Western MA - Wheelin' Weekend

[compleckz]

specs:
me 97 ranger 33's lockers f/r 6" skyjacker class 2
tim 97 ranger 33's rear locker, 2" lift
greg 94 b4000 33's rear l/s, 6" skyjacker class 1, 3" bl,

day 1 - friday night
tim (metalmacguyver) drove 3hrs up to my place from plymouth.. we worked on my e-brake.. then we went out in his truck to a small little power lines trail 5 mins from my house.

then somehow he ran himself over

then we got stuck "on purpose", to test out his new winch/bumper

we messed around that night swapping some of my new tires onto my old rims by hand...


day 2 - saturday
tim and i went and got my truck inspected in the morning, then we got the trucks wheelable. that afternoon greg (B4000) showed up from CT, after swapping in his new rear end. he had punched a hole in his front diff from some rough country drop brackets, so tim had a new diff for him and we got into swapping that. things go quite fast when you have 3 rbv owners helping.

the rigs

that night we went out in tim and greg's truck to tunnel road, and did some night wheelin'.

i had to pull tim up the first rock face last time we did tunnel, but we were hoping with the new rear locker, that it would be a breeze. the trail was wetter than last time, so he had to winch up it.

greg has open diffs, so he had to get strapped up

my girlfriend and her brother rode along with us.

then greg had to go and pop out a coil

we camped out that night and had some brews

day 3 - sunday
this was the main wheeling day, we went back to the powerlines trail tim got stuck on, cuz greg is obsessed with mud--and i wanted to show tim up, cuz he said i would get stuck where he did "your lockers won't help".

pre-wheeling clean truck.

at the first obstacle, i tried to crawl up--and we realized my left hub wasnt locking, so i 3 wheeled the trail. when we got home i pulled the hub and just had to lube it up.. then i realized i forgot to unhook my swaybar (had to be hooked up for inspection)..

had to test it out before we hit the trail, so i did some back yard wheelin.

i love this pic, too bad you guys were standing in the pic! i can send the fullsize pic to anyone who can photoshop out the people... pls?

the main event, old florida road:

i'll let tim fill in the details on this break, all i know is the fix was my idea

greg loves mud so he went for the bog pond, i hate mud, and hate repacking my wheelbearings--so i took the bypass--and tim's truck would have been swallowed whole with only 2" lift.

this line has a pretty hard bottom

end of the trail

tim's carnage:

my crazy extreme carnage:

tim f'ed his truck up pretty bad.. sliders will be his next project, not that theres much left to protect!

 

[compleckz]

short videos:

me crawling and my poooor tranny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g6ExCJ_tls

greg going balls out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBKUzSvxf-Q

tim picking his own line as always, and hitting a tree, lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU6Jzp7j2As

 

[KELLY88]

Nice pictures. Looks like you guys had a great wheeling weekend. I do have a question though, I've got some powerline trails around me but thought they weren't public land. What exactly is the law on powerline land?

 

[metalmacguyver]

i'll let tim fill in the details on this break, all i know is the fix was my idea

Yeah, I picked a bad line over some rocks and SLAMMED my tranny crossmember. It was so bad that the tcase output flange and the driveshaft joint were against my cab floor.

So I used my winch with with the cable running around a log that was being held up against the frame of the cab by the cable. The log made it so that the cable was pulling down as well as forward on the member.

It bent it back enough so that I was able to drive home last night.

 

[metalmacguyver]

Maybe Ill fab up a tranny crossmember. If its as beefy as my bumper, it will definately not be a problem ever again.

 

[compleckz]

Nice pictures. Looks like you guys had a great wheeling weekend. I do have a question though, I've got some powerline trails around me but thought they weren't public land. What exactly is the law on powerline land?

might vary state to state, but it is private land, and ive been told two different things--
1.) its power company land, and generally around here they dont care if you just wheel the trail.

2.) the land is owned by individuals, and the power company just has the right of way

i have no idea, but the the lines around here i wheel, everyone wheels--and have been since i've been alive. people use quads and snowmobiles on them too, there are private side trails that say no trespassing--which i don't wheel, but there are no gates or signs where the power line trails intersect the public roads.

 

[KELLY88]

might vary state to state, but it is private land, and ive been told two different things--
1.) its power company land, and generally around here they dont care if you just wheel the trail.

2.) the land is owned by individuals, and the power company just has the right of way

i have no idea, but the the lines around here i wheel, everyone wheels--and have been since i've been alive. people use quads and snowmobiles on them too, there are private side trails that say no trespassing--which i don't wheel, but there are no gates or signs where the power line trails intersect the public roads.

Thanks for the info. The ones around here don't have any No Trespassing signs but they are blocked off with half-assed gates. Probably means don't enter.

 

[compleckz]

So I used my winch

yea, he won't let me operate the winch, something about solenoids being delicate....

 

[Destroyer000]

crazy fun... i definatley would have liked to go but i prolly would have held ya guys back ...

 

[compleckz]

im sure the b2 would have rocked out, short wheelbase stylez

 

[Maverick]

Thats sweet. I didnt think there was any public land left to wheel on in MA.

 

[BogEater]

is that around north adams or springfield?

 

[compleckz]

Thats sweet. I didnt think there was any public land left to wheel on in MA.

yup, theres quite a few "unmaintained" or "discontinued" roads in my area. the problem is, most of them are less than a mile long, and maybe have 1 or 2 good obstacles.

OFR is about 4 miles long, and has multiple obstacles--some are very challenging, some you just need to take it slow and use your experience. its especially hard maneuvering a long wheelbase vehicle like my extended cab w/ locked front end through these local trails, but i'm pretty much used to it now.

im big on maintaining trails (trees/trash clean-up), wheeling only known legal trails, and not ripping up the trail--if you cant make it wit a few lines tries, get tugged/winch up it. many people i know around here are the people that screw up the trails--and give all wheelers a bad name.

 

[mkpecor]

i hate when the coil pops out. nice pics

 

[TrucksGetDirty]

Tore that Mazda apart, its still nice!


Awesome pictures, looks like a lot more fun wheeling out there then here.