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Unfortunately I ran into mechanical issues at the trailhead the morning of and ended up deciding to make the trip home. My coolant overflow/recovery tank developed a crack at the "neck" on the bottom of the tank and was pitting out a slightly worrisome amount of coolant when we stopped at the Courtright Dam to take a few photos. The location of the crack wasn't something easily patchable. My suspicion is that (with my sealed coolant system) the extreme elevation - around 9,500ft - exposed a weakness in the tank. I made it home Friday night around 10:30pm - @theksmith went on with Roger and Kevin and stayed in touch throughout the journey. I did, however, grab a few photos on the way up and on the way back down the mountain! Courtright Res. The top of Courtright Dam Looking down the dam spillway Some of the surrounding granite domes surrounding the area https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczOF3ZbF6Dm9-6Iyy7psHEqtIJu-8uK-RdVwtDSIfSxuFzWkzOO3xNTeKsFp0vJQppQVPaY6f46TqMEYAuhX4Y5an5sYXSUeUxpfRsKJSUz6DJ7k5kmsmPfYjztk9qhoAFPJUdj23lqnzap4fqiFPK7oQQ=w2048-h1365-s-no?authuser=0 Dinner-to-go on the way back down the mountains A toppled Giant Sequoia. Jeep for scale. I popped into McKinley Grove to check out the Sequoias. Literally just off the road. The grove is about 100 acres and has about 150 ginormous trees up to 2,000 years of age. The road home wasn't boring. Did my best the stay near civilization, in case the coolant tank took a dump, while also trying to skirt the LA traffic. I took the 99 south to 138, across the north side of the Angeles National Forest and down into San Bernardino to connect to the I10. The 138 was interesting, going from a fast 2-3 lane highway down to a single lane through the tiny towns of Little Rock, Pear Blossom, and Llano (which all had traffic lights). I was surprised at the number of semis on this route. Traffic, of course, came to a screeching halt in easy of these towns. The views sitting in traffic weren't half bad, though! Once I got through San Bernardino traffic it was smooth sailing - though I was tracking a pretty large storm that was sweeping through Indio/Desert Palms. Probably one of the most widespread dust storms I've personally experienced. It took about 2 hours to clear it. That said - a bummer I was unable to experience the Dusy firsthand - but looking forward to the possibility of a redemption run in the future! Looking forward to hearing about the crew's experience on the trail. 😊

we spend the night at the Thompson Lake camping area, which already had 2 other groups setup. the last time we ran the trail i only saw 2 groups the entire time, so i was starting to worry that the trail would be crowded! it turned out we only saw a couple more rigs, a couple dirt bikers, and one SxS the rest of the trip - still much more activity than 4 years ago. we parked beside the trail while we checked out one of the many small lakes you pass by. the second day it never rained, but the sky stayed interesting which made for nice photos! we took a short stroll to a picturesque creek bellow a small camp site known as Bob's Beach. many of the creeks had small trout (or some kind of fishy fishy). apparently there's good fishing in many of the nearby lakes as well. the second day still had plenty of trail challenges, but thankfully there's nothing else comparable to Thompson Hill. it we had the Ershim Lake camping area all to ourselves that evening. most of the Dusy exists in a 300ft wide corridor between 2 wilderness areas. i'm thankful we didn't loose this trail when the wilderness boundaries were created. the third day went pretty fast. the entire trail did seem rougher than my previous trip - but we still finished in 3 days comfortably. *most* of the third day moves fairly fast. near the end you have to come down the north gatekeepers, which unlike most of the trail, will get you out of your rig to walk the obstacle beforehand! there's plenty of room to camp just past the end of the trail, with 360* panoramic views. we all got a few battle scars but head a great time. Kevin sadly not only lost a mirror to a tree on the third day, but got a major crunch to the passenger a-pillar as well. Gadget broke and bent up her passenger rear aluminum fender flare - also from a tree. Roger's beast of a machine finished with only the minor dent from day one. of course all the sliders, skids, and a couple of wheels took a beating - but that's to be expected on most difficult rock crawl type trails. this time the Dusy was a doozy for sure!

You guys should try retirement. Just sayin'...

@4x4tographer - really missed having you on the trip! @TrailTractor, @Roger - great to meet you both and wheel such an epic trail together! please share any photos you grabbed... here's a shot from camp at the end of the trail to get us started!

Ill be out with my Subaru as my Jeep has been sitting neglected lately.

