Taylor Kempkes

14200

My Profile

Year Started:

2015

Off-Road Style:

Rock Crawling

My Garage:

1995 Jeep Wrangler (2 door) (Stock lift, 31" tires)
2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee (Stock lift, 30" tires)

The beginnings of my time off-roading goes back to 2015 when I borrowed my dad's old 1985 Ford E-150 van and took it down to to the Mud Caves in Anza Borrego for a fun weekend with friends. Over the next year or two, I spent many weekends getting my 2004 Ford Focus hatchback to camping spots and down dirt roads it had no business being. Then I sold the Focus in favor of a crappy old 1990 Vovlo 240 wagon which took my wife and I on many adventures to places like Big Sur, Anza Borrego and Thomas Mountain in our first year of marriage. We were enjoying camping and off-roading so much, we decided to upgrade our means of transportation to something a little more capable: a 1999 Toyota 4Runner Limited. With a 3-inch lift, 33-inch all-terrain tires and the factory rear e-locker, the 3rd gen 4Runner felt unstoppable. My idea of simply having a more capable vehicle to take us camping quickly snowballed into a four-wheeling addiction. In the first year with the 4Runner I hit every type of off-roading possible from desert to rocks and even snow. The Toyota made it all so easy. As such, I decided I wanted to go back to my roots and get something a whole lot more basic and way more stock. Enter the 1995 Jeep Wrangler I bought in summer 2019. With a set of 31-inch Falken Wildpeak M/Ts, homemade rocksliders, a lunchbox locker in the front, (and a winch as backup) I've been having fun pushing the limits of the little Jeep on trails all over Southern California, Las Vegas, and Sedona.

My Garage (2)

1995 Jeep Wrangler (2 door)

Lift Size: Stock

Tire Size: 31"

Stock 1995 Wrangle YJ 2.5L manual transmission. The only suspension "modifications" I've made are removing the front sway bar and both track bars along with upgrading to Bilstein 4600 series shocks. I'm also running 31x10.5R15 Falken Wildpeak MT01 tires on the stock steel wheels. Other modifications include a Smittybuilt XRC winch, homemade rocksliders and a PowerTrax No-Slip locker up front.

2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee

Lift Size: Stock

Tire Size: 30"

This is my wife's Jeep that we bought for mild off-road duties, snow, and road trips. It's mostly stock with the 4.7L V8, Quadradrive (Vari-lock front and rear differentials), Falken Wildpeak AT3 tires, Bilstein shocks and a 3/4" coil spacer up front.

My Trail Reviews (4)

(within last 6 months)

2N47 - Cleghorn Ridge (01/15/2023)

I've been waiting for the right day to come along to finally run this trail. It always seemed to be a little less interesting than other options for a day on the trail. That said, Cleghorn was mostly what I expected, if not a little more exciting due to current conditions. We ran the trail from I15 to Highway 138 the day after heavy rain. Most of the optional offshoots were pretty entertaining but nothing too tough; until, of course, we made it to The Chute. Had we known what it was like in the mud, we definitely wouldn't have attempted! Both Jeeps (YJ no lift and 31-inch MTs, TJ 4-inch lift with 35-inch MTs) were unable to keep our bodies from riding along the muddy hillside. The TJ even suffered a puncture in its fiberglass top from a protruding tree root. We'll have to come back again when The Chute is less of a slip-n-slide and try our luck again.

3N49 BP&L (10/23/2022)

This was an entertaining trail that had a fun mix of industrial (powerlines/trains) and unique rock formations. I can see how the trail could become more channeling or treacherous depending on weather but, as of now, its not too bad. Waypoint 9 and 12 were also not too bad. A couple hunters in an older stock F-150 (presumably 4wd) made it through the trail ahead of us without a problem.

3N33 Slade Canyon (10/23/2022)

Trail was in good condition with no obstacles to note. Lots of hunters out in this area.

3N06 Stockton Flats (10/23/2022)

Beautiful day out on the trail. No new obstacles or issues.