Hover Park, Finley, Friday afternoon 5-1-09

Pics and reports of past Slab / Weber / Hover / A&B runs
sams88
Posts: 264
Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2007 2:51 pm
Location: Richland, WA

Hover Park, Finley, Friday afternoon 5-1-09

Postby sams88 » Sat May 02, 2009 8:20 am

As things worked out, I wasn't going to be able to get out of Dodge for the Saturday trip up to the Slab by Yakima, nor was Jerry. So he called me around noonish on Friday to see if I was up to heading out for break-in run to Hover Park, and the hills above the park. Our original intent had been to do the Saturday trip as we both needed initial runs on our vehicles following mods. Jerry had re-hung new 5-1/2" springs on his 1st gen Toyota p/u, along with adding a triple-down transfer case setup with re-worked cross member support for the transfer cases. This was the first run for me with the 92 YJ. We had just finished getting the pinion angle reset to get rid of a low speed vibration. Currently I only have the 2.5" RE springs on the YJ, and running 31" Cooper STT's and True-Tracs w/4.56 gears. It slows down good in 4-low low, but definitely not as slow as the triple down Toyota. :-) The ground at hover was not slippery wet mud, but was damp. We ran some steep gullies, and then took some steep hill climbs. Lots of initial grunts and groans for the first run on the springs flexing, but by the time we finished the afternoon it had quieted down quite a bit.

This YJ was not as scary to drive as my old 72 CJ5. That thing was a real eye-opener on the steep stuff and off-camber. To be blunt, it scared the heck out of both Jerry and I. The YJ is a bit wider, and handled much better. On one steep down slope the rear started to come around on me a little but with letting the gearing do the work and staying off the brake it straightened right out. This was also the first time the YJ has been off road since the 4-cyl engine was replaced with the HO 4.0L. The engine swap worked out well.

We went on up into the KGH land above Hover. It was nice to see that someone/group had removed all the tires from one of the small canyons that had been dumped there last year. Apparently shooting is no longer allowed there. Still is a lot of junk and trash left around in that section of the land. But it was a lot cleaner out there than the last time that we were out there before the fiasco last fall.

While Hover is not a super large area, it still offers a good local place to check out your vehicle after being worked on without having to drive long distances. It provides for a fun afternoon to get away from the phones, sirens, neighbors kids, :-) and the view of the river and the Blues from the top of the hills is really great on a nice day, which Friday was. I feel much better now about the YJ. It's a mild not wild jeep, but it is a gas to drive, and going back to much less lift and smaller tires puts some fun and challenge back into wheeling. :-)
90 MJ, 5.5" RE Long arm
88 yota p/u

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