So my brother and his wife invite us to head out to JV last weekend with some friends. I've been out there on the quads, but never in the Jeep or even the RZR.
We show up Friday night and I already KNOW I'm in the wrong place based on the other 5 vehicles at camp.
We do an evening ride on Friday and I ride in the Red Buggy. It has Fully Hydraulic Steering, 4 Wheel Steering, ORI Struts, and the front tires are FILLED with like 300-400 pounds of water. I could see the "trail" but 80% of the time he just drove up the random pile of rocks on either side. It was a fun ride but did NOT make me feel any better about the next day.
The next day we head over to Claw Hammer, supposed to be the easiest of the Hammers. It looks a lot like a valley filled with 3' boulders. One of the guys is spotting my brother in his JKU and I'm doing my best to follow that line. I get hung up on the rear diff a couple of times, but nothing major. The Billy Rockers and rear bumper catch the jeep a couple of times and I didn't know it at the time, but the Gas Tank Skid was doing its job too. I also drove into a couple of pretty big rocks with the Steering Box Armor.
Here is the Red Buggy doing a "Bonus Line"
They tell me that the Waterfall near the top of the trail was pretty torn up from the KOH a couple of weeks earlier. My brother had some difficulty on that and I think they managed to bend the Tie Rod AGAIN.
Here is me at the top of the Waterfall.
I'm glad I did it, but I think I'm done with the Hammers. On Sunday we just drove around on the trail around the hills and had a MUCH better time. Just cruising and not worried about destroying anything.
I cleaned up the Jeep today and assessed the damage.
I hit 3 of the 4 rims. This one is the worst.
Scuffed the Rock Sliders
Scuffed the Front Driveshaft (out of focus)
Bumped the Front Diff
And slid on the Gastank Armor more than once
We show up Friday night and I already KNOW I'm in the wrong place based on the other 5 vehicles at camp.
We do an evening ride on Friday and I ride in the Red Buggy. It has Fully Hydraulic Steering, 4 Wheel Steering, ORI Struts, and the front tires are FILLED with like 300-400 pounds of water. I could see the "trail" but 80% of the time he just drove up the random pile of rocks on either side. It was a fun ride but did NOT make me feel any better about the next day.
The next day we head over to Claw Hammer, supposed to be the easiest of the Hammers. It looks a lot like a valley filled with 3' boulders. One of the guys is spotting my brother in his JKU and I'm doing my best to follow that line. I get hung up on the rear diff a couple of times, but nothing major. The Billy Rockers and rear bumper catch the jeep a couple of times and I didn't know it at the time, but the Gas Tank Skid was doing its job too. I also drove into a couple of pretty big rocks with the Steering Box Armor.
Here is the Red Buggy doing a "Bonus Line"
They tell me that the Waterfall near the top of the trail was pretty torn up from the KOH a couple of weeks earlier. My brother had some difficulty on that and I think they managed to bend the Tie Rod AGAIN.
Here is me at the top of the Waterfall.
I'm glad I did it, but I think I'm done with the Hammers. On Sunday we just drove around on the trail around the hills and had a MUCH better time. Just cruising and not worried about destroying anything.
I cleaned up the Jeep today and assessed the damage.
I hit 3 of the 4 rims. This one is the worst.
Scuffed the Rock Sliders
Scuffed the Front Driveshaft (out of focus)
Bumped the Front Diff
And slid on the Gastank Armor more than once