Mark, Travis, Jack and Ed’s Excellent Adventure - Our Crawl Saga

PacificEd

NAXJA Member
NAXJA Member
Location
Middle Tennessee
I thought I would tell the story of the Crawl 2025 from my perspective.

My XJ sits a lot and hadn't been driven since the 2024 Crawl. We took to doing some preventive maintenance on it in preparation for the event. The biggest job was a steering box replacement, new power steering pump, and lines. We got everything ready and all was looking good. The Saturday before we were to leave for the Crawl, I took the XJ over to Mark's house and we test fit the XJ on his gooseneck to insure it and his YJ would fit, and they did. As I left his place, I noticed a chirping sound. It sounded like the belt was squeaking but wasn't terrible.

Tuesday:
On Tuesday morning I began packing up the Jeep with tools, spares, and raffle prizes that needed to be hauled to the event. It was hot outside even at 8 am. I managed to get everything loaded and figured I'd shoot a little belt dressing on the belt to quiet it down. Well, that quick spritz made it worse. Hmmm, sounds like I have an idler pulley going out. I proceed to take the belt loose (which is a horrible job since the airbox needs to come out and that takes an act of congress) and remove the idler pulley and the AC delete pulley to check them. The bearings seemed fine in them so I checked the alternator, water pump, fan and power steering pump pulleys for play.........nothing out of sorts there. So I go to O'Reilly's and get a new idler pulley, AC delete pulley (they had to order it) and a new belt just in case.

By now, I'm melting from the heat as it was scalding hot. I managed to get everything put together only to have the belt jump off a few grooves to the back. Loosened everything back up and refed the belt. Finally got it where it seemed ok. I drove to Mark's house and dropped off the XJ and Blackstone grill (best decision ever by the way to bring it along). That night Mark text that he had loaded the Jeeps and the belt popped off mine. I was worried but was so tired I went on to sleep.

Wednesday:
The next morning I see a text "just kidding" about the belt. Whew! That was a relief. Jack (my son) and I loaded our luggage and headed to my parents to pick up a cooler along with stew meat and burgers (remember the grill we took?). We arrived and Mark's place and both Jeeps were loaded so we put our stuff inside them and in the bed of the truck and waited for Mark. As we see him, I asked how it went and he said he jinxed himself.....the belt popped off this morning while loading my Jeep and he had to fix it. He said "it's on there but it's a bit chewed up". Uh oh, now what. He said it'd be fine.

We depart Mark's place with Travis, Jack and myself. Everything seems ok but the load seems like a bit much for the truck. We creep to the top of the first long hill not too far from where we left. There was no way we could maintain speed on the interstate so the decision was made to take back roads (basically highway 70 all the way to Crossville) and we were all cool with that. We jumped back on the interstate and realized pretty quick we needed to get back on the backroads. Just outside Crossville, we stopped and noticed one of our trailer wheel bearings was pretty hot. Not good so we adjusted the bearing and all seemed good. Away we go.........

We were cruising along and stopped in Crab Orchard for fuel and water. We took off and noticed the road soon got curvy and started to have a steeper and steeper downhill grade. Then we see a sign "lane closed ahead". So here we are going down a steep, curvy grade and we have a lane closed ahead. As we try to slow the truck we round a curve and see stopped traffic ahead in our land and three power company trucks blocking the other. I look at Mark and can see he's a bit concerned. We managed to get the truck stopped and could smell brakes big time. We creeped along until we could pull over and let everything cool off. At that point, we were off the mountain and on much flatter ground.

We worked our way to Fountain City (north Knoxville) where we had noticed a vibration from a bad tire. We unloaded my XJ and jacked up and changed out what we determined to be the bad tire. I took the lead for a bit, driving my XJ and Mark said the trailer still had something doing on and sure enough, there was another tire messed up. It was bouncing pretty good. We stopped in Harrogate and fueled up and my Jeep was doing okay and wasn't making any noise from the belt. We boogied on got onto 119 headed to Harlan. I was leading on and noticed Mark fell way back. I radioed him and he said he blew a tire. I turned around and pulled the gator out of the road and we moved his truck to a wider spot to change the tire. Now the YJ came off the trailer. When changing that tire, we noticed the brakes were dragging big time on that axle. So the tire went on the deck of the trailer (3 wheels on the trailer now) and we drove the two Jeeps on into Harlan and on to the campground.

We check in to get our cabin and buy our permits. Mark fills out his form and goes to grab his wallet. But there was no wallet. He looks in the truck.....no wallet. Oh no, where could it be? We all guessed it was 40 minutes down the road on Hwy 119. It was determined to get our junk to the cabin and go looking. Luckily, Travis found it just inside the door of Mark's YJ. Whew! That was a major relief. It must have slipped out when he was unloading it from the trailer. We unload everything at the cabin, grab dinner at the Portal and then go grocery shopping. We've decided we need a discount card for Food City as the prices get a lot cheaper if you have one.

