One of the local rockcrawling guys set up an amateur rockcrawling comp at one of the local off-road parks.
They had a "stock" class for "street" type vehicles, so you could see what your "street stock" vehicle could do.. The basic requirements/rules were.....35" and smaller DOT approved tires, lights front and rear, no rear-steer, no front digs, stock frame with no mods, stock type suspension, no seriously hacked bodys/fenders, no wheelbase stretches over 3" from stock.
It was set up to be a "just for fun" type of event (although they did charge to enter...but they paid back 100% of the entry fees to the winners).
They tried to set it up to be challenging to all types of vehicles....long wheelbase, short wheelbase, small, big, short, tall, etc. But they also set it up so all the vehicles should be able to make it through by taking the proper line and with some strategic rock stacking. Needless to say, there were a few jeeps that broke and didn't make it.
I wasn't sure if I was going to do the comp or not, since I'd never done anything like it before. But after looking over the course and talking with the guy that was going to be my spotter, I decided that it was doable.....so I entered, not really knowing what to expect, since I knew there were some places that I could not make it without rock stacking (when I wheel, I don't like to have rocks stacked.....either my samurai can make an obstacle as is, or it can't).
This is the first time I had done any type of rock crawling competition. But one of the guys (lift-dr) I wheel with quite a bit was my spotter and did an excellent job of guiding me through and stacking rocks if needed......and it paid off....check the last few photos.
The pics don't show it (they never do), but there was a couple of places I was very off-camber......more so than I have been in any other wheeling situation. So either I don't take too many risks when I am wheeling, or I got all excited over nothing.
The points were assessed this way........10 points for hitting a cone, 1 point for backing up or rolling back, but you did get a negative point for each intermediate gate you made it through on each course (I believe there were 3 intermediate gates in each of the 3 courses).
On the first course, I had a point total of -1.
On the second course I had a point total of +9 (they called me for hitting a cone, but my spotter said I didn't.....but we won't get into that).
Then on the last course I had a +1.
So after running the 3 courses my final point total was +9.
There were 8 other competitors in my class.....most were cherokees, I think 1 toyota pickup, a jeep TJ, and one other samurai. The TJ won the previous amateur rockcrawling comp they had last fall.
This was also the first time I had my samurai out wheeling, since I added the 4.16s to the samurai tcase (I now have a 142:1 crawl ratio on 33s). What a way to start the maiden voyage, huh?!?! I am glad I had that low of a crawl ratio though....it allowed me to be very controlled while maneuvering through the course. And, luckily, this was a course where slow and controlled would get you through....you didn't need speed and momentum to make the obstacles (at least, I didn't).
Anyway....onto the pics......
Here are the pics of just me. I think I got them all arranged in chronological order.
All the rockcrawling comp pics are at the following link....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/good-photos/sets/72157623912560103/show/with/4596826037/
BTW, the TJ that won the last one, came in second this time, with a point total of 23, to my point total of 9.
