Club News
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Future Events:
May 2017
Future Trips:
May 2017
- Tuesday - Saturday 2-6, Bronco Safari - Moab, Utah
- Tuesday 9, Club Meeting
- Friday - Sunday 26-28, Hi Desert Round-Up (HDR), Slash X in Barstow, California
Future Trips:
- Friday - Sunday 17-19, Arizona Classic Bronco Annual Stampede
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John Lands report from Winter4x4Jamboree in Utah 2016:
Over the past 2 or 3 years I have read an article or two about the Winter 4x4 Jamboree event at the Sand Hallow Recreation area just out of St. George, Utah. Because I have a Bronco, I always cringe a little at the word Jamboree. Maybe it's because in my mind I am always thinking that the vehicle mix will be about 99% Jeeps and 1% of everything else! I had never been to Sand Hallow even though it is just a short 2 hour drive from Las Vegas so this year I decided to 'park' my cringe and sign up to see what this event and the Sand Hallow/Sand Mountain Recreation Area were all about since Milan and Dave A. from the club were already signed up! To start my experience, the online registration at www.winter4x4jamboree.com was nicely set up as you were able to register and pay for the trail you wanted to go on each day. That took all the worries out of the anxiety I always seem to get when I go to events where the trail sign ups are first come first serve, which is frustrating if you are NOT a morning person! With registration completed and a hotel room reserved I was ready for what I hoped would be a great weekend of wheeling, and it turns out the event did not disappoint!
The first day of trail rides was on Friday and I picked Plan B because a couple of friends that I know through work, Rob and Vince, were running it. A new thing to me is that these trails are rated on a 10 scale where I am used to a 5 scale but since I am ‘pretty good’ at math it was easy enough to know that a 6 rated trail was a 3 in my mind! The event stages out of the fairgrounds and was very well organized which made the start of this new experience even better and after about an hour on the trail I was thinking that Plan B should be renamed Plan A because the trail had some great challenges and the scenic views were off the charts. You can't beat a trail that has a mix of everything including some sand to play around in, some great sandstone obstacles to climb up and down and some obstacles that make you pucker up a little! The leaders for Friday were awesome and it turned out that www.krawlzone.tv was on the trail with us and I ended up in some of their footage of the event! I had great conversations with lots of people on the trail and loved the diverse mix of vehicles as well. There was a nicely built and very capable S-10 in front of me and there were a couple more Broncos near the back of the pack that were from Salt Lake City. We stopped for lunch at a spot that was reminiscent of Cliffhanger in Moab because we were on top off a plateau that had a several hundred feet vertical drop off. The trail was not nearly as close to the edge as Cliffhanger but it was awesome none the less as the views for lunch were spectacular! We wrapped up the trail in the afternoon and left the group at the last obstacle as my front locker was not working and it was highly recommended for this last climb. Rob, Vince and I headed back over to the sand dunes to play around for a little bit. It was their first time in the sand and I had some good chuckles watching them try some steeper climbs not knowing that momentum is king in the sand! They picked it up quick and after some high rpm runs we decided to head back to the fairgrounds to see what everyone else was up to. A large group of us went to dinner Friday night and with an awesome first day 1 in the books (and a few drinks) I was excited to see what Saturday would hold!
For Saturday I wanted to run a trail with Milan so I signed up for John's Trail with Milan. I was thinking that how could I go wrong today running my own trail! This trail was rated a 7 and it would be a fun trail as this was the first time running a trail with Milan since his latest round of upgrades to his Bronco which has come a long way from the first time I wheeled with him! I was still without a front locker so I wasn't sure how the day would play out for me. As a side note….after the trip I found out that my front locker issue was due to my Ox locker cable being overexposed to exhaust heat over the years. Since the event I installed a new cable and put a 15/32" fuel line over it where it is under the body near the exhaust as a heat shield. I also purchased a handy adjustable bolt setup from Ox that allows you to engage the locker on the trail from the differential cover if I should ever have a cable issue again! So back on John’s trail, it turns out that the first obstacle was one of the more difficult ones of the day for both Milan and I. The obstacle wasn't so much a gate keeper, but I struggled on it and caught myself thinking that I might need a tug to get me up the sandstone waterfall! I finally found the right line and enough throttle to climb it! Milan took a couple of attempts to get up this obstacle too. Even though he was locked front and rear he had a lot more weight to get up the waterfall with his full size Bronco! This trail had some great optional obstacles and I ended up passing on one of them due to the front locker issue. Our lunch break on this day left us watching some rock buggies off in the distance climbing some impossibly steep obstacles. They managed the climbs with no carnage but it sure looked sketchy! The final obstacle of 'my' trail was touted to be the most difficult of them all. It was a 3 part climb out of the wash that we were in and the 2nd part of the climb was to be the most technical. Milan and I had no issues and climbed all 3 parts like rock bosses! Milan got the opportunity to try out his new winch as some of the rigs had issues with the 2nd part of the climb. Milan was a little reluctant to circle back to help as he had developed a power steering fluid leak throughout the day which continued to get worse as we neared the end of the trail. Since there was enough spare power steering fluid to get him off the trail he came back to lend some sturdy full size Bronco winching assistance! Fortunately for him, once we got off the trail the power steering leak was easily fixed with no damage to the pump!
