Where did your Jeep take You this Week?

A couple of the Ford guys from work wanted to run Last Chance Canyon, of course they went to the Jeep guy to get them through. I'll call them "Bitchsquatch" and "Craptor". So we headed out with them in tow.
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Most of the shelf road that used to be considered the easy line is washed away now so staying in the wash is the only option for a lot of the trail now. We scraped some Ford diffs, crushed a cross member, ripped off a plastic Method hub cover. Didn't do anything to the Jeep except a couple beadlock rashes. I took the left line (going up) at graduation hill because it had a lot of hard scrabble on it and I wanted to test my rear ARB. The left side is generally considered the easy line but I had never done it before, I've always done the right line.
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They both did pretty well through the trail and up the hill, the Craptor required alot of spotting as it's a big son of a bitch, and his cheesy side steps got pretty banged up. I'm actually impressed by the amount of flex on that thing on some of the rocks. Bitchsquatch was more point and shoot, it did pretty good as well but lack of ground clearance ensured some fresh underside paint was left on some rocks. Craptor took left line on the hill and Bitchsquatch went right.
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Was a pretty good 1/2 day trip but getting hot quickly (about 100 at 1:00) so we Baja 500'd it out to the Hyw 14 exit. That's where the Craptor really shined although the Jeep on Kings was able to keep up with it. Fun little trip and although I give those guys shit, them and their rigs did pretty good. The Jeep just owned that canyon which makes me feel more confident it's ready for some trips I'm planning since the big upgrades.
Nice pics! Looks like a good time. Still pisses me off how that new line to the left was cut into the hillside by bitches who couldn't go up the main route.
 
Nice pics! Looks like a good time. Still pisses me off how that new line to the left was cut into the hillside by bitches who couldn't go up the main route.
Yea, the right side is all traction all the way, I think people just psych themselves out at the bottom when they could easily make it. If you made the rest of the canyon you can make that hill.
 
Bad place for a heavy spare tire, way up high on the Gladiator. The last thing you want to do is make the vehicle top-heavy!
My thought exactly, not to mention they make the aerodynamics of a brick even worse. I hate lifting my spare up the 4 feet to the rear tire carrier cannot imagine 12 feet in the air is any less fun.
 
We ran down to Vegas to see where we got married 28 years ago. The Little White Chapel. Still there. We then went down to Boulder City, Lake Mead and on to Flagstaff. Also saw some wild democrats. Man I will tell you this diesel is a beast. It pulls like crazy. 80 mph like nothing and will still put you in the seat up to 100. I averaged 27mpg in the 60-65 areas and 21-23 in the 75-80 areas. Just amazing.885E9253-F539-468C-A597-DA0B4B928A39.jpegAB2B8E62-29FC-45AD-B166-F9687D6F41E3.jpegADBDB9E5-CBC6-41C8-BB22-F6CEB467C687.jpeg691F3824-A89D-42E0-A089-BE786E2E978E.jpegBD570DD1-782A-4180-8299-DEE5CEE06D42.jpeg7030C4BF-319E-496F-BDA9-A16D53CAE6D4.jpegCEB8C50B-01F8-4CD5-8172-C72CFBB38F5D.jpegE0E1116D-31ED-468E-92DD-EF0D516C7C25.jpeg00D74064-BA0C-4E66-987C-64A87009321F.jpeg501D6DC0-08BA-4CB1-88DE-56AEF2570C11.jpeg
 
Saline Salt Tram, via Cerro Gordo and Swansea road.


Since the owner started a YouTube channel Cerro Gordo (old mine/ghost town) is getting pretty popular), easy drive up a maintained gravel road. lots of vehicles coming and going. Us and the tag along Dodge took the Swansea road out from there toward Saline Salt Tram, we didn't see another vehicle on that trail all day. There's a sign on the Cerro Gordo side that says "Road washed out in 2.5 miles, limited turn around opportunities. Travel not advised!" We laughed and kept going.
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Saline Salt tram is the only place I know of where you can see the floor of Death Valley (Saline) and the peak of Mt. Whitney standing in one spot and turning around.
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Keeping to my theme of anyone with a pulse and 4 wheel drive, we took along a Dodge Cummins, mega cab, long bed battleship. It's about 70 yards long and has about 1000 acres of exposed rocker panels. Guy who drives it has some experience and did well as rough as the trail has gotten. Rocker panels survived, a headlight, mirror, and front fender didn't fare as well.

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6 hours on the trail and temps of 66 degrees at the top made it a good day trip.
 
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