong.

Saturday 8:30am -
As ragged as I was, it was great to go meet up with a bunch of Jeepers I hadn't seen in years. Everyone was shocked at how much Hudson had grown, and most had never even met Parker. I relayed the story of the previous evening to a few people and they just nodded like "Duh... Old Camp is just a drunken party camp now days." One guy who knew them mentioned that not only were they staying, but more were coming on Saturday. Well sweet..... noted.

I ended up in a medium group lead by club president Mark Gregory (Parker said "Is he a *real* president?!?"). An old buddy of mine nicknamed Lugnut was tail gunning. We hit a lot of 3-rated trails early on before lunch. The only breakage that day was pretty insignificant with one of the TJs ripping an air line that controlled his rear locker. It was the first time I had wheeled in an organized group of more than 10 Jeeps in a *long* time. I had forgotten how much less ground gets convered in a large group, but it was still very cool nonetheless. We hit Sierra's Skyview, Spider Ravine, Venom Loop and Green Lane (maybe a couple others) before breaking for lunch about 11:45am. The club was hosting a cookout at the front gate from 12-2 followed by a big raffle. After finding out earlier that the party crew was going to grow in Old Camp, we decided to risk missing lunch to go tear down our camp and find a new spot. We made it back to Old Camp about 12:00, and I had the entire camp in the Jeep by 12:10. We hurridly took off up to Camp LSJC but the last spot had just been filled. I then started towards a small, very remote, and very private camp at the end of the park that Harold and I had discovered on our previous visit. When we got there we discovered just a couple of day-tripping ATVs that were getting ready to pack up and head out. We quickly picked a spot, set up the tent, threw the gear into it and took off back to the front for lunch at the front gate. We arrived just before 1:00 with plenty of time to eat the huge spread.

After lunch LSJC put on their raffle with a HUGE amount of prizes supplied by a number of vendors. During the raffle a guy named Dave that I had met and wheeled with the day before won a Tuffy center console for an XJ. He drives a really nicely built LJ and had no use for it. Rather than stick it on eBay as I would likely have selfishly done in his position, he offered it to me knowing that I have and XJ. I wasted no time and installed it the day I after we got home. Very cool free upgrade!

That afternoon our group reconvened, but this session we hit some notably tougher trails, including two I had never done before. We started out by doing Binder Boulevard entering the opposite direction that most people take, climbing out the rockier end with the ledges. Just before we dropped in at the trail head, a brand new Jeep owner with a fairly new stock Rubicon LJ came up and wanted to find an easy group to run with. Several people convinced him to go with our group to see how capable his Jeep really was. He was pretty jazzed after the climb out of Binders and stuck with us the rest of the day as the trails got harder.

The next trail we hit was Chaos Canyon. We entered the trail at the end with the big drop-off ledges leaving the rock section at the exit. This was a nice long trail that winds through the treas and crosses a little wooden bridge before reaching a very different terrain at the exit. The last couple hundred yards consist of a sweet set of big rocks under the trees giving a break from the loose and dusty trails that are more prevalent at BMRA. I got a little hung up on a ledge, but the driver in front of me came back down and spotted me. With his help I found a better line and came on up. This is definitely a trail I want to revisit.

Next we hit what would be my last trail of the day, and another that I had never done. Near the entrance of the park we entered a trail labled Wile E. Coyote, which almost immediately turns into Sidewinder. It begins with about a 45% drop that ends with a drop-off ledge at the bottom making some of the short wheel base vehicles feel pretty light in the back end. When you reach the bottom, the transition is so quick that it looks like you are about to drive into a wall. As the vehicle pitches back skyward, the longer wheel base vehicles with a protruding back end like mine dug in in the rear. You are then immediately faced with a tough loose climb with a little stump in the middle. I noticed most Jeeps were taking the line to the left of the stump, but for some reason the right looked like the answer to me. I ended up having a tree temporarily remove my passenger mirror, but I made it up without too much trouble. The trail winds back and forth crossing that ravine and finally climbs back up and out of trees.

The boys (especially Hudson) was so set on having a fire at our camp that night and with daylight slipping away quickly we set off for a hunt for firewood after that trail. We remembered that we had pulled aside a faily decent log down in Old Camp, so I figured we would go grab it if it was still around. We dropped in through Jeep Eater and passed the party people, pulling into our previous camping spot. The log was still there so I strapped it on top of the Jeep and we took off again. Hudson remembered us collecting wood on Spider Ravine from a previous trip and really thought I should check there. Sure enough, there were two somewhat recently felled trees toward the top. I was able to get one decent sized one onto the roof, but the bigger was more of a challenge. Considering I was stopped in the middle of a climb, I strapped the log behind the Jeep and pulled it up to the main road. In the open I was able to place it up onto the rack more easily and we headed off for our camp.

