The end of an era...
 

Still trying to process this. And not sure what we'll do from here. We took my JKUR and BigRed out to the Hot Springs Off-Road Park this past weekend. This was my son Jonathan's second time wheeling on his own. He was so excited to finally go back to Hot Springs and get to wheel for himself in BigRed (which is/was his primary daily driver).

The kids are on Spring Break this week, so this was his Spring Break trip. We drove up Friday, wheeled Saturday and Sunday, and drove home on Monday. Everything had gone really good, then Sunday even we decided to head out for "one last trail" before dinner. Famous last words.

Jonathan wanted to take the lead so I let him go first and I'd follow him around. We started up a trail that went up hill, and he took a bypass that went up and to the left of the main trail, then came back down and to the right a bit, with a bit of off-camber to the passenger side. As he was coming down the other side, a rock under the passenger front tire gave way and it was enough to send Big Red up and over into a full barrel roll.

The passenger side slammed hard on a couple of rocks that caved in the right side A and C-pillars. I think the safari roof rack prevented there from being more damage to the roof itself. The Jeep somehow landed back on all 4 tires, and thankfully other than the body damage nothing broke, and most importantly, no one was hurt.

The engine died and we couldn't (and still can't) get it restarted (no fuel pressure for some reason), but a couple of guys in big Jeeps happened by not long after it happened and help get Big Red winched and strapped to a position where we could use gravity to basically coast and tow it back down the trail to the main road and back to camp so that we could get it loaded onto the trailer.

All the door windows were rolled down, so that probably save them, but the front triangle window and whatever you call that rear window section on the back door on the passenger side were both broken out, along with the driver-side cargo side window when that side of the body took a big rock hit in the roll.

I know it's just a vehicle, but damn... :(

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a3664a6a_h.jpgUntitled by Jason West, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...23a4d6ab_h.jpgUntitled by Jason West, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6e43dfda_h.jpgUntitled by Jason West, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8d09d455_h.jpgUntitled by Jason West, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...99f00464_h.jpgUntitled by Jason West, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2aa5363f_h.jpgUntitled by Jason West, on Flickr

Oh wow, man. Glad nobody was hurt. Big Red definitely did its part to keep things from getting worse.

Damn. That sucks but I'm glad the kid is ok.

Jason, I'm VERY glad to hear your boy is OK.

regarding Big Red, we need to summon vintage bbaXJ...

Damn man. Looks like Big Red will live to see another day in a slightly different form, and more importantly your kid is okay.

Story you both will have for the rest of your lives.

oh man, that much trail time and it's inevitable right? at least chicks dig scars!

glad he's ok.

should be easy enough to fix enough to keep the rain out, if she's mechanically together then game on.

Looks like time for an exo!

So glad to hear nobody was hurt, that had to have been scary.

Regarding your fuel pressure, I had a random issue once where I bottomed out the rear axle and smashed the fuel pump harness plug that is directly above it. Once I replaced the fuse I never had an issue again, but it acted like a completely dead pump until then.

Man, sorry to hear/see that! Looks like it held up remarkably well all things considered though, and certainly did its job to keep your boy safe. I'd say cage it, put in a plexiglass windshield and keep it as a trail rig. If you want to get really nutty with it I can send plenty of ideas....

I'm not sure where you're going with this....is this my cue to come in and say something extremely assholish, or suggest some over the top excessive and time consuming fab work? Could go either way.

Sorry to see this Jason, I happened to stumble back across the forums last week and didn’t expect to see this. I’m glad everyone is okay and it looks like the next stage of big red is in the future. I remember building my 96 after your rig.

The answer we were looking for was


"sh!it'll buff out"

:lol:

:roflmao::roflmao:
I'm disappointed in myself for not thinking of that.

I'm always amazed how well XJs hold up from a tumble. I always expect them to wad up like a Smart Fortwo.

I think it's time to beat it to fit and paint it to match.