Moab ZuZoo Photos

[nocturnalVX]

Steel Bender... and had a great week!

I am in Denver at my cousins' place for a few days, so it will be a while 'til I post any pics. However, a couple of the pics of Larry's VX having a rough go at a hot tub came from my buddy Rich (who had a blast & enjoyed meeting everyone) because Tone burned CDs off of everybody's cards so there may be posts of all the best shots before I even get home.

Moab is a BLAST!!! I did not know how much I missed it until I got there and got on the trails. My 3rd time in Moab, and it just keeps getting better! I loved seeing old friends, meeting new friends (and putting faces to screen-names), re-doing some of my favorite trails, trying new trails, and the dinners & partying... awesome!!!

I started the week on Monday with Steel Bender... following Steve & Joe in a lifted & locked 2-door Trooper and Kasia & John in her lifted & locked VX (thank God for skidplates!!!). John said that was how they knew I was still tagging along... all the scraping & banging noises behind them. I had sworn off any trail called "Steel Bender", "Metal Masher", "Carnage Carnival", etc., but it really wasn't that bad (and nothing a couple of inches of lift would have helped keep my skidplates/hitch/tow points off the rocks). The only breakage was the red plastic light cover I had in the hitch. Now... they say Kasia repeatedly told me to remove it, but I don't function well before noon so I must have missed the warnings... d'oh! I scrawled "Steel Bender" into the dirt on my hood, my buddy wrote "I survived" on the hood insert, and we wrote the other trail names (among other things) in the dirt at the end of every trail. Good times!

The run to Elephant Hill on day 2 was great for 3 reasons... I had never done it before, there were most all the VXes in attendance, and the scenery is amazing. Very cool trail.

Wednesday's trip to Hell's Revenge ROCKED (except for the tip-over)! A bunch of us did the hot tub even after seeing Larry's on it's side because there was NO WAY we were going to have it be in vain. The steep climbs & decents on the slickrock is such a thrill! Seeing Butters (oops... I meant Biju) try Hell's Gate was good fun durring our lunch break, and he never even needed that strap we had attatched... just in case.

Day 4... Fins 'N Things. One of my favs, and a great trail to wrap up my week of wheelin' in Moab. Wicked fun day!

Some of the guys & gals had lift. Some had rock-sliders, or extra skidplates. Some owners came out with thiers bone-stock (well done Cece!)... the VehiCROSS can take on these trails (and more). Come out next year and see for yourself. I'll be there!

[VXIRONwoMAN]

Just so you all know...I am still excited over Moab!!! I am going to be talking about this forever. Unfortunately you are the only people who understand my obsession. On my agenda for next year...i am thinking some bigger tires and a lift, skid plates and definitely some more trail stickers for my window...i must add to that collection...still missing all of you!

Cece

[nfpgasmask]

Yeah! Thanks everyone and thanks Tom for leading us through E.H. I had a great time, learned alot and enjoyed meeting everyone!

I should have some video ready soon!

See you next year!

Bart

[Triathlete]

I had sworn off any trail called "Steel Bender", "Metal Masher", "Carnage Carnival", etc.,

Those are the ones I look for! Where is "Carnage Carnival"? Sounds fun! Done did the other 2 and both were a blast.

Glad to see everyone making it back safe. I WILL see you all next year for sure.

[nfpgasmask]

So here are a 2 questions I have in general, about Moab:

1) What is the weather like there in the fall/early winter?

2) Why the heck do we only do this once a year?

We should have another VX meet out there in the fall or something!

Bart

Those are the ones I look for! Where is "Carnage Carnival"? Sounds fun! Done did the other 2 and both were a blast.

Glad to see everyone making it back safe. I WILL see you all next year for sure.

[Triathlete]

There is a gathering there in the fall called Crawloween. Search the web and you will find more info. Most (me included) only have funds and vacation time for one trip. The rest of my vacation is used for races. ZuZoo, however is usually the one all us fellow VXers strive to make...See you next year !

[nfpgasmask]

No, I hear ya, its wishful thinking on my part too. I probably won't have any more vacation time by then either....let alone money!!



