DB_1
Elite Ranger
- Joined
- October 23, 2001
- Messages
- 3,765
- Reaction score
- 42
- City, State
- La Quinta, Ca.
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 97 SC Ranger xlt
Well, since i'm the first one back from TDS I get to give the report. Rick ended up not coming out so it was BKennedy and a friend of his with a Samurai, Jefe, Bro of Jefe and myself. They had set up camp up on a mesa away from the madness below. There must have been 500 to 700 rigs @ TDS if I had to guess and thats not including the motor homes and tow rigs. More than half of the rigs were jeeps but there was a little bit of everything there.
First thing we did was head over to the vendors area and check things out. It was getting pretty warm already by mid morning so we decided to hit the trails.
We didn't have a real game plan of where we wanted to go but thats the beauty of T-haven, you just point and any direction and say lets go there and just go!
We noticed a large crowd was gathered over by an obstacle called the waterfall so we went to have a look see for ourselves. On the way over, Jefe found a nice sized rock to test his flex out. Pretty impressive as he got his tire on top of a 5.5 foot rock AND finally lifts a rear tire. Not to be out done, Bro of Jefe takes a whack at it. Equally impressive flex too as he gets a tire on top
too but thats not enough, he tries a different angle and gets TWO tires on top
He inched forward even more and thats when disaster struck...WHAM! he flops over on the side from 5 feet high. He was ok and suprisingly the jeep suffered minimal damage. But wait theres more None of us had a winch but the Tin Benders were driving by so we they were glad to give us a hand with one of their winches. The way John (Bro of Jefe) was wedged in there he couldnt simply be winched on all fours, he had to be winched until his tires touched the rock he just fell off and then back down it...worked like a charm. If you know anything about the Tin Benders they are a wild but cool bunch of guys. Of of the rigs in their group was a Toybuggy...basicly a tube chassis on a Toyota frame, he gives the rock a try in his buggy and guess what he ends up on his side too. Now when you belong to the Tin Benders you find unique ways to exctract yourself and in this case if you have 2 wheels touching the ground you still have some kind of traction right? He gassed the buggy and turned the steering wheel and drove it to upright position...amazing.
We finally made it over to the waterfall and there was a HUGE crowd there. The Toybuggy was taking his first run up the waterfall, he hit the first bump, got the front wheels airborn while heavy on the throttle and bang went his T-case output shaft. Some of the Azusa canyon mud guys were there in their fullsized beasts. One of them started up the middle but his buddy cut him off on the right and left him him the dust, everyone was cheering...classic! After an hour of that we went back out on the trails. BKennedy wanted to find a trail we went on last time that involved a hill climb then hooked to the right on the descent and had a very steep face...well Brian managed to find it and it was just as hairy as last time. This was Brians friend Dan (Suzuki)
first time off roading so he must have crapped a brick over that obstacle We drove on a little more after that then found a wash and headed back to camp. Jefe at some point took a different path other than the main wash we were on to get ahead of us...Brian was leading and I was behind him and then Dan and Bro of Jefe followed. We heard a faint "help" in between the other CB traffic on there but didn't realize it was Jefe.
Brian and me pull over and Dan came up to tell us Jefe just flopped over on his side. Appearantly Jefe took a twisty section too fast and tipped his rig over. Out came the strap and Bro of Jefe got him back on all fours. A broken drivers side mirror and dented rear panel was all the damage sustained...no broken windows.
Later that night we went on a night run in the little ditches. Another huge crowd gathered at the larger ditches...seemed like half of TDS was there. There was a real off camber section rigs were driving through and quite a few of them rolled it but maybe on purpose to get cheers from the crowd. We ended up doing another run after that mayhem til about midnight. Perfect wheelin weather, full moon and mild temps...we were having so much fun I don't think we realized how late it was. We got back to camp and I aired up and headed home...it was a hell of a day.
I'll post pics later after I resize them.
First thing we did was head over to the vendors area and check things out. It was getting pretty warm already by mid morning so we decided to hit the trails.
We didn't have a real game plan of where we wanted to go but thats the beauty of T-haven, you just point and any direction and say lets go there and just go!
We noticed a large crowd was gathered over by an obstacle called the waterfall so we went to have a look see for ourselves. On the way over, Jefe found a nice sized rock to test his flex out. Pretty impressive as he got his tire on top of a 5.5 foot rock AND finally lifts a rear tire. Not to be out done, Bro of Jefe takes a whack at it. Equally impressive flex too as he gets a tire on top
too but thats not enough, he tries a different angle and gets TWO tires on top
He inched forward even more and thats when disaster struck...WHAM! he flops over on the side from 5 feet high. He was ok and suprisingly the jeep suffered minimal damage. But wait theres more None of us had a winch but the Tin Benders were driving by so we they were glad to give us a hand with one of their winches. The way John (Bro of Jefe) was wedged in there he couldnt simply be winched on all fours, he had to be winched until his tires touched the rock he just fell off and then back down it...worked like a charm. If you know anything about the Tin Benders they are a wild but cool bunch of guys. Of of the rigs in their group was a Toybuggy...basicly a tube chassis on a Toyota frame, he gives the rock a try in his buggy and guess what he ends up on his side too. Now when you belong to the Tin Benders you find unique ways to exctract yourself and in this case if you have 2 wheels touching the ground you still have some kind of traction right? He gassed the buggy and turned the steering wheel and drove it to upright position...amazing.We finally made it over to the waterfall and there was a HUGE crowd there. The Toybuggy was taking his first run up the waterfall, he hit the first bump, got the front wheels airborn while heavy on the throttle and bang went his T-case output shaft. Some of the Azusa canyon mud guys were there in their fullsized beasts. One of them started up the middle but his buddy cut him off on the right and left him him the dust, everyone was cheering...classic! After an hour of that we went back out on the trails. BKennedy wanted to find a trail we went on last time that involved a hill climb then hooked to the right on the descent and had a very steep face...well Brian managed to find it and it was just as hairy as last time. This was Brians friend Dan (Suzuki)
first time off roading so he must have crapped a brick over that obstacle
We drove on a little more after that then found a wash and headed back to camp. Jefe at some point took a different path other than the main wash we were on to get ahead of us...Brian was leading and I was behind him and then Dan and Bro of Jefe followed. We heard a faint "help" in between the other CB traffic on there but didn't realize it was Jefe.Brian and me pull over and Dan came up to tell us Jefe just flopped over on his side. Appearantly Jefe took a twisty section too fast and tipped his rig over. Out came the strap and Bro of Jefe got him back on all fours. A broken drivers side mirror and dented rear panel was all the damage sustained...no broken windows.
Later that night we went on a night run in the little ditches. Another huge crowd gathered at the larger ditches...seemed like half of TDS was there. There was a real off camber section rigs were driving through and quite a few of them rolled it but maybe on purpose to get cheers from the crowd. We ended up doing another run after that mayhem til about midnight. Perfect wheelin weather, full moon and mild temps...we were having so much fun I don't think we realized how late it was. We got back to camp and I aired up and headed home...it was a hell of a day.
I'll post pics later after I resize them.
