The Big CJ's Maiden Voyage
Click on any image for a larger version.
|
| Ahhhh finally get the Jeep out of the driveway and into some good ol' Texas hill country dirt. |  |
| Dad made the trek out and is ready to test his freshly rebuilt tranny. |  |
| Our gracious host, Gordon is ready to start playing with those other shifters on the floor. |  |
| This is also the maiden voyage for Big Red. My cousin just bought this truck and is ready to run it through it's paces. |  |
| I HATE the cheesy pitman arm on my Jeep, so I've been scouring the 'net looking for a big beefy pitman arm like this. |  |
| Another pic of the beefy pitman arm. |  |
| This is how the other end of his AGR Rock ram is mounted to the vehicle. |  |
|  |
| We were also joined by Chris Craven and Jim Aldrich in their moderately built TJ's. |  |
| Looking back at the vehicles. |  |
| Glamour shot! |  |
David takes his first run up "Double Take"
And makes it look EASY! |  |
 |
 |
| What goes up, must come down... |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| ...and then back up again! Show off... |  |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
After all that showin' off, I decided to go back up and show David who the Alpha dog was...  |  |
 |
 |
 |
| Takin' a breather after making short work of "The Rock" |  |
| This camo Early Bronco demonstrates how to attack The Rock. |  |
 |
David follows my lead and climbs up the newest obstacle out at the ranch. Gordon discovered the obstacle, and it is a crack... So we now call it "Gordon's Crack!"
Now we just need to have some shirts made up that say, "I've conquered Gordons Crack!" |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| My perch atop the hill watching the action |  |
 |
 |
| |  |
| My dad makes an attempt at the obstacle after some taunting. Sure enough, the little TJ that could amazes us all by actually making it up the big-assed rock with open diffs! |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |  |
| Todd takes the wheel of my dad's TJ to give "Locker Knocker" a go... |  |
 |
| I blinked and the next thing I knew, I was up over and around Locker Knocker. Ok, so there was a 20 point turn mixed in there somewhere. The full-width axles make traversing these tight turns interesting. |  |
 |
| David's run up Locker Knocker was less than eventful. The Big Red Jeep makes all the obstacles a breeze! David had a smile plastered on his face all day as did his passenger Hunter! |  |
 |
| Jim gives it a shot. There is a LOT of loose dirt on this obstacle which can make it tricky if you're not locked... Jim had aired down to get better traction earlier and it ended up coming back to bite him. He got a little sideways when, POOF! He popped a bead. |  |
 |
 |
| This presented a perfect opportunity for David to test his winch. He got turned around and winched Jim's Jeep up enough to get a jack under the rear bumper. Once up, we were able to get the tire to reseat. Afterwards, Jim felt it was best if he took the bypass rather than press his luck. |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Here comes the other Todd making room for the others to line up. |  |
| Back at camp for more Glamour shots and BBQ! |  |
 |
 |
Some of the locals coming down to see what all the commotion was.
Leave it to my kid to go throwing rocks and harassing the livestock... |  |
 |
 |
| Todd running around trying to work the bugs out of his front diff. |  |
| These are some comparison shots between my Jeep and my cousin David's Jeep. You can see how well built his truck is in some of these photos. Check that dash! |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| David's Jeep is equipped with a Mico Lever Lock to assist in holding the beast in place when parked. |  |
 |
| Heading back to the trailer. Another day on the great outdoors comes to an end. |  |