Saturday night was the big raffle and dinner which none of us had signed up for. The organizers for the event had some great Jeep things to raffle off, but with way to many Jeep parts for me and Las Vegas being a short drive away we had all decided to skip another night in a hotel! They did have some great things to check out in the raffle/dinner area such as a very lifted and very custom 6-door F350, a ‘snow tracked’ Jeep and some cool off-road camping trailers. There were also some 'in-progress' Jeep builds from a local shop in St. George that were pretty cool to check out too. All in all I would say this is a must do event and plan to attend next year! We saw quite a few Broncos over the weekend as there was a large attendance form the Salt Lake City Bronco Club and we also saw some representation from the SoCal Bronco group too!
One thing I didn't mention about this trip is that I had an issue with a severe front end wobble that had started as a small wobble on a previous trip that I wrote off to an alignment issue. The wobble got so severe on Saturday that I had issues getting to the trail head. I had already checked the front end a couple of times and didn't see anything loose until I triple checked everything on Saturday at the trail head. Turns out I made a very rookie mistake when I did my front disc brake conversion which included changing to a tie rod over setup. When I had attached the track bar back to the axle housing, I put the nut on the bolt stud without the washer and the bushing had been working itself over the nut ever since I had installed it a few months earlier. I ended up replacing the bushing and making sure that the very critical washer was in place this time. Been on a few outings since fixing my mistake with no issues to date!
Over the past 2 or 3 years I have read an article or two about the Winter 4x4 Jamboree event at the Sand Hallow Recreation area just out of St. George, Utah. Because I have a Bronco, I always cringe a little at the word Jamboree. Maybe it's because in my mind I am always thinking that the vehicle mix will be about 99% Jeeps and 1% of everything else! I had never been to Sand Hallow even though it is just a short 2 hour drive from Las Vegas so this year I decided to 'park' my cringe and sign up to see what this event and the Sand Hallow/Sand Mountain Recreation Area were all about since Milan and Dave A. from the club were already signed up! To start my experience, the online registration at www.winter4x4jamboree.com was nicely set up as you were able to register and pay for the trail you wanted to go on each day. That took all the worries out of the anxiety I always seem to get when I go to events where the trail sign ups are first come first serve, which is frustrating if you are NOT a morning person! With registration completed and a hotel room reserved I was ready for what I hoped would be a great weekend of wheeling, and it turns out the event did not disappoint!
The first day of trail rides was on Friday and I picked Plan B because a couple of friends that I know through work, Rob and Vince, were running it. A new thing to me is that these trails are rated on a 10 scale where I am used to a 5 scale but since I am ‘pretty good’ at math it was easy enough to know that a 6 rated trail was a 3 in my mind! The event stages out of the fairgrounds and was very well organized which made the start of this new experience even better and after about an hour on the trail I was thinking that Plan B should be renamed Plan A because the trail had some great challenges and the scenic views were off the charts. You can't beat a trail that has a mix of everything including some sand to play around in, some great sandstone obstacles to climb up and down and some obstacles that make you pucker up a little! The leaders for Friday were awesome and it turned out that www.krawlzone.tv was on the trail with us and I ended up in some of their footage of the event! I had great conversations with lots of people on the trail and loved the diverse mix of vehicles as well. There was a nicely built and very capable S-10 in front of me and there were a couple more Broncos near the back of the pack that were from Salt Lake City. We stopped for lunch at a spot that was reminiscent of Cliffhanger in Moab because we were on top off a plateau that had a several hundred feet vertical drop off. The trail was not nearly as close to the edge as Cliffhanger but it was awesome none the less as the views for lunch were spectacular! We wrapped up the trail in the afternoon and left the group at the last obstacle as my front locker was not working and it was highly recommended for this last climb. Rob, Vince and I headed back over to the sand dunes to play around for a little bit. It was their first time in the sand and I had some good chuckles watching them try some steeper climbs not knowing that momentum is king in the sand! They picked it up quick and after some high rpm runs we decided to head back to the fairgrounds to see what everyone else was up to. A large group of us went to dinner Friday night and with an awesome first day 1 in the books (and a few drinks) I was excited to see what Saturday would hold!
