mattadams
Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- September 17, 1999
- Messages
- 8,161
- Reaction score
- 10
- City, State
- Longmont, CO
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2017 Explorer Sport
Well, Perry, Joe Dietz and myself made it to holy cross 
. For those of you unfamiliar with Holy Cross trail out in Colorado, heres how it is described in the COlorado Guide -
While only one vehicle (mine) made it past the hardest obstacle on the main trail (there are a few obstacles above the city that are said to be rarely conquered, and many people total their vehicles attempting them), we had a great run! I had to winch myself to get through French Creek (which was great because after paying $1000 for that winch, I actually got to use it on myself for once!) After I conquered French Creek we sat around and watched other Jeeps try it and it was satisfying to see that even heavy duty hard core jeeps with currie axle, detroits in both ends and mega-lifts were having to be winched through this portion of the trail. Of the 15-20 vehicles we watched go up french creek only three (two jeeps and one unimog) made it up without giving it many many tries or winching. It looked much different from the pictures I had seen, assumably from people kicking out rocks spinning their tires attempting to make the obstacle. I wish I'd taken some pictures of where I was when I got stuck and finally decided to break out the winch. I was basically high-centered on all by one wheel. The rock behind my passenger side rear tire was placed just so that I couldn't back up without doing some major damage to my rear axle, and couldn't pull forward because of several large rocks up there as well. With a little winching to get me pointing in the right direction the rest and past some of the rocks, the winch proved its worth.
The trail was a great series of obstacles, all of them challenging but none of them impossible (except for French Creek, which pretty much needed a winch to get through) and a few spots which required some spotting, and it definately had no problem reaching the difficult rating.
However, seeing as how I was the only one to do French Creek, I was the only one with any damage to his vehicle. I pretty much flattened the rocker panels on both sides (time for rock sliders yet? naw...), put a good sized ding in the shackle for the rear passenger side leaf spring, fortunately enough its in a spot that won't require replacing the shackle as it still seems structurally sound), as well as bending up both rear quarter panels from landing on them (time for the Penner mod? Not yet...) and of course the most serious damage was when I landed very hard on my front bumper which bent it up in to the body, bending the drivers side front quarter panel, as well as the piece of body underneath the headlight, and forcing the headlight out about 1/2" (time for the perrys fab n fiber conversion? Hmm....). ALso somehow knocked a weld loose holding one of my PIAA 80 Rally lights in place. It wasn't the weld that broke but rather the steel in the warn winch mount that the tabs were welded too. Not sure how I'm going to fix that one yet. Unfortunately I took almost no pictures of the trail as I was too busy concentrating on getting done without killing myself and my passenger (ha ha) but I do have some pictures of the damage. I know Perry and Teri took a lot of video and hopefully we can get some stills captures and posted.
Pictures of the front drivers side damage:
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The rocker Panels, newly much flattened:
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And the lost weld (can't be seen to weld because its in the shade, I'll try to get a better picture soon).
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. For those of you unfamiliar with Holy Cross trail out in Colorado, heres how it is described in the COlorado Guide - While only one vehicle (mine) made it past the hardest obstacle on the main trail (there are a few obstacles above the city that are said to be rarely conquered, and many people total their vehicles attempting them), we had a great run! I had to winch myself to get through French Creek (which was great because after paying $1000 for that winch, I actually got to use it on myself for once!) After I conquered French Creek we sat around and watched other Jeeps try it and it was satisfying to see that even heavy duty hard core jeeps with currie axle, detroits in both ends and mega-lifts were having to be winched through this portion of the trail. Of the 15-20 vehicles we watched go up french creek only three (two jeeps and one unimog) made it up without giving it many many tries or winching. It looked much different from the pictures I had seen, assumably from people kicking out rocks spinning their tires attempting to make the obstacle. I wish I'd taken some pictures of where I was when I got stuck and finally decided to break out the winch. I was basically high-centered on all by one wheel. The rock behind my passenger side rear tire was placed just so that I couldn't back up without doing some major damage to my rear axle, and couldn't pull forward because of several large rocks up there as well. With a little winching to get me pointing in the right direction the rest and past some of the rocks, the winch proved its worth
.The trail was a great series of obstacles, all of them challenging but none of them impossible (except for French Creek, which pretty much needed a winch to get through) and a few spots which required some spotting, and it definately had no problem reaching the difficult rating.
However, seeing as how I was the only one to do French Creek, I was the only one with any damage to his vehicle. I pretty much flattened the rocker panels on both sides (time for rock sliders yet? naw...), put a good sized ding in the shackle for the rear passenger side leaf spring, fortunately enough its in a spot that won't require replacing the shackle as it still seems structurally sound), as well as bending up both rear quarter panels from landing on them (time for the Penner mod? Not yet...) and of course the most serious damage was when I landed very hard on my front bumper which bent it up in to the body, bending the drivers side front quarter panel, as well as the piece of body underneath the headlight, and forcing the headlight out about 1/2" (time for the perrys fab n fiber conversion? Hmm....). ALso somehow knocked a weld loose holding one of my PIAA 80 Rally lights in place. It wasn't the weld that broke but rather the steel in the warn winch mount that the tabs were welded too. Not sure how I'm going to fix that one yet. Unfortunately I took almost no pictures of the trail as I was too busy concentrating on getting done without killing myself and my passenger (ha ha) but I do have some pictures of the damage. I know Perry and Teri took a lot of video and hopefully we can get some stills captures and posted.
Pictures of the front drivers side damage:
Dead Link Removed
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The rocker Panels, newly much flattened:
Dead Link Removed
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And the lost weld (can't be seen to weld because its in the shade, I'll try to get a better picture soon).
Dead Link Removed
