Dixie Run is our major fund-raising and membership drive, offering trailing riding in the premier OHV area in the southeast.. However, Dixie Run has evolved into much more than 4-wheeling - it's camping, cameraderie, eating, seeing and being seen, making new friends, games for the kids, awards, prizes, vendors, and much more.

The event was on September 30 - October 2, 2005 and is held annually at the Upper Tellico OHV Area in the Nantahala National Forest. Our headquarters campground consists of several fields that we rent near Murphy, North Carolina.

Trail Rides

The Tellico trails are extremely challenging! All of the local 4-wheelers know how tough it is and have built up their Jeeps, Toyotas, Chevys, Fords, Rovers, etc. We all know to carry tools and plenty of spare parts, plus extra food and clothes in case you have to spend a few extra hours on the trail.

Because of the inherent difficulty of the trails, Dixie Run no longer offers "stock" vehicle trail rides (Varmit class) at Tellico. The trails are just too brutal on under-equipped vehicles. Front and rear tow hooks are a necessity. We stronly recommend 33" mud tires, a suspension lift, a locker or two, a winch and tow strap for many of the trail rides. These items are required for the harder rides. Spare parts (tires, axles, drive shafts, U-joints, etc.) are recommended or required for the hardest rides.

Silent Auction

The silent auction is a fund raising effort, sponsored by Tellico4x4.com.

Tellico4x4.com has volunteered to donate items from their own and their vendors' product lines to a silent auction to benefit our trail maintenance activities. Items were displayed for previewing and written public bids were accepted on Saturday.

A lot of great items went for very reasonable prices, with both the buyer and Southern benefiting. Thank you to Tellico4x4.com and all the bidders!

Raffle

Our door prize raffle is made possible with help from generous 4x4 industry vendors and manufacturers to help raise funds for running this event and for our trail maintenance activities. The drawing for valuable 4x4 products and services was held Saturday night at the campground after dinner.

Historically, proceeds from the raffle are what move the event from the red to the black. User and permit fees, supplies, meals, and liability insurance are significant and are barely covered by the registration fees. Your participation in the raffle help make this a successful event for our trails fund to help us keep our trails open.

First Southern Jeeps Buggy Build Off

The Challenge: Build a trail rig for $1500.00

The Teams: Two Southern Jeeps teams (East vs West) competed at Dixie Run. Points were awarded for:

• Creativity & Fabrication
• Crawford's Rock Pile
• Viewer's Choice

The Goal: Braggin' rights, of course. But the main goal is to auction each rig at Dixie Run and donate the proceeds to SFWDA!

The Rules: Beg, borrow, and steal (not really) what parts you need, but you will need a receipt from the person that you get the part from with a dollar amount that you paid for it. A minimum of $1.00 is required for each part installed. These buggies will try to be made with as many tried and true parts found on today's vehicles and some by hand. A lot of fabrication and creativity will be done in order to make these work. Each team started these projects in the first part of July and are under a time crunch to have them ready by Dixie Run.

Benefits: what else ... Bragging Rights ... also will show that Southern Jeeps is all about keeping 4-wheeling alive by donating these to the auction. Good luck SFWDA and hope you have as much fun watching these as we will building them.

Get ready to bid Saturday night - 2 lucky bidders are going to get a great deal on a trail rig!!!

Milt Webb and Matt Luckie
Team Captains
Southern Jeeps

Rock Challenge

For the sixth year, we will hold the Rock Challenge, hosted by the Extreme Ridge Runners, at the Dixie Run. The competition will be held on Friday, September 30, 2005 at Crawford's Campground

This is a special event, limited to 30 vehicles, with additional registration fee once you are registered for the Dixie Run. The fee includes Rock Challenge T-shirts, a dash plaque, trophies for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, plus bragging rights for the year..... .

Vendors

• BF Goodrich
• Rancho
• Tellico4x4.com
• Jim's Off-Road Center
• WindRockOffRoad.com
• Myakka Outfitters
• Rusty's Off-Road
• and many others

Kids Games

This year we had a special raffle just for kids - with neat toys that made even the adults green with envy!

Since Dixie Run is a family event, everyone is encouraged to bring their whole family.

On Saturday, Southern Jeeps club ran the kids games, including the ever popular electric Jeep races over a miniature obstacle course.

Food

We served dinner on Saturday night and breakfast on Friday and Saturday morning. Yummmm.

Thank you very much to the Middle Tennessee Trail Runners for doing an outstanding job!

Cook-Off

Most people thought that the Dixie Run Cook-Off was just a scheme by the judges to get good food free. They were right! This first time, only three teams entered, but that didn't diminish the quality of the food or the inventiveness of the teams.

Judging - it's a tough job but someone's got to do it.

