JoeLAW

Bitchin! I like the way it's coming along

Looking good man! And that sucks to hear from Ruffstuff.. I have gotten several emails now of how they're running behind on an order I placed since Thanksgiving. Thankfully I don't need it, but I do feel your frustration.

I feel you guys, however I guess I'm kind of a hoarder myself, I keep ordering brackets and random stuff like bungs and rod ends when I don't need them just to have them ready whenever I do.. but yes I placed an order back in November for their Cyber Monday deals, and I'm still receiving batches of that order, not fully delivered yet. Badass good to know on those Tacos, also I think if you get the little ones that get used as parts runners those are still running the AW4 tranny, ony bad thing is the 4cyl engines. I guess I'll have to open the tank up.. it's weird though. When I 1st start it it won't idle and just bog down and die, but almost as if it was getting flooded/running too rich. So what I've been doing (which I do not like) is starting it, revving it up to 2k as soon as it starts, keeping it like that for a couple of secs then letting the revs come down to 1500-1800 and holding it there for a couple of mins then it idles just fine. But my truck is a conglomeration of a bunch of parts so I gotta keep fiddling with it....

Just got done reading your whole thread man, and wow, what a bitchin little MJ you got. I'm assuming this is where the ZJ ended up at, is this a shop? I see that badass 2nd gen and seems like a crawler in the background. I has questions!!?? lol Also, I have been dailying Jessica for the 2nd week now ince my daily is down fro now.. and I've been running into those stumbling issues on Jessica.. I've done a whole lot to it, but never ever swapped or even cracked oven the gas tank to check on the pump and sending unit, too scared of it not sealing good again, but I will try the relay trick, hoping maybe that will let it idle better. Thanks for all the posts keep up the good work and can't wait to see the truck in it's sport version now

Wow man, what a ton of work you've done to it. It gave me flashbacks of when I 1st got Jessica, with all the wiring messes, and the cooling issues you dealt with. Any updates?

This thing is gonna turn out pretty bitchin, with that flexy suspension, great axle choice, good guts for them and V8 power itt'll be real nice on the trails. Congrats man just stay consistent and when a challenge presents itself swap on to another part of the project to let your head cool off.

How was your frame side mount on this? Was it solid, or more like a shcakle type?

Well, after that again a couple of quiet weeks, however I had done a thing.. I was preparing for an upcoming Glamis California trip sometime during the winter, and I wanted to take Jessica. So I started looking into paddle tires for UTVs, and I found a pretty cheap set on Amazon, that were a size 32x12 R15 and I had the leftover 15" wheels from the 35s I had bough for the CJ-7 so I went ahead and ordered them. I got the wheels and stripped them of the rattle can paint job they had and painted them gray with the leftover paint I had from painting the Moab wheels on Merlina (the maroon XJ). I then went to a tire shop and got them mounted. This is how the looked mounted on those wheels, which wasn't that bad looking to be honest. I ordered them 32" in height because I was a bit skeptical on how tall the actual paddles would be, and since it said 1" in the description I preferred to go smaller, which would also help with tire spin since I was still with 3.55s on the gear ratios Well, I went to our local little dune spot on the far east side of El Paso, and slapped them on to go give them a test drive. I got all through here in 2WD, and the rears at around 20PSI or so, the fronts had 30 in them. There's just something about paddle tires that make almos anything look bitchin! It didn't look that bad, and it did surprisingly well, given that I was pretty much running everything at a high pressure, I later learned that just like if your on you're regular tires I should've aired everything down to 15PSI and I would've been surfing through the little dunes, but like I said before it wasn't bad at all! joined_video_6d5e46a5ba924db1aead18256ff50e52.mp4 Here's a little video a buddy of mine took of me playing around. And here you can really see how the front tires were sinking in the sand and the rears kept on digging. Anyways, afterwards I took them off and started my way back home.

