Wed, Oct 25, 2017
The 2017 PowerStop Trail to SEMA presented by Lucas Oil is finally here!!. The first episode covers our travel from Chicago to Denver, and then on to Grand Junction where we meet up with Jason Lewis Autoedit and JC Whitney in their Jeeps. As with any other road trip, we have a few hurdles along the way.
Mon, Nov 6, 2017
Episode 2 is where the pavement ends, literally. We finally venture off-pavement just outside of the Colorado National Monument and begin making our way towards some light wheeling in the wide open desert, a river crossing, and of course Moab, UT. Before we could hit the trail "we" (mostly Jhon Incaudo) executed a 7am water pump swap on Johnny's JL Wrangler. In the end it was a team effort getting Johnny on the road (and trail), and this teamwork would become a theme of the trip going forward - with no Jeep left behind. Today's trail day was made possible by the generous team at Vision Wheel, most of the rigs on the 2017 #TrailToSEMA were riding on Vision Manx wheels. The Manx Beadlock has been our go-to wheel to take all of our abuse and to get us home, even after a long day at 9psi.
Tue, Nov 21, 2017
We're finally in Moab. We got into town earlier than expected so the first thing we did was head to Fins n Things for an intro to Moab. Once the group was well acquainted with the Moab slick rock, trail-leader Kris from PowerStop decided to up the difficulty by taking everyone to Moab Rim. Our first timers, as well as our more experienced team members, got to test their skills on one of the most obstacle-dense miles of trail in Moab. We tackle the devil's crack and Z-turn on our way up to the rim that gave us a view of Moab, Arches National Park, and the La Sal Mountains. Once the team has cleared the first mile of trail, Kris heads back into Moab to handle logistics for the rest of trip leaving the rest of the group to explore the rim and get back to civilization on their own. The video finishes with a MAJOR upgrade to one of the Jeeps - almost. Our time on Fins n Things and Moab Rim wouldn't have been possible without the support of Rugged Radios. All of our rigs were outfitted with the RM25R Waterproof 25 Watt Dual-Band Base/Chase Kit for vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Additionally, we carry a set of 6 RH-5R handheld 5-watt radios for the spotters and camera crew. Communications on the trail make everything safer and just generally help to smooth out everything we do, from when to stop for gas on the highway to pointing out cool stuff to see along the way.
Sun, Dec 17, 2017
After a couple of tire failures on Colin's Scrambler we take matters into our own hands and get a set of 37" Maxxis RAZR MT's and Vision Competition bead-lock wheels - and of course a sawzall. After a quick trip to the tire store, we had some time to burn and took an unplanned field trip to buy another truck to add to the group. We brought the new rig and the new tires back to our hotel and get straight to work. In addition to the new larger tires and the necessary body modifications on the CJ8, we also install a bunch of Daystar Cam Cans which came in handier than we could have planned in the coming days. Once the work was done we got a bit of a late start out to Kane Creek, one of the longer and more diverse trails in Moab. What Kane Creek lacks in difficulty it makes up with scenery. The late start definitely caught up with us as we hit the biggest section of obstacles "Hamburger Hill" at twilight, and then on to finish the rest of the trail in the dark. It was a long day, but we made the best of it and got some incredible wheeling in, on one of the most unique trails in Moab.