Winter Wheeling - Upper Canada Cruisers

[crushers]

yep, once again i utter the famous last words... and learn to regret them.
nice to see the pics and that one looks easy enough to back out of...but it took a few hours to get that one unstuck. it is a weird feeling to have 2 tires on terra firma and water lapping at your drivers door handle. a good tug later and it was 1 tire on terra firma, one sitting well in the air and water lapping on the glass and all i could think of at the time is "Man, this is going to be cold when i go over".
the hardest part for me was sticking my already water filled boot back under the water on the floor/door to run the throttle to keep increasing the revs of the engine a couple rpms at a time to get the previously dead engine to burp out the fluids in the cylinders. i REALLY did not want to do it. 5 minutes later and the 70 was back on top of the world instead of almost resting in its grave.

the down side of the tractor tires, IF you get stuck... you are REALLY stuck.

Awesome weekend up North - the weather was perfect. This is how we started off on Friday night - famous last words just prior to this picture.

"It is only 7:00 - let's see what's down this trail...."

Oh, we will complete the trail in the Spring... and I know just the place we can set up base camp from.

j.

 

[Rig of Mortis]

...the down side of the tractor tires, IF you get stuck... you are REALLY stuck.

Yes, but until then:
YouTube - JL_driving_Crushers.AVI

 

[crushers]

First winter run in Ontario

One of the concerns I had when making the decision to move from Alberta to Ontario was the wheeling situation. In Alberta we ‘used’ to have hundreds of km of wheeling trails, you could go for a long weekend, drive 14 hours a day on the trails and NEVER run the same trail twice… that was before the tree huggers came to be. Over night we lost 1600 km of trails just west of Calgary due to unjust trail closures by the government but the last laugh was Mother Nature’s, she accomplished in one weekend what the government tried to do for years… shut down the area almost completely with an Oct heavy winter storm dropping trees over the trails like a dropped box of tooth picks.

I LOVED wheeling in Alberta but with the clear cutting, the trail closures and that winter storm, the wheeling I grew up with was no more.

So, on to Ontario: Most of land in Southern Ontario is privately owned so unless you find a friendly farmer, a golf course owner or trespass on a gravel pit wheeling is unheard of. But Upper Canada Cruisers to the rescue, they are a small band of loyal Cruiserheads trying to keep the bond alive. My first meeting was years ago and a faint memory, this was long before I had made the decision to move across the country back home to Ontario. My first recent meeting with the UCC a couple months back lead to my meeting a couple local cruiserheads. I could sense the frustration and yet the devotion of Dave, the ‘head’ of the local club. Attendance was small and sporadic, although there was a bit of enthusiasm shown, life seemed to get in the way of most of the local cruiserheads. The desire was there and I wanted to try and stimulate this desire. What better way than having a run? So there came to pass the first (that I know of) winter run for the UCC.

After a brief consultation it was announced that the UCC was heading to Parry Sound in Nov to challenge Mother Nature and a couple trails. Up to the task were Jeremy L (FJ62), Jerome C (HDJ81), Dave D and his kids (FJ62), Nicholas S and his wife (BJ60), Brad M and his kids (VJ62) and myself (and my big mutt Cruiser) in the PZJ70. A perfect number of rigs in my mind.

Jeremy was kind to offer his beautiful cabin as a base to run from and my challenge started just getting to his cabin. I pulled the Tractor behind the Ford power-smoke van on a 24 ft trailer. The problem was the van is a 1-wheel drive unit and the road from my lane to Collinwood was snow and ice covered with some good-sized bumps along the way. More than once I heard the rear tires doing the spin, which equated to letting off on the throttle and coasting over the top of the hill. From Collinwood to the meeting location just south of Jeremy’s cabin was an easy run. From the 400 to his cabin were a different story, the twisting back road covered with snow and ice made for some tense seconds, as the back end of the van would fishtail on the icy curves. Once we arrived at his Cabin we found the road blocked by his neighbor whose Ford Exploder couldn’t make it up the final hill… so of course he just left it blocking the road.

