Truckhaven Tortured

I went to Truckhaven this weekend with some guys from EarlyCJ5.com. Our camp consisted of five Jeeps: My ‘42 Willys MB, Jim’s 1947 CJ2A, Joes’s 1968 CJ5, Curt’s 1970 CJ5, and Bob’s 2006 Rubicon. The weather was perfect, just a light breeze that kept it from being too hot. The layout of the area is a nice mix of moderate and difficult trails and obstacles.

Our morning run took us through a series of tight, twisting hills. There was a lot of mogul type terrain that provided a good test of articulation. There were some challenging hill climbs as well, requiring momentum to make it through the soft patches. The stock Rubicon had a couple of minor high centering issues due to the longer wheelbase and its shovel-like skid plate. A very long and steep downhill exposed a couple of leaks in my brake system. One was easily tightened at the fitting. The other leak was from the stoplight switch. Luckily, Jim had a threaded plug to replace it with and we were soon underway again.

The goal of our afternoon run was to head out to the fire hydrant that Tierra Del Sol 4WD Club set at the top of a mesa about three miles from camp. I lead this run since I already had the coordinates in my gps. About a half a mile away from our target, I was paying more attention to my gps than to where I was going and went over a four or five foot ledge. Luckily, I wasn’t going very fast or I might’ve gone end over. We hooked up two winch lines and pulled the Jeep back to level ground. It actually came up a lot easier than we all expected. The other incredible thing was that the only damage was a broken shock mount. So I removed the shock, cleared out a little bit of hydro-lock and we continued on. After one last long, steep hill climb to the top of the plateau, we arrived at the fire plug. We all signed the ledger in the geo-cache ammo box that’s chained to the fire hydrant. No one wanted to “trade” for any of the items that were in the box, but we left some odds and ends for people that come after us to choose from. The only other vehicle damage occurred when Curt’s (1970 CJ5) was climbing a tall chute to another plateau. It sounds like he probably lost some teeth from the spider gears on his front axle.

We ended with a fun night run through the mud hills and a few drag races through an open wash. It was the first time I’ve had a chance to try out my rock lights. I was very pleased with the side lighting they gave me. It was a great trip with good people.

Flatty Mike