gasiorv
I'm a new world samurai, and a redneck nonetheless
Original poster
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Adventure Offroad Park (AOP) - Mar 28-29, 2025
My Birthday Weekend!
Great trip to AOP
Beeker in his Toyota based buggy
Crow in his Samurai
TJ in his TJ on 37s
Jeff in his LJ on 40s
Me in my TJ on 38s
For those that are unfamiliar with AOP. AOP is a great park that people either love or hate, there really is no in between. It is hard, especially if/when it's wet and it is wet most of the time. We actually had relatively dry conditions, and even though it threatened to rain all day Saturday the rain held off and granted us with some dry rocks. A relatively dry AOP with good friends and with my wife riding shotgun was a true blessing and a memory that I am happy to have and to share.
Arrived Friday night around 8:30pm. Beeker and myself were on the trail by 9:30pm, TJ rode shotgun with me and Crow decided to try and get some sleep and didn’t head out with us. We hit Trail 22 which is not even 200 ft from the onsite cabin we rented and it was on right from the get go. Within view of the house, I not only got denied, but I vapor locked the fuel injector from heat and we even had to winch Beeker. The trail is not even 200 ft long and we could see the house still, Haha! From there we headed up to Area 51 and played around in some rock gardens. Again, I was denied on a few of the rock gardens, Beeker made them look easy (funny thing is, next day in the daylight I got redemption and Beeker struggled). After A51 we headed out to George Winters Trail and Beeker broke his rear ring gear on the big obstacle. After we got back to camp and opened it up to see the damage, Beeker decided to run home (1:30 hr away) and grab both a spare front and rear differential (had to grab both because he didn’t have another 5.29:1, but he had two 4:10s). He left AOP at 1:00am and I chose to stay back and try to get a few hours sleep. He arrived back around 4am and it was on, we changed both the front and rear diffs and were ready to roll at 8am. Beeker with no sleep and me with about 2 hrs. Now that is a memory that will be shared around a campfire.
Great thing about Toyota axles is that they have a removable third member (diff) similar to a 9inch and Beeker had two complete 3rd members with 4:10 gears. But you still got to pull the shafts to remove the diff section and on the front that means removing the drive flange, spindle, etc...
Had to change the yoke and clean up the mating surface for RTV, so the vice mounted on the trailer once again worked out nicely!
Sat Morning Jeff (@NashvilleTJ ) arrived and we all headed out to ride some trail.
Trails Run:
The trails are not marked that great at AOP so I probably am missing a few connector trails, etc.. but here is a list of the major trails run
Morning:
JW4, 30, 14, 90, JW2, GWT, 27, 41 (awesome trail). Back to camp for lunch. Trail 41 was a great rock garden/ravine trail and it was a blast! Crow walked the big obstacle on GWT and Jeff made it with a little throttle. Beeker and I decided to do the bypass since we already did it the night before and were still getting over the effects of having to change both diffs on his rig as a result
After lunch:
Jeff, Beeker (TJ riding shotgun) and myself headed to Area 51 to play in rock gardens while Crow worked on his Samurai (he had to weld his sway bar bracket back on), this is where I got a little redemption from the night before and cleared one of the rock gardens that I had to back off of the night before. We then we headed back to camp and Crow was ready to roll so we headed out.
Now with the whole crew back we went over to hit Trail 57, I never hit this part of the park before and was happy that we checked it out this time, it was a blast!!
We climbed trail 57 (awesome trail, I think I liked Trail 41 a little more but Trail 57 is a very close second). When we got to top of the trail we couldn’t figure out a good way to get back down the mountain so we just back tracked back down 57. 57 going down is also very fun!
Jeff had to get home that evening, so he packed up and headed home. Wives all decided they had enough for the day and decided to stay behind for the pre-dinner run.
Beeker (TJ riding shotgun), Crow, and myself headed out and did:
81, 60, 58, 83, 84, 56. 56 had my number and I struggle in one section for a good while before giving up and pulling cable, but having said that it was a very fun trail and I will definetly go back and do it again, it did result in us being late for dinner though. Back to camp around 7:30 for dinner.
After dinner we went for an easy cruise, Beeker, TJ, and myself headed out and did a relatively easy route to end the day.
35, 92, 93, 90
Still need to do post ride inspection, but my Jeep did great on trails and I had no issues. Other than the ring gear on Beeker's buggy which we fixed Friday night and Crows sway bar bracket which he welded back on at lunch, we didn't have any major issues and everyone's rig worked great.
Below is some youtube videos from footage/pics that Jeff took during the day, Thanks to Jeff for taking the pics because I don't think I pulled out my phone one time to take a pic on Saturday and my gopro footage did not come out very good. Unfortunately, since Jeff was taking the pics, there really is not that many pics of his awesome rig.
