Summary thoughts

[Curious Hound]

Hey everybody. I just wanted to share my thoughts about this weekend. Pictures are slowly coming in on the other threads. But there's more than just photos.

This weekend was awesome. But it wasn't the weather or the camping or the wheeling that had the most influence on making it an awesome event. It was the people. We have a really great group of people here. All the teamwork and camaraderie that we see in this forum was demonstrated face to face at Southington. People sharing what they had, cooperating, helping each other on the trails and in the camping area, sharing stories and connecting is what this group is all about. I know there are others who wanted to be there and would have been participating in the same ways. We have a great group here at TRS.

Y'all are my friends. You have been since I joined a few years ago. These friendships were solidified through our face to face interaction s this weekend. We couldn't ask for a better group of forum members. I'm proud to be among you.

Special thanks to AgPete for riding with me, spotting for me and even helping out with my camera by taking pictures when I was preoccupied with driving and trying to keep us unhurt. Jim, JohnnyO and Micah ( forgot Micah's username) also helped me a lot with spotting and problem solving when I got stuck on top of some hard places. I must publicly acknowledge Micah's help when he used his er, umm, "Jeep" to pull me off the rocks that were threatening my driveshaft.

I learn a lot from you folks here on the forum. I also learned a lot from you on the trails this weekend. This was an invaluable learning experience for me.

(Edit)
Also, many thanks to Jim for coordinating this event and hosting our website. He is a great man for the job.


Thanks again, to all of you.

By the way. Jim is threatening to change my username in the near future. So watch out for that. I'll wear the new name with honor if he does it.

 

[bobbywalter]

hell yeah! awesome to meet you guys. 85's truck was even better then i envisioned......petroleum's truck is absolutely kewl beyond description.

your truck to me is the best of this platform....short bed reg cab. i have seen many stock suspension-no lift with cut fenders and 35's...4.0 with 5 speed with rear welded diffs kick some serious arse.


really wish i would have been there friday.....and i had remembered to put the trac bar on. i regret that because i would have let you guys drive my rig if the bar was on it. its too hard to not get wadded up without it. if we had a bit more time i wanted to rig swap for a bit....maybe next time.


i will hit you up whenever i get to head out and ride the Hatfield McCoy stuff in wv....

 

[JohnnyO]

I know I haven't been around here much the last several years. Life and Sport Tracs kinda got in the way. Great to see old friends and original gangsters Jim, Ryan, Will, Bobby, and Caleb, and meet new people and friends. Weather was perfect, campground nice, trails had a little bit for everyone (except my kinda streety Sport Trac with nearly bald tires, no skid plates, and a blown carrier bearing, so I rode with Jim). Speaking of, the new 2019 Ranger FX4 was damned impressive off road. Could use some more ground clearance but when the approach and breakover angles were doable it was as good as the Heep Rubicons that were all over the place since there was a big Heep event there too. Kudos to Jim for organizing the whole thing, I know it's not easy.

 

[fastpakr]

Between a hundred or more Jeeps, our group, and all the individuals that showed up at SOR, that place was hopping this weekend. Friday evening was filled with the music from the Jeep crowd well into the night, and Saturday brought the siren song of engines wailing at a 24 hour race at the nearby Nelson Ledges racetrack. Quite a weekend! I hope we can do another one next year.

 

[ryan]

Great seeing everyone. Lot of fun seeing everyone, wasn't expecting to see TRS 2 running either.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

hell yeah! awesome to meet you guys. 85's truck was even better then i envisioned......

If not for Jim, this site, TRS1 and people like you my truck would have probably been crushed 10+ years ago... not flying across four states at flank speed.

 

[Will]

Needed name tags. Most of us changed our board names to our real names 15 years ago partly so we would know who each other were when we had rides. It was great to see people enthusiastic about trucks and maybe I'm a little more motivated to start dragging pieces together.

I think we should do this again. We used to do these 3x a year--Spring, Fall and Winter. If Jim can't make it from down there where roadkill changes from raccoons to armadillos, we could have a cardboard cutout of him and do selfies next to it.

After riding with Ryan, my expectations of what a truck should be able to do are all screwed up. Instead of building a truck I might ride a mule at the next run. Then we can barbecue it after.

