As some of you might already know, there are rumors, about a roll over of a said Exo-Caged ZJ. Yes it is true.
The reason I haven't posted it until now is I have been in Oregon dealing with my mother's recent death, and have been on the road headed home since.
As it turns out, as I was rolling down the hill at Turtle Ridge on Drummond Island June 2009, my wife was advised that there was a sheriff waiting at the gate entrance and needed to see me. It was a family emergency. How ever I wasn't told about it until after the rig was righted. It seems that my mother had passed away that thursday, and no one could find me until Saturday. I got home Sunday night and was on a plane Monday morning at 4am headed for Oregon. I left Oregon on Monday (June the 29th.) driving my mother's van back.
I have been so pre-occupied the last couple of weeks with her affairs, so I am very sorry that I didn't post sooner. After I saw it on GL, I thought I would bring it over here and share it with you all as well. I have a short break from driving, and I am staying South Dakota waiting for my family to bring a trailer out, see the sites here in SD as a mini vacation to an awful start, and then trailer the van the rest of the way home as towing it get's better mileage than driving it.
PICS & VIDEOS AT THE BOTTOMWith that being said, I would like to first reassure everyone that I believe in "safety first", and so does my wife. I had all of the protection one could have in place during this trip (harnesses, helmets, & custom seats). Now, I rolled the Jeep over hitting all three sides in the process. I was straped in, and so was my son, he was restrained in the rear Twisted Stitch Off-Road narrowed bench seat wearing a 5 point harness and a DOT helmet. (thanks CHOP for tying that rear seat mount into the cage). I was getting into a hill I had already made it up once (With my son. It was fun so we hit it again.), when my rear steer suddenly kicked (which will hopefully be fixed when I get back), and the rig shot to the left just enough to run the front driver's side tire up a 3' tall stump at the top of the hill, and causing me to roll over backwards, hitting the cage down the top driver side, and continuing to roll over the roof, and then resting on the passenger side leaning against some trees that stopped the roll down the hill. I'm thinking it would have landed wheel side up if those 2 trees weren't there, but you never know.
I want to thank everyone who was involved in the rescue of my son. I was out of my harness in less than a second I think. Believe it or not, I was turning off power to things in the Jeep & even shut off the key while I was rolling over. It seemed so slow, and like it was taking forever, but I was calm as could be. Once it stopped and I was out of my harness, I checked on Sebby. He was just hanging sideways. I asked him if he was ok, and he said "it felt like a rollercoaster, can we do it again daddy?", I laughed, and then he said "can you get me out here?". I put my hand under his side, and released his harness, he fell into my arm, and I handed him up out the door to the other wheelers who were there helping to get him out. I guess they were following the Jeep down the hill as I was rolling, and they were on top of it before it even stopped rocking.
After I got out and was able to check on Sebby closer, he was still pumped, and gave me a hand slap and, said "lets go again.". Gotta love kids.
With the help of 3 winches, and some good recovery guys, the Jeep was righted again. Fired it up, blew out the white smoke, and then headed for the gate.
I want to also thank everyone for their support when I found out the bad news. I couldn't have been around a better bunch of wheelers when I found out about my mother. I talked to my wife, and we decided that we couldn't do anything until Monday anyways, so we decided to keep wheeling the rest of the day.
As CHOP said above, I beat the hell out of it on the mini rubicon and a couple other trails for about 2 more hours after that. (with out my son in the rig this time, as I was emotionally upset, and it showed). It kind of felt good to just go and go trying to do anything that was in my way. I had to finally be stopped by a few buddies as it was getting late.
Needless to say, the cage held up extremely well for having that much weight on it. During the roll over a rock did make contact with the top passenger side of the windshield, shattering that side, and another rock contacted the roof on the front passenger side. I did bounce off of a few trees during the continued beating and bent in the cage doors. Those should be easy to remake. To follow are a few pics of the roll. There is video out there, but it has to be edited first.
VIDEO (courtesy of Night Krawler):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqDy3imyuDAPicture of me making it over, before hitting it again (courtesy of Night Krawler):
CHOP heading up to get the winch line:
A view from the belly of the beast:
Photo courtesy of Night Krawler:
Recovery (courtesy of Night Krawler):
The roof:
My son giving me five, asking to do it again:
A shot of the after math headed back on the ferry (there were 3 other tow rigs & trailers in our little convoy heading home, but we were split up at the ferry):
Thanks for looking.
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