Topic: Have you heard of the term "Rock Crawler" or "Rock Crawling" prior to 1994?

[WHITE_TRASH]

I heard the term used on December 31st 1993, so before 94 yes

[iNfErNaL]

My earliest memories of the term "Rock Crawling" were from about 1995 when I was about 17 or 18 . I remember seeing the term in Currie Ent. magazine ads . I had a 1981 Toyota 4x4 at the time and I remember telling friends I wanted to put Currie axles on it    . I had no clue which ones although back then their fame was in Currie 9" rears . The first time I'd heard of Marlin Crawler was in an article in Petersen's on what the best year Toyotas to buy were and that was in about 1996 . Then I saw his truck on display at a Cal 4 Wheel event shortly after . I'd been going off-road with my family pretty much since I was a few months old but my earliest memory of the term "Rock Crawling" was from about 1995 .

[iNfErNaL]

Oh yeah , I forgot to mention right around that time is when I saw my first Rick Russell video . I got the Dusy Ersham trail and Big Bear   

[MiniSimp]

Breaking news!

Mar 28, 1991 - "If I take a tire with 50 pounds of air pressure and drop it to 10 I get 50 percent more rubber on the ground," Hargis said of his plan to increase traction for the rock crawling needed on many of the Moab routes. Moulton, a 10-year Red Rock 4-Wheelers member in his third year as ...

Apr 20, 1992 - ... ``You don't see a lot of women driving,'' observed Forney, who has modified her Jeep with locking differentials for Moab style rock crawling. The drivers who seemed to be the most accomplished drove rigs with a full set of locking differentials, low gearing and lower tire pressure. ...

Found here: http://www.google.com/search?q="rock+crawling"&hl=en&sa=X&tbo=1&tbs=tl:1,tlul:1975,tluh:2009,tll:1990,tlh:1994&ei=4CFmSprHIo_8sgOU0enxDg&oi=timeline_histogram_nav&ct=timeline-histogram&cd=4

Complete article here, but you have to be a member: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SLTB&p_theme=sltb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=101178CAEF69C8A5&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

[2yotas]

I dont remember the first time I heard the term "rock crawling," but neither do I remember any other companies that specialized in Toyota gearing, and certainly not for 4WD purposes.  I bought my FJ40 in 1987, and the only other companies I could find that were Toyota-centric (and more specifically, Land Cruiser) were Spectre and Man-A-Fre.  At least those were the only ones  I could find, at the time (but of course, there was no internet, just ads in mags).  So I would say that being the inventor of TOYOTA rock crawlin' is a fair statement.

[Slabzilla]

Just found this thread, but I have to say me and my buddy Bob used to call each other up in the 70's to ask to go rock crawling in our 3/4 Chevys with 36 inch GroundHawgs almost every weekend in some dry riverbed somewhere.  Those were fun days, no one on your tail trying to push you off the trail for going too slow.