2019 NJ Jeep Invasion Photo Gallery

Here are some of the pictures I captured and the Jeeps that really appealed to me. I prefer the older CJs and Scramblers but also like to see what's new for the JL and how others have outfitted theirs...

Oldies but goodies...

Vendor Rigs...

And here are just some other interesting rigs...

Obstacle Course!

The Journey is what counts, Adventure Awaits!

2019 NJ Jeep Invasion - In the bag!

With another Father's Day Weekend (Happy Father's Day!) coming to a close, we just returned home from another trip to the NJ Jeep Invasion in Wildwood NJ. This has to be (IMO) one of the best beaches in NJ and possibly most of the Mid-Atlantic states. It is a huge beach and is very wide. It can easily hold close over 2500 Jeeps, all the vendors and their huge rigs along with an obstacle course, all the spectators and still have plenty of room for swimmers!

The event collects non-perishable food for the local food bank in exchange for a raffle ticket per item. The Vendors donate some pretty cool gifts/prizes and you get to stand around watching other people win cool stuff. This is what happens when you stupidly put both halves of your raffle tickets in the bins, sure you double your odds of having one of your tickets picked but you have no idea that it happened nor any proof it was your ticket so they just move on...

I have not seen any official number but I know they at least hit 2500 Jeeps on the beach. I would really expect that the number was higher judging by the crowds. All in all, the city and event organizers do a pretty great job all weekend with really only one snag and that getting on the beach in the mornings. It took almost 2.5 hours to enter the beach. I think they need to open multiple entrances and have separate lines for those who already checked in on Friday and those that are registering for the first time. Other than this, it was a great time.

I am not sure how many manufacturers were on site but here are the ones that I spent the most time with/talking to:

• Metalcloak - they had their CTI machine onsite and I scored a 710! (more on this later)
• Teraflex - Denis was present with Slimer and quite a bit of new JL products
• Rockslide Engineering - they had one Jeep there with their bumpers, fenders and steps. Never saw anyone at the booth to talk to
• Artec Industires - Had their Jeep onsite and some JL parts to view
• ARB - Had their JL with their new rear bumper but still no sign of the Bondi bumper I want!
• AEV - Had their JL present, one of the ones from SEMA with their prototype bumpers. My wife and I really like the new rear fender. It perfectly lines up with the JL fenders and compliments them very nicely. I thin kI will wait until October (rumored release date) and pick one up.
• Rugged Ridge - always have a big pressence at the show and sell items for charity so I have to give them respect. They also had their JL present with some really cool tube doors ($$$) and their prototype bumpers. They had a pretty nice setup.
• Motobilt - First time I have seen them at the show and they had a great booth with a few Jeeps and their parts racks. Looks like really nice builds.
• Skyjacker - Had a pretty good sale on their lower control arms and two of their JLs present
• Bestop - Was on site with their aluminum half doors and JL top. Still waiting for them to release the TrekTop Pro in Tan for the JL!
• many more I did not spend as much time visiting with the exception of the Beef Jerky guy!

The vendor list was also equally as long but I only hit a few that I am most familiar with:

• Globex Performance - always great to see the guys at the show and they had a big display of their Jeeps including their new Gladiator and a literal ton of 40" tires!
• OK4WD had a huge booth with several of their vendors present and a couple of their Overlanding rigs. I love seeing how they outfit them.
• Quadratec - They had their buggy on display and a table setup with their catalogs but did not here about any Geocans hidden around the place like they have done in the past.

Lastly, the obstacle course was built once again by Raush Creek and it is always a fun time driving on it. I must admit that this was my first time driving it with my JL Rubicon and it was much different than driving it with my old JK. Still really amazed how much of an improvement the JL is over the JK!

Here's a view of the Metalcloak Corner Travel Index in action:

I have never done this before and it was a cool experience, I scored a 710 which seems to be about average but I have no idea how stock vs. upgraded affects the numbers nor do I know what real effect my "mixed" build looks like. To give you a comparison, from the Metalcloak literature:

• Metalcloak - 905
• Synergy - 780
• Rock Krawler - 750
• BDS - 735
• Teraflex - 685
• Rubicon Express - 660
• AEV - 640
• Stock JK 540

So based on my Rock Krawler/Teraflex mixed lift, my 710 score seems to be pretty on point. I also only have a 2/5 inch lift with stock control arms so I am not sure what the lifts looked like that produced the numbers above. I plan on doing some more research into the numbers but it was fun to see how my JL stacked up.

