Review of Off Road Day Kamp at OK4WD in Stewartsville, NJ and Rock Krawl '98 in Hazelton, PA
Saturday, May 16th, Off Road Day Kamp
The weekend started off with the Off Road Day Kamp on Saturday, May 16th at 10am at OK 4WD in Stewartsville, NJ. It promised to be sunny but hot, with temps 85-90. First was the show and shine event, where you were supposed to vote for the cleanest vehicle with what you felt had the most trail capability. The truck that won was a International Scout. What a joke that was. It was set up for trail work, but it was rusted and beat up. He won because his club voted for him. Next there was a competition where they measured your ground clearance, inclanation and departure angles, and your RTI. I handily beat the other two Toyota Extra Cab PU's that competed in the event. :) They measured my RTI at 399.18 (man, feels like I have more travel than that), front approach angle at 40, rear approach angle at 27, and ground clearance at 10.25.
During this event a Toyota Land Cruiser went too far up the ramp and ended up flipping over. The driver was ok though and only minimal damage was done.
The next event and definately the most interesting was the 100 ft. long Rock Pile challenge. Although many trucks participated in this event, many of them had a difficult time getting through it. (The blue Toyota, Ram, and Grand Cherokee were not part of that group)
Some had to be winched or pulled off at least once, or some of the drivers just plain beat the hell out of their trucks to get through to the end. The guy in the Wrangler had to be pulled off twice at the same spot by two different Broncos. The really sad part is he had a winch and a snorkel, he'll never get to use them with that lowrider Jeep.
And of course there was a guy in the crowd who kept yelling stuff like "yeeaahhhh!!!", and "give it the juice!!!", and "smoke that clutch!!!" He was absolutely hilarious. The most impressive display of beating I saw all day was definately from a guy driving a white Toyota Extra Cab PU like mine but with 31" tires. He was smashing the underside of the truck against the rocks, smokin the tires on the rocks, and once I saw him balancing his truck on his catalytic converter. But he did make it through with no mechanical failure.
Then there was a Dodge Ram Extra Cab Dually with full length running boards that thought he could make it through. The crowd couldn't believe what he was about to do (or not do.) He couldn't even get over the 2 foot rock ledge at the beginning of the course before he sat the truck on its running boards crunching them up. When he was being pulled off by another Ram with 35's, as his front was coming back down the rock ledge, he hit his front liscense plate on the rock and it broke off sending it flying through the air a few feet. It was absolutely hilarious. I saw him the next day at the Rock Krawl with the running boards removed.
The day ended with a barbeque and then those of us going on the Rock Krawl the next day headed for Hazelton, PA.