Pre Trip Report: Have been having some intermittant issues with a CEL, and with emissions coming due next month thought I would try to tackle it. The codes I was getting consitantly was a po1140, with intermittant post cat O2 and P420 codes as well. I went ahead and replaced the passenger side intake timing sensor and cleared the codes. I checked my readiness monitors and as soon as they all were good I went straight to have the emissions checked and passed with flying colors. Whew...kicked that can down the road for another 2 years.
Trip Report:
We loaded up the pathfinder full of camping gear for our family of four on Friday afternoon. We then headed out, battled DC beltway traffic for an hour or more and were finally rewarded with a beautiful drive through the Virginia mountains. I was also rewarded with another CEL, this time code PO1145. Glad I got emissions testing when I did! We arrived to the campsite(the Cove Campground in Gore, VA), around 6:30 PM and started setting up camp. Literally 5 minutes after camp was set it started raining, so into the tent we went. After some story telling time with the kids we resorted to putting on a movie on the tablet for them, I enjoyed a couple of adult beverages with the wife, and off to sleep we went.
I woke up around 4:00am freezing cold, suddenly remembering that 50 degrees in a tent is much different than 50 degree outside temp in a house, and realized the rest of the night was not going to be much fun for me. Oh well, lesson learned for next time. When the sun finally broke we had a hot breafkast thanks to our coleman propane grill, some fresh coffee thanks to our perculator, and much to my delight the entire family decided to go with me wheeling for the day(we had previously discussed they would hang back at camp, but due to the cold temperatures they thought it would be best to come in the warm car).
After the driver's meeting at 9:00am, we hit the trails. I went with the group that was *supposed* to be wheeling on 1-3 rated trails(1-10 rating system), however due to the rain the night before as well as the previous week these trails ended up being closer to 4-6 IMO. It was evident that my General Grabber AT2's were going to be struggling when the first decent we hit was straight virginia clay/mud/muck. It was a somewhat controlled slide going down. The trail boss then radio'd indicating the planned route was not passable, as he couldn't even get up it with lockers. This left us on a slippery trail, trying to find another way out. The way out we took ended up being a blast, as it was a twisty incline trail that pretty much mandated lots of wheelspin, momentum, and right foot while in 1st gear in 4wd low to get up. The rest of the trails were very fun, with a good mix of required right foot, as well as some fairly technical bits. Then we hit a section of the trail that either had you going down a boulder laden decent, or about a 2-3ft off camber drop into the mud. The way with the boulders would have been passable with a 6" lift and rock sliders, which I did not have, so I opted for the dropoff way. The picture below is how this ended up for me on the first go around.
We determined the root cause to be a tree root in the soft clay, and once I had been winched back by a fellow club mate in a very nicely modified wrangler, this root was removed. I requested that since I would have to keep the left drivers wheels on the bank for longer while the right side dropped in, that we wrap my tow strap around the top of the truck and have the fellow wheelers hold on to it for rollover prevention. This turned out to be overkill as the pathy walked right down it, but better safe than sorry. After I made it through this obsatacle the rest of the day was almost a cinch. I say almost, as there was a very sharp right hand turn(110 degrees or so) onto a very steep decent on a trail called "moose", that I did a very poor job of navigating. The cliff notes are the front end dug in, and the back end slid a couple of feet down the hill putting me at a very uneasy perpendicular angle to the very steep hill. I called over the CB somewhat(ok...a lot) panicked asking for help. The seatbelts had all locked, and I was honestly scared to do anything for fear of rolling down this hill. Due to the seatbelts all locking I could not look out to do any sort of surveilance, and I was afraid to get out lessening the weight on my side of the rig. The guy behind me(same guy that pulled me out earlier...definitely owe him a couple of cases of beer...) ran up and coached me out of the situation, and off we went.
All in all, this was a fantastic event, we had a great time camping, I met a ton of awesome people, and the entire family actually enjoyed the wheeling. As others have mentioned as well, the Pathfinder was questioned at the beginning of the event and praised at the end, it truly is a very under rated vehicle on the trails.
How the truck looked at the end of the day:
I will be going back to another event the end of June at the same location, and am very much looking forward to it. I learned my lesson with that right turn as I had a very uneasy feeling going into it and should have asked for assistance right the from the start. This is a huge thing that I and everyone else should take with them: If you don't feel comfortable, stop. and ask for assistance.
