We began our pilgrimage early Sunday morning, intent on making it to our scheduled 8 a.m. trail rides Monday morning. Since we'd failed to get our vehicles prepped in time, we don't have any towing fiasco stories to relate. We did, however, make the haul in our newly built Pull Me Over Jeep TJ. Equipped with 35-inch Pro Comp Xterrains, a Rubicon Express 6-inch Long Arm kit, 4.56 gears, and a rear OX Locker, PMO handled the ride effortlessly, maintaining speeds as high as 90 mph.
There was a real weekend warrior feeling about the journey since we were running a make-it-and-maybe-break-it program, knowing well that we had to drive the same vehicle home at the end of the week -- no trailering it home, after all. We didn't bring a trailer -- or a hauler. But, PMO persevered, with not a scratch and nothing more than a tweaked lower sway bar mount (putting the heavier sledge in the toolbox after this, by the way). We even took on Lower Helldorado. The rear OX Locker and Rubicon Express kit helped PMO cruise on through the obstacles and made our driving skills appear all the more impressive.
We eventually sailed on home, making it a good two hours faster than it took us on the drive out. With another week of Easter Moab 'wheeling under our belts, we can only look forward to next year's event and hope by then we have a few more vehicles to drag out. Check out the photos for a glimpse of the good times. Hope to see you there in 2003. We'll be the guys in the Jeeps.
BEST BREAK (EVER?)
We see a lot of trail breaks in our line of work. Be it that many simply involve a grenaded U-joint, sometimes we benefit from another's misfortune and get to see some really gnarly trail carnage. This was the case during our company trail ride where the front differential case on this Dodge Durango offered some of the most extreme damage we've ever come across. When the Durango attempted to bump the front end up a rock shelf, the front diff gave everything it had until BOOM, the case exploded (yes, exploded), nearly dropping its contents to the ground and launching a shard from the cast-iron case a few feet from the vehicle. Thought you'd seen everything? Well, now you have.