Jefe (my pop) and I enjoyed four days at the hammers, camping on the dunes overlooking the mountains that will always keep us humble.
Two rigs - Jefe's '82 CJ8 and my '73 Commando survived Sledge, Jack, Claw, Outer Limits and up Lower and Upper BackJack with no breakage except for some frame cracks.
We saw nobody on any trails the whole time so we could go as slow or as fast as we wanted.
Neither of us had been on Outer Limits and felt that trail was awesome.
BTW, we noticied JR's Fat City Bronco recent 42" tracks on some crazy lines.
JR, thanks for the welding, tires and wheels.
Some trip pics posted at http://homepage.mac.com/jefe/PhotoAlbum1.html
More Pics to Come...

Matt

gotta love the hammers when a guy can make a statment like this " no breakage except for some frame cracks. " and sound happy about it. :D

Welcome c104, and congratulations on getting through with no breakage except for frame cracks. :D Wish I could have been there.
By the way, did you happen to see a pair of blue, Mechanix gloves blowing around out there? Mine deserted me.

Sounds like a blast... cool family get-together. :cool:

Why'd you leave the pooch home?

Randii

JR,

No Blue Mechanix gloves...but I found some sweet sunglasses at the top of Claw. Thanks to whoever left me some new jeepin' glasses.
I bet you're sorry you missed all the tractoring...

Randii,

Duke was at home protecting his master, but he'll be out at the Rubicon this summer. How 's the Amigo doing?

