Keystone monthly ride August 10th.

[jamarquardt22]

The following have expressed interest in wheeling this Saturday at AOAA 9:00 am on trail time. Filling out the waver online saves time. Anyone who I am missing?

@JZelnick
@caz
@VBRoamer
@JeepinPete

@Cass007 ?

 

[caz]

I'm out. Wife still in the hospital.

 

[shmukster]

I'm unfortunately not going to make it. Weather looks to be absolutely perfect. Hope you guys have a great day!!!!!

 

[JeepinPete]

I'll see you guys in the morning.

 

[caz]

Good day? Weather was beautiful!

 

[shmukster]

What happened?

 

[Cass007]

Great day ... met some new members, did some trails, ate lunch, weather was perfect, Andy led trails ... you know, the usual.

 

[Cass007]

Since I don't run mapping I can't say what trails we did, but we covered some new ground and a couple of trail we did at CMCC. Weather was perfect and trails weren't too wet. It also seemed that the staff had gone through some of the trails and cut back the overgrowth to make the trails a bit wider or at least have less trees and briars hanging over them.

Lineup ... @jamarquardt22 (Andy), @JeepinPete (Pete .. with his son whose name I forget and the giant poodle Sebastian), @JZelnick (John and his wife Teri) in the 200.

A really crappy pic of us going up some tight switchbacks that required 3 point turns on the corners and occasional mirror folding. I could almost hear Andy giggling from all the way in the back of the pack.

Neat climbs ... we all know the pics never do them justice. Andy is just before a large rock that made this challenging. The climb was impressive enough that a group of quads actually stopped to watch Pete tackle it. The 200 needed a little bumping and banging, but John and Teri were completely unfazed by that and tested the limits of the truck all day. Teri is the proud new owner of an 80 now too, so hopefully we will see them tag teaming trails in the future.

The day always starts off simple. Just a crawl through the trees

 

[Cass007]

Prior to lunch it was smooth sailing, then Andy headed to the far end of the park to trails I hadn't seen before. We watched some jeeps absolutely bomb up a very steep hill climb that I'm not sure a long wheelbase could navigate without serious lower body damage or rolling over.

Pete choosing the proper line ... drive over the big rock

Then we ended up on a blue trail with a little horseshoe section and some larger rocks on the climb out. That is where to 200 found the limits of the stock suspension and Pete may have become motivated to fix his rear locker.

At the horseshoe

Andy beginning to pick his way up the hill.

 

[Cass007]

There were 3 difficult spots on the climb out, the first being the pic above which was navigating a large rock while passing the tree and turning left up the hill.

The 2nd was this decent sized bump up step about halfway up the hill.

Nearer the top of the hill was yet another section of larger rocks that was complicated by a hole just before hitting the largest rock. No pics of that from me as we were stacking a few rocks to get the 200 over it and Pete got hung up on that spot for a bit because he kept losing traction.

The 200 was high centered just after here and Pete ended up pulling them off backwards with a strap. After that I believe they changed their line to bypass that set of rocks. The 200 was super capable, but smallish tires and stock suspension had it's limits.

Pete got hung up on the lower section for a minute because of some slick spots on the lower rocks, then navigated the center without issue and had traction issues on the bigger step near the top. He eventually found enough traction to bump up over the step and drive out.

No pics of me doing the exit, but I had the benefit of being able to walk the trail and study the line, plus bigger tires, more lift and lockers. I drove up the lower and middle sections with the rear locker on without incident, bumped into the larger step at the top and stopped, engaged the front locker and walked right up the rest of it no problems. The joys of an overbuilt rig.

All and all a great team effort to get all of the trucks over a difficult section of trail.

 

[Cass007]

How do you make Andy happy ... this is how. didn't even see this as a potential line, but Andy found his Zen.

He was hung up on the slider for a min and had to adjust more towards the tree a bit

I'm not sure I've ever seen Andy happier than this.

 

[Cass007]

It was impressive to watch

... and out the backside with no issue

Trying to expand my skills and feeling confident after navigating the exit on the trail before, I opted for a try at the same obstacle.

Pete making sure I had the proper line

 

[Cass007]

I got high centered for a min as well. CAT slider and the trans armor took the brunt, but I still had wheels making contact. When the truck came down flat it put all the weight directly on the driveline and forced the fan to hit the trans cooling line on the bottom of the radiator ( I haven't corrected the radiator height since the 1" body lift, normally the trans line is 1/4" away from the fan ). I got lucky and it took off some hose, but not enough to force it off the brass part of the line from the radiator.

Pics of me coming off the backside aren't nearly as cool, but I do have 2 pics of Andy giving me the finger and some really blurry closeups of my head

It was great to tackle a challenging obstacle and I'm slowly gaining confidence as I get more seat time. I'm still not thrilled about being super tilty though.

 

[Cass007]

Just past the rock was the exit back to the main trail. Andy said it's basically a "green trail". I bottomed out twice and hit two trees doing a multi-point turn on a tight corner. Yet another tree at AOAA tattooed with a 4x4 Labs mark on the trunk.

The last real trail of the day gave us a bit of excitement with a solid uphill climb with a bit of a bump at the very peak of it and then a large dip just off the right side.

John found the edge of the dip at the top, but was able to find traction and drive out of it.

I went up next with both lockers on and had no issue ... other than not being able to turn left at the top because the front locker was still engaged and wait for it ... I bumped into another tree. I backed up to get it to release and saw Pete cresting the hill and I'm not sure if it was me reversing or the bump at the top that forced him into the hole on the right, but he ended up there with two wheels off the ground and almost did a back flip off the side off the hill for a second. We threw on a strap quick and he was able to drive right out with me holding his front end down.

After that we decided to call it a day and we headed back to to the parking lot close to 3pm. Great day, great weather and great people. Missed Vince as he was under the weather, hope you are feeling better today.

 

[shmukster]

Very cool pictures and a great writeup! Enjoyed it immensely and glad the day went so well.

 

[YotaFun]

Great day ... met some new members, did some trails, ate lunch, weather was perfect, Andy led trails ... you know, the usual.

*clears throat* Doesn't the usual at anthracite require someone getting stuck and some winch action involved? Lol

Awesome day! Looks like you guys covered alot of ground.

 

[jamarquardt22]

I will add my 2 cents here. I was first at aoaa. Second rig in the lot I think. Pete arrived next and I quickly spotted a coolant leak from the rear heater lines. We released the pressure from the rad and it stopped. He left the cap loose and wheeled it all day without incident.

I had a minor over heating isue that was fixed by adding 1/2 a gallon of coolant.

We did the bear cave trail and I actually saw the cave this time. No bear though?!

1/2 way through the day I figured out my front hubs were still unlocked.

 

[YotaFun]

1/2 way through the day I figured out my front hubs were still unlocked.

"Do I need 4wd for this?" Will be Andy's new motto

 

[Cass007]

*clears throat* Doesn't the usual at anthracite require someone getting stuck and some winch action involved? Lol

Awesome day! Looks like you guys covered alot of ground.

That may be the hard rule if:

1. Greg and/or Gary are attending

2. The weather must be less than favorable

We did pass a few trails where Andy mentioned they had been closed in the past and the spot I had to strap to Pete was where the trail was closed once when they were headed down in the opposite direction. I know we passed the entrance to Lower Anthracite near the end of the day ... still lots of trails for me to see yet.

 

[JeepinPete]

Here are a couple videos taken by my son and I. This is at the tight horseshoe loop. Cass007 and I both have 37" BFG's, my lockers are not working, his are. Pretty evident which works better

AOAA Wheeling 8-10-2019