A Day of Firsts

I'm gona start off by saying how proud and happy I am. Proud because of how well my family did their first time wheelin in their vehicles. Happy because of how much they enjoyed it. Happy for them because I know that feeling when you put it in low range and attempt your first hill climb and you don't know if what you're doing is right because you're looking at the sky across the front of your hood and the adrenaline is pumping through your body because the feeling is so new and when you finally arrive at the top and are able to see landscape instead of clouds you get that wonderful feeling of accomplishment and you want to find a new hill and do it all over again. I know they have the bug now for one little reason...they're already talking about upgrades! Butcher Jones can do that to you. My dad Gene is in the 07 Wrangler, my brother Reggie is in the 99 Ram, my sister Sandra is in the 69 Suburban, which had a manual transmission, good job Samo, and my Brother in law Andy and I were behind the lens. He's gona make a dvd of the trip. Andy's good at that stuff. I wish he could come on all the trails with us! Here's some pics of the trip, I hope you enjoy.

Queen Valley

On December 6, 2008 a bunch of us went on an LDW club run to the Queen Valley area. Not every one is posted in the pictures so I'm gona go ahead and list em all. I'll try to do it in chronological order, well...I'll group the people in the vehicles and go by the oldest one in the vehicle, if that makes any sense. Tom and Blaine Baker were in Blaine's 83 F150. (Which was it's inaugural run). Chris and Nique Specht were in Nique's 78 F150. Kerry Moncur (founder of LDW) and his family were in the Toyota Land Cruiser. I was in my Liberty. Jesse Baker and his family were in his "Ultimate Montero". Billy Baker was in his Cherokee. And JT was in his YJ Wrangler. The trail was pretty easy for the most part. We never HAD to do anything hard to get by. But we did find a few obstacles off to the side of the wash along the way. Like the one in the pics below.

Only one scenic pic for this post.

And some more pics of my Liberty.
How pretty...see the untouched rock slider on the passenger side. It didn't even get touched on this trip.
We'll be back to this trail again soon! Billy found some more difficult areas that we're itchin to try. We just didn't have enough time on this trip.

Spare Tire Mount

Reggie wanted a place to keep two 37" spare tires in his bed so I took it as the perfect opportunity to hone my tubing bender skills, which actually need grinding first! These are some pics of the unfinished project. Reggie decided he wanted to add some sort of containment for two, five gallon fuel cans. So there will be another post of the finished product soon. Notice the bed mounts, they're mounts for a fifth wheel hitch. They were in the truck when he bought it so we went ahead and used those for mounting plates. Normally I would use some 3/16" strap. For something more permanent I would go through the bed and tie it into the frame. We had to cut up a floor mat to put under the plate to save the rim. when it's done there will be a clean cut piece of rubber from a heavy duty semi truck mudflap. And that allthread won't be sticking out like an antenna.
It's gona look good!

Rough and Ready?

It's rough...but nowhere close to ready. I acquired a 1988 Jeep Cherokee Wagoneer for another project. Don't really know what type of build I'm gona do but I'm pretty sure it's gona be a trailer queen for now. First things first, it has to be stripped down and needs a rear axle. Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure I already have a 5"lift for it and some half doors or safari doors are also planned.