'Until Helldorado Freezes Over'

Off-Road.com Covers the 2001 Moab Easter Jeep Safari

Apr. 17, 2001 By Fidel Gonzales

The Camo Crawl

Dallas Stump's camo-clad rig required some help from the winch cable when the rocks slicked-up from the falling snow.

MOAB, Utah -- "You're in driveline city right there," said spotter Craig Stump. "I know," barked his son Dallas as he hunched over the steering wheel of his camo-painted military truck. Him and his dad went in together on the 1-ton when he turned 14. A few years later, he's on Upper Helldorado with beads of sweat streaming down his face as they quickly disipate into vapor. It's cold. Hail stones pound upon the hood, pinging in harmony as the big 350 CID grinds off another layer of metal on the Jeep-sized boulder. The drive shaft spun like a lathe, polishing the metal of an otherwise black layer of paint. "Let's rock!" he yells to a few buddies who are throwing stones beneath the worn-out, 33-inch mud terrains. "Build me a road!" "Let's go," Craig shouted. "A little to the right. Easy. . . Easy." "I know," fired-off Dallas as he eased into the throttle, looking just beyond the boulder where his hopes laid. Clutch. Brake. Gas. More gas. Clutch and brake. And finally squeezing enough gas through the venturis to ease the Dana 44 front-end over the top, forcing the smoking tires mounted on Dana 60 to the crest the Jeep-sized boulder. Smack! The front end dove into the canyon floor. The mounstrous rig was through the rough.

The Jeep That Time Almost Forgot

Although TJs have become the all-popular trail toys of this year's Safari, Creigton King's '83 CJ-7 made it look easy with his spring over axle suspension and a smooth foot.

A School Boy's CJ

"Creigton King, as in Elvis. And that's my wife Tonya sitting shotgun." The ARB-shad Dana 44 front and Detroit-shad Currie 8.8 rear crawled over the boulder smoother the a snail. The line was near flawless as he traversed the snow-scathed boulder. The frozen crowd emerged into an uproar. "I'm a college student with a 3.8 GPA." Creigton boasted. "But, this is what it's all about." "OK. It's time for the ghetto Jeep!"

Ghetto Jeep - The Epic Delay

"What the hell are those?" I said as the tan YJ slowly trolled through the canyon's bed. "Those there are Ghetto Shackles. I made'em myself. Stock shacles mated to a set of Con Ferrs," driver Bradden Kemp instructed. "They work." "Here he comes." Snap! "What the hell was that," yelled a guy clinging to the canyon wall. "It sounded like trouble to me. You better turn that thing around while you still have a chance," referring to the under-sized 33-inch mudders beneath the Jeep's wheel wells. "Uhhhhh. He snapped a spring," yelled back Craig Stump.

Trail Duty

An on-board welder is of little use without a man who knows what he's doing. In the wet rocks and falling snow, it was Craig Stump who stepped up to the snapped spring of this rig and did his duty.

Check Out the Photo Gallery Click Here

"That's not good," said a spectator. "Yea, responded another. "And it ain't getting any better for'em neither. His wife will be here tomorrow and she'll be expecting a to Jeep Moab." "Well, the Ghetto Rig ain't going nowhere right now until he gets that spring fixed. Grab a come along and a strap -- anything. We'll get'er working," said another. "What kind of spring is it?" "What does it matter," replied Bradden. "It's a Pro Comp. Somebody call for a BFH?" "I don't know," said a group of spectators. "When do you thing you'll get this think off the trail?" "When Helldorado freezes over! And don't you think it's cold enough now?"

Trail Fab 101 - "What the hell do we do now"

"Lesson learned: You need yourself a set of double-wrapped military springs. You'd be somewhere up the trail and off of this rock." After two-plus hours and a traffic snarl that snaked down toward the beginning of the trail, Avalanche Engineering's Clifton Slay fired-up the on-board welder and Craig Stump zapped a rough bead, fusing the rig's leaf spring well enough to safely winch the road block off the trail.

Baja Claw

"This is a competition-only tire with a gooey compound that clings to the trail," said Mickey Thompson's Jason Molton on the "new and improved" Baja Claw. The gummy 16-inch wide 38-incher floats on the trail like a gummy-bubble. The compound is soft enough to use as a sponge for cleaning up slew of rotten trail obstacles. "This is a prototype, and we're not sure if we're going to DOT it or not. But it grabs." Later on down the trail, Bill Johnston's Sniper was resting on it's rim without a spare. The Baja Claw slid off the rim and a crowd had gathered. "So much for the test tire!" said Bill. "Mickey Thompson will like this one. The guy said that they're not for highway use. and that they'll only last 1000 miles on the highway. We didn't have a set of bead locks so the guy convinced us to take them when he said they had a reinforced lip. Bla. Bla. Bla." After a lengthy technical discussion on the new tire's trail prowess, a spectator chimed in to the tire's defense: "But they look really good for the rocks. It's just you aired them down too low." "They're gummy and hook up really well. I mean, the rubber is like a pencil eraser. We were up on the Dump Bump last night and we walked right up it. No problem." Spotter Scott Julian was satisfied with the rigs performance, but. . . "We came out here to raise some hell. And right now, it's looking like that's exactly what we've done."

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