What a trip! It was filled with good times, friends, and food. This was my 4th or 5th time doing a wheeling trip in Moab and it was one of the most difficult Moab trips I have done. I have been spoiled by small Jeeps with big tires. Wheeling a full size Dodge Ram was more work that I remember.
We hit the road from Mesa at 1pm and by 2pm we had our first breakdown. The Ford Ranger busted a radiator. Not at problem. We found a replacement and Avis and Matt had the old one out before we could get back. The new one went in and we were on our way.
After we picked up a rider and dropped off some dogs in Flagstaff we made our way to Canyon Land Campgrounds in Moab. It was an uneventful trip. Pulled in about 11 or so, set up camp and went to sleep.
Friday we got up early grabbed some grub and hit the road. We picked a Moab classic to wake up the rigs and let the drivers get a feel for the slick rock. Hells Revenge! We aired down and started to climb when the Ford back down and the driver got out. The 4wd was not working. We messed with it for a bit and then parked it and had them jump in the Dodge.
We had a great time going over the hills and taking in the sights. I couldn’t get anyone to do Hells gate. Me? I busted a cap on a Ujoint and didn’t want to risk it… Yeah that’s my story.
After the trail we headed back to camp and pulled the front shaft and had a new joint pressed in. 165K on the original joint. Not bad if you ask me.
After a dinner of BACON Pizza we headed out to Picture frame arch to watch the sun set and see the Blue Moon. I made a wrong turn and we didn’t get to the arch for the sunset but we still had a great show!
Pics and more to come. Feel free to post up your pics.






Hood up again

And... Home. Manged to get some more body damage after everyone left, ran a few more trails but wasn't quite the same with everyone gone. I had an awesome time with everyone, couldn't have asked for a better group of people to spend time with wheeling, eating, whatever. I"ll Get my pictures up sometime this weekend, looking forward to everyone elses!

I'm looking forward to Chris' video...

alanzona wrote:I'm looking forward to Chris' video...

Doh!!!

Had a great trip! Thanks for putting this together Bob!

Things I learned:
Apparently you're supposed to fill the tranny all the way, or it doesn't climb too well.
I am destined to damage something of Bob's on every trip.
Ford owners can be cool, despite the vehicles they drive. :)) (Thanks for coming Derrick and Melissa)

I captured a few pics on my horrible phone, and Lenny sent me a couple. Hopefully these will hold you over till Bob, Avis, and Lenny post.

from the top of the arch we visited on Poison Spider


I decided blacked out rims are two thousand and late, so I browned mine out.


The views are awesome pretty much everywhere. Shiny Jeep stopped to pose for a couple on fins and things



Ran BFE in the WJ.

We took an alternate exit


No dings or scratches till the last day. Guess it's time to cut her up and toob her now.

Moab Burger Quest?

The Moab Brewery - 3 PBRs - Cajun Burger - good burger, I was pretty hungry so I don't remember much about it. We had a few appetizers. The Nachos were super tasty.


Milt's Stop and Eat - 4 PBRs - Popper Bacon Cheese Burger - best burger in Moab - The daily special was jalapeno poppers on a bacon cheeseburger. Made my selection pretty easy. The place is a little 4 stool dive with tables outside under a tree on the old main drag on the way to hells revenge and fins and things. They have a flattop that looks like it's 100 years old and has lots of flavor cooked into it. The burger was great, plenty of crispy bacon, melty cheese, and yep... jalapeno poppers. They also serve shakes in a lot of different flavors. I went off the map and got butterscotch. It was almost as good as the burger. It's good we hadn't found this place earlier, I would have eaten there every day.

Well, we arrived late on Thursday night, due to the I17 being closed for a while, and a radiator blowing up.. The fun started at the Carefree Chevron..

After that, we ran all the way to camp with no problems. Got there around 1130, and hit the sack.

Friday morning, we decided to start with Hells Revenge.


I think the Ford was hiding behind the big trucks, but it never made it past the parking lot... turns out the motor that shifts it into 4wd took a crap, so we decided we would look into fixing it that afternoon.

During the course of the first trail, Bob cracked a u-joint, so he finished most of the trail in 2wd, we all went back to camp and got to work on the dodge, and the ford.



The next day, we decided to run Poison Spider trail







I feel like Bob was just trying to get body damage...

That last picture is where the Ford decided it had enough...

Ended up yanking the CV shaft out of it's "socket", and try as we might we couldn't get it to pop back in. So we ended up pulling it clear out, and we would have to get him back out in 2wd.. but, not before we went ahead on the trail a ways.


Racing to the center of the arch..







Ended up gettin him off the trail, but on the road the unit bearing decided to let loose.. so, we waited around with the truck while Bob and Derick went into town to find a solution.. we ended up getting it put together enough to limp it into town at a whopping 10-15 mph if we were lucky.



Not being able to get any parts for it, Derick and his GF rode with Bob the next day on Fins & Things.

After that, we headed into town for lunch, then decided to hit up Strike Revenge (I think thats what it was called). This turned out to be one of the hardest trails we did.. the first hill climb was the worst.



This is where Matt got his rocker crunched..






Bobs ouch moment



there are no pictures to prove it, but I made this line..Pretty sure Bob could have, he just cared about his bumper more then I did mine. lol


I felt like the Colorado mountains were haunting us




Shiny Jeeps older cousin..



Coolest rig I've ever seen I think..



The other damage Bob acquired.. made steering a real pain lol




I couldn't find the Moab Ninja anywhere, but I did find a Moab Bear.

The rest of these photos were taken on the three days we ran alone, not near as fun as running with a group and we were stuck doing somewhat easy trails, but the scenery was amazing.



























Tried running Hey Jo Canyon, but it got to sketchy for me being by myself, so we had to turn around :(

And these, I forgot about... so they are not posted in any order.

''

More of hells revenge.

Having issues with some pics. Im going to try another comp and see if that can fix it.

great pics guys. having trouble deciding which to set as my wallpaper. :))

Poison Spider

It was a good day to be on the trail. We had found a quick fix for the Ford and he was ready to own Moab. We worked our way up the trail taking out time to look at all the side stuff and try some fun lines.

I believe this is the only group shot with all 4 rigs on dirt.


Dang good looking truck!








I had to keep my eye on Derrick to make sure he wasnt going to jump.

Fins and things

Avis working that V8 and those MTR's


The Girls trying to push the Dodge up from the inside. It seemed to work.






"Check out my Flex!"

Area BFE