BIG pines run 6-17 & pendell run 6-18

[Tom Wilk]

OK, Tank, I am staying in Ho-Jo's in Blackwood. It doesn't look too far from where we are meeting, at least not on the map.

One question, what's the easiest way to get through Philly? I'm sure that there will be some big city traffic there, though I intend to drive through around 7 PM or so. I'll be approaching the city on I-76.

[Edited by Tom Wilk on 06-12-2000 at 08:07 AM]

 

[J91FORD]

I just wanted to check in with you guys and let you know ill still be there. I havent posted in a while.

I am looking for different places to go wheeling around this area I found one place about 10 mins. from pendell but i havent checked it out yet i herd it is supose to be good as soon as this rain clears up i will take a ride back there.

Hey Tank if you are still loking for clubs i found one "lifted spirits" It is for all trucks. they havent had many people interested so they are kinda at a stand still.
They are lookin for people to take charge as far as recruting people and planning the trips If you are interested let me know.

 

[EMStaxi]

Hey Tank, I guess your Raindance worked :

I'm still in for Sat. One of the guys I had coming with me waited too late to find coverage, so now he can't go. I still have one coming with me. I figure if we are meeting where I met you before, we should be there between 8:30 and 9:00.
How much were those D clips? If they are not that expensive, could you pick one up for me and I'll reimburse you Sat.
I'll be wathing the post for any updates. Talk to you guys soon.

 

[Tom Wilk]

Tank, are we still planning on meeting at Command Enterprises? I'm leaving here tomorrow around 10 AM or so for Blackwood so I'll need some instruction before that.

I haven't put the new springs on yet, as I have to wait for Ford to get my new bushings so I'll be at the same height as I've been which isn't too bad. I'm going to try to get the rear shocks on if I have time; I already put the fronts on. I definately have a little preparation work to do today.

 

[Eagle]

It was down to the wire

Is everyone ready to rock and roll? Bring your galoshes cause it might be muddy. Well I didn’t want to raise any red flags but I didn’t know until today if I was able to make this trip. This gosh darn buy out of our company almost upset this whole weekend. I told them that they can contact me via cell phone should anything go wrong. Yea. Good luck trying to reach me in gods country. One sad note. My trucks leaf spring pin is still broken. I have installed a temp fix and will be driving the beast. Cannot wait to see everyone their. Mmmmmm piney burger.

 

[Tom Wilk]

EMS, I'm planning on meeting at the same place you folks met last time as well, since I haven't heard otherwise. 8:30 AM sounds good on Saturday. I got the driving instructions/location from the previous thread on your last trip, so it shouldn't be hard to find. In fact, here's what Tank wrote in that thread:

/begin quote/

....
now .... we will meet at 9:00 am at

COMMAND ENTERPRISES
700 N DELSEA DR
PITMAN NJ
856-589-7875

directions : the easyest way to get there is rout 55 take exit ( i think its 56 ) for pitman , glassboro ... this will put you on woodburry glassboro road... go thru 2 lights ( close together) then the next light will be about a mile ( there will be a wawa on your far left) make a left at the light onto holly ave... holly will bring you to a light at rout 47 delsea dr, you can only go left or right.... you will be facing a house, on the right of the house is kelly carpets and on the left of the house is a parking lot then a white building ( that is command someone stole our sign) pull into the parking lot and youre there.

for those coming from the north and want to take the turnpike ... take exit 3 after the toll go down the ramp for camden... as soon as you get off the exit and onto the road get to your left... make a left at the first light ( less that 100 yards from the ramp i think) there is a wendys at the light... this will put you into and industrial park... follow the road to the end...you will be facing a gas station make a right then a quick left ( to go around the gas station ) you will come to another intersection where you can only go left or right...go left ...this will take you over rout 42 directly after the overpass turn left ...this will take you to the on ramp for rout 42 .... once on 42 watch for the onramp for rout 55 then follow the other directions from there

------------------

if you never get stuck, you just arent playing hard enough

Fortunately God looks out for fools and 4-wheelers, or am I being redundant.


