Nails on a blackboard!

Nails on a blackboard pretty much describes what I was listening to most of the day yesterday. I took “Mercedes” out for her first trail ride since she joined the family. While we found an occasional clay road improved by loggers, most of the trails we were on were soft sand and not quite as wide as the jeep. The branches and palmetto fronds were constantly scraping the sides of the jeep, and there was the occasional loud thump as the CB antenna was pulled back by a branch and released against the jeep top.

I was riding with the Orlando Jeep Club in the Ocala National Forest. This part of the forest runs along the Saint Johns River and is quite dense.

The highlight of the trip was a short, but steep, sand hill. The sand was very soft and the jeeps were sunk up to their axels as they tried to negotiate the climb. Mercedes is a Rubicon model and has the ability to “lock”, or drive, all four tires directly without the spin normally allowed a tire that loses traction. This feature makes it impossible to drive on pavement, but on loose uneven terrain it is sometimes the only way you can get enough traction to move. I put the jeep in four-wheel-low gearing, engaged the lockers and charged up the hill. There was a lot of slipping and sliding, and the back seat now resembles a cat's litter box, but Mercedes made it up just fine. Not everyone did.

Believe me it looked worse in person.

Two jeeps faltered and needed help. Due to the soft sand it was hard to get enough traction on the pulling jeep. In one case two jeeps at the top were connected end to end by a tow strap, then to stuck jeep by a second strap. They worked their way up like a train. In the other case all but that last jeep were parked at the top of the hill. There was not enough room at the top to connect two pulling jeeps with the 20’ strap. The jeep that was connected to the stuck vehicle was still in soft sand and could not get a grip. We hooked his winch cable to a parked jeep and used the winch to pull the stuck jeep, and the jeep with the winch, forward in 10' increments until the stuck jeep was able to move under its own power. Pretty cool.

Now to clean Mercedes up, Saturday is the annual club car show.

Add caption