Topic: Jambo '06 pics

[Wraith]

Back from the Jambo and it was GREAT!!! I flopped twice, destroyed my rear driveshaft, put a rock through a hub, broke my rear axle housing at both spring perches (welded them back together), destroyed my whole passenger side and broke a REAR axle! Thank god I towed. I only took a few pics (to busy wheeling) but my cousin took a bunch so I'll post up more later.

[Wraith [OP]]

more

[Ramrod]

wow you really broke alot down there

[Loosekannon]

Think I found the white and black camo trucks gas door at the top of wreckingball

[Wraith [OP]]

Hey that's mine!!!  I meant to pick that up but I was more worried about getting my rig back on 4 wheels and getting my buddies broke buggy out and I forgot it. That's funny! That last spot on WB took out alot of rigs, I saw 8-9 of em get demolished in that spot.

[Loosekannon]

Thats funny, I hold on to it for ya and bring it to the next event we both go to or not.
Your right, top of Wreckingball is pretty rough

[locktup]

Loosekannon

How did you finish up the rest of Wrecking Ball?
I all most put mine up side down taking a stupid line while getting Snohman back down to the gate keeper. I know I left a lot of new red paint all over those rocks.
Good to meet you.

Later,
Jason

[Loosekannon]

Jason,

So you guys took him back down, was meaning to get over to your camp and find out how things went.

I had to have D-toy pull me on the water fall, but the rest had no problems. Left alot of paint on the last pile of rocks, was to far left and laid the right side of truck up against some rocks. No big deal it was a blast.

Good to meet you too, like the work you do, going to try and make it to the Marlin roundup. Hope to see you there.

See ya........Chase

[rocktoy83]

cool pics,looked like fun

[Hyena]

The waterfall on Wreckingball was something.  I was surprised my carb held up.  We just had to stack one rock and she went right up after that.  Pat's truck needed just the slightest bit of pull and it went right up too.  The part after that was harder.  I went a little too far to the left and fell over on its side against the rocks.  My truck kept dieing in that spot.  I finally hit it a bit harder and went through.  Smashed the passenger side of my bed there though. 

[BigMike]

Wow. I had such a great time out there! In fact, I got there Thursday night, so I got to play on Friday. This was the first time in my life that I have EVER been to an event one day early. Through all of the years wheeling with Marlin we usually arrive like at 5am the day of the event, sleep for 1 or 2 hours in the cab, and then get in line for the run.

So this time I made sure that I would leave early and get an extra day to play, and what a great choice that was! I got to sleep in Friday morning and then we ran Jack Hammer.

My truck has been to the Hammers twice before, and has only done Claw Hammer and Lower Big Johnson. So I basically graduated from SUV trails straight to the hard stuff. I know there are harder trails there, such as Back Door and Wrecking Ball, but that's all I know about the "newer" trails.

So I want to ask you guys, such as locktup, how do you rate Jack Hammer and Outer limits? If there are 20 trails out there, would you say these two trails would be in the top 5 for the hardest trails?? And if that is true, then how about this: For trails that a daily driver & street legal rig can run, would you say that Jack and Outer limits is perhaps about the hardest trails there? In other words I really highly doubt that my rig could do Back door. I have only seen it at night time, but I have heard some wicked stories about it.

Whatever the case may be, for sure these are the hardest trails that I have ever driven myself, especially the hardest trails that my truck has been through as I have driven other trails in Marlin's truck, but nothing this hard.

I felt that Jack Hammer was a *bit* harder than Outer limits, but that is because it does not let up like Outer limits does. Jack just keeps throwing more and more at ya, all the way up the top of Razor Back (?) and down the second canyon.

And I am proud to say that I did both Jack Hammer and Outer Limits without ANY body damage or any broken parts!! HA! Take that Hammers! I came and I conquered.

I got to borrow Angelo's 37" MTRs and I also borrowed a rear bumper from TURBO, and man, my truck is working SO GOOD. I am really happy with how it drive on and off road. With the 37"s I was getting 18 MPG on the highway and they are a NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENCE from the 35" MTRs. I have used 37"s twice, but only in the snow. This was my first time using them in the rocks and WOW. I am really happy with MTRs and I am sure that I will buy some 37"s soon.



Here are some pics from Jack Hammer, Friday

Here's lilbuddy and I leaving the Shop in Fresno. Thanks for coming all the way down Chris! TURBO and I had a lot of fun hanging out with ya!

[BigMike]

Marlin also made it there Thursday night (which was great!) and he decided to rest at camp on Friday. So TURBO drove the Crawler Rig with us and had a great time

I don't think he was used to a long bed wheelbase as he got caught up a couple of times in "long wheel base holes" where all four tires were trying to climb up at the same time, whereas the short wheel based trucks, such as mine, went right up.

