Run to the Hills! - Jason's Glacial Pace Colorado GTFO Build

I fucking hate all of this...

 

Are you guys apart of the evac?

 

It truly blows.

Not yet.

We’re like a mile and a half east of the mandatory evacuation line as of now, but we’ll see how things look in the morning.

It was surreal seeing the flame front coming down the last line of hills after it got dark, though. It looked like an invading army.

 

Damn, thought's are with you man. Hope you guy's are all right.

 

My Thoughts and Prayers are with you and your family Jason!

 

Stay safe man. Shitty deal.

 

Gotta manage the forests, otherwise nature will.

 

Appreciate all the kind words, gents. While we did have friends that had to evacuate, we never did and were likely just far enough east of the outskirts to not have to unless shit got really crazy.

Now we’re just waiting for news from our friends who live between Hwy 7 and Left Hand Canyon. Just looking at the updated fire perimeter, it’s very likely that some folks have lost their homes

My dad is a retired wilderness specialist and wildland firefighter for the BLM. There are a lot of factors that came into play with this fire season, but mismanagement is definitely one of them. Letting the understory fuels accumulate is rarely a good idea, and when you add the massive amounts of standing beetle kill up here, this is what happens. Oh, also the increased idiot traffic in the mountains doesn’t help anything either.

 

Agree about this year going to get f’d - one of my workmates took this a month ago with a fire that’s just going out now. Bad enough on a regular year - everyone’s stressed about other events this year and it’s definitely pushing people past their breaking point in some cases with fire danger. Hope you’re well and your property is saved brother.

 

Thanks, man. I know Cali is getting hit harder than we are, and we’re thinking about what y’all are dealing with out there too.

I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine where we’re at. The fire was moving really fast out of the hills toward town last night, so I’m sure the county was bracing for it to possibly blow past the outskirts, thus the evacs and the warnings.

Hopefully they have good luck today and can keep making progress on it. We know a bunch of good people who are still right in the middle of it and the town where my fiancée works is under an evacuation warning. A lot of my favorite local trails are up that way too.

 

Been a while since this thread saw an update. The truck still needs some attention, but there is this...


Co-pilot Mod! Her name is Bella and she’s pretty amazing

 

Congrats on the pup man!

 

Oh no. Those are the worse to have around!

Doggo's make the world a better place. Looks like a fun one!

 

Oh hell yeah!

Congrats.

If Bella ever wants a boyfriend, Mugsy is the man.

 

Thanks, Mike! I’m really looking forward to taking her out with me eventually.

Thanks, Monte! She’s pretty great.

Thanks, man! She’s such a huge part of the family already, we can’t imagine life without her.

Mugsy is definitely a handsome devil. Great name too

 

Damn! I had no idea it had been so long since I’ve posted in here… Things have been pretty slow on the truck front for a while now, I guess.

Well, now that I’ve had some time to spend on things other than our house and yards, I decided to knock off a simple little project and hopefully get some momentum back to keep the truck projects going.

I’ve been running flares ever since I took a trip back to my hometown in southern Utah a few years ago right after tubbing for 35s. Running without flares, I hit a crazy rainstorm near the San Rafael Swell and ended up getting the truck absolutely covered in mud. (The first picture below makes it look A LOT better than it actually was). The lack of flares made the entire truck a horrific mess, and I vowed to put the flares back on as soon as I got back home.




After finding mud packed into the core support spaces and between the support and the fenders, I decided to add some custom Kydex liners to keep everything out of there. The first attempt is still doing great, but it will eventually get updated for even better coverage at the flare.






While putting the flares back on didn’t keep the mud off the sides entirely, it did help a ton with keeping mud and water from the road out of the bed and off of the RTT. And when I pulled my 1” spacers and went back to just the 3.5 backspacing on my wheels, it helped even more, in addition on to getting ‘the stance’ back to something more my style.

What sucked, though, was the fact that the flares kept fading and looking haggard. I tried the heat gun method. It would work for a month or two, then the fading would come back worse every time, like this:




It looked even worse in person. So I finally broke down and prepped the flares and painted them with some Duplicolor Trim and Bumper paint. Prepping the rear flares was a piece of cake, but since I have rubber material riveted to both the flare and the fender up front, I had to mask everything off first. No big deal, especially after pulling the fenders off the truck. The prep was pretty basic: wash with soap and water, dry, carefully wipe with acetone, and prime. Three color coats later, and it’s a HUGE difference!




Once the paint had cured, I decided to take the boy out to check on one of my favorite local trails to see if it was open. We waited until mid afternoon to head out, and the steady stream of “Texas Wheelchairs” (SXS, or UTVs) heading back into town made that decision a wise one. Few things irritate me like dealing with asshats in a side-by-side drunkenly fucking up our trails. Which is almost always what they do.

Anyway, we basically had the trail to ourselves, and got to play around on some of the obstacles on the way up. (Sorry, no action shots. I’ll get out to take pics of the scenery, but not in the middle of technical stuff when it’s just me and the dude).

It had been a while since running it from Hwy 36, so I was looking forward to the big reveal after you top out and Mount Meeker and Longs Peak come into view. I wasn’t disappointed, but the pics certainly don’t do them justice!

Looking back east, where you can see a good bit of Longmont in the far distance:



The Twin Peaks to the right in all their glory:



It was a great afternoon and an awesome boys trip that was long overdue!


Finally, I figure that everybody loves dogs, and especially puppies. It’s pretty crazy to see just how much this girl has grown since we got her just before Christmas. She’s almost eight months old now!

 

Looks clean with the flares. Yeah the heat gun method is nice for the short time it lasts... I keep putting off painting mine because I just hate painting things...

 

Thanks, Phil!

And I’m with you, painting blows! I got slightly lazy with my masking and had to use a clay bar to get rid of some overspray from the flares…

 

I still love the kydex fender liners but don't want to do the work for them lol. Your attention to detail always has been admirable. You and Cory are making me rethink running no flares on my hooptie.

 

Daily driver upgrade!

After years of faithful service from my beat down 2004 Subaru Legacy, I stepped up to a really nice 2013 Volvo S60 T6 R-Design AWD.

I’ve only had it for a few days now, but it’s super comfy and an absolute blast to drive. Best of all, it’s a low-mileage two-owner car that spent its entire life in New Mexico, so there’s zero rust. The pre-sale inspection from a reputable local independent Volvo shop gave it a clean bill of health, so as long as I stay on top of the scheduled maintenance, it should last a while.