As we pulled in, we found that no one else had come into this site to set up camp. After the pervious night of insanity, the boys and I had about a square mile around us all to ourselves, other than the packs of coyotes that began yapping that night. After getting the fire going, I began dinner by cooking some ground beef browned with red onions, then mixed in potatoes and carrotts. The boys and I really enjoyed dinner which they eagerly chased with a bag of marshmallows. Hudson decided that he was going to try to stay awake the whole night. Parker crashed about 10pm. At 11:16pm, Hudson was out and I was only about 15 minutes behind him. We all slept like rocks and woke about 8 .... well, 9 with the daylight savings change.

Sunday -
Sunday morning we woke and talked quite a bit about what a better night we had than the night before. I made omelettes and oatmeal and we just took our time getting ourselves going. After cleaning up breakfast I decided we would have some nice and easy solo wheeling, then come back and break camp and get on the road. I heard some friends of mine from ExpertOffroad.com were camping in the X-Terra camp at the end of Angry Jeep. We headed down there and caught them packing up. Justin told us that Kevin and (forgetting the drivers name) were headed to Dewoody to give it a shot. We decided to go try to catch the action, but got there just a few minutes after they had successfully made it to the top. We then went to hit our last trail, Twister. There is only one really challenging spot on Twister, which is a ledge to climb within 100 yards of the entrance. I started up it, but took a bad line and my Jeep felt really tippy for a minute. I hopped out to see if I could get a better line and cracked up when I looked in the backseat. Parker had his hand across the seat and Hudson said "What about us!!!!" thinking that I was just bailing out. After evaluating I saw that I had placed myself in a spot that would crunch my back end if I backed up, so I knew I had to continue forward up the ledge. I took a line a little more to the left and with some burning rubber and some bashing and bumping, I made it to the top. That was the biggest adrenaline charge of the weekend. After the obstacle I put it in park, shut it down and we got out to look back at our line. Hudson thought it was cool he could still smell rubber on the wall. I went back to go start it and.... nada. It was acting like the starter was out. After a few more turns of the key it started and I decided I would just pretend that didn't happen.

It was starting to look like rain, so I decided we would break camp and get on the road. We broke camp and then grudgingly left it behind us and our full Jeep. One the way out, we went down Clyde's Ravine again, and then headed to Scorpion Overlook at the request of Hudson. Parker fell asleep about this time. On the top of Scorpion, Hudson and I got out and took in the view as you can see for miles both north and south. We left and made a last pass though Old Camp. The partiers were gone but had certianly left their presence (presents) behind. Hudson hopped out and picked up bunch of beer cans, styrofoam cups and more. We headed up Jeep Eater for the last time of the weekend, then I put it in 2WD and started down the main road toward the office. I took a shower, cleaned up the boys and checked us out of the park. We loaded ourselves back into the Jeep to get on the road and.......nada. The Jeep wouldn't start again. I tried a bunch of times but just couldn't get it to turn over. Hudson was going to help me diagnose by turning the key, but his hand isn't strong enough. I was just showing him how to start it using the leverage of an udjustable wrench when it started! We never turned it off again (even through a fuel stop) until we got it in the driveway. I was never able to start it again that night.

Monday -
After some quick troubleshooting determined that my starter was never getting 12 volts, and my starter relay was never engaging I enlisted the help of my Dad who spent the majority of his life working as an electrical engineer designing radar systems. When it comes to problems like that I could have no better crutch than him to fall back on! Within about 20 minutes he determined that the ignition switch was sending power to the relay but it was never grounding. Do to some earlier work I had done, I knew that the ground was supposed to be provided by the neutral safety swtich on the side of the transmission. When your vehicle is in N or P, it allows you to start the engine. At the time of this posting, it appears that I jarred the NSS out of alignment and that the switch was not matching up with my park and neutral positions. We bypassed this safety mechanism by just grounding it 100% of the time to the chassis and "fixed" the problem. Monday night I installed my new center console and it is sweet! Thanks Dave H.!

So, here we are... back to reality... back to work... and looking forward to the next trip. :)

Video: Chris Graves (Swine) rollover at The Wheeling Ranch

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:33:55 GMT

Chris just finally (after 2 or 3 years now!) uploaded the video of his rollover that put his big red TJ out of commission. Man, when this thing goes, it *GOES*....

[youtube xy6WuPN5X5k]

Rocker guards on a Jeep XJ - Who needs them?

