North Shore Wheelers trip to Moab Utah

 I would like to share with you all the tale of our club’s recent trip to Moab, as it is a testament to what belonging to a club is all about.
 Our story begins actually almost a year ago, when members of our club started planning for this trip.  I should tell you, the North Shore Wheelers are a slightly different band of wheelers in that our rigs are built to wheel hard but stay street-able,  and many of us drive our rigs to and from wheeling destinations.  Yes, that includes the almost 3,000 mile round trip to Moab!  So, with the trip dates set those of us with long time projects started working a little harder to finish up.  As the snow started to fly here on the north shore of Lake Superior, most of us were getting things wrapped up and ready for testing.   I was still neck deep in a full width axle swap on my XJ, and another member by the name of Randy was still working to finish an almost complete bumper-to-bumper rebuild of his CJ-7.  As our departure date began to loom ever closer members came out of the woodwork offering both of us garage space, tools, parts, labor, you name it.  Even members who couldn’t make the trip were helping out.  Soon Randy got everything dialed in with about a month to spare for testing.  I, on the other hand, was still a mile away.  With the help of a lot of people and a couple weekends of hard labor, my XJ was finished with a whole 24 hours to test everything out before the big day.  At this point I questioned my sanity for attempting to drive a very freshly put together rig from the tip of The Big Lake to Utah.  I decided that since we were only  driving 250 miles the first night to my grandparents house in southern MN I’d go for it.  If it didn’t work out I’d just ride shotgun the rest of the trip.  
 Finally the day arrived….in force.  Gale force winds and heavy snow combined to form a near white-out blizzard.  Nearly the entire county was shut down.  Schools, businesses, roadways, all getting closed in the name of safety.  5 of us left Two Harbors in 3 XJ’s, and drove to Duluth to meet Randy in his CJ-7 pulling an expedition trailer.  He fell in with us and we drove to the next town on the highway where we met with the final attendee, Matt, also driving a CJ-7.  As Matt pulled into the gas station to meet up with us, we saw that he was driving very slowly.  As it turned out, he had lost a lot of brake fluid on his way there!  Out came the tool bags as we laid down in the wet cold snow to fix what turned out to be a mis-routed brake hose that had contacted the knuckle and loosened up.  Fixed ‘er up, bled the brakes, and away we went.  
 From there everything went well for a while, until we got within about 40 miles of our first night’s destination.  First Randy’s CJ started to knock and run low on power.  After a quick check over he concluded that the timing had moved.  He got that reset and it started to run ok.  For a while.  When it started to lose power again and he pulled over, we found that the #1 plug  had burnt up.  A spare was installed, and after about 10 miles it was Matt’s turn to lose power and stall.  On the shoulder again, while some of the guys were having a nice conversation with a friendly highway patrolman, we found that the carb was starving for fuel.  Replaced a collapsed hose, and off we went.  My dad and I drove our XJ’s  to my grandparents’ house to stay the night, and the other guys split off to the motel.  As we found out later, the guys in the other XJ ended up towing Matt’s CJ to the motel after it died again, and Randy’s CJ dropped a cylinder.  Again.  It was a wrenchfest in the parking lot in 30 degree temps until well after 10:30 pm.
 At 5 am the following morning my dad and I met them there to continue wrenching .  We fixed Matt’s CJ, but Randy’s proved to be terminally ill with a burnt exhaust valve on #1 cylinder.  He thought his trip was over, but after looking at the remaining rigs we determined that dad’s XJ was reasonably equipped to haul the trailer.  So we departed Minnesota and started the rest of our journey westward, one Jeep short but with no further issues except Matt running out of gas once about 5 miles from a station and dad’s XJ overheating  the tranny in the mountains.
 Two days and a whole bunch of energy drinks later we were in Moab for a week of primitive camping and slick rock wheeling!  Day one started easy with Finns-N-Things, and that was when my XJ started to give me trouble.  After one of the other guys let me cannibalize his rig we found that the ignition coil was failing.  Since I had borrowed the coil from one of the passengers in the other XJ, he bought the new one on the condition that he kept it after we got back.  Sweet.  Day two had us on Poison Spider.  Awesome.  The Jeeps were all running great until I got stupid and dropped off a ledge. Really, really hard.  Came down on the rear bumper so hard it rattled my teeth.  Everything was fine till we got back on the pavement, then any throttle caused it to starve for fuel and die.  Got back to camp and decided to skip the next day’s wheeling to fix the Jeep and kick back that night with some bevvies.  Randy stayed back with me the next day, and we found that the fuel sender sock had come off after hitting the ledge and the pump had started sucking crap off the bottom.  Some creative zip tie work on Randy’s part had that sock secured forever, and we raced up to Metal Masher and met up with the rest of the crew, who decided to wait for us there when they heard we got it fixed.  Again, sweet.  The next day, we got up and ready to roll early to do the Poison  Spider-Golden Spike-Gold Bar Rim combo.  As my rig was warming up, I saw a steady river of gas flowing from my engine compartment.  After shutting down and inspecting, we found two fuel injectors leaking.  I started grumbling about the cost and how I had of course left my other set of injectors (yes I actually have a full set of spares) at home.  Next thing I know, the guys had run into town and come back with two injectors and a box of o-rings.  When I asked how much, they said not to worry about it till we got home.  Man I almost teared up.  Halfway into Poison Spider, my XJ started to run poorly.  Again.  When it finally wouldn’t keep going, we all ganged up on it.  Found out the fuel pump wasn’t pumping.  Pulled out the sender, again, and found the hose off the pump had come loose.  Repaired that, and away we went.  That was the last bit if trouble any of us had until a gas station parking lot in Nebraska claimed the track bar end on my dads rig.  Some quick work from another one of the guys with one of those super phones that has internet found a parts store with the end in stock.  We ran and picked up the part, and after some fast wrench work we made the rest of our return trip.  Randy drove down a week later and picked up his CJ with a trailer.  After tearing it down he found a hole in the exhaust valve and the wrist pin egged out on #1.  
 This trip was my first time driving my own Jeep in Moab, and I could not have  pulled it off without the help of my club.  It was everyone else that made this trip happen, and that really is what being in a club is all about.  We help each other out wherever we can, and because of that we all have a lot of fun.  I put together a rig and drove it from Northeast Minnesota to Moab, wheeled for a week on trails including Hells Revenge and Golden Spike, and drove it home.  There is no way that could have happened without the support I got from my club.  Randy’s CJ gave up long before we got where we were going, which would have ended his very first time in Moab before he ever got there.  But because this club wouldn’t let that happen, he got to see all that Moab has to offer and even used some of the money he saved on gas to rent a nice new JK and got to wheel for a couple days!  I can honestly say that belonging to this club has given me something I couldn’t have achieved on my own.  Anyways, that’s the very abridged version of my story.  The wheeling alone could’ve filled twice this space.  And for the record, Moab Rim is now my new all time favorite trail.  

The proof:
 

waw,blablabla.a lot of word.
Nice picture ~brother