TDiddy

Well today I finally got to take the 4Runner off road today. It was nice to put it in 4WD for something other than checking to make sure its working! Sportedition (and his brother Jesse), Robinhood150 and I met up with Terry and some of the GettinOff 4x4 club for some 4 Wheelin at Frank Raines OHV park.

You can see some pics here.

Can't wait to go out again!

taco04

Sweet Pics Tom. Today was a blast and thankfully...i drove away without any body damage. Man, today made me realize that I really need better tires and a lift to make things nicer out there. Cant wait till we do this again.

az4x4runner

Cool pictures! looks like a fun area. (good hills, hehehe)

joshik

sweet pics!

Dragonbud

Nice pix, Looking good out there.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Tom, looks like you guy's & gal's had a great time out there.

Thanks for sharing the pics.
Nice to get out and get dirty isn't it
Just a PITA to clean up afterwards.

TDiddy

Yeah, it was definitely an afternoon of adrenaline rushes! And I was probably on the easy stuff! Robinhood150 was a great guide though and kept me out of trouble.

Robinhood150

Hey guys, had a great time with you yesterday. You should have stuck around for the mud pit trail carnege though! I've got a bunch of pics and vids of it all, but since I only have a dialup here at home, I'll upload the majority tomorrow at work.

Nine of us met up at In and Out in Livermore at a very foggy 8am. There were 7 Toyotas representing the first three generations of 4runners, 1 truck, and 2 jeeps. When we got to the frank raines park the fog cleared up and it turned out to be a great day. Because of the 3 day weekend there were a lot of motorcycles, including some young kids with training wheels.


We broke up into two groups, I led Tom and Bruce around to the easy stuff, while everybody else went off to the hill climbs and rock garden.

We first hit a shallow mud pit and a short, steep hill climb to stretch out the 4x4 legs. Then we hit a small stream crossing and some hills


After that we played in the big mud pit:
The mud pit gets really deep so we had to stick to the edges.

Bruce had to leave shortly after this so Tom and his fiance, Sarah, and I went up to the top of the mountain and had lunch. On the way down we went down some steep hills where we tested how good wet brakes work. Tom found out they were very noisy from the chattering. He also found out about articulation.


Later, everybody met back up and Tom and Sarah left. But that is when the fun really started. One of the Jeep guys really likes mud and so wanted to see how his fairly new jeep did. He almost made it through the deep pit, he just go hung up on his diff as he was getting out.

When we were done there, I led everybody to the steam, but lost some people on the way. A couple minutes later, over the CB we heard somebody was DOA. So we turned around and found the yellow jeep above stopped in the middle of the road with auto tranny fluid leaking out. So we got him towed to a flat section where he dropped the pan and found this:

That is the tranny filter screen caked in mud. Well, he put everything back together and we towed him the 16 miles to the next gas station where he filled up with tranny fluid. That seemed to fix it and he was able to drive back home.

Quite a trip and I look forward to the next one. I'll try to get the other pics and movies up soon.

Steve

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Dang, that is scary about the Jeep.
So the mud just traveled into the tranny some how?

Looking forward to your extra pics & vids Steve.
Corey

UKMyers

Robinhood nice pics!! I can't wait for my get together next month. I just hope I am still here and not down where there is lots and lots of sand and unfriendly guys wearing Turbans:eek: Looks like you guys had a blast!! Looking forward to the pics and vids...any vids that will make the crazy member post?

Robinhood150

The driver of the jeep and the wife (not sure if they were married, but actually it is her jeep) were amazingly calm about the whole thing. They were making jokes about it and everything. I know if it were me, my hair would have turned white with worry.

We think the mud got in through the breather tube(s) of the tranny. When the water hit the tranny, it cooled and and sucked in mud. So as a word of warning to everybody, extend ALL the breathers!

On a side note, the pro comp x-terrains did pretty well in the mud.

I don't think any of the vids would make it into the crazy vid thread...everything we did was pretty slow and drawn out. Mostly it's the Jeep moving about 1 foot in the 10 second limit of my digi cam.

Steve

TDiddy

Steve, I'm looking forwarad to seeing the rest of the pics and vids! Sounds like I missed out on some exciting stuff. Women.... hehe. Oh well, next time I won't miss anything!

That shot of me in the "articulation pic" still makes me nervous! I'll never forget the 30 seconds or so before that when I was coming down the hill. Talk about white knuckles!

Robinhood150

Here's the rest of the pics:

Frank Raines 1

Frank Raines 2

And here's the movies:
movies

If you want these movies, download them now because the next time I want to upload movies these get deleted.

Steve