trail to sema episode 2 john bull 2019

Every year, the world famous SEMA show is held in Las Vegas to highlight the best innovations and new products in the aftermarket automotive world. When most vendors and attendees take a flight to the show, we take the scenic route. For 2019, 14 off road enthusiasts, Youtubers, Internet TV stars take on 10 days of hardcore off road wheeling in heavily modified Jeeps/4x4s that spans 4 states and over 1800 miles in this endurance-testing adventure. Join us where the pavement ends on PowerStop’s Trail To SEMA.


Trail to SEMA 2019: Big Bear, California

After the first day of wheeling in Florence, Arizona, the 2019 Trail To SEMA crew made its way into the San Bernardino mountains, landing in Big Bear, California. We would spend the next two days traversing the mountainous terrain through 4 trails. Besides mountainous, the terrain of Big Bear differs from Arizona in that there’s not as much grip on the granite surface as opposed to the desert floor we experienced in episode 1.

Marvin Stammel wins rrevkits on trail to sema episode 2

REVKIT Betting

The featured trail of the day one was John Bull, on top of Gold Mountain. Before hitting Gold Mountain Road, though, Ian introduced us to REVKIT betting. To keep our end goal of Las Vegas in in our minds, REVKIT developed casino chips called REVKITs that we would use to make bets and as a form of currency on the trail. Tiffany Stone kicked off the exchanges by purchasing some fuel from Alyssa Payson in exchange for one REVKIT.

Jeeps on gold mountian road trail to sema

Big Bear Begins

After a short, 10 minute drive up the mountain, we began wheeling. The first obstacle on Gold Mountain was a small, 20in ledge covered in silt and loose rocks. This was to be foreshadowing for the rest of the day, as dust and silt was everywhere on Gold Mountain. On the ledge, Marvin attempted the obstacle in a non-traditional way in his Green Country Offroad built Jeep known as Jeepster McJeepface.

We would then travel through Bone Yard, an 1/8th mile long stretch of trail composed of nothing but loose boulders. REVKIT would soon find out just how the name Bone Yard got its name.

See all the 2019 Trail To SEMA Jeep/4×4 builds on REVKIT!

boneyard john bull trail
push ups for revkit

John Bull Trail

After conquering some more of the mountain, we stopped for some grub and a quick physical challenge where MyShopAssist guru and logistical assistant Todd Earsly came out victorious. From lunch, it was a quick trip up to John Bull’s trail head and its first obstacle: the boulder-strewn gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper is followed by additional obstacles that would test and push some of the Jeeps past their breaking point, literally. This was the case for Tiffany Stone, who encountered trouble more than once. Like always, though, the rest of the crew was eager to jump in and get the wounded warrior back into battle. Ian also experienced some breakage, but it was nothing the tried and true tools duct tape and zip ties couldn’t fix.

Finally, carrying over from episode 1, Hollie’s brake line continued to be guillotined by her front coil over.

Killing Time

During some of our unplanned downtime, a few of the crew took the Traxxas TRX-4 Sport RC crawlers out on the open trail. We are partnered with Traxxas to give one of these away during a future episode! Stay tuned to our live “Talking Trail” segments on Facebook for more details!

With everyone up and running, we took the fast and furious route out of John Bull to round out episode 2. For the conclusion of Trail To SEMA’s stop in Big Bear, California, tune in next Thursday.

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