1986 K5 The over-achieving grocery getter

[CriticalAction]

CriticalAction submitted a new Build:

Butch the Jack of All Trades(Master of none)

I had been searching for a K5 blazer ever since I saw my first one while I was in high school saw one on craigslist local to me. I went to look at it and found out it was a total pile (didn't even bother to test drive it). Fast forward 4 years, 1 k10 restoration, 2 other vehicles, and a lot of K5 searching later. I was surfing craigslist as I normally do and happened across this 86 K5 posted just south of Duluth, MN. Description said it was from Arizona and if the pictures were correct it appeared to be immaculate (short of a few scratches). I called the owner immediately and after some talking he revealed he had just had it shipped up from Arizona the previous winter(in an enclosed trailer I might add). I spoke for it instantly over the phone and told him I would be there the following Saturday to pick it up. He took me at my word and even took the advertisement down! Not something you encounter too much when purchasing vehicles online... Could barely focus at work all week and drove down with my dad that next Friday to get it(about 5 hour drive). Turns out he was exactly true to his word and the Blazer was 100% rust free. It had a rod knock that he had openly told me about and the interior wasn't perfect but who cares. I had a K5 in my possession and I knew I could make it into what I wanted it to be. We loaded up and paid him then preceded to walk around his tiny farm in the middle of nowhere. He had several other very cool vehicles on the property that had me drooling including a restored, perfect 69 shortbox with all original equipment still there, a 87 c10 with 38,000 original miles, and a 71 k20 that looks like it just had been driven off the showroom floor. As cool as it was I knew I had to leave eventually and we headed back to Fargo with my perfect K5 in tow.

This all happened in August of 2017 and the Blazer has progressed a lot since then. Some people might not like where I have taken it but the build has been several years in the making and I would do it all again. I will use this thread to document all that I have done or continue to do and hopefully someone will get some useful information out of it. So follow along or don't but I will continue to post. Thanks.

Read more about this build here...

 

[Bent77]

Well let’s see where this goes then...

 

[CriticalAction]

Like I said before the Blazer had a rod knock when I brought it home but the previous owner still said it ran if you wanted it to. So we pulled it off the trailer into the shop and started tinkering. Slapped a battery in it, pumped the gas pedal a few times and it fired right up. We could hear the knock right away but we kept thinking it was maybe valvetrain related so we then we're pulling valve covers to see if it was something sticking. Nothing there so we threw the cover back on and took off down the driveway. It had a flowmaster muffler on it so to 18 year old me it sounded pretty cool( I have since wised up). It sounded cool but it had no power and didn't seem to run right likely due to the engine being hurt. A couple of trips up and down the driveway and I decided to stop in front of the shop and rev the engine a little bit cuz I thought I was cool. On the third rev it let go and the engine came to a screeching halt. We saw the puddle of oil/coolant on the ground so we knew it was toast. Pulled it in the shop and started pulling the engine. Found out that the engine was actually a goodwrench 350 4 bolt main replacement that I broke which made me a little disappointed but whatever. Wrist pin came out of the bottom of the piston, cracked the water jacket, broke the rod cap and sent two pieces of rod through the pan. Had the engine pulled within an hour and marveled at my handiwork.

 

[CriticalAction]

I had bought a parts truck 79 K30 very recent to buying the K5. It happened to have a 350 in it that was recently rebuilt(20k ago). Pulled it apart and it was pretty good. So we dingle balled the cylinders, domed speed pro pistons, Melling towing cam, painted it black, and put it in. After breaking in the cam and making sure everything looked good we shut it off so we could continue the rest of the rehash for me to take to college in 3 weeks.

 

[CriticalAction]

Next up was interior... The carpet was trashed along with the dash pad but at least the previous owner had grabbed some seats from his local junkyard out of a 94 sierra extended cab. Amazingly we found out later that the drivers seat bolts directly in to all four holes, the passenger just need the rear two holes redrilled. So just like the factory we drilled the holes and used 3/16" plate with a nut welded to it for the underside. We coated the underside with 3M autobody adhesive and cleaned the underside of the body so when bolted in it would glue itself up. Unfortunately no pictures but not a very dense concept to understand. Got the new carpet installed and started replacing every single seal due to Arizona sun taking its toll on the Blazer. Then moved onto the rear panels. The factory ones were trashed so I decided to make my own. Installed a Walmart cheap single din and a some Kenwood 6x9s and 3.5 cones in the dash. I have never been much for audio junk so this is plenty for me and is still in the Blazer to this day.