Nonetheless, he had a blast and it got him motivated to finish his rig!!

I took a bunch of pictures from atop Razor Back (?) which were AWESOME!! But unfortunately I was using the flash and most of my pictures are overexposered! Still learning how to use the new camera

[BigMike]

For the main event (Saturday), we were all signed up for the Outer Limits run, of which, Marlin was the trail leader.

The day started off on the wrong foot when Marlins front ARB locker quit working and Louie from Wicked Wheelers broke his front hub, both at the same rock pile right before the mouth of the canyon even!!
Louie was forced to limp back to base camp for parts but he later returned and caught up with the group in the afternoon. Marlin found out that his ARB solenoid had a bunch of oil in it and it just needed a good cleaning and he was back in business.

As I said before, Outer Limits has some good obstacles, but they seem spread out and usually with bypass routes. The average slope or rate of ascend seems to be much less steep compared to Jack Hammer, making it less "hairy".

The shot with my tire getting squashed is related to something new to me. These tires that I was borrowing are mounted to 10" wide wheels. I have never wheeled a truck with 10s. I am a huge 8" wide wheel supporter. I ran 6-7 psi on both trails and I never lost a bead. A couple of times I had the tires pulled back so far away from the rims that I could not even see the tire. All I could see was just the rim of the wheel. I was really surprised that the beads stayed on. I am still undecided what I will get once I move up to 37"s of my own..... One advantage with the 10s is that they are wider and thus more stable by increasing the overall width of my rig. One disadvantage is that I was continuously grinding the wheels into rocks like I never do with my 8s. The 10" rim just sticks its fat butt out all over the place and is a serious rock grabber, unlike 8" wide wheels. Its all pros and cons, but I would like to wheel some more with 10s before I come to a conclusion.

I also got to wheel with my good ol' buddy 4.3 headache. I love ya man! It was a blast hanging out again. It's been a long time since we got to do that and it was fun wheeling with ya Oh yeah, thanks for using my Ice Chest for your Reece's Pieces storage container. I swear I have no idea where they all went. That ice chest must have a hole in it or something

[Loosekannon]

The waterfall on Wreckingball was something.  I was surprised my carb held up.  We just had to stack one rock and she went right up after that.  Pat's truck needed just the slightest bit of pull and it went right up too.  The part after that was harder.  I went a little too far to the left and fell over on its side against the rocks.  My truck kept dieing in that spot.  I finally hit it a bit harder and went through.  Smashed the passenger side of my bed there though. 

Thats all I needed also was a little tug from D-toy up the water fall, watched you go threw the last part. You lifted that front left wheel pretty high, I chewed up the right side of my bed right behind the cab pretty good in that spot.  Time to dove tail the bed

[BigMike]

Whoops, I forgot to finish with the Jack Hammer pics

After the top of Razor back (?) we headed on down out through the 2nd canyon. And as it was getting dark, Stuart (my co-worker) was driving Holly's Evil Toy when he decided it looked better upside down. It was a slow roll over, but he still got a bunch of parts dumped all over him including a spare pitman arm that hit him right in the face *ouch* hehehe

Good thing we had Marlin's truck (the only vehicle with a working winch) and we were able to pull it back over.

The 2nd gen with blue flames is Rokota and belongs to Louie of Wicked Wheelers, Holly's father And that is Jeff standing next to Rokota, our newest employee He is building a mean 2nd gen with full size axles He should have it ready for the Round Up

[BigMike]

As you might have noticed above, that guy in the red shirt and hat is none other than Marlin himself


Thanks for the pic Marlin!

Here Marlin's truck shows us how it's done

Check out my rear bumper Thanks for letting me borrow it TURBO!! Despite its hideousness it saved my bed and licence plate from certain peril! hahahaha

[locktup]

The part after that was harder.  I went a little too far to the left and fell over on its side against the rocks.  My truck kept dieing in that spot.  I finally hit it a bit harder and went through.  Smashed the passenger side of my bed there though. 

That's the same place Snohman fell over last year.

So I want to ask you guys, such as locktup, how do you rate Jack Hammer and Outer limits?

On Outer Limits I banged my passanger door a little. But I was hitting every vertical stupid line I could find. This year Outer Limits seemed to be a little harder but always fun. But like I said I hit every stupid line which I could have easily bypassed. I have never had any trouble on any other run but I have to say my favorite runs are Wrecking Ball and Sledge Hammer. We ususally run Jack Hammer at night, thats allot of fun being up on that razor back at 2:00 a.m. I give you credit Big Mike you are a technical driver not a basher and the smooth driver seems to go where the truck is pointed. Unfortunately for me I consider myself a technical driver until there is a crowd watching and the stupid Locktup comes out to put on a show. Some day I will have to grow up.