Thursday:
The next morning we get up and have steak and eggs for breakfast on the Blackstone. We then go into Harlan and visit RexxTech Tire & Auto, recommended to us by the campground. Dude is super helpful and orders 4 new tires and says he will check into the brakes on the trailer. The new tires are supposed to be delivered on Friday @ 2 pm and they close for the weekend at 4. We get the trailer to the shop and drop it. Turns out the guy who runs it comes to Murfreesboro and Smyrna for bowling tournaments.

We decide to run the section of trail between Putney, KY and Cumberland called Little Shepherd Trail. It was an unimproved gravel road years ago and it was a bit more challenging now. I let my son Jack drive that section and we eventually ran into a downed tree so we had to turn around. It was a fun trail for sure. Next time we will bring a saw so we can trim it up to get by.

Got back to the cabin and my Jeep's belt was not happy. We swapped on another new belt I had picked up in town that morning to replace the one that was chewed up. We realized that the AC delete pulley wasn't lining up as it should and had some play in it. Unfortunately, nobody stocks it and the pulley I ordered at O'Reilly was too small in diameter. Uggh. We put it back together and hoped for the best. We then fried up some hamburgers for dinner.

Friday:
Woke up and had steak and eggs again for breakfast. Got everything ready for a 9 am departure. I was sending Jack to get ice and when he fired up the Jeep, you could tell something wasn't right. The belt had moved a grove forward this time. So out come the tools and we try to get everything situated again. Mark's jeep was found to be leaking from what looked like the radiator cap. Jonathan picked one up for us on his way and that solved that issue. At 9:40 am we headed up the mountain. It was four of us. Mark, Al, Jonathan and myself. We went to the lower rock garden where Jonathan drove the first two sections. Jack drove the first section and did really well. We then headed to helicopter pad (bald knob) and had lunch. The climb to the top had two tougher ledges but everyone did fine and made it.

Since we had to be back at the cabin by 3 pm to go check on Mark's trailer, we headed back to the campground. RexxTech did a fantastic job and got the brakes squared away and new tires installed. That really helped put our minds at ease. Now back to the cabin to make more hamburgers for supper. Watched the rains roll in and get everything wet for next day's rides.
 
Saturday:
We departed at 9:05 am and started heading up the mountain. We had five rigs today with Byron being the new addition. We started up the mountain and Al quickly decided that his tires weren't gripping like he wanted them to when trying to climb one of the tight switchbacks that was now slick from the past evenings rains. Rather than risk it, he went back to camp and we met him at Evarts. We went up the mountain, played for a few minutes in the lower rock garden again (Jack ran it again and did even better). Jonathan ran the whole lower rock garden from beginning to end with no spotter! He made it look easy (which it's not).

We met Al and went to see the mine entrances and then on to 4 poles (which is now just 2) and had lunch in the little bit of shade we found. We decided to head to the rail shed in memory of Aaron "FlexdXJ" Thompson, a member of the MWC we lost way too soon. Byron had heard the recent rains had made the trail a bit tougher but we figured we could make it. There were a few downed trees, one of which got into my passenger rear door, pushing it in. Jack was driving at this point. He busted the tail light and crunched the edge of the hatch too. Everyone got around that obstacle and then it turned ugly. The trail had a foot to a foot and a half deep trench washed through the middle of it. We either had to straddle it or go along next to it which made it feel like the XJ would turn over or collapse into the trench. Jonathan came up and was my eyes and helped guide me right through it with no issues. Once the line was set, everyone followed suit and we made it to the rail shed. We took a pictures and poked around and bit then headed for the tipple. We decided to exit at Brookside and run up the road to Evarts and re-enter the trail system rather than drive back up the way we came down. We headed back to camp for a few minutes of rest and to clean up before the meal and raffle.

The pavilion was the gathering spot for the meal and raffle. We had pizza from the Portal. We then had a general raffle that had some really nice items and then a members only raffle for a 1/2" drive Tekton tool set. That is a reason to be a member right there. Everyone had a good time, finally getting to visit with a bunch of old and new friends. That's what I enjoy the most.

Going home wasn't nearly as eventful and the trip there. My XJ went on the trailer and Travis and Jack drove Mark's YJ back home.

All in all a great trip. I will be putting more effort into informing everyone better and hopefully have even better raffle items for next year. I've got some work to do on my rig to ensure a smoother trip, that's for sure. Thank you for everyone that rode in our group, you were all awesome and I hope we can ride together next year and see even more. I'm sure I forgot some stuff and I will try and add pictures later.
 
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A post limits you to 10,000 characters.....LOL!
 
You said a mouthful but covered it all pretty good. It was good to see folks and hang out. I look forward to next year.

But, I won’t be pulling the gooseneck with 2 jeeps. I think I’ll just drive mine……
 
You said a mouthful but covered it all pretty good. It was good to see folks and hang out. I look forward to next year.

But, I won’t be pulling the gooseneck with 2 jeeps. I think I’ll just drive mine……
We’ve got a bunch of things to do to my pile to be ready for that.
 
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