After that trip, it was a couple of quiet weeks, just alternating Jessica and Merlina between daily driving duties, then came the Chile Challenge event, now being held at Caballo Lake, NM. I signed up for a trail run on Saturday to do the "Scratch" trail, which is a trail that's more on the mellow side of things. However I took off Wednesday night after work to ride with my buddies on their bigger Jeeps that were running bigger trails. Anyways Saturday came, and me and another good friend of mine had signed up for the same trail so she was running behind me on her Son's TJ she built for him, on a set of D44 and Ford 9" rear axle out of a 70s F-150 with lockers on both ends, chromoly shafts up front and 36" Super Swamper IRoks. We took off and the roads to the trails were super dusty (As per usual because of all the traffic for the event that week), so any clean car looked like it had just been spectating a Baja race, suuuper dusty. Then we went through a small pond that was supposed to be pretty dry, but the dry crust was just about 1" on top of really thick mud, thankfully we were towards the front of the group, and by the time we passed through there it wasn't as bad as for the guys on the back of the group. Then the trail, which most trails out here consist of dryed up creek beds which we call "Arroyos" since it's the term in spanish, it started with your regular sandy spots and casual small boulders which then became a tad bit bigger until we hit the main obstable, which was kind of a small waterfall (I want to say if this was ever full of water rapids would form there). On this waterfall, there was a couple of lines, but overconfident me saw the line in the middle which was kind of hard but thought I could make it up no problem, WRONG! . I ended up high centered on my sliders and my front tires had no traction what so ever.. Anyways on to the pics instead. This is when things started to get interesting, bigger boulders! (I think hanging out with my buddies with their bigger Jeeps definitely gave me a lot bigger confidence than what I had in equipment ) Also on this pic you can see the TJ I was telling you guys about. Pretty much a walk in the park for Jessica, or so I thought.. This is how the obstacle looked from where I decided to try it, and a little further up from that was when I got it really wedged in there.. In reality I should've tken the line to the right, but c'mon I did not wanna be a sissy... Here's a GIF my friend created of me hitting it, definitely looked doable, and I think if I would've had a front locker it would've been a piece of cake, but oh well, live and learn! Here's another GIF my friend made from a different angle, I think this was a 2nd try I gave at it with a little bit different line to try and make it, but came out unsuccessful. This was a pretty bitchin pic another good friend of ours took, he was actually leading the trail, and ended up being the anchor for me to winch of off. I think right here I was either reversing to give it that 2nd shot, or it was right before I got it real wedged. And this is when I was stuck with nowhere to go.. This is when I got it wedged, all this gents tried pushing me in order for me to make it, but the whole truck slod to the driver side of the obstacle, leaving me spinning like a turtle. I finally winched of off my buddies white TJ which you can see at the right of this pic, and was finally able to drive out of this obstacle.. Hey sometimes you're the one that has to give the show for everyone else to enjoy Anyways after that main obstacle the rest of the trail was pretty easy and scenis, going through a bunch of old ranches and corrals. Everything went pretty smooth after that and we all got back to camp with a couple hrs to spare before the sun came down.

