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Trail Run Plans/Reports

47K views 190 replies 57 participants last post by  gspfunk 
#1 ·
Since some of us enjoy taking our WK's off-road, I think it might be helpful to have a place where we can plan trips, share trail data and show what we've been up to on the trails.

I have two weeks to invest in the Colorado/Utah areas this spring/summer.

I am trying to balance Grand Slam, the opening of the San Juans(Poughkeepsie Gulch is beckoning me back....see pic) and meeting the folks at Saguaro to get a winch-bumper.

I know Tom Z and Acid will be interested, as well as Russ, if he is signed up.

Let's go wheelin' boys and girls(Darrell Waltrip).

Kevin
 

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#141 · (Edited)
Birmingham Cahaba WMA Run

For those of you around Birmingham, you can find a great trail ride at the Cahaba Wildlife Management Area west of Helena. I've never done it end to end but the reclaimed coal seem on the south side of the river has turned into a must see ride and is several miles long. Sundays afternoons are best as the mining activity is minimal. Message me if you want to ride. I know a couple of other off road tours to do in Central Alabama but nothing you need rock rails for. :D
 

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#143 ·
Crawlarado Peeps! Fall colors are right around the corner! The willows are already starting in a few areas, who's up to do some easy passes/trails in the next couple of weeks?

Sam
 
#149 ·
I just brought a 2010 Grand Cherokee and want to lift it a bit, can I just install larger springs and shocks or is there anything else that needs to be changed, i was only thinking of a couple of inches ?
It's a 3.0 D



Sent from my iPad using JeepGarage
Here ya go. Old Man Emu offers different types of springs for the 2 inch lift depending on how much front and rear weight load your WK will typically carry. Such as winch, bull bars, towing, etc.

http://www.oldmanemu.com.au/old-man-emu-suspension-selector/
 
#151 ·
My First Trip

So I took my new 2015 WK2 JGC Summit Platinum 4x4 Diesel for it's first offroad trip last weekend (I hadn't even had it a week yet). I just moved to the San Diego area so I didn't know where to go and ended up just searching online. We ended up going east on the 8 into Cleveland National Forest and taking some trails near Bear Valley Road. It performed pretty well for being bone stock. We took one of the trails up a mountain until we ran into a gate and had to head back down. On our way back to the main road we saw some washes and little trails off the main trail and decided to take a few of them. Wow was it worth it. These trails were pretty much flat so I could get the beast going a bit and then 2 of the trail made circles right around a single tree each. Of course that meant drifting around trees in the dirt!!! :-D After that we headed back to the road and a large puddle we had seen on the way in. Now that I had been hooning around a bit, I wasn't as tentative about baptizing my new car in the mud so we pulled off the trail and started plowing through the puddle! It was so much fun! After a few trips through I left my buddy at the other end and had him video it. Then I got out and was going to video him taking her through it...That's when I noticed a piece of plastic hanging down underneath her. That's what I get for taking her out before my skid plates came in. :-/ We stopped, pulled it off and called it a day. On the way out we also found my front license plate bracket and another plastic piece I am assuming cam from somewhere on my vehicle. All in all it was a great day and the damage is nothing really. Can't wait to take her out again!
 

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#152 · (Edited)
Re: My First Trip

So I took my new 2015 WK2 JGC Summit Platinum 4x4 Diesel for it's first offroad trip last weekend (I hadn't even had it a week yet). I just moved to the San Diego area so I didn't know where to go and ended up just searching online. We ended up going east on the 8 into Cleveland National Forest and taking some trails near Bear Valley Road. It performed pretty well for being bone stock. We took one of the trails up a mountain until we ran into a gate and had to head back down. On our way back to the main road we saw some washes and little trails off the main trail and decided to take a few of them. Wow was it worth it. These trails were pretty much flat so I could get the beast going a bit and then 2 of the trail made circles right around a single tree each. Of course that meant drifting around trees in the dirt!!! :-D After that we headed back to the road and a large puddle we had seen on the way in. Now that I had been hooning around a bit, I wasn't as tentative about baptizing my new car in the mud so we pulled off the trail and started plowing through the puddle! It was so much fun! After a few trips through I left my buddy at the other end and had him video it. Then I got out and was going to video him taking her through it...That's when I noticed a piece of plastic hanging down underneath her. That's what I get for taking her out before my skid plates came in. :-/ We stopped, pulled it off and called it a day. On the way out we also found my front license plate bracket and another plastic piece I am assuming cam from somewhere on my vehicle. All in all it was a great day and the damage is nothing really. Can't wait to take her out again!
Extremely lucky you didn't hydrolock your engine going that fast through the puddle. And I'd be a little more worried about dragging the bottom around too. That plastic piece you removed was probably your front sump cover and behind that are some important things...looks like it even traveled down into the middle of the undercarriage and got stuck on something there. Not good.