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 01:38:54 GMT

My buddy Andrew sent this to me. It took some pretty good banging with a sledgehammer to be able to close his door again. This makes me dang glad I have roacker guards on mine.

[youtube qMzpwyvI2p0]

Here is another little clip of his rig

[youtube uFREloK5tZo]

Texas Off Highway Vehicle stickers required as of January 1, 2007!

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 21:02:09 GMT

As of New Years Day, all vehicles on public land or land that was purchased using TP&W grants will be required to purchase an $8 sticker to display on their vehicles. This includes parks such as Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area in Gilmer, which is one of the locations in which stickers are available.

From the Texas Parks and Wildlife website -

Has your family discovered the fun of riding an off-road trail?

Whether you ride dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles, or a 4x4 truck, an off-highway vehicle is a great way to spend time together outdoors with your family and friends. There are many exciting sites in Texas to ride and new sites are always opening. Many sites also offer hiking and camping which makes it easy to take the whole family along for an outdoors adventure.

The Texas Off-Highway Vehicles (OHV) Program is a new program to help make it easier to find places to ride safely and to encourage more responsible use of the outdoors. The program is also designed to provide funding to develop more recreational areas for OHV users.

An OHV decal is now required by law for all individuals operating an OHV in Texas in an area that is located on public land, or on lands that have been purchased with Texas Parks & Wildlife Department OHV grants.

Wow! I didn't realize it had been this long...

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 01:16:11 GMT

As I recently blogged, I made my first trip to BMRA in a long time. I didn't realize exactly how long that really was until I saw this picture! This is Hudson and I near the pavillion at BMRA on our last trip out there together:

And now (Hudson is the one in blue!)

Here was another memorable shot from that trip. I actually have this one blown up as a poster in my garage.

Old school Jeep videos - Wild Willys Wheeling

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 20:36:12 GMT

These videos were posted on a local Jeep board. Considering all the safety considerations we take in our Jeeps these days, these guys were nothing short of insane!

[googlevideo 3519317749697865545]

[googlevideo 276080154014424390]

What a great weekend wheeling at Gilmer!

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:32:12 GMT

Last night we returned from our weekend wheeling trip to Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area in Gilmer, TX. This was my first trip out in my new Jeep, and things couldn't have worked out any better. I originally planned on sticking to 2-diamond trails and babying it since I had never wheeled an XJ before, but within an hour or two I realized how dang capable that vehicle really is. I took almost every line that I would have in the CJ and with front and rear locker, doing 4-diamond trails was a very doable task.

In addition to my being in a new rig, my brother was making a shake-down run on his new setup with a rear Dana 44 axle and new 6" Rusty leaf springs in the rear. Considering the unknowns, both rigs held up well. My only damage was small cosmetic stuff losing the drivers front amber light, slightly pushing in the front of the fender (easy fix) and a slight tag on the rear body in front of the tail light and cracking that red lense open. Harold ended up with a little knock into his rear passenger door but there was huge evidence that his rocker gaurds saved him from a *bunch* of body damage on that side.

We started our morning Saturday with a trail that was not too much more than a dirt road. Towards the end it got into some modest climbs and I was surprised at how well the XJ grabbed and clawed to the top. I was crawling up some fairly steep stuff at about 1500 RPM, and the Jeep was just purring. This was the first run for either of us having both front and rear lockers and we both marvelled at how much it felt like cheating.

After this brief little warm-up we headed over to Twister and I took the lead position. I was expecting to have to take the bypass up the first ledge but I decided to take a shot at it. I found a sweet line and walked right up without any issue. The crew in Harold's Jeep said they got a pretty nice view of the top of my Jeep on the climb as we were staring at the sky. This was the first real obstacle my dad had ever been on and it was fun watching him tighten up a bit in the passenger seat!

Once we got to the top of that first ledge and got to enjoy that first little adrenalin rush, we got out and watched my brother make the climb. This was the first test of his new setup and he walked up without much of an issue.

After Twister we decided to head to the south end of the park to Old Camp to show the crew. Harold had some previous hairy experiences with a 4-diamond trail called Jeep Eater which heads up out of Old Camp. He decided to give it a shot. I was still a little apprehensive about taking my little rig up there, but after he made it up, I decided to give it a shot. Jeep Eater is pretty uneventful until you get to the very top where there is a notable ledge which, depending on the line, can be pretty offcamber and a little disconcerting. I didn't like my first line on it so I backed down a bit, pointed to the left and we walked right up.

I don't remember the exact order of the other trails we took, but here are some highlights.