Well, it was time! I decided that I was going to the 2019 MJ Takeover in Moab Utah, I didn't know what to expect, and honestly did not plan all that well, kind of really just went for it, not reserving any spots at any place to stay thinking I would just camp out somewhere and go with the flow. So on an early Thursday morning I took off from home at around 4AM and started trucking North! The weather was great just a tad bit cool, and almost 0 traffic at the start of the trip. I then saw the full moon setting and snapped this pic while I could. Then right after snapping this pic, I (again) tried to see what top speed I could reach on Jessica, and on a downhill with a tailwind and the pedal to the metal I was able to reach 100MPH! The tough part was trying to get the screenshot for it since I knew I was only gonna be able for a couple of seconds, but then after this screenshot I went all the way to 102MPH. Now I think of it, and just think of how stupid of me, but where I did it I was the only vehicle and since I had just done a complet checkup on the truck I was feeling very confident. From there, I was right in rush hour through Albuquerque, NM (didn't plan real good) and after passing through all that traffic, and finally getting out of there it was smooth sailing all the way till I hit Colorado, since they were doing a bunch of work through there and in Utah from Monticello, almost all the way to Moab. But I was able to make it by 2PM and meet up with some of the peeps that were already there. And we all decided to hit up the "Fins and Things" trail at the Sand Flats Recreational Area. As soon as we started the trail one of the Comanches (this one belonging to Brian Busby from Delta, CO) started overheating a bit, (Shocker right..) Well we opened the hood and turns out the electrical fan was not turning on, quick fix. While he got to fixing we got to chilling and knowing each other better. And that's when I met Tyler Geehreng, he's originally from somewhere out in the East Coast, but was living in Grand Junction, CO at the time. Very talented welder and patient guy overall, his multicolored MJ was attacked by serious rust issues throughout, hence the multi colored parts all around. However it had a rear LSD and a bunch of odds and ends pieced together that made it work real well. We stopped at one of many dirt road crossings and out the phones came to take more pics of Comanches together. That truck you see behind me belongs to Chuy, who also made the trek all the way from Texas, unlike me though from the Central part Killeen, TX to be exact. To help put into perspective, in order for me to get to Killeen, it's about a 8-9hr drive, from my house to Moab it's a 10hr drive. Crazy how big Texas is.. Anyways, back to Chuy, he started his trek up north on Sunday or maybe even a week before because he wanted to hit a bunch of trails and passes in Colorado. He had just finished putting together his comanche with gears, 35s, long arms up front, and an Iron Fab rear 4 link kit along with a bunch of other performance stuff done to the drivetrain. He had quite an adventure just trying to get up to Colorado with issues with his front gears, and I forgot what else, in the end he did end up making it though. IMG_5253.mp4 Oh the Moab grip, it's just something else, here you can see me and Bryan climbing up on a fin. More MJ pics! You can see in the background Chuy climbing the same pretty steep climb me and Bryan did before which you find all over the place on the 2nd half of the trail. More MJ Poser Pics! A little further down from the previous spot there was this "Mini Crack" were I decided to park for a poser shot, and Tyler and Dave decided to follow, the more the merrier! Now on to the MJ with fibergalss pre-runner fenders and bedsides. This is David Minton's MJ from the Denver, CO area he built it with a bunch of leftover parts he and a bunch of his buddies had laying around and just made it work, I think the only new parts he ended up ordering was the bedsides everything else was leftover parts from this and that, it also helped that he is friends and helps a team that races out in King of the Hammers. What I liked more about his truck was the fact that the whole back half was pretty much custom made, and he tucked the bedsides in for them not to be in the way of obstacles on the trails. His rear suspension was pretty much of a Ford Raptor inlcuding shocks and leaf springs sitting atop JK axles, and the truck worked really well. This rounded up day 1 of the Takeover for that year, afterwards we all went back to Canyolands Campground (Name of it at the time, now it's Sun Outdoors) right behind the Texaco Gas Station were I crashed right next to Dave and Kelly's (His Wife) campground. WhatsApp Video 2026-01-02 at 18.38.59.mp4 Day 2 Consisted of everyone meeting at the City Market at 9AM in order to head out to Hells Revenge, so we rounded up the MJs and other Jeeps that tagged along and headed back up to the Sand Flats area. That's Andy Livermore, from Logan, UT and the truck he is driving is "Slamche" which used to be a drift truck powered by a Mazda Rotary engine. Then he got it and following the motto of its name he swapped 1ton axles under if linked the rear and slapped coilovers at all 4 corners all while maybe adding 2-3" of lift or so keeping a LCG and keeping it slammed with 42" Pitbulls at the time. He also had a freezer in the back of it, and was the official popsicle hander outer lol A lot more Comanches joined us for the 2nd day (Which was Friday) people from Las Vegas, NV more people from Grand Junction, CO, Salt Lake City, UT, Spanish Fork, UT and more that I can't remember.. Just one of the ledges on Hells that has a bunch of optional lines. Hells Revenge is a very fun trail in Moab, top 5 for sure out of all of them specially for it's proximity to town, and everything of it. It's become very popular nowadays, I just hope they keep educating people that go on it to take good care of it so it doesn't get closed. Hells Revenge has a bunch of very famous obstacles, one of them being "Hells Gate" I had tried it a year prior on EJS and failed to climb up it by my own, this time I was determined. Specially since I had Trate Daniels spotting me. Anyways, this is the entrance to said obstacle, which is far more challenging than the obstacle itself. Here's Chuy dropping in right after me, this part is pretty steep and you have to get to it kind of blind, but as long as you hug the left side you're OK. WhatsApp Video 2026-01-02 at 18.38.56.mp4 And here's the video of me making it up for the 1st time ever, still with about 4.5-5" of short arm lift, open front diff, stock rear LSD, and 33" tires on 3.55 stock gears. Goes to show you how important a good spotter is. And this was almost the full group pic for that year, we were missing 2 MJs Trate's and Andy's which were doing the "Escalator through Hell" obstacle. After that we all got back to the campground and some of us had to do some minor repairs and just overall checkovers of our MJs for the following day. This time I helped out Jeremy Lelah, from Las Vegas, NV he built his MJ with more of a Pre-Runner mindset (Being he lives in the Desert) he put a bed cage housing a