Well, my brothers, Chris's girlfriend Allison and I took my jeep, and my explorer to Red Mountain for a test. Well it didn't go as planned. We reached the obstacle course after driving from the bottom of the mountain. Not a true test driving up a dirt road. So when we got to the course, we decided we would start off relatively easy by going up a set of "step ups" made out of large cement blocks buried halfway into the hillside. From a distance they seemed relatively easy. Once we started to get closer and approach the first block, it looked more challenging than previously thought. But I pushed on, climbing up the first two ledge no problem, however when my front tires hit the third ledge, the back tires were hitting the second and I couldn't get enough traction to make it up. After a few attempts at backing up just a few inches to get a little more run and a little more throttle (little more throttle, not full throttle), tragedy struck.

My truss over my rear differential wasn't strong enough and bent severely causing my rear axle to rotate which made my drive shaft bind up and break the straps that hold my U-joints in place. Not only did it break the straps, but it broke the bolts off inside. That pretty much ended the day for my jeep. We removed the rear drive line the rest of the way and parked it. We did manage to pile into the explorer and check out more of the course area and discover some really neat trails that we plan on going up (and down) as soon as the vehicles are ready again. Back to the drawing boards I guess. Soon it will be a very trail worthy rig, just not today.