Yes, that's my daily driver. 4WD, widened 4" perside. coilovers up front, full glass, nationals in the rear, kmc beadlocks, tubbed in the rear, etc... It's a project and looks cooler then it is but it will get some love soon.

My rides. can you call out the car behind the expo! LOL

 

Ford mustang lol your taco is bad ass u should start athread about that as well

 

Kinda close on the car guess and considering my employer a mustang actually would be VERY appropriate but it would end up being a classic if that was the case. It's not a ford but it's a ford offshoot... That car is gone though, I sold it over the summer. I actually had a lifted jeep wrangler that was pretty nice that I also sold over the summer. 4 vehicles and living single was kinda dumb! LOL I'm just down to the two shown above at this point but I'm actually in the market for another exploder and I'm going to mix and match with the new one and the parts on that white one to build what I want. It's probably going to be a late spring project.

And I have a thread, my truck just doesn't get any love though so the thread is buried and it's in another section cause technically, it's not a taco, it just looks like one.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f199...-heavy-244344/



We'll be prerunning this friday morning in my hooptie and then Sat we'll be racing Jason's. LOL

 

Lol at least he is gonna get a practice lap in

 

Exactly, we'll get to do one lap to see what the course is like. I'm "hoping" we can use my handheld GPS to mark the trail and mark any dangers and then transfer to the GPS in the race truck. They're both lowrance units so hopefully it's something we can do. I'm a bit dumb when it comes to the GPS stuff. I make trail maps online, download them into the GPS and then follow the line on the screen usually rather then actually creating them on the fly. LOL Maybe I should actually try making some trails to and from work and around town over the next couple days to see how it works. Hmmmm...

 

The instructions help as well sometimes lol

 

Trust me, I've been thru them a few times. They're written for people that have a clue about GPS's and use terms and stuff that assume you have some base knowledge. I need the guide for complete idiots to go thru before I even get to the instructions I have though.

 

This is sick I bet its a blast.

 

Race day tomorrow right?

 

Yes sir, my alarm is set for 4:45am...



It's almost 10, I've had about 8 hrs sleep over last two nights total. I'm out. Will have better pics later but figured these would hold ya over for now. LOL

 

By the way, the start is streaming live starting at 7:30am on www.hdrarace.com We'll be in the back half of the starting pack. Jprich and his wife will be in the truck off the start if you see them.

 

Poop either i messed the race or i cant find how to get to live feed

 

Well i missed it lol oh well house issues.... anyways how did it go??

 

I'm dead beat tired!!!! Very long day! We worked our butt off out there! I'll post details! We had one issue that trickled down causing some other issues. Everything added up to us finishing the race but coming up short by 7 minutes on the 8 hr finish deadline! That said, the truck was a complete success and I personally couldn't be any happier with it! I'll let J-prich do his post race write up with the craziness that went down today but the one failure we had on the truck will be fixed better then ever and this thing is virtually bullet proof! We kicked the living crap out of it and I parked it in my driveway tonight on all 4 tires pulling it in under it's own power!

 

Quick cut and paste for now, will fill in more details, etc later and hopefully race pics and stuff.

After 30+ years of daydreaming and 2 years of hard work, my wife and I along with our truck builder Khris Kading were able to make the transition from spectators to racers this weekend. For the last two years we've obsessed over this thing and I can't count the hours I've spent sitting on the bus riding to the Pentagon, starring at the wall of my cubicle, etc, planning what this weekend would be like.

Khris Kading did an amazing job building our truck in his garage after hours, almost entirely by himself. I think a lot of people who had the chance to see the truck would agree that it doesn't look like your average garage built truck. We were fortunate enough to cross paths with Serena Pruett and SDHQ and her help in gathering everything we needed to make the truck work was invaluable. And I am forever indebted to Serena, Dan200, and the whole SDHQ crew for allowing us to associate ourselves with them. For our first race, being able to showcase our truck in front of their trailer at tech/contingency was awesome.

Race day was full of nerves and last minute trouble shooting. Thankful to have made friends with people like Danny Fraire and Gregg Hempel and their crews. They're always eager to lend a hand and they sincerely embody the spirit that makes this sport so great.

My wife and I ran the first lap and after trailing our competitor off the start we were able to get around them in front of the spectator area and had a great lap. My wife did an amazing job co driving even though we couldnt get the course file loaded in the GPS. All those nights making her sit through Dezert People paid off, she was awesome! We had a great time watching Brandon Arthur fly by us and had the pleasure of getting a rock shower from one of the Herbst trucks. Hopefully we didn't hold anyone up too much, we were just excited to be out there and be a part of it.

For lap two my wife jumped out and Khris Kading took over driving duties and I took the right seat. Khris ran a blistering lap and without the time in the pit for the driver change, a quick stop for a visual inspection, and a 10 min stop for a flat, I'm confident his lap time was on pace with the 1400 trucks. Unfortunately at the end of lap two we discovered a broken motor mount that allowed the motor to shift around a lot. We were able to ratchet strap it up and solve the problem so we took off for our third lap with about 5 hours of time to go.

Just past Pit A a coolant hose that had gotten pushed up against the header burned through. Took us a lot of time to get help out to the truck but we were able to rig up a fix and with about two hours left decided to push on. Picked up another flat going up the mountain that cost us some time and we were cruising around 35mph to hold the truck together. Pretty sure we were one of only two vehicles on course still running and we appreciated the waves and cheers from the course workers ready to call it a day.

Made it through the rough section and were looking good on time until I blew it and took a stupid line in to some deep rutted silt and buried the truck. With the help of some course workers we were able to get unstuck and run the last 10 miles home but made it back to the line 7 minutes too late.

In spite of the challenges our friends and family never gave up and busted their butts to give us a chance to finish our first race. No money, no glamour, just the pride of seeing the job through. We won't be listed as official finishers but crossing the line to the cheers of our "fans" made the entire day worthwhile. Thanks to HDRA and everyone who helped us fulfill the dream. I couldn't have asked for more. Thanks to the nature of my business, this weekend was probably the last race I'll get to enjoy as a racer for some time as I found out Thursday on my way to Vegas that I'll be moving to England for an assignment starting in April. So excited we got this one in!

Even though its a low res cell phone video, I think this really captures the spirit of the day for us. Thanks to everyone who has supported and followed TPF Racing! Hope to see you all again in the desert soon!

 

Well im glad yall at least finished!!! I hate that you will be going to england!! But glad u atleast got this one chance in!! Congratulations on the start and finish, for now, of a long dream!!

 

What happened to the hood and fender!!!!

 

Hood was and is fine. In fact cosmetically the truck looks like all it needs is a wash and rinse and would be ready to go again. We just pulled it off after we ratchet strapped the motor to hold it in place when the motor mount broke. Had it off so we could watch the movement and make sure it wasn't rocking more.

Really only minor fixes to get back going again. Pull the motor and replace motor mount, replace the coolant tube we rigged to bandaid us home, patch the hole the lower shock mount put in the header when the motor was bouncing off it, replace the small helper spring on the passenger side coil over, replace muffler, then regular prep. Actually not a lot of work at all.

But no rush at this point since it will go back to inactive status here soon!

 

Thats good!! I thought a tire shredded or something lol... i hate that you only got one race out of the season.. but atleast you got to race!! So how long u gonna be gone?? Got any idea

 

Not positive on the job, 2-3 years ish. Now that the excitement of the weekend is over the reality of saying goodbye to the truck is settling in and bumming me out a litle. Is what is though and there will be other days. Glad we got to have this weekend at least.