Rausch Creek Off-road Park Writeup, Photos & Video (*Dial-Up Destruction*)

[PAFirefighter11]

My buddies with their XJ's decided to head up to Rausch Creek on Saturday night, around 11pm. They all camped there. I decided to leave early Sunday morning. I woke up early, drove 1 hour 15 mins to find Tom (XJ3) still sleeping. So, the rest of us decided to make some bacon on the grille using pliers as a fork. What fun!









By the time we were packed up, checked in, and ready to hit the trails it was 10am:





We took some green trails to get to the blue, blue-black, and black trails for the day:









Things started out great but slowly deteriorated for Harrison (XJ2) and Tarby (XJ1). Harrison backed into a rock, which caused his tailpipe to bent into the tire:

VIDEO: YouTube - Tom and Harrison in Their XJ's at Rausch Creek Off-road Park







Eventually we ripped the tailpipe off and got moving again:





Then, Tarby had an incident. Climbing a decent hill, his leaf spring/axle centering pin sheared on the driver side. This pulled the driveshaft out of the t-case as the axle moved rearward. So we had to try to rig the axle to stay in place:

VIDEO: YouTube - Tarby in His XJ Loses His Driveshaft at Rausch Creek Off-road Park







After "fixing" his Jeep, the rest of us made the climb, while he bypassed:

VIDEO: YouTube - Hill Climb & Descent - Blue Trail - Rausch Creek Off-road Park in my 97 TJ Wrangler

ON-BOARD VIDEO: YouTube - On Board - Hill Climb - Go Pro Hero Cam WIDE - Rausch Creek Off-road Park - Jeep Wrangler TJ









Tarby decided to keep his Jeep with us and continue on. So, we did. We moved to some rocks... And Tom (XJ3) got a little stuck from going forward, but after moving some rocks we got him backing out:











But just as we're really enjoying ourselves, things went downhill... Tarby bent his tie-rod .. badly.. and it was in danger of hitting the oil pan:









While repairs continued, we took a food break. We cooked hot dogs .. using a screwdriver as a prod lol:







And then got back to work. We removed the tie-rod. We had to kick the driver side tire to keep it straight coming down the hill climb. That sucked, so we then ratchet strapped the tie rod to the axle to keep it slightly towed out:







Once we got it down to the bottom of the hill, and out of the way for JK's to climb the hill, we straightened it the redneck way. We then put a hi-lift jack handle over the tie-rod to keep it straight, and we headed back to the lot to drop off his Jeep and head back out:







Or so we thought. While waiting for the limping Tarby to catch up, Harrison flexed on a rock... which ripped out his driver side LCA axle side mount (it was beat up pretty bad already):





He hobbled back to the parking lot garage as well, where him and Tarby started to fix their rigs. Tom and I wanted to drive on the rock course in the parking lot, so we had some fun. A NAXJA guy, Hammered, decided to drive through as well:













Of course, Tom ended up getting high centered, but how corny it became lol:







I winched him off the rocks as the sun set on an interesting, damage-prone, yet still fun and exciting day!













If You Didn't Want To Read Above - Damage Report:
-XJ1 (Small 4 door): Bent into a "V" tie-rod which was rednecked back to straight. Rear center-pin sheared off, axle continued moving back war...ds during the day. Rear driveshaft came out of t-case due to this.
-XJ2 (Big 4 door): Tailpipe squished then ripped off. Rear bumper scratches lol. Driver side lower control arm and mount ripped off of axle tube.
-XJ3 (2 door): Minor rock rash
-Me: Minor rock rash, broken factory side step (I need rocker guards)