Fun this weekend with my WJ *New Pics 2-22-2015*
Hey guys short story from my weekend for ya:
The rear tire on my Buell is flat (from a F'n thumb tack!) so I was hoping to get it all straightened out yesterday. Was at the bike shop waiting for the doors to open in the AM to pick up the tool to remove the rear axle, F/R bike stands, and pick up a pair of Pirelli Diablos (scored an awesome deal).
When I stopped back home on the way to my garage to grab a couple tools & my girlfriend is like "let's take the dogs up to the lake today!" At first I was like UGH... I really just want to get my bike fixed. She must of seen my reaction coming because she followed up with "We can test out the Jeep!". She would make a great sales person.
So we headed up to lake Pleasant. It's awesome up there. If you loop around to the North end of the lake there are a bunch of trails with many smaller trails that break off and lead down to the water. The "beaches" are rocky but there are also bluffs that you can jump off into the water. We like to get up there and let the dogs play, swim, fish, and mess with the burros but getting there is at least 1/2 the fun for me.
The trails are pretty tame for the most part. Kind of rocky with a handful of intermediate level obstacles to mess around with on the way that we've hit with the Patriot in the past. Most have bypasses for the faint of heart.
There is this hill that was the bane of my existence in the Patriot. I could creep up the first 2/3's of it but the final 1/3 gets really difficult. The hill gets a decent amount steeper and in the steep section there are fairly deep ruts that modulate from side to side that cut across the trail. Basically it looks like a truck with monster sized gnarly tires went up it while it was muddy and just spun, caught, spun, caught like 8-10 times.
I made it down said hill in the Patriot with some minor bottoming out, and the occasional wheel in the air, but could NOT make it up even with a running start. There is a "bypass" trail off to the side but even that was too steep to creep up and took 3 running start tries to get up in the Patriot. When I finally made it up it was a violent ride bouncing all over the place with tons of tire spin.
What makes it worse is that once you go down the hill there's no other way out. My girlfriend was with me when I did this and was pretty much freaking out when we didn't make it up the hill the first time. Frankly going down in in the Patriot was stupid (yet fun) and that day I learned the limits of the 4x2 Patriot.
So yesterday as we're getting to the trail head I tell my girlfriend "We're doing the hill", tensions soared LOL!
When We got to the top of the hill I dropped her in 4 low, crept down it, and turned around at the bottom. We started creeping up the hill from a dead stop. I purposely chose the hardest line up because I really wanted to see what she could do. It was a thing of beauty. The Cherokee just ate it up. No tire spin and no drama with the exception of the transfer case skid plate just slightly rubbing the crest of the biggest bump.
I wish I had taken video (I will next time) because I'm sure the suspension was at full up/down articulation throughout the steep section of the climb and it probably looked really cool.
Here's a pic I shot of where we finally parked to hit the lake:
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Hey guys short story from my weekend for ya:
The rear tire on my Buell is flat (from a F'n thumb tack!) so I was hoping to get it all straightened out yesterday. Was at the bike shop waiting for the doors to open in the AM to pick up the tool to remove the rear axle, F/R bike stands, and pick up a pair of Pirelli Diablos (scored an awesome deal).
When I stopped back home on the way to my garage to grab a couple tools & my girlfriend is like "let's take the dogs up to the lake today!" At first I was like UGH... I really just want to get my bike fixed. She must of seen my reaction coming because she followed up with "We can test out the Jeep!". She would make a great sales person.
So we headed up to lake Pleasant. It's awesome up there. If you loop around to the North end of the lake there are a bunch of trails with many smaller trails that break off and lead down to the water. The "beaches" are rocky but there are also bluffs that you can jump off into the water. We like to get up there and let the dogs play, swim, fish, and mess with the burros but getting there is at least 1/2 the fun for me.
The trails are pretty tame for the most part. Kind of rocky with a handful of intermediate level obstacles to mess around with on the way that we've hit with the Patriot in the past. Most have bypasses for the faint of heart.
There is this hill that was the bane of my existence in the Patriot. I could creep up the first 2/3's of it but the final 1/3 gets really difficult. The hill gets a decent amount steeper and in the steep section there are fairly deep ruts that modulate from side to side that cut across the trail. Basically it looks like a truck with monster sized gnarly tires went up it while it was muddy and just spun, caught, spun, caught like 8-10 times.
I made it down said hill in the Patriot with some minor bottoming out, and the occasional wheel in the air, but could NOT make it up even with a running start. There is a "bypass" trail off to the side but even that was too steep to creep up and took 3 running start tries to get up in the Patriot. When I finally made it up it was a violent ride bouncing all over the place with tons of tire spin.
What makes it worse is that once you go down the hill there's no other way out. My girlfriend was with me when I did this and was pretty much freaking out when we didn't make it up the hill the first time. Frankly going down in in the Patriot was stupid (yet fun) and that day I learned the limits of the 4x2 Patriot.
So yesterday as we're getting to the trail head I tell my girlfriend "We're doing the hill", tensions soared LOL!
When We got to the top of the hill I dropped her in 4 low, crept down it, and turned around at the bottom. We started creeping up the hill from a dead stop. I purposely chose the hardest line up because I really wanted to see what she could do. It was a thing of beauty. The Cherokee just ate it up. No tire spin and no drama with the exception of the transfer case skid plate just slightly rubbing the crest of the biggest bump.
I wish I had taken video (I will next time) because I'm sure the suspension was at full up/down articulation throughout the steep section of the climb and it probably looked really cool.
Here's a pic I shot of where we finally parked to hit the lake:
