Broke in the New Jeep

[Ben Ruset]

Some of you may know that I now have a Jeep again. I'm sporting a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland edition. It's doubtful that it has ever been offroad before.

I wanted to see how it would do offroad, so I decided to take a visit out to Nash's Cabin and the Cranberry Bog Pumping Station. I also wanted to play around with my camera and see if I can figure out why every picture I take comes out overexposed.

Here's the Jeep at the pumping station.

Woah, I guess I need new tires.

I'd post pictures of where I was today, but pretty much they all turned out like crap.

I was hanging out at the pumping station, down by the Oswego, when a kayak trip came by. I guess that they didn't realize that sound travels, because I heard every word they said about me. I was wearing a brown striped shirt, and one person said that I looked like Freddy Kruger. Thanks, you vapid bitch.

Anyway, the way to Nash's was tighter than I remembered. I also forgot how wider this Jeep is compared to my old Wrangler. I put some nice scratches down the side:

I then decided to see the puddle at Calico. It was nearly empty, but what was there looked like it had some deep ruts. There is a new go-around that is high and dry, and I decided that I'd take that. I got down to Calico and then decided to press on down Calico-Warren Grove Road, because the go-arounds were pretty tight and hard to navigate with the barge that I'm driving.

Well, that was my mistake. I took Calico-Warren Grove Rd. all the way to the bombing range gate. I guess that road doesn't get used much because I scraped a lot along the way. I took a left at the gate, since I figured it would be the easiest way to get back to civilization. Well, that may be true, but I must have scraped down the trail over well over a mile.

Somehow, I ended up very close to Nash's Cabin -- like, I was more or less coming up on it from the opposite side. I was pretty lost, but fortunately I had my handheld GPS. (The navigation system in the Jeep is all but useless.) The handheld GPS told me where I was, and I was able to find my way out -- back down Nash's Cabin Road.

The net result? Probably over a thousand dollars worth of damage to the paint. The antenna got ripped off.

I got this Jeep with the intention of being able to go out and explore again, but damn if today was just not fun. I guess the worst thing is having a dark colored Jeep. The yellow of my old Rubicon hid the pinstripes well.

 

[mike242424]

yeah thats the one good thing about having a terrible paint job on a vehicle. you can go down trails narrower then your vehicle haha.

 

[Teegate]

Yea .. the light colors are better at hiding the scratches. I took my wife's black car one time in the woods down a tight road, and more scratches show up on her car than mine after 4 years of driving in the pines with it.

Glad you got out today Ben! Sorry to hear about the car. Who needs an antenna when there are iPods anyway


Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

I have the Mopar ipod kit for the Jeep. For some reason it keeps locking up and doing weird things. Like many things on this Jeep, it works, but not 100%.

 

[MarkBNJ]

Don't worry too much about that paint job. Unless you can catch a fingernail in them, and I would be surprised, they'll buff out. You might not ever actually buff them out, but telling yourself they will buff out is a pretty good palliative.

 

[woodjin]

I think a decision between paint jobs and driving through the pines has to made. You can't have both. I've gone through three antennas. I finally decided I didn't like the radio much any way. Don't even get me started on rear view mirrors. I have pretty much cleaned out frienship junk yard of Ford bronco rear view mirrors. They fold in but sometimes that still doesn't cut it.

Jeff

 

[RednekF350]

Can't worry about the paint if you love the woods.
My wife and I are now using her old 98 Jeep Grand Cherokee (white) as our woods truck on occassion.
We had it back to Mannis yesterday and I was very happy with how tight it can turn.
We were going to sell it but we decided to keep it for the woods.
It has 145K on it but that straight 6 should be good for another 100K.
Good luck with yours Ben.

 

[Ben Ruset]

The straight six is God's own engine. That thing will run forever.

I have some newfangled 4.7L "high output" engine. It's good for 20MPG on the highway, which is 5 more than what my Wrangler with the 4.0L I6 ever did, but I sure do miss the bulletproof-ness of that Jeep.

 

[MarkBNJ]

The straight six is God's own engine.

QFT. Some of my best and most reliable vehicles had straight 6's. 1969 Nova. 1964 F150. 1980 Bronco.

I agree with Woodjin on the paint issue. The thing is you can't drive a truck in the woods without scratching it. The other thing is most people who buy trucks never take them anywhere fun. The last thing is you can either scratch it, or be one of those people. Easy choice .

