The Road to Uwharrie

[KSJKR]

Sorry there’s no pics yet, but it’s 5:30 in the morning at a hotel in Midlothian VA and I’m bored drinking coffee, lol! At the start of this adventure I wasn’t sure what to expect out of the JK on a long road trip. The 3.8 pushing 35’s through 4:10’s and the 6 speed have done quite well so far(approx 1100 miles in the last 2 days) averaging around 18mpg. Under-powered? Yup, but it’s getting the job done. Use the cruise, maintain interstate speeds, no problem. Until we hit the Appalachian’s then 6th became kind of useless and 4th and 5th the order of the day. It still got the job done and since I mapped mostly scenic routes through the mountains it was an awesome drive with amazing scenery. One of our concerns was the comfort of the seats. Up until the trip I had only been using it as my daily driver and that’s only about 20 miles a day so there were no worries there. A few weeks ago I blew out my back ending up with bulged discs between L-1 and L-4 and just finished physical therapy before the trip. I’m quite happy to say that these are quite possibly the most comfortable seats I’ve had in a vehicle, 20 hours in them in the last 2 days and my wife’s not complaining either, lol!

No road trip is complete without some kind of issue. On day 1 I went to set the parking brake at a gas stop and it went to the top of stroke with almost no resistance. Weird. I disengaged it and reset it and all was well, or so I thought. We get back on the interstate and the 3 nanny lights(abs, traction control, and ESP BAS) come on. great. Pre-trip I had replaced the left front speed sensor and the clock spring. Starting off day 2 all lights went out and all appeared normal and stayed off all day with zero issues. Right rear turn signal went out somewhere in Ohio but that was an easy fix at a truck stop. I brought my Flashpaq with so when we get to my son’s house today I’ll check codes and try to figure out what happened.

The nice thing about pushing hard on day 1 and 2 is now day 3 is only 2 hours of driving till we hit my son’s house in Chesapeake. For all intents and purposes today and tomorrow are off days for corrupting my grandson and then Tuesday we’re all off to Uwharrie for 4 days of wheelin. I promise there’ll be pics, lol!

 

[xackley]

My 306l with 7.21 gearing sometimes request 5th gear when facing a strong head wind when driving below 60 mph.
You are not in Kansas any more when you climb the Appalachians and I would not expect to hit 6th if not on a 4 lane.

Don

 

[KSJKR]

Here’s a small pic dump from our run on Dickey Bell today. My wife didn’t get many wheelin‘ pics as I ran tailgunner all day, but what a blast and earned a Jeep Badge of Honor I can’t recommend wheeling out here enough, the trail is awesome, the country is gorgeous and running it with my family was amazing!
Both our sons, our daughter in laws and all 3 of our grandchildren met up here and are spending a family vacation together, absolutely priceless experience. Sorry if it doesn’t come out good, I’m trying to post this on my iPad, lol!

 

[Anybodyhome]

Nice. Dickey Bell is a good trail- you don't need a heavily modded vehicle to get through and the scenery is great. Just a couple hours from me. I'll be going down there sometime in the fall.
Looks like you caught it fairly dry- you should see it after some good rain!

If you were in Midlothian, you probably drove right past my house heading south to Uwharrie.

Gotta ask- how'd that Land Rover hold up?

 

[KSJKR]

@Anybodyhome , y’all got some beautiful country out here! From Midlothian we went into Chesapeake, our youngest and his family live there(US Navy). Gorgeous country but y’all can keep the traffic, lol!

The Landrover did exceptionally well. My oldest son opted for something different and ended up with that. While he did take the bypasses, he cleared everything without a winch or a strap. The tech in those is pretty amazing, not my cup of tea, but a capable rig none the less. It helps that both of them grew up trail riding and rock crawling.

My daughter in law grew up playing in the mud so this was her first outing on the trails with her Gladiator Mohave. It did very well even in bone stock form with only a rear locker and no sway bar disconnects. The bug got her though, she now has a list of mods she’s working towards, lol!

This was my 1st trail run with my JK and I had a blast! I’m so glad I held out and got a Rubicon, aired down to about 12psi and was able to idle most everything and never had to touch the brakes on the downhill sections. My only complaints are the damn nanny lights, replace parts, no lights, drive for a day, more lights, rinse and repeat. I get the added safety benefits, but I also feel it dumbs down driving. I do love my JK, but there are times when I miss the simplicity of my Scrambler. Oh well, move forward or get left behind.

Back to Chesapeake tomorrow and another week left here on the coast

 

[Danarch]

Looks like fun and good time. Interesting on the Land Rover, I always wonder if anyone takes them off road when I see them on the road. I know they use to be great off road.

 

[KSJKR]

We made a detour on our way back to Chesapeake from Uwharrie and hit the beach at Corolla. My daughter in laws Mohave was better suited to beach romping, but still a lot of fun. Cruising along the Atlantic was definitely a new experience and the wild horses were out, very cool to see them out!

 

[KSJKR]

All good things must come to an end, back to the grind tomorrow, but a nice 2 week recharge none the less. Overall a great trip in the Jeep. It ended up right around 4500 miles total and 17mpg overall. However now it's time to troubleshoot the damn nanny lights. Sometimes they were on, sometimes they weren't. The shitty part about that was it rendered the cruise in-op, really sucked on the long stretches across Missouri. Looks the the driver front is problematic, abs tone ring and intermittent wheel speed sensor. It can wait till another day, time to rest up before work, lol!