Here is another one that I will be trying in the next week or two. I'll report my results when I do. Creamy chicken corn skillet (filling) — 1 person Ingredients: Pre-cooked chicken, chopped: ¾ cup Cream of mushroom soup: about 10.5 oz can Use ½ to ⅔ of the can (about 5–7 oz). If you want leftovers, use the full can. Milk (or water): start with 3 tablespoons, plus more as needed to thin Garlic powder: ¼ teaspoon Black pepper: a few turns Canned corn: ½ cup drained (about 7 oz can drained, or 1/2 of a 15–15.25 oz can) (Optional) shredded cheese: ¼ cup Tortillas: 1–2 Steps: Warm the base: In a skillet over medium-low, add soup + milk + garlic powder + black pepper. Stir until smooth. If it’s too thick, add a little more milk/water (1 tbsp at a time). Add chicken + corn: Stir in chicken and corn. Cook 3–5 minutes, stirring, until everything is hot and the sauce coats the chicken. Optional cheese: If using cheese, sprinkle it in and stir until melted (about 1 minute). Use with tortillas (choose one): Tacos: Spoon filling into tortillas. Quesadilla style (best texture): Put filling on one tortilla, add a little extra cheese if you want, top with another tortilla, and cook 2–3 min per side until golden and melty.

...that's in the contiguous USA and "as the crow flies". Check out this interactive map project that shows how remote everywhere in the US is based on the distance to a road - or you can see it broken down by proximity to roads and "tracks" (i.e. include 4x4 trails, etc.). https://ryansajdak.com/remote/

Rub it in why don't ya. 😁

Tell me about it!! Over my "free" trial of adulting.....

adulting is lame!

Yup, she was able to find the pieces that were disconnected and has also ordered new bushings for both of them. Thank you all for the help and the advice.

Yes, it was trail run I won't forget, because I have a permanent reminder on the LJ from it. A lot of fun, and very challenging thanks for having me on the run!

bacon is always the answer!

In an effort to make dinner(s) a little more varied at camp I have been looking for recipes that are pretty straightforward. My thinking is cooking this ahead of time and either throw it in my 12v stove as we're wheeling or heat it up in my skillet at camp. Here is one that I cooked last night and it was pretty tasty. I used frozen diced potatoes and went with the 1 1/2 cups amount and one link of sausage. I also went with salsa instead of tomatoes. Andouille sausage is not recommended unless you like it (food that is 😁) extra spicy. This recipe says it’s for one person and one dinner. Here’s how it worked out for me: I made one small burrito last night, had enough for another one today, and still had some leftover which I quickly scarfed down. The only thing extra I added was cheese and sour cream. Chicken sausage taco potato skillet (tacos) -1 person Ingredients Fully fried cubed potatoes: 1 to 1½ cups Pre-cooked chicken, chopped: ¾ cup Smoked sausage, sliced: 4–6 oz (½ to 1 link) Taco seasoning: 1 tbsp (start here) Canned diced tomatoes or salsa: ½ cup Canned corn: 7 oz can (drain + rinse, use about half if needed) Tortillas: 1–2 Oil: 1–2 tsp only if needed Optional: pinch salt/pepper Steps (stove, no lid) Reheat potatoes: Put potatoes in a skillet over medium-high. Add 1–2 tsp oil only if the pan looks dry. Sprinkle in about 1 tbsp taco seasoning and stir 1–2 minutes until fragrant. Warm meats: Add sliced sausage and chopped chicken. Stir and cook 2–3 minutes, just to warm and lightly brown. Add sauce/veg: Stir in diced tomatoes/salsa and corn. Simmer-stir 2–5 minutes until it looks “taco-y” (moist but not soupy). Add more taco seasoning if it tastes bland. Serve: Spoon into 1–2 tortillas. (If you want them extra tasty, toast tortillas briefly in the same skillet after the filling is done.)

In the picture I can clearly see that she's got JKS disconnects on there; she's running around disconnected. She just needs to pull the pin on both sides and that sway bar will swing down. The there should be a pin on the axle to connect it to (I can't see that part in the picture). Basically she just needs to reconnect. *Edit* Here's a picture of the front axle with the sway-reconnect pin circled. There are two, located on each side right in front of the springs. I hope she's still got them on the Jeep! I hope this helps.

Here is that trip report. I've also had friends and seen other offroad road groups get the permit to camp at the river.

