All Things Jeep Blog & Musings

A while back I started a thing on this blog where I offered 50% off a single style new t-shirt to my blog readers for a short period of time. Then I became a total slacker and stopped doing it. (I hang my head in shame.)

In any case, the deal is back and I got a great new tee that just slid in the door today. (The bar codes are being stuck onto the packaging as I speak and I promised Kerry that I'd have one of these sold before she even finished the job. Let's see if I can pull that one off!)

Here's the tee. Here's the code you need to enter at checkout to get the cool new Jeep t-shirt for 50% off.

Enter this code during checkout: cool-blog-reader

Here's a link to this totally cool, fairly obnoxious Jeep tee that sells to everyone else for 18.99. But as a cool blog reader, you can buy it for just 9.49.

http://www.allthingsjeep.com/tra-6795.html

Enjoy.

This past week, to celebrate our birthday, we've been throwing extra goodies into our customers' orders when we ship out the boxes. Some of those goodies have been some of our old bumper stickers that we no longer sell.

Today we got this email from Norm:

I received the decals that I ordered (see below) today.     Thank you for giving me my laugh of the day.  Enclosed was a free "Hummer Recovery Vehicle" decal.  The 'paved roads' sticker is going on a Hummer H1! I am president of the Canadian Hummer Club.   Somehow I don't think my Hummer friends would like to see the yellow "Hummer Recovery Vehicle" with the Jeep towing the Hummer on the back of my vehicle.   I'll pass it on to the next Jeep Rubicon that I see!   Norm London
Canadian Hummer Club
http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/
See website for forums and events.

----- Original Message -----

From: All Things Jeep

To: Customer Norm

Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 5:14 PM Subject: Your All Things Jeep Order #88729 has shipped!

18-Sep-2008

Hello,

Thank you again for ordering with All Things Jeep. We appreciate your business.
Your order has shipped!

The items that have shipped are listed below.

==============================================

Ordered: 1 Shipped: 1 ATJ30922 "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads" White Decal $4.25
Ordered: 1 Shipped: 1 ATJ30169 Paved Roads Decal: Another Fine Example of Unnecessary Government Spending Sticker $5.00
==============================================

So, a little lesson here. Some of our best customers could be HUMMER OWNERS! But now I've learned my lesson, not all Hummer owners are uptight, stuffy, never been off pavement 4x4 owners. Some have a sense of Hummer, oops, I mean HUMOR.  So a shout out to Norm and his Hummer buddies up in Canada. Have fun out there!

Check out this slammin' hoodie! This sweatshirt will rock your world. Forget those old, boring hoodies in the back of your closet. Update your look with our sweet rockstar Jeep Hooded Sweatshirt, available in one place only. Here.  

Available in unisex Sizes Small-3XL starting at $38.

Also available in a tee in sizes small-4xl starting at 18.99

 http://www.allthingsjeep.com/tra-7947-fleece.html

http://www.allthingsjeep.com/tra-7947.html

Heh heh. Got an email recently from Tico, the founder and president of the Maryland Rock Raiders. They have a very cool event planned for Sept 27-28th. It's their 3rd Annual Off-Road Fundraiser to benefit the American Diabetes Association. Here's all the details: www.//www.marylandrockraiders.org/

Sounds like a good time. But when I went to their website and took a look my attention was mostly taken up by the cool little utitlity they have running below the event details that makes your picture look like it's on fire. Kind devilish looking and since we all feel a little daring and devilish when we wheel, how do I get MY picture up there?

Check it out!

So here is the shirt design we've created. I love it. What do you think? Would you wear it? And if so, what would you want to see it on - hoodie, thermal, tee? And if not, why not? Thanks!

Wow wow wow. Actually, I guess I mean woof woof woof.

We have over 380 Jeep dog photos in our Jeep Dog Days of Summer Contest at this point and the contest is officially closed.

You can check them all out here:

And despite the fact that this was a dog contest, we got a few Jeep cat entries, a Jeep ferret entry and believe it or not, a Jeep goat entry (but my email crashed and I lost the Jeep goat entry before I could post it so Mr. Goat, if you are reading this, please sent the photo again. It was cute.)

Some of these photos could make your heart melt. I mean, seriously, I have spend too much time over the past month and a half watching the slide show over and over again. I have my personal favorite photos and now I'm going to bug everyone else here in the office to pick out their favorites. We'll sit down for our weekly Friday office lunch and pick out a few winners.  Then post them to the site. But while you are waiting, you should look at the album and add your own comments to the photos.

