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MotorTranscript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - Welcome to day one of Ultimate Adventure.
00:11 (cheering)
00:13 Fred scouted where we're going today,
00:15 so I'm gonna hand it over to Fred.
00:16 He's our trail boss for the day.
00:18 - Hey guys.
00:19 (cheering)
00:21 All right, so we are gonna drive about an hour this morning
00:24 to the trailhead.
00:25 We're gonna go to a town called Trona.
00:27 The trail is tight, rocky, hot.
00:31 Watch out for snakes, watch out for scorpions, bears.
00:36 It's gonna be really hot out there.
00:39 Ready to roll out at 7.30.
00:40 Everybody fueled up, have food, have waters.
00:43 - It's the 2016 Peterson's Four Wheel
00:46 and Off-Road Ultimate Adventure.
00:48 I'm editor-in-chief Christian Hazel,
00:50 and this year we're taking you away
00:52 on some of the most legendary bucket list trails in the USA.
00:56 As usual, participants have no idea where they're heading.
01:00 For day one, we're hitting Isham Canyon Trail.
01:04 It's a hardcore rock crawl trail
01:05 about an hour north of Ridgecrest, California.
01:08 (dramatic music)
01:12 This year, there are 18 rigs on the Ultimate Adventure.
01:26 Of course, we have our sponsors,
01:28 without whom the Ultimate Adventure wouldn't be possible,
01:31 and a motley cast of characters,
01:32 including the Four Wheel and Off-Road staff,
01:35 your favorite cronies, and new and returning readers.
01:38 - Ben Mann from Delano, Minnesota.
01:41 First time reader selected for the 2016 Ultimate Adventure.
01:45 I'm the small tire guy of the group here
01:47 with a 2003 Grand Cherokee on 35,
01:49 so I'm sure the day will be plenty interesting.
01:52 - Hey everybody, I'm Wayne Lambert from Hermosa Beach.
01:54 I'm one of the voted in readers
01:56 for Ultimate Adventure 2016,
01:58 and I'm driving this Chevy K30 you see in the background.
02:01 - I'm Robert Keller, I'm from Delan, Florida,
02:04 and I'm this year's returning reader
02:05 on Ultimate Adventure, and I can't wait.
02:07 - With the tire pressure dropped
02:10 and the thermometer climbing, we make for the trailhead.
02:13 Four Wheel and Off-Road editor at large, Fred Williams,
02:21 led the group up Isham Canyon
02:22 in last year's official UA vehicle,
02:24 the Ultimate Summer Camp Jeep.
02:27 It's a '46 CJ2A with a supercharged 6.2 liter LSA engine
02:31 and 38 inch Falcon Wildpeak MT.
02:34 I'm driving the 2013 UA Super Dirty.
02:39 It's a full-size F250 that's a lot of truck
02:42 for this type trail, but the 38 inch Falcons
02:45 and off-road design Magnum box
02:47 add a major amount of capability and control.
02:49 - Chris Durham and Fred Perry coming up
02:53 on one of the first obstacles on Isham Canyon.
02:56 These guys drove this Jeep out here from South Carolina.
02:58 We're out here in the deserts of California.
03:00 We're gonna work our way up through here
03:01 and keep on trucking, trying to keep cool today.
03:04 - This 2005 TJ Unlimited was piloted
03:07 by father and son team Andrew and Drew Hoyt.
03:10 They're representing Falcon Tires,
03:12 the official tire sponsor of Ultimate Adventure.
03:15 Bubber Rope is the official recovery rope
03:17 of Ultimate Adventure.
03:19 Rich Conlin and Jim Grass made the trip
03:21 on Rich's '08 Wrangler Unlimited.
03:24 We had another father and son team
03:25 for the official transfer case of UA
03:27 with off-road design Stephen and James Watson
03:30 and Stephen's super capable '81 Chevy K30.
03:33 After a few years away, Skyjacker is back in its role
03:39 as official suspension of the Ultimate Adventure.
03:42 Lonnie McCurry Jr. and Diller De La Salle
03:44 took the patriotic '11 Wrangler Unlimited
03:47 through all the hard lines.
03:49 This year, Rugged Radios came aboard
03:50 with the official communications of Ultimate Adventure
03:53 and ended the garbled CB experience once and for all.
03:56 Mike Rizica and Steve Bichard made everything look easy
03:59 in Mike's '97 TJ.
04:01 Longtime sponsor Power Products Unlimited was back
04:07 as the official retailer of the Ultimate Adventure
04:09 and so was Cooper Rasmussen
04:11 and his '75 Cherokee affectionately known as Grandma.
04:15 It just wouldn't be Ultimate Adventure
04:18 without Warren on board as the official winch.