Also grabbed some cheap tie downs and led lights from the local fleet farm. They are wired into the dome light circuit so they turn on when the doors open. Bought a cheap cargo mat and threw it in to protect my new carpet. Reinstalled the spare and found a neat spot for my Dewalt tool set. This pretty much concluded the interior except I was still waiting for my dash pad to get back from my upholstery guy in Texas.

 

[CriticalAction]

Well let’s see where this goes then...

Unfortunately, I have had several cell phones since having the Blazer so my photos are all jumbled. Bare with me... It gets better than easy interior junk and a 350 swap...

 

[CriticalAction]

Well once we got it together enough to drive we hopped in and took it for a spin. Engine ran good but... Apparently when the previous owner had hurt the engine they also hurt the trans because it only had 1st and 3rd. Well I had a week and a half before it need to be done for college so I was scrambling. Local guys quoted me 1800 and 3 weeks to get the tranny done which was no good. We found a guy a few hours away that quoted me 800 and 1 week for a later model (1991) beefier 700r4. Decided to bite the bullet and just do it. So basically just picked away at more little interior things and getting the old tranny out while he worked on the new one. The next Friday while I was at work my father and sister ran down there and picked it up for me. When I got home from work we through it in, adjusted the TV cable enough for me to drive without hurting it, loaded it up with all my stuff, and used it the next morning to move to college. (No pictures unfortunately) Victory was mine though!

This is basically how the Blazer stayed for the next year while I tinkered with my 84 K10 that I restored and was preparing to sell(too nice for me to want to drive). I added some led pods, Diy4x sliders, and had the TV cable set by the local shop during this time as well. After finishing my 84 350 Vortec build and getting it perfect to sell I sold it to a boy out of western ND that didn't even have his license yet (his parents drove it home) but I could tell he was going to enjoy it as much as I liked building it. The funds from this sale were going to contribute to the next step of the K5 that I had been planning for a long time...

 

[CriticalAction]

Well when you sell a completely restored square you naturally come into some funds for your next bad (good) ideas. This next phase literally occurred almost exactly 1 year after owning the Blazer, and after hours of reading build threads, watching videos, more build threads, and phone calls with OffroadDesign. Basically as soon as the check cleared I was ordering parts as once again I only had a few weeks before college started up again and I would not have the time. So I was on a mission once again.

Well in storage I had already rat holed an NP241c out of a 90' Burb in excellent condition, and a D60/14 bolt combo that already had 4.88s, detroit/detroit, new Warn locking hubs, ORD Crossover arm, all new bearings, seals, and axle shaft joints. The Dana 60 also had a u bolt style 1350 yoke on it also. So I started with the axles (I apologize in advance for no pics, I was in a hurry). For the Dana 60 I pulled the shafts out and swapped the front carrier to an Eaton E locker because this is my daily driver and a detroit is not something I care to have when I drive with the hubs locked in. I swapped the rear 3/4 ton 14 bolt to disc brakes using the Cut Brothers Engineering backets. These allowed me to use the later model (think 2003) 14 bolt disc brake parts and retain an internal park hat. I also put a Diy4x HD diff cover on the D60, and used the 13 bolt Crane cover for the rear. A sawzall made quick work of the unwanted casting.

Then after an 1.5 hours on the phone with Stephen at ORD and 1 week later a whole bunch of boxes showed up... Ordered a set of the brand new (at the time) General Grabber Atx tires in the 35x12.50 flavor. Yes, yes I should have went 37s... Don't remind me. Continuing the trend of me dropping the ball and not taking as much pictures as I should have I will just post what I have of the 3 day thrash to get this pig lifted. The specs of the lift and other misc are:
- 2" Front EZ rides
- Rear ORD 2.5" Shackle flip(stock 52s)
- Bilstein 5100s
- Ford F250 shock towers (Front)
- ORD HD shackles/bushings fr/rr
- 35x12/50r17 General ATx tires
- Axle offset plates with front axle pushed forward 1.5"
- Sye on the 241 w/ flange output
- Tom Woods Driveshafts (1350 all through)
- ORD rear spring pads to set pinion angle
- ORD u bolt plates/u bolts

With the overdirve of the 700r4 and the 4.88s w/ 35s this combo works out really well and I still run about 2700 at 80 with zero issues.

