Leaderboard

60,425 miles Took the Jeep over to see our good friend Joe @OnPointOffroad to get some maintenance knocked out and some ball joints installed. Always happy with the work Joe does on any of our vehicles, Jeep or otherwise. Can't recommend him enough and it's always great to talk with him and pick his brain on different topics. The last time we were in to see Joe we got to talking about the 8 speed ZF transmission in the Jeep JL and the service interval. Jeep seals these trannys "for life" - but that's not reallllllly true. Maybe it's because most American's these days trade their vehicles in every 2 years and roll over that sweet, sweet negative equity. Since I'm in the "severe duty" category, Joe recommended a 60K service interval for the transmission for a new filter and fluid. So there you go. Additionally, Michelle gave me some new Teraflex HD Ball Joints for my birthday back in February. We had those installed as well. They're STOUT and I was really impressed with the apparent quality and design of the new ball joints. Twin zerk fittings on each one allows you to easily grease them up and they allow for adjusting pre-load anytime you need in the future. Lastly, I've been getting some wobble on certain predictable sections of my local roads at certain speeds. Was suspecting a loose trackbar at the axle. Clayton's install instructions called of 90ft/lbs of torque. I recently increased the torque to 105 and that seemed to dampen the wobble a bit. Joe noted that factory spec was around 160ft/lbs (I can't remember the exact number) so they tightened her up. On the drive home, no wobble. And the new ball joints are great! I'm getting a more firm feel from the steering and feel more "stable" on our local windy roads. So far, pretty happy. The last thing to talk about is some cupping on my front Yokohama Geolandar G003 tires. We thought this might be contributing to the wobble, so Joe was kind enough to switch the fronts with the rears so see if there was an impact. Can't really narrow the wobble down to the tires since the trackball torque was upped - but we did notice a shift in braking behavior. The Jeep used to pull left on hard braking, now it pulls right a bit. Possibly chalked up to the tires. All-in-all, that's all I have to report. Looking forward to the next run later this month when we check out Smiley Rock trail and Mingus Mountain!

We had an nice trip. As Marty said, the road kept changing from smooth dirt to rough, 4-low crawling. We got tossed around a lot due to not having sway bar disconnects installed yet, but other wise Bumble did great. I'm still getting used to an automatic but it was nice not having to worry about the clutch in the rockier sections. My pics look the same as the others, but here are a few. First stop: Tbar cabin The group stopped at Tbar Buckhorn Cabin Some of the group at buckhorn There is a large canyon right behind the cabin, I don't know the name of it, but it is part of the Clear Creek system that eventually leads to Camp Verde and the Verde River. Some Cattle tanks from the old days. A couple of Pics of some smoother sections of the road.

It was a great run. Thanks for leading it Marty! I believe you down played the bug situation. They were no joke. Thanks for the Buddy shout out. He was a trooper for sure. I’ll add the photos I managed to take, including aforementioned Buddy wiped out from the day.

