Originally Posted by ChefYota4x4

As many have seen on Richard/Redeth's Page, .... we did the Tierra Del Sol Annual 4WD event. There were HUNDREDS of sponsors, Radio Stations, areas set up for demonstration and execution of CRAZY hill climbs, etc. There were also INSANE vehicles, EVERYWHERE!!!! (You know, it's one of those events that make your rig feel like a POCRAP just for a moment! lol... Meh, s'all good... And I'm Happy for ANYONE who accomplishes and then enjoys such awesome engineering feats!)..... There were rolls(Only one that we saw).... Events at 10pm-1am on Saturday night with THOUSANDS of people all cramped into a small canyon, watching peoples OFTEN DARING testing of their rigs/toys! There were TONS of toys, hot wheelin ladies and plenty of EXCELLENT exhibitions to enjoy!

Before the pics, I just want to thank Richard, Chris and Ruben, Chris' Father(Richards Neighbors), for including me in this trip. Meeting Chris and Ruben was great, as I've heard so much about them...FANTASTIC peeps! They were very generous and kind to me! Also, Ruben and Chris' friend, Armando, showed up with his GF and Quad and 125.... And WHAT A GREAT SPOTTER! The guy was so cool to go ahead for us over the cliffs you couldn't POSSIBLY see over or want to climb(some 100 yards up at 30*degrees, ...YEAH, RIGHT, I'ma hike that every hill in 85+*F weather! ).... Armando was a solid dude, and I'm very thankful! His lady, Sadie, was nice, too... Quite the cutie and very sweet.

We arrived there around 12AM, as we couldn't leave til around 8pm(People gotta work, datz howzit is! )..... Richard cooked our dinner, Saturday night, which was great! Carne Asada and Marinated Pollo! Especially when starving, it's REALLY nice to have some hot food as it's cooling off... AND, as someone who has cooked nearly 25 years for everyone, every day.... it was nice to be cooked FOR, for a change! Thanks, Richard, appreciated!

One thing I will say.... it was VERY hot and VERY much a constant dust cloud heading your way, ..... especially camping right on the road. BUT, arriving at night and not wanting to search, etc.... We just pulled to the side and set up. Evenings though? PERFECTTTTTTTTT weather! 70*F maybe, .... sometimes less... And slept with a sheet over me ON TOP of my bag! lol.... THANKS IN PART to my kick butt insulation... REALLY helped! And, also thanks to the Full Tarp Job/Covering I like to do on trips.... (Pics to come, promise, hehehe)...>>

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Set up the night before, LATE, and didn't take any pics... So in the AM, Popped open my highly blacked out Ruby and got one of the Gazebos we set up........



Groups like this, all around us......THOUSANDS of GROUPS, not just people...









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Richard/"Redeth" and his Lady, Fabby, .... Who is very Fabbylous! haha... No, really, she's a great person! >>> And one with them and their dog they brought, 'Sophie'. They/we had all just gotten up and had breakfast, washed up, etc., getting ready to head out and wheel! .....











Armondo and His Cute lil other half/Lady, as well.... COOL PEOPLE! ..........





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Chris and His Rig, a SICK Super Flexy SAS 87 4Runner with 9bolt WIDE Chevy Axles(His Dad has the 85 Long Bed Pick Up).........





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First, I'll start with OUR wheeling, as a group..........

* Starting out, Chris took a couple side-lines in his beast to test it out on some CRAZY steep hills.......





I got behind Ruben, and with Richard behind me, we headed up into some pretty nasty stuff right off...





Unfortunately, pretty much from the start, Richards rig, not having a locker, would hit some really soft and often pretty difficult stuff to begin with, and lose traction... Then, to add to that, his dang Auto Locking Hubs would disengage every time, backing up to take another line... BUT, he couldn't get forward enough for them to lock again.... So he got stuck within minutes, so Ruben and Chris tied him up and Ruben pulled ole Kingsford out....





While this was resolved, I tested out my new Low Pro Bump Stops, and WOW, did they ever make a difference! .......





Back at it, tailing the DUST BOWL that is the tail of Rubens Beautiful rig, lol...... THANK GOD FOR A/C AND ROLLED UP WINDOWS! hehehehe....





Then, after Richard got stuck a couple more times(mostly due to just parts error... Which he will have fixed, soon!.... )>>> We headed back and parked his Rig and he and Fabby went with one of us, switching back and forth....