 

[obijuank5]

Eagerly awaiting the post where you wheel it and put it on its side!

 

[CriticalAction]

Shortly after installing the lift and tires I wanted to treat some surface rust on the back of the front bumper. Well that bumper was a pain in the *** to get off. So at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday I told my dad we were building a bumper. We ran to the steel yard before they closed at 5 and then to Harbour Freight to nab one of the new ZXR 12000lb winches. This is what came out of our shop at the end... Winch is on its back out of the elements and zero compromise of approach angle. I also finished off the "fang" cut at this time. Center section is 2x6" 1/4 box tubing w/ 1/2x5" strap, outers are 2" .120 wall tubing (no DOM on hand), I built kickers that go back to the frame out of 1" 3/16" tube to the factory bumper mounting holes for the wings. The strap extends ~14" into the frame and double as tow points drilled out for shackles. I took the rivets out of the core support mounts and put 6-3/8" grade 8 bolts per side which should be plenty hold it on there. Fairlead is just a generic Warn off Ebay, the synthetic cable I think I got off 4wp during a sale they had ( I hate steel cable). I put some strap across the top to fill in the gap that now appeared due to the way the bumper was built. Personally I think it came out pretty good and it also doubles as my license plate mount. Powdercoated the whole thing and bolted it in. Went back later and had a buddy bend up a skid plate out of 1/4" so that it is more contained and just has a hole in it for getting to the clutch.

During this time I also installed a 2nd battery in the factory driver side location. Its just a large Marine deep cycle from Walmart with 2/0 cable to a Blue Sea battery switch. Also put a Blue Sea fuse box up on the passenger fender for any aux loads.

 

[CriticalAction]

Eagerly awaiting the post where you wheel it and put it on its side!

Wheeling photos are coming, but unfortunately for you no flops (yet).

 

[CriticalAction]

So whats the point in building this if its not going to get wheeled? I had told myself a long time ago that I would make to Fullsize Invasion for the 2019 run. Well I did make it but not without some trouble... (This is going to be a long post)

Leading up to heading out we had a solid week of 50 degree weather and about all of the snow had melted away. Well 24 hours before we are supposed to leave ND, SD, and others gets hit with a blizzard and drops 5"s of snow on us in 24 hours. So instead of leaving the Friday before FSI like was planned we headed out that Thursday afternoon about 3 o'clock.

The blizzard is really picking up now so we just through everything we thought we might need into the Blazer and headed out. We couldn't go south though because all roads to the SD border were closed and it was about to be everything west also to the MT border. So we get on the interstate west towards MT and probably drove on the closed interstate for about 1.5 hours until we hit Valley City where the gates were closed and could go no further.

Well we aren't giving up that easy so we started heading south towards highway 46 because there are no gates to kick us off and no cops to kick us off. Well we make it about 3 miles until we come around a curve and there is a jack knifed semi in the ditch. So like any normal person I slow down and instantly the Blazer starts to go sideways because the road is banked. I stop all together and in 4wd with all 4 tires I could not drive on the road to keep going around the curve. Well we figure only a couple inches of snow in the ditch and decide to back down and drive to a approach we see a little further to help us get back on the road.

Needless to say we got stuck a little bit and ended up having to rock it a bit to get out. Then I get going again straight towards the approach and I can't stop in time and hit the approach and go over the whole thing. Now I am bellied out on the other side and no amount of rocking will get me out. So my father and I start eyeing a fence post back up the ditch next to the road for a winch anchor. We ended up just using the snow shovel (thank god I threw it back in) to dig the belly out and was able to get turned around back onto the approach. Unfortunately neither of us thought to take a picture as we were too focused on continuing on so we get headed south again.

After another 20 miles and we are finally on US 46 headed west I kept hitting these snow patches in front of farmsteads. So everyone I would just slow down and we would get through it. Well we finally hit one that knocked me a little sideways and I corrected to gain control again. Well I knew if I turned back straight I would roll it for sure so I corrected to gain control and pointed it straight for the ditch and figured alright we're going in. My dad yelled hang on and we hit it. Luckily this one had no water in it and was flat bottomed.

