Mottino and John Bull -- August 21/22

[abendx]

So... Randy and myself hit the trail pretty late and was only able to get Mottino in on Saturday and made it up to Big Bear to make a quick run of Gold Mountain and find a spot to camp. Sunday we hit John Bull and we were running low on gas, so we decided to call it a day. I was carrying extra fuel, but Randy wasn't... the distance between Johnson Valley (Mottino is very close to JV) and Big Bear is pretty far, so a stop for gas (or carrying extra fuel) before hitting the trails in Big Bear is a must if we do this again.

The trip was a blast. Mottino is a really fun trail, very difficult, and completely relentless. I am not positive of the length of the trail, but I'd guess it is no more than two or three miles long. It took several hours to complete... but maybe an hour could have been saved if I didn't get stuck a couple of times... the strap, some rock stacking, and some bottle jack love got me going without issue. Randy is much smoother than I as he didn't require any help... if you've wheeled with us before, you know Randy takes lines that make mine look like little girl shit... so I suck!

Carnage Report:
1. Cut tranny line (the hard one that can't be fixed on the trail). 13 quarts of ATF later... I made it home and the fix should be easy in my drive way with a flare tool.
2. Crushed corner and taillight... make sure your spotter is looking behind you as well as forward!
3. Rocker damage... I am over the tub mounted sliders and you should be as well. Poly or River Raider here I come!
4. Bent Hydro Ram shaft (watch your TRE boots!).
5. Scratched front bumper. Okay... maybe not carnage according to the rest of us, but this was a pretty big deal for Randy.

I have yet to see Randy's pics and haven't yet put together video.... but here are some stills to get you going.

[u][b]MOTTINO[/b][/u]

[img]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THHCkwPP7TI/AAAAAAAAKcQ/HntWUowytr4/s912/P1000943.JPG[/img]

[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THHCmmEBkBI/AAAAAAAAKdM/TeD_xReKpmg/s912/P1000947.JPG[/img]

[img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THKbohLpTeI/AAAAAAAAKis/88VugSp5tgQ/s912/Capture1.JPG[/img]

[img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THKbpP1zFeI/AAAAAAAAKis/JSZB16O4BK0/s912/Capture2.JPG[/img]

[img]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THKbpitKAyI/AAAAAAAAKis/PrX81NrXYPI/s912/Capture3.JPG[/img]

[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THKbqFKecBI/AAAAAAAAKis/-Ny7Q33In58/s912/Capture4.JPG[/img]

[img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THKbqTbSS_I/AAAAAAAAKi8/HTjAMlrt7PA/s912/Capture5.JPG[/img]

[img]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THKbtjQzX3I/AAAAAAAAKjE/O4IKayJkYYk/s912/Capture6.JPG[/img]

[u][b]JOHN BULL[/b][/u]

[img]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THKbt8KlukI/AAAAAAAAKjM/3nuLNX3Dj2g/s912/Capture7.JPG[/img]

[img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THKbu8_gxVI/AAAAAAAAKjU/KXrZxvgcrrE/s912/Capture8.JPG[/img]

And as Randy had mentioned to me.... Mottino made me it's bitch!

[img]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_anaeIz6nuYk/THHCkh8gcCI/AAAAAAAAKcI/Ii1LwsAEDbk/s912/P1000942.JPG[/img]

[Desert Dog]

I'm glad you found the trail (Mottino), as I heard it can be hard to find. I really want to run that sucker. Ive seen pics of people banging up their jeeps pretty bad on some of the "bonus obstacles". I hear that it is extra wicked after a rain when it gets muddy.

Don't you have full skids now? How did you clip a trans line?

So I guess you are on the look-out for 2-door corners now too

[TheBigDogg]

those look like a lot of fun, when we going?

[abendx]

[quote="desert dog"]I'm glad you found the trail (Mottino), as I heard it can be hard to find. I really want to run that sucker. Ive seen pics of people banging up their jeeps pretty bad on some of the "bonus obstacles". I hear that it is extra wicked after a rain when it gets muddy.

Don't you have full skids now? How did you clip a trans line?

So I guess you are on the look-out for 2-door corners now too [/quote]

The trans line was my fault... I didn't protect the lines well enough after I put on the skid.... skid contatced the trans line and bang.... I was screwed. Luckily it happened as we were coming off the mountain on the hardball. 13 or so quarts of ATF are everywhere on my heep... clean up is going to take years!

Mottino wasn't exactly easy to find... but I have GPS coordinates and we found it... now I know exactly how to get there (hint, hint).

It was a bitch dry.... wet, I can only imagine.... a wet dream if you will! [img]http://rangerland.net/forum/style_emoticons/default/iconsex05.gif[/img]

I took as many of the kindergarten lines I could... and it was fun, fun, fun!

And corners.... yes. I am getting a bit worried about the strength/design of the PSC items... my sliders and rear bumper have pretty much failed me (although the flares are super tough!). I think River Raider is going to get my business. Maybe get a set with welded on flares?

[abendx]

[quote="TheBigDogg"]those look like a lot of fun, when we going?[/quote]

We could add an extra day to my JV trip in November.... it really is very close to JV (10 miles or so).