Photobooks

Photobook pages:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 

Video page:  5 

Camping

Moments of peace and quiet in the campground
 

Dixie Run Trophies and Awards

Dixie Run - 1st Timer’s Point of View

By: Patrick Campbell

This year was my first trip to the annual Dixie Run at Tellico and what a trip it was. I will start off with my trail ride on Friday. Since the rides were not going out until later in the day, some friends and I decided to leave out early and enjoy the trails. They decided that it would be a good time for me to take a run at School Bus. We completed it and decided that we were going to try to go down the bypass at Guardrail after some lunch.

Well, we got to Guardrail and figured out that was not happening, so we turned around and decided to go down a trail that was called Pinch Rock. The first truck took a run at it and made it and now it was my turn. I got through the first two rocks and was climbing over another before the trail was supposed to get easier (that is what I was told) and there was a loud snap. Well, needless to say, I broke the three studs that hold the steering arm to the driver’s side knuckle on my Dana 44. My next thought is, how are we going to get out of here??? Some members of the Georgia Bounty Runners were behind us and offered to try welding it with three batteries, so we got it to a point where we could pull the wheel off and the caliper and proceeded to clean it up enough to weld it.

Meantime, while these gentlemen were preparing to start welding on my truck, three other guys from Georgia pulled up and offered their welding helmet and some different welding rod to help and some insight on it. We got it welded up and put it back together and gave it a shot and it broke again.

While the guys from the Bounty Runners were welding, the other guys mentioned that they had onboard welders on their trucks, so after it broke again, the guys from the Bounty Runners needed to head out as one of their trucks power steering had gone out and they needed to get to camp. So they left and were going to let the others at our camp know what happened and to possibly be looking for parts.

We devised a way using my winch for steering and a few tow straps on my friend's Jeep to pull me backwards and get me out to level ground so that we would not block the trail and decide what to do. Well, the other three guys from Georgia offered to give it another shot at welding it if I would break the front end down to the bare spindle. Needless to say it was apart in 20 minutes. Four hours of welding later and a piece of angle iron braced in for good measure and we were moving again!!!

The decision was made to winch me down the big rock on Guard Rail. All I am going to say is that I was on pins and needles the whole way out, but needless to say we made it out. I was never so happy to see camp as I was that morning at 1 am.

I want to give a thanks to the guys to the Georgia Bounty Runners, Chris and Rhyn, and the three guys from Georgia that said that they weren’t in a club.

I have come to the conclusion that no good deed goes unanswered as earlier in the day I gave someone 2 gallons of antifreeze when they broke their radiator and I received the help that I did to the extent that I did from people that I did not even know. That is what this sport is all about, helping each other out no matter if you know them or not.

Needless to say, I will be back next year. And thanks to whomever nominated me for Rookie of the Year. Don’t know if I deserved it, but it felt good!!!

My Dixie Run

By: Adrienne Hall

Dixie Run is one of my favorite times of the year, falling only slightly behind Christmas, the first snow, and the first 70-degree day after a long winter. I used to plan my fall schedule at UT around Dixie Run, knowing that I couldn’t take any classes with mandatory attendance on Fridays, so I could skip out and start my weekend early. I’m a little older now, but things haven’t changed much. I still plan stuff so that I can skip out of town early to get to Dixie Run and spend time with my friends and our Jeeps, only now I give Wednesday and Thursday to the cause, as well as Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Point being, I love Dixie Run.

Now, I know a lot of you are thinking about all the aggravations you get with such a large event in such a small mountainous area in October, such as traffic jams, unruly camping neighbors, possibly unfavorable weather conditions, getting back to camp and having missed the raffle and dinner because of trail breakage, etc. But, in my eyes, that is part of it. Even the worst nights on the trail, or in camp, make for good stories and memories later. It might take a few months (or even years) for the stories of those nights to become humorous to you, but those are the times you will always remember and those are the times that make you realize the little truths about yourself and your friends and the little life lessons we all need to learn.

Here is one of the lessons I have learned: your true friends will always get you out of the woods. Even if it is cold and supper is waiting on you, your real friends will run back to camp, take a tire off their Jeep, and load it up with another friend to bring it back to you on top of the mountain. Your friends will stay with you on top of Guardrail while you wait for a tire, so you can make it off the mountain safely while your boyfriend runs to town to find a tube. Heck, you even realize how many friends you have when the group coming up Guardrail lends you a spare tire to get you off the mountain (thanks Sam and Rocky Top TrailRiders) and trusts that you will get it back to them without demanding a security deposit or signing your life away. It is in the trying times that you come to realize who will always be there for you and who you can count on when the going gets rough. You also see the spontaneous generosity of your fellow four-wheelers. Yes, sometimes people can be jerks, but sometimes you run across the kind-hearted people that make this sport what it is.