The 3-4"s of snow at the bottom slowed us but not enough and we made it all the way to the fence line on the other side. However, we were unscathed, right side up, and appeared to not be in too much trouble. I backed down and sure enough under the snow was glare ice so I was unable to drive anywhere. I ended up getting out and pushing while my dad rocked back and forth so we could pack some snow.
We knew we were good now so we both just started laughing and took a picture(finally, I know). I put it in 4wd and got going with enough momentum and was able to climb out of the ditch. After this we just left the hubs locked in and didn't go faster than about 40 mph until we could get back on the unclosed portion of the interstate and head to Bismarck.

We stopped in Bismarck at Walmart to get a new air filter (gotta love Chevy SBCs) because mine was completely soaked. I had to pour about 1/2" of water out of the intake when I did it also. Now that we knew were starting to get out of it we were able to settle in, set the cruise at 50 mph and slowly make our way to Dickinson where we would eventually spend the night. The next morning its nice out, no snow on the road, and all is well.

We steadily start to make our way south through SD, and into WY. We did spark plugs somewhere in WY at a carquest along with replacing a burned plug wire. We did this due to a sputtering issue we were starting to have occur, but this quick fix cured it. Oh, and it naturally started snowing while we were doing it while the rest of the day had been a beautiful 55 degrees. The rest of the day was uneventful and we stayed in Casper, WY. While we were there we happened to look up that we had set the idle incorrectly on the newly installed Holley Sniper so we redid that in the hotel parking lot the next morning and got on our way.

The next day we were experiencing every now and then a quick pull to the passenger side. Right away we just figured we would hit patches of wind through the canyons of CO that we were now traveling in. Well then it happened when I was going about 10 mph coming out of a town just North of Rifle, CO. We figured we should stop and check it out. We felt the hubs and mine was barely warm to the touch but I hear my dad yell as he burns his hand on the passenger hub. Crap.

We pull the locking hub and jack it up enough to see the the wheel bearings are toast on that side and we can clunk the tire side to side quite a bit. Well what do we do now? The town we just left is too small to have the auto parts store open passed 5 and we don't have those parts. So we threw it back together enough to drive and figured we would limp it the 35 miles to Rifle, CO where they have an Autozone that is open later. I set the cruise at 35 and kept both hands on the steering wheel in case it grabbed and tried to send us off the road. Besides everybody passing us at 65 we made it there without issue.

My dad had called ahead and had the counter guy set aside bearings and wheel seal for us but the annoying thing was the fact that the hub was ice cold when we got there. Whatever. So we tore it apart and replaced the wheel bearings in the Autozone parking lot. Took us about 2 hours start to finish because the bearings had built up a burr on the spindle that wouldn't allow us to pull the rotor/hub off. Cured the problem with the mini sledge and a pry bar. Well the fiasco is done so we ate at Sonic and hopped on the interstate to do the last 50-60 miles into Grand junction where our hotel was booked. It was dark out so those curves and hills were pretty fun in the K5 late at night.

The next morning is when we headed into Moab for the first trail day: Moab Rim. I was excited of course. Next post will be a trail recap and picture dump because I actually have a few of that trail.

 

[Fastereddie]

Shortly after installing the lift and tires I wanted to treat some surface rust on the back of the front bumper. Well that bumper was a pain in the *** to get off. So at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday I told my dad we were building a bumper. We ran to the steel yard before they closed at 5 and then to Harbour Freight to nab one of the new ZXR 12000lb winches. This is what came out of our shop at the end... Winch is on its back out of the elements and zero compromise of approach angle. I also finished off the "fang" cut at this time. Center section is 2x6" 1/4 box tubing w/ 1/2x5" strap, outers are 2" .120 wall tubing (no DOM on hand), I built kickers that go back to the frame out of 1" 3/16" tube to the factory bumper mounting holes for the wings. The strap extends ~14" into the frame and double as tow points drilled out for shackles. I took the rivets out of the core support mounts and put 6-3/8" grade 8 bolts per side which should be plenty hold it on there. Fairlead is just a generic Warn off Ebay, the synthetic cable I think I got off 4wp during a sale they had ( I hate steel cable). I put some strap across the top to fill in the gap that now appeared due to the way the bumper was built. Personally I think it came out pretty good and it also doubles as my license plate mount. Powdercoated the whole thing and bolted it in. Went back later and had a buddy bend up a skid plate out of 1/4" so that it is more contained and just has a hole in it for getting to the clutch.

