I went off road today.....ok, it's an old dirt road, which usually has some mud holes on it. I just finished swapping out the stock control arms for some Rokmen adjustable control arms, and I chucked the stock tie rod and drag link for a heavy duty Currie set up, figured I'd go out and make sure things were working....and grab a shot for the DSS Challenge while I was at it.





I'm going to go do some actual wheeling on April 1st @ The Badlands Off Road Park in Attica Indiana.

I finished up working on the jeep today, for awhile anyway, so I decided it was time for an updated photo of the jeep and I.

Hit a section of power line road this weekend with a friend. He had recently picked up a 03 Tundra and had never gone off road before. Some fun sandy berm areas, some rocky climbs and descents, and of course plenty of opportunities to add Arizona pen striping.

Here is my buddy going up and down some short but steep hills.




No pictures of my truck in action but this is what it looks like as of now

You might want some sliders there Aaron

Originally Posted by ian408 You might want some sliders there Aaron

Maybe he wants a reason to do boat sides?

My truck is not a rock crawler so for the most part sliders will be unnecessary. My truck is setup to run 50mph through desert trails, 60mph plus down forest roads and still handle better than stock on the highway. I plan to eventually fabricate some sliders, after the two roof racks, front bumper, and rear swing out. They will make for a nice step and a point to mount a temporary ladder to the roof rack on the shell.

In the meantime - I actually know how to pick a nice clean line to make it through obstacles without damaging my truck.

I know how to pick clean lines too...and I'm glad what passes for sliders are there

Got a chance to hit some trails yesterday:

On Good Friday, April 6, 2012 I along with Matt, Chris and Chris decided it would be a good idea to spend the day off at The Cliffs in Marseilles IL, since it hadn't rained in the last week.


Our line up: Me/TJ Rubi, shortstax33/TJ, LeadDog/JK Rubi, Chris/XJ.


The Cliffs has a rep for being muddy and everyone says you WILL get damage. Well it was pretty darn dry. Of course there were mud holes, but we were able to avoid most of them.


Chris AKA: LeadDog hitting the trails.


Matt AKA: shortstax33


Chris AKA: Chris

We didn't avoid all the mud....


LeadDog high centered here.


He needed a gentle tug.

Chris found some mud too.


He powered his way out....while throwing mud everywhere.


shortstax33 going around the mud...as did I and LeadDog.

We visited a very short section of the Mud Turtles...


Chris


LeadDog


shortstax33

We followed Trail 1 and took some off shoots through out the day.










I didn't say we avoided all of the mud.


I was there...I gave Chris my camera so he could grab a few shots of me.


All of my new suspension components worked great.




shortstax33 plowed through some mud.

I scooped up a bit of mud too.


LeadDog gets into the mud game.


Chris goes through the valley of mud too, but didn't scoop up as much.


Chris had to give it some skinny to get up the other side.


shortstax33 in Jimmy's Crack....wait what?


Stuck in Jimmy's Crack.

When shortstax33 got into that ^ position we heard one heck of a hissing sound, and he shut it down. He thought he blew a bead. turns out it was his exhaust smashed into the mud. I ended up winching him out.


This was the tightest squeeze of the day....maybe an inch on either side.....or so it felt.


We ventured through another little valley....me again!









After playing in the mud it was time to hit the creek.


Chris making his way through the rocks.


shortstax33 leading the way back to the parking lot.


Chris behind me.

Once back in the lot it was time for the RTI ramp.


shortstax33 with his swaybar disco'd.


Me with the Antirock.


Chris


LeadDog

During the course of the day I got high centered in a section of "35 ruts", but winched myself out. LeadDog got tugged out a couple of times, and had one close call, but he got it out on his own. LeadDog ended up with a new dent in his front bumper and a broken valve stem. A quick tire changed solved that problem. shortstax33 bent his rear bumper upwards...thanks to his trailer hitch. He also mangled his tail pipe and dented the shock next to the tail pipe. Chris backed into a tree and broke a tail light. I came away unscathed....so damage MAY happen at The Cliffs, but it's not a guaranty.

I'll be loading up all the pics and vids I have, but that'll be later, and when I'm done I'll post up a link.

I've only been to The Cliffs twice, but it's so much closer to me than The Badlands that it made for a much nicer day. The travel time was a lot less. I like the travel time being 2-hours round trip instead of 3-hours one way.

I used the "My Tracks" app on my phone and here are our stats for the day:

Total Distance: 7.28 miles
Max Speed: 12.57 mph
Total Time: 4:50:24
Average Speed: 1.50 mph
Moving Time: 1:27:02
Average Moving Speed: 5.02 mph

If I knew how to show you the map it made I would, but I don't, so I won't.

I decided to play around with some HDR batch processing this time around.

Originally Posted by Aaron Nelson Jeffro you have one cool thread going. (hope I'm ok to post due to my recent buttheadness towards you over in drama land, errr... I mean challenges land...)

No problem at all. I had blast this last time out. I never do spend the amount of time taking shots, that I should, but I usually get some good ones.

I like seeing what and where everyone wheels, whether it's a jeep or not. Of course if they aren't wheeling in a Jeep, they're doing it wrong.....

I spent a few hours cleaning the Jeep today....

Originally Posted by Aaron Nelson

Nelson- where is this?

Went out to shoot some stars and run some desert trails in the dark.

Originally Posted by anwmn1 Went out to shoot some stars and run some desert trails in the dark.

Originally Posted by Aaron Nelson rainny rocky crawl today

That appears to be in the middle of nowhere...

Took the day off to hit a local trail named China Wall. http://www.adamcartwright.com/Photos...2547541_Z7LGbw

Originally Posted by MileHighAko Took the day off to hit a local trail named China Wall.

Checked out your galleries....

Long time no post..thought i'd bring this thread back after a month or so of no posts with some of my favorites from lately..





And our last run with the 37's..and they knew it apparently because we had one of them just give out:

Flex it baby!

That's what she does best