LA Area Run, Sat. May 3

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I had a blast today with you guys. I wish Pronghorn was a little more tough so it could have been more challenging, but it was fun nonetheless... I guess we will have to run Lockwood/Miller when it is open. I also enjoyed wheeling some more in HV and NF 9N19 with a couple of you afterwards.

Here are ALL of the pics: SoCal 80?s Hungry Valley/Frazier Park
Please give me the # of the photo if you would like a full quality untouched copy (don't worry... it's free... PM me!)

Here are a few of my favorites:

Safety precautions so Eric didn't slide more into the soft stuff...
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Dan taking Mike's slick new 4x4, standard cab, shortbed, 4 cyl Taco (try buying that truck anywhere in CA!) up the hill at ~40MPH (ok, that's a bit of exaggeration, but that's what it seemed like ;))
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Peter (Dynosaur) doing what he does best... throwing around ridiculous amounts of torque and HP!
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Bluto's first attempt at taking a climb:
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He eventually made it after lots of skinny-pedal use...
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As did almost everyone else (including a stock, open 4Runner that decided to tag along with us!)
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On NF 9N19... that was a little more challenging and very beautiful...
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Can't wait to see you guys out there again!
-Phil
 
Awesome pics and looks like a great turn out! Glad you guys had fun out there today.

Dan, did you by chance pick me up on the 2m this am? I gave you a shout out around 8:15-8:30am just to see how many hills I could get over with the simplex.
 
Awesome pics! Got a good mix of 80s 60 Taco 4R.
You guys are probably jaded with some of this stuff - but I had a great day!

Phil, you did a great job leading this group! And an awesome find on that 9n19
e9999 (Eric)!

Its just too bad the rest of the group went home and didnt enjoy that run up the mountain. You guys would have enjoyed it.

Its great meeting most of the growing LA section of SC80s. And kudos to Cruiserruf for making the trek from the OC.

I just want to mention that green 80 that Dan resurrected run awesome! Tim (Calfj60) the new owner was cruising around with his windows up and AC blasting!
 
Thanks guys and especially Dan(wouldn't have a truck without him)....I had a great time and can't wait for next time...
 
Hi Phil,
Thanks for organizing the group and the great pics.

It was great meeting all of the rest of you. Lets plan on doing Miller soon.




Dynosoar:zilla:
 
Thanks for organizing the gettogether, Phil! Great turnout!
Nice to meet all of you! Was a good day!

Many thanks for you all helping the idiot who took the interesting line... Thanks especially to Bluto who did a fine job as an anchor. Must have been interesting when your truck started to slide down too... :) Thanks also to all who did a great job as counterweights... I think that made a big difference. So, maybe these winches are actually good for more than decoration, eh...? :D
And still no idea why the damn truck wouldn't start up...

That one valley with the flowers was amazing!

I don't recall that we saw a single truck on the trails at HV. They are a bit generous with their black diamonds, though.

And, yes, Pleito was very nice. Big trees and lots of green. Love that! Don't advertise it too much, though, I want to go back and it's much nicer without anybody there... :)

Gotta give it to SoCal. From 0 to 6000 ft in an hour drive... :)

There are several more nice trails around there we could do sometime. Easily a couple of days worth of exploring.

Good day with good people!
 
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one more of the flowers:
DSC01145 small.webp
 
been thinking a bit about the recovery. A few thoughts in case that helps somebody:

- good: that I stopped very quickly trying to drive out of the stuck as it was digging in fast on the downhill side and starting to tilt. Had I kept going, it would have been much worse.
- good: that we did the side pull during winching to help prevent a roll. Hard to quantify, but must have helped.
- good: that I dug in the sand around the wheels to help decrease the tilt a bit when it moved.
- good: that there was room around the truck to maneuver. Sheer good luck that one.
- good: I had a winch
- good: I wasn't alone - I often go out by myself. Yet more proof that's just not very smart if the terrain is iffy.
- good: a bunch of nice guys around.

- bad: I tried to do the outside line without much consideration of the possible consequences. Looked solid. Wasn't.
- bad: that I had it in drive when being pulled out, that dug in or could have dug in things more I assume and wasn't necessary.

and (drumroll...)

- very very stupid: that I went back in to drive out when winching. I could not even put the seatbelt back on because of the tilt. Had it rolled, well... I should have put it in N, stood outside on the slider and help steer through the window. The winching did fine pulling it out, should have done it all by winching. Running the tires was unhelpful and possibly making things worse had it dug in even more. But being inside was really really stupid... I guess I was trying to rush, thinking that the slope could give more at any time, and didn't stop long enough to think coolly...

oh well... live and learn...
 
e9999 said:
been thinking a bit about the recovery. A few thoughts in case that helps somebody:

- good: that I stopped very quickly trying to drive out of the stuck as it was digging in fast on the downhill side and starting to tilt. Had I kept going, it would have been much worse.
- good: that we did the side pull during winching to help prevent a roll. Hard to quantify, but must have helped.
- good: that I dug in the sand around the wheels to help decrease the tilt a bit when it moved.
- good: that there was room around the truck to maneuver. Sheer good luck that one.
- good: I had a winch
- good: I wasn't alone - I often go out by myself. Yet more proof that's just not very smart if the terrain is iffy.
- good: a bunch of nice guys around.