Bart

There is a gathering there in the fall called Crawloween. Search the web and you will find more info. Most (me included) only have funds and vacation time for one trip. The rest of my vacation is used for races. ZuZoo, however is usually the one all us fellow VXers strive to make...See you next year !

[Scott Harness]

Ready for next year already! It was a wonderful time. Nice seeing everyone,new faces and old. You people are fantastic!!!! Thanks for being there.

[Kenny]

Well, made it back in one piece, all 1600+ miles. - Renewing the old friendships and making new ones made every mile worth it! (except maybe a few through Nebraska... )

THANK YOU!!!!

I hope to see everyone again next year at "V' Zoo '08" , and more new people.

Cheers all! Time to go to sleep...


Some more pics...

Lunch at Hell's Gate with friends:


Leaving Elephant Hill in style:


Hell's Revenge


Elephant Hill


Fins n Things



________________
More images: http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/sh...y.php?cat=3181


__________________

[Dumke]

That is all I can say. My 1st trip 1st offroad in the vx. Well 2nd because 1st was hotel rock the day before. What a great group of people. Tom Thanks for letting me and my buddy tag along and thanks for showing us somethings along the way. What a super nice helpful family and cant wait till next year.


I will put pictures up on here as soon as get some time away from work. Been buisy trying to catch up on sleep from drive (yeah I know ) and taking care of some other things.

[nfpgasmask]

Thanks to Moncha for adding space to the gallery for us. I just uploaded 23 more photos from our trip to Moab. These are different from the ones I posted previously. So anyway, just to let you know, there are a lot of pics of some of you in there.

I'm still working on the video.

Bart

[Locomigo]

Bart,

Billy answered already, but we do go out there twice a year.
3rd weekend in May (Moab 'Zu Zoo), which is the annual Isuzu gathering, but we welcome all.
And the other time is Crawloween, (first weekend in November) Hotel rates drop to ~$25-30/night. That was originally thought up by a bunch of us that work as staff members during the zoo, and live close enough to make an extended weekend to get out there and play, since a typical year, we can't play as hard in May as we like.

Okay, so now that is out of the way, Im glad to see everyone had a good time. I looked for yall, but it seemed that I missed you guys.
Did the construction snarl your start on EH Tuesday? We hit the Needles outpost ~0900, and the trailhead by 0930.

Since I was staying elsewhere, I cruised up to Archview every evening to see what people's plans were for the next day, and to let them know my contingency plan (which I ended up doing every day).

We had a great time, 8 days, 20 trails, 275 off road miles, unforgettable scenery and a great group to be running with.
My trails list:
Notem
Burr
Upper Muley Twist
Hole in the Rock
Elephant Hill
Hidden Canyon Overlook
Hidden Canyon Escape
Bartlett Overlook
Hidden Canyon
Pickle (walked it, and was going to run it, but a couple others in the group wanted to get back to town, so passed)
Tusher Tunnel
Seven Mile Rim
Wipe Out Hill (not just the obstacle, but the trail)
Behind the Rocks
Gemini Bridges
Bull Canyon
Little Canyon
Gold Bar Rim
Hurrah Pass
Chicken Corners
Jackson Hole

Things we visited:
Capitol Reef N.P.
Lake Powell (w/ferry ride)
Natural Bridges N.M.
Canyonlands N.P.
Arches N.P.
Lefthand Waterfall

Strange occurances and things of note:
Rental Car driven up the entrance to Behind the Rocks and gotten stuck across the trail by teenagers, makes for an interesting obstacle to get by (ever ramp a rental car? ) j/k We left it alone and went around, offered no help to them. (first group went around as it was abandoned, the responsible adults showed up just after we turned onto the trail to go up, and they had multiple people)
Brand new GMC pickup losing a freeze plug in the engine and spewing coolant/water all over the trail, and unable to hold more water. We double strapped (front and back, engine and brakes) to get him off the trail and to civilization. 1-1/4 ton axles and stupid low gearing arent only useful for crawling over rocks.
Elderly couple, backing up into a light pole at McD's, bouncing off and running into a parked 3 axle 5th wheel. Poor guy couldnt find the brake to stop while it occurred or after. Young family with the trailer were unreasonably rude and uncooperative.