Someone that wasn't so lucky with the same part (I think) breaking on theirs:

http://www.jeepgarage.org/f190/front-skid-plate-for-wk2-52330.html#post732169

So there easily could have been some considerable damage to your Summit.
 
#162 ·
So I called and spoke with Bill the other day and ordered the sump and transmission plates. They have already shipped but from what I understand, it may take a couple months for them to make the long voyage over here. In the meantime, my factory plates should be arriving tomorrow. I will be installing them Saturday and I have already installed the DEF plate that someone on here created. With all that installed I plan on making a trip up to Big Bear this weekend with my Dad (and the 85' CJ he just bought) and my nephew (and the 04' Wrangler he just bought). It should be a fun trip of trying out our new toys! I will post pics when I get back!
 
#163 · (Edited)
Damn, a couple of months?! That's a little brutal, but I guess it is halfway across the globe.

Glad to hear you got those parts though. You'll probably be one the first few in the U.S. to be running them on your Jeep.

Have fun on your trip though and definitely take some pics for us to see! Safe journeys.

-
*Also apologize for sidetracking this thread a bit. Now, back on with the Trail Reports, everyone!
 
#164 · (Edited)
So instead of going to Big Bear last weekend, my dad, my nephew and I went up the backside of Idyllwild via The Bee Canyon Trail. It was rated a 2 in the guide book my dad has but it seemed more like a 3 or 4 to me. The adventure went smooth with one exception...my dad lost a bolt for the master brake cylinder (I think) on his 85' CJ7 while going through a paticularly bumpy section of the trail. We had some spare bolts but nothing long enough so we had to McGyver it with a screwdriver and some electrical tape (to keep it from sliding out). The way we found out he had an issue was as follows...I was leading and my portable CB wasn't working very well, I heard a little noise that sounded almost like whining, I was just beginning to wonder if something was up with the Quadra-lift system when I realize it is my dad's horn. So I stop and get out and as he is pulling up he is telling me my nephew stopped to take a picture and we should wait...well he only gets halfway through telling me when he yells "MOVE YOUR CAR". It took a half-second for me to realize what he was saying so I jump in my car, throw it in drive and drive few feet forward. Finally he stops in a rut right where my car had been a few seconds earlier and tells me that he has no brakes. Sorry for the long story but it was a pretty scary few seconds when I thought my brand new car was about to be slammed into. Anyway we fixed it and the rest of the trail went smoothly. I was really impressed by my Jeep and the way it handled this trail! Sorry I didn't take any pictures but my dad took a bunch of video footage via his GoPro. I have posted the video from when he was following me.
 
#165 ·
I had a great time last weekend on the 2015 Ghost Town Excursion trip and thought I'd share a bit of the adventure and how the WK2 did.

Here's a quick little description of the 2 day event:

The Ghost Town Excursion is a fun off-roading adventure to explore some of the old ghost towns outside Carson City, Nevada. The focus of this trip is for owners of pre-runner and off road vehicles of all types to make new friends and get their rigs dirty. Family and friends are welcome to attends as this is meant to be a social group, not just a run for the boys. As with all off road trips these are a meant to be a community activity as we all know something can always happen on the trail and supporting each other is key.

First off, I wasn't quite sure what kind of "pre-runner and off road vehicles" to expect going on the trip along with me and how difficult the terrain would get, but relied upon the director's word that I would have no problem in my Jeep.

I should have looked a little harder at the event page and realized it was arranged by the Raptor Offroad Community and most of the people there had tricked out Ford Raptors. :eek: I was one of maybe 2 other guys with a different SUV at similar ride heights who were most often left in the dust when the Raptors let loose on the dirt. I was the only Jeep Grand Cherokee present and I was referred to as "Hey, Jeep..." the whole trip. But I at least had my new Cooper ST Maxx tires on, which turned out to be the most important upgrade I made before the trip and really made a difference.

