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Blue Mountain, Day Trip, Southwestern BCAuthor: Larry Soo Date: September 22/96
WHO WENT
TRAIL RATING:8 or 9 on the Jeep Jamboree Scale or a 7 (8 if you take the optional sections) on our local scale.
REPORT:Chad, a member of the Lionsgaters, put together a day trip to a nearby trail system approximately 45 minutes east of Vancouver in the Maple Ridge area. Participants were either Lionsgaters & relatives or 'net friends of mine whom I brought along (hi Ed, hi Jonathan).As you might guess, Traci had the toughest time since her YJ had the least amount of ground clearance, aggressive tread, and articulation (swaybar was connected). She had problems at each of the three main obstacles near the beginning of the trail. About a quarter of the way through, I disconnected her swaybars (no disconnects so it was a bit difficult) which improved things a bit for her. She showed a lot of spunk but she'll need to make some basic mods to her YJ before it can tackle level 6+ trails. She said she'll start with swaybar disconnects which I think is an excellent idea. The Defender and TJ seemed to perform about the same although the TJ had a rear ls and the Defender had more ground clearance and BFG MTs. Jonathan needed more help on this trail than the first one he ever went on a few weekends ago but it was expected because the uneven, wet rock surface made it difficult to avoid spinning a tire. Still, he did very well and many of the guys thought the TJ was quite wonderful. They were also impressed that Jonathan always tried to finesse things, first. There's a very deep puddle about 15 metres long and in some places, over 32" deep. Chad's Ranger (mild lift, 32" tires) ingested some water and died just before his front wheels reached dry land. Needless to say, his feet got wet when he climbed out to dry land. We pulled him out, opened up the air box, and wrung his air filter dry. There didn't appear to be any water in the intake manifold and after some cranking with the coil disconnected, Doug determined that there was no water in the cylinders. The motor started just fine but ran a bit uneven. Chad was very relieved that there was no serious damage. I guess he'll be modifying his air intake real soon so it no longer draws from beneath the headlight. I drove though in my YJ with no problems. Thanks, in part, to the PVC pipe snorkel I copied from the Hansens.
I climbed the big rock steps again (in one try, I might add
After seeing Pam's YJ trying to climb the rock steps, I'd have to
say that a rear locker is better (in most cases, not all) than a
front/rear limited slip. Even with my cheapo suspension, I think
my rear locker, 31x10.5 tires YJ had an easier time of things
than her f/r TrueTrac'd, 32x11.5 tires YJ with its Old Man Emu
suspension. Of course, other considerations such as tire &
drivetrain wear and icy road handling can sometimes make the
limited slip diffs a better choice, too.
Hmmm...another consideration is that I have an auto tranny which
I secretly believe to be a great benefit when climbing up tricky
sections. And what about downhill? I replace my brakes every
year.
A short while later, after playing around on some other obstacles
and bumping along the trail, Chad's Ranger died again. Doug had
a look at it and, after a lot of mucking about, it started again.
No one, including Doug, knows what they did (if anything) to get
it running again.
In total (including lunch), we spent about 5 or 6 hours on the
power line trail which was about 15-20 Km long. Most of the time
was spent on either Chad's Ranger or pulling the unlocked rigs.
Since we had the luxury of having 2 keys to the main entrance gate,
some of the group opted to leave for home while the other half
continued to explore other trails.
For the second leg, these were the participants:
I asked Doug if there were any hard trails and he said there was
one but it was rather hard. I insisted that he show us. The
un-named trail would take us to a scenic viewpoint atop Blue Mtn
from where we could see Vancouver. To get there, we had to climb
a very rocky, eroded trail. The trail was rough but no one had
problems until the first obstacle. It was a steep climb along
one side of a gulley. Dave broke a motor mount which caused his
clutch linkage to come apart. After putting it back together, he
opted to park the CJ7 and ride with Pam. Doug, Chad & I made it
up without a problem. Pam required a bit more work and Jonathan
needed some rock piling. I expected Chad to have an easy time of
it because it was one of those hill climb things where a long
wheelbase generally has an advantage. Still, he made it look
very easy. Just past that section, where none of the short
wheelbase vehicles had any problem, Chad got hung-up and needed a
lot of help to get out of the gulley. A gain, it was a wheelbase
thing; it giveth and it taketh away.
At a T junction, we stopped for a short break and examined a
challenge section. It consisted of a pile of logs, the first of
which formed a step which was a "biggie". They were also at a
slight angle to the road and WET. Chad decided to try first and
managed to get hooked on a stump before even touching the log.
After yanking him off with the Samurai, we all turned around to
proceed to the top of Blue Mtn. Just before I drove off, Chad
radio'd that he needed help. This time, he caught himself on
another HUGE stump. He was blocking the road and we couldn't
pull him backwards so we had to jack up his front end and pile
enough wood under the front tire so the axle could clear the
stump. We started calling him "Stumpy" from then on.
After some more rock bouncing and climbing, we came to another
uphill obstacle which took a lot of effort from the unlocked
rigs. Chad didn't even bother to try this one parked his Ranger
and rode with me. Pam & Jonathan needed some road building and
coaching but they both made it up.
That was the last obstacle which required spotting. From then
on, it was just a rough drive to the end of the trail. By this
time, the weather had cleared and we were afforded a nice but
somewhat hazy view of Vancouver. Very cool.
On the way down, I managed to get stuck going downhill. I had
just driven my front end off a stump when the rear diff got hung
up on it. FYI, this stump was WIDER than my Jeep. You should
have seen Chad's (aka Stumpy) eyes light up when he discovered
that I was stuck on a stump! He had a huge grin on his face and
slowly grabbed my microphone to announce what had happened. Doug,
who was a ways ahead of me, was going to come back to yank me
forward. Oh, the shame of being pulled by a Suzuki! Desperate to
avoid this fate, I tried rocking the Jeep back and forth while
Dave piled some rocks under my rear tires. After some frantic
shifting I was FREE!!! And there's no pictures to prove it ever
happened! HAH!
After picking up the Ranger and CJ7, we reached the main trail
and decided to do the "Suzuki Trail," so named because Samurais
seem to do it very easily. It was a windy trail through
extremely dense forest. The trees were very tall (approx 40+
feet) and bare on their lower regions. They did an effective job
in cutting out the light and we needed out headlights to see the
trail. There's only one really tricky section here. A stump &
root system in the middle of an uphill part of the trail. The
downhill side is badly eroded and the only route (unless you're
driving a monster truck) is to charge along the left side and
then cut hard right a few inches before you hit a tree. Doug and
his Suzuki made it easily. I just barely made it (the first time
ever!!!!). Pam made it only after wildly spinning her tires all
over the stump. Chad didn't 'cuz he left his Ranger at the
trailhead (a good idea). Jonathan couldn't make it so we winched
him through...and in the process, pulled off his passenger-side
running board. It looks fixable so we'll try to repair it on Tue or Wed
night.
By that time, it was around 7:30p so we went to Boston Pizza
for dinner and then headed our separate ways.
However, the other lifted vehicles (approx 2-3") seemed to
have just as much articulation as the stock coil-sprung
rigs. In other words, if you're considering selling your
fuel injected YJ just to get a TJ's suspension, I think
you'd be better off installing an OME suspension kit
instead...or check out Tomken's coil spring kit when it
comes out. As for myself, I'm still impressed at how well
my cheapo McCoy springs work.
...lars
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