9th Texas Spur Jeep Jamboree March 2013
My wife, Commander and I just completed our first Jeep Jamboree. ( I hope I got that in the correct order !).
It was in Llano Texas on the Inks Ranch and was the 9th annual 2013 Texas Spur Jeep Jamboree .
For a professional write up of the event see >>
http://jeeptales.com/galleries/07Fal...zeJamboree.pdf
I have worked a few hours a month for approximately 2 years slowly building my Commander with the help of everyone that posts on the forum. Thanks for all the big and small posts !
I now had an unproven and untested Jeep. I was also an unproven and untested off road driver. What a combination! I hope I torqued everything correctly and was really wondering how everything I have been building would work.
Now for those of you with XK’s and WK’s who do aggressive off road wheeling all the time, the rest of this write up you already know and have experienced so you can go on to the photos. LOL..
For my final preparations I emptied most of my emergency gear and added a few extra tools,
I cut off my exhaust tip that stuck out past my bumper (and keep turning colors on me). This turned out to be a Great idea as it would have ended up being smashed flat up against the bottom of my bumper.
I mounted my portable winch in the front receiver, rotated my tires, changed my tune from 87 performance to 93 in case I needed the extra performance (I use 87 to save $$). I also waxed it!! Lol..
The evening before was check in and group/trail sign ups.
Now I looked at the sign in sheet… “Check the type of your Jeep” at the top… Mmm what’s missing…? Commanders!!!
Maybe we shouldn’t be here??? I’ve already invested a lot in gas and lodging… so… I’m an “Other” now and we are here to stay !!!
The trails where rated 6-9 and some say the most difficult could be a 10. My personality is one to definitely try to take on and tackle everything out there, but in reality.. new and untested X 2, my daily driver and emergency response vehicle, needing to be able to drive my wife and I home, plus I’m still making payments on her…. tempered my aggression …. a little.
Now after talking to the Trail Guides, I signed up for a group that the guides would help and give a little more instructions to and we would drive all the trails except for the last part of two trails that had the most extreme obstacles.
We had met some great jeepers at the sign in and again at our hotel. While in the hotel parking lot looking at everyone’s nice Jeeps, a few of them shared some stories and suggestions for me. One was to remove my mud flaps… I had thought of that, but had run out of time. My self recovery winch would probably not be needed with all the other jeeps in the area and it would hurt my approach angle that was valuable on this jamboree. I was also told that I might want to consider removing my Jerry can from the back of my jeep and my rear receiver shackle, as sometimes Jeeps have slid backwards into boulders or tipped up on end etc. The Texas Spur Jamboree I was told also has the most rollovers of any Jamborees (we only had one this time).
Ok now what have I really gotten my wife and myself into! LoL..
I removed my mud flaps, Jerry can, shackle and portable winch in the parking lot.
All meals were provided (great food) so the next morning we had breakfast at the check in site and lined up in our respective groups and aired down. I had been wondering what I should air down to. I had preset my deflators to a conservative 18 psi and TrialbyFire had also recommended the same (thanks again).
One of our first obstacles had a pretty good sized ledge that I was easily able to get my front wheels on top of. Getting the rear up was a little more interesting for me as a novice off roader. Lots of gas and now all four wheels were spinning madly and I’m moving sideways on my sliders! With a little instruction from my trail guide I now know the definition of “crawling “and when to bump it. Made it up no problem…. Steep learning curve!
And no more problems like that!
I’d say when my wife and I would look at an obstacle about 50% of the time we would think, there is no way we can do that! About 15% of the time we would think, there is absolutely no way we could do that! But with the help of some Great Guides we did!!! The guides directed a lot the first day The 2nd… it was like you had earned your solo license and we came upon a few obstacles we would have had guides on the day before. Now that we had been exposed to ones like them the day before, we were able to negotiate them on our own. The 2nd day there were a few more technical and challenging ones and the Guides were there for them including the only obstacle in the jamboree that has a sign requiring a guide (well known for rolling Jeeps we learned).
As I was trying to learn how to drive my rig, the guides where learning how the Commander handles, responds and what its capabilities were and how best to direct us. I noticed a couple of times that I did have a slightly larger turning radius compared to some of the smaller jeeps and had to back up a few times to get into the correct line for the next obstacle. I found myself with one foot on the brake and the other on the gas a lot of the time… I also found myself focusing a lot more on the trails than I had anticipated. Our Trail Guides would make great “Yellow Shirts” (aircraft taxi directors on an aircraft carrier). You needed to follow their direction exactly to successfully, and with minimal damage, make it through some parts of the trails. The roll over incident that did happen was possibly attributed to not following a guide’s instruction.
We were also told that they thought we were the first Commander to have ever attended this Jamboree (or perhaps any Jamboree in Texas). And we made it through all the trails that we signed up for. So we climbed some Commander virgin grounds!
