Memorial day trails and couple questions

theRealCrazy

JK Enthusiast
Joined
Feb 12, 2020
Messages
133
Location
Los Angeles
Hi all,

I went with 2 other rigs this weekend (2018 JLU 2.5" lift on 35 and 2019 JLUR 2,5" lift on 37).
I have a stock 2012 jkur with less than 1k miles on Ko2s.
we did quite some trails/camped over nights and then we did White mountain trail near big bear, ca 3N17
75% of the trail was moderate-dificult, but my stock jkur on K02s didn't seat at all.
Now, right before suicide hill, it really gets into rock crawling mode.

the lifted 2019 JKUR on 37 went smooth, no issue.
the lifted 2018 JLU on 35 had some light issues with no lockers, really needed to use momentum and correct lines at times.
i was last, rock crawled my way up to 75% of the hill with no issue beside bottoming out every 5 feet and thank for my trusty skidplates i kept on going.
I had front and read locker, disconnected sway bar in 4Lo.
all of a sudden the whole ground behind my passenger's side rear wheel literally liquefied under it.
my jeep is now sliding toward the ledge, let go the gas, jeep stops.
I'm thinking it's ok, i have lockers, i'm just going to reverse a bit and find a new line.
(know that in my rig, my wife is looking at me terrified and my dog is totally useless in this situation.)
i go hard driver, go into r and press the gas lightly.... the rear wheels just dig and dig themselves lower like i'm into some lose sand.
i put it drive, try to go hard passenger, passenger's right front wheel just make the ground collapse under it.
i now have 3 wheels burried to the axle, 1 feet from the ledge.
I tell my wife to get out of the car and take the dog and call in the radio that i need a one of the rig to come for a rescue mission.
we recovery strap it, winch it and after 3 tries, my jeep was back and finished the whole trail.

Now....
I'm telling you the story, because i know you guys love those but i had couple of questions:

1 - i consider myself medium experienced in offroading, is there anything i could have read from the trail to indicate the ground collapse part?
2 - if i had maxtrax with me, could have i extract myself from this situation without asking the other rigs to come pull me ?
3 - i think one of the issue, when i was deep, was the lack of clearance. i didn't really want to lift the jk, but should i look into it if i do more trails like that one?
I wouldn't like to go over 2.5" as i don't want to mess the whole geometry.
4 - i have the oem rubicon skid plates, are there any other parts i should cover with aftermarkets one?

anyway, I love offroading, i love the community around it, and i wanted to share and get your opinions.

last thing, i unfortunately don't have the photos of the moment that happened, but here is one at 8500feet after that climb/recovery.

Hope you all had an amazing memorial day weekend!


PS: wife didn't divorce me, and gave me her blessing for whatever purchase i'd need to make to be safer. :p

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Where you maintaining consistent throttle the whole way through? A lot of times I have seen people not maintain consistent throttle and if they would have they jeep would have just slowly crawled out of the situation.
 
I will use a hi-lift jack and throw some rocks (or logs) on the bottoming wheel and winch my rig out.
IMO if you don't know about "Throttle 101" you should not go off roading for you will piss-off a lot of experienced drivers in the trails.
 
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Yeah throttle wasn't an issue, I was crawling nice and easy till the ground crumbled under.
The high lift approach is interesting, im always afraid to use it on really soft terrain though but maybe i should have give it a go...
 
In my TJ world. I buy chopped woods for camping and use them for off roading. You got to have a winch my man. Either at the front or at the back tow hitch. I never used my hi-lift in changing my tires.
 
I like your idea of fire wood, I could carry a bundle, I actually did order my warn winch, but it didn't come in time, thought even though this trail was challenging I wouldn't need it yet :)
Lesson learned!
 
I like your idea of fire wood, I could carry a bundle, I actually did order my warn winch, but it didn't come in time, thought even though this trail was challenging I wouldn't need it yet :)
Lesson learned!
You reminded me of the old times when I started to like the outdoor trails way back. I learned it as I go with a lot of fun memories. I will do it allover again if I can rewind the time, it is priceless!
 
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