Jeepin' the dream.

[chevymitchell]

Good evening everyone.

I got back to NC from my Big Bear, CA portion of the trip this afternoon. I ended up skipping the Pinyon Mountain Trail is SOCAL due to time, but that leaves a perfect excuse to go back.

We showed up in Vegas on Thursday night and everything went smooth. Got a cab to the storage unit, started the JL up, and then headed to Big Bear. My Warn 10-S was waiting for me at the hotel and had arrived a few days before I did. My little brother and I got up early on Friday morning and put the winch on the JL in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn. They didn't seem to mind at all and they helped a brother out by letting me borrow a 3" extension from their maintenance department.

Once the winch was installed, we hit up John Bull and Gold Mountain. This took us from about 10AM to about 5PM to complete both. I got hung up on John Bull really bad (wheel base didn't help me here) and the winch came through. LOL. Thank goodness I decide to install it on this trip. I ended up using it 3 times to save my ass and twice, it was really bad; unrecoverable without outside recovery help. (Winch since I was wheeling alone).

On Saturday morning we hit up Holcomb Creek at about 630AM. This trail was awesome. Got hung up on this one, too. Bad enough to slide off a rock, high center, and have the drivers side tires off the ground. It was an awesome pucker factor moment, but a stump and the winch came through for me. Big Bear is a must do. It was a lot of fun, especially to be able to do it with my brother. It's good practice for the Rubicon.

Damage so far has been minimal. Rock sliders have been a staple to saving the body. Bumpers, diff covers, cross member, driveshaft joint at rear diff, shock mounts have all taken hits. All survived just fine with scrapes and bruises. Every wheel has rash, two pretty bad. Driver's front tire has a cut in the sidewall, otherwise, tires have held up nicely through all this wheelin'. I managed to hit the back of the license plate without ripping the license plate bracket off. One small nick on the black part of the passenger rear fender. Nothing you'd notice without it being super clean and me pointing it out.

We drove to Phoenix from Big Bear yesterday and I stored the JL again. It'll be waiting for me to come get it next month.

Anyway, below is a bunch of pics from the winch install and trails. Please enjoy. They're in no particular order.

I've also included a couple videos just for fun:
Jeep Carousel - https://www.dropbox.com/s/r18if1lighx3ctq/IMG_1802.MOV?dl=0
High Center Recovery - https://www.dropbox.com/s/9xktjte81do4mmn/IMG_1803.MOV?dl=0

Thank you! Talk to you soon.

Page 1 itinerary updated!

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[UNC Rubicon]

I wish I could like that more than once. I legit LOL’d at several of those pictures. Glad to see you having the time of your life out there.

 

[chevymitchell]

I wish I could like that more than once. I legit LOL’d at several of those pictures. Glad to see you having the time of your life out there.

Lol. Thanks man. We really did have a blast. My little brother and I have a good time every time we get together. The picture of him laying down is when he fell. The dust on the rocks was super slippery. It was hilarious.

 

[POWDO]

Great pics and that looks like one hell of a good time! Thanks for sharing.

 

[mgroeger]

Killer pics as usual! Couple of questions:

Are you running stock height or do you have a lift? It appears stock.
Does the Rubi have more skid plating then the Sahara? We took a wicked hit on Dickey Bell and banged the cross member good. The rock would have punched a hole in the exhaust had the cross member not been there.
Did your front under the bumper skid plate get used? I am putting on a new bumper and winch but I will lose the cheapo plastic front skid in the process and buying a steel one is on the to do lift.

Side note: We have a 2.5" RC budget lift which ultimately gives 2" of clearance. The Mrs. has said she now wants to put the Rubi springs and shocks I have sitting in the garage on it as well as keeping the lift.
Since this is her Jeep I'm in the market for one now. Keeping my eyes out for a 2003 - 2006 Rubi.