We took Scorpion Overlook which winds down the spine of a hill. Off to the right you see these bottomless dropoffs with "exit only" signs. At the time I didn't realize that was where I would be coming out in a few minutes. It was along here that we saw the only other Jeep that we ever saw on the trails all weekend. As we passed the little boy in the back of that XJ exchanged waves with my little boys. We dropped down the left side of the hill and wrapped around the end back to those climbs. They were marked with 4 diamonds and we were trying to figure out why considering they were mostly straight albeit loose climbs. About 1/3 of the way up Harold found out part of the reason. With his bigger tires and lift, he cleared it without much effort. When I got up to it, I ended up high centering and couldn't move forward or back. He backed down the hill and I had to grudgingly take a strap and we eventually got it over the log. The top of the trail got a little interesting as well. It ends with a 100 foot climb on lose rocks and dirt. I ended up digging in at one point with all 4 wheels spinning. I backed up and hit it countless times, and eventually fell into the right line and made it up. It was a fun trail and I want revenge next time.

We headed up the lower part of Clyde's Ravine from the exit of Scorpion Overlook. You can pretty much put it in cruise control up Clyde's. There are some fun axle-twisting spots, but nothing terribly difficult. There are actually two sectons of Clyde's Ravine like that and I was commenting on the way up that it wasn't nearly as interesting as it used to be. I learned the next day that there is still fun to be had there.

After lunch I lead us down Binders Blvd. I don't think I had ever done that trail before but it is one of my new favorites. We dropped in and stared down a nice washed ravine with our noses pointed down pretty well. There were a couple of 2' ledges on the way down and I was a little concerned about having a longer tail than I was used to but it wasn't an issue. I was super impressed with the way my suspension worked as we snaked down. We climbed up the first hill and waited for the rest of the crew. Harold almost got himself in trouble coming down behind us. When they came to the top, he mentioned that he got a little distracted and came pretty close to a roll and had to gun it out. We think this is when he picked up the only body damage he got from the weekend. There is a new scar down the top of his right rocker gaurd and a ping in the rear passenger door.

Before dinner we hit one of my other favorites, Spider Ravine and Venom Loop. I had only done this trail from the bottom to the top, but Harold suggested we go down in instead and he lead us down. After a descent, we took off to the right around Venom Loop. I got to relay across the CB the tale of Aaron's CJ catching on fire on this trail and subsequently me almost letting mine roll down without me in the driver's seat, which was by far the most stressful 2 minutes of wheeling I have ever had, and I am sure Aaron would concur. We went around the loop clockwise as opposed to the normal direction. Coming down the end of the loop Harold got his left tires several feet in the air and it looked like he might head on over. He brought it down and we moved on. After winding our way through the root and tree filled end of Spider Ravine, we stopped to gather wood from a fallen tree for the night's fire.

We got our fire going and cooked hobo dinners which came out awesome. Afterwards, we got the fire burned down to coals and around 8:30 we went out for a short night run. BMRA rules specify you can't be on the trails past 10pm so we knew it had to be pretty short.

We started off by hitting Sierra's Skyview down near Old Camp. After a dramatic drop at the start, in which Dad gave an "Oh my goodness!", we wound around through the woods and came upon a trail crossing wthat wasn't labeled. I was leading and headed forward up a short hill. My lights began shining on a crazy ravine and we moved up to assess it. I came to the conclusion that I could likely make it up, but not without costing me most of the drivers side body of my Jeep. It might look different in the daylight but it was clearly not the right choice for a nice easy night run in a short time frame. Harold spotted me backwards down the hill and we took off to the right on the unmarked trail.

We determined that it was simply a dirt road that was crossing until about a half mile down we took a turn to the left and began a fairly steep climb that became pretty offcamber to the right about halfway up. After reaching the top we determined that we were at the top of a trail called X-Way, but we had no idea where we were!

After a bit of floundering we found ourselves back on one of the main roads and ventured back for a run on Jerry Paul's Expressway. We both remembered this as a nice easy trail with lots of ups and downs twisting through the trees. What we both had forgotten was the very loose rocky climb out. I was leading and began heading up. About half way up I got to a ledge that was right up against a tree and got hung up. I attempted almost every line imaginable, but just couldn't get up the ledge. After watching me work on it for a bit from far below, Harold and Sam treked up to give it a look. We were about to stack a rock when Harold pointed out that I could probably make a bypass around the tree. It looked like I wasn't the first to do this, but it wasn't an established part of the trail. I whipped around the left side of the tree, got beyond the ledge and headed up the rest of the way without issue. Harold didn't have nearly as much trouble with his larger tires and was able to bounce up and over the ledge on his way up. I am pretty sure that ledge has grown a bit since my last trip out there, and I would be surprised if that bypass isn't a little more well defined on the next trip.

