Hammer
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- February 24, 2000
- Messages
- 582
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Scottsdale, AZ
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 91 4Door 4X4 Explorer XLT
Well guys it’s been a while. Due to my latest venture and the amount of time effort and stress involved I have not been on this site as much as I once was. I wanted to get some info on what has been going on with my Ex and what I am doing now.
I had a 1991 4 door Explorer that over time ended up being quite the rock bus. It was perfect for my family(my wife, two girls and gear). As my taste for hard core rock crawling has grown so has my Explorer. Over the years it ended up with Dana 60s front and rear with ARBs, Atlas 5.0, Hughes C-6, and a Mustang 5.0 and Hydraulic assist to name a few mods. As my taste grew it seemed the trails got smaller, they tried to make my Ex smaller. I did my best to follow my new buggy buddies but hard to believe that old lady was too big and burly for the trails I was putting her into.
So Two years ago after breaking my sector shaft again at the Bronco Rally (Hey its a Bronco III) I decided I wanted to build a buggy. That February I traveled for the day to a somewhat unknown race called "King of the Hammers" A friend of mine, Tracy Jordan was competing in his new "Rock Bug" and I wanted to see it and what this race was all about. I had seen the video from Shannon Campbell’s win and was extremely interested in watching the race. We had a blast, helping in the pits and enjoying the race. We came home from that with a dream of building a rig and competing. Winter turned to spring and Spring to Summer and that’s when the 2009 KOH video came out. I received some copies for the shop to sell and ended up watching it on loop in the shop for the next two days. I also watched it at home. Meanwhile my Ex was sitting in my carport at home on Jack stands cause the tires all had plugs that were not holding.
THEN IT CAME TO ME!!!!!
We had just agreed to have a close friend set up a fabrication shop in one of my open bays. I offered some free rent to build a buggy that would compete in the race. He was excited as he has always been a racer at heart. We now had two members of the team, we needed a co-pilot. A very close friend who Rick introduced me to and who ran this Fly-N-Hi location for years Sam Stienman was called. He said you better have some money and we better ask our wives, I said if our wives gave us the OK I will sell my organs if I have to. We scheduled a meeting with friends that were interested in being involved next thing we no we have a race team. It was September and we had until February to get the vehicle completed.
WOW, the next few months consisted of many 2AM departures and 8 AM returns. We ran our normal business during the day and at 6:30 it was fab time. I spent the majority of my time drafting letters, making phone calls, sending e-mails all asking for support. My concentration was on the Arizona based companies as I pride myself as being one. They take care of me as I would take care of them. We struck a deal with Copper State Nut and Bolt that ended up getting us in with the Performance Automotive Group, (TrailMaster, Or-Fab and Performance Accessories). They were huge and got us into the race... not the qualifier but the race itself! Second was a teammate from my Football days, he owns Valley Steel Supply and before I knew it we had the material to make the vehicle and the entry into the race.
Now we needed to put a drive train under the vehicle, Where could we get one? Thats where some of you might want to sit down and move any sharp object away from your reach......
More later with Pictures.
I had a 1991 4 door Explorer that over time ended up being quite the rock bus. It was perfect for my family(my wife, two girls and gear). As my taste for hard core rock crawling has grown so has my Explorer. Over the years it ended up with Dana 60s front and rear with ARBs, Atlas 5.0, Hughes C-6, and a Mustang 5.0 and Hydraulic assist to name a few mods. As my taste grew it seemed the trails got smaller, they tried to make my Ex smaller. I did my best to follow my new buggy buddies but hard to believe that old lady was too big and burly for the trails I was putting her into.
So Two years ago after breaking my sector shaft again at the Bronco Rally (Hey its a Bronco III) I decided I wanted to build a buggy. That February I traveled for the day to a somewhat unknown race called "King of the Hammers" A friend of mine, Tracy Jordan was competing in his new "Rock Bug" and I wanted to see it and what this race was all about. I had seen the video from Shannon Campbell’s win and was extremely interested in watching the race. We had a blast, helping in the pits and enjoying the race. We came home from that with a dream of building a rig and competing. Winter turned to spring and Spring to Summer and that’s when the 2009 KOH video came out. I received some copies for the shop to sell and ended up watching it on loop in the shop for the next two days. I also watched it at home. Meanwhile my Ex was sitting in my carport at home on Jack stands cause the tires all had plugs that were not holding.
THEN IT CAME TO ME!!!!!
We had just agreed to have a close friend set up a fabrication shop in one of my open bays. I offered some free rent to build a buggy that would compete in the race. He was excited as he has always been a racer at heart. We now had two members of the team, we needed a co-pilot. A very close friend who Rick introduced me to and who ran this Fly-N-Hi location for years Sam Stienman was called. He said you better have some money and we better ask our wives, I said if our wives gave us the OK I will sell my organs if I have to. We scheduled a meeting with friends that were interested in being involved next thing we no we have a race team. It was September and we had until February to get the vehicle completed.
WOW, the next few months consisted of many 2AM departures and 8 AM returns. We ran our normal business during the day and at 6:30 it was fab time. I spent the majority of my time drafting letters, making phone calls, sending e-mails all asking for support. My concentration was on the Arizona based companies as I pride myself as being one. They take care of me as I would take care of them. We struck a deal with Copper State Nut and Bolt that ended up getting us in with the Performance Automotive Group, (TrailMaster, Or-Fab and Performance Accessories). They were huge and got us into the race... not the qualifier but the race itself! Second was a teammate from my Football days, he owns Valley Steel Supply and before I knew it we had the material to make the vehicle and the entry into the race.
Now we needed to put a drive train under the vehicle, Where could we get one? Thats where some of you might want to sit down and move any sharp object away from your reach......
More later with Pictures.
