Trail Run Review

Night run at Brown's Camp

Night run was awesome!!!

By Jim DeFord

BROWNS CAMP, TSF, Oregon (August 3, 2008) — First off, HUGE thanks to Bernd for for leading this group. The choice of trails and the order was awesome! No back-tracking and some incredible wheeling. I know it's a chore leading a large group and I do appreciate it.

Thanks to all who showed up. In fact, I don't think we had any no shows.

We pre-staged at Coleman's Shady Rest which is right next door to the Shell station where we get OHV tags. Great food and awesome service. We will pre-stage at Coleman's when we do BC runs in the future.

The run was absolutely incredible. This stands at the top of the list for BC runs in my book. Having never night wheeled I was not sure what to expect. This was hella fun!

The weather could not have been better. I was absolutely crystal clear and we could touch the stars. If you ever want to star gaze, head to BC. WOW!

After staging at Rogers Camp, Bernd led us through Powerline. We played on the lower part of Hog's Back, the short climb with the challenging wash-out at the top, and with Bernd's expert spotting, everyone that attempted it, made it up and over the top. Very cool.

After that it was starting to get dark so we headed over to Firebreak 5. Bernd had installed some new under-carriage lights that he wanted to try out on the rocks and they looked awesome, and worked very well for being able to see the rocks around and under the FJ. If interested in under-carrigae lights, ask Bernd.

After FB5 it was time for Cedar Tree. We hit CT from the top, which I had never done that direction before and that was very interesting. A much, much different feel than coming from the bottom up.

CT is an awesome, tight, twisty trail and at night it becomes even tighter, requiring full concentration. We had a couple of folks incur some minor scars, but no serious trail damage. I know I came pretty close to smashing the passenger mirror at one point when the truck rocked while navigating through the twisties and the tight trees. Whew! Lotsa fun!!!

So, we finished up at Roger's Camp just after 11pm and by the time everyone aired back up it was midnight.

We will definitely do more night runs in the future!!!
 

NWFJCC News

What's Happenin'?

Been a busy Winter! Spring is here and the trails are beckoning, but...

By Jim DeFord

VANCOUVER, Washington (April 7, 2008) — But...There is still a lot of snow from about 3,000 feet on up. Some areas are still un-navigable at under 3,000 feet!

Must be all that global warming eh? Here's some global warming for ya from a recent run at GPNF.

Yeah, everyone's getting cabin fever, but running in that snow-cone snow is just plain no fun and it breaks stuff. At the run shown in the photo above two front axles bit the dust.

We just had an awesome Tech Day gathering at Metal Tech's headquarters. You can see a gallery of the event by CLICKING HERE.

We want to run up north in May, but that may be even too soon if the dang snow doesn't melt off. We can always run at Juniper Dunes north of Tri-Cities, WA for some cool fun!

The best way to stay in touch with what's going on in the NWFJCC is to join the forum. It is a private forum, so you have to join the club first and then join the forum to be activated. The reason for running a private forum is to keep the SPAM checked to a big fat ZERO. No SPAM on the NWFJCC forums!!!

So.....Hope to see ya in the forums and on the trail soon!!

Trail Run Tech

Trail pinstripes optional

Step-by-step removal method

By Dean Rodgers

LAKE OSWEGO, Oregon (May 15, 2007) — In all my years of car ownership, I've never cared much about washing. The first one was a white S-10 pickup and the second was a pewter Silverado. Neither looked all that bad dirty. I think I might have waxed the S-10 once and I might have had the Silverado waxed once. Otherwise, it was a trip through the carwash or a quick douching with Tide every 3-6 months. I liked both vehicles fine, but they were just tools. I didn't worry about them too much.

The FJ is the first vehicle I've owned that struck an emotional chord. It is also the first vehicle I've taken off-road. Mine is Black Cherry. Looks great clean, but shows dirt (or dust or pollen or whatever) easily. And, of course, when you go off-road -- at least around here, you have trees and branches and thorns going at the paint like no tomorrow.

I realized quickly that I was going to have to learn how to care for the exterior of the FJ properly -- particularly since I noticed car washes don't cut it for this truck and the soap at the do-it-yourself car wash place tends to take all the wax off. >> FULL STORY

FJ Mod Report

Installing the Lucrum winch mount

Install proves to be easy and straight forward

By Jim DeFord

VANCOUVER, Wash. (April 29, 2007) — I have had the Lucrum winch mount installed for about a month now. It get rave review from both myself and everyone who sees it. The guys at my Toyota dealer were all over themselves when they saw what a cool mount this is.

What sold me from the start was the ability to keep the original designer's look to my FJ. I just do not care for the "Mad Max" look the aftermarket bumpers give. Granted they will give more protection from a 45-degree direction than the stock bumper or the Lucrum mount provides, keeping the stock look was paramount for me.

Not to mention the massive weight savings the Lucrum mount provides. I estimate just a 90 lb gain from adding the Lucrum mount and a Warn M8000 winch.  >> FULL STORY