 

[chevymitchell]

Killer pics as usual! Couple of questions:

Are you running stock height or do you have a lift? It appears stock.
Does the Rubi have more skid plating then the Sahara? We took a wicked hit on Dickey Bell and banged the cross member good. The rock would have punched a hole in the exhaust had the cross member not been there.
Did your front under the bumper skid plate get used? I am putting on a new bumper and winch but I will lose the cheapo plastic front skid in the process and buying a steel one is on the to do lift.

Side note: We have a 2.5" RC budget lift which ultimately gives 2" of clearance. The Mrs. has said she now wants to put the Rubi springs and shocks I have sitting in the garage on it as well as keeping the lift.
Since this is her Jeep I'm in the market for one now. Keeping my eyes out for a 2003 - 2006 Rubi.

I appreciate it, man.

That's a good question about the skids. I'm not sure on the axle skid plates. I'm sure the Sahara has the standard skid plates, but wouldn't have the metal bumper skid unless you got the steel bumper option. I use mine all the time to push up over ledges that are a hair too tall.

The cross member on the JL is 10 fold better than the JK. That thing is taking some abuse from me and has held up very well. I dented my exhaust because it does kind of hang down a little bit, but not too bad.

My JL is stock height. I don't have any intention of lifting it until I get it back home, which should be around the end of October. This thing is crazy capable out of the box. I didn't see the point in putting all the money into parts until I tear up the factory stuff first. Lol. There's a special challenge to doing these trails stock, which I really like. With that said, a LCG 3-4" lift with 37's is in my future. Then I'll go back and do it all over again and attack some things I couldn't before.

I'll keep my eye out for you. I'm always looking at used Jeeps. You never know when a good deal comes along.

 

[mgroeger]

Thanks!! Greatly appreciate that!
I'm going to do some research on the skid plating of the Rubi vs. Sahara.

 

[snowren24]

Just came across this thread. Looks like quite the adventure! Have you been able to continue your journey?

 

[chevymitchell]

Just came across this thread. Looks like quite the adventure! Have you been able to continue your journey?

Thanks man. It was quite an adventure this past year.

This particular trip has been completed. I'll end up editing the original post to close the trip out for now.

This next year will be quite the adventure, as well, and I'll start a new thread for that. I picked up my Jeep Jamboree Platinum membership about a month ago, which let me sign up for Jamboree's a week early. This ensured me a spot on the Rubicon Jamboree in 2019. It usually sells out within minutes. I think it was 7 minutes last year; something like that.

Anyway, next year is going to be badass. I've got Snowbird in Florida in January, then Rubicon, Ouray, MOAB, and Uwharrie on the Jamboree list and then whatever Badge Trails I can hit in the mean time. I ordered a set of 37's during black Friday. I'm excited to see what this next year brings.

Thanks again.

 

[mgroeger]

Great pics! Thanks for posting all of them. Only quickly scrolled through the Telluride/Ouray and Big Bear ones....will have to revisit later and look at the others (I think you mentioned a Moab trip).

Are you guys going solo on all this stuff? I'd sure want a 2nd vehicle. Have you guys had any issues with the 2 battery system in your JLUR? Ran into a guy on Imogene that had his crap out a couple of times....this was before anyone really knew about the wire mod to jump from the fuse box. I'm still fuzzy on how that works, but if we go out solo, I feel like that's someone one MUST know.

What wire mod are you talking about?!?! Link?
My wife's Jeep is at the dealer right now for aux stop start failure and throwing an error code. I keep it disabled with the Tazer but if there is a way to bypass that POS I'd love to know.

 

[mgroeger]

Sorry...not sure where it's at on the forum. Try searching something like "Jumper Mod".

Fail... we're breaking up.

 

[mgroeger]

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/3-6l-ess-aux-battery-bypass.17293/

Can we get back together now? I've been doing my kegels, lol.

Seriously though....lots of reading involved. Goes to multiple threads.........

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/3-6l-ess-dual-battery-consolidated-information.25377/

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/3-6l-ess-battery-basics.20794/

HTH....I probably should re-read the first link to be sure I understand what to jump exactly....as well as buy the parts to make the jumper wire.

I'll take it under consideration... lol. Thanks for the links. I don't want to derail my friend's thread so I'll drop this topic now

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