Some days on the channel are about grinding through a stuck bolt at 11pm in the shop. This one wasn’t that. This one was loading up the whole family — plus one — into the Big Chief and heading out to Riverside State Park’s OHV area, the place everybody around here just calls 7 Mile, for an afternoon of trail riding and testing out a part I’ve been sweating over for weeks.
If you haven’t been to 7 Mile, it’s about 600 acres of off-road playground, and the beauty of it is how accessible it is. I’ve genuinely seen Civics drive out there. But don’t let that fool you — there are enough offshoots and obstacles to keep things interesting for everything from a stock Jeep to a full-blown trophy truck. Mild to wild, all in one park.
We hit three of my favorite spots. First up was “the snake” — a tight S-curve up a little draw that gets off-camber fast. It was bone dry this time, which made it easier than usual, but I’ve seen that same section turn into a mess after rain, with boulders at the bottom that roll around like basketballs. It’s deceiving on camera too — looks like a gentle dirt road, but in person it’s steep and off-camber enough that I’ve broken parts out there before, including ripping a steering box clean off the frame of my old ZJ. You don’t forget a day like that.
From there we crossed the dry creek bed to a twisty little section with a nice S-curve — the kind of spot that really tests your rig’s flex without much real consequence if you get it wrong, since it’s all soft dirt. Good place to let the kids feel the truck lean without anyone getting hurt. We wrapped up at the rock garden a local four-wheel-drive club put in, picking the medium line since it was just us out there.
But the real story of this trip wasn’t the trails — it was the truck under us. This was the Big Chief’s first real outing since I swapped the Edelbrock for a Quadrajet carburetor, and I cannot overstate how much of a difference it made. Last time I ran this same rock garden, I stalled that thing probably fifty times fighting the old carb. This time? Not once. Handled the whoops, the off-camber sections, the steep climbs — no hesitation. If you watched the Rubicon video, you already know how much that carburetor swap needed to happen.
Next on the list for the Big Chief is sorting out the steering pump — I’m currently running a 1969 pump meant for my Impala, and it is not thrilled about its new job. Hydro-assist is the upgrade path there, and that’s a Build Bay story for another day.
This one was made possible by Torch Off-Road, who sponsored the trip — genuinely appreciate a partner that lets us just go have a normal family day out and still call it content. That’s the kind of sponsor relationship we actually want.
Days like this are why we do this. Not every video needs to be a grind. Sometimes it’s just your kids in the back seat, dry trails, and a truck that finally runs right.
Wheel it, Wreck it, Wrench it, Repeat!
Days of Pain and Victory 
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