John Canfield
Site Team
We joined the 4-Wheelers a few months ago and decided to make an event as soon as possible and the Thanksgiving Rally was the first. There were 65 motorhomes in attendance (Golden Vally is close to Kingman in the NW corner of Arizona) with a good mix of TJs, several LJs, JKs, many JKUs an older Cherokee, a newer Cherokee and one YJ.
Most everybody was on 35" tires, the YJ was on 33"s and he went everywhere I did (actually it was the other way around - he was Trail Leader on the Secret Pass trail!) There was a range of experience level from not very to extremely experienced and the trails were rated from a 2.5 (very easy) to 4.5 (hard) out of a 5.0 scale. There were some very built-up Wranglers to barely modified and everything in-between.
We started out with a 2.5 trail (and with several grumpy folks) that was fairly boring, did two 4.0 hard trails (great groups - we had a blast on these trails), had a maintenance day due to ripping out our left rear shock from its top hangar, and then wound up the event with a fairly easy 3.0 trail.
Every afternoon at 4PM was Happy Hour and for Thanksgiving the club provided turkey, ham, pie and the ladies brought side dishes. YUM! The Saturday meal was provided by the club (Subway sandwiches) and we had a one-man band for entertainment.
This was an expensive rally - we had to pony up $5 per person - the club is pretty flush with cash so many of the rally expenses were club-subsidized.
There was a LJ that rolled three complete times (the owner let his 14 year-old grandson drive a 4.5 trail ) but thankfully nobody was badly hurt, just a few bumps and bruises. Recover of the LJ took an entire day and it was towed back to the campground being not drivable. Everybody thinks it is a complete write-off, the pictures don't look so bad but the front axle and steering wheel are bent.
The LJ has a full add-in Rockhard cage which undoubtedly helped maintain roof integrity when rolling.
Most everybody was on 35" tires, the YJ was on 33"s and he went everywhere I did (actually it was the other way around - he was Trail Leader on the Secret Pass trail!) There was a range of experience level from not very to extremely experienced and the trails were rated from a 2.5 (very easy) to 4.5 (hard) out of a 5.0 scale. There were some very built-up Wranglers to barely modified and everything in-between.
We started out with a 2.5 trail (and with several grumpy folks) that was fairly boring, did two 4.0 hard trails (great groups - we had a blast on these trails), had a maintenance day due to ripping out our left rear shock from its top hangar, and then wound up the event with a fairly easy 3.0 trail.
Every afternoon at 4PM was Happy Hour and for Thanksgiving the club provided turkey, ham, pie and the ladies brought side dishes. YUM! The Saturday meal was provided by the club (Subway sandwiches) and we had a one-man band for entertainment.
This was an expensive rally - we had to pony up $5 per person - the club is pretty flush with cash so many of the rally expenses were club-subsidized.
There was a LJ that rolled three complete times (the owner let his 14 year-old grandson drive a 4.5 trail ) but thankfully nobody was badly hurt, just a few bumps and bruises. Recover of the LJ took an entire day and it was towed back to the campground being not drivable. Everybody thinks it is a complete write-off, the pictures don't look so bad but the front axle and steering wheel are bent.
The LJ has a full add-in Rockhard cage which undoubtedly helped maintain roof integrity when rolling.