Work, life, and family have had me pretty busy lately - so I've been neglecting signing on to the forum! Over the last few months I've been getting more focused on the Jeep and prepping ahead of the upcoming Dusy Ershim trail trip this September 2026. I've also been chasing down a nagging "shimmy" around 50-55mph in the front end. Since the last update: New Dynatrac HD balljoints for the front end Replacement Clayton offroad bushings in the front UCAs and trackbar Replacement of the tie rod ends for both the drag link and the tie rod itself Replacement of a broken Fox ATS steering dampener bracket New/replacement Metalcloak bushings in the front axle UCA bushing locations A visit to our friends over at @OnPointOffroad for new front brakes and service, differential service, transfer case service, and an overall inspection for "Dusy-Worthiness" New front and rear Adams driveshafts (1310 and 1350, respectively) Re-wiring of my entire rear aux electrical system while trying to figure out a voltage collapse issue when my DC-DC charger is running A "chop job" on my storage/sleeping platform in the rear Design/ordering/fab/install of a new bracket to keep my Bluetti power station safe during trips Install of a like-new American Adventure Labs overhead front molle panel from our good friends @J2DXPLR New hood-mounted Hi-LIft jack mount New Yaesu FTM-150R ham radio with the MARS communication mod (GMRS) Starlink satellite dish install Here's the new Dynatrac BJs - @theksmith was kind enough to stop by and help with the install. Overall, the job was easier than I originally anticipated. The lower BJs (formerly Teraflex) were shot and pretty sloppy. They didn't last as long as I'd originally hoped they would. The removal of the steering knuckles was the biggest pain during the process - requiring a sledge and a 2x4 to knock them out. A combo of WD40, PB Blaster, and a little heat also helped coax them out. My new ICON balljoint press has been invaluable these past few months during the BJ install and when tackling the various suspension bushings around the Jeep. Each BJ came right out after about 20 seconds with this beast of a tool. The reinstall was just as fast. Did the job over 2 evenings - and now I know how to do it! (This was my first time). Next up was an install of an AAL overhead molle panel. I have their seat and door panels in the Rubicon dash red, so I jumped on this when I saw Jacq & Jermey offering it up. THANKS GUYS!!! There was some squeaking when flexing the Jeep on the rocks that was livable. but I think I might have solved it by installing a few rubber washers where the molle panel makes contact with the Jeep's sport bar. Time will tell :) Additionally, I've upgraded my radio comms to a new unit from Yaesu. The base station tucks nicely into the overhead molle niche. A little fiddling with my 67Designs (RIP) platform on the dash, and I've got the head unit and mic nicely within reach. Next up - I tackled my front suspension bushings - but have only gotten as far as the UCAs and trackbar at this point. I'll need more time to replace the rest of the bushings throughout the suspension. Again, the ICON balljoint press made quick work of this. These bushings were replaced with new ones from Clayton. I picked up an optional bushing press tool from Clayton to keep the job simple. New trackbar bushing Here's the ICON BJ press. While I had the UCAs removed, I took a look at the axle-side bushings and saw they were chewed up pretty badly. These are the OEM factory bushings with 90,000 miles on them. About 1/4 of their life they've had 35s and 37s and a longer-travel suspension stressing them out. Again - the ICON BJ press came back out for another jam session in the Arizona heat. Unfortunately I didn't have the "right" adapter in the kit, but the 32mm socket I keep around for removing front axle shafts was juuuuuuuust right. New Metalcloak "duroflex" bushings installed. More to come in PT 2!

Important announcement Due to anticipated smaller group size this year, we only have the WEST loop (it is the biggest of the 3 loops though). I did go ahead and add on Thursday night to the reservation - so anyone is welcome to come up a day early (anytime after 2pm on Thursday) though the Gala officially still starts on Friday. I do encourage anyone with a large RV to arrive on Thursday if possible to be sure you can find a good spot to park.

Don't forget to pack a set of these!

Glad you guys concurred this trail. Ryan, you need to carry flex seal for those nasty leaks:)

That's awesome. I know our Jeeps love Onpoint!

