Top Challenge

[Jerry]

AWORC Top Challenge
January 19, 2008

I went on a really neat snow run with Clay and the All Wheelers Off Road Club on Saturday. These are the same guys who have invited us, the Backroad Drivers Northwest group, to The Slab next month. The club was having their Top Challenge contest to pick the years Top Member. It involved driving through deep snow, over icy trails and up snowy hills by any means possible, including winching or sky hooks, and the first to reach a far-off marker would be the winner and Top Member for 2008.


Drivers meeting prior to the Challenge

I was content to tag along with the group and watch the activity from a distance. It was fun watching the different lines the guys picked to reach their objective. There were a few breakdowns, including my old Cherokee with a broken tire bead, but everybody pitched in to repair or retrieve the fallen and we all made it home.


On our way to the starting point

It was quite impressive to see everyone working as a team. I have seen trail repairs before, but these guys were outstanding. I don't think it took them more than 10 minutes to jack up my Cherokee, dig away the snow (one of the guys took the shovel right out of my hand and started digging), kick the tire back on the rim, position it to hold air and apply air pressure from my compressor. It was amazing how well they worked together and my mishap was just a little one compared to others.


One of the participants, "Demontang", searching for a better
line. His axle broke only seconds after this picture was taken.

We got lucky with the weather and every one of us had a great time. My thanks to Clay and all the other guys with the All Wheelers Off Road Club.

Jerry from Yakima

PS Congratulations to John, aka BSLM (Because She Let's Me) for winning the Challenge and bragging rights as the Top Member of 2008

_________________________________
BACKROAD DRIVERS NORTHWEST

[Steve]

Sounds like a fun time. What were you doing when you broke your bead? Was that with the 37s?

Steve

[Jerry]

Sounds like a fun time. What were you doing when you broke your bead? Was that with the 37s?

It was my first time out with the 37" tires and I had aired down to 8 lbs for good snow traction. Of course that left a huge bulge and very little pressure against the rim. We came to a spot where we had to drop into a bowl and in so doing all the rigs slid sideways before they got a good footing for the climb up the other side. When I dropped off I slid into the same tracks as the others, but evidently my RF tire hit something under the snow, like a rock or a root, and it popped the bead.

I cannot tell you how efficient and courteous those AWORC guys were at fixing my tire. I had just removed my shovel from the back end and had started digging snow away from the tire when one of them came up to me, took the shovel out of my hand and said, "Here, let me do that." Another guy was removing the Hi-Lift Jack from it's mount on my front bumper while another one was lifting the hood for access to the air hose. It was almost like a race car pit stop. And when they had finished fixing the tire they put everything back where it belonged. How often does that happen???
Jerry

[Steve]

That's true. It's not very often you see that much effort placed on getting a vehicle on the trail again. Usually one or two people will pitch in, but nothing like this. Kudos to the AWORC group.

Steve

[RidgeRunner]

Jerry, that's an amazing story. How often are people that considerate and helpful?

I'm sure everyone realizes the extent of your appreciation...

Mick

[Ceg]

All Wheelers Off Road Club -
Top Member Challenge
January 19th, 2008

On Saturday January 19th, 2007 we had a club challenge near Cowiche, Washington. We had 6 rigs competing. Built-not-bot, BecauseSheLetsMe, Demontang, Dr Turbo, Rednk1980 and Waycrazy. The goal was to race (wheeled ORV of choice) to the top of the ridge through the deep snow and get the challenge marker. The first driver that gets the marker wins the AWORC Top Member award. Benw and Jay W were the judges on this event.

We headed up toward the starting point and had to stop because rednk1980 got stuck.




We got going again and Hercules got stuck and found his 4 wheel drive wasn't working. We stopped here to wait.

They got it fix and we were on our way again.



At this point we had a few problems with rigs getting through. Tiny got stuck twice and Soggymountain lost a bead.


Benw turning around to winch Tiny.


The group on the other side.


On up the trail the snow drifts were getting deep. Dr. Turbo got stuck.


Here is where it got real fun. This was a big deep snow drift.




It was deep enough where 44" boggers wouldn't reach the ground. Punisher blew up his front diff on this drift.


The next snow drift it took a lot of time for rigs to work their way up.
Here is Demontang stuck.


Built-not-Bot starting to winch up.


Benw driving around watching for the top rig. Waycrazy taking time out to help out a non-competing rig.


Colemancooler was Demontang co-pilot. As a Union member he took the main job position.


I was not in the race but I tried to make it up for the fun of it. I kind of got stuck.




Here is Built-not-bot still winching.


Here is Waycrazy and the judges.


BecauseSheLetsMe won the All Wheelers Top Member Challenge in his 1984 Jeep Cherokee. He received a trophy, a 1/4" thick AWORC logo and has weld on bead locks and an AWORC windshield banner on their way.

[Ceg]

Demontang broke a c-clip axle on his Ranger during the AWORC Top Member Challenge. BSLM and Fatboy headed out for an axle miles away. Since it was getting cold and close to dark the others worked on getting the Ranger off the top of the ridge. Here are the pics of how they got the truck off the mountain and out of the woods.

Benw hooked up to the Ranger to help him. They used a log for a skid on the side the axle came out.




Here they are tieing the log on better.




The broke axle.


And they are off.

Not to far down the trail the log hit a rock and broke. They had to fix the skid and then they moved on.

They got the Ranger down to a place they could get a trailer turned around. Benw went and got his tow rig and they loaded the Ranger. We had to pick the truck up a little in the rear to get up the ramp.


Here it is on the trailer.


Here is Demontang happy to have his rig down the mountain.


Off to Yakima.


I guess BSLM and Fatboy met up with Benw as he was going for his tow rig so the axle did not get used. It was great there was two plans to help Demontang get his rig out. Great work guys!