Offroad Snow Run

[Vettezuki]

Ok, who's down for such a thing?

[94cobra69ss396]

I am depending on when and where.

[Throttle Crazy]

I would love to but the next time I could go would be Sunday the 13th. Unless you want to go on a weekday.

[Shaolin Crane]

Hmmmm been a while since I rode in the snow...

[Vettezuki]

Taking suggestions for possible locations.

[94cobra69ss396]

There are lots of trails in big bear we can do but Phil would be better to tell you what ones.

[Throttle Crazy]

Lets just leave it at Big Bear. The day before we can decide which trail depending on how much current snow there is and what vehicles are going.

[Chuck]

COUNT ME IN!!!! as long is its not on a work day.

[Vettezuki]

COUNT ME IN!!!! as long is its not on a work day.

Are there any trails up in BB that will accommodate larger trucks? :huh:

[94cobra69ss396]

That all depends on how much snow there is. Years ago Phil and I went on a snow run with our four wheel drive club and started out at around 9am. We took 3N16 (I think that's the road) which is just a flat dirt road that I could drive the Cobra up during the summer. We only went a few miles down it but we had about 9 trucks. The snow was so deep that a lot of the trucks kept getting stuck and we had to keep pushing them just to go about another 100ft. We didn't get out of there until about midnight. It was a blast!

[jedhead]

Many years ago when I had my F150 4X4 I used to go up to Big Bear from Pioneertown.

Bob

[Vettezuki]

I'm thinking April 16 or 17. What say ya'lls?

[94cobra69ss396]

Not sure if there will be snow then but we can do that. Are you not able to go May 13th?

[enkeivette]

Maybe when diesel comes back down to 3.49 :o

[Vettezuki]

Not sure if there will be snow then but we can do that. Are you not able to go May 13th?

Uh, May 13th? March 13 is our monthly meet.

[94cobra69ss396]

Maybe when diesel comes back down to 3.49 :o

Oh so never. It cost $138 to fill my Suburban today.

Sorry, I meant March.

[Vettezuki]

Oh so never. It cost $138 to fill my Suburban today.

Sorry, I meant March.

Our meet is March 13, and I'll be out of town April 3-9. I was thinking to pas on the main run in April (April 10), hence the later date.


Biodiesel ya'lls.

[enkeivette]

...I know man. Gonna look into it.

[enkeivette]

Oh so never. It cost $138 to fill my Suburban today.


Did you bring some lube at least?

[Vettezuki]

...I know man. Gonna look into it.

Let's crowd source it if you're serious. There are at least three diesels here. I have some connections for getting cooking oil from restaurants, which they PAY to get rid of. Basically there are two levels. You don't have to do literally anything to burn typical cooking oils, but the engine needs to be up to temp before switching over. Some have a setup on the vehicle that starts on commercial diesel and swithces over to "oil" once at operating temp. The other (the one I'm curious about) is actually processing the input oil to biodiesel. This requires some investment in tech, but not much and there are some great redneck solutions that work fine. From memory, costs were running someting like <$0.50 per gallon.

[Throttle Crazy]

Ron and I went out for a night Run on Thurs. at about 4:00 p.m. We went out of Silverwood Lake and up to Big Bear. We had a blast. It was a long night, we did not get home until 12:30 a.m. Before we even got to the tough stuff, we came across two guys in a Titan who had been stuck in a mud hole for over two hours. I winched them out and we headed up Dishpan Springs in the dark. There was a lot of mud and some snow on the trail. The trails were rutted and difficult, at one point on the road going out, Ron hit a mud hole and sunk to his doors.

http://www.motorgen.com/pic/data/500/medium/stuck.jpg
http://www.motorgen.com/pic/data/500/medium/rons_truck_2.jpg
http://www.motorgen.com/pic/data/500/medium/rons_truck.jpg
http://www.motorgen.com/pic/data/500/Image03102011191022.jpg

[Throttle Crazy]

http://www.motorgen.com/pic/data/500/Image03102011191022.jpg

[Throttle Crazy]

http://www.motorgen.com/pic/data/500/rons_truck.jpg

[94cobra69ss396]

The mud sucked me in! I was in two wheel drive and we were on the main road which is usaully a grated road that cars drive up to get to the camp grounds. We came around a corner and the rear tires slid into the mud. I then put it in four wheel drive but couldn't go forward. So I tried to go full throttle backwards and the drivers side slid deeper into the mud. I could rock the truck about 6 inches forward and backwards but didn't have the power to pull through it. Phil hooked up a tow strap and was able to pull me backwards out of it. However, I had to drive through a little bit of it to get to dry dirt and in the process I snapped my front drivers side axle u-joint. I didn't have a spare axle so I just removed the inner shaft and blocked the tube off with a rag so I could get home.

Phil also didn't mention that he got stuck. The trail was quite slick in some sections and one of those was a rocky hill. Phil was working his way up it when his truck slid sideways in the mud and pinned his axles on two decent size rocks. I was able to get around him so that he could hook his winch up to my bumper and pull his truck off the rocks.

Once we got to the top of that section he started to play around on some large rocks (one was about 3.5ft high) when he slid sideways again to the point where he was close to rolling over. We spent about an hour moving, digging and stacking rocks so that he could try and back up. We also hooked a tow strap to my truck and I tried to pull him sideway but only moved his truck about an inch. We were worried that once he started backing up that he would slide off the rocks and roll but he was able to just back right back down.

It was a very enjoyable night. I have a lot of fun night wheeling.

http://www.motorgen.com/pic/data/500/2011-03-10_20_51_50.jpg

[Throttle Crazy]

I don't know to many other dads who would head up to the mountains to go four wheeling on a Thurs. night with five children. At least we know what were doing (most the time), and we go prepared with what we need to get in and out. There was not a ton of snow anyway, just a lot of mud and ruts.

[Vettezuki]

Looks like a hoot guys. One of things I need to do this year, which fortunatley doesn't cost too much, is replace my clutch. Mine chatters like a mofo sometimes. I might also like to regear to account for my larger than stock tires. Not that mine are huge, but bigger enough to put some strain on my little four banger. As for the MG snow cruise, I think it's going to be a punt this year. I just don't have an open weekend until deep into April.

[94cobra69ss396]

Yeah, we only drove through about what 100ft or so of snow?

[Throttle Crazy]

We probably drove through about a mile of snow on the way out. There were only a couple spots where it got deep though.

[94cobra69ss396]

It didn't seem that long. I did have to put my truck in 4 wheel, well 3 wheel drive for one section. The others I was only in 2 wheel drive.

[Throttle Crazy]

I spent four hours yesterday cleaning, washing and even waxing the Land Cruiser. She is now a happier truck. I think there was about a years worth of four wheeling dirt on the floor. I even cleaned the engine and frame.

[Throttle Crazy]

http://www.motorgen.com/pic/data/500/medium/clean_fj40.jpg

[Throttle Crazy]

[EDIT: Vettezuki, man you love using the URL instead of IMG tags. :)]

http://www.motorgen.com/pic/data/500/medium/fj40_int_.jpg