Paragon
Just finished replacing the starter on the J**p. I hope that Expolorer starters are better, without the extra couple holes to let in the muck. After changing the starter with all the mud underneath, I am beginning to see why the hard core rock crawlers tend to avoid the mud...
I kind of forget what I ran, but it was a bunch of the 2 and 3 rated trails. We passed Pebbles and BamBam and that isn't a trail... it is a dry wash with a bunch of rocks half the size of a refrigerator.... couldn't see any reason to do it myself (rats on my 31" tires!!).
The coolest thing we did was on Sat. when we stopped for lunch at "The Spring". This is a short valley in the side of one of the hills that has a spring flowing a couple hundred GPM out of the rocks. At first, some of us drove down the bank, across the river, and up the other side. I decided to do it again, and saw one of the better equipped J**ps going UPSTREAM! He did OK, but I had to do it myself. I loaded up my son, and a 12 yr old from Baltimore, and headed up after him. I got just as far, but on the way back down, I got kind in a bit of an interesting situation with my front bumper against a moderate sized rock, and my back end going up a steep hill. I eventually was able to back enough to turn the wheels and get past it, although it looked for a while that there may have been some need for some recovery equipment. Maybe if I have a locker next time, I will try Impossible Hill.
I know this is an Explorer forum, and I own one (91) and have another work Explorer (00), but I can not help but be impressed with how well a '98 J**p TJ works with minor mods. Time to swap the wheels and tires over to the '91 and try to set up two vehicles!
