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Hey, Nice To See Ya!
A little about me:
Hey there! Glad you could stop by. I started this site at first as a fancy way to host
the many pictures that were beginning to stack up from being outdoors in Arizona, not
to mention just many of the interesting things to see that I happened to have a camera
handy to catch while outdoors wheeling or hiking. It eventually evolved from a small site that I had no intentions
of being very serious about, to hosting more than 1200 pictures of my travels and the like,
which of course demanded more time in the self taught language of HTML, so bear with me on the simplistic look...I am still learning.
What you'll find here are pictures from four wheeling outings, rock crawling, a bit of camping, some
site seeing, wildlife, old buildings, "ghost" towns, mining remnants, you name it, you might find something close. I've also used pictures to document many of
the upgrades and fabrication work I've done to the Jeep in order to make it more trail worthy and more reliable. I'm going to go out on a limb and call myself
an amateur photographer in lieu of a "recreational" photographer, so you'll also find pics of what I refer to as my "artsy" side coming through. These may
manifest themselves from nature shots to just the pure random. If you have any comments on my pics, or anything else on my site for that matter, don't hesitate
to email me!
I have been into four wheeling and running the desert trails since I owned my first vehicle,
but just as recently as 2000-2001, I have gotten into the more hardcore type of wheeling, which those
of us that participate, call rockcrawling. It takes a vehicle with a bit of agility, some important
and almost required modifications, and sometimes just plain disregard for sheetmetal. It requires
traversing rocks that are at the least as large as a basketball and range up to boulders as large as the
entire vehicle your riding in. Each size of rock, demanding a different kind of respect and level of expertise to
keep your vehicle repairs to a minimum and simply from rolling over onto it's roof. Check out the "Picture Albums"
page to take the journey with me.
About My 4X4's:
The offroad rigs I currently own are a Jeep Cherokee and a Toyota FJ60 wagon. In December of 2003,
I was given the chance to purchase the Jeep, from a buddy for a great price, so I couldn't pass it up. Although it was completely bone stock when I bought it, I knew that soon it would shed this "stock" label.
This '87 Cherokee was a Wagoneer Limited which had the popular 4.0 liter inline six, 4 speed auto transmission, and the 242 Selec-Trac transfer case.
It also has the "bells & whistles" of power windows, locks, cruise control, leather, yada, yada....yes...I said leather :) Being the Wagoneer model, it has the woody panels up
the sides, wood trim accents throughout the interior, and the 4 headlight grille setup. This was going to be the rig that got all the modifications so
that it would perform well on the rocks, yet still be a somewhat well mannered driver on the freeways (you really can't have the best of both worlds here). Below is a list of the
things I have already done to it with links to specific pics for that modification. This is just a sampling of well over 1200 pics in my albums, check out the "Picture Albums" page to see them all.
Some of the future plans for this vehicle are listed below:
- Currently working on full width Dana 60 & Dana 44 axles to replace the weaker stock axle assemblies.
- Possibly convert the rear suspension to dual triangulated four link with either coils or full coil-overs.
- Full exo-cage (roll cage on the exterior).
- When axle swap is complete...upsize to 37 or 38 inch tires with beadlock wheels and 5.13 or 5.29 gears.
- True long arm front four link suspension with shock hoops and long travel shocks.
- Further off in the future...an engine swap to either a 4 liter stroker or 8 cylinders.
- In the process of designing/building a new dual swing out tire carrier that will be incorporated into and part of the exo cage.
- In the process of reworking stock A/C compressor system for an unlimited on-board air system.
The newest addition to the family is an '82 Toyota FJ60 I purchased for a mere $100 and the obligatory "case of beer". It came without a motor, but is complete other than that.
This will end up as a comfy long range type vehicle that will be good for those far away wheeling places. The plans include either a simple SB350 Chevy motor or maybe
even a 383 stroker to make it a towing monster in the mountains.
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Go below to sign my guestbook, and let me know you were here!!
    
My Email: offroader5@mchsi.com |