Now to figure out how to spend the 250.00 in amazon gift cards I got for my birthday, anyone have any ideas? Pathfinder or camping related of course
Trip Report:
We loaded up the pathfinder full of camping gear for our family of four on Friday afternoon. We then headed out, battled DC beltway traffic for an hour or more and were finally rewarded with a beautiful drive through the Virginia mountains. I was also rewarded with another CEL, this time code PO1145. Glad I got emissions testing when I did! We arrived to the campsite(the Cove Campground in Gore, VA), around 6:30 PM and started setting up camp. Literally 5 minutes after camp was set it started raining, so into the tent we went. After some story telling time with the kids we resorted to putting on a movie on the tablet for them, I enjoyed a couple of adult beverages with the wife, and off to sleep we went.
I woke up around 4:00am freezing cold, suddenly remembering that 50 degrees in a tent is much different than 50 degree outside temp in a house, and realized the rest of the night was not going to be much fun for me. Oh well, lesson learned for next time. When the sun finally broke we had a hot breafkast thanks to our coleman propane grill, some fresh coffee thanks to our perculator, and much to my delight the entire family decided to go with me wheeling for the day(we had previously discussed they would hang back at camp, but due to the cold temperatures they thought it would be best to come in the warm car).
After the driver's meeting at 9:00am, we hit the trails. I went with the group that was *supposed* to be wheeling on 1-3 rated trails(1-10 rating system), however due to the rain the night before as well as the previous week these trails ended up being closer to 4-6 IMO. It was evident that my General Grabber AT2's were going to be struggling when the first decent we hit was straight virginia clay/mud/muck. It was a somewhat controlled slide going down. The trail boss then radio'd indicating the planned route was not passable, as he couldn't even get up it with lockers. This left us on a slippery trail, trying to find another way out. The way out we took ended up being a blast, as it was a twisty incline trail that pretty much mandated lots of wheelspin, momentum, and right foot while in 1st gear in 4wd low to get up. The rest of the trails were very fun, with a good mix of required right foot, as well as some fairly technical bits. Then we hit a section of the trail that either had you going down a boulder laden decent, or about a 2-3ft off camber drop into the mud. The way with the boulders would have been passable with a 6" lift and rock sliders, which I did not have, so I opted for the dropoff way. The picture below is how this ended up for me on the first go around.
We determined the root cause to be a tree root in the soft clay, and once I had been winched back by a fellow club mate in a very nicely modified wrangler, this root was removed. I requested that since I would have to keep the left drivers wheels on the bank for longer while the right side dropped in, that we wrap my tow strap around the top of the truck and have the fellow wheelers hold on to it for rollover prevention. This turned out to be overkill as the pathy walked right down it, but better safe than sorry. After I made it through this obsatacle the rest of the day was almost a cinch. I say almost, as there was a very sharp right hand turn(110 degrees or so) onto a very steep decent on a trail called "moose", that I did a very poor job of navigating. The cliff notes are the front end dug in, and the back end slid a couple of feet down the hill putting me at a very uneasy perpendicular angle to the very steep hill. I called over the CB somewhat(ok...a lot) panicked asking for help. The seatbelts had all locked, and I was honestly scared to do anything for fear of rolling down this hill. Due to the seatbelts all locking I could not look out to do any sort of surveilance, and I was afraid to get out lessening the weight on my side of the rig. The guy behind me(same guy that pulled me out earlier...definitely owe him a couple of cases of beer...) ran up and coached me out of the situation, and off we went.
All in all, this was a fantastic event, we had a great time camping, I met a ton of awesome people, and the entire family actually enjoyed the wheeling. As others have mentioned as well, the Pathfinder was questioned at the beginning of the event and praised at the end, it truly is a very under rated vehicle on the trails.
How the truck looked at the end of the day:
I will be going back to another event the end of June at the same location, and am very much looking forward to it. I learned my lesson with that right turn as I had a very uneasy feeling going into it and should have asked for assistance right the from the start. This is a huge thing that I and everyone else should take with them: If you don't feel comfortable, stop. and ask for assistance.
Now to figure out how to spend the 250.00 in amazon gift cards I got for my birthday, anyone have any ideas? Pathfinder or camping related of course
Last edited: