• Jack-it Night: April 2024 RS Meeting Hey Guest: Wed. April 3rd is the next Rising Sun meeting, and you won't want to miss it. We're doing our annual offroad recovery equipment demonstration and trail skills training aka "Jack It Night." Meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. (early) Click here for all the details.

Rising Sun Driving Skills

Would you be interested in improving your 4x4 driving skills and attend a class to do so?

  • Yes

    Votes: 26 76.5%
  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Depends on exactly what the focus is

    Votes: 8 23.5%
  • Experience is all that matters

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    34
  • Poll closed .

3rdGen4R

Cruise Moab Committee
Cruise Moab Committee
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
1,514
Location
Littleton, CO
It's faster. much faster...

View attachment 92926

But way more important than the truck is the loose nut behind the wheel. And hey if someone get a hankerin to lead something here, this would be a great add to our club Argentine day in June... no reason you can't share techniques & survey campsites at the same time, would make for some good debriefs during camping/happy hour also, great way to double down on that run.
Is it much faster after you change the engine, or before?
 

3rdGen4R

Cruise Moab Committee
Cruise Moab Committee
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
1,514
Location
Littleton, CO
It's faster. much faster...

View attachment 92926

But way more important than the truck is the loose nut behind the wheel. And hey if someone get a hankerin to lead something here, this would be a great add to our club Argentine day in June... no reason you can't share techniques & survey campsites at the same time, would make for some good debriefs during camping/happy hour also, great way to double down on that run.
Also is the elephants hill, or at least the trail?
 

MountainGoat

Club Treasurer
Staff member
Cruise Moab Committee
Joined
Jul 4, 2008
Messages
3,053
Location
Evergreen, CO
Also is the elephants hill, or at least the trail?
That's the Doll House in the Maze District of Canyonlands. :)

And Marco wasn't speeding. :hill:
 

3rdGen4R

Cruise Moab Committee
Cruise Moab Committee
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
1,514
Location
Littleton, CO
That's the Doll House in the Maze District of Canyonlands. :)

And Marco wasn't speeding. :hill:
Ahhh... this place?

0112460b220bfffb82e39094bea03edae17753070f.jpg
 

powderpig

Hard Core 4+
Joined
Aug 25, 2005
Messages
1,523
One way to practice on any weekend or late evenings. Get some of the traffic cones, soft trash cans, practice getting close to know the width and
length of your vehicle you are driving. If you have several cones/trash cans, you can set up a corse you can play with. One of the biggest things I
learned in my time with the Trail Teams. Was to pilot your vehicle with the rear wheels in mind. If you only think on the steering wheels up front,
and getting the front half around a object, then you will more than likely run a cone over in a course. Which in the real world, is crunching the rear quarter(or other body parts) on most Long wheel based wagons.
Learn your vehicle of choice with sitting in the seat(getting in a good driving position, throttle leg heal planted, and lower leg braced that way you can control the throttle with precise movement at the ankle, and not stab the throttle), and looking forward, using your side rear view mirrors to see your rear tires< yup move the mirror more down and in to see the sides of your vehicle. Learn your wheel base. One way is to set up objects to run over slowly, that way it helps
you to anticipate the rear wheel and it location. Go slow in neighbor hoods with speed bumps, and learn when the front goes up/down, and the rear goes up/down.
When you are wheeling, treat your vehicle as a piece of equipment(Mind set way different than a trip to the mall), It is a trick to help keep you mind on the trail ahead. Learn to shuffle steer, always keep hands on the wheel.
I have damaged my truck more when my mind was wondering or answering my kids questions as I was traveling down the trail. Taking my eyes off the trail will typically misplace my anticipation of the trail a head. Time in the seat can come in many forms if you are creative.
So real world, my wife just got a new car for the new period of time. We have had it for about 5-6 weeks to date. It has all seasons on it, all wheel drive. She was scared to drive it the first snow storm we had. So, We went driving around for about an hr. Thru neighbor hoods and some parking lots. It helped her build confidence in the car in the snow. We even spent time in a school parking lot that had lots of fresh new snow.
We learned some of the length and widths by parking it near a curb, both parallel parking, and backing up and front in. All practical things to
learn on a new ride. This new ride is more a road cruiser, not the 4 runner she has had for 13 years.
Anyhow, some thoughts to think about.
 

3rdGen4R

Cruise Moab Committee
Cruise Moab Committee
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
1,514
Location
Littleton, CO
One way to practice on any weekend or late evenings. Get some of the traffic cones, soft trash cans, practice getting close to know the width and
length of your vehicle you are driving. If you have several cones/trash cans, you can set up a corse you can play with. One of the biggest things I
learned in my time with the Trail Teams. Was to pilot your vehicle with the rear wheels in mind. If you only think on the steering wheels up front,
and getting the front half around a object, then you will more than likely run a cone over in a course. Which in the real world, is crunching the rear quarter(or other body parts) on most Long wheel based wagons.
Learn your vehicle of choice with sitting in the seat(getting in a good driving position, throttle leg heal planted, and lower leg braced that way you can control the throttle with precise movement at the ankle, and not stab the throttle), and looking forward, using your side rear view mirrors to see your rear tires< yup move the mirror more down and in to see the sides of your vehicle. Learn your wheel base. One way is to set up objects to run over slowly, that way it helps
you to anticipate the rear wheel and it location. Go slow in neighbor hoods with speed bumps, and learn when the front goes up/down, and the rear goes up/down.
When you are wheeling, treat your vehicle as a piece of equipment(Mind set way different than a trip to the mall), It is a trick to help keep you mind on the trail ahead. Learn to shuffle steer, always keep hands on the wheel.
I have damaged my truck more when my mind was wondering or answering my kids questions as I was traveling down the trail. Taking my eyes off the trail will typically misplace my anticipation of the trail a head. Time in the seat can come in many forms if you are creative.
So real world, my wife just got a new car for the new period of time. We have had it for about 5-6 weeks to date. It has all seasons on it, all wheel drive. She was scared to drive it the first snow storm we had. So, We went driving around for about an hr. Thru neighbor hoods and some parking lots. It helped her build confidence in the car in the snow. We even spent time in a school parking lot that had lots of fresh new snow.
We learned some of the length and widths by parking it near a curb, both parallel parking, and backing up and front in. All practical things to
learn on a new ride. This new ride is more a road cruiser, not the 4 runner she has had for 13 years.
Anyhow, some thoughts to think about.
01ff9516fd7561a07a4350ed833df185d3821bcf26.jpg
 

fyffer

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2019
Messages
447
Location
Trinidad, CO
Been working some on the Approach/ Departure angles, getting better. Same as knowing the location of the front/rear diffs over larger boulders, but all room for improvement. Your comment about "shuffle steer" I don't know a darned thing about. Done a lot, with minimal success You tube searches, driving stick on trails (heel on brake and feather gas simultaneous while releasing clutch, not tried, yet) with handbrake control.

I do appreciate your reply and will work on some of these, I like the parallel parking idea quite a bit, as well.
 

rover67

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
9,291
Location
Boulder, Co
Most definitely the Doll House and I was not speeding, I think Nakman probably photo-shopped it a bit to make it look fast. Also stock motor. ;)

Mike for the record I'm glad you're enjoying the rig, even with the adventure. I really really am happy you like it. Even with the whoops. Shit happens man and we all learn from it.... even better if you keep all your limbs and some cognitive ability in the process.

I'd love to participate in a class and help where I can. For me the big one was seat time and building up to things with some amount of jumping right in. I still remember the day I showed up for my first club run in the 60 (basically stock). I remember Kimmel being like "you'll be fine, my rig is basically stock (or something like that)" on the forum. I showed up saw his crawler and Rudys and Yoder's rig and was like dang... I asked a bunch of n00b questions about tire size and lifts probably then I proceeded to bury the 60 in like the first 5 minutes. Parked it and jumped in with Rudy for the day. had a blast, learned a ton, made some lifelong friends. I also used a shovel a lot that day.
 

fyffer

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2019
Messages
447
Location
Trinidad, CO
Marco, I love and live for this rig. Piddling around with it more frequently than not and have a great resource down here, Brian. We've become very good and close friends, plus he really knows his stuff. Maybe you had a stock motor in it then, but what you built and whats in it now, is nothing stock and really fast. 💨 I'll save a story about an Escalade tailgating me up Raton pass, for another time.

Crawled with Brian up Carnage twice, amazing, yes I did learn some, just not enough. A question I have had for you: what would you consider the most difficult trail(s) you've taken it (aka Tatanka) on ?
 

mcgaskins

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2012
Messages
1,898
Location
Denver, CO
That's solid advice. One thing I think made the old timers good was they started with stock trucks, open diffs with 235/75R15 street tires. You figure out momentum and tire placement quick, get a feel for driving and what works and what doesn't. You and the truck improve together, you know, share kombucha and baby talk with it.

Funny you say that because I started wheeling in 1999 with an XJ on 235/75/15 tires and open diffs! I literally printed off Mapquest directions on how to get to Idaho Springs and just started going up to the mountains every weekend to see if I could figure out how to wheel. I never had a teacher but quickly figured out power braking/2 footed driving, choosing the right line, how to get unstuck by myself (hi lift FTW), how to fix things with limited tools, airing down with sticks and refilling at gas stations, etc. I wanted to build the Jeep but had no money, so I spent over a year buying up used parts as I could afford them and kept them in my room until I had enough to resemble a kit :ROFLMAO: I honestly feel while it was very slow going, it was the best learning experience I could have asked for!

