Camp Jeep 2007
Camp Jeep is basically a big huge get together for Jeep owners of all types. It's mostly Wranglers but I saw some Liberties, a few Cherokees, and like one Grand Cherokee (so I kept trying to imagine my mother-in-law there with hers and no offense at all cause she's a wonderful lady but this was so not for her and it was an amusing thought). There were contests, stuff to buy, things to do, concerts/shows (Tim McGraw, The B52's, Tony Hawk & Shaun White), and trail rides.
Ah, the trail rides...
Okay so this is how they work. They were named A through Q, A being the toughest and you had to have a seriously modded out Jeep and risk the chance of roll-overs and serious breakage and Q was like a bumpy ride through the woods. Guess which I was on? Duh, Q!
First I should say a few words about the Jeep. It's Greg's Jeep (a stock, no upgrades, 2003 Saraha Wrangler), not our Jeep. I was rather surprised when he said I could do the Saturday trail ride, I figured I was just along to keep track of the kids and cook dinner. The Jeep is also his commute vehicle to work every day so as I drove off Saturday afternoon with the girls, he said "Don't break the Jeep." And since I never do anything I'm told (ha!), I broke the Jeep.
What a sway bar connector is suppose to look like:
What I did:
See how the connector is no longer connected? Oops.
All the trail guides said it's a really common break on stock Jeeps and it wasn't my fault (I was going over a bumpy dry creek bed and the Jeep was flexing like it was suppose to and the piece just "popped" out) and it was just dumb luck it broke on my trail ride and it could have easily happened to Greg the day before on the same trail. And in the end, it's all Greg's fault cause he should have installed "quick disconnect" connectors before off roading. So there. (hehehe)
The Jeep is still drivable, the sway bar is an additional balancing thing (okay it's way more technical than that but I'll spare you mostly because it didn't make much sense to me). And the "quick disconnects" upgrades? Are meant to be disconnected (or popped out like what I accidentally did to the factory one). So while it's drivable, it can be a bit "squirrely" (their term) on tight curves. Honestly I didn't notice a difference at all as I drove back from the trail ride.
I say I was just helping Greg get to a few of his upgrades a little quicker. Besides how cool is it to say I broke the Jeep on a Camp Jeep trail ride? We'll just leave out the part about the wussy trail and the common break. hehe
More pictures and the full story of the rest of Camp Jeep in a bit, I'll put it under the Pictures section soon!
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