- bad: I tried to do the outside line without much consideration of the possible consequences. Looked solid. Wasn't.
- bad: that I had it in drive when being pulled out, that dug in or could have dug in things more I assume and wasn't necessary.

and (drumroll...)

- very very stupid: that I went back in to drive out when winching. I could not even put the seatbelt back on because of the tilt. Had it rolled, well... I should have put it in N, stood outside on the slider and help steer through the window. The winching did fine pulling it out, should have done it all by winching. Running the tires was unhelpful and possibly making things worse had it dug in even more. But being inside was really really stupid... I guess I was trying to rush, thinking that the slope could give more at any time, and didn't stop long enough to think coolly...

oh well... live and learn...
Click to expand...

Exactly... live and learn. I learn something new every time I go out! :D
 
Thinking about what Tim said - that Pronghorn would be fun in reverse... I think next time I'm out in HV I will do that - some of those tight turns near the end would be more fun going UP them instead of down... Either way - it was fun trail to add to the list of "things to do while in HV".

-Phil
 
Looks like a fun run. That off camber didn't look like it needed all that recovery.. but i guess i wasn't there. Glad everyone was safe. It's always a good idea to help the winch as much as possible if you can. Dont worry about having it in neutral.

Now i see what your rig looks like Eric LOL. It's funny same paint scheme as ours after all this time of never seeing it.
 
SOCALFJ said:
Looks like a fun run. That off camber didn't look like it needed all that recovery..
Click to expand...


the picture don't do any justice. would have probably been ugly without winching.



It was nice meeting you all. great times. great people. look forward to the next run, hopefully sometime soon.
 
My only input after all was said and done is please bring a blanket or something to weight that winch line....If it were ever to let go it would have been nice to have something to help control the whip....

Good times and yes Phil next time lets run it the other way...hopefully sooner rather than later :)
 
calfj60 said:
My only input after all was said and done is please bring a blanket or something to weight that winch line....If it were ever to let go it would have been nice to have something to help control the whip....
Click to expand...

Or just get synthetic winchline ;)
 
e9999 said:
been thinking a bit about the recovery. A few thoughts in case that helps somebody:

- good: that I stopped very quickly trying to drive out of the stuck as it was digging in fast on the downhill side and starting to tilt. Had I kept going, it would have been much worse.
- good: that we did the side pull during winching to help prevent a roll. Hard to quantify, but must have helped.
- good: that I dug in the sand around the wheels to help decrease the tilt a bit when it moved.
- good: that there was room around the truck to maneuver. Sheer good luck that one.
- good: I had a winch
- good: I wasn't alone - I often go out by myself. Yet more proof that's just not very smart if the terrain is iffy.
- good: a bunch of nice guys around.

- bad: I tried to do the outside line without much consideration of the possible consequences. Looked solid. Wasn't.
- bad: that I had it in drive when being pulled out, that dug in or could have dug in things more I assume and wasn't necessary.

and (drumroll...)

- very very stupid: that I went back in to drive out when winching. I could not even put the seatbelt back on because of the tilt. Had it rolled, well... I should have put it in N, stood outside on the slider and help steer through the window. The winching did fine pulling it out, should have done it all by winching. Running the tires was unhelpful and possibly making things worse had it dug in even more. But being inside was really really stupid... I guess I was trying to rush, thinking that the slope could give more at any time, and didn't stop long enough to think coolly...

oh well... live and learn...
Click to expand...

A few afterthoughts, Monday morning QB style.

First, I always jump at a chance to refresh recovery skills, it's always good to have practice.
Regarding the winching in N outside of the vehicle, in this case I think it was a good call to be inside, didn't know about the seatbelt thing.
It's better to help the winching if you can by offering rolling resistance. Giving enough power to roll the wheels but not dig them in to the soft stuff helped. Overpowering and digging in just caused more resistance but that crap was SOFT!
Also, I am always anxious about standing on the rails, never really think that's a good idea, in this case pretty harmless, but I think the strap pull would have been enough.

Really the main point is it came out well, and we did get some practice which goes back to "live and learn", both things we did pretty well that day. I gotta get me a winch :grinpimp:

I'm definitely up for a backwards run on that one. Looks like I gotta make 9N19 as well. I love wheeling in the trees. Most of all enjoyed making new friends.
 
yes, blankets and all help. In this case, it was a brand new rope and the pull was on the lighter side for a 12000 lbs winch so I was not worried about it breaking. One thing I have wanted to make for a while is a sand sausage. Take the leg of an old jean, sew one end, fill partly with some sand, sew the other hand. Carry in truck to wrap around rope when winching.

One thing we didn't do as well as we could have, though, is that I should have wrapped the loose rope nicely around the drum before pulling in earnest. There was plenty of slack and it was probably wrapped haphazardly before tightening up and probably got squished in the process. Oh well...

And yes, the pic shows the truck already out of the soft sand slope, it looks like.
 
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