Infirmary/Carnage witnessed:
Separated passenger collector exhaust flange on Loco, she sounded like a sprint car at throttle and a bubble machine at idle.
Overheating rigs (Zubicon, Loco, Amanda's XJ, and others)
Binding t-case, unwilling to shift in Dan's Sami
Broken body mount in Loco
Broken upper shock mount (rear) in Loco
Significant body damage (tailgate) on Loco from White Knuckle Hill
Major tranny issues in Loco, not shifting right, slipping out of gear
RamV on its lid on Upchuck
Blown rack and pinion on the Mayor's Rodeo
CV, upper A arm becoming unbolted on the Dakota
ruined motor mounts on the Dakota
bent driveshaft (take your pick of rig)
something happened to Big Swede/Jim P/Gilbert/Uzi, but I dont know the full story
steering issue on Mike's JK
Zubicon caught a flat

All in all, it was an AWESOME trip, pics to follow.
Plan to come in November to Crawloween (temps are 60-70s in the day and 20-40 at night, snow/rain can happen).

[ZEUS]

Loco - What are you wheeling and what's in it? The Pickle is supposed to be one hell of a challenge! Like buggy only stuff! On Behind the Rocks... How did White Knuckle Hill do tailgate damage?! Were you trying to climb it? Your rig sounds all sorts of torn up now though... I'm dying for some pics.

[MZ-N10]

Later that evening we got fooobared to help in the reminiscing of the event. By night's end the story had the VX exploding in flames, with Ldub barely escaping with his life!!! funny stuff, from a not so funny situation.
-biju.

exploding into flames? PICS!!!!!

[Locomigo]

Loco - What are you wheeling and what's in it? The Pickle is supposed to be one hell of a challenge! Like buggy only stuff! On Behind the Rocks... How did White Knuckle Hill do tailgate damage?! Were you trying to climb it? Your rig sounds all sorts of torn up now though... I'm dying for some pics.

99 Amigo, 33s, lifted, locked, steel bumper and sliders. 4.77s front and read with tera lows.
7 years of abuse is taking its toll, and she is getting tired now. 130k miles and I need to tend to some things, but she got me home to Denver yesterday, just a few minor tranny slippage issues. Ive also found that as a family, we are outgrowing it, even though we went places that prohibited dogs, and we decided to leave him home, we had no room for him anyway. Thinking of finding a larger vehicle, and then working through the issues she has.
We fixed the exhaust only to develop a slight leak on the drivers side now.

Pickle is NOTHING of what it used to be, the sand has REALLY filled in most obstacles. 2 of them would have been a good challenge, but I think I could have made it, and the entry/exit has a bypass. Corbin and Aaron ran it 4 or so years ago at night and it was significantly eroded in comparison to its current state.

Tailgate happened on White Knuckle, going down. the spare caught on the knub that sticks out in the center, and peeled the outer skin from the tailgate frame, and twisted the frame itself so the lower right corner was ~2-3" from the body. I minimized that gap to about half later that evening. Its not so bad. I creased the tailgate last time I went down it a couple years ago, and this time it caught the tire fairly solidly instead of the glancing blow of last time. Tia said I should just remove the tailgate and put a net on the back.

I dont care though, its a dedicated trail rig, so I can ut it up on jackstands and work through the issues as time allows. Besides that, chicks dig body damage. 1 of the 8 body mounts (drivers footwell) pulled through the body, I think because I overtightened the bolt. The shock mount was a prior fix that failed due to the lack of penetration on the weld. No worries.

Its not too bad all things considered. And the amount of fun we had vs the carnage more than makes up for anything. SOFA KING much better than last years. (needle bearing failed on the hi-lo shaft of the t-case) That was a faulty install of Tera-lows. Never again will I have a shop do that stuff, I learned to do it myself.

Home now, so working on the pics... hopefully I will have some links later.