Day 1

The Ocala Jeep Club of Florida

Getting Schooled at Tobasco Twister

Editors Note: Four Wheeler Magazine had a great write- up on the Las Cruces trails in its June 1998 issue as it covered the 1998 Chili Challenge. It was fun to compare their observations with what we experienced.

What a day! Some still groggy from 3 hours of sleep, we started at 5 am and didn't return to the hotel until almost 8 pm. The weather was very sunny and hot - not the sort that leaves one wet with sweat, but it burns and dries the nose, skin, and lips. We grossly underestimated our water needs - tomorrow we'll be bringing along 2-3 gallons per jeep!

"Tabasco Twister: Formerly Kronos, this trail has been featured in may 4X4 publications. It has a few waterfalls, some boulders, and great scenery. Some of the ledges have ripped off drivetrain parts, dented fenders, bent bodies and rolled a few vehicles. To quote on of the leaders, "That's a real hard canyon."" - Four Wheeler magazine, June 1998

We brashly decided to spend our first day running one of the "extreme" trails (rated double diamond) called Tabasco Twister. It is a 5 mile series of dry waterfalls and ledges in a canyon between the mountains of New Mexico. We met Our guides from Las Cruces 4X4 Club and spent some time ogling their open topped, fender-cut rigs as they wondered at our circus wagon - tall, air conditioned Jeeps, Little did we realize how decidedly better drivers they were than us and the humbling experience we were about to endure. Brian Shipley's Scrambler and Jeffrey Priest's 4-popper YJ were the surprises - one had the long wheelbase and the other had the light weight. The others.....well.....were handicapped by the excess weight of spare parts and equipment, and suspension heights and tire sizes that were more suited to the 'wheeling seen in the Florida flatlands.

After airing down, we traveled to the head of the trail and played (a little too long had we known what was in store later) on a few rocks which succeeded in mangling the front driveshaft in the CJ7 driven by Rick White. Turning the corner we encountered the first rock obstacle. This time it was my TJ which fell victim as a U joint in the front Dana 44 axle exploded, spreading the ears on the Moser axleshafts. The locals with us told us that they had long ago switched to the super duty CTM joints in their Dana 44's and haven't had any problems with broken axles since. We pulled over to a (relatively) cool and shady area to replace what will turn out to the the first of many broken axles in our Jeeps.
Warming Up

In all there were about a dozen ledges and waterfalls to climb - the most memorable were the first, the Abyss, and the WaterFall. The first ledge involved coming at a sharp angle to the obstacle and getting the front of the Jeep over the top by turning the left front tire hard into the face of the ledge. The instinctive feeling was that the Jeep would immediately roll over onto its right side, and it proved very hard to listen to the advice of our spotters from the Las Cruces club and to ignore that instinct as the left rear tire would catch the ledge and spin the jeep around allowing it to climb over the ledge. Scott and Brian were able to walk over it, but the rest of us needed the winch.

The First Ledge

The Abyss was the biggest ledge - so called because of the massive height of this ledge and the large boulder-filled hole on the right that would eat your rig if you rolled! Here our local guides suggested that we air our tires down to 5 psi ( I thought that 8 was low already!) to get the best grip on the rocks. The TJ's in our group had a very rough time with this obstacle as the vehicle weight transferred off the front and onto the back axles, giving us major air as our all-to-flexy coil suspensions unwound and the unweighted front tires grappled uselessly on the rocks. All of us took the winch with the exception of Brian Shipley's Scrambler and its long wheelbase.

The Abyss"

Near the end of the trail, The Waterfall is a pair of very steep and tall U-shaped ledges that promised major body damage to the unwary driver. Following the Las Cruces drivers in their modified rigs, it appeared that the easy way would be to point the Jeep directly at the top and let the Jeep crawl and grapple its way up to the top. It wasn't so easy for our Jeeps, once again because of our size and weight! The only person to succeed in climbing the lower fall was Jeffrey Priest in his 4-cylinder YJ with 36" Swamper SX's. The rest of us sought consolation by successfully climbing the upper Fall unassisted.

"The Waterfall"

We finally finished the trail by 7:00 and wearily returned to the hotel by 8:00. We thanked our gracious hosts and learned a good lesson in driving tactics and finesse.

Here's the carnage report (some of which wasn't discovered until later!):
Front driveshaft - Rick White
Two front Dana 44 axle shafts - Ray Woo
Mangled driver side door and rocker - Tony Sommo
Bent tie rod and leaking front diff - Tony Sommo
Bill Lanman - rear driveshaft and yoke
Mangled left rear quarter panel and tire carrier - Scott Allen
Torn rear shackle mount and collapsed frame - Brian Shipley
Broken pinion yoke - Jeff Priest
Scattered rear brake - Tony Sommo

Exhausted, we all hit the sack early. Tomorrow promises to be just as exciting as we will be riding with Jim Huff.