Attn: Goodtimes (Highway To Hell Run This Friday).

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Sean K.

Sean K.

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Threads
18
Messages
414
Location
Mesa, AZ
Hey Brian,
You still up for going on the H2H run Friday? I talked to Larry today.....he said he doesn't mind taking the time to get you through. It looks like it'll only be the 3 of us if you still wanna go. I'd imagine a 9-10am start time but will let cha know more specifically, if you want to go.

Sean
 
Oh, and if you'd rather do another trail....we might be open to suggestions. Wanna run Elvis? I still haven't done that one. Martinez is always good (I don't think my Mom's done that one either). Miner's Revenge? IIRC, the only trails she's done in AZ are Annihilator and Predator.

Sean
 
Sean K. said:
TAT? Wuz that? Who you running Martinez with Saturday? Big group, open spots? Might have a little free time in the morning Saturday.

Sean
Click to expand...

TAT = Trans-America Trail. Motorcycle trail that starts in Kentucky, and ends ~4500 miles later on the Oregon coast. Vast majority of the trail is unpaved (combination dirt road, 2-track, single track, and some ugly sh!t)....currently planning on 21 days to run it end to end.

So far, the Martinez run is small. Me, Kyle, and possibly the new guy in the neighborhood. You're welcome to join us if you want.
 
Might take you up on that.....depends. I have a party I HAVE to be at by 5 pm. I'll letcha know as the weekend gets closer.

How's Kyle doing? How's the 8?

Sounds like an awesome motorcylce trip. Bet you'll have a blast!

Sean
 
Married??? Holy Hell, I didn't know he'd taken the plunge. Tell him congrats for me.

D'you mind if I bring Dave along (black Tj) on the Martinez run? What time and where are you guys meeting?

Actually, you guys are all coming from Tucson so I'd imagine you'll come in off of Price road. Not sure where I can drop my trailer/tow rig there. A better question is probably when do you think you'll be at the cabins and what channel will you be on? We can just plan to meet you there.

If it's early enough for us to get back in time, we'll probably join ya.

Sean
 
Dave is more than welcome to join. I'm thinking of leaving Tucson at ~7:00am. That puts us at Price Rd about 9:00am. Kyle will have to find a place to drop his Dodge and hook up his driveshaft. I'm not sure how long it takes to get up to the cabins from there...been a long time. Kyle will probably be moving a touch on the slow side--he is still spring under on the front and gets beat to hell if he moves to fast. We'll be on 4 to start..if it is to busy, we can change after we meet up.

He took the plunge last summer---somehow he found a good lookin', non-psycho school teacher...and amazingly, he convinced her that she should move in with him (on a permanent basis)...we still don't know what she was thinking....but hey, they're happy, and she doesn't get pissed off when he calls from work and tells her he's going to happy hour with me, so I guess she's all right.;)
 
That's really cool. Good for him. Kyle's a great guy....I'm glad for him.

I'd guess you guys would be at the cabins by around 10 am. If I'm there by 9:30 (JIC you are early) we should be fine. I'd think 3-4 hours to run the trail would be enough time....as long as we don't run into any mishaps.

We may have to bail early on you guys though.....I'll letcha know after I talk to Dave.

Sean
 
Brian....

Sorry man, but I have to bail on ya for Saturday. I'd LOVE to do Martinez, but I just don't think we'll have enough time, especially with that late a start.

Me, Larry, Dave and Mike are gonna go run No Limits instead......hopefully there won't be any major set backs that drag it out longer than expected. It's pretty nasty in places from what I can tell.

Here's some pics:

http://mikesjeeping.com/4x4AZNoLimitsx-Dec06

Ask Kyle when he might wanna get back out and do some more wheeling.....I'd love to see all you guys again.

Sean
 
Ya missed out Brian......fun day.

Just another beautiful day of AZ wheeling:

4x4_AZ_H2H_Jan_07_013.sized.jpg


No real good pics of my junk.....I was leading all day and was moving perhaps a little faster than the rest of the group appreciated. ;)

Anyway....good news: brakes are tolerable....not good, but tolerable.

The new gas tank gasket sealed up leaking tank.

Spring rate is perfect now.

New bling high dollar power steering pump is noisy as fawk and is most likely junk.....we'll see how that all turns out.

We ran Upper Woodpecker and Highway to Hell.....5 rigs, 4 hours. Climbed everything with ease.

The Iroks don't seem to hold a line very well in terms of lateral stability. I doubt I'll be buying another set, although they are stickier than my old SXs (again, they don't seem to hold a line as well though).

From what I can tell, my next set of tars is gonna be some Maxxis Comp Compound Creepy Crawlers....or Trepadors if they actually make them (40").

Going wheelin' again tomorrow to run "No Limits". Hopefully there will be some more pics by Sunday.

Sean
 
That sucks.....I wish I'd have gone with you guys (had everyone not backed out on ya) yesterday.

"No Limits" should be called "More Money Than Brains" b/c that's the requirement (IMO) to do that type of trail.

I ran H2H Friday....ZERO damage. I beat the living piss out of the body on No Limits. Got both the hood and grill, got into the cage. Beat panels on both sides, scuffed the frame all to hell (front and back).....I expect it on the bottom....but the rest??? Granted, I completed the trail without too much trouble. I was the only one to crawl the gatekeeper waterfall and the obstacles in the first half of the trail were awesome, but......