For Saturday I wanted to run a trail with Milan so I signed up for John's Trail with Milan. I was thinking that how could I go wrong today running my own trail! This trail was rated a 7 and it would be a fun trail as this was the first time running a trail with Milan since his latest round of upgrades to his Bronco which has come a long way from the first time I wheeled with him! I was still without a front locker so I wasn't sure how the day would play out for me. As a side note….after the trip I found out that my front locker issue was due to my Ox locker cable being overexposed to exhaust heat over the years. Since the event I installed a new cable and put a 15/32" fuel line over it where it is under the body near the exhaust as a heat shield. I also purchased a handy adjustable bolt setup from Ox that allows you to engage the locker on the trail from the differential cover if I should ever have a cable issue again! So back on John’s trail, it turns out that the first obstacle was one of the more difficult ones of the day for both Milan and I. The obstacle wasn't so much a gate keeper, but I struggled on it and caught myself thinking that I might need a tug to get me up the sandstone waterfall! I finally found the right line and enough throttle to climb it! Milan took a couple of attempts to get up this obstacle too. Even though he was locked front and rear he had a lot more weight to get up the waterfall with his full size Bronco! This trail had some great optional obstacles and I ended up passing on one of them due to the front locker issue. Our lunch break on this day left us watching some rock buggies off in the distance climbing some impossibly steep obstacles. They managed the climbs with no carnage but it sure looked sketchy! The final obstacle of 'my' trail was touted to be the most difficult of them all. It was a 3 part climb out of the wash that we were in and the 2nd part of the climb was to be the most technical. Milan and I had no issues and climbed all 3 parts like rock bosses! Milan got the opportunity to try out his new winch as some of the rigs had issues with the 2nd part of the climb. Milan was a little reluctant to circle back to help as he had developed a power steering fluid leak throughout the day which continued to get worse as we neared the end of the trail. Since there was enough spare power steering fluid to get him off the trail he came back to lend some sturdy full size Bronco winching assistance! Fortunately for him, once we got off the trail the power steering leak was easily fixed with no damage to the pump!
Saturday night was the big raffle and dinner which none of us had signed up for. The organizers for the event had some great Jeep things to raffle off, but with way to many Jeep parts for me and Las Vegas being a short drive away we had all decided to skip another night in a hotel! They did have some great things to check out in the raffle/dinner area such as a very lifted and very custom 6-door F350, a ‘snow tracked’ Jeep and some cool off-road camping trailers. There were also some 'in-progress' Jeep builds from a local shop in St. George that were pretty cool to check out too. All in all I would say this is a must do event and plan to attend next year! We saw quite a few Broncos over the weekend as there was a large attendance form the Salt Lake City Bronco Club and we also saw some representation from the SoCal Bronco group too!
One thing I didn't mention about this trip is that I had an issue with a severe front end wobble that had started as a small wobble on a previous trip that I wrote off to an alignment issue. The wobble got so severe on Saturday that I had issues getting to the trail head. I had already checked the front end a couple of times and didn't see anything loose until I triple checked everything on Saturday at the trail head. Turns out I made a very rookie mistake when I did my front disc brake conversion which included changing to a tie rod over setup. When I had attached the track bar back to the axle housing, I put the nut on the bolt stud without the washer and the bushing had been working itself over the nut ever since I had installed it a few months earlier. I ended up replacing the bushing and making sure that the very critical washer was in place this time. Been on a few outings since fixing my mistake with no issues to date!