/end quote/

 

[EMStaxi]

Tom, those directions are good, but there is no sign for Command Enterprises.
Tank, if you can, give us the landmark by your job. I believe it was the Carpet place. If there is a gas staion up the block before your job tell me the name too, so I can look for it. I found some 31's for a decent price at a used tire shop. BFGoodrich AT\KO's for $75/piece. Hope to pick them up in the AM. Also getting transfer case/front diff fluids changed... So, I'm just about ready..:redexp:...:

Tom, i'm about 2hrs away so I should be there by 8:45. Have a safe trip here and I'll see you sat.
P.s. Tank, What channel will you guys be on when your at Command, because I can hollar out for you guys when I get in the area...This way I don't travel 5 miles past you again

 

[Tom Wilk]

I'm Baaaaaack

Well, I made it home in one piece. First, I want to say thanks to all who attended at Pendall Saturday. And, thanks to Randy for doing the Pines on Sunday morning with me. It was a totally new experience for me with all that mud.

Secondly, I can finally say "If you've never been stuck, you just aren't playing hard enough." Yes, I indeed got stuck. So stuck that my diffy made a very nice impression in the sandy mud at Pine Barrens. I was buried up to the skid plates. It took all the recovery tools available to finally extract the Explorer. The hand winch didn't work. A simple tug with Randy's J**p didn't work. We finally resorted to the high lift jack, after I dug a hole to put the jack in. We had to lift it up and stuff all kinds of logs and such under the rear tires to get the belly off the ground, then tug it out with the j**p. It was interesting to say the least (BTW, thanks much, Randy!).

Tank's Humvee seemed to be almost unstuckable. He pulled through seemingly impossible terrain with little trouble. Ditto for Eagle's huge K-5 Blazer.

Norman did well with the AWD Explorer, though he did lose the lower trim below the front bumper on his Mountaineer in the big mudhole at Pendell. He boldly went where most Explorers wouldn't go.

There were a total of 4 Explorers, 2 J**ps, a Blazer, and the Humvee at Pendall. Despite the lack of rain, there was plenty of mud to play in, at least in my opinion (others may feel differently about that).

I'll have some pictures up on e-circles as soon as I get them developed. Randy, I hope to see your pics soon as well.

 

[EMStaxi]

Guys, once again I had a great time. :

I got my pictures devolped today. Tom, I got a great shot of you driving though the water. I also have a a great shot of Tank, trying to make it up the hill, the second time, as well as crossing that ditch.

Yes I have been inducted into the "WHOOPS" club. I lost the front bumper valance, as well as the air deflector that covers the under carriage. I will be looking into skid plates now. As far as the back, the bumper reflector was hidden behind 4 lbs of mud. . I looked underneath the truck today, and I didn't sustain any damage. One thing I did notice when I came home was that my pushbar was leaning about an inch forward. I pushed it back into place. SO, all I have to do is replace the front airdam, my homemade ram iar, the air deflector, and realign the front and rear bummpers.

Tom, I wish I could have gone with you and Randy today. Sounds like you guys had a good time. I am glad that you made it out here and enjoyed yourself. On my way home today from work, I did notice that my trip odometer was off by 1/10 of a mile to the odometer. Guess its the tires...

Eagle, Once again, good luck out west.

 

[Eagle]

pit crew needed

Sorry about not showing up on Sunday. As luck would have it I barely made it home. I was about 4 blocks from my house when my temperature gauge went through the roof, my oil press gauge flat lined and I started to blow black smoke out the back. Initial reports states a cracked head. Well if it broke it meant to be replaced. That’s why I didn’t show on Sunday. Damn I wish I was there. I didn’t have a phone number to call. I hope you didn’t wait to long. I had a great time and enjoyed everyone coming out.

TOM WILK: Great looking truck. So ya finally gots it dirty. I am guessing you got pretty dirty to One thing about piney mub you will be cleaning it out for months.

EMSTAXI: What can I say. Ouch. Well at least you tried it. Now all we have to do is talk you into putting a 2 inch lift on that thing and you will be golden. Great job by the way. I will be putting that front hitch mount on my explorer like TOM WILK had.

If anyone took any pictures I would love to see them. You can email them to me at skip12@home.com or send them to TANK and he could forward them to me. Thanks for the great weekend.

 

[Tom Wilk]

Eagle: Cracked head - that's weak. Just kidding, ya know!! Man, its a good thing you got home OK. We waited about 45 minutes or so, then went on our way.