As the guys went to get the owner to move the vehicle I unloaded the Tractor and let it warm up. After a couple minutes I decided to drive to the top to see how the tractor ties did in Ontario snow. Putt, putt, putt as I idled past the Exploder and up the hill… okay, I am satisfied. But I also had my ice radials sitting on the trailer so I wanted to see how the other guys did with their tires on this hill.

Brad gave it a shot with his V8 cruiser and about halfway he spun out AND around so that his truck was sitting across the hill, a couple blurps on the throttle and down he went again. Once again he tried with not much success but finally he let off on the throttle as he neared the top and over he came. Dave was next and finally Jeremy did the hill in one try… nice and smooth.

Once we had everyone up it was time to see the sleeping quarters, a nice sized cabin with an open design so all could chat back and forth. The kids went out and played in the deep snow as Brad and Dave cooked up some supper. After supper I was itching to give the Tractor a break-in run and off we went. Dave road with Brad and Jeremy road with me. Two trucks does not make me feel comfortable, doable of course but if you run into a situation it can lead to concerns. This being said I had wheeled in the mountains of Alberta for decades as a loner in all seasons, so 2 units is still better than one by itself.

The first run back to a bird sanctuary was an easy BEAUTIFUL run with the heavy snow still hanging on the branches and covering the trail. A very nice evening run.

BUT

I couldn’t leave it enough alone, Jeremy had mentioned he wanted to try a new trail back to the road and I felt the night was young enough to give this trail a starter run. “Lets go up the trail just 20 min to see what it is like”… famous last words. Not even 5 minutes of the trail we came to what looked like a fairly easy ice covered hole… humm that looks not good. So I tried to skirt the hole on the one side but the rear tire slipped in just a whee bit, but enough that when I gave it some throttle to climb back out it actually sucked the truck in. the whole was deeper than my 36” tractor tires. When I let off the throttle after the short burst I was sitting with the upper two tires on terra firma and the door handle under water. s***!! The old girl just idled away… tick, tick, tick.

No biggie, run the 12V warn 8274 (running on 24V) out to the tree and suck the old girl back out. That setup has never failed me in the past. But, once again fate was testing me, the winch wheeled out fine but when we went to pull…nothing, dead. I tested the winch before I headed out and it worked fine. By now my faithful-wheeling companion climbed up out of the back of the truck and stood on the side of the seat. “Cruiser, get in the back!” he just looked at me as if I was nuts. It turned out the cab was filling with water and his feet were standing in freezing cold water. He exited the truck and sat/laid in the snow waiting for us to get the truck level again. The old girl sat there and tick, tick, tick, idled away faithfully waiting for me to rescue her from her watery grave.

Dave ran his winch through the snatch block and to my lower front corner, and … nothing, he was being winched forward. My diffs were high centered on frozen ground. So then we tried the tug from the rear. He lined up and tugged me back about 3 ft and …
Further over I went till the water is now lapping at my driver’s glass and my boot filled with water. DAMN, that is cold. The rear bumper was pushed hard against the mud, the rear passenger tire is now a foot off the ground, and the front passenger is on the ground. I climb out and survey the situation, humm, okay we need to get the rear tire back onto the ground to lift the other tire out of the water and doubling the traction at the back.
TICK< TICK< QUIET…
Crap, hydro-locked engine, crap. Okay a dead truck, dead winch, one truck left but he can either level out the Tractor OR pull me back… not both. Well, I really did not want to leave the engine underwater over night so we tried to winch the high back tire down onto the ground and figure out how to keep it there while we disconnected. Scratching our heads Dave mentions that if the truck was running we might even be able to drive out. Humm, all my tools are back at the van, Brad is a mechanic so he had some tools, and I needed a 10mm and a 12mm deep. Brad had the 10mm and was looking for a 12mm deep. I removed the busbar off the glow plugs and was waiting for the 12mm deep…no luck, crap.
Okay, I climb back in and tough the ignition more out of frustration than anything else. Crank, tick, tick, tick…holy crap, it started just like that. Leveling out the truck, even the little that we did, succeeded. I climbed back behind the wheel and stuck my foot back into the frigid water to increase the idle a whee bit at a time. Too much and it would either stall of bend a rod. A couple min passed and it was running smooth again. With the winch holding the back corner down I rocked the truck ever so slightly to get the front tires turned into the water. I gave it a good bit of power, dumped the clutch and the old girl clawed her way to freedom. WOW!! What an overwhelming relief washed over me. I opened the door and anyone that has done deep water crossings are used to seeing the flood of water that pours out but this is the first time I saw a door peeing itself out the drain holes!!
The old abused, neglected girl never let me down. Heater on full and my boot and sock off I drove back to Jeremy’s cabin bare foot to get my foot warmed up again.

