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- #501
After work was done getting in the way of wheeling, we got back to the trails. Our core group was the bronco, a Cherokee, jk(?) on 40’s, stock razor turbo and my 40. Kinda eclectic, but everyone. Was right minded and capable
The Cherokee decided he needed 37’s and picked some up on marketplace. Big heavy ones at that.
Before the tires went on, he assured us his Dana 35 axle came with chromoly shafts. And it wheeled pretty impressively. Until it didn’t
Stock shafts and ujoints don’t like 37x14.50x17 tires. It grenaded the ball joints, U joint and both the inner &outer shaft ears. Truly impressive, At this point the Jeep was pulled to the side and a dash to the part store was planned. We had started up Triple 7’s but accidentally turned onto Joint Effort trail. 777 was challenging, but doable for everyone. Joint Effort was beyond my rear only locker and the Razor. The other three made it over the ledge , but only the JK did the next obstacle.
The next morning, we returned with the parts and commenced to fix the XJ. Couldn’t get a replacement axle, so we stuffed some towels in a latex glove and jammed that in the axle tube to keep the oil in. With the locker engaged at least the passenger side is working. The rig is drivable again. We got to watch two groups of buggies hit Joint Effort while we fixing the Cherokee. Super impressive. I think everyone in our group was doing the mental math of a build. I’d love to build one, but living so far away it’s hard to justify.
From there we migrated to Double Sammy. This was more in line with the capability of my cruiser and everyone was enjoying ourselves. Slow and technical, but doable. I was backing off to reposition when I dropped the rear passenger wheel off a small ledge. Over I went on the passenger side now. Fortunately, I had removed the windshield after tweaking it earlier and the body damage is minimal. The apron is deformed a bit, but I think I can pop it out. Fender was far from perfect anyway.
Funny enough some other people were there to observe the recovery. One of them videoed the event. He sent it to me, but the quality wasn’t that great. About an hour later, I said something about this to the 12yro and he said there was a clip of it on TikTok already. Sure enough my rig is now on TikTok.
Half hour later, XJ decided it didn’t like 3wd and grenaded the passenger side ujoint and the steering linkage(again). Additionally, it was breaking the upper control arm bracket and tweaked the track bar. Did I mention the 37’s were heavy? This rig is actually pretty good on 35’s, but those big tires showed all kinds of weaknesses.
Another trip to the parts store while the rest of us played in the sand and went to the Top of the World. Too windy for pictures, but pretty beautiful.
Armed with new parts, the XJ was made drivable again and dragged up to the Chute where it was able to limp out. Along the way the Razor lost a ujoint and limped out at 3mph. We all met up for dinner that night and laughed at ourselves. It was agreed to be a great day.
On the last day it was agreed that we should probably stick to lighter trails so we could safely make it out again. The wind had picked up, so no one wanted to go to upper trails and get sand blasted. We tried Wayne’s World, but the dune seemed to have shifted over the trail. While the full throttle attempts were fun, no one was really set up for it. Back to the Double Sammy, since we had skipped the beginning the day before. Nothing else broke and I stayed on the up and up. There were challenges and a good pucker factor dropping into the gully. I thought I was going to need a winch on the climb out, but the others had shown me the smooth and slow line.
I love the wheeling Sand Hollow. It’s different than Moab. Both are great and other worldly in their environments, but they wheel differently. Hard for a rookie like me to explain. Mostly, I love how close everything in Sand Hollow is to each other. In Moab I feel like half the day is spent getting to and from the trail.
Stock shafts and ujoints don’t like 37x14.50x17 tires. It grenaded the ball joints, U joint and both the inner &outer shaft ears. Truly impressive, At this point the Jeep was pulled to the side and a dash to the part store was planned. We had started up Triple 7’s but accidentally turned onto Joint Effort trail. 777 was challenging, but doable for everyone. Joint Effort was beyond my rear only locker and the Razor. The other three made it over the ledge , but only the JK did the next obstacle.
The next morning, we returned with the parts and commenced to fix the XJ. Couldn’t get a replacement axle, so we stuffed some towels in a latex glove and jammed that in the axle tube to keep the oil in. With the locker engaged at least the passenger side is working. The rig is drivable again. We got to watch two groups of buggies hit Joint Effort while we fixing the Cherokee. Super impressive. I think everyone in our group was doing the mental math of a build. I’d love to build one, but living so far away it’s hard to justify.
From there we migrated to Double Sammy. This was more in line with the capability of my cruiser and everyone was enjoying ourselves. Slow and technical, but doable. I was backing off to reposition when I dropped the rear passenger wheel off a small ledge. Over I went on the passenger side now. Fortunately, I had removed the windshield after tweaking it earlier and the body damage is minimal. The apron is deformed a bit, but I think I can pop it out. Fender was far from perfect anyway.
Funny enough some other people were there to observe the recovery. One of them videoed the event. He sent it to me, but the quality wasn’t that great. About an hour later, I said something about this to the 12yro and he said there was a clip of it on TikTok already. Sure enough my rig is now on TikTok.
Half hour later, XJ decided it didn’t like 3wd and grenaded the passenger side ujoint and the steering linkage(again). Additionally, it was breaking the upper control arm bracket and tweaked the track bar. Did I mention the 37’s were heavy? This rig is actually pretty good on 35’s, but those big tires showed all kinds of weaknesses.
Another trip to the parts store while the rest of us played in the sand and went to the Top of the World. Too windy for pictures, but pretty beautiful.
Armed with new parts, the XJ was made drivable again and dragged up to the Chute where it was able to limp out. Along the way the Razor lost a ujoint and limped out at 3mph. We all met up for dinner that night and laughed at ourselves. It was agreed to be a great day.
On the last day it was agreed that we should probably stick to lighter trails so we could safely make it out again. The wind had picked up, so no one wanted to go to upper trails and get sand blasted. We tried Wayne’s World, but the dune seemed to have shifted over the trail. While the full throttle attempts were fun, no one was really set up for it. Back to the Double Sammy, since we had skipped the beginning the day before. Nothing else broke and I stayed on the up and up. There were challenges and a good pucker factor dropping into the gully. I thought I was going to need a winch on the climb out, but the others had shown me the smooth and slow line.
I love the wheeling Sand Hollow. It’s different than Moab. Both are great and other worldly in their environments, but they wheel differently. Hard for a rookie like me to explain. Mostly, I love how close everything in Sand Hollow is to each other. In Moab I feel like half the day is spent getting to and from the trail.
