Overland Challenge

[ericbphoto]

Conversely, a High Lift can come up and bite you if you aren’t careful and you have that heavy jack suspended up in the air just waiting to fall and crush something if a strap breaks. 6 of one, half dozen the other I guess.

The key with the team that had the come-along is that they used both. The competition was timed. So two people cranking on two pulling devices was helpful.

Not necessary most of the time out in the field.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

We have high lifts all over and use come a longs for pulling if we have to.

The key with the team that had the come-along is that they used both. The competition was timed. So two people cranking on two pulling devices was helpful.

Not necessary most of the time out in the field.

Storms movin in!

We are burning daylight!

Usually when something goes sideways there is a time related curveball.

We used a come a long and another tractor with a pushbar to shove a carcass of a tractor on a trailer a week ago. It wanted to every direction but straight coming on the trailer. Time was of the essence, we didn't want to fight the thing all day and had other things to do.

 

[ericbphoto]

Officially finished for this year. I'll be doing this more in the future hopefully as a competitor some day.

First place trophy (in addition to an awesome prize package)

Last place trophy (I like this one better)

Photo op.

This needs to be fixed before they can drive home.

 

[ericbphoto]

I decided to stay over one more night. Got one of these so I can do a little wheeling before I leave.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

What did they do? Ball joint or deeper?

 

[ericbphoto]

Bent control arm. Hit a tree root too hard. Another truck blew out a power steering line and was looking for a -6 AN fitting this morning. Both are gone now. Must have found what they needed.

 

[ericbphoto]

After the festivities died down, 4 of us staff members went wheeling this afternoon. We drove rocky mountain loop and sawmill road. In Uwharrie National Forest. Both listed as medium difficulty. There were 2 sections bordering on difficult due to yesterday's rain turning the clay into slime on some steep rocky climbs. All went well. The Jeep in our group hung his rear shock mount on a tree stump and required 10 minutes of winch work.

On the other hand, I feel honored to be the oddball out there. Several times, I was greeted with someone yelling loudly "Ford F_____ing Ranger! Yeah!" As I passed them on the trail.

 

[ericbphoto]

This is the veteran's organization that proceeds from this weekend will be supporting.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Was it a club that put on the event?

 

[ericbphoto]

Was it a club that put on the event?

No. It was planned and coordinated primarily by a company called Overland Xpeditions. The biggest sponsoring vendor was BFG (3 sets of 5 tires were given away, up to 37" mud terrain or all terrains). A company called Apex was very instrumental, in fact I believe they fielded the official recovery team for problems out in the field. There were many others. It was very well organized. One company provided one of their overlanding trailers for the trailer flip challenge. All the vendors/sponsors stepped in big time to pull this event off. It occurs twice a year and this is the fourth year. One of the companies does offroad training courses on a property near hear. Some of the events this weekend were on their property. Even one of the competing teams owns a coffee Roasting business. They provided free coffee two mornings and donated a 5lb bag of their coffee as a prize for the winners. BFG also premiered their new trail map navigation app this year.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I've used hilift as a winch before. When I did the Trans America Trail with the Loan Ranger I had a hilift mounted in the bed with recovery gear to winch myself out if needed.

 

[ericbphoto]

I requested vacation for the fall event, Nov 5,6,7. Looking forward to it already.

 

[ericbphoto]

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