Tailing Ruben again and watching Chris often heading up his own stuff here and there... VERY sexy Rig! lol...





Richard taking a few pics from my camera, while he followed/rode with Chris in the 87 SAS....
















NOW; AT THIS POINT, we made it up to the Event! HOLY SMACK DOWN, some sick rigs, even saw a 1st Gen Bronco Flip over, dump all it's gas and then get pulled back upright and drive off! lol.....

Just getting up to the main event, Saturday(one of many events..... This one sponsored by West Coast Gear Heads, IIRC..)>>>







Me and Ruby-Redrum! lol....



Chris, Flexing out that SICK 87 SAS Beast! >>>








Some of the SICK Trucks, Truggies, Buggies, THINGS, hahaha... , at this event.....




















This guy KEPT, OVER AND OVER, taking the wrong line, trying to be different........ And unfortunately for him, flipped, backward and sideways, his Cherry Old Bronco.... 4 People in the rig, total, and within seconds, Gasoline POURED from the tank like a firehose..... Then, some guy, saving the 'BEER', said, "Here, catch!", to Chris, and threw a gas soaked beer to Chris, soaking his hands and pants.... NOT HAPPY, as I'd have felt as well! haha... And, at first, we all thought it was water from the cooler spilling out..... BUT, from 40ft. away, I could instantly smell gas... So I told this one dude, my age..."HEY, that's GASOLINE, not water!".... So he pulled the large cigar from his mouth and said, "Hmmmm, maybe I should put this out, eh?".... DANG that could have been so much worse... BUT, as I said, "Rope, flip back over, roll back, 'VROOOM', stated right up"...hahaha...



Then, we headed out from there up this trail in the pic, as, which you could see in the pics took of us while up there..... we were totally blocked from behind by the time we left, hahaha...










This was a pretty nasty one.....




From the top of that nasty hill/crack in the wall to squeeze through....



Watched another Toy coming up.....




And, up the same hill, a poor dude that had to push his 125 mini/4stroke while gas&clutching it up with him....



Here's an idea of how narrow it was at the top....



And the nasty drop off the other side if you didn't have a spotter and happen to come flying up and over... to the left in the pic.. (I'll show another pic of it too....)>>>



View from the top; HUGE PLAYGROUND! haha....





All of us chilling up top for a minute......



.....and while chilling, we were also watching this CRAZY BEAST of a 4wheel steering/GIANT tired creation, who pulled up and then rolled down the other side.....








And on we go..... See that narrow ridge-top trail ahead of Chris' hood?... Yeah, actually one of the, well, not so much ''challenging'' spots.... but HAIR RAISING? oh YEAAAAAAAAH, BOOOOOOOOOEY! lol... It was VERY eroded at one spot...... Probably aided by 1,000's of rigs heading over it in a couple days... But mostly due to just plain ole mother nature... This was SO narrow at spots, Chris' rig actually edged off a lil at one spot and he gunned out of it and back onto the trail, toward the end. If you go off either way.... it's pretty much a total demolishing of your rig, or worse... ESPECIALLY to the left.... (I have video of this, actually, I'll post all the videos at the end).....



Heading down the other side, back to camp for the night.......



That evening, everyone chilling at camp, I decided to do a solo run through a rock garden I found.... Didn't get any great pics of that... BUT, saw this 3rd Gen Toy Pick Up with 4 wheel steering and what sounded like a 302 or Small block chevy, Huggar Orange, go up and burm shot on the CRAZIEST stuff... I couldn't get the camera fast enough to get that, ... but he was waiting for his buddy in a Jeep, up top, and I thought it was a SICK pic! lol>>>>



Here, you can see him off in the distance, behind me, hahaha....



Came back to camp for the night, near Sunset.......







Got a pretty good couple shots of the 4 of us, before we started dinner and all that....





But these guys? Pffffffbt, ... they don't stop.... NOT ALL NIGHT! .....



Then, later that evening, after they did a Night Run, ... Chris pulled up on his Dad, Ruben's tire, hahaha.... Ruben at first was like, "I'ma kill you!" haha... Jk, ....





Next morning, Sunday the 3rd... People began pouring out of there, early... We got up and did the same, shortly after waking/packing up.....





The Saddest part, of course...... The heading home! hahaha....





I snapped a few on the way home, as I pealed off in my own direction after a short bit on the 10, then reaching the 60......