My Birthday Weekend!
Great trip to AOP
Beeker in his Toyota based buggy
Crow in his Samurai
TJ in his TJ on 37s
Jeff in his LJ on 40s
Me in my TJ on 38s
For those that are unfamiliar with AOP. AOP is a great park that people either love or hate, there really is no in between. It is hard, especially if/when it's wet and it is wet most of the time. We actually had relatively dry conditions, and even though it threatened to rain all day Saturday the rain held off and granted us with some dry rocks. A relatively dry AOP with good friends and with my wife riding shotgun was a true blessing and a memory that I am happy to have and to share.
Arrived Friday night around 8:30pm. Beeker and myself were on the trail by 9:30pm, TJ rode shotgun with me and Crow decided to try and get some sleep and didn’t head out with us. We hit Trail 22 which is not even 200 ft from the onsite cabin we rented and it was on right from the get go. Within view of the house, I not only got denied, but I vapor locked the fuel injector from heat and we even had to winch Beeker. The trail is not even 200 ft long and we could see the house still, Haha! From there we headed up to Area 51 and played around in some rock gardens. Again, I was denied on a few of the rock gardens, Beeker made them look easy (funny thing is, next day in the daylight I got redemption and Beeker struggled). After A51 we headed out to George Winters Trail and Beeker broke his rear ring gear on the big obstacle. After we got back to camp and opened it up to see the damage, Beeker decided to run home (1:30 hr away) and grab both a spare front and rear differential (had to grab both because he didn’t have another 5.29:1, but he had two 4:10s). He left AOP at 1:00am and I chose to stay back and try to get a few hours sleep. He arrived back around 4am and it was on, we changed both the front and rear diffs and were ready to roll at 8am. Beeker with no sleep and me with about 2 hrs. Now that is a memory that will be shared around a campfire.
Great thing about Toyota axles is that they have a removable third member (diff) similar to a 9inch and Beeker had two complete 3rd members with 4:10 gears. But you still got to pull the shafts to remove the diff section and on the front that means removing the drive flange, spindle, etc...
Had to change the yoke and clean up the mating surface for RTV, so the vice mounted on the trailer once again worked out nicely!
Sat Morning Jeff (@NashvilleTJ ) arrived and we all headed out to ride some trail.
Trails Run:
The trails are not marked that great at AOP so I probably am missing a few connector trails, etc.. but here is a list of the major trails run
Morning:
JW4, 30, 14, 90, JW2, GWT, 27, 41 (awesome trail). Back to camp for lunch. Trail 41 was a great rock garden/ravine trail and it was a blast! Crow walked the big obstacle on GWT and Jeff made it with a little throttle. Beeker and I decided to do the bypass since we already did it the night before and were still getting over the effects of having to change both diffs on his rig as a result
After lunch:
Jeff, Beeker (TJ riding shotgun) and myself headed to Area 51 to play in rock gardens while Crow worked on his Samurai (he had to weld his sway bar bracket back on), this is where I got a little redemption from the night before and cleared one of the rock gardens that I had to back off of the night before. We then we headed back to camp and Crow was ready to roll so we headed out.
Now with the whole crew back we went over to hit Trail 57, I never hit this part of the park before and was happy that we checked it out this time, it was a blast!!
We climbed trail 57 (awesome trail, I think I liked Trail 41 a little more but Trail 57 is a very close second). When we got to top of the trail we couldn’t figure out a good way to get back down the mountain so we just back tracked back down 57. 57 going down is also very fun!
Jeff had to get home that evening, so he packed up and headed home. Wives all decided they had enough for the day and decided to stay behind for the pre-dinner run.
Beeker (TJ riding shotgun), Crow, and myself headed out and did:
81, 60, 58, 83, 84, 56. 56 had my number and I struggle in one section for a good while before giving up and pulling cable, but having said that it was a very fun trail and I will definetly go back and do it again, it did result in us being late for dinner though
. Back to camp around 7:30 for dinner. After dinner we went for an easy cruise, Beeker, TJ, and myself headed out and did a relatively easy route to end the day.
35, 92, 93, 90
Still need to do post ride inspection, but my Jeep did great on trails and I had no issues. Other than the ring gear on Beeker's buggy which we fixed Friday night and Crows sway bar bracket which he welded back on at lunch, we didn't have any major issues and everyone's rig worked great.
Below is some youtube videos from footage/pics that Jeff took during the day, Thanks to Jeff for taking the pics because I don't think I pulled out my phone one time to take a pic on Saturday and my gopro footage did not come out very good. Unfortunately, since Jeff was taking the pics, there really is not that many pics of his awesome rig.
