I'm in Tucson and always looking for wheeling buddies!

Hello,

I'm John and I'm new to this forum.

I've been wheeling most of my life in one form or another. Most recently I aquired a 78 CJ7 back in March or so and I've been modifying it ever since.

It now has a spring over axle suspension with a torque link on the rear axle. Mild AMC 360,stock 3 spd/D20, D30 /AMC 20 locker 3:54 gears, 33" tires lots more to come!

I'm always looking for new wheeling buddies who know some of the trails around Tucson.  

Welcome John

Lot's of good trails in your neck of the woods!

I can't wait for this heat to end  

Welcome John!

I was in your neck of the woods(desert) a couple weekends ago. As you may know from the trail section we did the Charouleau Gap. It was an awesome trip. Any particular runs you frequent in or around Tuscon?

The weather is heating up, but it wont be long before we can play again in the lower country. 

I just got back today from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and the Arizona Strip. Most was much nicer weather and perfect views. Not much wheeling though.

Any photos of your CJ7?

-Ryan 

ryangibson:

I just got back today from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and the Arizona Strip. Most was much nicer weather and perfect views. Not much wheeling though.

 

Say what? Speak for yourself Mr. "I-aint-wheelin-unless-I'm-crawlin-four-foot-boulders!"  I spent at least 10+ miles in 4-wheel first gear!  Besides, you almost rolled yourself onto your side (and I have the picture to prove it), so you should consider yourself lucky!

Oh, welcome John! There's quite a few trails I'd like to run down south, maybe we'll hook up someday. 

Wow, you must believe that I didn’t have a good time because it wasn’t a level 3 plus. It was a great trip with absolutely spectacular views. But lets face it, most was maintained back roads, but not to say that makes it bad.

The boulder obstacle was optional playing and it was fun too and I prevented myself from flopping. Please email me the “prove it” photos so I can post them.

-Ryan

I know, just playin. IMO the areas at the very end of Toroweap and Whitmore Wash rated about a 2.0 (with maybe tiny parts 2.5 around Toroweap) mainly from the rocky sections of uphill. Hack Canyon and Point Sublime... about the same I guess, for the same reasons. Any stock 4x4 can run them easy.

The hundreds of miles of bumpy road wears on you, but I tell you what... late day three and early day four was fun going Baja-style on the soft 2-track. Never mind the fact we were sipping fumes, heh.

Well I sure had a bad day yesterday! I keep asking my self if it was Friday the 13th.

I started up the trail at Charleau Gap (sp?) in my dodge diesel truck and broke off one of the side steps on a rock, then the transfercase started banging so I turned around and drove out.

Then last night I started out into the desert out by the Marana Air Park in my Jeep, a bit after sundown, it was just getting dark and I was following a road that let down into a gravel pit and suddenly the front of my jeep disappered followed by an abrupt halt, I managed to find where the road was washed out and there was a 8 foot verticle drop. I ended up with the jeep nearly vertical and planted firmly on the front bumper, then while I was trying to figure out how I was going to get the jeep down off this cliff the engine decided to catch fire from gas pouring out of the carburetor , I grabbed the shovel out the back and started shoveling sand and gravel at the fire while asking my self why I didn't mount that fire extinguisher in the jeep like I've been meaning to do for a few months.

The sand and gravel was doing nothing to extinguish the fire and I finally decided to just stand back and watch the show when one of the heater hoses decided to burst and put out the fire. So the jeep wasn't a total loss but I'm going to have to rewire most of the wiring under the hood and replace the fuel lines and vacumn hoses.

Then I had about a 5 mile walk out to where I left my truck.There were monsoon storms moving in from 3 sides with tons of lightning. and the jeep was in a terrible place in the event of a flash flood.

At this point I got lucky and found some guy's out hunting something and they gave me a ride back to my truck in their rhino. They had been drinking and were driving way too fast for the road but I made it to my truck in one piece. I got in the truck and went to see if I could get the jeep out of it's hole, but being dark out I had a heck of a time finding where I left the jeep. After about 2 hours of searching I finally found the jeep and managed to pull it out fairly easily and head for home.

The storms managed to skip around where I was, thank God!

This morning I go out to get in my truck I had a flat tire to boot!

I'd say that yesterday was both a extremely bad day and I think that the man upstairs was looking out for me.

Lessons learned:

1: Don't drive blindly where you can't see with your headlights

2: Make sure to have a fire extinguisher with me at all times.

3: Not a good idea to head out into the desert alone

4: Not a good idea to head out when there are storms possible even if they are WAY off in the distance.

5: Carry your cell phone. I did have my cell phone and I was in an area where I did get reception. I did contact  people and they were aware of my problems I just didn't think they could find me in the dark and It wasn't life threatening because I knew I could just walk out to my truck.

Contrary to what it appears I'm not anywhere's new to 4 wheeling I've been doing this most of my 54 years!

I was just too confident for my own good.

John

Glad to hear that you are alright and that the Jeep wasn't a total loss. I think that we have all had bad days out and about in our 4x's, just sounds like yours was a conglomeration of issues. I know that I have driven my `91 XJ into a similar situation off of Badger Springs road and as luck would have it I too found some hunters out and about who lent me a hand and a tow to get out. Like you said "I'm not new to off-road'n" but we all like to get out and xplore by ourselves. Just look at it as a lesson learned and keep having fun while being safe. Maybe when it cools off some of us will make it down Tucson way and we can all go out and do some tool'n together. Glad that you are OK - that's the most important thing.

JD

Sounds like a good time as you made it out alive. The only downside is the damage to the jeep. I hate to see unintentional damage unless it is caused by trail rash.

You know I took this in stride, I never got uset or pissed off, I was just thankful because it could have been SOOO much worse.

I did get the jeep running this evening, I had the wireing harness from another CJ that I'm building into a more serious crawler and the wireing harness was not needed.

I still have to replace a few vacumn lines and get a part for the carburetor and a few more wires but the jeep is running again.

Check out the damage : http://pictures.aol.com/ap/myAlbums.do?albumId=14009.1329.1170868262281.1

And yes I now have a fire extinguisher in the jeep!