Matt

I haven't written much this past year as I'm holding down two full time jobs and pretty much working 7 days a week. It's time. Here's a spiel to go with the pics.
"My son Matt suggested that instead of doing our usual Moab Pilgrimage this spring, we spend our Jeeping quality time at the Hammers, also know as the Johnson Valley Recreation Area in the Southern California desert east of Los Angeles. We just completed a 35 spline, D60, Detroit, 4.10 geared rear end for his Jeep C104 and needed a venue that could take advantage of the increased strength. Our rigs were pretty evenly matched and it looked like we would be alone out there.
For those of you who are not in-the-know about the 'Hammers', it's a rock crawler's dream, a locale for jeepers designed and serviced by the Victor Valley Jeep Club. They have made the routes 'just' passable by very well built, and specifically rock crawler style rigs. You need big clearance, very low gears, lockers on both ends, and a drivetrain that can take brutal punishement. The landscape is variously sharp shale and ignious rock, some sand, and a little sandstone. Almost nothing grows there and the whole area is open to wheeled travel, no restrictions.
We arrived on Wednsday afternoon, travelling the 3 miles of sandy road, across the Means dry lake and up a rocky arroyo and around a hill to a sand dune area just a half mile from the start of the Sledgehammer and Jackhammer routes. We had to traverse some of the sand to get to the site and the Cummins quickly dug 4 holes, dragging the D80, which is pretty close to the ground anyway. It was time to unload my CJ8 from the trailer. That being done, and the tire pressure taken down to 10 lbs., the Load range 'E' truck tires were dropped from 80 down to 20 lbs. I was then able to grunt the Dodge with empty trailer over to the camp site. The site was picked because it was on the lee side of windward, in the wind shadow, a savvy choice we found out, as the wind was incessant. Except for the afternoon we left, It blew, 24 hours a day for the whole time we were there. With no tent set up, we decided to sleep in the bed of my pickup with the tailgate up and the lid down, mostly. Except for the wind (which was a lot less in camp than out on the flat) camp was a pleasant place with a good view to the south to Landers.
As soon as we set up camp, we were ready to tackle the first route. I don't use the term 'trail' here, as it conotates something that's passable. Route is a more apt description. We hit the "Sledgehammer", the grandaddy of the the hammers at about 4pm. It gets you right away with some large 'gatekeeper' rocks that make sure you have that very high clearance, super low gears and stout, locked axles. We didn't have much trouble with this one, finishing it in about an hour and a half. (The first time I went through this route, it took us about 4 hours, with breakdowns, lots of jacking and stacking. Bro John, aka JR, gets through in about 15 minutes with the '02 Early Bronco). It did remind me that I haven't been rock crawling for a while and my 'chops' were rusty. After a while I started picking better lines so as not to get high centered. We took the sand hill exit and mushed back to camp before dark and made dinner. It was a good run. We were prepared. Here's a rundown of the rigs:
Jefe's CJ8: '82 CJ-8, SOA (YJ- 7 leaf front springs, CJ- 10 leaf miltary wrap rrs) 4.4L, H.O., MPI (Hesco RV cam, Cloyes timing gears/chains advanced 4 deg., high vol oil pump, adjustable fuel pressure regulator), NP435, D300/4:1, D44, D60, 4.88's, ARB's, 130:1, 36" TSL Swamper Radials, reinforced front frame horns, Currie steering brace, Currie dual sticks, Warn 8274, 24 gal tank with steel skid, D rings all around, CO2 tank, Premier Power welder, lots of recovery equipment.
Matts '73 Jeep Commando, C-104: SOA, 304V8, wide ratio Jeep T-18, Scout D300 with Tera low 4:1 gears, 6 states drive shafts, Scout D44 front axle (4.09) Detroit, outboard of frame, with Waggie outers and Parts Mike spring-over steering arms with H.D. Waggie tie rod and drag link. two steering braces. Rear axle: 35 spline D60, Detroit, 4.10, cut down to Scout width. 36" Swamper TSL radials on 8" alum rims. His final drive in low/low is 104:1, fine with the torque of the V8.
So, pretty evenly matched for the trail. He stopped on the way to the area a bought a complete set of front axle shafts and u-joints, assembled.
The second day we got a bit of a leisurely start which was just fine since we had lots of time. The route-du-jour was to be the Jackhammer. I'd been over this one several times and didn't think it was so hard. This day would prove me wrong. We entered the gauntley of VW sized rocks that you had to get a tire up and on to make the route. There was lots of frame/spring hanger/ axle pig scrapage, but we got into the route with not a lot of trouble, taking time to film the caravan. Then we came upon a very large pair of rocks in the middle of the route. Hmmm? Has the Victor Valley Club been trail hardening again? I don't know, but it looked like quite a few VERY large rocks were rolled down from the hillsides above and strategically placed on the trail. This one of the rare times this trip where a long wheel base was a hinderance. Matt straddled and climbed the pair of rocks with about 4 feet under his trannie. I got out and tried to spot him over. With a quick side slip, he was beached and beached hard. We spent some time jacking using a 4 ton, a 12 ton and a high lift jack. It got worse. The rocks moved into more aggregious positions. More jacking and rock stacking. Finally, I got out the winch cable, snatch block, several D rings, and a couple lengths of tow strap. After triangulating with the snatch block, the huge anchor rock rolled down in the middle of the route. Things were