couple of 12 or 14" travel FOA shocks, a prerunner style lightbar/nerf bar on top of the original front bumper, a 50" lightbar on top and front fiberglass fenders. In order to bring out the front tires more to fill up those massive fenders he installed some thick wheel spacers, and one of them ended up breaking right before heading to town after hells, right after the steep descents or climbs up to Sand Flats. So I helped him out taking off the other spacer and doing the checkover for our trucks while at his campground. Which brought the end of day 2. And that brings us to the 3rd and final day of the Takeover in 2019, we split into 2 separate groups, one that wanted a bit more challenging stuff, and the other that wanted more mellow stuff. The challenging group decided to run "Steel Bender" while the mellow group decided for "Gemini Bridges", I decided to go on to Steel Bender, since I had been on it the year prior on EJS riding on my buddies LJ and it wasn't bad at all. So, we met up at the Shell Station on Spanish Trail Rd, and headed out to the trail! Once at the trail, the TJ you see in this picture was rocking 1 ton Axles on 40" Tires and a 5.0 V8 out of a Mustang, however his tranny was overheating rather badly. So we were taking popsicle breaks pretty often. On one of the breaks I parked right next to Weston Cook's MJ out of Grand Junction, CO as well, he had recently restored, modified and painted this 88 MJ. He installed a 4" lift and 33s on Aero wheels, I can't remember what he was running as far as drivetrain, but I remember he had 4.56s and an LSD, he also had Dirtbound off road Bumpers, and rocksliders. He fabbed up a custom mid height bed rack where he mounted an RTT. He ended up selling that MJ a year or 2 after this event, and now he drives a pretty bitchin 2005-06 Jeep Liberty which he swaped JK axles under it and did a whole lot of fab work to make it all work. Pic taken right before a small "Wall" climb, which is kind of preparing you for the rest of the trail. (If you're able to complete it).. Unfortunately that TJs transmission did not comply.. cutting our trail short. Thankfully there's a bunch of exits/entrances through parts of it making an exit easy for that TJ. We as a group decided to backtrack our way to the entrance of the trail, where we parked to take a bit more pictures. This is right after the entrance of the trail, a sort of "Gatekeeper" meaning if you don't make it through there, it's best to turn around. Now on to that blue MJ with the badass hood, that one belongs to non otther than Trate Daniels, from Spanish Fork, UT he's still rocking the original 4.0 from 1988, but don't let that fool ya, this MJ is rocking a 700R4 Tranny, and Dana 44 axles, the front one out of a Wagoneer, and the rear out of an Izusu Amigo, both with lockers and 4.88 gears to turn the 37" Goodyear MTRs at the time. Trate built this MJ with wheeling in his mind, then his family grew, and instead of selling it and getting an XJ or a cookie cutter JKU, instead he cut the bulkhead of the cab and front wall of the bed and installed a bench seat along with a custom cage front to back. This MJ is badass, not only does it look cool and clean, but it also performs great, and Trate is not afraid to take it through some challenging terrain. After we took the pics at that spot, we kept on heading out back towards the campground, and i took this picture, little did I know what was gonna happen.. From there, we got back to the campground and checked our trucks again, because we were gonna be doing a night trail! After a couple of hrs, we took off north, because we were gona be "The Pickle" trail which is a ways north, so we topped off with fuel, and off we went. Once we got off the hwy 191 and got into the desert, we aired down our tires and started heading over to the start of the trail and we were booking. Right at the start of the trail all of a sudden my brake pedal faded.. So I got off from my truck and started looking for a leak, and bingo! I found the leak, the front pass side line had busted. By that time, people started wondering and asking around what was going on, until I told Trate, and when I was about to pinch the steel line with a pair of vice grips, he stops me and tells me he has a spare line, that he thinks will fit and is maybe even the same length. So I waited, by then now a small crowd had formed around Jessica, and when Trate runs back with the spare line, we compare it and test fit it, and it was the perfect size. So I'm about to get down and dirty swapping the line, and without even asking a question, Weston along with a friend of his were already doing it, and then someone else gets inside and starts pumping the pedal in order to bleed it. And I was basically just holding the light in awe, because usually I'm the guy doing the dirty work. In a matter of minutes Jessica was up, running and ready to go! Needless to say I was super pumped and very thankful but ready for whatever was to come. And what came was the 1st ledge at the pickle, while tricky it wasn't nearly as bad as it looks to get up it. And it was super fun to do! After that you pass through this balancing rock, in order to head up to more ledges. After passing through that rock, there was a tight section coming, one that would get your nerves working real good, because you're so close to the walls that you think you're gonna leave half of your body there. Here we are, patiently awaiting our turn. Unfortunately I don't have any pictutes of me going through that spot, but I do have pics of Andy going through it with Slamche. Where most of us sneaked right through the middle, he had to put a tire up on the wall while fully flexing her out. Pretty impressive! After that, came one of the main obstacles, if you thought it was tight before, this one took it up a notch! But not only was it tight, but also tall to climb so much so, that it was more of a 2 in 1 ledge. Very intimidating when you're getting to it, but not as bad once you're doing it. After that climb that most of us walked right up it, we were all parked waiting right after and right before we took off I ran up a side of the sand mound to take this pic. And then we headed to the actual end of the trail which is a steep sandy hill climb. And with that we conclude with the 2019 Moab MJ Takeover, the next day I woke up earlyish said my last good byes to everyone and took off heading south back home, and with a very cloudy and rainy morning I was bummed, but like everything else that's what makes it so important and enjoyable. If we did it every day it wouldn't feel as special! Thankfully my drive home was pretty eventless, and I got home safe and sound right before sunset. However this trip was extra special to me, because I went at it with no expectations what so ever, and met so many great people that I now get to call friends, and did many things I never thought I'd be able to do.. So sometimes all you gotta do is get out there and give it your best shot, you never know what will come out of it, and whatever does will be a learning experience for you to take notes on. If you want to take a look at all the pics I took here's a link to that album https://photos.app.goo.gl/3jAykhxeA3cEc3wD9

