Anyone interested in going down to northern Virginia for this big event? It's only three hours from Wilmington. http://www.bigdogsoffroad.com/html/spring_fling.html
Big Dogs Spring Fling June 23-24-25, 2017
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I'll be there, just not in the Jeep.
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i am pretty sure, 90%, that gavan and i will be there.
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I'm working on if I can make this
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I was hoping to do both the Spring Fling and the Main Jambo this year, but work schedules interfere with the Spring Fling.
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like john said work i cant make it
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Also trying to do this
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Amanda and I are in for this ride. We'll be heading down Thursday after work.
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FYI- I'm staying at Camp 2, Site 29 at the cove this weekend. Typical campsite deja always gets.
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I'll be heading down with asstape this year, and will be my first time. How does camping work? Looks to be a fee a of $50 for the weekend but beyond that not a lot of info.
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It's nothing fancy, but they have picnic tables and fire pits at each site. Porta pots are 50 feet away and there are bathhouses about 100 yards from our site that have showers and real toilets and sinks. Bring shower shoes if you intend to use them as they can get ugly after peeps play in the mud pit. The Pete will park in the field right near our camp with the rest of our trucks and trailers so traversing to and from won't be an issue. They have Ice and fire wood at the front office. Wally World is only 20 min away if you need anything. Oh and it sounds like Stafford and I are gonna ride up together so I'll be towing two.
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Dont think i didnt see what u did there, sandlot.
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I'll be in campsite 4...I'll swing by Fri or Sat night.....Unless night wheelin, then I'll stop by around 2AM and lay on the horn.
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1 campsite should fit at least 4 tents, maybe 5/6 if we still a little extra space. Reservations are under my name for who ever gets there first.
Amanda and I will be heading down solo tow hopefully before 7pm Thursday.
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I'll be there, just not in the Jeep.
What are you wheeling and are you with us or another group?
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My buggy. I'm wheelin with another group. I'll keep an eye out for you guys on the trails.
Weather looks kinda wet for Fri afternoon into Sat early AM......So wear your rubbers
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Quick recap. Good weekend. Hot Friday but rained Friday and Saturday nights overnight which cooled things off in a good way. Don't think we saw a single drop of rain while we were awake. @Slowpoke and I joined a group led by a guy Francis from VA I know from back when we first started going to Big Dogs in '09ish. Jay will probably give a full play by play so I don't want to steal the thunder but short version: we got an open/open XJ down Corum which is one of the harder trails there, we did run it downhill but it's still impressive open/open. I didn't get us "lost" per se but we ended up on some trail I had never been on which just S-curved back and forth with no exit for a while, the other guys headed back to camp then Jay and I decided to hit Boulder before calling it a day. I tried to climb a, wait for the irony, a boulder I could crest when I was on 33's but never made it over. Well it's about 18" more rutted out on one side than it used to be, got my front tires over and could climb with my rear but I was catching the rear diff. Slid over to the right and the rock kinda ended, got stuck with my passenger front tire feet in the air and a rock behind the rear tire. Damn near put it over again. After posing for a pic and putting the full harness on (in that order), Jay attached his winch to my front and controlled it as I slid off without issue. Drove about 50 feet then he ripped a valve stem off which we seriously replaced in 30 seconds thanks to a Colby valve (I'm now calling these a must have for every recovery kit), went to drive off and his clutch went to the floor. We topped off the fluid and it cooled down (possibly seals expanding due to heat?) and he was able to drive it but that was 3 lemons in a row so called it a day. Have to check the gps but we covered close to 15 miles that day.
Saturday morning I blew up something in my transmission 50 feet in to the first trail. Still figuring out what happened there. It's at Shillings thanks to @joshill and hopefully will be ready for the fishing tournament this weekend. Jay and I rode shotgun with them after than, 2 other rigs bit the dust that morning. We grabbed lunch, cut our losses and did a little pew pew pew with some boom.
The issues we ran into both days were all in same general area near Boulder/Horseshoe. I don't want to start the rumor that area is haunted but...
@astape @JKgray10 @gavan @2000sahara with @TheDarkSide and Yaeger riding shotty made up the buggy group.
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Stafford and I had a great day of wheeling on Friday at Big Dogs. That and the ribeyes on Saturday night made the trip more than worthwhile. Not being so familiar with the trails there, I can't give a detailed trail report, but I know we did all of Corum's Special downhill and Wahoo with the Thomas family, then did all of Trickle north to south, Sissy and Nasty, and a whole lot of previously unknown woods trails while the Thomases were at lunch, then rejoined the Thomases for Cobra and V Trail up and down the black part. Geoff and I split off again and once we got Geoff off that rock on Boulder (never eat anything bigger than you are) and got my valve stem Colby-ized, I had to drive down off the mountain without a clutch. By then it was 6:00. My clutch didn't start working again until the hydraulic slave cylinder had cooled an hour back at Camp 2. When I got home, I ordered a new Wilwood cylinder, high-temp fluid, and a rebuild kit, plus some new exhaust wrap, so I'm pretty sure it will never happen again.
I didn't want to trust the clutch on the trail again, so Saturday started out with me riding shotgun in Geoff's TJ. When it failed, Geoff jumped in with Fran in his built TJ (Atlas t-case and 9" rear) while I rode with Josh in his open-open Cherokee on 33s. Josh could get through anything with good line choices and a LOT of throttle. My eyes are still watering from the tire smoke.
The second breakdown was a full-size Chevy truck in grey primer, probably as old as my CJ, making its shakedown run. The battery, not being strapped down, flopped over on the first obstacle and burned a hole in the radiator. The spilled coolant put the fire out after a while, but the battery kept arcing and by the time I got back there one of the transmission cooler lines was glowing red hot for about a foot below the radiator. They put a ratchet strap on the battery and got the Chebby turned around and headed back to camp to scrounge up enough JB Weld to fix the radiator, but I don't know if it ever got back on the trail.
The third breakdown was Cody Thomas's Cherokee with a sudden failure of the crank sensor. Fran towed him back to camp in time for lunch. That made three fails on Friday and three on Saturday, and enough off-road fun for one weekend.
Finally: yes, I did break another shock, the right rear again, only this time the steel lock nut just backed off of the new lower mounting stud I had just welded on. I also broke another $12 mirror on those wind-y woods trails -- haven't done that in months. Another seven years' bad luck!
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@Stafford did you not disco the sway bar?? I think my YJ has more flex!
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