Back at the cabin I stopped and got Jeremy to fire up the van so it can warm up my sleeping area. What a night to remember, Wayne’s welcome to Ontario first run. Cool! no let me rephrase that, COLD!!

The next morning, after a wonderful sleep, I went up to the cabin to socialize with the guys and wait for Jerome C and Nicholas to show up.

I will write up my version of this day later today and post it up.

Cheers M8s

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Now that's a damn good story. Winter wheeling sounds awesome!

 

[romey]

nice write up Wayne! had fun reading it, and now really jonesin for a lift and tires!!

you know, we should make every attempt to find and recruit more ontarians to the UCC club (make up little cards, or hand written for that matter, everytime we see a cruiser on the road, just stick a note on the windshield). i've seen a few in the greater toronto area already, it's a small world and i'm sure the association can grow.

here's the site for anyone interested in ontario

http://uclandcruisers.googlepages.com/

 

[crushers]

Saturday, what a day.

I am used to up and gone type of wheeling and I realize I need to change that ideal for Ontario. Here, it is a slow waking up, easy laid back breaky and then ready to roll…maybe.
In hindsight I did sleep in much later than I had planned on. I did enjoy the laid back breaky with the guys.
And
Since the trailhead was 2 min down the road, rushing to get there was not needed.
Jerome C arrived shortly after 9 am and Nicholas and his wife Dianne showed up shortly after that. With the Hello’s taken care of a trail was picked, back to the lake for a daylight viewing and then to tackle the “Holy Crap, what a hole” trail and see how far we can get.
The sun was bright, the snow glistening; all that was missing was the snowbirds chirping away for a Disney day. A leisurely drive back to the lake and everyone gets a mug shot. Here I decided to do a once over after last nights fiasco; with water in the headlight I knew there could be some issues under the hood. First up, check the dust collector. Level with water…oh, that ain’t good. Dump out the water and 2/4” of mud is sitting there, either from last night or that last run in Alberta. Maintenance is not high on my priority list. I guess. I remove the air cleaner cover and what do I find? Mud? No. Water? No. What I find is a missing air filter!! That is right, no air filter. Turns out I removed it for some reason in the past and forgot all about it. So the water last night went through the air box slowly, filling the air box, the turbo, the induction system and the cylinders…DUH!!
Oh well she is still running smoothly, for now.

Off we go to tackle the harder trail, just around the bend. I take one look, a walk and then drive around the hole. After me Nicholas drove his lifted BJ60 into the side rut and stuck, a gentle tug and out he came. Next came the HDJ81, Jerome almost made it on one shot but he too got stuck, gentle tug and out he popped. Brad in his V8 cruiser drops into the new rut and VROOOOOM, stuck. VAROOM backwards, stuck. A tug and out he comes. I walked ahead checking the trail as Jeremy drove the PZ along behind me. It was gorgeous day with the sun still shining down. After about 1 km we came across the stopper, a larger hole 3 X the size of the truck eater and a soft bottom. Common sense dictated that we abandon this trail so we all turned around. Going back out should have been a cakewalk but the new made rut made it challenging for most of them.

