Trail Report: Dresser Go 4 it Weekend 2003 

Author: Bob Culbertson 

Dresser was outstanding.

Saturday morning I joined up with Dan, Bruce, and a few folks from various clubs for the first ride at 10:00. We were started with the Blue trail. Just as we started out, some guys in a freshly lifted TJ were having horrible gear noises coming out of the transfer case in 4L or H. They went to the pits to have someone look at the problem and it turned out that they didn?t install the transfer case shift lever bracket that came with the kit, so they couldn't fully engage 4x4. The gear teeth were ju---st touching each other. I guess you should really use all those parts in the lift kit!

So Bruce lead us into blue with a grand total of 4 trucks. We had the place to ourselves. The blue trail was almost 100% dry, so we got to try every obstacle. It took us about 2 hours to complete the run. They have a lot of off-camber stuff out there that the TJs were handling very well, but while Dan (running behind me at the time) said the CJ flexed ok, it sure leaned a lot giving me the old pucker butt feeling. We ran into Chuck Howard about halfway through the trail, as he was leading another group. After exiting the trail we started talking about what you would do if you could start from scratch -- in terms of a vehicle. I'd get a "beater" TJ again. I like the flex, and the fuel injection -- see comments on White Trail.

After a quick sandwich, Bruce, Dan, Chuck and a few others headed out for the White trail. I was feeling really good about the CJ at this point, so I tried Dog Gone at the beginning of the trail head. It had some logs and sand that looked fun, and some rather large rocks that I thought I could navigate around. Not! It took about a 1/2 hour to get out of there. The gang was piling up rocks, hi-lifting the CJ, and Bruce even strapped out a bolder that would have ripped the rear axle off the Jeep if we left it there. But, not being one to ignore a challenge, I continued forward, instead of taking the strap in reverse. I got stuck again. Damn rocks. Other than the boulders that a 2" lifted CJ with 32" swampers can't clear (which is surprisingly small I might add) the combo I've got did excellent.

Oh, almost forgot. There was a hill on Blue White trail with really tall log obstacles that I wanted to try. And the CJ was doing great, until the combination of the high hill angle, and the front end going up and over the top of the logs flooded out the carb. Damn carbs. I had that stinking hill

The only obstacle that really sticks out as anything special was a mud pit (don't remember the name) Along the Blue trail I was drawn to the mud pit like Dan is drawn to the rocks. It looked shallow (don't ask why I thought that) just like Tim's little mud hole looks easy! I went down to the rocker panels in about 20 feet -- with another 20 to go. I put it in 4H and threw mud all over the inside of the Jeep (I really hate cleaning up that mud). Again, being a stubborn idiot, I tried to brute force it up the left side and almost made it, but was completely frozen in goop. I had to get strapped out. I lost the eBrakes somewhere in the ooze.

Other than me loosing my brakes due to mud in the drums and the ebrakes, also due to the mud, I don't recall any breakage.