During this time I also installed a 2nd battery in the factory driver side location. Its just a large Marine deep cycle from Walmart with 2/0 cable to a Blue Sea battery switch. Also put a Blue Sea fuse box up on the passenger fender for any aux loads.

View attachment 305258

View attachment 305259

View attachment 305260

View attachment 305261

View attachment 305262

View attachment 305263

View attachment 305264

View attachment 305265

View attachment 305266

View attachment 305267

View attachment 305268

View attachment 305269

I like the way you did the front bumper

 

[Lazarus Long Bed]

You and your Dad make a good team. Following.

 

[CriticalAction]

I like the way you did the front bumper

Thank you. Reading through your build thread now. Looking good!

You and your Dad make a good team. Following.

He has taught me a lot for sure! Wheeling is something we both have never done before though so its a learning experience as much as anything else.

 

[CriticalAction]

Moab Rim:

First off: I had never been wheeling before this trip. Unless you count snow wheeling ditches in ND which I definitely do not. So this was a massive learning experience for me. I built the Blazer because I wanted to have adventures in something that I built myself. That being said I was a little anxious when I am walking around the parking lot Sunday morning in Moab meeting all these experienced wheelers on 40s, links, doublers, etc. Then to top it off there were several people that were very surprised that I chose Moab Rim to be my first trail EVER.

Anyways, we aired down in the parking lot and drove the 2 miles or so to Moab rim trail head. Had to have 25+ rigs with us the first day so we were a long line of oddballs in the sea of JKs and JLs. Right away we drop into 4 low and start having fun. It was nice to just start feeling out the rig and see what we were getting into. Naturally there was a group of flatfenders in head of us that took a while to get through the Devils Crack so we got to sit and wait for a bit (no biggie). I don't think my father fully understood what I brought him on because when we came around the slight corner and he saw the crack he just looked at me with that look like WTF.

Devils Crack: I was a little bit of a pansy and had only dropped my tire pressure to 14 in the parking lot before we left which by the time my tires were warm it was at 16-17 later when I checked. So I got spotted well up to the obstacle but couldn't quite pull myself up as the rear didn't quite have enough traction. So a couple of guys that were behind me just gave me a little push and I crawled right up it. I firmly believe that if I was at 12 psi like I ran for the rest of this trail and week I would have made it up just fine. But you live and learn I guess. After I finished this obstacle I stopped and talked with Cooper Rasmussen a bit as they were the trail sponsor that day and he suggest I drop pressure. I wisely took his advice and ran 12 psi the rest of the week.

Z-Turn: Obviously there are several lines to take here but I went wide left and came in at an angle pointed directly at the tree at the top. It also helps that Stephen from ORD was 5 ft to my right coaching me through it. This was the first instance where I thought hydro assist would be nice as my steering locked up a little bit and I had to shuffle back/forth to get on the line I wanted. Just a little bump and I was able to get up. Johnny Wood from one of the latest UAs spotted me the last part as Stephen no longer had the best angle and it was when my steering locked up.

Rest of the trail: The rest of the trail was ran pretty much without incident. I just slowly meandered my way up to the top where we would eventually stop and have lunch. We eventually headed back down sometime after lunch and just like guys had been saying. The obstacle you went up is a completely different obstacle coming down. A crew cab F250 was further down the hill coming down the Z turn while we were further up and we saw him almost roll it. Thankfully it came back over but he popped the left front tire off the bead in the process. We threw a winch line/snatch block on him from the Ranger Danger behind him to a tree so that we could jack him up safely and reseat the bead. We couldn't get it and nobody wanted to try ether(I thought it would have been fine) so we just put his spare on. Cool thing to happen was while I was standing there John Currie just happens to come up the trail as we are coming down in a couple his JKs, so I got to talk to him for a bit. Totally normal guy and exactly like I had seen him in videos as. My turn down the Z-turn I decided to just head straight down as the two guys ahead of me were a little tippy. Overall glad I went straight and @FullsizeInvasion caught a really cool pic of me with my dad watching. It definitely puts into perspective how the obstacle actually is. When I came off the last ledge I hit my bumper at such an angle I sheared one of my skid plate bolts off. 6k lbs on a single 3/8" bolt doesn't do so well. I have a receiver hitch in and it honestly saved my gas tank/rear quarters several dozen times throughout the week.

