Rockin' XJ Jamboree trip report

[XJ_ranger]

well I finally made it home and got to a position where I could post again...

Thursday - left the bay area around 3:45 after borrowing a friends CTD and renting a trailer, picking up dad, going to the store and packing....

got to the lakebed around 2:00 - everyone was asleep...

woke up early with the sun firday morning... helped Ben (xDUMPTRUCKx) remove doors / hatch... then went on a clawhammer run with Ben (being as that was the only trail that both he and I knew how to get to)

 

[XJ_ranger]

Friday Night, I went out on a night run with Robert K, and Ben H. - no pictures because night runs are about wheeling - not showing your friends you went wheeling

Saturday - ran Tackhammer and LBJ with Ron and Robbert and quite a few 'smaller' rigs.
Kevin needed a small winch pull using Mike G as ballast after taking a retarted line -

Group shot on Lower Big Johnson -

 

[RWKHausSupply]

One thing I still enjoy is the comraderie with XJ owners. For some strange reason, its not there with TJ owners.
Joe

I have to fully disagree. Its all depends on the Group that holds the event and those that fall in to that group. I am a previous TJ owner turned XJ after my TJ was stollen. I brouhgt out ex-TJ owner turned bronco owner not by choice and had a current owner met us up there sat afternoon. Ask Ben how friendly they are, wrenching on his crap and such. As well as myself, I hope I dont put either (xj or tj) to shame. Its all in the group not the individuals. Hell I found two XJ owners out there that I would say didnt fall in to your comraderie reference. But all in all every one was great except......

Good times..

Thanks to all involved..

hope to make this as a regular event as TDS..

 

[XJ_ranger]

and then we went over to Back Door where Ron and Robert gave it a shot -

Ron on the 2nd waterfall -

Robert grows a pair -

but rips an ARB line before he can launch up the falls...

Saturday night was the raffle, where I lucked out and won a set of tires from BFGoodrich (which I needed badly! Thanks! )

 

[XJ_ranger]

Sunday was the pack up and leave day for most rigs, but a few of us stuck it out and ran Aftershock while all the buggies put the hammer down on backdoor....

Ron, Robert, Myself, Ben (XDumptruckx), Rawbrown, and Zack all headed out for the trail....

my suspention bottomed into my oil pan before reaching the trail, but oil was only seeping out and I decided to continue on.

at some point Robert got kinda hung up and had to winch - and needed someone to tie to

Ryan broke a Tie Rod End, and had an issue with his steering box frame mount, and turned around during th earlier part of the trail -

Phil was missed -

Had a little fun looking for the intern line while watching Ron and Robert do this part -

Robert drives it -

and so do I -

 

[XJ_ranger]

all in all - I only lost a bead... of course it was at night, with Robert K He thinks I hate him - I think he's wrong I just happen to be broken on the trail every time Im around him

I had a great trip!

Thanks to:
Goatman for putting all this together!
Ron for getting the raffle and leading the runs I was on
Kevin and Robert K for help changing my tire
Dave for the Valve Stem
Ryan Brown for doing doughnuts evert 12 seconds and kicking up dust

and everyone who I got to meet and shake hands with and get out and wheel with!

 

[Captain Ron]

Mmmm, what to say...

... Great weather, super XJ folks, big rocks, Sobe, Fireworks, raffle, food, homebrew, and on top of that, not at all the kind of carnage you'd expect from 70 odd rigs spending a weekend in JV.

I didn't get Junk ver 15.0 on the trailer until lunchtime on Friday, so I missed out on the week. But the high speed testing romps Friday night made up for some of that. Fox 2.5's in front with single bleeds, and a slight re-engineering of the front end geometry made a huge difference...

In the meantime, Ryan had made it out with his bar, and mine was well underway. My mistake, I only brought out 10 gallons based on prior "National" events.

Turns out, that was pretty much gone on Friday night... Sorry folks, I'll bring more next time. I'm glad Ryan brought more than I did.

