Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

Completed: TROLLS Trail Maintence

Trips/trails in the eastern part of the U.S. (loosely follows the Eastern Time Zone)
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by Cable810 » Tue May 21, 2013 4:25 pm

This is the route we cleaned http://www.midnr.com/publications/pdfs/ ... A_Loop.pdf
We only cleaned the ORV route as we are not allowed down the ATV Trails. It took us about 2 hours to clean the entire trail with splitting into 2 groups.

Crappy cell phone pictures of the trail

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All the trash we picked up. about 3 dollars worth of beer and pop cans, 2 snowmobile belts and 1 snowmobile track were the good finds lol

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Cook out afterwards :excited:

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Now onto the Trail Ride. I'ma keep the name of the road a secret hehe. Only 3 vehicles when counting me. One was a Jeep on 33s and the other a stock tacoma. There was lots of deep water, deep enough to cover the tail pipe but not deep enough to reach the doors. I brought my video camera but I forgot the SD Card.... I didn't take a whole lot of pictures during the ride. The trail was tight and we had to cut down 3 trees that had blown into the trail. Onto the Pictures:

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There was a deep spot that I could not get over. Its kinda hard to tell but I kept hanging up unable to get over after 10 tries.
I tried again backing up and gunning it and nothing... I was in 4x4 and still nothing.

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Freedom!!!

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Was short Lived. Got stuck in the ruts the Jeep made while pulling me out... I tried again backing up and gunning it and nothing... I was in 4x4 and still nothing.

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Afterwards

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And finally the Carnage

Pulled the muffler off No it was not welded in but now it will be.

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And did a number on my CV Shaft...

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When the guy in the Jeep went first he did this:

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How we removed it

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If you want to see the rest of the photos here is the link to Album

http://s949.photobucket.com/user/Cable8 ... 0Maintence

Even though I got stuck I had some serious fun!! I think the reason why I was hanging up was when I got home I noticed that the Zip ties I had holding my sway bar up were gone. So I think it was digging in to the ground preventing me from getting over the hump. I think now that I should have gone a bit more aggressive tire and what not. A locker would have been super helpful so that's on my agenda for next year and maybe some MTs :D
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by JMHinAZ » Wed May 22, 2013 12:16 am

Looks like a fun day to be sure. Great to see some mud flying :thumright:
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by Cable810 » Wed May 22, 2013 9:37 am

It was!! That's the dirtiest my truck has ever been to date!
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by v7guy » Wed May 22, 2013 10:09 am

Cable810 wrote: I think the reason why I was hanging up was when I got home I noticed that the Zip ties I had holding my sway bar up were gone. So I think it was digging in to the ground preventing me from getting over the hump. I think now that I should have gone a bit more aggressive tire and what not. A locker would have been super helpful so that's on my agenda for next year and maybe some MTs :D



MikeKey had this problem at TECORE, the rear sway bar kept swinging down. The 35s and easier terrain kept it from becoming an issue though.

It's REALLY REALLY funny to hear you comment on the tire choice and locker. My how the priorities have changed over the last year lol

I've been staring at those vent shades for a bit, quite a few guys seem to like em. Might help keep the mud out with the windows cracked too. Maybe something to consider. I don't clean my truck often, but it's gotta be a pain to clean up that mud.


Looks like a really fun trip!
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by Cable810 » Wed May 22, 2013 11:23 am

Yeah things changed for me, I feel that I can justify MTs and a locker since I got stuck. But maybe I'm over reacting to my situation!?!?! I felt that the tires weren't getting enough traction and If I had a locker that might have helped me get out, maybe. I do find it funny too from where I started to where I'm at and how far I've come and what all I have planned. I'm now going to trash the sway bar seeing the problem it cause me. I just power washed the mud off and called it good. Its been raining pretty good the past day or so, so that's helped take care of what I missed. I've had my eyes on those too. I never seem to find the funds for them nor seat covers...
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by dvanbramer88 » Wed May 22, 2013 8:03 pm

Cable810 wrote:Yeah things changed for me, I feel that I can justify MTs and a locker since I got stuck. But maybe I'm over reacting to my situation!?!?!



