trail ride requirements ( AKA Bloopers for the rest of us.)

On many of the trail run the club does recovery gear is mearly a strap and a cople of shackles. when you start running advanced trails ( yes you stock rubi can do this the real question is can you?) then recovery gear comes into play. One run we had a well equiped JT tr a challenging line. Yup stuck. WInching was an issue as the Diff was down in a hole and needed to be rasied to winch. Enter the jack. lift and pull very carefully and corrdinated.

Back in the day ( 70s) I stuck my CJ in some deep ruts. My ranch hand jack lifted the rear up and pushed to the side. then repeated the process with the front... guess what unstuck and a great work out too.

A trail ride is what you make of it. Spotter help and it is helpful if the spotter is experinced. As you drive you new baby yo uwill find it is much more capabile that you ever thougth. No need to get freaked out... it is just a challenge and a new learning experince.

As this thread started, be smart about recovery, tools and practices becasue people do get hurt and some depart the gene pool. Look forward to meeting you on the 11th.

R3, Exact reason I joined this club. Sounds like I've found some really experienced people that are willing to share their knowledge. My jeep is far more capable than I am... just want to catch up (y)
 
I don't know if we need to air-down for the upcoming fall ride but I bought this deflator kit in case:

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Anyone have problems with this type of deflator? Is 25 lbs. the going trail pressure for stock K02 tires?
 
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I don't know if we need to air-down for the upcoming fall ride but I bought this deflator kit in case:

View attachment 5323
Anyone have problems with this type of deflator? Is 25 lbs. the going trail pressure for stock K02 tires?
I have that same deflator. I have had zero issues with it. Makes pretty quick work of my tires.

I typically run about 15 at flagpole to help smooth out the ride.
 
Tire pressure... Something you can experiment with. I will say you can go as low as 10psi on stock wheels. Have an air source with you.

What you will find airing down is 1) a smoother ride due to tire flex and 2) better grip on most challenges.

The air down tool you are showing actually removes the valve core to air down tires. The valve stays captive in the tool. Just remember to re-install it before removing the tool.
 
I don't know if we need to air-down for the upcoming fall ride but I bought this deflator kit in case:

View attachment 5323
Anyone have problems with this type of deflator? Is 25 lbs. the going trail pressure for stock K02 tires?
Those things are fantastic. You can air down a 33” tire in about a minute. Indispensable trail gear right there.

25psi is well on the conservative side of low pressure. I typically go down to about 14psi, sometimes 12psi if it’s really rocky (like RC). Like with disconnecting the sway bar, it helps smooth out the ride dramatically and you don’t get the side to side jarring and bumping over small rocks on the trail.
 
I started bringing a 6 ton bottle Jack along with my high lift. The base plate I have works with both after I did a little sanding work. I make sure when I go out that we have all certain items and combined we have what we need to get us off the trail.


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I started bringing a 6 ton bottle Jack along with my high lift. The base plate I have works with both after I did a little sanding work. I make sure when I go out that we have all certain items and combined we have what we need to get us off the trail.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I bring a bottle jack (5 ton) and a milsurp scissor style jack from a HMMWV. The HMMWV jack only has a 1” round pin at the top, so I welded up a two-directional “cradle“ that has rounded grooves for the axle tube one direction and the LCA’s the other. It fits on top the pin and works great for lifting and holding the Jeep stable. It’s a lot more secure than the bottle jack with just the flat waffled surface.


DEAD68EA-8729-4374-8323-B58317ECBDA1.jpeg
 
Amazingly bad things can happen on the simplest of rides. My second club ride in 2007 on FP a guys Super 35 blew up, we trail fixed that then the pax side short shaft sheared (wheel came off) while under tow which resulted in the axle hitting the ground and twisting 45 degrees so it pointed at the pax rear. Destroyed all steering gear and all 4 control ams. An epic night of wrenching and the delivery of a "new" axle with all the fixing to FP Knob.

We used winches, hi-lifts, straps....and about every piece of recovery gear that the group had.

On FLAGPOLE!!!

You never know it will be needed.
 
