Not sure if he was headed up to ride with us or just ride there also. Saw the fb post and yeah not good. Looked like a nicely built Jeep. Was wondering what happened(didn't know he didn't make it up) and if he had a front cage or not. Horrible he lost his best friend but looks like he's lucky to be alive.
On FB, post is on the big ga group's page.
@jd30005 That is the Jeep I asked you about. Thought it was you man... He was going to Golden, then changed his mind and headed to Morris. He turned around to cover his dog with a blanket and lost control. That Jeep was in bad shape! When we passed him there was about 20 police cars around him.
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Debated on saying this as I'm not sure I'm saying it right but -
It's horrible he lost his best friend like that and he's lucky to be alive. Terrible accident and reminds us to keep your eyes on the road at all times. I really hope he recovers both physically and spiritually fully. Whenever something like this happens I always try to see what I can learn from it. As mentioned, a reminder to keep your eyes on the road and anything can happen at any time. The other thing, and this is not a criticism at all as it may not have changed one thing but, it is also a reminder to me looking at his windshield and the rest of the Jeep, please guys, spend the money on safety as you build your jeep up. The stock cage is ok but if that had been me, I'm not sure I could have scrunched down enough not to be dead from where that windshield ended up. I saw a jeep at Jeepfest take a slow roll over a small obstacle and crush the windshield in similarly. If you're Jeep is getting to be more capable, don't forget the safety things too. A good number of us have covered that well with our builds but just something to look at if you haven't. Again, not a criticism at all, not meant toward him at all, he was lucky enough already and might not have made a difference and I really hope he has a speedy recovery.
I agree Don, and I understand your perspective. After I put my cage in for Moab last year, I realized how silly it was to have delayed so long, all while being able to justify bigger axles, tires, wheels, transfer case, etc that put me in the situation where I would more likely need the cage...irony. In the end, if you are ever going to have a cage, there is limited net financial benefit to delaying putting it in.
This trip was the first one where I dropped out of 4.3:1 to the 2.72:1 and ran the jeep around the dirt/gravel trails at speed. My ORIs allow a ton of body roll with very slow recovery (remember, the benefit of an ORI is no push-off/rebound), and I could see where the extra body lean could be an issue in a high-speed emergency maneuver situation. I wouldn't write this incident totally off to being 'just lost control' and might consider whether his ORI setup impeded his potential recovery of control of the vehicle. I'm not stating that all ORIs will experience what concerns me, but I can tell you that I believe I should tune mine before getting on the blacktop.