i spent the night before the trip at a hotel in Clovis, a nice suburb of Fresno - which put me 2 to 3 hours from the trailhead still. Clovis is the last city/town of any size heading in. it took me just over 9 hours to get to Clovis from Phoenix. it was lunch time, so i tried out a local eatery (turned out to be OK, but not great). most of my photos are scenic - when the trail got rough i was usually clenching the steering wheel rather than the camera! a lot of the Dusy is dense forest, which i love since that's what i grew up with. i guess it could give some of you desert rats a sense of claustrophobia though! you're constantly steering on this trail, and to say the trail is "tight" would be a massive understatement. shorter and narrower rigs have the advantage here for certain. here's Kevin @TrailTractor coming up to one of a million of the easy obstacles. his LJ was on 35's and definitely hit bottom more often than me on 37's. his narrower track width was evident though many times when his rig sailed through a set of trees that i could barely squeeze my rig between. every so often the trail weaves through a meadow, many of which had a small creek crossing. it has been raining for a couple days before we got there and the first day continued to sprinkle on and off. there were puddles but not really much mud... the Dusy is usually a very dusty trail so the wetness helped keep that down and was appreciated by all of us - especially since Kevin and @Roger both had open-air Jeeps. Thompson Hill is the main event on this trail - a very steep, super loose, bouldery hill climb. compared to the last time i ran the trail 4 years ago, the hill was considerably rougher. it was way more dug-out in places. those extra holes of loose dirt between some rather large rocks ended up providing quite a challenge. this is technically the bottom of the hill, but before it gets really interesting. this was a sketchy spot where i kept sliding sideways and eventually had to winch. you can't tell at all from the photo, but you're looking down a steep incline here and my passenger rear is up against a hard ledge rock. the driver front kept sliding off the rock you can see here, and the other 2 tires had absolutely no grip in the loose sandy dirt. i ended up winching another 2 places before the top. Kevin winched once - which he said he'd never had to do before even after having run the rubicon multiple times and Fordyce as well! Roger's 40" tires, 1-tons, and Atlas transfer case kept him moving forward the entire trail without needing a winch. Gadget slid sideways into one tree on Thompson, which ripped the passenger mirror clean off. Roger also had a sideways slip and got a very minor dent just behind the hood and dislodged his a-pillar light bracket a bit too. Kevin was the only one to escape the hill without a souvenir! continued...

What Diane said... I will add, that the links appear to be missing the lower bushings. Any shop selling Offroad suspension parts, should have them in stock.

You may know this but the only road to the bottom of the canyon starts in Peach Springs AZ. It is about 80 miles from Williams. The road is a, usually rough, 20+ miles and 3000+ feet of elevation loss down to a river raft take out area at Diamond Creek. No road exists to supply Phantom Ranch. All the supplies and all the trash goes in and out on the backs of mules.

Welcome! As long as you follow our Pet Policy (i assume those are the rules you read already), then no other info needed. See you there!

Got paid up and excited! Our first time out. Truck/Rooftop tent, my wife, and our dog. I read the animal rules, she's been to overland expo the past two years. Is there any other info you need on her?

Welcome to the site, looking forward to meeting you both! ...our Jeeps do play nice with others!

My wife and I will be there. First time coming out. Hope we fit in with all these jeeps hahahah kidding.

