Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator

North Carolina List of Carolinian off-roaders

Damn, I must have left right as you got there. I left right after they got the line out. This is me, if you see me out there, just holler at me.
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Dang we didn’t pass you on the back side. They must have sat there and thought it thru for a while before we arrived lol. I’ll keep my eye out. This is mine incase also

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Hey guys,

Just wondering if anyone has plans for Uwharrie this year? Im getting close to needing to do a shakedown run. Maybe get my badge of honor done as well. This would be my first time out there with my own rig. Have been there before and completed Daniel. Just lookin to see what this Jeep is capable of and see what I like and dislike about what Ive done so far. Also have a little fun and maybe camp a night.
 
Hey guys,

Just wondering if anyone has plans for Uwharrie this year? Im getting close to needing to do a shakedown run. Maybe get my badge of honor done as well. This would be my first time out there with my own rig. Have been there before and completed Daniel. Just lookin to see what this Jeep is capable of and see what I like and dislike about what Ive done so far. Also have a little fun and maybe camp a night.
I’m thinking about wheeling next week or weekend. What kinda rig are you running?
 
Any NC folks looking for an LJ? Decided to grab my son a truck. The Jeep has been fun, but time to move on. He is a dirt biker and really doesn't do "Jeep things".

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Finally made a trip out to Uwharrie on Saturday. This was my first real offroad experience with the LJ other than Fort Fisher and random dirt roads and fire breaks on Fort Bragg.

We got our permit at the outpost, aired down, and made our way down FSR 576 to Deep Water trail and had a picnic lunch on the rivers edge. We circled back and took Wolfden to Lakeview

Somewhere along the way we had this picture taken. A couple about our age was driving by in a SBS and offered to take the picture. The lady got out, took the picture, asked us our names, said her name was “Turbo,” hopped back in the SBS, said “raise hail, praise dale” and sped off. We saw them later stopping and picking up trash other folks had left. She mentioned that they’re out there almost every day.

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We made it down to the Art Lilley lot and took 516 back to 576. We turned down Cotton Place, drove just past the entrance to Daniel and turned around. I saw a couple of JKUs and either a 4Runner or a Taco with a hardtop turn on Daniel and figured I’d follow them to the first obstacle and watch them cross it, then turn around a leave. They all stopped at the first obstacle (where you can go up either the steep ruts or the steep drops), dismounted and walked off, never to be seen again, by me anyway.

I then found as much space as I could and turned around. The spot was only 2-3 feet wider than the jeep is long with a drop on one side and a wall on the other, so it was tight. I put it in 4-low (had been driving in either 2H or 4H until then) to see if I could get a little further backing up the wall/incline when I was turning around, but I could only get reverse to work a couple of times in 4L. That was weird. I put it back in 4H and everything was fine and we finished turning around. I put it back into 4L to drive out as 4H almost didn’t cut it coming in and everything was fine, including me testing reverse when we got back to the trailhead. I have a Savvy cable shifter and maybe I need to tune it a little since it seems it was popping out of 4L when I was reversing hard.
We made our way back to the Hunt camp, aired up and headed home, stopping at a little farmers market / concrete pottery store in Biscoe.

We had a good time even though I scared the wife a bit on the short bit of Daniel we drove on. It also helped me appreciate what I’ve done to the LJ and the benefits they have (clearance especially – the tummy tuck was nice). I still have a 5.13 regear with lockers and chromoly axle shafts that have been in the garage for almost a year that I would have appreciated; hope to install them in the next 6 weeks. I don’t think I would have even bothered trying 4L if the 5.13s and lockers were installed. I think a lower ratio and locking the rear would have helped when I was turning around. The parts of the trails I did in the conditions I did them in were fine in 4H and the FSRs, of course, in 2H.

Speaking of conditions. It was awesome. High 70s. Light rain in the morning that kept the trails dust free until late afternoon but did not create any slick spots. I look forward to going again.
 
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Finally made a trip out to Uwharrie on Saturday.

We were there for an hour or so. Actually, I think I seen you ride by when I was airing down. Did you ride any trails, or just stick to the roads? We didn't stay long due to the crowd. We rode up the backside of Daniel and just kept running into trail-plugs for one reason or another, on the rocks and at the top, so we headed back down toward the Loop and made it maybe 1/4 mile before we ran into the backside of a large group that we had passed on our way up Daniel. It seems to have taken them about an hour to move 1/2 mile, so I got frustrated and headed home.
 
Did you ride any trails, or just stick to the roads?
We did Wolf Den and part of Falls Dam, I think - whatever part comes out near Art Lilley Campground. I used Onx Offroad as my nav app and I'm not 100% sure they name all the trails right. Onx called it "Lake View" but I think it is called "Falls Dam" on the paper map.

We also did the first part of the bottom of Daniel - up to the first big obstacle where I encountered the three parked vehicles that I had hoped to watch attempt the obstacle.

Onx was a little annoying to use, I may have to try Gaia. I like how Onx can cast to my head unit on Android Auto, but if you have it open on Android auto and on the phone at the same time it acts weird. It was slow and buggy at times too, even though I downloaded the whole area as an offline maps so spotty internet should not have made a difference. I think Gaia can can to Android Auto as well.
 
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We also did the first part of the bottom of Daniel - up to the first big obstacle where I encountered the three parked vehicles that I had hoped to watch attempt the obstacle.

When I went up and when I came back down there were 5 parked at the base of the rocks, a CJ7 and a chopped Cherokee that were off the trail and out of the way, and 3 right at the base of the rocks in everybody's way. When I went up they were doing something with the Cherokee at the base, but when I came back down they were just standing around plugging up the trail with no effort to move. There was also about 10 vehicles trying to get around them at that time. It got a bit chaotic for a few minutes, I just had to park on a rock and watch.

Right after that I caught the back side of what I knew was a group of no less than 15. They had made it about 1/2 mile into the loop during that hour I was on Daniel. 🤦‍♂️

Do you expect to go back before season close?
 
Do you expect to go back before season close?
Probably not with non-stop holidays and kids home from college for most of the next 5 weeks. I am going to try and go more next year. Wife and I were talking about getting a cabin, doing some hikes, hitting the OHV trails, and going to the zoo... maybe take the boat as well since I can tow it easily with the LJ. Might try the cabins without the boat first and see how safe I'd feel leaving the boat there all day on the days we wouldn't use the boat.
 
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Those nice days are great especially when the dust is at a minimum, but it does attract more people and clogs the trail system. I’ve only been twice this year, and the hard part of Daniel has completely changed from last year.
 
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Those nice days are great especially when the dust is at a minimum, but it does attract more people and clogs the trail system. I’ve only been twice this year, and the hard part of Daniel has completely changed from last year.

Man that was a fun day doing the front side lol. Just enough slick to make it challenging.
 
That sucks. Did that happen on the face or on the trail up? Any story with it?

That is the gap after the ledge, so he made it that far lol. He was blocking the trail so we took a bypass that led us straight to the switch back on Daniel and decided to investigate and help out if needed. He barely had any tools and no idea what was on his jeep. A group of XJ’s showed up and had some spare parts for him to get off the trail

I ended up seeing him at the outpost waiting for aaa to tire him home. He was Def thankful for the help.
 
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Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator