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Picked up some Prothane 4.5" bump stops for the rear. I was hoping that these would give a little more progressive limit before completely bottoming out, but these things are harder than the stock bump stops. I'll leave them for now while I continue to look for something with a softer durometer.

 

 

Willy

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Yesterday was our annual Christmas tree run - and nobody came to get a tree. Since we were not limited to Christmas tree cutting areas we started the day with some exploring. We found a forest service road with some great views. We kept going until the tracks stopped. I was able to keep breaking trail, but forward progress was incredibly slow.

 

The views on the way up.

 

 

Forward progress stopped shortly after this. It was cold enough in the shadows that the snow was really dry and would not pack. Once the tracks stopped we turned back and checked out another road.

 

I'm glad we didn't go straight to the designated Christmas tree cutting areas as this is what we found. This year the forest service decided not to plow any of the roads to the Christmas tree cutting areas. In years past you could drive a minivan several miles into the forest on plowed roads. Now those minivans were stuck on the side of the road as those going in were attempting to go around those coming out. We turned back while we were still at the end of this mess and explored some side roads. It would have been a long, cold, dark evening if we got stuck in the middle of that mess.

 

 

 

 

 

More pics here and here.

 

Willy

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ever tried any of those Timbren bump stops? I've heard they are pretty soft and progressive.

 

Interesting....I always thought of Timbrens as supplemental springs for applications like air bags. :hmm: I'll have to research this.

 

Willy

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I've got the bumpstops out of a Chevy Blazer (the newer small one) but they arent installed yet.

 

Pics? Are those like a bigger version of the front bumpstops? How hard are they? Are you referring to the Equinox?

 

Thanks,

Willy

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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRk7zc4tJA12n6r1L7blIPADi3X5SVK5O1z5IWzRUjUEEDOHh6tufQA1FrZEQ

They are pretty big but a guy in Socal chapter of NAXJA seemed to like them. They feel pretty hard to me but they have a hollow center so maybe they give. :dunno: I pulled mine off a late 90's early 2000 style blazer, not the equinox. It seemed I remember the new Trailblazer and Envoys having the same thing in the rear but I might be mistaken on that.

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Lesson learned. Not all valve stems work well with these beadlocks. The stem sits below the lip of the beadlock ring and requires moving it to the side to attach deflators, air chucks, etc. Not fun to air up or down when playing in the snow.

 

I picked up some new stems with a 45* bend.

 

This should work much better.

 

Willy

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A buddy called for an impromptu Sunday wheeling trip. Who am I to turn down a chance to play in the snow? We explored a few of the forest service roads around Wilkeson, found an abandoned 4 Runner, checked out the old coke ovens, drove up to Coplay Lake, and I stumbled across what appeared to be the remnants of an old loading bin for coal train cars.

 

I found some snow that was about 35" deep. :D

 

 

 

Came across several waterfalls.

 

The coke ovens in Wilkeson.

 

Coplay Lake.

 

 

This looked like some type of coal loading bin for the train cars.

 

I ran across the remnants of the bridge abutments that crossed the creek to these mine shafts and several other interesting artifacts in the area.

 

 

More pics here.

 

Willy

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  • 1 month later...

Last week storms knocked out our power, so may as well go wheeling. Saturday we attended County Line Offroaders annual Snow Jam fun run. The past couple years the snow had actually been absent from Snow Jam. Not this year. All the storms brought plenty of snow.

 

We had a little time before the prize drawings, so we did a little wheeling at Elbe Hills.

 

 

It didn't take long to break a driveshaft.

 

 

Luckily we made it back in time for the prizes where I won a $100 gift certificate to a transmission shop.

 

More pics here.

 

Willy

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Went on a snow run Saturday to a new place for me, Copper Creek Road. Even though there was a high overcast I really enjoyed the scenery. I'm looking forward to a return trip on a clear day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More pics here.

 

Willy

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you liking the MTZs in the snow? what PSI do you run with the beadlocks? I know in the xj I was down at 8, but thats without beadlocks...

 

I like them, but I don't really have any experience wheeling in the snow with anything else. I was at 8 PSI. Could have probably been lower but really didn't have any problems until we started breaking completely fresh snow.

 

Willy

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  • 3 months later...

Spent yesterday at Evan's Creek. There is still a lot of snow and ice at the higher elevations. We ran into a group from Venezuela and everybody proceeded to get stuck. We spent the entire afternoon freeing everybody from the snow.

 

On the way back down after the snow started turning to ice. The downhill side did not look like fun if we slid off.

 

 

This guy had a nice diesel FJ70.

 

Where we spent hours digging, winching, and strapping.

 

 

 

More pics here.

 

Willy

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spent a beautiful weekend on the Olympic Peninsula wheeling Sadie Creek. We had a few casualties - starter, wheel, wheel studs, leaf spring - but everybody made it home safely.

 

The gatekeeper. This used to be somewhat of a challenge, but now it can be driven in two wheel drive.

 

 

 

 

It gets tight in places.

 

 

 

 

The Strait of Juan de Fuca and Canada.

 

Bill's day didn't end so well. Apparently the lug nuts worked there way loose, broke a couple of studs, and wallowed out the lug nut seats in the wheel. Then, after we got back to camp, while we are all standing around talking about how lucky he was it didn't come off on the highway, I noticed that his main leaf was broken. :doh:

 

 

More pics and a few videos here.

 

Willy

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been following your build for sometime now, great to see a awsome build beging used the way do, and what about the pics :D When i get a spare coupla hours i,ll be reading your build from start to finish. i need some idears jamminz.gif

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  • 4 weeks later...

Finally got around to installing my Christmas present. I wanted a sturdy mount that wasn't just screwed in to a bunch of brittle, 25 year old plastic. I built a bracket that mounts through the center dash vent (not like the AC works anyway :D) and attaches to the metal dash support.

 

 

 

Due to the size of the GPS unit it took some thinking to figure out where to mount it without rendering the HVAC controls unusable but high enough to still access the shifter. I ended up mounting it on bearings that allow the entire thing to pivot down and out of the way. I've got a spring loaded plunger on the way that will eventually be installed that will hold it in place when upright and allow it to quickly drop down when needed.

 

Willy

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Spent the weekend wheeling the trails around Liberty.

 

After setting up camp Friday evening we checked out what's left of the mining town of Blewett. We found the remnants of the stamp mill.

 

 

And a short mine shaft.

 

Just before lunch Saturday we had a rig separate the clutch linkage on this climb.

 

 

 

We were able to repair it well enough to get him back to camp, then we finished the trail.

 

We hit some snow at the higher elevations.

 

 

We finished up Sunday with a short trail in the morning.

 

 

Before we packed up we did a little gold panning and came home with some souvenirs.

 

More pics here.

 

Willy

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