looking bad. We spent some time jacking the 2000 lb rock with the high lift, stressing it to the max, lifting one end to almost verticle and then pushing it over and trying to stay out of its way. A couple hours of this nonesense passed and several of the big rocks were moved into a passable position. Just barely passable. It was ugly. It was the worst I'd ever seen the 'Jackhammer', and I for one was glad when we finally topped the ridge and drove out the bypass to the dunes again. At the end of Jackhammer you have a choice. The other choice is down a parallel canyon known as "Back Jack". Last time I went down this route, a Jeeper broke his front D44 axle u-joint, yes, going downhill. There are lots of sharp turns, not the ideal for a 104" w.b. We would save this for the last day and try coming up "Back Jack", something we'd never tried. Thoroughly humiliated by the "Jack" we stuck our tail between our legs and retreated to camp. At least we had a fine dinner. Every meal we had 'desert grits'. Sand in the food from the wind.
Friday dawned cool and windy, as usual. Unusual was the arrival of fellow Jeeper Steve Griggs in his '69 Suburban about 8am. He said he might come out and ride along with us and he did. I don't have space or time to fully describe his Sub, but try this on: 1000 ft. lb.@1200rpm, Detroit 2 cycle Turbo Diesel engine( 6 cyl with about a 6" bore on the cyls), 18 gears forward, Rockwell t. case from a crane, cement mixer axles (2"shafts) with 42" tires, custom frame, 20K PTO winch, Air bag suspension, body actually made from two '69 subs cut almost in half (the long way)to make the composite 8" wider than stock, 150 gal. fuel tank. He a crazy man.
We hit the trail and headed for Claw hammer. It was a piece of cake with few even slow downs. Our technique was improving day by day again, and we picked good lines to get over some pretty tough stuff. The machinery was taking some major abuse, but nothing had broken down yet. We finished in good time and wanted to do more so we headed out to "Outer Limits", an area that Steve had been to a few weeks prior, but so many breakdowns occurred that the group had to turn back after only a couple hundred yards on the trail. We travelled the 10 miles or so around some hills over sandy desert roads and arrived at the mouth of a dry canyon know as "Outer Limits". This one had a personality all its own, as do all the named trails in the area, but this one had a lot of steep pitches up 10' rocks and waterfalls that made it a great rock crawl. The suspension on our rigs were right at the max, a lot of the time with occasional wheels off the ground, even as flexy as we were. It was a great trail. Fairly long too. We completed the route and still had daylight left and went back to camp. After a good steak diner, and a windy campfire, we retired to the back of the pickup for a long night's rest.
Saturday dawned a little less windy and not so cold. We packed up some of our things after breakfast, and headed out for lower and upper "Back Jack". Up is not the usual way for this route and it proved to be very technical, with much off camber running and so many parts of the rigs dragging, screeching, and thumping over rocks and obstacles. My licence plate, "ROK HUGR" is so scraped up now (it's bolted around the curved part of the steel quarter panel armour) it has become a self fulfilling prophecy. We eventually got back to camp before 2pm and packed up the rest of the stuff for the trip home.
It is difficult to convey the pressure on one's rig running 'the hammers' for 4 days. I had a look under there when I got home and the pigs, axle housings, frame, springs, spring hangers, skid plates, all have fresh white scrape marks on them, with another mm of metal scraped off the bottoms of the pigs. I bent a drag link during the last day and we quickly put on a replacement I had along. The rims just got chewed. I was very impressed with the way the Swamper TSL Radials held up. Not a flat. They took tremendous abuse, folding all the way to the rim on sharp rocks, over and over again.
The story does not end here, however. After loading up the Jeep on the trailer and starting down the rocky dirt road to the dry lake, one of the trailer tires had a blowout. Hmm? A spare for everything but the trailer. We find that the torsion bar suspended trailer works with one wheel removed, at least at low speed on dirt, and drive on to the pavement. We air up the single side tire 20 lbs. over max. Steve takes the blown tire down the road to try to get a replacement at 4:30pm on a Sat. I start down State route 247 toward Victor Ville at 45mph, Matt following in his C104 keeping an eye out on the overloaded tire. After about 10 miles he radios me that he smells burnt rubber and I pull over just as the single tire is descinigrating in a smokey pyre. So now we have 2 wheel trailer, both on one side. Matt takes the 2nd wheel/tire and mushes on to find out where Steve is getting a replacement. Via cell phone they find someone who will install a couple used tires of the same size, if not as strong as stock. As the sun is setting we are finally underway again and stop for dinner before heading home. I've never done so much hard core at one pop. It was great.
I've been on previous trips to this area, and with larger groups or 4-6 rigs and someone is always breaking down, breaking axles, breaking spring hangers, u-joints, spinning driveshafts, rolling, etc. We did have some breaks. Both Matt and I cracked our frames. His in 3 places, and mine on the pass side of the steering brace. Steve is a certified welder and he used my Premier Power welder and patched Matt's frame up enough to continue, but he's going to have to put full length plates over the front 5 feet of his frame horns to secure things.
regards, as always, jefe

