Dingman

Hey y'alls.
We (my 4x4 club) have just finished up another fun holiday wheeling event. Normally, I don't post much here about our events but we had quite a few Toyota's show up this year. We're not sure why and the people didn't know each other (a few exceptions) but, there they were.
Since we were heavy on Toy's, I figured I might copy part of my trail report from our BB to this post, just so no one can say they didn't know cool wheelin' happens in Iowa (not many places to wheel tho, I'll admit).
So, here's some copied text and vid links after that.
Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 10:26 pm Post subject: Memorial Day Wheeling - Dingman's Account
Weather the week before~ Rain! And a fair bit of it too, at least where I live (55 miles away from the wheelin' grounds).
Weather the day I got there~ Rain! Suits me salute

As usual, I didn't get there until late on Saturday. As most of you know, I rebuilt my front axle right before the trip and didn't finish until Friday night before and then Saturday I still had to get the skidplate, front brakes, front driveshaft installed and then I needed to get packed. So, I didn't get there until maybe 3 PM on Saturday.

Of course, I had to get the tent set up and the tires aired down, so around 4 PM, I hit the trails. I didn't get very far before we ran into that red Bronco2 who had busted a bead and was blocking the exit to that first low intersection. He had a friend on the way but I winched him up out of the rut anyway so he had somewhere to work on the tire.

After that, we (my passenger and I) kinda took off on our own and we went down to the creek. Naturally, after all the rain the trails were all slick but the creek wasn't really deeper than usual. We tooled around in the creek a little and came up against one exit trail that I couldn't get all the way up. There's a large root at the top and tho I got the front end of the truck over it, I couldn't get the rear tire to pull over it. Also, I didn't try very hard, I was still "warming up" and the sun would be going down soon, I didn't need anything weird to happen.

Went to the end of the creek and tackled that hill leaving the creek there. It's a little easier but still has a few rocks and plenty of mud. I did get up the first time with a little effort and thought it would make for good video, so I dropped off my passenger with the camera and I went back down the trail and turned around in the creek and came back up.
Unfortunately, on the way down, I somehow kicked up a branch that was laying flat in the mud previously. Coming up the hill, I didn't see the branch and when I did, I though I could push it down and get over it without much trouble. Bad plan, the branch got wedged up behind my front wheel and so I had to stop and wrestle the branch out. I was lucky it didn't rip a brake line or bust my shock. As it was, it wasn't a huge deal but it sure screwed up the video. Bummer.
But no damage from the branch and I'll make sure I put a small saw in my toolbox so that I can more easily get that kind of stuff out of the way.
Even tho the skys looked pretty clear after the morning rains, the clouds moved in and by the time we got back to the playground, it quickly started raining pretty heavily. It was kind of interesting because it made it harder to get out of the playground and there were quite a few vehicles down there.
Rather than climb one of the hills, I attempted to use that "lower exit", the one with the really large 3-4 holes. I thought I could get thru the shallowest of them but I chose wrongly and got stuck pretty quick. I got pulled out pretty quick too, so no biggie. Got around the hole and back out OK.

That's all I did on Saturday on the trails and in fact, got in late enough that we almost missed the BBQ.

Saturday night was also pretty typical for me in that I was tired enough from working on my truck into the wee hours in the morning (that axle rebuild that almost prevented me from coming) that I crashed early (around 10?) and so missed most of the festivities. There was a large video screen and someone showing video from the day there, but I went to get something to eat instead of watching.
There was some hootin' and hollerin' until it started bothering me and then I put in my handy-dandy earplugs. No more trouble.

Sunday, we got some coffee and breakfast around 8 and hit the trails soon after, probably around 9.
I did have a little trouble getting my truck started. Apparently I got some mud\crud in my starter when stuck in the hole the day before and the contacts in there were stuck. I'm familiar with Toyota starters tho and gave it a whack and it started fine after that.
Whew, a bit tired tonight, I'll post more later with video links.

crazy kids in a Zuki

Mostly toyota's

Non-Toy Buggy

I hate utube, the quality just suks.

I do have larger-res down loadable vids if you want to see better copies. A little big for modems, but cable can get them in just a few mins. Here's the links, they are the same vids as on ut.
RIGHT CLICK, DAVE AS, VID 03

RIGHT CLICK, DAVE AS, VID 04

RIGHT CLICK, DAVE AS, VID 06A

fishon1213

Where are you guys wheeling at? Im in the quad cities and cant find any decent trails. Just wondering if you were somewhat close.

Dingman

South of Knoxville about 12 miles.

check out www.miobi.org for details.