It took me 3 years to build this vehicle and running that kind of trail on a regular basis will net me a destroyed chassis in somewhere around 5. Horrible ROI, especially in terms of time.

I dunno....I'm thinking of going out and buying a set of quads now. I think I may be done with 4 wheeling since this is apparently what it's turned into. I just don't make the kind of money required (nor do I have the desire to spend that much time) to completely destroy a vehicle every 5 years.

Don't get me wrong, it was a challenging trail and that part I liked.....I didn't like the fact that it was so tight that I was mashing the body....especially as small as my chassis is.

Here's a pic of the gatekeeper.....(pics never do it justice)....probably 8-9 ft. tall.

4x4_AZ_No_LImits_Jan_07_013.sized.jpg


Sean
 
I know how you feel....I feel the same way about alot of the trails out there. They are well beyond what I built the jeep for. The first time I ran H2H, I kept thinking WTF am I doing? That trail is just a hair beyond what my jeep should be on. Sure, it was fun, but I did more damage on that one trail than I have on all the others combined. Running that trail (and other similar trails) will destroy my jeep in short order. That is not what I signed up for.

The solution is not giving up 'wheeling....the solution is staying on the trails you like and that don't beat the piss out of your rig. That is why I am usually on trails like UA, Martines, etc. Those still pose enough challenge to be fun without being so damn difficult that I wonder if I am going to make it home....
 
I think you're right.....but I'm probably even worse than you b/c I'm worried about scratching paint. On the older trails (like H2H) I built my buggy to take no damage whatsoever. On this new stuff, NL proved my buggy is capable enough to run it w/o breaking anything....but the amount of body damage I took, IMO, was unacceptable (and compared to everyone else mine was relatively minor). Guess that makes me a "poser", but oh well. I just can't imagine having to build another rig so soon. It was an unbelieveable amount of work and honestly, I have no interest in doing it again. Sorry for whining like a b!tch.....I did enough of that yesterday on the trail. ;)

Hope to get out and wheel with you guys on something a little more sane soon. That reminds me.....I got into this sport to relax and enjoy the outdoors.....yesterday was none of that. I don't care if it takes all damn day to run a trail like Martinez as long as everyone's having a good time and there's not really much stress. I just wanna get back to that type of wheeling.

Sean
 
Sean K. said:
...I dunno....I'm thinking of going out and buying a set of quads now. I think I may be done with 4 wheeling since this is apparently what it's turned into. I just don't make the kind of money required (nor do I have the desire to spend that much time) to completely destroy a vehicle every 5 years.

...
Sean
Click to expand...

Have you priced quad parts lately?:eek: A couple of quad buddies are looking at building F-Toys to reduce their trail time expense.

Wheeling is what you make of it. I have found through extensive research that any vehicle operated at 11/10 of it's capacity has a short life!:doh: :whoops: It doesn't matter, street car, 4x4, quad, etc., they ALL die if you drive them like a rental.:D

Sean K. said:
... That reminds me.....I got into this sport to relax and enjoy the outdoors.....yesterday was none of that. I don't care if it takes all damn day to run a trail like Martinez as long as everyone's having a good time and there's not really much stress. I just wanna get back to that type of wheeling.

Sean
Click to expand...

For me that's what wheeling is all about, time off from "life" to have a good time. Sometimes I like to challange myself and the truck, but not beat it full time.:cool:
 
Sean K. said:
That reminds me.....I got into this sport to relax and enjoy the outdoors.....yesterday was none of that. I don't care if it takes all damn day to run a trail like Martinez as long as everyone's having a good time and there's not really much stress. I just wanna get back to that type of wheeling.

Sean
Click to expand...

That is probably the biggest reason I haven't done more to my jeep than I have. It gets to where you spend more time working your ass off to get through a trail than actually enjoying it. I can run trails like upper ajax, Pyeatt Draw, etc., all day long and have absolutely nothing to worry about except what I am going to have for dinner after the run. Hell, I've been known to have fun on Chiva Falls...which is hardly more than a bumpy dirt road. The rock crawling has gotton so extreme that I don't even have a desire to build a dedicated trail rig anymore...let alone a buggy. In fact, I keep thinking about selling the jeep and getting something a little more versatile (bigger) because I really don't need anything as capable as the jeep....
 
Tools R Us said:
Have you priced quad parts lately?:eek: A couple of quad buddies are looking at building F-Toys to reduce their trail time expense.

Wheeling is what you make of it. I have found through extensive research that any vehicle operated at 11/10 of it's capacity has a short life!:doh: :whoops: It doesn't matter, street car, 4x4, quad, etc., they ALL die if you drive them like a rental.:D



For me that's what wheeling is all about, time off from "life" to have a good time. Sometimes I like to challange myself and the truck, but not beat it full time.:cool:
Click to expand...

I was into quads and 3 wheelers many years ago. With quads, I'm not one of those guys that has to have the fastest one out there. Mine were all stock and were a complete blast. Put gas in it and go have fun. At most, I'd probably put a set of pipes on a new one and get a set of paddles on rims for the dunes.

That's the thing though.....I wasn't driving it like it was a rental....I was trying to be careful and while I got the least damage, I still got plenty. It's not like this kind of trail leaves much option for even a vehicle as small as mine. I really wonder where this sport will progress to. I can't imagine that it could get much worse without defying gravity more than it already does....I just wonder what the limit will be.

Sean
 
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