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JK Off-Road 101Bulletin board forum regarding topics such as general off-roading tips, tricks, techniques and equipment usage such as winching and vehicle recovery information.
Another thought to add for our Newbie wheelers and this comes from other people's bad experience in the field.
Be careful when airing down your tires if you are running without bead locks. Bead locks literally clamp the outer bead of the tire and this does two things when airing way down to below 10PSI. First it clamps the bead so in high grip situations that require more power to move the Jeep forward the rim and tire stay in the same clocked position and do not slip. It is air pressure on non-bead lock wheels that keep the bead "locked" to the rim bead. Second the advantage of bead lock is EG mudhole moving forward at a good pace and sliding rapidly back and forth sideways it is great protection for keeping the bead in place and of course the air in the tire.
In both cases I have seen guys spin tire on rim then pop it off and have seen (EG my son) giving it through a mudhole where the land contour just slid him sideways and boom off came the tire. No damage but lots of dirt and required spare on. Personally I don't air down below 18-19psi for these reasons.
Looking back to when I caught the bug (1986), I found the most instructional (and fun) way to learn offroad ins-and-outs was to passenger with a friend.
A stock Jeep's capabilities will amaze a newbie - and a few outings with an experienced driver will also serve as a great learning experience (for driving and needed mods over stock).
I can honestly say I had as much fun back then as a copilot as I do now driving !
Hey Neville - back in 1977 I got my CJ2A buried in a swamp on Barnett/Lougheed Highway where the transmission lines go up the Eagle Ridge mountain to the north. Now there is a paved parking lot literally right where I was stuck.
‘Sorry for the late reply to your post, I wanted to get a current photo of that parking lot where you got stuck.
Now there is a soccer field just in front of the parking lot, and then the trails begin going up the local mountains beneath the power lines. The trails are pretty visible ...
Queue Big Yellow Taxi which is now running through my head........
Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got till it's gone They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
Tsk, tsk, tsk -sounds like a candidate for that decal:
Mall Crawler
High Curb Edition
Lol .....
To be honest though, that place was treacherous - I remember riding my Honda 250 Elsinore up those power lines - ‘cause the cops (RCMP) couldn’t follow !
More tips - mainly pointed at our friends that want to wheel in territory that has few trees. For us with trees around always have a short tree strap (or wrap your 30ft tow strap around a tree multiple times if it is a big tree) and keep the strap as close to grade as possible. For others have a ground, sand or snow spade handy and when using them have a friend ensure the spade is digging down into the ground when you start applying tension on the line. One usually has to dig a bit of a starter hole to get it going. What I recommend is you go out to your treeless territory and try winching up a slight grade to see how these things perform and to orient one with it prior to really needing it. Be careful as you don't want it to come loose and release out of the ground while winching for safety reasons.
I made these brake ends up from old front brake flexible lines. They are cut short on the steel line, crimoed over and welded shut. They will allow you to block off a line if you tear off the flex line like I did and will allow you to avoid the long drive back to town with zero brakes like I did and I went through about 9 traffic lights. Talk about planning. What this will do is give you 3 wheel braking which is better than no wheel. This is the chassis end that bolts to the frame and accepts the hard line back into it. Will work in the front and in the back but the reason there is two is one is left and the other is right. Happy wheeling.
^^ that is a darn good idea. I keep my old factory lines in trail bag in hopes of never needing them, but that is sure a handy idea. Never know when you or someone else on the trail may need something like that in a pinch.
03-19-2021 | 08:00 AM
