Ok, we are back from the rally. Things went well for us. Had to change out an alternator, had one slow leak flat, AND had serious sag problems with our spare tire carrier. Fortunately, there are Autozones throughout Baja, and a friend‘s father was a retired welder. Autozone had the alternator in stock, and we got the rack welded securely in Cabo. We lived with the slow leak until we got back across the border. It was only two days at that point.
The only major deficiency we had was our inability to drive fast-ish on rough terrain. The suspension rattled us around like BBs in a paint can. We aired down to 20lbs, which helped some. Admittedly Rubicon Express isn’t top tier, but would a more expensive suspension option had made much difference? All the vehicles that went faster were newer and had longer wheelbase.. Cherokees, Gladiators, Toy Tacos, Ford Raptors, 2 Ram Power Wagons, etc…. and in many cases took significant damage even so. There were broken tie rods and track bars, transmission crossmembers, drive shafts, shock mounts, etc all over the place. We started with 83 vehicles, by the halfway point we’d lost about 30. Slightly less than half finished I think, including -none- of the motorcycles.
All told, including driving from Colorado to the start and back from the finish, I put about 5000 miles on the Jeep and we started with 213xxx on it already.
So there are some things I’ll change for next time, but I need advice on suspension. what say you?
pics for the “pics or it didn’t happen“ crowd:
We checked out, but they said we couldn’t leave…
Last night of the rally. A team with a professional chef on it made tacos for everyone with the extra food they had.
The frame getting reinforced by the welder in Cabo.
Just broke camp, getting ready to hit the checkpoints for the day. About 3/4 done with the rally at this point.
Another team up to the axles in extremely deep silt.
Our usual camp. We didn’t bother with a tent.
Many checkpoints were on beaches. You can see the tire carrier leaning.
Smittybill SRC stinger Bumper with Smittybilt 9500 winch. Never needed it but glad to have it.
The only major deficiency we had was our inability to drive fast-ish on rough terrain. The suspension rattled us around like BBs in a paint can. We aired down to 20lbs, which helped some. Admittedly Rubicon Express isn’t top tier, but would a more expensive suspension option had made much difference? All the vehicles that went faster were newer and had longer wheelbase.. Cherokees, Gladiators, Toy Tacos, Ford Raptors, 2 Ram Power Wagons, etc…. and in many cases took significant damage even so. There were broken tie rods and track bars, transmission crossmembers, drive shafts, shock mounts, etc all over the place. We started with 83 vehicles, by the halfway point we’d lost about 30. Slightly less than half finished I think, including -none- of the motorcycles.
All told, including driving from Colorado to the start and back from the finish, I put about 5000 miles on the Jeep and we started with 213xxx on it already.
So there are some things I’ll change for next time, but I need advice on suspension. what say you?
pics for the “pics or it didn’t happen“ crowd:
We checked out, but they said we couldn’t leave…
Last night of the rally. A team with a professional chef on it made tacos for everyone with the extra food they had.
The frame getting reinforced by the welder in Cabo.
Just broke camp, getting ready to hit the checkpoints for the day. About 3/4 done with the rally at this point.
Another team up to the axles in extremely deep silt.
Our usual camp. We didn’t bother with a tent.
Many checkpoints were on beaches. You can see the tire carrier leaning.
Smittybill SRC stinger Bumper with Smittybilt 9500 winch. Never needed it but glad to have it.
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