When I got my first cruiser up and running and started to take it out, I started paying attention to the clubs a lot more. It seemed to me at the time that the Fultons, the Kings and the Rices, all from the Ventura Chapter, were the driving force in the TLCA. Of course my perspective was skewed since they were the local chapter. But that was also where the Association's P.O. Box was too, so you can't say that they didn't have the edge.
If you went to the Cal 4 Wheel event, you could always count on those three families to be there too. We did the Hi Desert Roundup at Los Coyotes together in 1986, and I was the only 6 banger in the group; the writing was already on the wall!
I went to the July club meeting and plans for Dusy were layed out. None of the regulars were going to make the run, so the job fell to Bob Brewer, a big-hearted mountain of a man who was the first guy I met to spout off the wonders of a tranny I had never heard of before: something called an SM420!
Six vehicles wandered in separately to the arranged meeting place at Kaiser Pass on Labor Day weekend. Besides myself and Bob, there was George Lewis [somehow associated with ManA-Fre] in a copper-colored V840 with fresh 36" Mud Country tires and a 3 speed tranny, Dan Hiller [sp?] [I think he worked for SOR] in a 40 with a 6" pipe bumper that was 'claimed' by the trail, a guy named Tim in a mini [figures I wouldn't remember the minitruck owner's name!], and Jim Thompson, driving a pos fj40 scabbed with 1/8"steel plates that he proudly welded over every dent he put in the truck! I credit Jim for saving my sanity that weekend by extolling the virtues of putting the windshield down. Thanks Jim, wherever you are!
I was running some gawd awful Desert Dog retreads at the time cause that was all I could afford, and I knew I wanted some big-league traction for this legendary trail. Those tires didn't have sh-t for road life, but had a great tread pattern! Kind of like Micky Thompsons IIRC. The real embarassment for me tho was not the tires: I actually showed up and ran the Dusy WITH NO SKIDPLATE. Bob's wife Gail had more than a few choice words for me about that!
Just before Chicken Rock we had to cross a fairly large mudhole. Bob and his 33" all terrains barely made it across. George, even with his fresh 35" mud tires did not fare as well, and ended up wading into the muck to get a tug across from Bob. Well this had me really worried. I figured that if George and his fancy tires didn't make it, what chance did I have with the 31" retreads. So I backed up as much as I could and gave it a shot. I had never felt the RPMs get sucked out of a motor that fast as when I hit that mud. OMG. She's going down!
I guess the difference must have been the momentum, because somehow the truck made it across! Now old George couldn't have been more frustrated by the sight of this, and what happened next came right out of the movies. Well you see George had been wearing this big straw hat to keep the sun off his head, and he got so hot fussing with the tow strap, he had to take that big hat off to fan himself. When he put it back on, his temper musta got the best of him I guess, because the brim ended up around his shoulders! I've got a pic of this somewhere.
[note to Kaderabek: if this is TT material, let me know. I've got a hundred more just like this one!]
Other discoveries for me that weekend: 1. You can override a defective vacuum shifter diaphram by shoving a stick of wood into the transfer box[thanks Bob] 2: the shop that installed the lift on my truck for the PO had replaced one of the spring pins with a piece of all-thread, which almost made it thru the trail! 3: Wheeling in the High Sierras with a soft top is sorta tempting fate! 4: You cannot pack an FJ40 the same way you pack a K-5 and expect everything to stay put. 5: Bungee cords are our friends.
What an interesting stroll down memory lane.
