Anyone else in the four wheels off the ground club?
10-22-2008, 12:47 PM
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Anyone else in the four wheels off the ground club?
Before I go on I know I made a potentially fatal mistake and believe me, I will be getting stuck much more because I’ll be going so slow.
I was at Silver Lake sand dunes in Michigan this past weekend and ended up launching off one of the dunes!
I had been doing fairly well the whole day as far as getting the proper amount of speed to get up and over the dunes without getting stuck or flying whereas the lifted TJ that I was with kept going too slow and getting high centered at the top. Well after a few hours of him leading I decided that I would take my turn. Went up a couple dunes and all was going perfect. Then for some reason my mind started to think WAY too far into the whole thing. “I’m going way too fast, I should slow down, if I slow down too much I’ll get high centered, getting high centered can be dangerous if someone is behind me, I remember it flattened out somewhat up here (it didn’t flatten out, just went straight down)…”. Because of all that thinking I never really reacted and just flew! Landed real hard on the front right and was sure that I broke something so I drove off to a clear area to inspect everything.
Now the view from my buddy behind me;
“He looks like he’s going a little too fast OH MY GOD I THINK HE JUST FLIPPED” He saw that so he got to the other side and was quite relieved to see that I was no where in sight. He found me and was about freaked out as I was. He told me that I as I was going up I was also steering slightly to the right and that that’s why he thought I flipped. He also that that my lowest wheel was about a foot and a half off the ground!
Now for the damage… what damage? I looked over every square inch; every component and every weld and only found one thing broken as well as learned one thing that I thought was impossible. I learned that it is actually possible to rub the inner lining of the front right fender flair! Inside that flair I found the only damage; my tire broke the cap off of one of those inner lining clips. My alignment is even still good!
The lessons I learned;
1. Flying in a Jeep is F-ing scary!
2. It is much better to slow it down and get stuck; I was very lucky but it could have turned fatal just as easy
3. JK’s can take one hell of a beating!
4. Slow down!
5. Don’t over think
I’ve always been one to push the limits to find out what my vehicles could take but this was one that I specifically told myself that I didn’t want to find out the hard way. I learned some good lessons and came out on top. – KY
I was at Silver Lake sand dunes in Michigan this past weekend and ended up launching off one of the dunes!
I had been doing fairly well the whole day as far as getting the proper amount of speed to get up and over the dunes without getting stuck or flying whereas the lifted TJ that I was with kept going too slow and getting high centered at the top. Well after a few hours of him leading I decided that I would take my turn. Went up a couple dunes and all was going perfect. Then for some reason my mind started to think WAY too far into the whole thing. “I’m going way too fast, I should slow down, if I slow down too much I’ll get high centered, getting high centered can be dangerous if someone is behind me, I remember it flattened out somewhat up here (it didn’t flatten out, just went straight down)…”. Because of all that thinking I never really reacted and just flew! Landed real hard on the front right and was sure that I broke something so I drove off to a clear area to inspect everything.
Now the view from my buddy behind me;
“He looks like he’s going a little too fast OH MY GOD I THINK HE JUST FLIPPED” He saw that so he got to the other side and was quite relieved to see that I was no where in sight. He found me and was about freaked out as I was. He told me that I as I was going up I was also steering slightly to the right and that that’s why he thought I flipped. He also that that my lowest wheel was about a foot and a half off the ground!
Now for the damage… what damage? I looked over every square inch; every component and every weld and only found one thing broken as well as learned one thing that I thought was impossible. I learned that it is actually possible to rub the inner lining of the front right fender flair! Inside that flair I found the only damage; my tire broke the cap off of one of those inner lining clips. My alignment is even still good!
The lessons I learned;
1. Flying in a Jeep is F-ing scary!
2. It is much better to slow it down and get stuck; I was very lucky but it could have turned fatal just as easy
3. JK’s can take one hell of a beating!
4. Slow down!
5. Don’t over think
I’ve always been one to push the limits to find out what my vehicles could take but this was one that I specifically told myself that I didn’t want to find out the hard way. I learned some good lessons and came out on top. – KY
