All I can say is, what an adventure.

It all started out Saturday morning. But let me first say mom and I purchased a 1992 motorhome days prior, and I decided to haul the Jeep with it to Oroville this year. I didn't really get to test out the 'moho before taking off. We left at 9am, got about 45minutes out and it died on me. John came over, Chris and the kids came over, and we worked on it for about 5 hours. To no avail, we had it towed to a shop in lakeport. Mom went back and got my truck so we could get the jeep.

By this time, I was pissed, frustrated, and not sure if I should cut my losses and go home or Man-up and go anyways. I decided we came this far, lets keep going. So we rolled in to camp around 6:30 or so.

Sunday morning we woke up early to tech. This year Mark was spotting for me, and John was manning the camera for us. We drew #69, which put is in the middle of the pack. We would be about the 6th person to run our course. In our first course, was a bonus obstical called "The Terminator". The terminator has 2 parts. One being a 30+ ft pyrmid of concrete culverts and cement, and part 2 being a 20+ ft table-top attached to it consisting of the same materials. This is a very intimidating obstical. So much that the 5 competitors before me avoided this bonus line, opting for the easier gates.

Mark and I passed through the first 2 gates with relative ease, and we opted to at least make an attempt at the formitable Terminator. One shot, and we made it to the top, front tires gripping the top as the back end is dangling against the cliff face. Slam it into 1st gear and crawl to the table top. Now most people have never been on top of this obstacle. When you are in the drivers seat, all you can see is the sky infront of you, and the Abyss at the edge of your front wheels. Marks voice comes over the headset "Just relax, and ease forward. Then remember to hit the gas coming down". We were told this is how it is done. But when you are in this position, logic is telling you "STUPID! You are going down a steep cliff, brake!!". As I edge forward, brakes engauged until I am clear of the edge, when I feel the vehicle is not responding to brake force. I tell mark "Brakes aren't working, its just gonna go. Look out". And the next thing I know i'm looking straight down at the ground approaching me. GAS!. Slamming into the ground, front wheels first, the car bounces back upright and I come to a stop. HOLY CRAP I did it!! We scrambled through the finish line, scoring a -13.

After a few high fives, and adrenaline out the wazzoo (and possibly some boxers lodged firmly where nothing should ever be), We had to line up for the second course. The second course looked to be the easiest. We were actually pretty confident that we would make it easily. Well, we were wrong. After executing a perfect line up over a culvert, my tire got lodged between some rocks, and caused my front differential to basically blow up. We were done for. After such an exciting, and amazing achievement, we were broke and being carried out of the rocks by the Crane-of-Shame.

It didn't really matter too much. We accomplished something none thought we would. We scored an amazing score, best we have ever done at a competition. Even though we were broken and unable to compete anymore, we could walk away with our heads held high. We were excited, the crowd was excited, Job well done.

Joe and I went north to Browns Valley last weekend to watch the CalROCS event. Browns Valley is about 11 miles east of Marysville CA. We had never been to any of the CalROCs events before, which is a little strange since we hope to compete in that event next year. Many of the drivers also run other events so we are already familiar with many of them so it's not that big of a deal really.

I was pretty excited to hear that Derek Trent was going to be at the event since I have never seen him drive before. at least not live. Since I am getting one of his vehicles I really wanted to watch to see how it handles from a spectator perspective.

Derek took home first place in the SuperMod class so that was great. He did  break an axel shaft on the last course of day 1. Fortunately he was able to get a shaft from WFO in time for day two. In the end it all worked out and he went home a few bills richer.

Photos for me did not go to well. I totally failed to set my camera up correctly in the first place. At events like this I normally set my camera to a shutter priority at around 1/250s and try to maintain an aperture of about f8 to keep focus on the action. Like an idiot, I set it for aperture priority at f8 and never checked it once the rest of the day. Needless to say many pictures were completely ruined. Since I shoot RAW I was able to bring a handful back to life with some fancy photoshop techniques. They still didn't look that great so I added a faux HDR (High Dynamic Range)filter effect to bring the pop back into them. I was able to save a few pictures so thats good. But I had better pay more attention next time!

