Next Club Run Is Saturday January 12th (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Crusha
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Thank you Greg, Gary, Chuck, Dave, and Vince for showing us girls around today at Anthracite, and for getting me going when I sIiced my tire open.
We had so much fun and I am hoping to see you guys again soon!
We had so much fun and I am hoping to see you guys again soon!
Looks like you all had a blast!
fireball
SILVER Star
Chuck not sure what you’re running but I have two or three pretty decent 295/75/16 KOs sitting around collecting dust.
Better than my day
You missed out my friend.
Yes indeed it was an interesting and enjoyable day. A bit cold in the morning- 16 degrees when I got to AAOA. We had four vehicles- Greg's 80 with me riding shotgun and daughter Lilly and boyfriend, Vince in the Lexus, Chuck in his 100 series with Dave as a passenger, and Kris and the girls in her 100 series. A good group, not too many but all fairly capable trucks.
As you can see in the photos it was wet and icy, pretty much everywhere we went. Started out doing the culvert trial, before we got everyone out of the first chute there was Chuck with a flat tire. Again! Last time he wheeled with us he tore off a valve stem at almost the exact same location. Had to winch him up out of the chute onto a flat spot so we could install his spare. He had a nasty sidewall gash in a BFG tire that was brand new! Got the spare on and did the rest of the trail without incident.
From there we did another smaller blue trail I forget the name. Was a new to me in any event. From there we did Muddy Shackle and it was pretty interesting. Greg was the first to get stuck in an awfully muddy, gooey rut and we had to pull cable to get him out. Both Chuck and Kris needed a tug to get through, too, but with some slow driving and careful tire placement Vince was able to get past this obstacle without help. His Lexus is sure-footed!!!!
We had a text from another club member who got to the park late and was trying to hook up with us. We called him and set up a meeting point along the main trail, we got there and had our lunch break but no one showed. I drove back to the staging area o try to find them but no sighting. Not sure what they ended up doing. As we were stopped to eat a Tacoma drove by towing a jeep Cherokee out of the park!!!!!
From there we went up onto the hill and over toward the far corner. Did the dual hill climbs, then did Twister. Crusha made it up without incident. Kris was next even before the first hard part of the trail she had a right front tire go flat. Had a hole in the sidewall of her Toyo tire and we got her spare mounted without any trouble. We needed to stack a few rocks to get her over the second part of the trail, as we needed to do for Chuck. Even using quite a bit of that V8 power Chuck just needed a little help to get by. Of course Vince brought up the rear and needed no help.
After that we headed over and entered the top of Barney Rubble. All was well till we got to the lower end, Crusha made it all the way through but Kris got hung up on a stump that has played hell with quite a few rigs over the years. It was extremely icy and muddy at the same time in that area. Chuck gave her 100 a tug backwards using his winch and we got here reoriented on the trail. She got through OK but had some serious lean when the 100 slid sideways a bit- got the attention of the driver and the passengers!!!! Chuck took a different line through there as did Vince and we got through OK.
Was getting a little late in the day by then, at least when you figure winter hours at the park require you to be back at the staging area by 3:30. We decided to try the Excelsior swamp trail, notorious for being wet and muddy with deep holes. It was indeed; there'd been no traffic through there all day. We drove through a few of the mudholes but bypassed those that looked deep. It took a while to get through there and I think we were all glad to put that trail and all that bushwhacking behind us. From there we headed out, got back to the staging area a bit after three. There was a line of jeeps waiting to air up and we had to wait a bit for our turn to air up. It had warmed up a bit during the day and wasn't too bad temp wise, not like it had been in the morning.
All in all it was an interesting day with a little bit off everything. Several winching incidents, two cut sidewalls, lots of water and lots of breaking through several inches of ice in numerous water holes. For Kris and the girls it was a long ride home but I think they really enjoyed the day. For Chuck, chalk up another tire problem! Can't stress enough the importance of having a serviceable same size spare tire on your rig, when we left the park there were two rigs with no spare left on their rig and the spares from the 80's couldn't be used for them as they have six lug wheels as opposed to the five on the hundred series. Crusha made good use of his hi lift jack and a neat little attachment that allows the jack to be used on a wheel- I had never seen one before but it worked well, enabling us the lift the truck up enough to get a Toyota bottle jack under the control arm of a 100. One thing for certain, wheeling in the winter is a lot different than in the summer.
It's awesome to have members of other clubs and people from other states join us for club runs. Kris and the girls are surely welcome to wheel with us anytime. We're fortunate to have two offroad parks within our club boundaries and as a club that wheels actively every month I'd say we make good use of them. Already looking forward to see what February brings for our trail ride!!!!
And while it might seem odd to bring it up here, be sure your winch is functional. Chuck's gave some odd problem when we needed it on Barney Rubble, it cured itself but man we needed the winch right then and there at that spot. I can remember one day wheeling when we needed a winch- had one in fact- but the controller for the winch was back home.
