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BB 2023 picture thread.

Dodge is mine, a lot of wrenching but actually the least out of the last few years at this event.
We had an absolute great time out this year!

Thanks Rob and everyone else who has a part in making this for everything you did to make this happen.

Also want to thank everyone else for being so welcoming and helpful. Was late Friday to the park and had some issues on the trail but everyone was there to help and had a great attitude.

You guys are a great group of people and excited to come back next year and make some more memories. (Cause I have something of yours to bring back!)
 
You are an enabler Sir. @fourwheelerjeff doesn't need any more tires. He is supposed to be cutting back

I've sold 2 sets of 40" Yokohamas, a new set of 44" Swampers, used set of 44" and 42" Swampers, 39" Rockers, 40" Nittos, 36" Swampers and 31" BFGs. I took 40 or so tires to Discount Tire to be recycled. I am cutting back. :D
 
Chicken Corners was a long day, but a good one. It was scenic from start to finish. The end of the trail is almost directly due south of Thelma and Louise point. I'll post a couple of pics where you can see some trucks over across at that spot from my phone. It's a pretty easy trail, but long and remote. Nothing horribly technical, but there are some sandy sections, some rocky, most of it could be done in 2wd if you wanted to. I thought Dave's Camper K5 might struggle a little but he did great only shifting to 4wd when he got hung up on a steep sandy climb. All in all a great day on the trail.
 
Sunday at Fins N Things. First time on that trail for all of us who went on it. We picked up a young family in an old 4runner at the first main obstacle. He was struggling getting up the climb and after making three attempts he backed down and out of the way. I lined up the rental and immediately Robbie said I'm out and vacated the Jeep. Low range, both lockers on and the sway bar disconnected I started the climb. I did wonder to myself what the hell I was doing with a rental on this trail, but I figured no turning back now. 20230910_093244.jpg
I was lazy too. This was a full street pressure in the tires.
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Phillip from ORD was a pleasure to have out with us. He was a master of dragging the brake to keep the open diffs putting power to both wheels on each end. Nothing stopped it and it had a fresh fender trim job from Reily Watson the day before.
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@84k5oleyeller walked over everything too.
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@Capt Ron just took everything like it was a Sunday drive. (which I guess it was!)
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Phillip did tell the guy in the 4Runner to follow us up and he spotted up the section. Despite having a massively bent idler arm on the IFS and the huge toe change it caused with the suspension moving he was able to get the truck up with us. Since he was alone he told him to come along and if he needed help we would. You can see the pass side tire toed in a lot in this pic.
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We just cruised from one spot to the next.
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This was one of the only steep climbs I avoided with the rental. I felt I was pushing my luck anyway. But the guys made short work of it. The pics don't express how steep it is from looking up it.
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The only real mechanical issue we ran into was Phillip loosing his tailpipe on a climb that happened to yank the flexible rear brake line out from the crimped connection. No Mo rear brakes!
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Without a vice grip in sight, he used a pair of pliers with some zip ties to lock the handles to keep the leaking at a minimum. We cleaned up the fluid with some brake clean and rags before we got out. Phillip's imitation of a Tuscan raider pose.

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We all had a pretty good time and knocked the trail out in about 3 hours. The Jeep did amazing. Though Robbie and I felt having the tilt/roll gauge up on the display was probably more terrifying than helpful. Putting a number on the pucker factor on some of the climbs and off-camber sections was unsettling. I saw 31 Degrees going up and down. There were a couple of off-camber spots I saw 25 degrees in sideways tilt. There are two spots on the north side of fins that had turns on climbs before you crest the top. One I saw 22 degrees in front to back tilt and 25 degrees to the side. I knew as low-slung as a stock Jeep would be we really weren't risking a roll, but it was still a sketchy feeling. I can only imagine what it would have felt like in the Crawlabago. Honestly, I feel like I'd drive my Blazer on Hell's again before I tried Fins with it.

Overall it was a great day on the trail with great people.

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Can you disconnect the sway bar on the Jeep with the push of a button or something?
 
Can you disconnect the sway bar on the Jeep with the push of a button or something?
Yep. On the Rubicon's as long as the t-case in 4wd and below 25 mph you can hit the button and it's disconnected. I was playing with it on Potash and Chicken corners and found it quite annoying if I got near 25mph it hooked back up on it's own. But on a trail like fins it was slow enough it never hooked back up on it's own.

It's pretty cool tech they have had around since the original Rubicon on the TJ's. It's handy, but for a leaf spring truck I wouldn't go out of my way to try and adapt one from a Power Wagon since it's the same thing, only larger.
 
Can you disconnect the sway bar on the Jeep with the push of a button or something?
It basically works like the axle shaft disconnect on newer trucks . Has a collar that slides to lock and unlock the two halves of the sway bar.
 

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