Well, on to a bit more tech stuff now, right before that Overlanding trip, my flowkooler water pump had developed a leak, so I ordered a new one, but replaced it with an over the counter replacement from the auto parts store in order to go on that rip. Needless to say I was less than satisfied with the OEM replacement, it was running hotter than I liked, and when on the 2hr drive up on the HWY the temp just kept climbing even with my 3 E-Fans on. So a couple of days after that trip the new flowkooler pump arrived and I got straight to swapping mode. Also, I had ordered a set of brown dog motor mounts, since my Daystar Poly OEM style ones had deformed quite badly. More so on the drivers side than the pass side, but both were pretty deformed, and I want to say the main cause was the heat. I know it's not necessary to take the radiator out in order to replace the water pump, but I decided to get it cleaned up before installing it again since, I wasn't sure when the next time to crack open the cooling system would be so I figured why not. Also at the time I took advantage of having all the access and adjusted my steering gearbox, and replaced my belt. New flowkooler pump installed! Does not look like anything fancy on the outside, but the impeller is anodized in blue, and has a waaaay different design than the OEM style one. Driver side motor mount installed, and I took this pic right before I covered the entire thing with DEI reflective tape to help as a heat shield, and I think it has after all this years the tape is still there and the motor mount is good. And the motor mount on the pass side. That side motor plate my buddy fabbed for me was and is still holding strong! I was doing all these maintenance work, and changed the motor mounts because I was preparing for something special, here's a hint.. More on the next post!

