The Florida kinda, sorta, somewhat, semi annual Citrus meet.

Awesome!

My wife & I are trying to convince our 20 & 16 year old sons to come with us.

 

Ata boy. Get'em hooked young so they spend all their money on trucks and mods. Then they can blame being broke all the time on Dad.

'Course, my old man really didn't like me. He hooked me on it before I was in double digits, so I was doomed before I ever had a chance.

 

Haha! Good one!

 

Son 5 year old has been hooked since he was 3.

 

Poor kid...

He's lucky though. You're into it in a sort of serious way. My old man wasn't serious about it. He went just often enough to get me hooked and never really got into all the modding stuff. He had a 4WD for hunting pretty much. The off-roading was just incidental to that. Meaning I had to learn things pretty much from scratch. I guess that's where my lack of fear came from though.

Still, unfortunately for your boy, I hate to think what people are going to be wheeling once he's old enough to be out there with his own rig...or how much it's going to cost to make them capable off-road rigs.

The domestics have ceded the field of small trucks completely to Toyota and Nissan, and the Tacoma keeps getting bigger and heavier. 4WD SUVs keep getting more and more car-like. Bodies, especially front ends, are getting more elaborate and closer to the ground. I guess people will always find a way, but it's getting progressively more difficult with each 'innovation' that automakers come up with.

So on a different note...

So, Jason, do you ever see yourself going all in and getting something 4WD?

 

Not anytime soon. But yes, one day I would love to upgrade to 4wd. When I bought my truck it was out of needing a bigger vehicle and this was on the lot. At the time I didn't realize the off roading that even existed in Florida. So when this one dies or I pay of everything else and am finally able to do so, then I'll upgrade. But until then, I am plenty happy with my 2wd. But I did have a winch now, I could always pull myself up and over certain obstacles that another 2wd may not make.

 

Gotta respect your will power. Years ago when I first got bit hard by the wheelin' bug, I couldn't wait to make my vehicle more capable, or to get a more capable vehicle. At first, I was operating on what I'd experienced with my old man. I was happy with my 33x12.50 mud grips. Then I started going wheelin' with guys that had larger tires and I really started to see the limitations I had. From then on, I was burning my credit cards up with more lift, bigger tires, more power...or even a more inherently capable vehicle (Toyota, Jeep YJ) to start all over again with. But then I guess I was about 10 years younger than you are now, single, and no family to worry about at the time.

Ironically, here I am with a truck on 33s again with no real plans to go any bigger...not unless I hit the lotto or something and can suddenly afford to SAS my truck. Then I might go to 16x35 Boggers. Always liked 40s as well, but those would probably be overkill for anything but serious mud and not worth the hit I'd take on raising my CG.

 

I placed myself and son on the list but after reading almost every post I'm not really sure if I'm "booked" or not. Please let me know if I'm good to go or not.

This is the my 4th and last camping trip of the year and the last one this year for my son since he lives in D.C. so I don't want to tell him about it until I know for sure it's a "go", he'd be disappointed, 11 year old's are easily disappointed

Thanks all!

 

You can have my slot if it turns out we under booked and can't get more. I think Peter reserved like 9 slots or so @ 2 trucks per slot and IIRC you're number 18 on the list so you should be good.

(I don't have any kids to disappoint, so it's not that big a deal to me. )

 

I appreciate it Tac but I don't want to take someone's spot. Worst case scenario we'll just show up for the off-road fun and company

Plus, I'm an interloper, I drive a Jeep =P For some reason I like the Tacoma folks more than the Jeep folks...LOL!!!

 

My will power comes from not wanting credit card debt. I refuse to buy stuff if I can't pay cash or at least have a game plan to pay it off within 3 months or less. Hence my bumper and winch. I saved for those and paid cash.

As for the capabilities, that's why I bought the bumper and winch, to make it slightly more capable or at least to know that I can wheel alone and not worry about getting stranded. Since my son is only 5 he is of no use to me when it comes to pushing. But we love wheeling and like I said, one day I will upgrade but until then I will keep adjusting what I have to fit my needs.

 

Hehe, will power it will power no matter what motivates it.

Wheelin' alone is something I just won't do, winch or no winch. Of course, that probably has something to do with the fact that I've never seen a truck successfully recovered from the type of mud we used to play in via winch. It usually resulted in a burned up winch. And I'm not just talking about bumper mounted electric winches either. I saw an F-Super Duty boom truck wrecker get stuck when the driver had a little too much liquid backbone and was going to show the rest of us how it was done. He burned up both his hydraulic winches trying to pull himself out. I finally snatched him out with my 81 Toy on 29" nearly bald Wrangler A/Ts.

Mind you, I'm not saying winches are useless. They work fine from what I can tell in just about any other situation. I just personally have a hard time depending on them after seeing so many fails so I only go with another truck for back up. At least then I have a ride to a phone (ack, I wheeled back in the day before cell phones were available, can you tell?) to call in reinforcements if the other truck can't get me out.

But yeah, I'm just saying that I'd probably get stupid watching 4WDs breeze through the stuff that challenged my 2WD and would be lookin' to upgrade ASAP so I could do it as well. So the fact that you aren't letting that bother you means you've got more will power than I do, lol.

 

I also avoid most mud if I'm uncertain as to how deep it is. I am actually tired of having to clean that crap. I don't mind playing in it, but the last 2 times I got stuck in the mud it was a bitch to clean.

 

I've heard Jeepers are a snotty lot as a group, present company excluded, of course. As a former (not reformed, 'cause I'd get another one if I could to go with my Taco) Jeeper myself, I never really noticed it personally, but then I was never really a part of a Jeep specific group...or even a predominately Jeep group.

Anyway, suit yourself, but the offer stands. I was only planning on staying Saturday night but even then I might just head home depending on how I feel. So if you take my slot then it just might save me from having to pay for it and not use it, lol.

At the same time I think you should be good anyway.

 

Yup, I hear that. Mines still bleeding mud from weird places from the Richloam/Citrus trip a couple weekends ago. That's why I think I'm going to try to avoid the mud if I can restrain myself at the January meet, lol. It'll be a novel experience for me if I can go wheeling and not end up taking a few hundred pounds of earth home with me.

 

LOL here's The Duck in water-fouled clay sludge and Guy Huey winching me out...




Saved by a Toyota, oh the shame...LOL JK

 

Hello,
I just added 2 more sites & updated 8 of them to 2 nights.

As it now stands we have Sites 29-37 & sites 16 & 17 (across the bath house)

Sites 29-36 are for 2 nights.


I'm with you on this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toyota Tech31
I also avoid most mud if I'm uncertain as to how deep it is. I am actually tired of having to clean that crap. I don't mind playing in it, but the last 2 times I got stuck in the mud it was a bitch to clean.

 

And I agree, no more mud...

 

WOW!
You sound just like my wife & I. We use C Cards only when necessary. I bought tires for my truck about 2 weeks ago & tires for my wifes SUV about a month ago with "6 month interest free" both times & her tires are already paid off. In my opinion credit cards should be a last resort & nit a "go to" payment choice.

And, next year I'll most likely be in the market for a winch.

 

Nah, mud's fun. Just a PITA to clean up afterwards. Citrus mud is not so fun. It's not much of a challenge, being largely a function of ground clearance and the depth of the ruts left by the previous vehicle (if you've got enough, you'll go through. If you don't, you're stuck). I like the softer bottomless stuff that will allow you to plow the surface with your axles and still keep moving if you've got aggressive enough tires and the skill to use them. Of course that's also the stuff that burns up winches and can be a bee'otch to get pulled out of when you sink in up up to the frame.