 

[this_is_nascar]

Well, now that you have it all scratched up, stop worrying about it. You now officially have a trail-rig. I miss no longer having a rig that I can take down the less-traveled roads. I'm not about to take the new '07 Tacoma down these roads. I'm in the market for a trail-rig that I can just point at the general direction I was to explore and go.

 

[bobpbx]

I'm in the market for a trail-rig that I can just point at the general direction I was to explore and go.

Like Woodjin said, you gotta choose. I choose to point and go. Here you go Ben, this might make you feel better.

 

[Teegate]

Bob,

I had to go in and capitalize the IMG to see your photo. That is why it shows I edited your post.



Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

Bob,

Yeah, I hear you. It's still pretty hard to deal with. It was great with my Rubicon because you would never see the scratches. I have a feeling I'll be waxing the crap out of this thing.

I don't plan on keeping it forever so I want to keep it looking decent enough for when I trade it in.

 

[james ungehajer]

Nice to see you are out in the pines again Ben, old Martha Road is where i got my first pinstripes of the season to Nash's Cabin.

Jim

 

[RednekF350]

Like Woodjin said, you gotta choose. I choose to point and go. Here you go Ben, this might make you feel better.

I don't know Bob I think I still see paint in that picture.

Nobody and I mean nobody, can rival the woods wear that I have seen on a guy named Jake Meredith's trucks.
He is a fox hunter and lives in Chatsworth.
I don't know him personally but one of my best friends does, whose father is also a fox hunter. My friend told me that Meredith's trucks go right from the showroom to the woods.
Meredith is a hardcore fox hunter and drives a late model Ford truck that is down to bare metal on both sides.
I have seen him a few times around here picking up hounds in the morning that got off the track
The truck is actually shiny metal down the sides and never rusts because he is in the woods so much it doesn't have the chance.

As for my trucks, I try to stay on the wider roads where I can and I keep a good coat of wax on the red truck all the time. The white one doesn't show anything.
The wax on the red one lets a lot of the light brush slide right along and a light touch up with wax and a rough rag usually gets rid of it.

 

[BEHR655]

Bob,

Yeah, I hear you. It's still pretty hard to deal with. It was great with my Rubicon because you would never see the scratches. I have a feeling I'll be waxing the crap out of this thing.

I don't plan on keeping it forever so I want to keep it looking decent enough for when I trade it in.

Just use the damn thing!!! Be proud of them pin stripes. You've had more vehicles since I've known you than I've ever owned in 35 years (not including my kids cars).

Steve

 

[Ben Ruset]

Just use the damn thing!!! Be proud of them pin stripes. You've had more vehicles since I've known you than I've ever owned in 35 years (not including my kids cars).

Steve

Since you've known me:

- 1990 Jeep Cherokee - needed a ton of work, sold for:
- 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9 - 10mpg on premium, traded for:
- 2004 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon - stupidly sold because I was sick of commuting to NYC with a stick shift
- 2000 BMW 740il - piece of crap
- 2005 Acura TL - became my wife's after her car got totaled
- 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland (current)

Out of all of those, only the Wrangler was a dumb mistake to get out of. Although it is pretty baby unfriendly, and wife unfriendly since she couldn't drive it.

 

[bobpbx]

Bob,

Yeah, I hear you. It's still pretty hard to deal with. It was great with my Rubicon because you would never see the scratches. I have a feeling I'll be waxing the crap out of this thing.

I don't plan on keeping it forever so I want to keep it looking decent enough for when I trade it in.

Trade it back in and pocket the change. What the heck.

Here is where I earned my last set of pinstripes. I'm trying to get it all shiny like Scott's buddy from Chatsworth.

The view at the end is scrumptious.

Dessert.

 

[Ben Ruset]

That doesn't look as bad as what I was driving through. You also got nice pictures to take home. I got pictures that were an overexposed mess. I think something is wrong with my camera.

The roads north of Nash's Cabin are pretty tight. The one "road" that I found myself on had no sand -- it was all just pine needles. Nowhere around did I see a tire track.

I've looked on USATopoMaps and Google Maps and can't figure out what happened to me back there. I made a left at the Warren Grove gate (BTW, it no longer says "use of deadly force authorized") and ended up lost. After a while the "No Trespassing" signs of the Lake Oswego Gun Club disappeared, and I ended up back down by Nash's Cabin.

 

[MarkBNJ]

If you have one or two light scratches and have a good arm, or two, then go after them with Meguiar's Scratch-X. It's an ablative scouring compound, which means that the grit breaks down as you rub it, so you can't overdo it. I find that Scratch-X followed by a coat of wax does a nice job. No real foolproof way to get rid of them other than an orbital, compound, and a lot of time.