04:21 This year, off-road legends Chris Durham and Fred Perry
04:24 represented Warren in Durham's awesome two-door 2010 JK.
04:29 - Everything's going really good up there
04:37 and everything's really good back there.
04:39 It's right here that we have a couple of problems.
04:41 There's some rocks, but we're getting it figured out.
04:44 A lot of times people get into a place
04:46 where they need to back up a long ways
04:48 and they back up a little ways.
04:50 See, he backed way up and now he's got his tires
04:52 out where he needs to be.
04:54 - Our very own tech editor Vern Simons
04:58 finished his '49 Willys pickup
05:00 literally hours before the start of UA.
05:02 Apparently, this is how Vern breaks in a new trail rig.
05:11 (engine rumbling)
05:14 - Sometimes Jeeps fall down, usually when I'm driving them.
05:22 - Honestly, he turned over, but we were pulling
05:26 the rear plugs to check if there was oil in the cylinder
05:31 and there was, so it was a good thing we checked.
05:33 We lost the motor if we wouldn't have.
05:36 - I'm just happy like none of the glass is broken.
05:39 (engine rumbling)
05:41 - I'm in the 2013 Ultimate Adventure Super Dirty.
05:53 It's a 2013 6.7 liter power stroke
05:57 super duty that we built.
06:00 Took a standard cab, long bed, made it into a short bed.
06:04 It's got a portal axles, the axle detect portals under it,
06:07 off-road design, Magnum box T case,
06:10 which I've got both units in low right now.
06:13 And I'm using the hell out of the lockers.
06:17 This is a pretty good climb we're staring down right now.
06:21 This thing doesn't like to turn so sharply.
06:24 Trent McGee is one of the few people
06:28 who has been on every Ultimate Adventure
06:30 since the first one in 1999.
06:33 He's back in his '97 Wrangler base buggy.
06:36 (engine rumbling)
06:38 - We had a meeting trying to figure out
06:40 how we could put the smoke back in the little motor.
06:43 We finally gave up on that.
06:45 So now we're gonna try and mount fan
06:49 from like three different things with some bailing wire.
06:52 Might even throw a little duct tape into the mix
06:54 'cause America.
06:55 We're gonna make a fan out of duct tape in America.
06:58 - Long time UA crony support staffer,
07:04 Keith Bailey is a wealth of off-road know-how
07:06 and when called upon can help fix any mechanical problem
07:10 or just show you a better line through the trail.
07:12 - So we've got a truck hung up on the rocks.
07:20 We're gonna use this Ultimate Adventure bubble rope
07:23 and a synthetic shackle to go around this rock
07:26 and slide him over and get him out.
07:28 (indistinct chatter)
07:31 Had a lot of help from the off-road design,
07:36 Doubler, the Warren winch, the bubble rope.
07:39 - Just did a pretty gnarly rock trail.
07:45 It was several times harder than anything
07:48 I'd ever done in this truck, that's for sure.
07:50 - Doing pretty good today.
07:51 It's a good obstacle.
07:52 Little tight on the big rigs.
07:56 Fun little obstacle, you get a little off camber,
07:58 it's a little tight there.
08:00 - A lot of big loose rock.
08:03 Makes some good crawling for the day like today.
08:07 - The cronies ensure Ultimate Adventure
08:12 keeps moving no matter what.
08:13 Sam Gillis has been an important member
08:15 of the Ultimate Adventure for years
08:17 and together with his '09 Liberty-based Alabama tube buggy
08:21 has helped countless UA participants
08:23 make it to the end of the trail in one piece.
08:26 This was Dave Chappelle's first year
08:48 as an official UA crony.
08:49 His super cool '73 Hilux is definitely capable,
08:53 but his power steering system
08:54 didn't like the 120 degree temps we encountered.
08:57 (engine revving)
09:00 (engine revving)
09:03 (engine revving)
09:05 (engine revving)
09:11 (engine revving)
09:17 (engine revving)
09:22 (engine revving)
09:29 (engine revving)
09:32 (engine revving)
09:47 - No, turn passenger Lonnie.
09:54 (engine revving)
10:00 - Here's where I'm at.
10:01 Trying to fix the U-joint on the front.
10:07 (metal clanking)
10:10 - It's been a pretty hot, long, hard, tight trail,
10:17 but it's also been a lot of fun.
10:19 It's been challenging.
10:20 Got a few scratches, broke a reverse light.
10:23 But those are all just character marks for the Jeep.
10:27 It just shows you actually get out here and use it,
10:29 and it's not just to look pretty.
10:31 So it's been a great first day.
10:32 - Today was our first off-road day of the 2016 UA,
10:38 and it was awesome.
10:39 We hit a wash, and as we went further,
10:42 it got harder, more difficult.