Another lesson learned was after over hearing someone say, they had tied their gear down, I remember thinking I didn’t have anything on top of my jeep to tie down. Soon we were climbing a granite domed mountain that was reported to be 47 deg’s. All we saw was our big hood and the blue sky !! What a feeling! We weren’t sure at first if we would go over backwards or not LOL…It was great! As you know the Commander has lots of little cubby holes to put thing in… it was now like being in a waterfall…. All those little things we had stored in them came tumbling out. On the way down, it felt like we were 90 degrees straight down and would be plowing our front bumper in the granite when we got to the bottom. We didn’t and another great introduction to Jeeping ! Oh and yes on the way down all our “stuff” in the back also decided to move up closer to be with my wife and I. Learning curve again.. stuff “strapped down,” meant stuff INSDE the vehicle!! Do I need a rear box?
As for Commander purple hearts, the SA Rock Sliders did a GREAT job doing what they were made to do! They were used a lot! The front Guard protected me from one particular bolder, and my rear receiver helped me slide off one rock (glad they suggested removing my shackle!); both lower sides and bottom of the rear bumper took some minor scrapes. Having the SA rear steel bumper was a great piece of mind when I heard and felt it hit obstacles! I was (happily) surprised to only see a couple of very small scrapes on one of my rims. Passenger side inside door handle had finger indentations matching wife’s hands; I did have an unusual significant “pulling down” of the gas tank shied by the rear of the drive shaft ? (I’ll post that separately for comments and ideas, as I had checked that clearance before I left). It also looked like I did drag my rear differential over something very solid, as the bottom of it and the bottom of the 4X diff guard had a couple of major scrapes on it. Looks like the rear Diff guard worked also, thank goodness! (I would like the 12 bolt cover even more now, if it is made!!). I will look at rear sliders again, as it appeared that the rear of the Commander was the most susceptible to damage on these trails.
We did have a period on the first day when we had an unusual sound that was hard to identify or find a cause for. We were not sure if it was driveline or suspension related??? A little unnerving.!! with strange loud clunks.. I figured it out to be my rear bump-stop (rim) hitting the inside of the new smaller ID springs, I had just recently installed, when one of them came slightly off its perch (I’ll post separately on that mod). One of my front recovery attachment points, over two feet off the ground also had rock scrapes!
For ideal communications on my three radios, I like to have as long as an antenna as possible and mounted as hi up as possible. Not the best for this Jamboree though. I was working as hard avoiding obstacles from above as I was obstacles from below. LOL.. On the last small branch, on the last day, my HAM antenna gave way. Easy fix and next time I’ll remove it… Learning curve again! Actually, my first minor contact with anything was on the roof rail attaching knob rubbing on a tree limb.
The rear bumper scrapes might have been minimized due to the fact that a couple of times after we “conquered” a particularly intense obstacle, we would look at ourselves in disbelief that we made it, and as were driving away with smiles on our faces, we learned that the commander is longer than I thought and I may not have completely cleared the entire obstacle yet and my bumper would come down a little harder than I may have wanted it to.
Learning curve again!!
As for human purple hearts; cactus thorn in foot, one each day… will reconsider the use of tennis shoes next time. My duty photographer and passenger spotter (wife), one sprained ankle and banged knee while she was getting the “Photo of the Trip,” surprise air time! Talk about sacrifice!!
As a side note, I’m glad my roof rack, that I ordered over a year ago, has not came in and I have not been able to mount my lights on it. I don’t think it would have cleared some of the limbs. I’ll probably have to put more time in installing connectors on all my wiring harnesses that go to the rack to help with the easy removal of the rack and lights.
It was also joked that we could “Jeep in Luxury for 8” (if I put my rear seat back in) or I could tow my wife’s car to the event so we could drive it around town when we were not off road with the Commander. LOL..
Other tidbits, we averaged 4.7 miles per gal over the two days on the trails (a/c on LOL) ; we learned “Men Left > Because Women (are always) Right”; watched 4 movies while off -roading.. (Ok not really, but we could have) Wish we would have folded our mirrors sooner (brush avoidance); we ran both the front and rear disconnected the first day, the second we re-connected the rear due to the stories we heard about some off camber stuff we would be doing to include the “ spotter required” obstacle; no wheel rubs, front or rear !!! ; received a complimentary statement from one of our guides about the Commander… with the word “Tank” on the end of it :D.
I have been reading off road magazines and watching U tube videos and of course reading this forum on how to build and off road. But now that I have actually done it, I have a whole new understanding and appreciation of the sport!
And the more I learn, the more I learn how much I do not know!
This was one of the best times we had for a very long time, I love sitting 3’s off the ground in a sports car, but now I think we also have a new love! The best part was the great fellow Jeepers and the Guides we met. I knew we were the “novelty” (oddball) Jeep and we were totally unfamiliar with Jeeping and Jamborees, so it would be easy for us to have felt a little uncomfortable.
But everyone we met made us feel welcomed and were very helpful and hospitable.
It was a great experience, not just because our Commander actually did everything we asked her to do and then safely got us home, but for the camaraderie and friendship of the other Jamboree members we met!!!
Now, on to the photos… Ever notice when someone posts pictures of their new light installation and then invariably says “ the picture does not do it justice” and “the lights look a lot better than the photo shows,” well the same could be said for these photos! 15 hours of driving in LOW over two days, and only a few shots by others and ourselves.
… some of the best moments are only recorded in our memories!
Commanders are in the “Other” category.
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Hotel parking lot…sweet jeeps everywhere!! (Commander on the far right).
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At the check in point > 150 ish Jeeps !!
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