All in all, the one thing I've learned about Jeep dogs is that they aren't all big. There are actually Jeep dogs that will fit in your glove box!

And look at this cute pooch.

We got our start 5 years ago at the Great American Jeep Rally back in 2003. Next month we'll be celebrating our 5 Year Birthday and we couldn't pick a better place than at this New England-based Jeep Show. In fact, I may just bake a cake! (What flavor do you want?)

Sponsored by Baystate Jeepers, the Great American Jeep Rally  is a great Jeep show. At the last one there were over 500 Jeeps. There's vendors (All Things Jeep being my personal favorite), food, music, local Jeep Clubs and plenty of activities for Jeep owners. Let's see what the website says,

"Jeep enthusiasts have been traveling from all over the northeast to show their appreciation for Jeeps of all kinds - military, antique, new and old, stock to heavily modified. We offer hourly raffles and trophy awards for street, beater, military, antique, off-road, and others. In addition, attendees may test their Jeep's articulation on one of the RTI Ramps and play in the Rock Garden just to name a few of the events the entire family will enjoy throughout the day. Food vendors, vendors selling Jeep ware, local organized wheeling clubs, and a TreadLightly! informational booth will also be readily available. "

Also noted: Don't forget to bring your own Remote Controlled Offroader for the RC Rock Garden, hosted by the CT RC Rock Crawlers.

Should be a good time. If you are in Massachusetts, NY, RI, CT, NH, VT, NJ or ME and want a real good road trip, I highly recommend this being your destination. Show up and say hi to us.

http://www.jeeprally.org/

When:  September 21, 2008
Time:  9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Where:  Four Town Fairgrounds, Somers, CT
Directions:  Get Directions
Entrance:  There is a $10 donation for each Jeep. The first 600 donors will receive a gift bag which includes an event program, raffle ticket and other goodies from our sponsors.

We need 101 Off-Road related words for a shirt we are making. Chime in with the ones that are missing. 

1. off-road
2. wheelin'
3. rock crawling
4. mud bogging
5. skid plate
6. rock rails
7. lift it
8. roll it
9. off-camber
10. flex
11. air down
12. lockers
13. pumpkin
14. beater
15. thrashed
16. crawling
17. line
18. low gear
19. low range
20. rock crawler
21. swampers
22. differential
23. rocks
24. articulation
25. mud
26. trail boss
27. winch
28. crawl ratio
29. drive shaft
30. RTI
31. sway bar
32. 4WD
33. dent
34. beauty mark
35. battle scar
36. tree huggin'

Norman, Rebecca, Hannah and I just came back from our very first Jeep Jamboree USA Event. It was the Aug 15-17 Jeep Jamboree on the Rubicon Trail. We left from the Jeep Jamboree USA headquarters in Georgetown, CA on Friday morning at about 6:30 and finished up the trail down by Lake Tahoe on Sunday afternoon around 2pm. Saturday was spend in base camp in Rubicon Springs doing absolutely nothing (well, actually lots of things, but nothing that was required!) No cell phone, no computer service, no laundry to do, no orders to pack, no vacuuming, no mowing the lawn, no website to monitor. It was fantastic!

I read a lot of Jeep forums and talk to a lot of off-roaders and one of the biggest debates I see is whether or not it's worth the money to participate in a Jeep Jamboree. Honestly, we've been wheeling for almost 20 years and we don't need "help" figuring out what line to take and how to get around an obstacle. And, we'd always rather ride with a small group than a large group. So we've never felt the desire to sign-up for a Jeep Jamboree. We did this Jamboree because we are a sponsor of the event and we were going to be in the area that week visiting family in Reno. Wanted to see what it was really all about.

So...after taking this trip, I now have an opinion on whether it is worth the money or not. Drumroll please......

YES. It is worth it.

And if the other Jamborees are run like this one - you will get your money's worth too. Here what I think.

First - you need to know how much the Rubicon Trip costs.

$350 for adults. $150 for kids 6-12. Free for kids 5 and under. There's primitive camping only. (there are outhouses and a river/lake to wash in)

Okay, here are the tangibles that you get for your money.

1. Outstanding trail guides.

It's always good to have a spotter for the tough areas. It stinks when they aren't good at it. I would guess there were about 20 Trail Guides set up at different parts of the trail, and traveling with you in their own Jeeps, all ready to help get you over the obstacles safely and with the least amount of damage to your Jeep. Depending upon your skill level, they guided you accurately, or spotted you when you took your choice of path. (Hi Bob & Charlie  and everyone else in the orange hats!) They did a great job and come to find out, they don't get paid to do it, they volunteer their time.