The trails mainly consisted of fast dirt roads that would quickly lead into rocky washboard type situations and back out to a fast dirt road again, which the Raptors absolutely thrived on. The WK2 on the other hand, didn't fair quite as well as they did obviously. I was still able to get moving up to 60+ MPH on some of the roads, as we all followed each other in a long caravan to each ghost town destination. Similar independent front suspensions between the Raptor and the WK2 showed how well they handle bumps at higher speeds, but the Raptors were just flat out dominating the trails like it was the Baja Rally. One of the Raptors actually was a full on rally team modified rig, complete with matching sponsored out headsets and full on pre-runner mods. It was insane looking and performing! Sad I didn't get a photo of it though.

We had our entire trail plan marked up on our GPS for everyone to have in case they were separated from the group (which happened to us of course), of which a few checkpoints were marked as "JUMP" and I didn't realize exactly what that meant until we reached them. They were legit jumps that I cruised over gingerly and the Raptors flew over, probably 30 feet in some situations I witnessed. Badass to say the least!

As I said, the most important upgrade I had for the trails were the new Cooper ST Maxx tires and they aired down beautifully to make the dirt roads much more manageable and comfortable. I was extremely impressed with how well they did on the whole trip. What I was severely lacking though, was an on-board/portable air compressor to air back up when we hit the gravel roads in between the trails and an off road lighting system so I could be more easily seen through the dirt clouds as we all moved along. Not only do my tinted taillights make me harder to see, but the WK2 collects so much dirt debris on the back end while driving, my lights were basically rendered useless on the trail and I really hated that.

Time to look into some changes and more upgrades to the Jeep before the next event I guess!

All in all, it was a blast and really cool to get out there with other drivers, even if they were a bunch of Raptors. :)

I'll tell you what though, I wouldn't mind having one of those machines (it's a Ford, I know :eek:) after seeing what they did last weekend. So many dirt drifts handled with ease....so many aftermarket parts...soo fast...sounds so good... ughh :drool:

Here are some pics I got along the way with my phone and a video I took testing out my new drone following the WK2 on part of the trip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2uKaD3_3wQ

*The photo showing the precariously tilted Raptor was almost a big rollover down a hill as we were on our way to the Golden Gate Mine. The driver was hauling ass up this blind hill on the trail and came over it with way too much speed and thankfully didn't roll. His rear driver's side tire caught on a boulder and kept it from flipping, but it proved to be a big recovery after he had to change tires because he basically split that wheel in half as he collided with the rock. No other major damage we could see, but I'm sure he found more when he got home to inspect. The photo of the blue Wrangler and the FJ were the winch assistance for the recovery.
 

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#168 ·
Im heading out to West coast soon, going to stop at Death Valley. Has anyone taken their Grand cherokee on the Steele Pass or Lippincott trails? Any thoughts on these trails? I have done some trails in Death Valley before but that was in lifted WK with rock rails
I have not had a chance to add rockrails so Im wondering if it's just a mistake to event hink about these trials.
I do have an Overland with QL & larger Duratrac tires 275/65/18.
 
#170 · (Edited)
Re: Trail Run Plans/Reports ( AZ )

Arizona peeps?

Any of you guys USING your wks and wk2s out here other than me?
That's a big 10-4. 5wks of owning and it was pin striped. Seems there are a few local wk2 owners on the boards. Maybe we should gather up for an outing.
 
#176 ·
Ive been through some fairly gnarly stuff and never felt compelled to use 4L. Mind you, I like my Jeeps. I dont toss them up or down huge rock walls, or very tippy ledges, etc. But I get into deep mud and sand, loose rock high incline climbs, etc and with proper driving and a good spotter... I do just fine. When I choose to get a bit crazier...Im always with someone, or a group who could help me out if needed. Just hasnt been necessary yet. As far as the links above, Cinders is easy. Its just a play ground. Broken Arrow, theres only one large climb over rock that would concern me and I bypass it for now til my rails get here, but ive been over it before in other vehicles without issue. The rest of the trail is manageable for even stock 4wd SUVs with decent ground clearance.
 
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