Big dogs main jambo

[gte718p]

Is anyone going to the big dogs main jamboree Sept 13?  The wife and I are going to head upend are looking for some people to camp and wheel with.

[Deleted]

That weekend falls between Dennis Anderson's and the Annual at Oak Ridge. You might be hard pressed to find someone wanting to go during a big weekend up there, as well.

[gte718p]

Jim wasn't tracking on Dennis Anderson's even as I don't do mud. I know the weekend before the annual isn't great timing but I figured I would try. I'm also planning on hitting up the fall crawl in October.

[A "CJ"]

gte

You should go to the Bigdogs event, John Hunt will get you hooked up with the type of trail you want to get in on and a huge plus to get up with OCC group whom are a great bunch of wheelers. I have gone to these events over the past ten years and had a blast going to each one taking something different from each time. Planning on going myself by I too am looking at the Fall Crawl, numbers of rigs there is much lower than the the Main Jambo but the Jambo has an awesome Saturday night party, bonfire and huge raffle. May I suggest if you do go and like peace of mind (aka quiet) Camp 4 is ideal for this. Maybe some of the guys from MPJAI will chime in here that are going as well.

[gte718p]

Thanks for the info. I have to double check I can get friday off work, but I'm 95% certain I'm going.

[stumper92]

So many events, so little time.

[gte718p]

I'm rolling out, I don't think anyone else is going but if anyone decides to show up I'll be in camp 4 with the tan F350 and the truggy. Swing by and say hi.

[gte718p]

Made it back mostly in one piece. All I can say is wow the Cove is a nice property. I've wheeled the best Cali. and Nevada have to offer and I would rate the Cove up there in quality and difficulty with everything other then the most extreme stuff in Johnson Valley. The nice thing was there was a line for everyone. Most trails could be as extreme or mild as you wanted. We ran the group 11 trails or the most extreme trails, but we had some fairly small Jeeps in our group.  Even had a guy with a broken front locker in the group.  They took some different lines but we all found something to do.

I wasn't all that impressed with Big Dogs as an event.  Very disorganized. Things didn't happen as scheduled.  There are no maps of the property and it is flipping huge.  There are people who have been there for a while and know the trails.  Those of us new to the area had to stick with their out rides and trail guides.  I wasn't at all impressed.  There was no spotting or help it was just everyone run through and do your own thing.  The trail guides left broken rigs on at least two occasions.  The trail guides are volunteers, they wanted to run and wanted to keep the lines moving for everyone to have the most driving time.  I understand that.  It just goes against everything I believe in to leave a broken rig.  Honestly I think it may have been an accident to leave people, but they didn't do a good job of keeping the line.  I know it's hard, been there done the that.  It is also an expensive weekend $75 dollars to big Dogs and $45 a person to the camp ground.  Even so the property is nice enough that I will definitely go back.

Unfortunately the truggy had a bad weekend. Friday I lost a brake line on the rear, then the banjo bolt stripped out which cost me the day Friday. Did get to explore Winchester VA which is a nice little town. Saturday rolled the truck at the top of Pensyltucky, broke the sending unit for the oil pressure gauge and I leaked all the oil out of the truck. It was Hillary's first trip over. She was still riding with me so I guess it's a good sign. Today one of the jeeps in our group split his transmission in two. Fairly spectacular failure actually. While I was pulling him out I ripped the upper links in the rear off the frame. I snapped the rear drive shaft, both shocks, and the frame. Had too limp out with the axle ratchet strapped to the frame. Not particularly fun, but both the jeep and I made it it safe.

I don't have 220 in the garage. I'm going to need a pretty good size welder to put my fame and links back together. The Hobart 180 has served me well, but I don't think it is up to this task. Does anyone have convient access to a 220 plug or welder that I could get my trailer close to?  I don't have a 220 welder right now, but this seems like the perfect excuse to buy a Miller 211.

pictures to follow...

[toynrnd]

Nice report! I can't wait to go, I've never been to Gore before. As for the rigs left on the trail, do they leave the rigs and the people, or is the plan to come back later and get the rigs? At Oak Ridge, on the events with 150-200 vehicles, if there is a catastrophic failure, where the vehicle is not easily limped off the trail, the vehicle is left and recovered later that day. These are rules from the property owner, we can't leave folks out there by themselves. Folks pay good money to wheel, so you need to make them happy. Folks with broken rigs want to get it back up and running as quickly as possible, so you need to make them happy. We do our best to keep everyone happy. Most times, it works.

[gte718p]

[gte718p]

[gte718p]

You can't tell in this picture, but I have cleverly increased my ground clearance by about 3 in by rotating the rear pinion 90 degrees.  Unfortunately I'm not fond of this mod and it is going to be expensive to put it back right.  One drive shaft, two shocks, brake lines, link brackets, and 8" of frame all need to be replaced.  She did ride out under her own power though.

[PaulC]

I was trying to get up there to ride w a couple of people from Mid Atlantic Jeepers on Saturday. Just didn't work out. Give me a call about welding on your rig.

PaulC