Another great run with a great group of folks from the ORP family has been completed! This weekend we explored around the greater Apache Maid area near Camp Verde. It was good to see some familiar faces, meet @gman and meet a new ORP furry friend named Buddy! Thank you @Curly for tail-gunning. Overall an awesome run with a few challenging sections on various trails that kept us on our toes. Those in attendance were: @Curly & Devon @gearhead @Eugene @gman @MzPriss & Bill & Buddy Saturday we made our way around Stoneman Lake to Rock to Rocky Gulch while working our way to the Buckhorn Ranch. Nothing too exciting on these trails other than some traffic. Along the way we made a small detour to check out an abandoned homestead named T-Bar Ranch. To get down the short trail off of FR229 to the ranch we had to wait for a group of 25 SXS to get out of our way, we did run into them again at lunch. Big shout-out to @Curly for bringing this POI to my attention. I am not able to post an image here of where this is, my image is too big it says. From the homestead we worked our way back to the Apache Maid trail heading towards Cedar Flat Rd.. I had never run this section of Apache Maid , it was a rocky bumpy ride but we got through it. Once on Cedar Flat Rd. we headed down a few miles to our lunch spot. Luckily the rain we ran into stopped before we got there so we could enjoy a break and get some grub. Unfortunately the monster group of SXS found us again, they let us know they were on their way to Happy Jack. We were more than relived to know they would be out of our way the rest of the day. After lunch we continued on down the trail to our turn off for Buckhorn Ranch. This section of trail was more chewed up and rocky than I remembered, this is most likely due to all the rains the last couple of years. Just a guess on my part, maybe I mis-remembered. The turn off I took to the Buckhorn Ranch was the wrong one but it got us to where we needed to be, maybe a .50 mile difference from the way I wanted to go. Not a big deal at all, we were out exploring and were making good time. The trail down was a 3 mile very rocky and bumpy ride, just as described by Tim and in a few things I have read. We made it to the Buckhorn Cabin around 3 PM and we set about picking our spots for camp that night. Have I mentioned the bugs yet? No? Well let me get to that. All I can say is the Gnats and Flies were out in force and in the mood to harass everyone in sight, and I must say they were very successful in doing just that. 😬 We fought on, set up camp, started a fire then sat around and shot the breeze the rest of the night. After it got dark the bugs crawled into what ever portal of hell they came out of. 😂 After dark the weather was perfect and we had a full moon illuminating the night sky. Sunday morning we broke camp at a leisurely pace while keeping the thought of the bugs in the back of our minds. We got moving around 8 A.M. before they could launch another full scale aerial assault. The trail out was pretty chewed up and washed out in a few places, not much better than the one we took in. It definitely kept us on our toes and made things interesting. Once back on Cedar Flat Rd. we ran the 13 or so miles over to Beaver Flat/Creek Rd. Cedar Flat Rd. is schizophrenic in my opinion. Some chewed up rocky sections that kept things fun with some easy parts that you could make some good time on. We made it to our air up spot a little after 10 A.M.. All in all an awesome run with some good people and a good dog for good measure. Thanks again to everyone who joined me on this trip, I had a good time bugs and all! 🤣

Made it home, now its time to clean up. It was good to see everyone this weekend. I enjoyed the run and the company. I'll get a trip report posted soon.

Heaviest building in the world. 4.10 million tons. It is sinking 6mm per year. Bucarest peoples palace

Few more pictures

Back home! Thanks to Marty for leading this weekend! :)

John, get back in your Jeep and turn on the GPS - you've taken several wrong turns!

Have a great time out there guys & gals! Looking forward to pictures and stories!

Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow and getting out in the dirt. Below is the meetup information, nothing has changed on that front. Meetup, Air-Down and Departure When: June 3rd @ 9:30 A.M, departing no later than 10:00 A.M.. We are only covering about 35-40 miles Saturday so we should make the cabin mid afternoon. Where: Stoneman Lake Road Trailhead. (Where the paved section of Stoneman Lake Road from I-17 ends) Fuel up in Camp Verde if coming from the valley. Please arrived fueled up. Adult beverages are welcome and should be enjoyed at camp, no drinking and driving. The weather looks like it will in the high 80's/low 90's during the day and in the low 60's overnight. Nice and comfortable if you ask me. 🙂 See you guys tomorrow! 🤘

did a little exploring this weekend near home...

No, I didn't. For some reason, my phone wouldn't display Gaia maps Saturday morning, and I didn't have my Tablet because Bumble isn't set up for it. Also, I thought it would be rude on my part to ask Marty to change his plans for the run. However................... I went to Montezuma castle earlier in the week and they had a map showing that there are ruins and 2 'forts' right in that area. Then, I saw a reference to Topo maps on Gaia and that led me to what I think is the location. This pic shows where I thought the ruins might be with Gaia's location on the left. The Curved wall might be one of those 'forts". This pic is a close up of the Gaia location. I'm pretty sure those right angles among those trees. I'll find some time to get up there and check it out.

