2006-10-14 – Operation Desert Fun IV
This weekend, there was a big event planned/organized by Cal4Wheel called Operation Desert Fun. It was the fourth year, and again held in Ocotillo Wells. It was a charity event that supported Cal-Diego Paralyzed Veterans Association. We went out and stayed with our friends the Peji’s again since they’re out there almost every weekend now! We got there a day early to play around.
On the way down, our Jeep died! Some sort of electrical problem. The symptoms were that of my ADE system being disabled. Battery fine, cranks fine, but no fuel pressure. I figured that the ADE system was at fault. Tiffany gets out the big maglite to start flagging cars around, since we were pulled over in twisty mountain roads, and I started ripping apart the dash. A few people stopped to see if everything was OK. Good thing, as I didn’t have electrical connectors or crimpers, but one of the people did! I ripped out the ADE relay, and spliced the wire as if I never touched it, and still nothing!!! Time to freak out! People were asking if I wanted a tow called, but I refused because I knew it would have probably been around $500. I used a test light to see if there was any voltage on the wire (I knew from the ADE install and some reading that I should have +12V on that wire when the ignition was on). Since that wire did not have the ignition controlled +12V I just spliced a constant +12V source from my aux fuse block to the wire as a constant, so I could start it up, and got us to Ocotillo! Thanks to the people that stopped, and helped! This week I’ll solder the connectors and everything up to get it all back to normal! I need to do some other wiring soon too (noise suppressor for the CB, and a wired FM modulator for my MP3 player on long trips).
We signed up for the “Family Run” on Saturday morning that will promise some harder spots. I was still unsure of how many “hard” things I wanted to try, but this run offered the option of bypasses, where as the in-between run had NO bypasses, which scared us out of it. We would have missed out on a spectacular (bad) crash had we gone on another run, and would have tried the Jeep harder. Next time!
The first section was just some washes getting to the first hill to play on. The first hill had an easy way, and a hard way. We took the easy way, as did (almost) everybody.
After that, we watched as a few people took the “hard way”.
Us along with crowd that watched the people climb the hard route.
This way proved to be more than hard for an old FJ Land Cruiser (Toyota, NOT a Jeep).
The driver lost control backing down. We’re not sure if it was mechanical failure (he was barreling down backwards) or driver error, but after backing down a small section slowly, he started backing down VERY quickly and then turned to the right (where you see the guy picking up the stuff that fell out). It then proceeded to roll 3 or 4 times, ejecting the driver. The driver was wearing a seat belt, but only a lap-belt, and around his stomach, not his hips. This caused him to be thrown out. It was DAMN scary, as we all thought we were going to see the FJ land on him and kill him. Instead, he was thrown to the right, while the last roll of the FJ went to the left. Lucky man! From the amateur assessments of the MA in training, and others around, we suspected a concussion, broken bone in between his eyes, collarbone, ribs, and maybe a collapsed lung. Pretty amazing if you saw the roll. I’ve seen a lot of rolls on video clips, and this was definitely one of the most violent rolls I’ve seen. I’m still not sure if it’s because I saw it in person, or because it was really that bad. From the sounds of others (there, and ones who just saw video) it was pretty bad.
Before the Fire Department arrived, the man was conscience, knew his name, the date, etc. We checked his pulse if he could feel his toes and move them. Everything fine, just lots of pain as you could imagine! The two other passengers were absolutely fine. They stayed strapped in, and the cage did it’s job. There was also a dog that jumped out on the first roll. Within 2 seconds of the vehicle stopping, there were 10 to 15 people around to help. Since it didn’t land on him, and landed upright, we didn’t need to turn the vehicle. A couple people unhooked the batteries, made sure no fuel was leaking, etc. Tiffany grabbed their dog, and held on to it for a while, and I went and grabbed a water for the man.
He was lifelighted out to (conflicting stories here) either Palomar Hospital, or Palm Springs. Reports are saying he’s going to be OK, which is amazing! He should play the lottery with luck like that!
The rest of the group that kept going made our way to Devil’s Slide. The Jeep made it up that with ease!
From there we went to Shell Reef again. A spot that has a lot of fun stuff to play around in for Jeeps, trucks, bikes and quads!
After playing around in Shell Reef, we broke off to go get food and drop off PJ and Sarah. Tiffany and I came back to do the “fun run” which left about 30-40 minutes late because they were trying to find the couple of other people that had signed up. We had 1 Jeep (us), a 2wd Tacoma with volunteers, a guy on a quad, and a couple in a Yamaha off-road golf-cart thingie led by the run leader who was in a 4wd diesel double cab, long bed… longest truck ever!!! The “fun run” was kind-of cheezy, but we had fun none the less. The bad part was that it was VERY windy, and the little “fun” stops were pretty hard, and mostly dumb luck after the wind got a hold of the golf ball/softball/football/etc.
While out on the “fun run” we saw this gem. Some idiot rolled this crappy truck! The thing we can’t figure out is what kind of idiot gets a truck like this in any kind of situation where it could roll. It’s just a road truck! If they want to do some off-roading, get a Jeep, FJ, etc.
Here’s my poser video! This is a small (easy) section of the fun stuff we were playing around in behind Shell Reef.
At the main camp and vendor area, there was another adventure trailer. I love these things! They’re perfect for Tiffany and I since we love camping, and can’t pull a heck of a lot with the Jeep. I have a feeling, one of these is in Tiffany and my future!
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