[BigMike]

Here my spotter Ginger takes a break in the shade, which was pretty hard to find out there 8)
This was only the 2nd or 3rd time Ginger has been out on the trails and she is getting much more comfortable with it. Shes learning how to scale some big boulders while throwing her fear of height into the wind. She has also gained confidence to jump out of and into my truck Good Girl!

Our Formula Toy gives a High-Five after Lee figured out what the problem was with it. If anyone was out at the W.E. Rock event in AZ a couple of weeks ago, you'll know how awful our Formula Toy did. It would not run right and had NO power for Marlin, our team driver. It was REALLY frustrating so much that we had to pull out of the event early! Lee and I worked on the buggy Friday night to no avail. We even decided that our buggy was not able to participate in Outer limits that day, but sometime after lunch, we were about half way through the trail, and here came the MC F-Toy! Lee found out that foam from our fuel cell (which had been removed months ago) had managed to get into the fuel line and was plugging up in front of the fuel pump!! AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGG That was the WHOLE PROBLEM all this time. We knew it was a fuel delivery issue, but with the aftermarket EFI system and data logger, there are just too many variables to consider when troubleshooting such a condition, especially when it would seem to run fine for a while and then just start craping out for no reason.

So with our F-Toy healthy again, we hope to place very high in the next F-Toy event

And here is a pic with 4.3 headache, Evil Toy, and my rig

[BigMike]

Hey Jason, your truck looked absolutely sick man! The new paint really looks great! I would have loved to wheel with you guys. Maybe some day when I get 66" tires I'll be able to --> locktup

This year Outer Limits seemed to be a little harder but always fun. But like I said I hit every stupid line which I could have easily bypassed.

Yeah I didn't know what to expect. Everyone kept telling me the worst and that I am a moron for taking a clean truck into those trails. My truck isn't perfect and the paint is old, but I have yet to dent it since I've owned it (two years) and I'm glad I was able to keep it that way

There are some really nasty lines that apart from carnage, I just could never even make unless I had twice the tire size. There was even a guy out there with 49" tires with rear steer. That thing was a MONSTER!!! It was bad ass! I followed a bypass waterfall on the last hard part that Marlin built up for those who didn't want to destroy their rigs. Even that bypass was pretty hard, but my truck just crawled right up it.

Of course having triple cases is really cheating, and oh yeah, I used 510:1 many times out there You know it! I ain't stupid lol

I have to say my favorite runs are Wrecking Ball and Sledge Hammer. We ususally run Jack Hammer at night, thats allot of fun being up on that razor back at 2:00 a.m.

I heard that Sledge was really really tore up this time! I thought Jack was harder than Sledge, but its been soooooooo long since I have even seen Sledge I hardly remember anything. I remember wheeling at the Hammers back in the 90s when Jack Hammer just opened up, I thought, and they were all really hard back then, but everyone was running 35s too. I saw so many 40+ tires its really amazing. Seriously, it won't be long until 39s are a minimum requirement for all trails

I give you credit Big Mike you are a technical driver not a basher and the smooth driver seems to go where the truck is pointed. Unfortunately for me I consider myself a technical driver until there is a crowd watching and the stupid Locktup comes out to put on a show. Some day I will have to grow up.

Thanks man, and guess what, if I had a rig as capable as yours, I would be trying to drive up the canyon walls You guys are in a-whole-nother league compared to me

I have to say, after watching Hyena and BBW wheel up Jack Hammer, it's no wonder those guys break stuff every weekend!! HA! I don't even think they take time to plan out and consider a line, they just Hammer Down! and Get er DONE! After they would get up a rock, they would keep moving and everyone would be like "STAY ON IT!! HAMMER DOWN! DON'T LET UP!!" and then they would bash around and fall into another hole or diff grabber hahahaha but they sure do put on a show

lilbuddy has single cases with 37s and from what I saw he tries his best to "Go Easy".

I wanna get out more with you and those guys, Hyena, BBW... Definitely keep me in the loop after school gets out for some runs up Rubicon or what not. I would love to wheel with you guys again. Good times

[BigMike]

Here's another shot of the F-Toy

lilbuddy found a Scorpion! I have seen Tarantulas and plenty of Lizards, but never a Scorpion until then. It was really docile and was playing dead. Rick (Big Bird) from Canada and I were even able to convince him to walk into a zip lock bag and carry him to higher ground. I bet we could have picked him up and then sat him back down.

