This might not have been a good idea, but...

...I did it anyway and it kept my CJ5 from rolling over today. I was climbing a hill while my friend watched from below in the safety of his CJ8... I made it about 80% of the way to the top when things started to go wrong. I wound up getting partially sideways when the Jeep began to tilt... BADLY. It was leaning WAAAY over to the left...the driver's side. My side. I felt it begin to totter... Seemed like time was almost standing still. I looked down and saw David staring back up with an "OH SH*T" look on his face. I saw the ground rising up to meet me and realized that this was it. It was going over and I was up high enough that if it went over, it would roll several times before reaching the bottom of the hill. I had my seatbelt on (just a lap belt) and started to lean forward some and grab the steering wheel as hard as I could to keep from getting slammed around when it rolled. This was all happening so slowly. I looked to the left again and the ground was getting closer and closer to me. I was passed the teeter-totter point... closer and closer the ground came to me when I realized that if I stuck my left leg outside of the Jeep (this was the part I said was probably not a good idea...) that I could actually put my foot on the ground... Now from the time I started to slide sideways up until this point had taken about one second probably. I was going over fast. I jammed my left leg out and my ultra-cool Chuck Taylors grabbed for traction in the muddy hill!!! And caught traction, too! I quickly stuck my right leg outside, too! UUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHH..... the Jeep continued its sideways listing, as both of my Chuck Taylors continued to dig deeper...I felt resistance on my waist as the weight of the Jeep was now starting to transfer to the seatbelt...my legs bent....bent more....trembled...and then began to straighten! SWEET!!! I was doing it! I got the Jeep back to the teeter-totter point, but it would go no further. The front passenger tire was WAAY up in the air and the back passenger tire was kinda up on a wall on the side of the hill. It was that back tire being up there that brought me to the teeter-totter point. My friend David ran up and got on top of the front bumper on the passenger side to help keep it upright. I snapped a picture (that I'll post later) and then ran around to hold my precious CJ by the front bumper to keep it from crashing to the bottom of the hill below. David ran back to his CJ8 and repositioned it so that it was at an angle to mine and quickly hooked his winch up to my left rear bumper. The idea was to pull my Jeep sideways in the back to get that back passenger side tire off of the wall so that it would right the Jeep. His Warn 9000 began furiously winding in...until the line was taut...then he slowly bumped the winch with the remote just a hair at a time...My Jeep did exactly what we were hoping it would...the rear passenger tire started to slide down off of the wall thingie...just to the right point...then I let go of the bumper and jumped into the driver's seat! I'd put the parking brake on and left it in first gear during the winch pull because I was afraid he'd get the Jeep righted and then it'd roll backwards down the hill. I put it in reverse and let off the parking brake...hit the starter and it fired up and putted back down the hill in reverse. In perfect control. WOOT WOOT!!!!! Disaster averted!!! Time to put a *REAL* roll bar on my shopping list along with some upgraded seatbelts. I got about 10 pictures of this outing, mostly of my friend's CJ8. I'll post them to my website soon and send out a pointer. WHEW! I'm ready to sit down and have an ice cold beer after that one. :-D

-- Travis

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meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

Reply to
travis
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hi travis, i can think of no vehicle that is worth what you risked. im glad it all worked out for you, but please never do this again.

Reply to
Nathan Collier

On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 22:21:52 GMT, "Nathan Collier" shared the following:

Well... I don't intend to, but I didn't mean to do it today either. :-/

-- Travis

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meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

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travis

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

Reply to
twaldron

On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 14:36:45 -0800, L.W.(ßill) Hughes III shared the following:

What do you mean there is no way you can touch the ground on the downhill side? I have a witness. It happened exactly the way I described it. That Jeep was going, OVER. It was tilting a LOT when I put my feet to the ground, but I did put my feet on the ground while still strapped into my seatbelt. It was scary as hell. I ain't makin' this up.

Sorry, but it's not exaggerating at all... Proof:

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the ruts and how my tires were in them and high center? It's veryobvious that my feet could hit the ground in that picture. Look atthe passenger front fender. That's my friend David holding down thatside to keep the Jeep from rolling over. Hey, you can even see wheremy feet were when I was still strapped in. See the gouges in the dirtnext to the driver's seat? Hell, that picture makes it look like aSunday drive. The angles never show up well on film. When you drivelike I do, there's no need to exaggerate. Werd. To yer mutha. ;-)

-- Travis

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meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

Reply to
travis

Reply to
twaldron

On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 23:00:14 GMT, twaldron shared the following:

ooh! You caught it before I modified it. :-) My nickname used to be "Shaggie."

-- Travis

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meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

Reply to
travis

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

On Sat, 01 Nov 2003 15:18:19 -0800, L.W.(ßill) Hughes III shared the following:

Are you hitting the Vicodin again? Do you not see the guy in the picture holding the Jeep down? That puppy was going OVER until I stopped it. Period. If you wanna be an ass about it and try to be cute, then knock yourself out.

-- Travis

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meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

Reply to
travis

im somewhat lost here travis. i dont understand why you would be winching it down the hill?

Reply to
Nathan Collier

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

Horse Hockey bill,

I've had two different instances at Tellico where people from the crown jumped onto the front of my Jeep in order to keep it from rolling. Once on Slick Rock and once on School Bus. I'm not saying it's the smart thing for them to do, but spectators are ALWAYS wanting in on the action. As an EROCC official that's one of my biggest problems, crowd intervention. Adrenalin does strange things to some people.

Daren

Believe me, people don't hop on Jeep if they think it's going over:

Reply to
D McMorris
*snip*

Forgive my ignorance, but what's the difference between a "real" roll bar and that one? I assume that one is stock and you don't think it would protect as well? What would you replace it with then?

Reply to
Jay Stuler

The one you have might not protect you in a serious rollover.

Take a look at the two ruts you were in. Picture what would happen if the rollbar was to go in one rut and the windshield, the other. That big hump of dirt is going to be paying you a real personal visit.

Here are some links.

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DougW

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twaldron

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L.W.(ßill)

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L.W.(ßill)

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