Taking a thing out of its intended environment usually causes it to end up as something quite the opposite of entertaining, like a fish out of water, a baby with a bowl of chili or your buddy in thong. Sometimes when you mix and match the norm, though, you end up with fantastic entertainers like a blind man juggling chainsaws, a toilet with a built-in T.V. or, in this case, a monster-tired Southern wheeling out west. It isn't often that you get to see 44-inch rubber rolling over western terrain, so when Casey Groth of Wagoner Machine Shop (WMS) in Claremore, Oklahoma told us about the Big Meat Goes West tour, we put the roadtrip Jeep in overdrive and met up with Casey and the rest of the participants in Farmington, New Mexico.
Farmington doesn't really have your typical granite boulders. It's more like a giant sandstone play area with lots of smooth water- and wind-carved chutes and ledges. While many of the trails are difficult, Farmington is probably most famous for what's called the Farmington-bump. It's not an obstacle but rather a driving style, meaning you usually can't just creep and crawl up the ledge of choice. You gotta give it a good Second gear whack at the bottom to make it the whole way up. Here are some of the Jeeps from last year's meaty tour. To be a part of the future WMS big-tire runs, call 918/341-1722 or go to www.wagonermachine.com.
 Wide axles and big tires make...  Wide axles and big tires make for some interesting lines in Farmington. Generally, you have to straddle holes that swallow smaller Jeeps. Phil Beauchamp spun around in his awfully tall, stretched, garage-built '73 CJ-5 with the help of rear steering. Phil's Jeep sports an AMC 360 loaded with Holley Pro-Jection. Power spins into a T-18 manual transmission and an Atlas 4.3 transfer case. Both axles are narrowed 2 ½-ton steering Rockwells stuffed with the standard 6.72:1 gears and Detroits at front and rear. They're hung on owner-built three-link suspension front and rear for a wheelbase of 113 inches, which fits 44-inch Swampers on 15x10 MRT wheels with bead locks on the inners and outers. |
 Ed Westerbeck calls his lengthened...  Ed Westerbeck calls his lengthened '78 CJ-5 the Rock Taxi. No one wanted a ride after this. Even the 20 inches added to the middle couldn't keep Ed's wheels down on this climb. In that extra space, you'll find an AMC 999 auto tranny mated to a Dana 300 transfer case with 4:1 low gears. These twist a locked '78 GM junkyard Dana 60 up front and a '94 Ford van Dana 70 rear with welded spider gears. Both axles sport way-low 6.17 gears. All of this is powered by an AMC 304 from a '69 Matador. Ed added Javelin 390 heads and an RV cam, and he's working on a TBI system. The front and rear garage-built four-link suspension allows fitment of 15x42x16.5 Swampers on Hummer bead locks. |