Welcome back to Part 2 of my catch-up post 😁. This chapter begins with my shaft. It's seen some miles and had some wear and tear. However, we're also going to look at my rear storage deck and some electrical stuff. The boot over the slip portion of the shaft was a little torn and bulging, but wasn't throwing any grease at this point. This is the OEM driveshaft, so again it has 90,000 miles on it and a number of wheeling trips. In all, it wasn't giving me any issues at all. My decision to upgrade was based on: A desire for a more "bomb-proof" driveline Better droop in the front suspension. In the future I'd like to go to longer shocks for more down-travel. I have about 1-1.5" of unused up-travel with my current set up. However, IMHO, going to longer sticks will set off a chain of upgrades, including a front driveshaft with better angles, longer front brakelines (which I have in my garage, waiting to install). So - since I've been looking to upgrade both my front and rear to a stronger but "smaller profile". My choice ended up being for a pair of Adam's driveshafts - 1310 in the front, 1350 in the rear. Here's a series of shots from the install. My first time seeing green locktite. Rear yoke on the transfer case Flange on the rear differential. Rear diff flange removed Back side of the transfer case The white marker was my attempt to get the pinion nut precisely back to where it was from the factory. However, I couldn't get the pre-load measurement to work out. Instead, torqued it to 140 ft/lbs per Tom Woods' directions and common advice found out there for the install. The rear, all buttoned up. Here's a shot of my red locktite'd pinion nut through the new yoke. The front was a lot faster of a job for some reason. The other project I've tackled recently was a "slimming down" of my rear storage deck. Since I have an AAL rear shelf, and the top of my deck was pretty tall, I had pretty limited leg room when sleeping in the rear of the Jeep. I measured it around about 12" of vertical space which made me feel a little claustrophobic sometimes, depending how much I inflated by air mattress and the bedding I'm using (like my trust 30" thick Coleman sleeping bag). 😄 I basically ended up removing the top with my oscillating multitool and a circular saw. Then took off 3" from the overall height of the walls, and then re-glued and screwed the top back on. Consequently I needed to trim the drawer as well to accommodate the new, shorter profile. Here's the box reinstalled, and a little dirty. My next project was to fix my wiring situation in the rear of the Jeep. I was having some issues with my Bluetti Charger One DC-DC charger running into a voltage issue. The relay would trigger, charge my Bluetti power station, and then the voltage would collapse and the unit would re-cycle. It'd charge the battery, but it took forever as the relay would cycle every 60 seconds or so. Theories ranges from a bad ground to damaged wires to some other constraint along the wiring from the main battery/alternator. It didn't take long to find the culprit. Talk about a minor heart attack finding that. The 100A fuse took a dump, but never disconnected. It became what looks like a superheated mass of melted glass and plastic. The fuse sat at a connection between an 4AWG wire from the main better, terminated into an 8AWG wire that led to the rear. At @theksmith's advise, I upgraded the wiring to the rear to a large 4AWG wire, and ditched the crappy Chinesium fuses for a MIDI fuse holder from Blue Sea Systems. I also re-installed my ground - upgrading it to 4AWG as well, with a shorter cable and a more solid ground mount in the rear tub. Additionally, I make a small tweak to my connector for the Bluetti Elite 100 v2 with a right-angle connector to help protect the connector from things flying around the rear deck. I also designed and "built" this cradle out of aluminum via Send-Cut-Send to hold the power station so I could bolt it down to the rear shelf and run a strap over it to keep it in place. In the below shot you can also see my half-baked Starlink Mini mount, which is a Frankenstein of my hi-lift c-pillar mount and some RAM mount stuff. I relocated my double water jug set-up and moved my 6gal of water capacity to the passenger side, away from my electronics. Whewwww....... that's a lot of work these last few months, especially when it's 110 out! My garage swamp cooler went through about 2,000 gallons of water. Last upgrade - a new mattress inflator! It's from Flextail and is a 5 kpa unit that is smaller than my key fob and includes a built-in lantern. It's 3x faster than my current inflator that is 5x the size!

Damn. Have 1 Weekend after we get back to get the Jeep ready....😯 It hasn't moved since Easter Jeep Safari this year. But at least it will have a nice new set of Mickey Thompson Baja Boss MTs on it. The last set had about 1700 on them...I think its getting less and less every year...:( Cant wait to see everyone this year!!

Just when he changed altitude. Chris and a friend ended up taking off the heavy bumper and dropped the tank. Turned out that within the fuel tank there is a check valve for of the vehicle rolls over. This one was weak and closing when the change in altitude creates pressure. Chris created a new breather line (since we don't have emissions) and it's back to normal now. Also took the opportunity to change the original fuel pump too. One of the last original parts on our WJ.

Paid in full and super excited!

I still have the suburban, and recently completed a 4000+ miles tour from Tucson to Washington state and back over 28 days on the road. It was amazing and included touring the Basin and Range NM in NV, several California Trail routes in NV along the truckee and the blackrock desert playa, turning north to eastern Oregon wildlife refuges, and the Washington okanagan rivers and forests... then via the north cascades NP a costal return. No subaru but I do have a CX5 AWD for skiing (the annual ski safari).

Hey Kristopher, Have you ever heard of these?

Hi Mick, the shelf and water carriers are American Adventure Labs. The carrier for my portable battery is custom made. I designed it in Affinity Designer and then sent the file to Send-Cut-Send, who CNC'd the aluminum and performed the bends. https://sendcutsend.com I used them in the past to create the aluminum tray that my fridge sits in.

Nice work! I have the same Yaesu radio, but a few years older. I just realized its 16 years old now and I've never had trouble with it. The GMRS mod is nice.

I will bring my portable 200 watt set up for ya. You can see if you like them, and hang out for Thursday! :)

FYI - there are no more Motorhome or Travel Trailer tickets available (due to limited parking space). There's still room for more tent campers as of now - better sign up soon if you're considering coming though!

These are great ideas @shellback91. It's really hard to find good things to make when you're roughing it.

Just signed up! Truck camper & extra vehicle to play in the cinders. See you next month.

SOLD

Not gonna lie....would love to have that Yota in the background

Oh yeah, duh. I may look into some solar panels too, just need to justify the expense and clear it with my CEO. 😆

there's an outlet in that central gazebo thing too

We've got recharging options in the RV if you need it.

Done. Paid in Full. Thank you for your help.

Just paid for attending not camping, thanks!

Please count me in. Just me, Jeep, tent and wood. I'll play judge for the salsa/dip contest.