Well... I guess I always knew this day would come. 5.9L "ground effects" cladding meets rock. Guess which one wins? Yes yes... I know, I should have installed some protection but I still haven't settled on a design I like. At anyrate, I just got back from a run that lasted till after nightfall. Unfortunately, I'm not so great at night wheeling... I hit more things more often. When I surveyed the Jeep at the end of the trail I found that the left "ground effects" cladding hanging really loose and fractured in spots. It's shot. The right side cladding was simply.... missing. Looks like it tore off and drifted away silently in the night. Actually it probably wasn't so silent and was heralded by the agonizing sound of something going crunch against a boulder. Also, there's a nice big dent in the front part of the rocker panel where the cladding used to be. I do plan on installing some protection but I also would like to retain the original look somewhat so I'm looking to replace them. Yes, they're cheezy looking in a sense... I mean... how does one achieve ground-effects anything with 10 inches of clearance... however, I still like them and I do need something to cover up the ugly dent anyhow.
BTW, the run I went on involved two trails... one was off California Hwy4... I think it was called Slickrock. And the other was off Hwy88 but I seem to be bozing right now and can't remember the name (Deer Valley?). Both trails are 3-ish and were fairly long with some good technical spots. I went with 2 modified 4Runners, a really modified Tacoma pickup, a really modified YJ, one stock XJ and a fairly modified XJ. We met up with some FJ-40's along the way too. Everyone seemed pretty suprised at how well my ZJ performed especially since it's not heavilly modded. I got through a lot of sections that were giving the modified XJ (he had open-diffs so that was one problem) grief and just about walked up another section (with the help of really good spotters of course) that two of the older 4Runners were having lots of trouble with. The YJ had no problems at all (driver experience) and the XJ my friend was driving although stock (with exception of 30x9.5 MTs) made everything look easy. Again... driver experience.
Tally of Trail Trophies I acquired on this run:
One of the reasons this particular run is so important to me is because it's the last run I'll be doing with my California friends although I s'pose I could always drive back and visit to go offroading. As of the beginning of Nov. I'll be residing in the Seattle area. The reason I mention this is that I'm also looking for opinions on Seattle area Jeep dealerships. My first dealership (which I got the Jeep from) was a 5-star in Ypsilanti, MI and they were pretty good. The one I started going to in San Jose (also a 5-star) is excellent... especially at dealing with modified rigs. I'm hoping to find a comparable one in Seattle.
P.S.: I think I'm going to limit my rock crawling until I get some skids under those rockers.