As far as getting it dirty, I got it so dirty that the power washer down the street couldn't get it all off. I had to give it a real hand wash (which I usually do anyway) to get all that sticky mud off. Got a little pinstriping, but it isn't bad. Most of it should rub out with some mild glaze/polishing stuff.

That front hitch really came in handy. It took Randy pulling from the front along with stacking wood under the back tires to get it out. After the extraction, Randy commented that the differential impression in the sandy mud looked like a perfect sand casting mold. Heck, you could have cast the whole underside of the truck with the impression that was there. I was so stuck that we used my truck as an anchor point to pull Randy's J**p out and I had left it in neutral!

I'll be getting the pictures up on e-circles as soon as they get developed. This is mail-in film so I can't take them to the corner store for development. I may be able to link them to here through Photoworks, the place that's developing them. Either way, you can look at them and download the ones you want to see. If you still need them e-mailed, that's no problem. All my pics were from Pendell, none from Pines, though Randy took a few from there. He's planning on posting them on his web page.

I'll say it one more time:

"If you're not stuck, you're not playing hard enough."

 

[J91FORD]

Sounds like you guys had fun sunday at the pines i wish you could of stayed a little longer Tom because i would of took you to the " double bridges" wich would of been a nice little challenge

Well i hope you can make it next time when we go to Paragon.



Eagle, i ment to ask you if you had an extra Scuba tank for sale, I found a new hobby and im taking courses. I just thought i would ask you before buying a new one

 

[Eagle]

Mixed Gas

Sorry. I am mixed gas certified. All of my tanks either have nitrox, tri mix or pure O2. I dive with three tanks. Two steel 120 (3500 psi) and one pony on my back. The fourth is a deco drop tank. A few things I have found about scuba diving. You can check out this sight for cheap equipment pricing. http://www.diverdirect.com

1. It is VERY expensive.
2. Buy right the first time. Spend the money and get the good stuff.

Here is my setup when I dive.
- OMS with stainless steel back plate with dual bladder wings.
- Two dive computers
- 4 regs
- 2 full gauge councils
- 2 dive knives
- 2 lights
- Bug bag
- Spare mask (only if wreck diving.)
- Plain old wet suit. (Don’t go over board it is only going to get scratched up.)
- Gloves. (Again nothing special.)
- And ofcourse my trusty underwater camera.

 

[EMStaxi]

I went shopping around today, and found a place that has a new lower valance for 40 bucks, so I will be picking it up 2morrow. The only thing is it comes in black. Next few weeks I'll practice my painting skills :

 

[Tom Wilk]

J91, I always get a bit nervious when a guy with a lifted Explorer tells me something is "a nice little challenge". Seriously, it was great doing what we did, though I'm always willing to explore new territory. Second childhood, I guess.

Eagle and J91, I think you ought to fit scuba gear (or at least snorkels for the engine and the passinger cabin) to your vehicles, not yourselves... Unless you want to escape from under the "shallow" water crossing. OK, so it really was shallow. How is it during the rainy season?

EMS, glad to hear you found a part so soon and so cheap!

 

[Tom Wilk]

Does anybody have Tank's and Randy's e-mail address? If you do, I'd like to have it. In an effort to keep people's privacy, I think you should send it to me through this site's e-mail system rather than posting it on the forum.

Thanks in advance!

 

[J91FORD]

Hey Tank did you ever hear of the "hidden Lakes"?
From what i understand they are in the pines I m going there friday with a couple J**ps They say its pretty nice with some hill climbs, rocks, sand....
Ill keep ya posted maybe we can get another big run there if its cool i can get at lease 3-4 j**ps to go let me know.

 

[metjeep]

Hi guys--

I have the pictures up. E-mail me at metjeep@worldnet.att.net and I will tell you where as long as I recognize your name (or forum name, or e-mail address).

 

[Eagle]

very VERY cool!!!

I checked out your sight and pics. I think I downloaded them all. What kind of camera were you using. They turned out very good.

 

[metjeep]

Nikon CoolPix 950. It is a great camera. The photos on the web site were taken at a considerably coarser setting than the camera is capable of in order to keep the file size down.