I will follow up with a couple galleries in the next posts so you can see some of what it is like in Wildwood.

The Journey is what counts, Adventure Awaits!

Jeepers Helping Jeepers

Over the years I have witnessed varying acts of kindness handed out within the Jeep community in many forms. From something as simple as helping a buddy with an install to figuring out some wiring, all the way up to lending a vehicle or providing missing parts. This just breeds good karma and is always welcome to see in our world these days.

On my recent Coal Mountain Spring Jeep Jamboree, I had the chance to see this play out in several ways when my friend lost his upper control arm mount while we were deep into the trials. This was not a minor issue and resulted in the end of his driving day. To make it worse,we were in a section of the trail that was about halfway, very tight and with no "easy" way out.

What happened next was really cool. A trail guide was actually the first one to notice the carnage and pointed it out. My friend made his way up to the top of the hill where the ground was semi-flat. Within a few minutes of hopping out of his Jeep, he was surrounded by other drivers ready to help. After several people assessed the situation and a trail fix could not be completed, two trail riders from Vermont slid under his Jeep and began to ratchet strap his broken mount back into place. They worked on the Jeep while laying on boulders without any issues. I along with other drivers provided all of our ratchet straps to aid in the "band aide". A driver who was quite a bit back from us, walked up and after noticing the extend of the damage offered to trailer home his Jeep so he would not need to worry about what to do with it.

There were several good humored shouts to burn it in place or push it back down the hill but all in all, everyone was very supportive and compassionate about the situation. It is very scary to see your Jeep broken down so far from a trail and home while not knowing how you can fix it.

Once the trail repair was in place and seemed to be holding, we still had to finish the obstacle and make our way out to a safe exit point. I led the way with my Jeep in case he needed a pull, but the trail guides and other drivers picked out the best possible track for him to proceed on doing as little damage as possible to his Jeep. Nick, from Jeep Jamboree, walked the entire obstacle along side my friend helping him with wheel placement and keeping a close eye on the ratchet straps.

Once we were able to clear the Blue trails, we set off on our own down the Green trails and waited at the crossroads for the head of AOAA to help us out the rest of the way. They guided us along the Green trails for an hour and a half until we were back at the parking lot.

The repair held the entire time and even when he loaded the Jeep onto the trailer for it's journey home. At the dinner that night, my friend also walked away with a "Major Award"!

We were able to finish out the weekend without too much stress knowing that his Jeep had a safe way home. He became my co-pilot for day two (and photographer) for the remainder of the trip. This was a great experience and I hope to join another Jeep Jamboree in the near future, maybe up in Vermont this time!

The Journey is what counts, Adventure Awaits!

2019 Coal Mountain Spring Jeep Jamboree Videos

Here are some video that I was able to capture before my camera battery died...

Please enjoy:

2019 Coal Mountain Spring Jeep Jamboree - Coal Crackers Trail Ride

Puddle Road Part 1

Puddle Road Part 2

Underground Coal Fire

The Journey is what counts, Adventure Awaits!

2019 Coal Mountain Jeep Jamboree

WOW!

That about sums up my weekend and experience on my first Jeep Jamboree. I had an amazing time, met some really great people who share my love for all things Jeep, and learned quite a bit about what a Jeep Rubicon can do. I did not stray from the Green and Blue trails as I am not willing to break my daily driver but I would have loved to have seen what a black trail looks like up close... maybe something for the future...

So I want to give you an overview of what a Jeep Jamboree is all about in case you have not had a chance to experience one for yourself. Think, "People, Places, and Jeeps", that about sums it up. We arrived at the Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area (AOAA) on Thursday evening and got in line to have our Jeeps inspected. This was a very quick process where they make sure your Jeep is up to spec (more specifically, not beyond the allowable specs) and what your experience level is. I was given a trail rating of 6-7 based on my Jeep and my answers. From here, you go and drop off your waivers (one for the AOAA and the other for Jeep Jamboree) and then get your registration badge and pick the trails you want to ride over the next two days. This was my first Jeep Jamboree and while I have been off-roading for many years, I was not really sure what the grading meant but I knew I was not ready for any Black trails.