Well, the next morning got real bright real quick, but it was a really pretty sunrise. Couple of pics I took from the tent, since that's a thing I like to do, because sometimes I catch real good sunrises. And a pic of the campground after taking a leak, because who doesn't take a leak 1st thing in the morning! After a little while everyone else woke up, and started cooking up breakfast, we maybe ended up leaving the campground at around 9:30ish or so, and unfortunately for me it would end up being nothing more than regular dirt roads for the rest of the trip.. Oh well at least I got to explore a new area were I had never been at before. Again, mainly regular dirt roads, but super nice scenery and weather. We then ran into this cabin that is being preserved, and supposedly there was plans for it to be restored to it's original stage, but who knows what might've happened. This was the only obstable in the whole trip, you could easily go around it, but I had to at least put a tire on it. After all that dirt road, we spit out on Highway 59, we aired up right before hitting the HWY and started heading back to Winston, NM, and back home. I decided to go to Caballo Lake State Park afterwards to take a quick shower, and then start heading back home through the back roads. And when I got there I noticed Jessica's handling was a bit weird and bouncing too much in the rear end. So I decided to check it out, well turns out somewhere in the Gila, I lost my rear driver side shock bolt, and I knew I had to have something that would allow me to get it re-attached. Well, I ended up not having the right bolt needed to put it back together, but I had a longer bolt that was the right diameter for the shock bushing. So I had some 3/8" hose that I always carry a bit of spare hose, and some hose clamps and got it running again! It lasted like that for about a week or so till I got the right bolt and slapped it in. Pic of the missing hardware, thankfully the relief cuts held it in place instead of letting it dangle. And a pic of the MacGyvered new hardware to keep everything in place. I took this pic as soon as I got home, to make sure everything was still there. A couple of poser shots at Caballo Lake, because they let you get all the way down to the beach, so why not! And while driving through the back roads, I stopped in Mesilla, NM to grab a quick bite to eat, and drive the last haul home. This trip taught me that, sometimes dirt roads while unassumingly innocent, they can be more deceitful than any other type of trail because of the constant vibrations from the washboard. And can literally rattle loose anything, so now almost everytime after traveling for a long period of time, I look over the vehicle for anything obvious missing before hitting the HWY again. Also, I took a lot more pictures of this trip, if you want to check those out here's a link to that Album https://photos.app.goo.gl/8bjq1f869dameMd68

