REBEL OFFROAD
Official Vendor
Rebels,
The Rebels headed out to the High Desert Round-up for some fun in the sun wheel'n. Joined by some of our Rebel friends, customers and our close vendor brothers and sisters.
The trail the Rebel crew ran is lovingly called “Pumpkin Eater Trailâ€... (or was it the Diff Beater trail)
Randal had his factory lower control arm bracket tear away and break off the front axle. The Rebel crew swung immediately into action. With the help of Dusty - one of the trail hands whose Jeep was sporting an onboard welder - we were able to perform some field surgery and get the arm welded back onto the axle.
We caught up to the rest of the group and headed over to the waterfall section were Randal’s 12-year-old son schooled everyone on how to drive a Jeep with an manual trans on the big rocks with a hand throttle. Yes, his proud dad will never be able to live it down as the bantering of the rest of our group was relentless. (Next time you come on a run with us, your 12-year-old is driving.)
Further up the trail was an area where the rocks had been kicked out. So out came the winch for a lot of the group. This rock area even gave the 4-wheel Parts KOH rock buggy a hard time. Next up was Larry in the Poison Spyder Customs JK. Larry did a great job in his JK with sticky Krawlers sticking to the line and making the climb. Then it was the Rebel Leader’s turn. All was going well until the Rebel Command JK slid off the line. I began to back down the trail to reposition the JK. With camera's clicking away the Rebel JK's rear tire climbed a little too high and the JK performed some acrobatic moves. The slow roll and flop. The rig landed right on its side. Damage was limited to my pride and the driver’s door and B pillar with a little hardtop damage.
After removing the T-tops we began the recovery efforts. A tow strap was wrapped around the t section of the roll cage and through the grab handle on the opposite side of the roll cage. This was done to prevent the recovery strap damaging the passenger door. The tow strap was then hooked to a winchline and ran through a pulley/snatch block to another tow strap that was wrapped around a huge rock and back down to the winch on a Jeep located behind me. Next we ran a winchline from the JK to a huge rock further up the trail. This was done to prevent the JK from sliding back as the recovery efforts were underway. With everyone standing clear we winched the Jeep from its flopped position to rubber-side down. After another quick assessment of the damage we were off and wheeling again.
Note to all. It is very important to always keep your recovery gear where you can reach it. Even if the vehicle has rolled. I always keep my gear just behind the front seats. That way it's within easy reach. I have been wheeling with many Jeepers who get stuck and need the recovery gear only to find that they cannot open the swing away tire carrier or rear door to get to their gear because of the angle that their Jeep is on. Even worse yet their Jeep is sitting at a precarious position and they need to stay in the vehicle with their hands on the wheel and their foot on the brake.
We'll keep you posted on the next excursion we head out on.
Cheers,
Bond
YouTube Video:
YouTube - Rebel Offroad @ Hi Desert Round-up