Had a great time. :) Thanks to Marty and the rest of the group.

Thanks Marty for putting this trip together!! Had a great time wheeling and meeting other jeepers. Looking forward to meeting everyone again on another trip!

Home and clean. That’s as far as a we got. Great run. Thanks Marty!

Shouldn’t that be a Ford Bronco and not a Jeep though?

We are poking around the idea of doing Rubicon around 8/13-8/18 this year. We have never been and would love to invite those who had been or brave enough to go with us so we are not there soloing. Any takers? 🤗

Hi Everyone, Sorry for the late notice! We are headed out to Big Bear Lake to camp and ride a couple of trails in that area June 16th - June 19th. Here are the two trails we plan to do, if you have All-Access membership for TrailsOffroad, the links go to their trail info page. Gold Mountain (3N69): https://www.trailsoffroad.com/trails/835-3n69-gold-mountain John Bull (3N10): https://www.trailsoffroad.com/trails/1045-3n10-john-bull If anyone feel like joining us please let us know, we probably will leave Thursday evening after work on June 15th, or crack of dawn Friday morning and be back in Phoenix on June 19th. 😃

you can get up to Big Bear via Burns Canyon trail instead taking paved roads. it's very easy and doesn't take much longer than the highway route. do a quick stop by Pioneertown if you go this way. and Wildhorse Meadow is a scenic and fun-to-drive trail if you have time: https://www.trailsoffroad.com/trails/2800-2n93-wildhorse-meadow this might give you some other ideas too:

Sounds good to me! As long as Zyra is allowed to come, she owns the Jeep, we just drive and ride along~ HAHAHA!

personally i like to shoot for a max of 6 rigs on a long difficult trail like this. we usually plan the next year's ORP calendar around August, so let's discuss a plan soon - if you're ok with us making this an official ORP trip?

not the in budget for me this year - but i'd also probably be down for a 2024 re-visit!

If we could have you come with us, let's plan for 2024! There is plenty of other trails to practice on before Rubicon!

Wish I could guys! It’s a bucket list run for me. The earliest I might be able to consider it is 2024 based on my planned leave use this year.

Didn't take any pics, but still laughing about that USFS sign that said 'If you find yourself locked behind this gate, please call this number for help'. :)

Created an album on Google https://photos.app.goo.gl/3HyMYTEBYyVyzZrz5

Thanks for the childhood flashback...the pain..but so delicious, irresistible. Who am I kidding, they're still part of my summer food triangle.

Thank you Mike! I checked the website this morning but there was no info available. I also use the crappiest freeway in America errrr the I-17 to get out of town. 😂

@Bradywgn71 might be interested in this as well...

It will be awesome to have you on the trip too! Ok, I think we will keep an open invite for 2024 and plan a small group for it?

Kris, I need to upgrade my system

After 150K+ miles, my heel finally wore a hole in my Jeep Wrangler JK's Mopar rubber floor mats (just beneath the send-it pedal)! I wanted something with higher sides for my next set, and decided to try the Kagu all-weather mats from 3D Mats USA. I bought these on Amazon, here's the link to the ones for Jeep JK, JL/JT, and the 4XE. They have them for a fair number of other vehicles too. I've had them for about 5 months and they seem just as durable as any other. They do come clean easier than those previous rubber mats with just a spray from the hose - dried mud doesn't seem to stick in them as badly. The main thing I really like about these is that they don't "pucker" on the outer edge. I read a bunch of reviews of other brands, even big names like Husky Liners and Weathertech, that showed pictures of the tall sides folding in a bit where they stick up. These don't seem to have that problem and they really do fit like a glove. The only potential downside I noticed is that the rears don't have as high of sides as some other brands, so they won't really hold much water/mud in the back. I'd consider these sort of a hybrid between nicer looking carpet mats and full on work-duty plastic/rubber mats. I'm fond of their unique appearance though... IMHO, they seem more refined looking than the aggressive tire-tread style Mopar mats. The mats are made of TPR and XPE primarily, which are just modern types of rubbery feeling plastics. The under-side is their proprietary MaxPider material which looks like a bunch of fine plastic hairs and helps the mats lock in place on the factory carpet. The materials don't seem to produce any stinky off-gassing, and didn't need time to "lay flat" either. I'll certainly update this thread if they start to wear out prematurely, but so far they seem like a solid choice for all-weather/rubber style vehicle floor mats (for Jeeps or otherwise).

