John Canfield
Site Team
This is one of our favorites, there is a little bit of everything on this Jamboree held on the Inks Ranch near Llano - rock crawling, optional obstacles, a somewhat steep long climb on a granite hill on the Moab trail and some play time in a very wide and long creek wash. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's popular (and sells out quickly) and the Jamboree folks push the group size to the extreme limit - we had 25 in our group (way too big) and there were about 150 Jeeps at the event in total. That's just too many people - the Jamboree folks are getting a little greedy (they also keep ratcheting up the cost), this might be the last Spur we do if they don't cut it back to a reasonable size and hold the prices steady.
The front lower control arm bracket (axle end) that I damaged at the Chili Challenge last month got significantly more damaged Friday and the tab was starting to tear from the axle tube
. I really thought it would last for the Spur but that was a very bad assumption so I parked Rubi for the second and last day of wheeling.
At least we did the very fun Moab trail - that's the best one out there.
Tomorrow I'll order some Currie control arm brackets and replace the thin factory brackets with the very sturdy replacements - that should solve that problem.
On top of the Moab trail, we had a 4-door Rubicon snap his steering drag link in half - that's a show stopper, it had to be repaired right then and there before it could be moved. Fortunately the Inks Ranch had a shop with a welder so the link was removed, sleeved, welded and reinstalled within an hour or less. This drag link has rust when it snapped in half so it had been stressed previously somehow. Then I heard the repair broke on day two so it was removed and welded again :.
Another bit of carnage on the trail Friday in our group I heard - an LJ was trying an optional obstacle (I did this one last year successfully) and got to bouncing the front end and broke a front axle. If you start bouncing, NO MORE THROTTLE - foot off the skinny pedal!
One of my wheeling buddies in another group broke his rear locker and as I left the trail area Friday, I passed by somebody with a front axle pulled. When I was airing up, a Jeep was being pulled back to town on a trailer - no idea what happened to that one. This is a little more damage than I'm used to seeing on a Jamboree.
The front lower control arm bracket (axle end) that I damaged at the Chili Challenge last month got significantly more damaged Friday and the tab was starting to tear from the axle tube
. I really thought it would last for the Spur but that was a very bad assumption so I parked Rubi for the second and last day of wheeling.At least we did the very fun Moab trail - that's the best one out there.
Tomorrow I'll order some Currie control arm brackets and replace the thin factory brackets with the very sturdy replacements - that should solve that problem.
On top of the Moab trail, we had a 4-door Rubicon snap his steering drag link in half - that's a show stopper, it had to be repaired right then and there before it could be moved. Fortunately the Inks Ranch had a shop with a welder so the link was removed, sleeved, welded and reinstalled within an hour or less. This drag link has rust when it snapped in half so it had been stressed previously somehow. Then I heard the repair broke on day two so it was removed and welded again :
.Another bit of carnage on the trail Friday in our group I heard - an LJ was trying an optional obstacle (I did this one last year successfully) and got to bouncing the front end and broke a front axle. If you start bouncing, NO MORE THROTTLE - foot off the skinny pedal!
One of my wheeling buddies in another group broke his rear locker and as I left the trail area Friday, I passed by somebody with a front axle pulled. When I was airing up, a Jeep was being pulled back to town on a trailer - no idea what happened to that one. This is a little more damage than I'm used to seeing on a Jamboree.