We took a little break there, and I thought it was the perfect time and place to start airing down my tires. From that point on, we started getting deeper and deeper into the Gila National Forest, passing through pretty bitchin scenery at the same time. We went to a couple of spots that anyone else would miss just by staying true to a designated route, but the guys I had camped with the night before were very knowledgeable of the area and took us there. We got going again, and the mountain formations were so unique I was taking pics with one hand, and holding the steering wheel with the other one. Just beautiful rock formations, this forest always reminds me of the general area around the Copper Canyon in southwestern Chihuahua, from the town of Creel Chihuahua, to a lot of the rural communities around there, the terrain there is rocky, mountainous, and just different than anything I've personally experienced in the states side, but this was a good reminder of it. I saw this rock formation from the pic previous to this one, and though man that is so cool, I wish we could get closer, and all of a sudden we started climbing up the hill. So much green! We got up to a little open area/valley that lead to a flooded mine, that's why you see a little pond on this picture. I honestly can't remember if the mine got flooded on purpose or by accident, and then to top it off someone dumped a bunch of goldfish in the little pond, and they prevailed! You can barely see a goldfish on this pic, but there was a bunch of them, more than 20 easily. And the flooded mine, you can spot another goldfish on this pic. Once there, I climbed to the top of the entrance of the mine to take a quick pic of almost the whole group. There was still a couple of rigs missing from this pic. Well, it was time to take off from there, and keep on heading deep into the forest, passing through a bunch of abandoned mines, and forgotten ranches. This was pretty much the entrance to the Gila National Forest, once we passed there, everything started to look more "remote" and forest like. I took this pic, because I found it a bit funny how we're in the forst, but there was still desert style plants scattered throughout. Then all of a sudden there was some cave paintings right next to the road we were driving on, and a small cave right after, who knows how old these are, but as I was told they are real and not painted by someone that is trying to attract people. Right after passing those paintings the road opened up quite a bit, perfect for us to park up and out of the way of anyone else, and have a quick lunch, while other peeps from the group walked back to check the paintings up close and personal. As we kept driving further and deeper into the forest, the trees started getting taller, and the hills steeper. However I think I only shifted into 4L once in the whole day and that was because I did not want to force the tranny too much on a pretty steep hill. I want to say I was a little disappointed because I was expecting a bit more 4wheeling action rather than just driving on dirt roads, but the scenery made it all worthwhile. This is the part where it's the "Overlander Dream" or time to shine, we got to the spot were we were gonna camp I want to say at around 4PM with plenty of light still, a thing I'm not used to when wheeling and camping. So since I was part of the group and everyone was setting camp. I decided to pull my chair out and relax for a bit, then one of the "Overlander" guys came over and asked where I was going to sleep or if I was gonna set up camp at all.. And I told him, yeah but I can set my tent up fully equipped with either my Milwaukee M18 fan or a bunch of blankets in less than 20mins, so I had plenty of time till the sun went out. However he did make me more observant of my surroundings and I started paying more attention to everyone else that was setting up. And man were they having a hard time, trying to level out their vehicles with anything they could find, because their traction boards did not provide enough height to level them out so their rooftop tents where in an awkward angle. Trying to set up their awnings and struggling to again extend the legs of them since we were in a slope. Man I'm sorry if you're reading this and you're an "Overlander" but man I wanted to laugh out loud so bad, because the whole point of all those accessories is to make it easier for the user to set up camp, and here I was noticing that the moment you throw a curve ball of a small slope, you just messed with their whole setup. So that experience right there made me a believer that RTTs (Roff-Top-Tents) on any vehicle makes it basically an RV.. they need to be in a perfectly or close to perfect level surface in order for them to be comfortable. I kid you not, I took this picture I want to say at around 7:40PM or so and I hadn't set my tent up yet, just because I was to entertained by the circus trying to set up their stuff. After this pic I set my tent up, and I looked over, and there was 1 guy still not finished.. that's just torture! Anyways we started the campfire, I turned on my bluetooth speaker and started playing some blues, and the vibes were good, we were all enjoying ourselves and having different conversations about our different adventures and trips. One of the peeps brought stuff to make some s'mores, I brought a bunch of hot dogs and skewers to grill them and have a nice little snack before hitting the pillow. We kicked it till about 10PM or so, and went to bed. Later the full moon popped out, and the forest was lit up by it, perfect temperature and a quiet night made for a great night sleep in the middle of nowhere. Continued on next post