Matt,

Sounds like you guys had a really rugged time! Glad to hear you didn't let those annoying frame cracks slow you down.

And BTW the only thing worse than being beached is being beached hard!

See you soon...

"Auntie" Marilyn

More Pics Posted...

http://homepage.mac.com/jefe/PhotoAlbum2.html

More Pics Posted...

http://homepage.mac.com/jefe/PhotoAlbum2.html

Duke was at home protecting his master, but he'll be out at the Rubicon this summer.
Hope to bump into you up there.

How 's the Amigo doing?
Still down in the throes of the world's slowest 302 motor swap. :rolleyes:

Great report, Jefe -- and great pics, Matt. Gives me a much-needed fix, as I've been on far too few trails of late.

Randii

That trip sounds like a blast! I would love to get my c104 out there with you guys next time.

Hey Rockhound,

I live in the East Bay, maybe we can take over the sierras with the two commandos sometime.
We will definitely scare the women and children away with our ugly rigs.
As noted, my frame needs to be stripped down so I can re-box it all the way back to the first body mount. Have you done that?

c104

Yeah, I had to do it. When I bought the thing I didnt know the frame was nearly broke in half! I ended up reboxing from the front
to about middle on the frame . About 5.5 feet or so. I used 1/8 inch plate on the sides and 3/16 on the top and bottom . I am
almost happy the frame was broke when I bought it because I
would have never have don these mods. I still have the timplate
that I used to make the frame plates. If you want to use it you are more than welcome. Has your steering box braket broke yet?

Jefe, Steve is a neighbor of mine and you are correct. That Suburban is about the most awesome piece of engineering and craftsmanship I have ever seen. You could spend two whole days just poking around under there and never see the same weld twice.

The 4 wheel drive conversion looks to be just as awesome.

nice jeepster. after seeing a few of those built, it kinda makes me want one.:D

c104, What springs are you running?

Rockhog,

I'm running the original springs with a second full length leafs which help support the eyes. I have added more leaves from old cj spring packs. They are quite flexy but not soft.

Also, I have changed my steering bracket on the Commando after cracking it on the Rubicon a couple years ago. I added a second steering brace for less movement.
Are you running after-market springs?

Matt

I am running a MORE shackle reversal in the front with YJ springs.
They are 4" procomps with SOA. With the proper shackle angle and heavy axles/tire combo the front end flex's like mad. In the
rear , I am running the factory main and second spring with added
YJ leafs and small cast iron block. I plan on getting a hold of some
Dakota springs when I kill these cause they are the exact same
offest center pin and overall lenght.

man alive, i am afraid of the hammers now. it sounds like a lot of wheelin fun. my buddy has a commando we are going to start on. that thing has lot of problems and hes considering making his own frame for it. any thoughts or suggestions for that? what years did commandos come with that font grill cause my my friends is different. nice and detailed report jefe makes me wanna go wheeling.

Rockhog,

Thanks for the tip on the Dakota spring swap. I did not know that.
I think the spring rate will be pretty hefty though. I would have to pull some leaves.
I also did my own shackle reversal. It was trial and error...my first try had a bad death wobble problem.

You got any pics of the commando? I want to see dual 60's under that thing.

Matt

Nice write up Jefe. Haven't seen one of yours in quite a while. Looks like you guys had a blast out there.

Bud:smokin:

Good to hear from you, your budness. What big upgrades have you done to Pokey lately?
regards, as always, jefe

did ya guys happen to see a red front fender to from my sammy up there blowing in the wind?;)

Search Rockhog , My buddy jslater on the board posted some pics . Its in general discussion.

Just a lot of small stuff Jefe. Been laid up with an oporation for a while. I did get my ham lisence while sitting here doing nothing though. Just about ready to go out and get Pokey all dirty once again. Good the hear from you.

Bud
;)

Jefe, Great write-up and pictures! I got those tires on my 4Runner, thanks again. It is nice to have new rubber.

Mike

Here you go Rockhog.

http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/1deca4ba/bc/My+Photos/__hr_Dsc00010.jpg?BCUKe08A1bW3d9qe

jefe, you write a great article! I wish I had that talent instead of just the good looks:rolleyes:
Thanks for picking up the new tires. The BFG ATs ought to work great on the trailer.

--bro John