Belizean’s after retirement excursions - took 40 years after buying my Jeep CJ7 off the truck.

[Belizean]

The details are blurry and getting a little more blurry as the days and weeks start to pass. Luckily it’s that part of the trip. The actual fun of it, people and trails are etched a lot more into my mind. My own little movie in my mind.

 

[Belizean]

Third day was Hells Revenge. Luckily there was no revenge dealt to me personally, but it was out there.

 

[Belizean]

A few pictures. As always these trails are steeper than they look. Also my Jeep stalled out just before this, but no problem in the attempt....

 

[Belizean]

Couple more.

 

[Belizean]

On this little jaunt I rode with Gert. Mine might have made it, but I wasn’t betting the ranch and ending my whole trip on a 2 minute stupid or poor choice. I was here for fun, scenery and fun trails. When I came along on hard objects and there were go arounds I went around. Except 2 times when I didn’t go around. First time I got winched up. Second time I dropped off a small cliff not stopping in time. I got lucky on that one.

 

[Belizean]

A couple of pictures of Going down a trail to get to the Hells Revenge approach. A lot steeper than it looks.

 

[Belizean]

In hindsight my timing was great. I had the ride of my life riding shotgun with Gert who had done it before. After we went back to my Jeep and within a minute or two my Jeep died and didn’t respond to many attempts to get going again. This was the 2nd lowest point of the trip I believe from my standpoint. Couple pictures of the fun coming up next.

 

[Belizean]

So off and on I had been having different symptoms and problems. Hard to even wrap our heads around it all. All intermittent also. This time it was the fuel pump not even coming on. Sometimes the Sniper would not prime at start. Other times the pump would not come on but could get triggered by jumping the relay. This time we were in an area that would have been very difficult to use a strap for towing it out of there. I was having visions of a helicopter with a strap underneath picking it up and hauling it out. Or Matt’s towing service coming to get me. All I saw was money flying out of my wallet

 

[Belizean]

I was lucky. Vaughn and Gert jumped out and grab a hold of the bull by the horns. Sure if I had been at home I could have started working on this and got my floor jack out and lowered the tank, but no, I was out in the sand and felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Which actually we were. It was like I had my own pit crew, which I did. These guys were great. Can’t say enough how much help they were and made this trip possible for an old man and his Jeep.

 

[Belizean]

Them jumping in. Even they were a little baffled by the problems I was having. Going from running great for 18 months after a major overhaul of the Jeep.

 

[Belizean]

It was beginning to look like we were running out of options. Like the pump was dead. Gert even pulled a wire harness out of his Jeep for some off-road lights and hooked it directly from the battery to pump to test it. Nothing. They were suspecting aground problem but just not sure. Then I think it was Vaughn who suggested trying reversing polarity on the pump. It worked. Then reversed it again in the correct direction. It worked. They put it all back together and installed the tank and we turned the key on. Same thing. Nothing. Pump not coming on. Grrrrrr. So back to the drawing board as they say. They took the wire harness and pulled the plug on the pump electrical system and hooked up the system directly to the battery. With the light switch for the lights hand held switch in my hand the pump fired up and so did the engine. BACK IN BUSINESS. !!!!

 

[gert]

Nothing like dropping a gas tank full of gas in the hot Utah sun and sand


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[Belizean]

Thursday was Poison Spider.

 

[Belizean]

This was the day Vaughn would be welding 2 of the newer Jeeps. You could tell he was not really enthusiastic about it. We were just getting to the trail and it was a little warm already and several groups of Jeeps were jumping ahead of our group.

 

[Belizean]

A little latter in the morning we actually passed one of those groups of newer Jeeps. One of them had dropped down on a rock and the radiator had taken a puke. I guess they were wondering what to do next. I knew the felling. Couple pictures of the area.

 

[Belizean]

It was Thursday and the weather was changing. Rain in the area and cooling off. We stopped for lunch and I found the perfect place for lunch. I put the tailgate into the wind and set up my chair in front of the radiator. Nice warm spot with all the heat coming out from there and blocking maybe a cool 20 mph breeze.

 

[Manic Mechanic]

Wow. Can't wait for the rest of the story. And to finally know what you're problem is/was

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[Belizean]

I don’t have a picture, but it was on this same trail that I had been following someone, but they had gotten ahead out of site. I didn’t know but I had missed a go around side trail. Next thing I know I drop off about a 4 ft wall it seemed like at the time. Pow ! A very jarring fall. So here I am, half way down and no where else to go but drop the axx end also. Pow ! The back end is down. Of course the Jeep stalls with that impact. Hell i’m wondering if I have a bent frame after that drop off. No the only problem is the fan shroud, moved just a hair and back where it needed to be with a slight wack of a back hand. I guess my Jeep is a lot tougher than I thought.

 

[Belizean]

The next day was Friday. Kane Creek Trail. Gert had said this was his favorite trail. Well we decided to stay back that day. There was some weather expected and we also wanted to work a little on the Jeeps. So we spent some time on mine first. Gert and Vaughn were checking mine for a ground issue back by the tank and also checking all the grounds on the Jeep. They also added another ground into the existing ground. We were done with mine by 9am. Gert had some little issues also but we were done shortly.. After that Gert and I along with Vaughn and his family went into town and went to the Moab history museum and then a dinosaur exhibit outside of town. A good rest from non-stop Jeeping, sleeping and repeating for days. A little recharge.

 

[Manic Mechanic]

I always tell people when wheeling it's not the hard pows that you need to worry about but the soft thuds. They're typically something critical like oil pans and fuel tanks etc

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