So for the Saturday runs, we had a really good turn out for the easy and moderate runs. I counted 19 rigs at various points along our route for the moderate run. We had a quick drivers meeting, and headed out to Tack Hammer for the warm up. It gave everyone a chance to get acclimated to the trail conditions, and prepare for the next leg on Lower Big Johnson.

Everyone did a good job of getting thru; there was some minor body damage at the big rock, but nothing major. We had a mixed group of locked and open front rigs, mostly 33's. Tack is a pretty short trail, but going thru on the way to LBJ paid off in getting everyone a taste, and tuning up the driving skills.

Off to LBJ. Wait... Sand Dune, go fast.

Ok, into Lower Big. Fun trail! The open guys really had to work in a few spots, but did a fantastic job of getting thru. We had a few minor stops, JohnX took care of a starting problem, I split a radiator hose that was an easy fix, Robert was running hot, and a few other minor issues that folks had got taken care of. On the split rocks, Kevin got hung really good. That obstacle doesn't look like much, but even I had to work at it. We got him off without damage, and decided to run everyone else around it.

The exit is always kinda interesting, more so on 33's or open in front. After we established the line, Bryan and Robert spotted folks thru it while I worked the water fall. A big thanks to those guys and Johhny & Chris for their help too. We'd get a line worked out, I'd move up, and they would work everyone thru as we moved along. Nice work guys!

So we collected at the top, had lunch, and watched Bryan and Robert work the last rigs thru the exit. After that a few of us played on the entrance to Upper Big. Zak gave it a shot on 33's and made it work. In all, no one broke, and there was only some minor body damage. I give the most improved in this group to DJ Josh, although there were more than a few that I saw that had improved greatly over the year. He's driving very smooth on 32's very little lift, and open in front. Nice job!

Heading out off the trail, we made our way down and to the main wash. It was getting into the 3ish time, so we decided to skip After Shock. There was enough time to head over to Backdoor however...

I took a group over to see me conduct the flog test. I made it up, but it took awhile. Note to self: Don't cross rotate your Creepies before doing Backdoor.

Sunday, I took 6 of us over to After Shock and had a great run. Ryan had some pretty serious cracking around his steering box, and wisely turned around after the second obstacle. The rest of us made it thru without much damage, although, ask Bryan about his welding...

A big thanks to Richard for conceiving the idea for this event, opening it up to a wider range of people, and the usual crew that let us take over the weekend. Obviously, it's been a big hit!

Now, these guys deserve some note:

Poly Performance. Alot of us spend quite a bit of money with them, and they returned it in a pretty big way. Really good stuff. Ethan is your man.

4 Wheel Parts in Thousand Oaks. It's a new store. If you are in the area, you can't beat some of their deals. Say hi to Randy!

BFG. What's to say? They donate to alot of causes. We/FOPV are just lucky to be one of them. Geoff worked out the details for this one.

The Assendrup's, Lincoln and his Dad, and Richard Gauthier. Those Beard seats were very nice. The ratchet straps were top of the line.

Alloy USA. A big donation, most of us use them, gotta love them. Thanks to Mike Lockwood for working it all out for us.

Big Offroad. A nice goodie, generous donation. Bryan arraigned this one, Thanks guys!

NAPA. I use the store in Camarillo alot. Dave's the guy to talk to there. A great operation and they get what I need yesterday.

HotRodOil.com. Jon got us some syn Amsoil transfer case juice, and some syn Amsoil diff lube. Good stuff!

Parts Lawrence. Johnny arraigned for a few goodies from Lawrence. Most of the SoCal guys rely on him for unit bearings and steering stuff. Good hookup!

Farmer Matt. Goodies from the Farm, and tail light boxes. All jokes aside, I bet every one of those boxes gets horse traded to someone that can use them. I won't say I spotted anyone into any tail light biters on purpose, but I did my part.

Clean RC. Scott threw in a Yukon D30/D44 yoke repair kit. Nice item!