How much did you air down? That changes things a lot.
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by Moots1288 » Wed May 22, 2013 8:13 pm

dvanbramer88 wrote:
Cable810 wrote:Yeah things changed for me, I feel that I can justify MTs and a locker since I got stuck. But maybe I'm over reacting to my situation!?!?!



How much did you air down? That changes things a lot.

This. Lockers don't always help you out of mud.
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by djthumper » Wed May 22, 2013 9:11 pm

I haven't gotten to test out my vent visors yet...
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by Cable810 » Wed May 22, 2013 10:18 pm

dvanbramer88 wrote:How much did you air down? That changes things a lot.


Didn't... I have no way(as of yet) to refill the tires...
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by v7guy » Fri May 24, 2013 4:13 pm

you didn't air down?!?!?! :facepalm: :scratch:


That may very well have gotten you through. Stop spending money on anything else. Just stop. Immediately go to amazon and spend $58 on this...

http://www.amazon.com/Industries-MV50-S ... B000BM8RT8



You can get a lot better compressors, you can hardwire/hardmount this one, seperate the head from the body and hide it, you can put a small fan on the head to cool it, you can just clamp the leads onto the battery and use it as it was intended. But it will fill up your tires and it's cheap and easy. Stop being an asshole and air down! :raspberry: Just make sure you never let dvanbramer88 use it, he'll blow your fuses :finger:




I'm not saying tires and a locker won't help, they will... sometimes. But when they don't help they'll get you stuck even worse.
But you still need to air down.
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by Cable810 » Tue May 28, 2013 7:34 am

Definitely will look into getting a Compressor.
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by The Roadie » Tue May 28, 2013 9:03 am

And a tire plug repair kit. I've used mine 4-5 times on trails, and saved a LOT of time not having to break out the hilift and swap tires under suboptimal conditions.
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by dvanbramer88 » Tue May 28, 2013 3:17 pm

The fuse thing was an accident. You gave me the compressor while it was hot, and i ran it even more. It was bound to happen. It did 6 tires without a break.

:P
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by JorDaneeKey » Tue May 28, 2013 4:20 pm

Dave made up for it by having the right tool on hand to stop our valve stem leak. Only problem with that compressor (at least ours) is if you screw it on too tight it actually unscrews the stem (core?) slightly so you lose air until you tighten it back up.
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by dvanbramer88 » Tue May 28, 2013 10:14 pm

Because I carry a complete tire repair kit, 2 sets of the tools, 30 something plugs, extra stem cores, and a bottle of soapy water to find leaks in my kit.


Caleb, take notes. A tire repair kit is worth having. It certainly gets used. If you ever pick up a nail on the road and have a slow leak, you can find it, fix it, and put air in the tire in 10 minutes.
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by v7guy » Wed May 29, 2013 1:10 am

dvanbramer88 wrote:The fuse thing was an accident. You gave me the compressor while it was hot, and i ran it even more. It was bound to happen. It did 6 tires without a break.

:P



Yeah, but if I told the whole story I couldn't really give you shit about it :mrgreen:
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by dvanbramer88 » Wed May 29, 2013 1:22 am

that's usually how it goes.
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by navigator » Wed May 29, 2013 5:12 pm

until you get a compressor, there are other options.
Many times guys you are riding with have them.
A lot of time stations near trails have compressors.
I haven't done it with my 265s but at the beach with my 255s I would sometimes air down to 25lbs and drive the 30 miles back home after I was done.
While not ideal, I figure 25lbs wouldn't hurt for 30 miles.
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by v7guy » Thu May 30, 2013 8:33 am

but for $58...


don't forget to leave your tire pressure gauge in the truck either. I was the massive asshole that had to borrow them all weekend at TECORE :facepalm:
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by dvanbramer88 » Thu May 30, 2013 9:43 am

In north carolina, we air down at the food lion about 7-8 miles from the sand. And throughout the week, we drive to and from that shopping center without airing up first. I'm perfectly ok driving ~20 miles of pavement aired down to 18 psi.
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