Well, after that outing to our local trail there was an Overlanding group on Facebook that I had just joined not too long ago, "Overland New Mexico". And they had organized a weekend outing towards Chloride, NM and the general area around the Cibola and Gila National Forests. So, as per usual I took off Friday night after work fully loaded with all my camping gear, and coolers with food and drinks. The plan was to meet a couple of gents at a spot were they had camped before in the middle of nowhere but close to the little hwy right before Winston, NM. I ended up getting there right before or around 10PM (Again as per usual) meet the guys set up camp and went to bed. This was the camp spot were we met the night before, pretty nice, pretty melow and not that hot. This is what was behind the trees, simply beautiful and we hadn't event started yet. The next morning started out kind of early, we woke up at around 6AM, and the gents started getting coffee ready and cooking up breakfast. We had agreed to meet at the Winston General store at 9AM, for the rest of the people coming. This was gonna be the last spot to get ICE and whatever last minute stuff you might've forgotten to get before, yes even gas. From there we drove over to Chloride, NM which is a mere 10mins away if that and did a bit of sight seeing there which was pretty interesting. There was a lot of mining history throughout this whole area, and it was shown by the several different old equipment displayed throughout the town's square. This whole area of Winston is very popular with hunting, as you can tell by the antlers they have decorating the exterior of the store. It did however sell both gas and diesel through very oldschool I want to say 70s era/style pumps. Which can be that blessing for someone that did not prepare accordingly before heading out. The whole store is very hunter oriented or supportive per say. And it was very general, from your regular treats and eats you find at any other gas station, to automotive supplies and tools, clothes, self care products, hats, boots and even ammo! This is the "town square" of Chloride, which includes a café, a bar/saloon and a museum, all of which were closed when we were there.. Maybe it was too early, or maybe they just didn't open that day. Still even with them being closed there was a bunch of cool stuff to see and get educated on. Very "old westy" style buildings and just general vibe in the little town. They had this display of how they used to haul equipment into the mine shafts and extract the ore. We've all seen those looney tunes cartoons of when they get into a mine persecuting someone, well this was the equipment they actually used for that back in the day. Neat old Caterpillar Dozer, it was a "Fifteen" model, from the late 20s early 30s This cabin was the last cabin standing from a mining town that was deserted, and in the mid 70s the City of Las Cruces, NM got it, restored it and displayed it in Cruces, then in 2006 it was in the way of a city project so they re-located to here. Well, a couple more rigs caught up to us in Chloride, and then it was time to set sail and get into the forest! At first as always it was a pretty nicely graded road, with great scenery all around. We passed a couple of ranches, and saw what was pretty much a preview per say of what we were in for. Also everything was very green, almost anywhere you looked I know for a lot of you that's normal, but me being a desert rat I'm not used to all this green stuff. From there we got to the mine or quarry but I'm pretty sure it's a mine because the area on the ground was not that big like quarries. And then it was time to start getting deep into the forest. Everything was super green, which I was not expecting, because it was pretty dry. Still beautiful sights everywhere you looked though. As we started driving further and further down the road, you started seeing of what was to come. In all honesty, it didn't even feel like we were in New Mexico at times, and as I've always said, that's why they call it "The Land of Enchantment" you just gotta go look for it, it won't be readily available on the side of the road like in Utah or other states. Well, we got to the mine, which was working. Most of the material that comes out of here ends up in kitty litter, and you guessed it, the absorbent material used for soaking up the spilled oil most of our rigs leak. lol As soon as we passed the mine things started to get a bit more interesting, it got pretty narrow and then we had to go up and then down a small but steep drop-off. Were I wondered how the Range Rover and F-150 were gonna do, but they passed through it with no issues, maybe a bit of scraping on the underbody but nothing major. Continued on next post

Thanks man, trying to take advantage of the holiday break to try and get this thread finally updated! Funny thing, I started reading yours when I don't have a chance to be working on this. lol Anyways, on to more updating!