Once back on the road we had to decide, do we drive an hour and a half to the trail that we had originally planned on running? Do we do a shorter trail to Timmy’s (for you Yanks this is the Canada’s favorite past time, coffee and a donut.)? The call went out and the decision was made to do an off road drive to Timmy’s.
BUT
As we were driving to the trail head Jeremy mentions there is a nice trail that runs north that we could give a test run. Damn right, lets do it. Change of plans, again. Cool!!

To enter this trail there is a plow made snow bank, some un-determined snow depth, and a rock face just to enter the beginning of the trail. Well, no use sitting here wondering, I put the Tractor into low first and crawl over the bank, down into the snow and nose first to the rock ‘bump’ s l o w and steady up and over. I didn’t think the other guys would just sit there and wait for us to take a look. I guess there was a bit of tire spinning as each of the trucks clawed their way over. Twisting and turning, up and down through the snow following a set of quad tracks. This REALLY reminded me of Alberta, the further we pushed along the trail the more at home I was feeling, excellent.
After a couple km we came to a mud hole, no snow on the water, no ice, muddy bottom…humm, that doesn’t look good at all. But off to the side there was just enough room to fit the Tractor through the brush, fallen trees and standing trees. Idling nice and slow I picked a trail through, ‘threading the needle’ I call it, and out the other side.
Nicholas in this BJ60 came next. He was so gentle on the throttle, back and forth rocking it to try and get out, move some brush and try again and that is when I noticed HE wasn’t driving, his wife was… too cool. First time for her and she excelled, no panic, no frustration, calm, cool and collected. Out she came…
Then the V8, VAROOM, tires churning and… (I can not remember if he made it or not, sorry) but he ended up behind us.
The hills got longer, the hills got steeper but the Tractor never noticed as it tick, tick, ticked along. At the top of each hill we would wait for the 60s, you could tell which one was trying the hill by the sound. Those mud terrain tires suck in the snow; ice radials or the paddles are the cats’ ass for winter travel. With each hill conquered a new challenge appeared, the last one of the run was a long deep ice covered hole. The quad tracks ended here but I wasn’t ready to give up, I had been enjoying the trail. The guys walked out and tested the ice, 2-4” thick, tested the bottom, mud with a solid base underneath. Humm, should I or not? Well, I have 2 trucks to yank me back. The base seems solid enough… what the hell? Lets give it a go. So slow, very slow (ice can do some serious damage to metal if you get carried away) the Ice Breaker did its job. 3 feet in, back up, move over ½ vehicle width, 3 ft in, and repeat for the full length of the puddle. The ice broke nicely into manageable chunks, the problem with just going straight is the ice under the diffs will build up and if the ice is large enough you become high-centered, no traction and no forward or backward momentum. Move over and you are busting the ice in the center, which prevents this from happening.
Eventually I came out the other side and parked to watch the big boys play in the hole. The BJ picked his way nice and slow, the V8 had to show off a bit. I love the sound of a V8 but the torque and fuel mileage of the diesel.

Once through we called a meeting and decided this was the turning around point, I REALLY wanted to go further… say a couple more hours but common sense prevailed and back to the cabin we went.

I want to thank everyone for making my first real wheeling trip in Ontario so memorable.
Thanks M8s
Wayne and Cruiser.

 

[crushers]

Romey,
in all seriousness, i would rather have a club of 10 active individuals that gt along than a club of a 100 with clicks and a bunch of whinners...
but the idea of cards is a good one, i beleive that the RMLCA did the same way back when. it works.

maybe bring it up at the next meeting.

i am not sure if i can make it this sunday as i have a church supper at 5 but i am going to try to be there...

 

[crushers]

for those of you that feel winter mud is no big deal...
this was hidden behind the rear drums.

the fuel trap door had about the same amount of mud inside... ice, mud and sitting don't mix well... well actually it does, it turns to cement!!

