What a super fun event! Great group of people! I find it really cool when we have other vehicles along with us on the trail. We all share the same passion for the outdoors and being able to get on the road less traveled! I think Matt wrote the book on camping done right! Who needs an adventure trailer when you can just pull that smoker/grill on the trail!!
you guys absolutely rocked! Is there a way we can send compliments to Toyota on what a great job the central TT did??
Kudos to Matt for the great camp cookout after the run! BTW, I did wipe my hands with antibiotic wipes before slicing those tomatoes... so if anyone got salmonella, it's the tomatoes' fault, not me..
you guys absolutely rocked! Is there a way we can send compliments to Toyota on what a great job the central TT did??
Kudos to Matt for the great camp cookout after the run! BTW, I did wipe my hands with antibiotic wipes before slicing those tomatoes... so if anyone got salmonella, it's the tomatoes' fault, not me..
I agree 100%!! It was a fun day out and everyone was great. Big thanks to Matt for putting this together and to the Trail Team guys showing everyone a good time. Maybe next time I'll actually have my traction control items working correctly.
Killer job on the photos James, I especially like this one:
...Good Call and thanks for the new Avatar!
Saw 'em Off Matt!!!!
In all seriousness, it was an awesome weekend. It was especially fun for those of us that do not have a rear locker or atrac. Thank goodness for left foot breaking.
hehe it turns out that I knew Woody a while back, about 12 or 13 years back, I ran with his group in Wisconsin for a few offroad trips. That was where I first learned offroad driving.
Anyway, now that I have put the TT badge on my FJ and the TT sticker on my Jeep (hey it ran with the TT right?), I can offer some opinions on why I had an easier time ascending those steep rocky ledges where Woody gave us the winching class than Conner and Woody. We all know they are both expert offroad drivers.
Sure the Rubicon has front and rear lockers but my rear locker was not working, thus I had only the front locked and the rear was back to the Torsen LSD - thus similar to the FJC's configuration but reverse.
1) The double whammy - that obstacle was tough because of 2 rocky ledges in close series. I wasn't watching when Woody got stuck because I was way back in the line but I was there at the top, watching the whole thing when Conner ran it. The distance between the first and second ledge was pretty close to the FJC's wheelbase. Thus by the time Conner's front wheels were fighting to get up the 2nd ledge, his rear wheels were just hitting the 1st ledge. Conner spotted me thru the exact same line as he took and probably same with Woody too based on where Woody got stuck but since my jeep had a shorter wheelbase, thus when my fronts hit the 2nd ledge, my rears was probably already over the 1st ledge. Therefore I probably did not have to fight the double whammy, whereas Conner (and Woody) certainly did.
2) The auto tranny - thru out the day as I watched Woody coaching the drivers, he often insisted on consistent application of power, smoothness and consistency on the skinny pedal. That's excellent advice. As I watched Conner ascended thru the 1st ledge, his power was very consistent, based on his engine sounds. But as his tires went up the ledge and got wedged/grabbed in various big rocks and the 2nd ledge, the wheels would momentarily stop spinning. I think high traction + big ledges overloaded his AT's torque converter and his engine's torque got converted into heat, thus not enough torque where it matters, at the wheels. This resulted in the FJ losing its momentum and was stopped. I watch this in awe as Conner retried and saw/hear again and again this consistent power from the engine but inconsistent wheel turns, and momentum lost. Eventually as we saw, Conner made it - most excellent driving on his part.
My jeep is manual, 5-speed, thus I didn't suffer from torque converter overload/slipping when applying consistent power in the above case and with a crawl ratio of 67:1, the engine didn't stall. Thus my wheels were probably turning,consistenly with no loss of momentum. The MT FJC has a crawl ratio of 42:1 (that's pretty good) so I'd surmise/guess that a MT-equipped FJ might do a little better there.
Linear Mode