At three separate desks, they had the lead trail guides with maps and descriptions of what the trails were like and what was required on each Jeep to participate. We picked the Ho-Bud Green trail with guide Penny and then moved onto the Blue table to check out their offerings. My friend who came along with me and brought his TJ does not have lockers so that limited our trail choices on the Blues to one ride, Coal Cracker. After "peaking" at the Black trail table but skipping any conversations we head over to where the vendors are and checked out their wares.

Three of the big Jeep Jamboree vendors were preset that evening in the parking lot with their rigs...

• Rancho Suspensions had two JLs onsite
• Besttop had their Gecko Green JK
• Teraflex had there JK onsite

I spent some time shopping at the Jeep Jamboree table and I picked up a nice shirt for my wife and a vest for me. The rest of the time we walked around looking at the various Jeeps and talking to the sponsors and attendees. Great group of people out sharing a similar interest.

Day 1:

Friday was the first of our two trail days and because of some jockeying on our part, we would up on the Blue trail first instead of the Green trail. Coal Cracker lived up to it's name and gave me my first real experience with anything other than a Green trail. According to the Jeep Jamboree guide Nick, we hit about a 7 rating during that trip. I can really appreciate what that means now. We began with a drivers meeting and then headed right out. Relatively early on we began to hit rocks and when I say "hit rocks" I mean it in the literal way... We went from relatively flat terrain and some water crossings to boulder fields and very tight trails (for a 4 door JL). It became apparent at ounce that Great White the Jeep might be in for a bashing over the course of the day. I am very pleased to share that all dents were limited to the bottom of my Jeep and not readily visible to my wife ;)! Along the trail I witnessed many Jeeps getting stuck, banged about in the trees and coming down pretty hard on some

rocks. I was Extremely motivated to "Tread Lightly" throughout the day. At no time was speed a consideration. SLOW and SLOWER were my words for the day along with "S*&t, what was that?" and some "%$!K - I hope that buffs out!". In all seriousness, my skills as a driver were important But the work that the Trail Guides and Spotters put in throughout the day along with the capabilities of the Jeep JL Rubicon are what got me through. It is amazing to see what the Jeep can do when I am behind the wheel and guided by awesome people. Really impressive as a team effort!  My friend wound up breaking his upper control arm mount on the drivers side on one of the obstacles that put a damper on our day but it something we can fix and drink a beer while reminiscing about our adventure.

Day 2:

Saturday we did things a bit backwards and moved onto the Green Trails this time, Ho-Bud was the name and water and scenery were the game! Peggy was our Trail Guide and she did a pretty awesome job of not only taking us around the West side of the property finding as many water holes for us to play in as we wanted, but also gave us a great history of the area and how the coal was mined over the years. Green trails are much more like Over-landing trips that take you across an area and provide a specific destination. We toured the property and saw working coal mining, an underground coal fires and the famed Whaleback formation. It was no where nearly as arduous the previous day and that was kind of perfect. We had some technical sections where you needed to weave between tress and some small rock gardens to play in but mostly got some great history and scenic views of beautiful lakes and mountains of coal. We also did quite a bit of picture taking along the way.

When I first signed up for this Jeep Jamboree, I thought the price was quite high, The AOAA site is close enough to me that I can go myself for a weekend and skip the cost to participate in the Jamboree. I purposely wanted to join the Jamboree to see what the experience is all about. It really does not disappoint! The meals were decent for breakfast, very good for lunch and great for dinner, the organization was really well handled and the Trail Guides were the Best! They alone make it completely worth the price. It's one thing to drive around the property on your own but a completely different experience when you are with a group. I completed obstacles that I would have driven around or backed up and avoided all together if I were just out with my friends. This experience gave me a whole new appreciation for Jeep Jamboree and the vendors that support them.

Gallery:

I will provide some videos in my next posting so you can see some of the trails "live"...

The Journey is what counts, Adventure Awaits!