Check out the CalROCS Pictures Here

Today, Joe and I made the trek over to Reno to meet with the Derek at Trent Fabrication. We were dropping off our axles and Atlas transfer case for the build. While we were there Derek showed me my chassis and engine, which totally got me stoked and anxious to get it done. I am glad that it is more than just an idea now, but is something that I can actually touch and say. Yeah this is mine...

Finishing it seems so far away, yet so close. I hope we can finish it within the year so it will be race ready by next year. That would be straight pimp.

Here are a couple of cell phone pictures that Joe took of my chassis up on the table.

As I stated before, I sold my jeep, so I can buy parts for my buggy project. Well I also sold my 95 Toyota Land Cruiser that was my daily driver. Since I work from home now, I decided to changes things up a bit and buy a rig that would serve as both a daily driver and a suitable trail rig. My Land Cruiser was a great off-road vehicle but way to posh and heavy for what I wanted to do with it.

Saturday, Joe and I made a trip to Santa Rosa where I met a guy named Ryan that had a nice looking Xtra Cab Toyota for sale. I liked it from the first time I saw it listed on Pirates classified section. It's a very cool rig and Ryan was certainly a man of detail. We worked out a price and I drove it home that day.

So here is the skinny on the new yota. It's a 1992 Xtra Cab, with a 22re, sas'ed with an '85 front axle, and 5.29 gears in the diffs. It's got dual cases, with the Marlin 4.7 in the rear case bringing the final crawl ration down to 223:1. The front is locked with an ARB, and the rear with a Detroit.

Every truck has something wrong with especially a 92, and this one is no exception. Here are the bad things. 35" SX Tires are junk. Bald, cupped and chunks missing from the lugs. Driving on the freeway, the vibrations are just about unbearable. I am looking into options for replacing them now. Also a bummer is no AC. I think it can be fixed, but not sure how much that is going to cost since it's the old freon system. 

Joe and I took the truck to cow mountain on Sunday for a quick test, and I immediately discovered that the front Birfields are broken. They knocked and popped the first time I threw it into 4wheel drive. They are supposed to be Longfields. However, I suspect they may be stockers.

The last thing that really needs to be fixed is the transfer case output shafts. Both bearings and seals are shot. The front output is leaking oil and the rear appears to be leaking oil as well. These are all fixable items of course and expected for a vehicle that has been driven off-road.

Overall I am very happy with my purchase and look forward to taking it up on the trails for a real test run next time.

The selling of "Wobbly Bob" was bitter sweet for me. I have finally severed the 3 year love affair with my first hardcore wheeling rig. I hate to see it go, and will probably question for a while whether or not it was a good idea to sell it or if I should have kept it. You can never get back out what you put in, So it's never a win-win situation. "Value in use" I tell myself.

Three years ago, I bought the chassis from a guy out in Lincoln. The chassis was pretty well beat down but it fired right up and sounded awesome. I was in love right then. Bitten by the crawler bug. My Bros made the 3+ hour trip over to sac to help me get it and bring it home. On the way home parts were falling off left and right. Some guy even stopped us at an intersection to give us back a brake caliper.

When my dad first saw the jeep and how rickety it was he started calling it "Wobbly Bob" I didn't want the name to stick but it did. Especially after my very first trip down the road and getting a death wobble at 20 mph. It was definitely a wobbly bob. Damn it! the name stuck!

Fast forward three years, Wobbly bob is no longer wobbly, but the name remains unchanged. Every other part on it changed though. I replaced or upgraded just about every part of that jeep. I finally got it to a point where nothing breaks anymore, it fires right up every time, and I know just how it's going to respond on the trail. Sigh

The money is going to good use though. Joe and I are about to embark on a 4 seat competition buggy project together. We have quite a few parts already, and the chassis is being built by Trent Fabrication over in Reno NV starting this February-March. I started a budget tracker page, and we will also be adding a build thread on the site for it as well. So stay tuned for that.

I am glad to know that the new owner is pretty excited about the purchase. I hope WB serves him well.