,
Our first stop to watch the hoonage was in the Off-Road Playground area behind Phone Booth Hill (so named for a phone booth some possibly intoxicated gentleman dragged up to the top, or Bill and Ted’s Journey ended here- one of the two). Unfortunately, we were a little early in the day, and snow in the passes kept attendance low this year, so we didn’t get to watch someone attempt hill climbs like this in their near stock vehicle…
…or maybe not. Not being one to let people down, I decided to give the group something to watch: a near stock-appearing XJ attempting one of the harder obstacles there.
Looks aren’t everything, however, and I’ve spent my hard-earned money in the right places. Equipped with locking differentials front and rear, minimal lift (and much fender trimming) to keep its CoG south of tippy, beadlock wheels (to allow for inflation pressures in the 8-15psi range) wrapped in 33×12.50 General X3s and more attention paid to suspension geometry than bling, this little XJ has taken me through nearly all of Southern California’s hardest trails. Not giving a single, er, fudgecicle about scratches helps too.
A couple of revolutions of wheel spin and a little bump, and we’re up and over. Someone in the crowd exclaimed “he made it!” A look towards my kids in the backseat revealed a nonplussed son looking out the window and a sleeping daughter. My kids’ sense of what a vehicle can do are completely skewed.
Our next stop was through the tight mud canyons of Truckhaven to the front side of Phone Booth Hill.
