10-19-2005, 08:55 PM
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| Resident Armed Liberal   | Nice jeep run last weekend,,,and we outran the rain. Early Saturday morning my fifteen-year-old son and I hooked up with some friends and friends-of-friends in Blythe, CA and headed for the Kofa Wildlife Refuge between Quartzsite and Yuma, AZ. Total of ten jeeps, or at least nine jeeps and one that's jeep by courtesy. That one's a full-sized 1977 Chevy Blazer that the owner stripped of its body. Then he fabricated an oversized jeep body for it instead. It looks like an old CJ on steroids; we called it "Jeepzilla." Then there was my little Frankenjeep, a 1970 and older CJ5 put together out of parts of dead jeeps . Also a couple of other, younger CJ5's, a couple of CJ7's, a very tricked-out CJ8 (Scrambler), a square-eyed Wrangler, and a couple of Rubicons. Nice assortment. We turneded off the pavement from hwy 95 a few miles south of Quartzsite, and headed east on Pipeline Road. Then we dropped down thru Red Rock Pass, ran Hoodoo Wash back west, and camped for the night in front of an old cabin. Had a nice ironwood fire, and everyone had brought his own steak and a side dish, so we all stuffed ourselves nicely. On top of the day's beer, that ensured most of us turned in fairly early. Lots of air mattresses and cots, a few tents, and the weather stayed t-shirt temperature all night long because the clouds had rolled in; we went to sleep watching the lightning. Next morning we had a communal breakfast: bacon, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes, coffee, milk and orange juice. We were so stuffed most of us couldn't even look at a beer for an hour or two... We ran the last leg of Hoodoo wash, turned back north thru Bighorn pass, bounced our way back north between the Kofa monument and Alamo Spring to the Kofa cabin, and thence back down Pipeline Road and on out. We got a few draindrops, and that was it. We had an absolutely wonderful time. Good company, lots of beer, lots of scenery. I let my son drive the last leg of the trip out, until he came up on a hairpin curve at thirty mph, and almost sent us down a very steep, bumpy shortcut that would have involved lots of cactus and even more boulders. Back in Blythe, we hooked up the jeep, headed west toward home, and made maybe ten miles before the skies opened up. We faced rain and lightning for the rest of the 168 miles home. It wasn't a "!!!! the torpedos/let's break something" crowd or route, but it beat us up a little anyway. I cracked my frame enough to let daylight thru, and shook enough crud loose from the gas tank to make me stop and clean my fuel filter every hour or so by the end of the trip. Time for a settling bowl, I guess; I'm not ambitious enough to drop the tank and get it steam-cleaned. Last edited by troy2000; 01-26-2006 at 05:13 PM. |
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10-22-2005, 12:00 PM
| #5 |
| Senior Member  | I would love to hear how the new Diesel Liberty would do on such a trip. Sounds like you have a very pleasant outing Troy.
__________________ "To err is human, to repent divine; to persist devilish." Ben Franklin |
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10-22-2005, 10:39 PM
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| Resident Armed Liberal | I don't know much about Jeep Libertys... Quote:
The diesel part sounds good; you can't go wrong with low-end torque in the desert, and I think most diesels have it. And if the suspension is anything like what they've put on the later Wranglers and the Rubicons, it should be fine, too. The two places I'd have questions about are (1) ground clearance, and (2) the owner's willingness to scratch the paint job brushing up against Ironwood trees and ocatillos. I don't know how high the Libertys stand. For what I'm used to doing, which isn't really radical, the average old CJ does a lot better with 31-inch tires and a two-inch lift (suspension, not body). Academic question for me. I'm not happy in the desert unless I can take off the top and put the windshield down, unless I'm running fast on a dusty road. I never saw the point of being out there in a hard top, although lots of my friends do it. But I'm not totally nuts. If it's the middle of a hot day and I'm cooking, I'll put the windshield back up and stretch a bikini top for some shade. | |
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10-23-2005, 01:21 AM
| #9 | |
| Senior Member  | Quote:
__________________ North-1 South-0 HALFTIME! | |
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10-23-2005, 08:58 PM
| #10 | |
| Senior Member | Quote:
__________________ "To err is human, to repent divine; to persist devilish." Ben Franklin | |
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10-23-2005, 09:57 PM
| #11 | |
| Resident Armed Liberal | If you're in Maryland, you were wandering far and wide.. Quote:
t's a little farther than we usually roam, though. Since the bunch is all guys who live (or lived) in Blythe, we usually stick around the Colorado River area, on both sides. We usually do day trips, or overnighters like the last one, and that Crown King trip looks like a two or three-nighter to do it justice. | |
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01-26-2006, 12:11 AM
| #12 |
| Resident Armed Liberal | Resurrecting the thread for a picture Friend of mine finally sent me a picture from the Jeep trip. Not the one I'd have chosen; he caught me coming out from under FrankenJeep after cleaning the filter for the umpteenth time. I got to where I could do it in a couple of minutes. And yes, when I got home I lost the filter and installed a settling bowl in front of the carburator instead; end of problem. It took me a while to figure out what I was doing with my left hand in the pic; it finally dawned on me. I was pulling up my pants and making sure they came out from under the Jeep with me...  |
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01-26-2006, 09:57 AM
| #13 |
| Senior Member  | For some reason I didn't catch this thread before now, Troy. Sounds like you guys had a blast. We quaders go out with jeepsters quite a bit and it's a great, great time. We live only 20 miles from Crown King so we go there on quite a frequent basis. Wife and I ONCE talked about possibly moving to Crown King when she retires in a few years but there is very little shopping there and to do any you have to travel to Prescott Valley and that is a two hour ride (over sometimes very rough and muddy roads) just to go 35 miles or so. Addditionally property has gone sky high there. Crown King is great for a summer home but for a permanent residence it's a little TOO remote for us. Great community, nonetheless.
__________________ "It confuses me how some people can vigorously go against the 2nd. Amendment and still call themselves patriotic"-me Last edited by Dale; 01-26-2006 at 01:44 PM. |
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01-26-2006, 10:37 AM
| #14 |
| PUKHA DAWG  Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Virginia, just outside of Washington D.C.
Posts: 3,591
Trader Rating: (0) | I missed this thread the first time too. I'm fast approaching my mid life crisis and have been thinking about a jeep (always wanted one, not a sports car). Now you have thinking a lot again about getting one. I pay of my current car in November. Hmmmm? |
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01-26-2006, 05:17 PM
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| Resident Armed Liberal | Go ahead and do it, Dallas Quote:
I don't use mine for transportation, so I can get away with playing around with an old one. | |
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01-26-2006, 08:43 PM
| #16 | |
| Senior Member | Quote:
__________________ "To err is human, to repent divine; to persist devilish." Ben Franklin | |
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01-26-2006, 09:08 PM
| #17 | |
| Resident Armed Liberal | Some day the square-eyed ones will be collectibles Quote:
I lost a ton of brownie points with my wife a couple of months ago. She said to me, "you know what? If we get our finances squared away like I hope this coming year, maybe we can afford to buy you a NICE Jeep." And ungrateful dog that I am, I blurted out, "Why would I want a nice one? I LIKE my old Jeep. Why don't we just put some money into it instead?" I know; sheer stupidity mixed with tactlessness. But she caught me off guard; who would've ever expected such a statement out of a wife? Last edited by troy2000; 01-26-2006 at 10:13 PM. | |
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