Thanks for posting Joe’s comments and thoughts on the 8 speed. I don’t believe in “lifetime” when it comes to rotating automotive power train parts. I was just thinking about servicing my 2017 Ram’s transmission the other day. Joe rocks!

Looks like you need to allow extra time if you planned on using I-17 NB between Thunderbird and 101 Saturday morning (like myself, lol): WeekendFreewayTravelAdvisoryMap.pdf (azdot.gov)

Feel better soon! We will catch you on the next one.

We will bring some wood.

Ken Johnson and I were there last Sunday to locate his father in law’s grave while it was quiet. We may go back today if his wife wants to go today or Memorial Day. Sun City Grand opened a beautiful Vets Memorial 2 weeks ago for all services (including the Space Command) It was a well attended ceremony. Most of the vets here are Viet Nam. It meant a lot to to us because believe me; no one except our families said “Welcome Home” to us.

Just clicked over to 60,000 miles!

Saturday, July 23 On Saturday, we travelled as a group to Silverwood Lake, about 40 miles west of Big Bear Lake, where we ran the Pilot Rock Trail which connects Silverwood Lake with Lake Arrowhead. The trip to Silverwood Lake took us on the scenic Rim of the World Highway, which overlooks the Los Angeles Basin. Unfortunately, smoke from the Sand Canyon fire north of Los Angeles hampered the view. The Pilot Rock Trail is an easy trail but has many optional bypasses that are rated "difficult". I had expected that about half of the twelve vehicles would choose the difficult route, so I was surprised when 9 out of the 12 choose the optional route. Shortly after the start of the trail, Christian heard some abnormal noise from his drivetrain; it appeared to be an internal problem with his transfer case. He decided to turn around and return to Big Bear. He was accompanied by three others.

Friday, July 22 On Friday, we had thirteen vehicles and we broke into two groups. One group was led by Kristoffer consisting of seven vehicles that explored the scenic Skyline Drive on the south side of Big Bear Lake. I joined the group of six vehicles that ran two difficult trails, Gold Mountain Trail and John Bull Trail on the north side of Big Bear Lake. Gold Mountain Trail: After finishing Gold Mountain, we continued to the east end of the John Bull Trail. After a lunch break at the East Gatekeeper, we started the trail. Christian broke a brake line. Apparently this has happened before, and he carries spares: Meanwhile, George discovered that his rear locker was stuck in the locked position. He thought the problem might be caused by a recent switch in differential fluid. George was able to contact Kristoffer, who had finished his group's run. Kristoffer agreed meet us at the trailhead and bring some diff fluid. George planned to remove the diff cover, release the locked differential and refill the diff. While waiting for the group at the trailhead, Kristoffer searched the web for possible solutions to the problem, and learned that one might be able to free the locker by prying the plates apart through the fill hole, without draining the diff fluid. Upon reaching the trailhead, George first made certain that the malfunction was not due to an electrical problem, then removed the fill plug and successfully pried the plates apart. George plans to disassemble the locker when he returns home.

Thursday, July 21 We had ten vehicles at the start of the 2016 ORP Big Bear Lake Adventure. We travelled as a group to the Big Bear Discovery Center, aired down at Fawnskin and travelled to the Butler Peak Lookout for a panoramic view of the area. After a break for lunch along Holcomb Creek, we toured some of the historic sites in the Holcomb Valley. This is the Hangman's Tree: The ruins of the Doble Mine: We returned to pavement near Baldwin Lake, aired up and returned to Big Bear.