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.
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
) 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.