Here is a pile of truck lenses from about 4 different vehicles who ALL hit that rock right in the same place. Ever single non-exo caged rig I saw go through there took on some serious damage to their drivers side. Crazy

[BigMike]

Here is Holy and her Evil Toy getting it down in that same spot. She struggled a little bit at first, but then found a good line and walked right up it. Great job Holly!

[BigMike]

And finally, here I am taking the by-pass route around that nasty rock squeeze. This is at the beginning of a windy rock section at the very end of Outer Limits.

And you get up this hard part and you feel really relieved and you can see the end of the canyon so you start thinking "Wow! I did it! I made it all the way through!" And then, right at that very moment, the trail bites back not letting your out of its grasp. There is still one more really nasty hard right turn along a short rock wall on the drivers side and a nice bed killer rock to the passengers rear. If you start to climb the wall on your left, then you just dive your bed STRAIGHT into that rock on the passengers side. I watched CJ murder his 4Runner here last year so I made sure that I took my time and I went really slow through there, and with the help of TURBO and lilbuddy, I *finally* made it out of Outer Limits all in once peace I had to make like a 10-point turn to get through that one

And of course I couldn't drive 6 hours from home and not find myself posing somewhere

[BigMike]

When we got back into the valley, lilbuddy, TURBO and I stopped outside of base camp for a while and had some fun. lilbuddy was doing some cool doughnuts around my truck and I was trying to get a picture of it but my camera couldn't focus on him, moving around in the dark.

And on the 3rd or 4th pass around my truck, disaster NEARLY stuck!!! His passengers side tire hit a bump which sucked the suspension up just enough to cram his 37" tire into his cab and thus stopping that tire dead in its tracks. And with all of the weight and momentum going around, he actually did a one-tire stand and then came back down really hard! Yes! He was really up on one tire!

He was very fortunate that he didn't roll it! He would have rolled it at least twice with that one. It was funny because we had just talked about not rolling it, because it happens to many times when you do this and it almost got him!

When my camera was finally able to take a pic, it was Right when he Just came back down, as you can see his wheels now turned to the right side. No doubt the steering wheel was jerked from his mighty lilhands.

He just sat there for a couple of seconds, frozen and speechless. We all pretty much held our breaths just then. Thanks lilbuddy! Next time I want it on its top and we can get some more pics of it, mmmmmm-k?



I had a great time out at the Hammers and I can't wait to get back out again. It is definitely worth the trip down there and there is always so much to see and do. Every time I've gone out its been a new experience.

Hope everyone had a safe trip back home and wheel with ya later

BigMike

[BigMike]

Oh yeah, I got asked what axles I was running probably about 15 times. I couldn't understand it. Everyone asked me. I've maybe only been asked that like once or twice before in my life. It feels good to tell people that I have just stock birfelds and then to be able to do these trails with out breaking is even better. Over most of the weekend I kept thinking about that Birfeld poll I posted a while ago. I thought I was gonna blow a birfeld and then I would have to suck up what I said over on that post. But it wasn't the case

I think its because they see my truck geared so low, but they don't realize, as Blackdiamond has, that the Torque is only being multiplied when there is a load. I was lucky enough to wheel without being in a bind with my wheels pegged.
Someday it'll happen No doubt It's just a matter of time

One guy was like "What does 3RZ PWR stand for?" And I told him all about the Tacoma engine and he said "Oh" and walked off. hahahaha I thought that was soo cool. I love it, especially driving around in town, when people take my truck for an old pile of crap 1st gen Toyota. I love seeing the look on their faces when I open it up

[rockhound]

I had a ball wheelin' with everybody. Check out these shots.


http://www.runandplaymotorsports.com/Benders%2042K6.htm

[BigMike]

Ah got some more fer ya

I also saw TacoRunner out there but I didn't get any pics of his sweet 4Runner. What trail did you run Brian?

[BigMike]

This was a pretty tough line. 4.3 headache followed me up it, but had to back down multiple times before getting up. His truck wheels really great, but the 37" tires vs 35" tires was a huge factor as he got hung up on a rock that I drove right over. Man, I hope everyone who has 66" tires right now had a chance to wheel with small tires at least once in their life so they can remember the pure roots of wheeling and what its all about

BigMike

[Hyena]

my shots for the weekend.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v674/Hyena84/Hammers%204-22-06/

[BigMike]

I had a ball wheelin' with everybody. Check out these shots.


http://www.runandplaymotorsports.com/Benders%2042K6.htm

Wow RH, Just throughly enjoyed reading your page! Excellent narration and great pictures

[Hyena]

I had a ball wheelin' with everybody. Check out these shots.


http://www.runandplaymotorsports.com/Benders%2042K6.htm

Some of those footnotes were pretty funny rockhound.  thanx for the pictures.  I see longfields in your future!  And the damage to your truck, you dented your truck more last week then i did to mine.