Speaking of which, I met up with a group randomly at the Burger King in Dumont and ran Spring Creek in ~2001 with a couple Toyota guys who said they were part of a club. Any chance any of these folks were OG Rising Sun members? First pic is me in my XJ with a hodgepodge of parts still on open diffs in the rock garden:

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224cXRg4sfIcJux3g4fUKxO8C5KkwTrVaHDoEFZ4RrcDgUUB4ltTR_u4XUkKI5spsNj2Jqbj6iYWF-7pp4i8sKNkftJUrj7kQXCwRzTPqDFulL_BfSM2cKXr7TIQ7bShT_8tXiUg_ab5rNXSEMkCdXFr0iejTl8KZgwgpLt9gpCaiBVBZBVr8lhtCvJ_vMtbXaWIkwcVbqxZB14X0ShWgMmOttrb1ohzgh7fCg7qszlB8zPY83Vz784Trchc8HrHKgivCp33M7ibAiLsOxIgF8mEXjganaKjbDk6Tggwn9cnkRbyXV2J6UUR6m-ZrRjvy_5Ku3izVQesQOyMWvRD5xE7xS8DCTJcFK_rM93YUfPXj1_D4OrGR517cV2eaXerQrrC1gzwLhdhcs_aQ_rkEFNCmKjSUasGxvV3KeKKAaTRLMFvibGu4vQ9MceMKsrJVEmZb--SafbLtMjQW0VmSLyRRTFeK4z3RawpYFp7B0QAmEP9ph_D6mB60aNp1XPzyuqHm3EEBbND2RMU9lYrHi6ZOmZVw2KPFfFbPE9r4SN4rE4r2EuPXeKvVRlXtZp3dBskl7ofwVQJjZogyzxB-PqLSeC6kb955jRNkinRf7IXKu5OcBns2yS2fWn8fB4F65KslSKndR2y48KKOmtF3YfOnSy5NSOYMN_NrXQRtSL218LY_S_reqGYlowzYQ=w640-h480-no


_ezYD4Dp6_pR29gKILnfW3r6XWRQ7B0q4qOLRsw_srBDmeUs-1AvJsk9wJQEeJLZG0eWOc1-8E-ojQANLKDb5XhY_uf8ZYPP6JFySisonEl47c591_5hI6W8M3E5Sw7aBbGH1TtC6wtD8hQedROCESDsbOSBpxy4AcKsSqJup1ecISKfnleBSMqqFSmZkzmADVaZ95W4SAd5CFfYdBdTb2iprrqAhm_At0Iz3boINV5bL0j9jXE7PZwR6BjRC1MYzRyVVaiGFOQ2AzyZXQrVwXPhKy-ZbvIhEmnPoDBqRh-76gwzn_cxZEQrSDYb91kYd7fEXEaHAXyLEg-FIs7D3S75A_wFT_CfWnLrBUaN9kuivThbnVJ6j-K8DtBJA0cNKkFHcQf6rT9X74gbTeAxYClTdLjDG0ClnHV3WzBuqSA7JWOr26ZjBHwykYbls2k8fP56OoY4-eqQ2WEJJw-fJ2MudiSbN8HwqdG2ljjIIPwXfty_yXcJULxSgYAkk_9VVuf2cERyEPqzeDv5jrmC3nOdoYq52xTY1grCs2ecQVOphi1mQ4BuV6LQ7l2aZVd15-VN8Fntz7swnjvG1nnkHIBgUFBn7LGcumzX2qov3fLm2lr5jxXVjO2uHsRc8r493CoAtXjRIAV8WpMcVIuJP36Dp5rNiRbDmsq8p8kqJ9gEvwMbewJq7Hscip2qDQ=w640-h480-no
 

DaveInDenver

Rising Sun Ham Guru
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Messages
12,950
Location
Grand Junction
Speaking of which, I met up with a group randomly at the Burger King in Dumont and ran Spring Creek in ~2001 with a couple Toyota guys who said they were part of a club. Any chance any of these folks were OG Rising Sun members?
The Rising Sun itself started in 1981 so not really original but more like MG (mid gangsta) members. I wonder if that group you met was doing the Father's Day run that Jeff Zepp lead on Spring Creek? I'm pretty sure I went to the 2001 run and would have been in my FJ40 that year.
 

On the RX

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2016
Messages
1,867
Location
Superior
As I rarely drive my weekend warrior, I will play with potholes and cracks on the road to recalibrate my brain for where the wheels touch the road on the way to the mountains. My daily is a 1500 silveRADo and the wheel base and width are not even close to the 4runner.
 

DaveInDenver

Rising Sun Ham Guru
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Messages
12,950
Location
Grand Junction
As I rarely drive my weekend warrior, I will play with potholes and cracks on the road to recalibrate my brain for where the wheels touch the road on the way to the mountains. My daily is a 1500 silveRADo and the wheel base and width are not even close to the 4runner.
When I see a discarded Coke bottle in the road I try using a tire to flatten it. It's also fun (in my mind anyway) to flop over those rubber lane reflectors they put down when repaving. Ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk.
 

Inukshuk

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2005
Messages
7,271
Location
Denver, CO
If we could teach each other things, what would you say was your strength and something you could share?
  • I'd show you how easy it is to splice synthetic line eyes. Mystified me forever until I just did it (and they hold)
 
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