Halloween is normally the first trip of the winter. Summer is typically too hot for any real desert trips so we devote our summers to building and upgrades. This summer, along with switching from 33’s to 35’s, building a new rear tire carrier and bumper, and raising the ride height about an inch we completed a new custom dash. The biggest interior upgrades were a 7” Lowrance HDS-7 Gen2 Touch screen GPS and a VX2200 Rugged Radio. This trip we were also excited to test out some new GoPro angles and get some new footage.
This year “Halloween Weekend” was actually two back to back tips during the last two weekends in October. The first weekend was slow and we spent most of the time chasing down an overheating issues. We finally found that the stock mechanical engine fan was broken. It would spin, but would not engage at the correct temperature. We think it was a result of from the original roll over and the 35’s put just enough strain on the engine to spike the temperature. We wasted half of a day running to the ‘local’ parts store about 30 miles away for a new fan which we swapped out on Saturday afternoon. The first weekend was pretty uneventful other than getting some good shots of the new dash and stance with new tires.
Fast forward 5 days and we were out again. It was late on Friday, October 31st and while waiting for the rest of our group to make the trip out after their Halloween parties we took it upon ourselves to do some late night trail maintenance. There is a single trail leading away from us that we use almost every day. Right in the middle there is a sharp right around a large bush then an immediate left around a large rock. This zig-zag is nearly impossible to accomplish at any reasonable speed without plowing half the Jeep through the bush, or hitting hard on the rock. Something had to be done, the rock had to go. Armed with a shovel, flashlight and drinks in hand, we set out for some night digging. After a short walk and some quick digging we had raised the rock from it’s current resting place and pushed it to the side of the trail. Feeling accomplished we started to look for other parts of the trail we could ‘fix’. After looking around and thinking about the walking that would be involved we reluctantly headed back to the house and waited to the rest of our group.
The rest of the weekend was pretty average. The first trips out are usually slow. Testing out the summer upgrades, dialing in the GPS settings, seeing what terrain has changed.
We ended the weekend with a little GoPro action. We wanted to test out some angles we had seen online and set out Sunday morning with some new GoPro mounts and an 8’ piece of tubing. The first angle we tested had the GoPro strapped to the passenger radius arm. It made for some interesting angles and views of the suspension, but not any footage worth using. It ended up pretty shaky, we needed to hang it off a stable part of the body instead of the rapidly moving radius arm.
For the next angle we inserted an 8’ tube into an opening on our front bumber and lined up the GoPro to point back at the passenger side. Before we started we were worried the footage would be too shaky, but we set out anyway. The extra width really limited our trail selection, but we were able to find a patch of whoops and a jump with enough clearance. We filmed up and down the whoops a few times, and headed to a jump for a few rounds of air time. When we got back to the house we were really impressed with the footage. The angles were awesome, and much more stable than we had thought. The best part of this new angle was the view of the suspension and both the front and rear tires. We could slow down the footage and really see when we were making contact with the ground, and exactly when we were skipping across the whoops. Slowing down the footage from this new angle will by very useful when the time comes to revalve our suspension. Happy with our summer upgrades and loaded with footage, we packed up and headed home. Next time out will be for Thanksgiving in just over a month.
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