Jes. Jes brought a set of his lower panel armor out. They went to a good home!

Bryan C. The Snap-On bag and Impact sockets were a good item! The Cooler and six of Heineken were a nice touch too.

Jim Rogers. Jim came out with Richard and belongs to the Bakersfield Trailblazers. He put an Optima Yellow Top on the raffle table. Nice!

Goatman. He brought out an extra heavy duty alternator cable kit and the sweet hood louvers kit. Thanks!

Shelbyluv. Bo had a set of Rockcrawler front shocks that he set down for raffle. Thanks, and next time I’ll bring more beer…

ROBERTK. Robert had a set of off road lights that he threw in. Thanks dude!

There were a few other local contributors, a bunch of guys helped out with dinner, and there’s always some one that helped out in some way that didn’t get much recognition. A big thanks to you folks for doing what you do.

Now the biggest group that deserves a note:

All you folks that came out and ran a trail, or just hung out, you guys make this whole thing happen, and make it all worth doing, and are some very generous people. I hope you had a good time, you certainly did a great thing for an important legal challenge that is now underway.

See you next year!

--ron

 

[karstic]

PigPen (Rawbrown)

Johnny and his man purse

Goatman and a set of FarmerMatt tail light boxes

Trailer full of affle prizes

 

[Monkey55]

I had a GREAT time filming the event... Thanks to everyone who helped put it on. Even though I missed out on Saturday's day runs, I was there from Wed to Sunday afternoon.

I didn't meet everyone in person, but everyone there was cool. Even the Kangaroo Rat that joined us at night..

I did get some cool ideas about what I want in a rig..

Elias

 

[Letterman]

More Photos . .

Saturday I was done driving, and wanted to be a passenger, so I grabed my camera and jumped in with Jes and Bryan C.

Tack:

We found the end of Captain Ron's moderate group, just at the end of Tack

Drove from there and found a group on Sledge, Ben H. was wrenching on a break just at the start of the trail:

 

[Letterman]

From there we went with Goatman on a explore run around the hills:

Weeeeeeeeee:

Smile:

We found the easy run at the top of Sledge having lunch, everyone looked happy and some really nice people to talk with:

From there we went over the hill to Wrecking Ball . . .

More photos soon

 

[Letterman]

We walked down to the falls on Wrecking ball and found the group eating lunch just before the falls, Matt was driving David's rig:

I think Mat really wanted to drive the falls but David took over just before the ugly stuff:

David made it look really simple:

Everyone got a camera out for 4xSanta's wheel stand :scared: :

After a few more trys it was time to put a line out:

Still having fun!

Rick!!!!!

In it deep:

 

[Letterman]

Joe crawled it:

The cheep seats:

Fun stuff:

 

[Jackal]

One of the best wheeling trips I've been on. Special thanks to Richard, Ron and all the others responsible for making this event such a success.

 

[chelms27]

I had a great time, this was the biggest event I have been to yet and there where some nice rigs. It was great to meet all of you guys, thanks to Capt Ron for leading a great moderate run...I learned a lot and had fun and learned a lot spotting Ken and Nick. Ryan Brown's dunkelwizen? was some good stuff!

 

[Goatman]

Any more good pics?

I didn't take any this trip........

 

[swbooking]

Heres one :twak:

 

[Letterman]

Bryan C. on Highway 20, if you look in back (behind David) you can see AZ Matt standing on the side of his rig:

A few more from Highway 20:

 

[mikedashg]

Any more good pics?

I didn't take any this trip........

Mine, from the easy/moderate, some of backdoor, and camp:

http://www.fototime.com/inv/91A2B54717C4F05

 

[Hackle]

Even though I drive a YJ I went to the JV trip and had a great time. Thank you to everyone for letting me tag along. I hope you enjoy the videos but be warned they are long and large files.

Highway 20
I was not on this trip as I was still in Phx.

Sledge Hammer

Wrecking Ball
This probably the best but longest video.

Hackle, Jim f.