Jerry Bransford's Geezer Jeep Site    |   home                                                    Sledgehammer 2007 We begin!  February 10th 2007 was the start of another Rookie run through Sledgehammer in Johnson Valley, California. Airing down to 7.5 psi without beadlock wheels is always an invitation to losing a bead when the going gets tough but the benefits of low tire pressures on 5+ rated rock crawling trails outweigh the risk. This year we even had a well-prepared Grand Cherokee make it through relatively unscathed! This is a very cool photo that gives an idea what the canyon is like from near the bottom. While we climb a small ledge, my son Allen keeps a sharp eye on the sharp rocks known to slice open a tire or two...                  or three or four. My first run up Sledgehammer cost a badly sliced sidewall.  Before I got it to hold air again, it required somewhere between 30 and 40 tire plugs.  At one point, the tire plugs congealed together and it was Double-Bubble time as a huge bubble formed in the goo while airing up the tire. Sometimes you think the spring is going to fall out with some of the flexier Jeep suspensions.   Though there are better suspensions for trails like Sledgehammer, my Rubicon Express 4.5" long-arm suspension works very well.  Yes the bottoms of those long control arms take a lot of paint to touch up all the scrapes after a trail like this. Look below the front bumper where you'll see power steering fluid being puked out of the busted Tommy Lee steering box.  This is not the kind of thing you expect or want to have happen when offroad.  After all, who carries a spare steering box? It so happens our well-prepared group actually had a  freshly rebuilt spare Tommy Lee steering box!  WIll wonders never cease,  I expected a difficult extraction after this usually unrepairable bad-news catastrophe. With much help from some very good people for which I am very thankful, I was able to replace it mid-trail.   Just as I got the old steering box out, the fresh steering box was retrieved from camp and delivered to me. Bleeding the power steering system of all the air takes only a few minutes and we're on our way again. It turns out the old steering box didn't  fail from anything that happened on the trail that day.  Tommy Lee looked at it and pronounced its demise was from old damage I hadn't noticed while installing it. If you buy used gear, especially something as critical as a steering box,  look at it closely for any sign of damage before installing it. On our way again, the power steering is working fine though its still squealing a bit from the repair.  By the time we're back to camp though, it is finished bleeding, quiet again, and steering is even better than before with the fresh steering box. What a great wheeling trip with a great bunch of people which is what Jeeping is all about.