Dusy Ershim on the 11th

[TrackVino]

Going up with some friends from Light Racing, also Dean and Carlos may go. Should be lots of fun

Anybody else going up this weekend?

[Bender]

I'll be up there with my club.  I've got a white 87 4Runner!

[LCOwner]

Please remember to sign the book at Ershim Lake    Have fun.

[BigMike]

Hey num-nuts Vino

Rocky, Lee, and Lee's father will be up there. You should give Rocky a call. I was going to go but my rig is still all in pieces and I am not sure if I will get it back together by then

[Cheesemaker]

I wish Dusy was open when I was down there!  This sucks!  It was sooo close!  Oh well, you guys should have gone to Coyote with us!   Tell Dean and Carlos HI for me!  Did Dean get his front end fixed?  We hammered the front end pretty good coming off the mountain in front wheel drive!  Tell Dean I want pics!  And he's supposed to send me carnage pics of the front axle!  I'm going to send Dean a video of the coyote trip.  It's got Carlos' buddy Jon's first off road driving adventure on it and mine too!  He (jon) kept yelling for room service and this ain't no motel 6!  We kept telling him to go back to New York!    Good luck, and have fun!

[rocblaz]

hey vino me and holly going late friday

[TrackVino]

It was a crazy trip with lots of action. Can anybody believe we took a 90 something ½ ton show truck, Chevy pickup with no lift or lockers, and a 2006 Toyota Tacoma also stock height with no lockers or gearing?

The company that invited me on this trip is Light Racing (www.lightracing.com)
They wanted to try out there new bump stop shocks. Well they worked. Without these things, there is no way these trucks would have made the trip. I'm working on them to try and get myself a good deal on them.

Ill have pictures up soon, I took about 680 pictures with my new Canon 5D. The trail wasn't too bad, just very long.

[BigMike]

Hey Dave, desert racing isn't done in the sierra nevadas

I heard they were really beating up the trail.. This is NOT why the Fresno 4WD Trail opened Dusy.

[TrackVino]

I dont agree with them going up with these vehicles, and didnt know they were bringing them up when we showed up. I thought if anything is going to get beat up, it will be there trucks. As for beating up the trail, the only thing I seen them beat up is there trucks on all the rocks. There was pretty much nothing left of the fiberglass bed at the end of the trip. As for the trail, there was nobody around us the whole time. The 1/2 ton was pretty much slidding on all the rocks with the skid plate at the bottom.

I had a good time with these guys, but I dont think I would do it again with these trucks. They were able to go thru the trail, but not what you consider rock crawling. They were going a lot faster than the rest of us, we just stayed at our pace.

[Yota4life]

Picturees!! Lets see them. Isent that a challenging trail? I heard its like the rubicon and they took a show truck in there? How many times did you have to help pull them out? Some people are just crazy

[TrackVino]

It high centered a couple of times, I kind of just stayed up front and took pictures.

They also had a 90 toyota with 4" of lift in the back, all with lifting blocks. Thats pretty much the only truck that had trouble. When we left, It had no lift in the back

[Yota4life]

i want to see how much they destroyed these trucks haha

[TrackVino]

Here some pics

[TrackVino]

more

[iNfErNaL]

Nice,I met the guy that drives the gold Chevy a couple months back.He was by the shop.They supplied the air bumps for the Ultimate Adventure FJ and we just received some for the boss' FJ.

[Bender]

It was a great weekend out there.  We ran into you guys going the other way.  I was the white 4Runner in the group of Jeeps.  It was fun to watch that truck go through.  From what I saw the truck wasn't doing a whole lot of damage to the trail, but it had quite a collection of parts that had fallen off. 

[TrackVino]

Sweet, I remember you, that is a cool 4runner. Im partial to 4 runners, they have a different look to them.

[BigMike]

Come awn Vino, where's the damage on the chev????

[TrackVino]

Ill get more pictures up tonight

[labbe6]

I just stumbled upon this old thread.  I was the guy driving the 1/2 ton.  It was a great trip and I was amazed at how well the trucks did.  The 1/2 ton did get torn up a bit in the rear but nothing more than we expected.  Besides that is the essence of wheeling, build it, break it, build it again, etc.  Here is a link to our website and some pics, http://www.lightracing.com/v1b/Galleries/LRGTrailRide/index.htm
I need to post a few more times before I can put any pictures up here.  We fixed the bed by adding 1/4" aluminum plate in the damaged areas.  It looks pretty good and works well.  There are some pics here,
http://www.lightracing.com/v1b/Galleries/2007EasterJeepSafari/index.htm
From a trip the next spring to Moab.

As far as trail damage, I assure you we left the trail as we found it.  Any rocks that were moved were put back.  I've been a member of Tread Lightly for 10 years and believe that 4-wheelers tend to be our own worst enemies when it comes to trail closures.

One of my most vivid memories of the trip is how negative the people we met were.  The majority of people who saw us on the trail told we were idiots (to our faces) and to turn around before we go too stuck.  We just replied that we would turn around when we could not make it any further.  After three days we got to the end of the trail using the hook only four times and three of those were quick pulls to un-highcenter a truck which then took a different line and made it fine.

I will say that if I were to do it again a fulsize would not be my first choice.  It can be done, but it takes a lot of concentration.  I was pretty whupped by the end of the trip!

[TrackVino]

I was hoping to go up one more time before I sold my 4 runner, but who knows.

Anyway, labbe6, good to hear from you. It would be awsome to go up again with th lightracing guys. A bunch of fun people. I miss Travis. Havent seen him ever since he got married. Would love to go up again.

If I do sell my truck, maybe I can catch a ride with Landon, and I can spend more time taking pictures and video.

I have a bunch of pictures from that trip if you ever want any.

Heres my email
[email protected]