Snapped a shot of a sign of another spot I love to visit as I passed, hoping it will inspire me to DEMAND more time to get away, and push myself to get back that way(AFTER a trip to the Sierras, of course! hahaha) >>>



More "Way Home Pics", lol....



Right around the time I got there, I didn't notice, but the ODO hit 270K ......



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That's it for the pics..... And unfortunately, I didn't get many videos... And a couple good ones of me, ..... I guess the camera was still on zoom from some previous pics being taken, ... so they were just too close, but I'll post em for the heck of it, anyhow........ (PS> PLEASE Excuse the Language..... Richard didn't mean to, it's just HAIRY in spots, lol.... And, I even let one slip I think, haha.).... If I can figure out how to edit those lil spots out, I will do so shortly, ok MODS? lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sYdZAYzZhM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc5MnXJCBiw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PyrQHg6Aak


Here, you can HEAR the A/C blasting, lol.... AND SOMETHING ELSE..... People are gonna say, "WTH IS THAT????" haha..... So, guess? lol.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbYH2lAMWm0


Couple more....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu8cJXUXsf4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XeS_UGnqg8


Last one is of the last night.... SO MANY PEOPLE out there til all hours, wheeling in the dark.... And MANY spots were FULL of THOUSANDS of people/Hundreds of Rigs, while radio shows and sponsors narrated via PA..... MASSIVE crowds all over the entire grounds... maybe 10K all together? Maybe more, I don't know. BUT, VERY crowded, that much I do know.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xBE1DsWXTk



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That's it for Tierra Del Sol, 2013...... KICK ARSE time! GREAT peeps to go with, thanks again for inviting me, Guys! Also, good food, good music, ..... and aside from people being a lil direspectful with the SUPER loud sounds til 4AM..... EVERYONE was pretty respectful while offroading, NEVER nearly killing me or anyone in our group... AND, usually giving us the right of way.

Hopefully, regarding my Ruby-redruM... , while I think some people thought, before leaving and while there, "OH MAN, look at that pretty thing", haahaha.... They later realized that I'll responsibly, within reason, push this thing to whatever limit I can without destroying it/flipping it(If preventable, lol)... And, that it's FAR more capable than people originally thought it would be. .....) .........

Until next time..... IT'S BACK TO THE MODIFICATIONS AND TWEAKING! OME Leaf Packs should come in this week.... But LOTS to do until they do.

Thanks, Yotatech.... i really enjoy all your write ups and great rigs, stories, etc... Hope this gives someone a smile or idea to get out there!

Chef Out! hahaha.

Originally Posted by rustEDyota83

Just getting caught up on your thread, that' awesome that you are getting your SAS parts and locker ordered, I know you've been waiting anxiously/patiently to do that for a long time. That will be a sweet payoff once the work is done! Can't wait to see the pics as you start the next phase of your build! Enjoyed your and Mark's pics of your recent trip, looked like you all had a blast!!!

Originally Posted by CDN-SMOKEJUMPER

I didn't even know about this event. I will go in the future!

Do you have a base camp area? Is it trailer friendly?

Originally Posted by Co_94_PU

excellent pics guys, had me trying to blink dust out of my eyes a few times

Originally Posted by Cmayer

I was out there with a group and had a ton of fun. Wish I got some pictures, but I failed at that. I'll keep an eye on these build up threads next time to see who else is going!

We camp off of S22 at the 4x4 course all the time. That's where we were for TDS as well. I think I may have seen your truck cruise by our camp late Saturday. At least I saw a grey 1st IFS 1st gen with roof rack.

I was surprised and happy to see all the Toyotas out there representing in the sea of jeeps!

Originally Posted by Redeth005

We did, it was nice getting every body together like that. I'd really like to have more people on our next trip. its nice having a small little group of buddies to go. One thing is certain though. I dont wanna go on another offroad trip till i at least have all my main offroad upgrades in with manual locking hubs. AUTO locking onces SUCK SO BAD!!!!! they were frustrating the crap out of me haha



It is Trailer friendly. Lots of people had RV's and trailers. They dont have sewer hook ups right there at the place. but they do have a place at a near gas station that you can unload the nasties inside the rv's.

And if all else fails you can get yourself a nice ol' fashioned tent or sleep inside your truck like we all did.

Originally Posted by ToyoTech559

make sure they pay you for the labor you spent if you did any of the work yourself.