Slick, muddy, rocky, dry, cold, warm, sunny, downpour and everything in between. I'm happy to announce this last weekend had it all in spades. The rain came in and made what would normally have been an average difficulty trail system into a slick combination of side hills, full throttle hill climbs, drop offs that involved more sliding then driving, and lots of winching. Simple little rises that would normally pose no challenge became something you hit at speed with tires spinning like mad to clear. I probably winched more over 24 hours then I have in the past 2 years combined. Then you have the directions that combined mileage, gps coordinates, and compass headings that required solid navigation and teamwork to make sure you were going in the right direction. The last thing to add to the pot for the day portion was the check points, with tasks varying from driving with a tarp over the canopy to hitting a moving target with a paintball gun. After 14+ straight hours of willing your vehicle through the trail system you get another 9 hours of climbing through the underbrush in search of buckets placed by Timber Tamers with a serious devilish streak.
Including the 1 hour drivers meeting/get to you vehicles to line-up the event was 24 hours of pure wheeling goodness in the Northwest. The weather agreed by making the trail system more challenging then I think anyone was expecting. The Timber Tamers did a great job putting everything together and thanks goes out to Trail Ready for once again sponsoring a solid event. Mad props to the 17 teams that made it out this year.
Some video and pics.
http://picasaweb.google.com/CrawlersNW/TeamTrophyChallenge08Official updates will be available at the website:
http://www.ttcw.orgSo, onto the roundup!
This year we were the mighty Team 21. I tried to get 39 again just so it would match the sticker from last year but it was not to be. In exchange for this transgression the Timber Tamers decided that we would be the first team out of the shoot this year. They claimed it was random, but I know what was up. With over 17 teams competing with 5 minutes between that meant a solid jump start over our competitors. The team this year was the same as the last event, my brother Derek running as navigator in the mighty SJ-410, and Matt and his brother Pete in the Jeep TJ with dual ARB's, a Rubicon Long Arm suspension lift and 33" TSLs. With memories of last year’s competition in our head we picked up the directions and tore off to get started on Loop 1 with no idea what was in store for us. The slick trail system just made everything that much harder to accomplish and that much more fun when we did. We managed to reach the second check point over 2 hours into the event and didn't reach the end of the first Loop until almost 9 hours after start, and that was only 1/3 of the total trails available.
3rd gear was the order of the day, the little 970cc 4 cyl doing everything it could to keep the Pro-Comp tires turning for all they were worth. If the hill was to tall it was down to 2nd, for without tire spin you where usually sliding backwards. This was probably the first time ever that I didn't have enough power to do whatever I wanted on a trail. A slightly more aggressive tire might have helped as it wouldn't have required the extra speed so clean out properly. The TJ was able to open up the 4.0L and get the tires spinning, but that only allowed him to climb a few more hills just through sheer momentum. Still, it was more hills then I was able to drive up unassisted. Winches were the order of the day and they kept working long after they probably should have. A melted control wire inside the case meant mine locked itself in the pull position heating things up until we managed to open the hood and pull a battery mount off. There is a lesson there; a large switch to kill the power to your winch is not a bad idea. So we had to tear apart the top half of the winch to fix it while stuck on the side of a hill where said winch was all that was keeping us from sliding back down. A quick repair and we were back on the way, losing only a little of the magic blue smoke that kept everything working. We lost a lot more of the magic blue smoke later on, enough that I thought the engine might have let go until I noticed it was curling over the hood instead of coming from it. We even managed to melt the side post off of an Ultima Yellow Top battery on the TJ, once again proving you really should use the top posts for your winch.
The check points where varied as usual but it seemed like we weren't the only people to learn things from last year. The events where harder then before and in every case fun was had trying to complete them within the time limits. My favorite of the event had to be the blind crawling through the rock quarry with the tarp pulled over the vehicle. Shouts of right, right, left, left, left coming from beyond the blue vale as my team mates guided me throught the flags was a blast. Troubleshooting ignition systems, running winches to the limit, pulling rigs down the trails, even getting uncouncious corpses across rivers with colapsed bridges. Well, the last one was a stream and a rule but I can forgive Timber Tamers for not finding a 30' ravine to force us to cross. It was varied, enjoyable and required everyone to do their part.
Best rigs at the event in my mind it was the two Land Rovers by far. One newer style Defender, the other looked to be a classic Series II until he fired it up and that engine let you know it was not running the stock 4cyl under the hood. It ended up being a Defender 110 frame that had been chopped down and the older body fixed upon it. Piloted by the originators of the Team Trophy Challenge in Oregon these guys knew how to pilot their chosen vehicles and it showed when they came home with a 3rd place finish.
The night event was an exercise in frustration once again. For those of you who haven't heard of this event before, you have a score card with 8 GPS locations. Each location has a bucket hidden somewhere around it has a number and a corresponding hole punch to mark on your score card. Once you find a bucket you can go a specific direction for x amount of feet to find another, 3 buckets at each location. Hills and trees that helped stop the my mid 90's GPS from being able to get us closer then what we think was 60ft of the target meant we had a lot of hunting to do once we reached the location. How difficult was it to find some of the buckets? One was hidden underneath a stump, we discovered it on accident when Matt stumbled. The secondary buckets where much easier with the GPS on the computer last year, a lesson to remember for next time. Still, everyone was on even ground so the difficulty was not a real issue. The 1st place team this year took the lead on the night run with 15 buckets found, we managed 8 in the same time period and thought we did rather well for ourselves. Once the final point tallies are available on the web site we should have a better idea on how we faired.
Final damage to the SJ-410 for the event was:
Rear spring, passenger side - slightly bent. An excuse to finally build that 4 link for the rear
Rear caliper mount, driver’s side - We noticed the cracked welds before the event and ran over it with new welds, thinking it would hold. Pull the axles and clean it up so next time it will not move again.
Winch - Need to replace the solenoids, and rebuilding the motor probably wouldn't hurt. It works currently, but it takes a few hits before it realizes it is supposed to go in or out. The cable should be replaced as well, it pinched itself pretty well on the bumper a few times with pulls involving all the cable being run out, and winding most of it back in on one side of the rotor.
Driver Side Door - Doesn't quite roll up properly anymore for some strange reason. The top slide into a tree on a side hill, should be fixable.
Passenger Side Door - Found another tree, ripped half the mirror mount off right out of the door. Fixable, but at least the window still works.
Windshield Washing switch - It was broken off in the past and held together with some marine glue, time to just replace it with a 3 way switch
What do we have to show for all of this? A 2nd place finish and best score for the day section of the event. Everyone was surprised by just how good of time we were making and it was a blast to show just how much you can do with only 45 base hp.
Here is looking to next year and taking down those two Rubicon’s’ that passed us up at night.
Thanks once again to Timber Tamers presenting and Trail Ready for continuing the sponsorship of this great event.