I bring a bottle jack (5 ton) and a milsurp scissor style jack from a HMMWV. The HMMWV jack only has a 1” round pin at the top, so I welded up a two-directional “cradle“ that has rounded grooves for the axle tube one direction and the LCA’s the other. It fits on top the pin and works great for lifting and holding the Jeep stable. It’s a lot more secure than the bottle jack with just the flat waffled surface.


View attachment 5459
"I bring a bottle jack (5 ton)"

Not all the way awake yet...I first read "I bring 5 bottles of Jack" :ROFLMAO:
 
Amazingly bad things can happen on the simplest of rides. My second club ride in 2007 on FP a guys Super 35 blew up, we trail fixed that then the pax side short shaft sheared (wheel came off) while under tow which resulted in the axle hitting the ground and twisting 45 degrees so it pointed at the pax rear. Destroyed all steering gear and all 4 control ams. An epic night of wrenching and the delivery of a "new" axle with all the fixing to FP Knob.

We used winches, hi-lifts, straps....and about every piece of recovery gear that the group had.

On FLAGPOLE!!!

You never know it will be needed.
My GAWD! A voice from the past! How have you been John?
 
My GAWD! A voice from the past! How have you been John?
Doing well Chris. Left DC in 2020. Was going to retire but a buddy in Va Beach asked me to come back to my old command for a few years to help out. Loving it. No off roading since leaving NOVA area. The ham radio contesting has become a passion. XJ still makes trips up into the mountains but as my radio station. I sort of wish I had not "overbuilt it". Its no fun on anything but the dumbest of trails and my desire for adrenalin hits has faded as I go into my 60's. Its also a couple of weekends of work to strip out the radio gear, mast, RF cabling and DC power system to get it ready to off road. That tempers the des
 
Hotel computer timed out......

That tempers the desire to get her back into rock crawling form.

Should probably PM this but how have you been? Obviously still on the forums, still teaching the newbies all the hard stuff at The Cove?
I hope the DST level 1 and level 2 at the Cove still happen at some level as well as the end of the year ride at Flag Pole. Some epic stuff in both cases. I miss Corum. Still have not made it up (or down) Pennsyltukian, thats approaching bucket list status for me.

Looked hard at buying a house near downtown (above the walking mall) in Winchester (got to retire at some time) but ended up passing on it.

Hope to see you again on the trail.

John
 
Here is a strawman for posting ride requirements.:


Ride overview; i.e. Flag pole run, Rauch creek run, Cove Black and Blue trail ride Green trail ride, advanced trail ride, bring a trailer to get home ride etc. Note: supply a little narative here to describe what to expect. IF you are setting up a potluck run add the detail here

When: Feb 30 2023

Rally point/meeting location: Place, address, map or park lot. Meeting time zero dark 30 depart zero dark 45

Required gear: (Required for all club trail rides)

1) Jeep in good working order
2) full size spare and way top change it
3) Trail tools to include any tool specific to your gear. (I.e 2 inch open end wrench or lefthanded hammer)
4) First aid kit for you vehicle and occupants
5) fire extinguisher
6) frame mounted recovery points
Note : For advanced rides Recovery gear will be required

Optional Gear
1) comms ( two way radio) GMRS or CB ( not many running CB anymore)
2) recovery gear (Lead and tail should have recovery gear)
3) food and drink
4) winch

trail lead (you name here)
2) attendee (their name here)
3) attendee
4) attendee
Tail) (their name here)

Photos can be found at add Website


Note:
The above is a guide for the new folks looking to set up rides. in the begning of this thread we explained why certain things are required. all riders have some responsibility on the trail ride to make sure they are prepared for the run with the Lead/Tail managing the ride.

Depending on the duration of you run, lodging/camping might be a consideration for multi day events.

Fees associated with the trail run (i.e. Peters Mill has a NFS fee associated with it.)
 
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Not sure I consider snacks "optional"....but I am sure that is just me 😛
I am going with optional as most folk I trust to know to bring something with them if they are going to be out all day. When I put that in optional I was more referring to the Pot Luck runs we do or the planned cookout runs. For a lot of my runs I will brew up some trail grog to share with all. The idea is that other will chip in if they can and enjoy the whole expirence. By the by @mopar31898 get the credit or blame for that 🤪
 
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