2. Terrific food.

OMG, the food was fantastic. We got breakfast, lunch and dinner Friday and Saturday and a breakfast on Sunday before we pushed off. As we pulled out of camp for the last half of the trail, they handed us brown bags full of trail snacks too. Some of the food we scarfed down were

breakfast - cereals, fresh fruit, oatmeal, biscuits and gravy, coffee, teas, hot chocolates, fruit juices, blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage,

lunch - burgers and dogs, homemade potato salad, tasty salads, giant cookies, bags of chips, juices, chicken tenders, fruit

dinner - ribs, corn on the cob, scalloped potatoes, homemade chili, baked beans, steaks, garlic cheese bread, barbeque chicken, carrot cakes, many varieties of salad, gourmet ice cream bars

(Guess I was too hungry to ever stop and take a photo of the food 'cause I can't find any on my camera, but here's where we picked it up)

At camp there is always snacks and drinks available, including a bar area (no alcohol on the trail, of course)

3. Mechanics on and off the trail to fix any problem you had.

Less than a half hour into the ride on Friday we broke a valve stem. With the help of a few trail guides, we changed the tire in about 3 minutes and were back on the trail.

Back at camp, they came over to the Jeep and replaced the broken valve stem. No charge. One guy tipped his Scrambler and did some decent damage. (hope everything is running right again Richard!). The mechanics on the trail fixed the problems right there on the trail and had him up and running again. He was the last to roll into camp on Friday evening, coming in at about 9:30 but he was fixed and smiling! My guess is that he had about $300-500 worth of replacement parts installed, along with about $500-$800 of labor done on his Jeep, all as part of the price he paid for the weekend.

4. Expert teachers at camp who gave talks on the history of the area and the geology of the area on Saturday. Learned about the Indians, the rock formations, the mineral springs, etc.

These were the tangible items that you pay for. The intangible items are the comraderie you feel meeting up with old and new friends (all new for us, but some attendees told us this was their 8th or 9th Jamboree). Everyone is doing what you are doing and you can spend hours talking about Jeeps, off-roading, obstacles on the trail, mods made to their Jeep, etc. If you like this stuff, you'll be in heaven.

Rubicon Springs, which is where base camp is, can be summed up as this - outdoor lovers paradise.

You can walk up the trail a bit to the section of the river which is dammed up and take a swim in a mountain lake. Or sunbath on the giant slabs of granite that surround the lake. You can kick back with a beer and listen to the piano player who played at the gazebo during all meal times. At night, after dinner, the bonfire burned for several hours and many enjoyed hanging out, listening to guitars, talking more about the day, and watching the stars. Personally, I enjoyed the lack of the cell phone and computer!

A highlight for my daughters was the chance to take a helicopter ride on Saturday where they got to see the whole trail they had come over and were about to complete on Sunday. Here is Rebecca, Norman (owner of All Things Jeep) and Hannah.

For me, I got to meet Mark Smith, the founder of Jeep Jamboree USA and his wife, along with the other great folks from the organization (Hi Glenda and Pearse). Everyone was so welcoming and went out of their way to make sure everyone had a great time. And we did!

(this is Pearse and Mark, me and Norman, and Rebecca and Hannah up front)

If you would like to see what we did, you can check out a  Rubicon Trail Topo Map, and if you'd like to enjoy more scenery from the area, pick up one of these

Rubicon Trail Videos: Jeep Adventures DVD: Jeepers Jamboree on the Rubicon Trail

View More Photos of the RUBICON TRAIL JEEP JAMBOREE USA 2008 from Jean and Norman (us).

Use this link to check out our entire All Things Jeep Photo Album that includes lots-o-jeep-photos.

One of the very first t-shirts we ever made when we launched http://www.allthingsjeep.com/ was the one that said "stock jeeps worry me". Tongue in cheek, it poked fun at the people that buy a Jeep and then do nothing to it to beef it up for off-roading.

Well, we've changed our minds. Stock Jeeps DON'T worry us anymore.  We just got off the famed Rubicon Trail with a bone stock 2008 Rubicon Unlimited and we were rather impressed at how it performed. The Wrangler Rubicon has 4 basic components that make it trail ready - front and rear lockers, an electronic sway bar disconnect, skid plates (man, we used those) and rock rails (and these too). It performed well. We were surprised. And pleased.