U4WDA Winter Convention in Moab
February 3, 2007

U4WDA Winter Convention in Moab - February 3, 2007
Report by Steve Jackson

U4WDA held their annual Winter Convention in Moab again this year, and a good sized group from UOOC made the trip. Due to a permitting limit imposed by the BLM, UOOC volunteered to lead an "unofficial" run (of course, since we're the "unofficial club"!). The unofficial run alleviated some of the strain on the official runs being organized on behalf of U4WDA by Moab Friends-For-Wheeling.

We picked Poison Spider Mesa as our unofficial trail, and took 12 total rigs on the run including some members of Mountain Yoats 4x4. We had a mix of vehicles including jeeps, toyotas, a montero, a rover, an 80 series landcruiser, a ford/toyota/gm combo-mobile, and of course we had a few Scouts.

Early on, we suffered a loss when Blake's front end broke while attempting one of the first obstacles. We helped him remove the broken spider gears and front driveshaft so he could drive the jeep home, and then loaded him and his wife up with "Trail-Boss" Tom as passengers for the rest of the day.

The rest of the trail was relatively uneventful until we heard "the red Scout just rolled over" coming over the radio. When I got to the scene of the rollover, Eric was already out and appearing good natured about the entire event. Luckily, no one was injured, and the Scout actually survived the rollover very well.

Joe and Justin used their winches to put the Scout's wheels back on the ground, and we assessed the damage. Besides some minor body damage at each corner, the only real problem was a gaping hole in the radiator caused by the cooling fan. We quickly got the Scout running again, and Eric baja'd the rest of the trail so he could make it back to the road before overheating the engine. Once on the pavement, we drove back to the house and picked up Eric's truck and trailer and returned to get the wounded Scout.

The next day, Eric and Justin convinced "Trail-Boss" Tom and I to join them in Justin's rover on Pritchett Canyon. The plan was to be slow and safe, and to use the winch whenever we were unable to make it up an obstacle. Reluctantly, I agreed and we made it to the trailhead at about 10:00 AM after checking out of the rental house, gassing up, and getting breakfast.

To Eric and Justin's credit, the plan went almost exactly as they described it. "Trail-Boss" Tom took the winch on one spot, and I took the winch on two of the more difficult obstacles. We stuck to the main trail, avoided the optional obstacles, and used the bypass only on the last obstacle, "Yellow Hill." We spent the day being slow and cautious, and this resulted in very minor damage overall (Tom broke a sway bar, and I broke a u-joint u-bolt on the front shaft that was fixed in a matter of minutes).

We hit the highway at 5:00 PM, and raced back to town to load up the trucks, get some dinner, and start the drive home.

View the full photo album for the February get-together here.