had a real good time yesterday. went out with a local group of guys to Mt. Hood to do some snow wheeling and to get christmas trees. i was one of 2 fullsize rigs - another guy had a cool one ton diesel ford. there was a mix of jeeps, a sammy, and a couple of absolutely kick ass toyotas.
when we all met up, the group leader had his dog, so while everyone was airing down my wife threw a stick for the dog. cool pup.
we got up into the snow, and it got pretty deep pretty quick. no one really made it all that far once we got to the fresh stuff. did a ton of digging yesterday...
this guy had a cool ford... cool guy too. he headed up the group.
this jeep guy irritated the hell out of me. (story below the pic)
he was nice, but thought way too highly of his vehicle and definitely was not skilled enough to know how to use the machine he bought. i think it was a real image thing. we were in a parking lot, and he wasn't paying attention and he slammed into the back of another wheeler's trailer. he flipped out, jumps out and goes to pick up his $12000 off-road lamp. jumps back in his truck and we go to this other parking lot where he starts showing everyone what he did. he's all upset because he's got these two almost invisible dents on his bumper - apparently the bumper isn't for bumping, but for oogling and making him look tough. then i notice that everything has a brand sticker on it, talk about a freaking advertisement for some jeep magazine!
must have cost him a fortune.
so he buries his truck (pic above) in the first 20-30 seconds we actually get into the new snow. i casually mention to him that his day doesn't seem to be starting out too well, since he's stuck and has already mashed his truck on someone elses stuff. then he says something to the effect of, "well, notice that everyone else is on the tracks of other people, i'm the only person out here!" i'm thinking, "no sh*t, dude, so you're the jackass that's slowing us down because you wanted to not drive on teh tracks so you could attempt to impress us with your vast aptitude of skill?" dumb.
then he airs down his tires some more - only, to him, this means let all the air out of your tires and after many people tell him his tires are totally flat, he decides to freak out. don't worry, he's purchased the whole OBA kit.
someone needs to spend some of his money on lessons on driving smart.
anyway, here's some more cool pics.
so, all these little rigs were trying to blaze the trail, but it seemed the full size rigs were just better at doing that for whatever reason, so i pulled up to start pushing thru some snow and was doing real well, until i heard a pop and a couple bangs. jump out, and what do i find under my truck...
front driveshaft all done. so, i was done for the day. had a bit of trouble getting out of the deep stuff w/ just 2wd, but it was ok.
so i spent the rest of the time helping others dig.
the guy who owns this toyota was super cool. really helpful dude.
it was getting late, only a couple hours till dark and we start lining up to caravan out of the snow when along come some very intelligent drivers with well equipped rigs. it's a one lane trail. just a bunch of stock rigs w/ street tires getting stuck every 2 feet. really pissed me off. what kind of idiot drives up into the snow that deep being that close to getting dark, just to start their trip. some of these were newer IFS ford f150s, a toyota seqouia and then there was my favorite guy.
wish i had pics of him. he's just got this stock mid-90's 2 door tahoe (maybe it was an IFS fullsize blazer - never looked). he's got chains on his tires, but he's so brilliant, he put them on his rear tires. he's also stuck deep in the snow we need to travel over to get out. at this point, i'm feeling like our group shouldn't be responsible for people being stupid, so we shouldn't stick around to pull everone out. there's enough people there, we wouldn't be leaving people behind alone - just a bunch of stupid people together.
anyway, i tell him that next time he needs his chains on the front. he says, "no i shouldn't. i've got a locker in the rear!" i told him he can't steer because he's got no traction on his front tires, he tells me he can steer because he's got a posi in the rear. i tell him its not a full locker, he tells me it is. i say, "dude, look at your vehicle, your tires are turned to full lock, and everytime you move, you slide forward, you're not turning! only one of your back tires is spinning. you don't have a locker!" i refrained, but i really wanted to rip the guy up for being so dumb. so one of our rigs hooked up to him (the white toyota pictured above) to pull him out. then one of the people with this jackass complains to me and asks why the ford doesn't pull him out, as the ford would clearly be heavier and thus it should help. i really wanted to rip into this bastard, but instead i told him that the problem here was not OUR vehicles and he should take what he can get. I also told him that this was ****ing rediculous.