I am not preaching that Dixie Run is without its faults and I am definitely not saying that all your fellow four-wheelers are angels, but maybe you need to see the event for what it is, because this might be news to some of you: Dixie Run is not about riding. If you want to go four-wheeling at Tellico, go the weekend before Dixie Run, because when you stuff 250 Jeeps into that small of an area, there are going to be traffic jams, breakage, and people acting badly. Dixie Run is about friends and family. Only once a year do I get to sleep in a tent for five days, see all my friends, tell stories around a campfire, and make memories to last a lifetime. The only four-wheel drives my parents own are two daily-drivers that have only seen off-road when their wonderful daughter forces them to, but every year, they come to Dixie Run to spend time with me and enjoy the beauty of the mountains. Just try to tell me Dixie Run isn’t about family.

I had a great time at Dixie Run this year, despite breaking down tires, striping orbital valves, dealing with people off-trail, and listening to my fellow campers until all hours of the morning. Those are little things. The things I will always remember about this year were: (1) the generosity of a group of people on Guardrail, (2) my friends thinking I was the greatest thing since sliced bread because I made macaroni and cheese to go with our hotdogs at camp one night, (3) talking life with David Lepp while we were supposed to be working in the campground Saturday (sorry Russ), (4) my mom buying $20 worth of raffle tickets and winning four times, while my $30 yielded nothing, (5) Mitchell buying stuff at the Silent Auction just because it was a good deal, and not because he actually needed it (thanks Tellico 4x4, for providing him with this opportunity), and (6) realizing what happens when your puppy eats too many Doritos. Very little of that has to do with actual four-wheeling, but it all emphasizes the true spirit of Dixie Run.

Hope to see you all next year at the 20th Annual Dixie Run, it’s looking to be the best yet!

Dixie Run Report

By: Robert Fuller

Wow, I must say that this Dixie Run was a blast. I think this was a good warm-up for our big 20th next year. There seemed to be a big crowd this year. The campground was full and it looked like Crawford’s was pretty packed also. My wife and I had dropped the RV off the week before, and I’m glad we did. I had a hard time finding it in the campground it was so packed. It’s interesting looking around the campground at Dixie sometimes. There was every level of camping you could imagine from sleeping in the back of a truck to huge conversion motor homes.

As usual, the best part of being at Dixie was the people. Getting to see old friends and make new ones. Everyone was great. You could gawk at rigs and folks would appreciate the attention. Folks were more than happy to let you crawl around their rigs and tell you all the “Kewl” stuff they had done to the rig. We even got several folks checking out Dei’s new 83 Scrambler, even though it is stock and will be a restoration rather than a trail rig, it was just as appreciated as some of the custom rigs. Food was there and plentiful.

MTTR offered breakfast Friday and Saturday, and supper on Friday. Buddy’s BBQ was there as usual Saturday evening. There was also the typical sampling of food around the various camps. Rock Solid kept everyone around the Tech Inspection/ Registration well supplied with food, and Jay Bird kept us supplied with ice cream – a nice thing given how hot it got during the day. Jay even organized a “Sampling of Dixie” where he along with a couple of others acted as judges and presented awards for Best Item, Best Meal, and Best Presentation. I think it will be hard to beat this year’s best presentation which was won by the Renegades who served their main course on a differential cover on top of a tree saver strap. Very appropriate given the event. We had a good vendor’s area and as always there were plenty of goodies to see and purchase. Rancho and BFGoodrich were there supporting us as usual. Warn has stepped up the past couple of years and is a welcome addition. I’d try to name all the vendors there, but I’d probably miss someone. We had several of our long time supporters and several new ones.

This year added several new twists to the normal activities. There were 4 rigs that were either raffled or auctioned. One Cumberland Offroad was running to support their local Humane Society. One that was to support Ronald McDonald House and SFWDA, and the Southern Jeeps build off buggies which were then auctioned off and the proceeds donated to SFWDA. We had another successful silent auction thanks to Tellico4x4.com. Jack has done a great job with this the last few years and the proceeds go directly to SFWDA. The raffle Saturday night was a great one as usual. The support of all our various clubs and vendors for that was awesome. As usual Southern showed that we are truly a family oriented association. Southern Jeeps stepped up and hosted the kid’s games this year. Fun was had by all with the typical Power Wheels riding area and activities. There was even a rock crawling event using one of the new radio controlled rockcrawlers from Wal-Mart. Interestingly enough, it was a clean sweep by the ladies for control of that event.

I think that this year’s event was a spectacular success and look forward to the big 20 next year. Greg Griffith and all those involved really out did themselves this year. I think we will really “blow the top off” next year (and I don’t mean the Southern Jeeps Firework display).