Coming back down Devils Crack my hitch didn't save me however. Chris from RecklessWrenchGarage spotted me well but when there isn't any rock for my hitch to catch on, then the stock bumper has to take the hit. It bent it pretty badly up and knocked one of the rear aluminum trim pieces off. I will try to post the video my dad got of it but it is also on my instagram if you want to see(IL_wilcox). Overall a very fun trail for my first one. I didn't get denied on any obstacles and made it out largely unscathed.

 

[Fastereddie]

Moab Rim:

First off: I had never been wheeling before this trip. Unless you count snow wheeling ditches in ND which I definitely do not. So this was a massive learning experience for me. I built the Blazer because I wanted to have adventures in something that I built myself. That being said I was a little anxious when I am walking around the parking lot Sunday morning in Moab meeting all these experienced wheelers on 40s, links, doublers, etc. Then to top it off there were several people that were very surprised that I chose Moab Rim to be my first trail EVER.

Anyways, we aired down in the parking lot and drove the 2 miles or so to Moab rim trail head. Had to have 25+ rigs with us the first day so we were a long line of oddballs in the sea of JKs and JLs. Right away we drop into 4 low and start having fun. It was nice to just start feeling out the rig and see what we were getting into. Naturally there was a group of flatfenders in head of us that took a while to get through the Devils Crack so we got to sit and wait for a bit (no biggie). I don't think my father fully understood what I brought him on because when we came around the slight corner and he saw the crack he just looked at me with that look like WTF.

Devils Crack: I was a little bit of a pansy and had only dropped my tire pressure to 14 in the parking lot before we left which by the time my tires were warm it was at 16-17 later when I checked. So I got spotted well up to the obstacle but couldn't quite pull myself up as the rear didn't quite have enough traction. So a couple of guys that were behind me just gave me a little push and I crawled right up it. I firmly believe that if I was at 12 psi like I ran for the rest of this trail and week I would have made it up just fine. But you live and learn I guess. After I finished this obstacle I stopped and talked with Cooper Rasmussen a bit as they were the trail sponsor that day and he suggest I drop pressure. I wisely took his advice and ran 12 psi the rest of the week.

Z-Turn: Obviously there are several lines to take here but I went wide left and came in at an angle pointed directly at the tree at the top. It also helps that Stephen from ORD was 5 ft to my right coaching me through it. This was the first instance where I thought hydro assist would be nice as my steering locked up a little bit and I had to shuffle back/forth to get on the line I wanted. Just a little bump and I was able to get up. Johnny Wood from one of the latest UAs spotted me the last part as Stephen no longer had the best angle and it was when my steering locked up.

Rest of the trail: The rest of the trail was ran pretty much without incident. I just slowly meandered my way up to the top where we would eventually stop and have lunch. We eventually headed back down sometime after lunch and just like guys had been saying. The obstacle you went up is a completely different obstacle coming down. A crew cab F250 was further down the hill coming down the Z turn while we were further up and we saw him almost roll it. Thankfully it came back over but he popped the left front tire off the bead in the process. We threw a winch line/snatch block on him from the Ranger Danger behind him to a tree so that we could jack him up safely and reseat the bead. We couldn't get it and nobody wanted to try ether(I thought it would have been fine) so we just put his spare on. Cool thing to happen was while I was standing there John Currie just happens to come up the trail as we are coming down in a couple his JKs, so I got to talk to him for a bit. Totally normal guy and exactly like I had seen him in videos as. My turn down the Z-turn I decided to just head straight down as the two guys ahead of me were a little tippy. Overall glad I went straight and @FullsizeInvasion caught a really cool pic of me with my dad watching. It definitely puts into perspective how the obstacle actually is. When I came off the last ledge I hit my bumper at such an angle I sheared one of my skid plate bolts off. 6k lbs on a single 3/8" bolt doesn't do so well. I have a receiver hitch in and it honestly saved my gas tank/rear quarters several dozen times throughout the week.

