I think it was the 2nd Jam i went to, didn't know a lot of people, wasn't in the club yet, and I was one of maybe 3 ZJ's there.
The other two were full stock drivers...I had 32's on a spacer lift. Nice perfectly straight black ZJ limited, leather, loaded. It was a damn nice Jeep then, and nobody was wheelin a ZJ. It still almost had that "upscale" reputation. I was proud of that truck.
I was fairly confident in my driving and wanted to run with the bigger trucks, especially to see Darren Rose's with the big D44 in the back on 36" Swampers and the hot 360, and Leigh's tough lookin old blue CJ7.
I was going on THAT trail. ( i guess by this point I had been pegged as being able handle myself, they let me come on the hard trail
)
Well there was a hill climb on that trail that the guys with lockers (whoa, lockers were crazy!) were having a hard time getting up. It was an undercut and then a hill...they were having a hard time on the undercut, and one guy even had to winch!
man, what was i going to do? I don't have lockers. I don't have swampers......man, i'll gonna hold all these big rigs up. I don't know any of these guys....yeah, a little nervous.
I thought I had one chance to make it up this big hill, and when it was my turn, I waited a bit and was really nervous. Waited for the rigs to get to the top because I wasn't going to make it if I DID manage to get over the undercut at the bottom of the climb, but then had to stop on the hill. This was a one shot deal....
Since I was not to learn about the advantages of wheelbase until about 3 minutes later, I floored that ZJ and jumped up that undercut bank and went flying thru the zig-zag trees uphill, I couldn't freaking believe I was making it this far!!!!!
I kept in the throttle hard because to let off I thought would mean sure failure, I kept into the pedal as I smoked a tree and tore off the whole front bumper, the headlight, the signal lights, the fender peeeeled back from the passenger's corner but I kept right into 'er, no way was I giving up now, I was almost up.
YEAHHH!!!!!! I ROCKED that hill!!!!! I thought maybe I bumped the stock plastic bumper a bit, it just clips back on......I knew I hit something a little......
I got out and everyone was "holy crappin and yellin and hi5in' and I was super stoked and having a ball........until I got to the front and saw that I absolutely decimated the front of my beautiful black ZJ.
OMG it was all over the place....bumper over there......headlight hanging out by wires.....fender folded back 90deg, its was smashed BAD!!!!
But man, I FLEW up that hill, where those CJ's were dancing and hopping all over the place, how in the hell?
So then we had a big laugh and the others started their climbs and I started at the ZJ with zipties and the hammer and some ratchet straps. I beat the perfectly painted bent in half fender back in place with a big hammer, and put the bumper cover thing up on the roof like a big dumb trophy.
Finished out the trail and she was able to limp home fine, it was all cosmetic, but it was looking REALLY bad. The truck had been mint, now it looked like madmax, even the grill was cracked in half and looked like a droopy lip and one eye.
Everyone was waving and cheering at the convoy coming back for supper to the Farm, I was about 1/2 pack and mostly hidden by the big rigs on 35's and 36's. When I turned the corner, everyone got kinda quiet, and stopped waving and were talking quietly and saying stuff like "omg" and "is he upset" "his truck is toast" "who is that guy, his rig is demolished" "you guys took him on the hard trail?"
Nobody really knew me but I think it was Andre just started laughing his head off at me 'cause he met me a few times before and had an indication of what I was like so I jumped out and smashed it with the hammer again. ;D
That got a pretty good laugh from the tent and broke the ice for me with a lot of people who are my good buddies now.
Moral 1- listen to your trailguides!!! Choose your trail accordingly.
Moral 2- WHEELBASE BABY!!!!
That's one of my favorite Jam memories. Testimonial i guess, but you don't have to beat your rig!