After JP, we headed back to camp, arriving almost straight up at 10pm. We spent some time around the campfire watching my oldest Hudson poke at the fire with an ever shortening stick and headed to bed. Our second night at camp was a little warmer than the previous night. It had dipped into the low teens the night before and the heater in my camper had a hard time keeping up. This night the crew in the motorhome also fared better than they had the night before when they had accidentally slept with the door open. :)

Sunday morning we decided we would go do some nice easy trails to finish off the trip. Of course this would be the day I would end up with body damage and Harold would break something in his front axle!

We took off down Green Lane, and easy 3-diamond, to Linda Gail heading left back towards the front of the park. A ways down we hit the pipeline trail and turned back up the hill. We came across this 3.5 foot ledge with an easy bypass, which I opted for. Harold decided to at least get his front tires up on it, which he did with ease. After playing on it a bit he decided to spot his son Sam up the ledge. They worked at it for some time and then we heard a *POP* in the front. We assumed a broken u-joint, but both wheels continued to spin. Not sure what the breakage was he continued working at it letting Sam have a go as well. After eventually stacking a rock, he made it up. As of this writing, we don't know exactly what that pop was, but shortly afterwards his right fron tire was leaning in on the top like you see with messed up kingpin bushings or with bad bearings. Neither of those seemed to match the scenario of the pop though.

We took off to the east end of the park and saw some areas we had never seen before. There are very few Jeep trails down there with much more ATV-only terrain. We hit the few that were there including Soulhull Street and Angry Jeep, which were not much more than a drive throught he woods.

On the way back we went down Clyde's Ravine from the top. The upper axle-twisting section is a lot more interesting than the bottom. I took a line that I knew was going to be pretty risky to my body. By dropping my left tires off, I would slam it into the side and at that point the only option is to drag it out along the side. After talking about the line with Harold I had him spot me through it. When my left side began dropping slowly I was getting closer and closer to the wall. Eventually I felt that I had hit the bottom with the wall about 7-8 inches from and completely parallel to the body. Easing forward the Jeeps shifted again and my mirror was pressed into the wall. Knowing I had just sacrificed it, I moved forward and it popped off. As it did, the right side started settling down and I got out of the ravine. After getting out I found that the mirrors on the XJ are a great design! The have two pins that allow them to pop out forward, pop out backwards, or just pop out completely. I snapped it back in and we moved forward without incident.

We continued on to Spider Ravine/Venom Loop, this time hitting it from the bottom. After getting around the lower section with no damage, I lead us around the loop counter-clockwise... or at least I meant to. I accidentally took a split off to the right that was an extremely loose climb. I hit one point surrounded by trees and was trying to bump over an outcropping of roots. After a few minutes I found the line but not without breaking out the front drivers side amber light and pushing the fender back a bit. On backing up I pinged a tree and broke my passenger rear tail light and put a new touch of character in the body just in front of the lift gate. In the heat of battle I didn't recognize the damage, and only discovered it a bit later. I made it past that first obstacle and only got about 15 feet further before digging in to another spot. I worked on this one 5 or 10 minutes and then gave up only after Harold told me that he had never seen anyone make that climb (although I am quite certain many have). On backing up I saw that I was digging my differential into the dirt and there was just no way around that short of bigger tires. I backed myself down the hill and we proceded around the loop without issue. After reaching the top, we headed to the main rode and back to camp.

On our return to the campers, we spent a little time breaking camp and got on the road for the 3 hours back to town where my little boys slept like rocks the whole way. This weekend was really what wheeling is all about to me!

Heading out of town

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:58:51 GMT

In two hours, I will be leaving the office, going to pick up my Dad, heading to my hosue to pick up the camper and my kids and taking off for Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area near Gilmer, TX. It is an 1800 acre off-road park with camping and a ton of trails. I am pulling my pop-up camper out there behind my XJ and my brother will be pulling his XJ out behind a motorhome. The crew for the weekend will be me, my boys Hudson and Parker, my Dad, my brother Harold, his kids Sam and Sarah, and their friends. We will be camping two nights and heading back on Sunday. This is the first Jeepin' I have done in about 3.5 years and the first time for my youngest son Parker. It should be a great trip and it will be really nice to unplug a bit and leave the work stuff in Dallas.

If anyone needs me.... well sorry. :)

Getting on with Life...

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:47:01 GMT

This is the first post on the new blog. As you can see on the home page, this site will be more about me and my personal life and less about web development and technology. In short, I suppose that translates to far less read! :)