Coming back down Devils Crack my hitch didn't save me however. Chris from RecklessWrenchGarage spotted me well but when there isn't any rock for my hitch to catch on, then the stock bumper has to take the hit. It bent it pretty badly up and knocked one of the rear aluminum trim pieces off. I will try to post the video my dad got of it but it is also on my instagram if you want to see(IL_wilcox). Overall a very fun trail for my first one. I didn't get denied on any obstacles and made it out largely unscathed.

View attachment 305282

View attachment 305283

View attachment 305284

View attachment 305285

View attachment 305286

View attachment 305287

View attachment 305288

 

[swettysblazer]

Heh, I see my buddies trucks in those pictures. Looking good man.

 

[CriticalAction]

Heh, I see my buddies trucks in those pictures. Looking good man.

Which rigs were theirs? Maybe I talked to them while I was there. Thank you for the compliment as well.

 

[CriticalAction]

Trail Day 2: Top of the World

This trail was very easy and laid back compared to the Moab Rim run of the day before which my dad appreciated. I think it would have been even more fun on something more stock and less ground clearance. I don't think I even turned on the front locker during this trail. My rpm never got above 1000 and I made it up anything I pointed the K5 at. Overall I think it was a fun trail to do for my first time out to Moab but I do not see myself doing it every year as the drive out there isn't particularly worth the view.

When we got to the top our group of probably 40+ rigs were all trying to find space with a lot of people wanting their poser shot on the famous rock I had seen so many pictures of. I didn't want to wait my turn and figured I would be back at some point so I just parked out of the way and chowed my lunch down. I did however go stick my head over the cliff and I have to admit it was pretty crazy how high up we were considering it didn't seem we had climbed that high.

Unfortunately no pictures as I didn't want to drop my $900 phone over the edge and really make myself mad so you guys will just have to make due with all the mall crawler JK/JL pics that I am sure were taken during EJS2019. I only got a few photos on this entire trail as I was walking around checking out everybody's rigs I had not seen the day before. I was able to catch a pic of the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss sponsored tire rig that followed me all the way up with 40 psi in the tires! Also snapped a pic of Robert Parrish's newly put together Dodge Crew Cab on 42s that he was wheeling with his whole family.


Day 3: Arches National Park and 4x4 trail

Since there was no run Tuesday for FSI and I wanted to do more than just sit in the Air BNB. We decided to head up to Arches and poke around for a bit. I also had heard of a 4x4 trail that we could take a cruise on once we were in there so I wanted to check that out.

We saw the sights like balanced rock and several other smaller balanced rocks. Honestly crazy how a single tiny earth tremor hasn't toppled all of these over by now but I guess the geography of Utah is pretty stable so they still stand. We talked to the local park rangers and got instructions for the 4x4 trail. First part of it was just a minimum maintenance gravel road so I was kinda disappointed if that was all it was going to be. I was mistaken though as we eventually reached the actual 4x4 trail and it had a sort of gatekeeper that I actually had to lock the hubs and shift into 4wd for. Honestly it wasn't crazy as I am sure any stock rubicon on all terrains would have made it but you definitely weren't taking your Subaru Outback up it.

We got to the top of the hill and I decided to take a few poser shots for good measure. My father and I were both extremely surprised to be doing this type of driving in a national park as we come from ND/MT where you don't ever leave the designated paved roads.

The rest of the 4x4 trail was basically a dry creek bed (at the time) that you could bomb around in for many miles. This is the part that made me wish my Blazer had links and coilovers as I wanted to push it a lot more but it was too rough for my current suspension. We had been strictly informed that if it started raining before we were traveling on this route that we were not to go on it as the rangers said it can get very hairy. I actually believe them as it was practically silt for 15+ miles with all the hills around funneling it down to the creek bed. The trail eventually comes back out into the park if you want or you can take the alternative gravel road out to the highway a few miles outside of Moab. We elected to take the pavement as we were worried the gate was closed on the alternative route.

All in all we only saw a few people while we were out there which is cool because there is a lot of tourists in the rest of the park that can get annoying. I would definitely recommend checking out Arches and the 4x4 trail if you guys have some spare time while in Moab and the weather is right.

Let me know if you guys find any of this stuff interesting or if I am just rambling to the birds...