Off-Roading 11-11-07

A few friends took a trip up to an off-road park yesterday. The guy with the blue TJ is my friend Matt. The other guys work with him, all were very cool. It was a ton of fun....





Stuck


















Marlon, this has to be at least a close second to you!



Think I was dragging a little? Shiny Skids!

mmmmm....I do love some mud....

Looks like ya did pretty good for the stockers, and I have to say you're a gamblin man....I wouldn't go down a gravel path with those things...

Looks like a good time! And yea, those stock tires are pretty much nothing in that kind of mud.

A/T's would be alittle better but nothing beats a good M/T. I choose to stay out of mud.

Nice lookin gal.

Nice pics..........took my pukey puter a long time to load all that mudd.....that lady is standing in a bad spot. She will get a mud bath there .

I have been stuck good in the mud before also and had to get pulled out.. and had 2 flats with my stockers and now they are hiding in shame in the corner of the garage........

I see better tires in your future...

Dave

But the SR-As are supposed to be an all terrain! lol3.gif (That's what the tire says!!!)

Yeah, my skid was packed. I wanna go offroading again.

I got to this picture:

Atrus said:

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and thought 'either his Jeep is sunk down some or else Kevin is just freakishly tall' Then I saw all the other shots and went 'OK, his Jeep's just in a rut'. Looks like it was some fun. Don't ya just love that wide-blade shovel DC gave us to use as a front skid plate???

2003KJ - I fully agree that a nice A/T (or better yet a M/T) would have helped me a TON, but I did alright with these SR-A's. I have the 235 size from the off-road package. This stuff wasn't even close the the worst that I went though. I was a little surprised at what I could get through, so was the rest of the crew. The Wrangler guys were giving me praise at the end - Man, I never thought your Liberty would make it!

Dave - A/T's are in my future Not sure how distant future, but they are there. My wife, in the pic - the idea (in my head) was that I had mud boots and garbage bags. So, when we'd get stuck I could throw them on and get out to do what's needed to free us. When I get back in, throw them in the garbage bags to keep the interior clean. That worked like a charm. What didn't work like a charm was that I must not have communicated this well to the wife....1st time stuck , in that pic, she gets out. I love my wife, but she'll admit that she is less than graceful. She fell in the mud. Yup. Muddy shoes, jeans, jacket. Luckily, I keep a canvas drop cloth in the back in case I have to move something that's dirty and will mess up the cargo area. So, she sat on that. That's why in the group shot at the end, she's in the KJ - she had no shoes to wear as they were in a bag in the back.

Blake - Thanks, I think it was cool she wanted to tag along. She was set on that she wanted to drive, then we went over some really narrow and rough stuff and told me no way in hell was she driving.

Kevin - That's time #1 being stuck. THe Wrangler guys said "hey, you lead for a bit"...yeah, send in the dood with 29" street tires to lead...they didn't know a way to cross from one field to the other, and I saw this path....My noob mistake was I was trying to ride up on the mud, and not be in the two track because I saw water in there and wasn't sure how deep it was (afraid I'd hang up). As I came into the turn, it was getting a little gnarly there, and I ended up slipping off and straddling the hump in the two track sideways. I really think with some A/T's, I could have chewed into that hump and kept going with the momentum I had. The SR/A's were like slicks. The second time I got stuck, same thing happened. This time I ended up right into the two track (straight, as I should be), but it was too deep (REALLY muddy spot, needed mucho ground clearance - full size lifted chevys were hanging up). My engine skid lifted me right off the ground, my front end was almost at full droop.

So, all in all, with some of the crazy stuff I made it through, and getting stuck only those two times on stock Badyears, I really can't complain. The Wrangler guys were complimenting the hell out of the KJ, they thought it was badass I was hanging with them. The Dakota got stuck twice too, but he was bad, took over 20-30 mins each time to get him out. Mine were quick tugs with the TJ's winch.

Oh - and I am the dood in the green flannel shirt (seems to be my off-roading shirt for some reason) with the hat on backwards.

Haha, I was wondering why she had mud on her knees and on her jacket in that one pic. She was just wanting to get out and enjoy all the mud! haha

But yea, Ive been in muddy fields with the stock HP tires and they just were not much. It was momentum or nothing out in that. If I had to stop that was pretty much it but I never did get stuck. Ive actually never been stuck to the point of needing a tow although I did need to get pulled up a hill that I couldnt make it up. It was slick clay and my A/T's just filled up. I didnt want to get a run and go since each side of the hill was actually above my Jeep since the road had so much erosion. I could of slid and each either side of my Jeep. So I eased my way up then took the strap the rest of the way.

Atrus.....you need to carry a pair of hip waders. they are good in mud and also fishing in streams........................

Dave

Looks like you guys had some fun. Jealous that you have an off road park to roll in, nothing like that in my neck of the woods, I have to search out legal spots but they are out there. I remember the first time I took my jeep into some wet muddy stuff and Goodyears turned into slip and slides.

Jeepman - That's the only "close" place - still an hour drive. Other than that, you're looking at a 3 hour trip. Nothing is around in SE Michigan. Basically, 3 hours north, and the band of available land per the DNR website seems to curve down westward. It's like Metro-Detroit is the center of a circle and there's a bunch of fun places along a 3 hour radius....except for this one off-road park.

Blake - yeah, I experienced the same. Didn't seem to have much trouble climbing, but there was a lot of erosion and I was nervous about slipping. One spot was pure hell. Imagine 4' of dirt on either side of the trail...trail drops down further into a mud pit. on the left side is a hard drop into the pit, a good 12"+. The black Sahara bounded through it. I stopped and really contimplated if I wanted to go or not. Problem was, there's no way for him to reverse back up it, so I had to go or we'd have to abandon him. So, I tried to swing as far to the right as I could next to the dirt wall to avoid the monster drop on the left. I got halfway down that dropoff where I'd be leveling out, and the KJ slid to the left, dumping me right into it and too close to the wall for comfort. I said to my wife "we're in it now!" and just gassed my way through the pit. The drop was the worst part - I was afraid of hitting the wall on the left, smacking my bumper on the descent, or smacking my rocker panel (couldn't see the depth that well). That's when she declared she would NOT be driving

I think rock rails are on my list after tires. Just good insurance. I was afraid I'd hit the rockers on some of the whoops in the scramble areas too. Darn ATVers...

Very nice!