As you can see in the photos it was wet and icy, pretty much everywhere we went. Started out doing the culvert trial, before we got everyone out of the first chute there was Chuck with a flat tire. Again! Last time he wheeled with us he tore off a valve stem at almost the exact same location. Had to winch him up out of the chute onto a flat spot so we could install his spare. He had a nasty sidewall gash in a BFG tire that was brand new! Got the spare on and did the rest of the trail without incident.
From there we did another smaller blue trail I forget the name. Was a new to me in any event. From there we did Muddy Shackle and it was pretty interesting. Greg was the first to get stuck in an awfully muddy, gooey rut and we had to pull cable to get him out. Both Chuck and Kris needed a tug to get through, too, but with some slow driving and careful tire placement Vince was able to get past this obstacle without help. His Lexus is sure-footed!!!!
We had a text from another club member who got to the park late and was trying to hook up with us. We called him and set up a meeting point along the main trail, we got there and had our lunch break but no one showed. I drove back to the staging area o try to find them but no sighting. Not sure what they ended up doing. As we were stopped to eat a Tacoma drove by towing a jeep Cherokee out of the park!!!!!
From there we went up onto the hill and over toward the far corner. Did the dual hill climbs, then did Twister. Crusha made it up without incident. Kris was next even before the first hard part of the trail she had a right front tire go flat. Had a hole in the sidewall of her Toyo tire and we got her spare mounted without any trouble. We needed to stack a few rocks to get her over the second part of the trail, as we needed to do for Chuck. Even using quite a bit of that V8 power Chuck just needed a little help to get by. Of course Vince brought up the rear and needed no help.
After that we headed over and entered the top of Barney Rubble. All was well till we got to the lower end, Crusha made it all the way through but Kris got hung up on a stump that has played hell with quite a few rigs over the years. It was extremely icy and muddy at the same time in that area. Chuck gave her 100 a tug backwards using his winch and we got here reoriented on the trail. She got through OK but had some serious lean when the 100 slid sideways a bit- got the attention of the driver and the passengers!!!! Chuck took a different line through there as did Vince and we got through OK.
Was getting a little late in the day by then, at least when you figure winter hours at the park require you to be back at the staging area by 3:30. We decided to try the Excelsior swamp trail, notorious for being wet and muddy with deep holes. It was indeed; there'd been no traffic through there all day. We drove through a few of the mudholes but bypassed those that looked deep. It took a while to get through there and I think we were all glad to put that trail and all that bushwhacking behind us. From there we headed out, got back to the staging area a bit after three. There was a line of jeeps waiting to air up and we had to wait a bit for our turn to air up. It had warmed up a bit during the day and wasn't too bad temp wise, not like it had been in the morning.
All in all it was an interesting day with a little bit off everything. Several winching incidents, two cut sidewalls, lots of water and lots of breaking through several inches of ice in numerous water holes. For Kris and the girls it was a long ride home but I think they really enjoyed the day. For Chuck, chalk up another tire problem! Can't stress enough the importance of having a serviceable same size spare tire on your rig, when we left the park there were two rigs with no spare left on their rig and the spares from the 80's couldn't be used for them as they have six lug wheels as opposed to the five on the hundred series. Crusha made good use of his hi lift jack and a neat little attachment that allows the jack to be used on a wheel- I had never seen one before but it worked well, enabling us the lift the truck up enough to get a Toyota bottle jack under the control arm of a 100. One thing for certain, wheeling in the winter is a lot different than in the summer.
It's awesome to have members of other clubs and people from other states join us for club runs. Kris and the girls are surely welcome to wheel with us anytime. We're fortunate to have two offroad parks within our club boundaries and as a club that wheels actively every month I'd say we make good use of them. Already looking forward to see what February brings for our trail ride!!!!
And while it might seem odd to bring it up here, be sure your winch is functional. Chuck's gave some odd problem when we needed it on Barney Rubble, it cured itself but man we needed the winch right then and there at that spot. I can remember one day wheeling when we needed a winch- had one in fact- but the controller for the winch was back home.
Looks like you all had a blast! Super bummed I had to miss.
Looks like a good time. Bummed I missed it.
Me too.
- Thread starter
- #74
You guys are welcome anytime, as a matter of fact, anybody is welcome on the club runs. Preferably in a Toyota, although we have had a few Jeeps, and I think a Rover or two in the past...
- Thread starter
- #75
Nice write up @shmukster, and thanks to everybody for taking pics.
This was probably the first run I did not take a single photo.
I'm hoping there will be some snow for our February run!
This was probably the first run I did not take a single photo.
I'm hoping there will be some snow for our February run!
- Thread starter
- #76
It was a good day. And having new folks along was an unexpected (to me) treat.
There must have been an off camber moment when I slid off some icy rocks when @shmukster and @Crusha were spotting me. It didn't actually feel bad to me but Gary got a good laugh at seeing Kassy's face go white!
Great fun.
By the way, @beno and I can't figure out who has the better laugh: @shmukster or @bkfj40
Great fun.
By the way, @beno and I can't figure out who has the better laugh: @shmukster or @bkfj40
I really wish there was a photo of this, haha, because I had no idea until he started laughing at me!