 

[crushers]

some more of my pics:
Jeremy beside his stock FJ62
Cruiser saying "come on lets go!!"
the PZ sitting idling away, not knowing the abuse it is about to recieve that night...

 

[crushers]

Brad turned sidways on the hill

Cruiser waiting in the cover of a tree with Jeremy...

 

[crushers]

Nicholas coming through the trees and into the hole

 

[Rig of Mortis]

This thread has turned priceless.

Thank you, to all good 'Cruiser Heads.

 

[crushers]

Brad's turn...

 

[MYFJ62]

Well put Wayne

Romey,
in all seriousness, i would rather have a club of 10 active individuals that gt along than a club of a 100 with clicks and a bunch of whinners...
but the idea of cards is a good one, i beleive that the RMLCA did the same way back when. it works.

maybe bring it up at the next meeting.


Well said Wayne!

Dave, Brad and I talked about this on Sunday morning as they were leaving. It is nice to boast that you have 100s of members but it is better to have a core group you can count on to show up time after time. The group of guys who said they were coming right from the get go showed and that is what is important to me in a club - people who can commit.

Off my soap box....

Great write up by the way!

On the tech side - any gremlins show up are a result of the hydro lock and lack of air filter??

j.

 

[crushers]

i almost forgot the best feat of the Saturday.
Brad had tried over and over to climb one particular hill, bouncing and slipping, crabbing sideways, clawing for traction with the V8 reverberating off the rocks but never made it. a gentle tug and he was up...
then
Nick tried once on that hill, PERFECT speed, PERFECT line, nice flex and he walked up the hill in one try. THAT by far was the best feat of the weekend.
congrates.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Winter wheeling looks awesome!! I'm jealous

 

[MrMoMo]

Cool! If you are ever doing a run in the Kingston area let me know!!

(I thought you meant NORTHERN ontario - like past Wawa...)

 

[LandBlazer]

Awesome job Wayne, great story. Two pulls for me, one out of the friday night hole, (one way only) and one up the big hill. Total cost in fuel for the weekend $102. The sound of a 350 v8 in a cruiser, PRICELESS! Can't wait till our next outing.

Landblazer Brad

 

[crushers]

total cost of fuel: under $120 for the van and $17 for the PZ

one serious pull, water in the headlight, mud in the drums, mud in the intake, mud in the fuel door, water in the truck, frozen door this morning, frozen fuel door, wet seat, wet blanket in the back, throttle still sticks a bit, diffs clunk first thing in the morning and then you hear ice grenading in the diff, brakes are stiff at first, oil change, diff fluid change, air filter replacement and a broken winch controller.

all in all well worth the cost for a wicked weekend...

 

[romey]

Romey,
in all seriousness, i would rather have a club of 10 active individuals that gt along than a club of a 100 with clicks and a bunch of whinners...
but the idea of cards is a good one, i beleive that the RMLCA did the same way back when. it works.

maybe bring it up at the next meeting.

i am not sure if i can make it this sunday as i have a church supper at 5 but i am going to try to be there...

i hear ya wayne, +1 on the whinners and cliques!. i guess it's a slow process of getting to know each other (and really enjoying each others company), i remember running across the ucc site a while back then completely forgot about it till you told me about it, great. next thing you know i end up finding Dave through another cruiser guy (Jason P.) then onto my first meet. what can i say, great bunch of peeps! i'm new to the scene but the crew welcomed me with open arms and the rest was history...and on i go to my first wheeling trip! i certainly hope to stick around for a while and keep on learning from everyone. the awesome thing about it all is it's such a small world! everyone knows everyone!

even if we're able to "recruit" one cool cruiser head out of 50 little attempts, then it's all good still.

and what about meetin up with the ottawa folks halfway in between for a river shiver type of thing?

+1 on ROM's clean run up that hill! wow!

(btw, checked my mileage when i filled up, 11L/100K! not bad for cold temps!)