There have been 3 families in the oregon mountains in the last month that have been stuck in the snow, one resulting in a death. so i'm a bit raw about people being dumbasses up there.
anyway, on to some more pics. i know, this is becoming a book, i'm almost done tho, bear with me.
so, we got back down in 2wd just fine, and found a tree. here's some final shots...
i think he's got more body flex than suspension!
that evening we had a christmas tree decorating party, and had a rockin time.
all in a good day. i'm freaking tired and sore now tho.
when we all met up, the group leader had his dog, so while everyone was airing down my wife threw a stick for the dog. cool pup.
we got up into the snow, and it got pretty deep pretty quick. no one really made it all that far once we got to the fresh stuff. did a ton of digging yesterday...
this guy had a cool ford... cool guy too. he headed up the group.
this jeep guy irritated the hell out of me. (story below the pic)
he was nice, but thought way too highly of his vehicle and definitely was not skilled enough to know how to use the machine he bought. i think it was a real image thing. we were in a parking lot, and he wasn't paying attention and he slammed into the back of another wheeler's trailer. he flipped out, jumps out and goes to pick up his $12000 off-road lamp. jumps back in his truck and we go to this other parking lot where he starts showing everyone what he did. he's all upset because he's got these two almost invisible dents on his bumper - apparently the bumper isn't for bumping, but for oogling and making him look tough. then i notice that everything has a brand sticker on it, talk about a freaking advertisement for some jeep magazine!
must have cost him a fortune. so he buries his truck (pic above) in the first 20-30 seconds we actually get into the new snow. i casually mention to him that his day doesn't seem to be starting out too well, since he's stuck and has already mashed his truck on someone elses stuff. then he says something to the effect of, "well, notice that everyone else is on the tracks of other people, i'm the only person out here!" i'm thinking, "no sh*t, dude, so you're the jackass that's slowing us down because you wanted to not drive on teh tracks so you could attempt to impress us with your vast aptitude of skill?" dumb.
then he airs down his tires some more - only, to him, this means let all the air out of your tires and after many people tell him his tires are totally flat, he decides to freak out. don't worry, he's purchased the whole OBA kit.
someone needs to spend some of his money on lessons on driving smart.anyway, here's some more cool pics.
so, all these little rigs were trying to blaze the trail, but it seemed the full size rigs were just better at doing that for whatever reason, so i pulled up to start pushing thru some snow and was doing real well, until i heard a pop and a couple bangs. jump out, and what do i find under my truck...
front driveshaft all done. so, i was done for the day. had a bit of trouble getting out of the deep stuff w/ just 2wd, but it was ok.
so i spent the rest of the time helping others dig.
the guy who owns this toyota was super cool. really helpful dude.
it was getting late, only a couple hours till dark and we start lining up to caravan out of the snow when along come some very intelligent drivers with well equipped rigs.
it's a one lane trail. just a bunch of stock rigs w/ street tires getting stuck every 2 feet. really pissed me off. what kind of idiot drives up into the snow that deep being that close to getting dark, just to start their trip. some of these were newer IFS ford f150s, a toyota seqouia and then there was my favorite guy. wish i had pics of him. he's just got this stock mid-90's 2 door tahoe (maybe it was an IFS fullsize blazer - never looked). he's got chains on his tires, but he's so brilliant, he put them on his rear tires. he's also stuck deep in the snow we need to travel over to get out. at this point, i'm feeling like our group shouldn't be responsible for people being stupid, so we shouldn't stick around to pull everone out. there's enough people there, we wouldn't be leaving people behind alone - just a bunch of stupid people together.
anyway, i tell him that next time he needs his chains on the front. he says, "no i shouldn't. i've got a locker in the rear!" i told him he can't steer because he's got no traction on his front tires, he tells me he can steer because he's got a posi in the rear.
i tell him its not a full locker, he tells me it is. i say, "dude, look at your vehicle, your tires are turned to full lock, and everytime you move, you slide forward, you're not turning! only one of your back tires is spinning. you don't have a locker!" i refrained, but i really wanted to rip the guy up for being so dumb. so one of our rigs hooked up to him (the white toyota pictured above) to pull him out. then one of the people with this jackass complains to me and asks why the ford doesn't pull him out, as the ford would clearly be heavier and thus it should help. i really wanted to rip into this bastard, but instead i told him that the problem here was not OUR vehicles and he should take what he can get. I also told him that this was ****ing rediculous. There have been 3 families in the oregon mountains in the last month that have been stuck in the snow, one resulting in a death. so i'm a bit raw about people being dumbasses up there.
anyway, on to some more pics. i know, this is becoming a book, i'm almost done tho, bear with me.
so, we got back down in 2wd just fine, and found a tree. here's some final shots...
i think he's got more body flex than suspension!
that evening we had a christmas tree decorating party, and had a rockin time.
all in a good day. i'm freaking tired and sore now tho.