 

[JohnnyO]

I think we should do this again. We used to do these 3x a year--Spring, Fall and Winter. If Jim can't make it from down there where roadkill changes from raccoons to armadillos, we could have a cardboard cutout of him and do selfies next to it.

Well, there was that one time in the winter when we almost died from exposure and frostbite. Anyone who wasn't there would think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Jim the off-road writer put down his camera and journalist hat and was helping winch people out. Good thing his previous job was training the participants for the Camel Trophy excursions. Again, you might think I'm kidding but I'm not. Jim was extraordinarily kind to us in the magazine article.

 

[Will]

And Jim Allen liked the 6.2, Bobby. Just saying.

That was a cluster-phawk, no question. Honestly, we had too many people show up. I think there were almost 30 trucks. Whoever led all of those trucks down into the creek bed, I don't remember. But I know a few trucks had some problems that slowed them down--Sambo had to change his starter laying in the freezing water, for instance. And then the cold came in hard and froze everything. It was tough, and a good thing Jim didn't have a cheap winch because that damn thing ran for hours pulling those basterds out.

Holy crap! That was 2004!

https://www.therangerstation.com/articles/a-snowballs-chance-in-wellsville/

 

[Will]

The other thing that just popped into my head was the trouble I had with my tow vehicle. I had a '90 Chevy 2500 with a 6.2 diesel and Banks turbo. But the fuel heater wasn't working, which I didn't know until that night. After I got the B2 back onto the trailer after this event, I couldn't get the truck to run. It was below zero and the fuel was wax. I finally got it to run, but onlyif it was making power, which mean I went from Calcutta to the Lisbon Inn wide open without letting off the gas. I rode the brakes hard and kept the gas to the floor when I needed to slow down. The next morning I left Ohio at 100mph to keep the engine warm enough so the fuel would stay liquid. I threw away the factory filter/heater and ran a Racor for the next 12 years after that.

 

[JohnnyO]

Holy crap! That was 2004!

https://www.therangerstation.com/articles/a-snowballs-chance-in-wellsville/

Somehow I made a wrong turn, or a right turn depending on your point of view, and didn't end up in the creek bed later. As I recall we went through it earlier before it was frozen. At that time I would typically lead the "No Body Damage Group" of generally newer trucks and hit some hills and mud and such but stay away from trees and rocks. We opted to bag it when the ground started freezing and we were having problems getting traction. I ended up waiting at the entrance with a few others for several hours. We could hear over the CB that they were in trouble but by then it was dark and we had no idea where they were and figured if we went back out we'd just make it worse.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Definitely had a good time. I’ll admit, I was bummed that with the problems I ran into getting the choptop serviceable meant that I didn’t make it out until Saturday, then to have the group hit the trails while I was getting checked in, then insult to injury deciding to try a hill climb and snapping my front axle shaft within 5 minutes of being in the park, I thought my weekend was over and wasted. But it only got better from there and I discovered that the choptop goes surprisingly well in 2wd. Hopefully next time I can be better prepared, the choptop got ignored for a few years because of having hip surgery and other problems and it became a last minute rush to make it all work. That’s going to have to change because I want to see more trail rides again.

An awesome group of people though, was nice to get to see Jim, Will, Ryan, Johnny O and others again plus meet some new people

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Definitely had a good time. I’ll admit, I was bummed that with the problems I ran into getting the choptop serviceable meant that I didn’t make it out until Saturday, then to have the group hit the trails while I was getting checked in, then insult to injury deciding to try a hill climb and snapping my front axle shaft within 5 minutes of being in the park, I thought my weekend was over and wasted. But it only got better from there and I discovered that the choptop goes surprisingly well in 2wd. Hopefully next time I can be better prepared, the choptop got ignored for a few years because of having hip surgery and other problems and it became a last minute rush to make it all work. That’s going to have to change because I want to see more trail rides again.

An awesome group of people though, was nice to get to see Jim, Will, Ryan, Johnny O and others again plus meet some new people

I caught you walking by on camera as we were getting ready to head out, I didn't know who you were yet though.

Thanks for the keys again!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

You’re welcome, I ended up making PetroleumJunkie a set too, which reminds me that I need to order more blanks

 

[fastpakr]

I missed the memo that you were on site until hours after you arrived.