White Tank s on Sunday

Everyone has been so quiet lately. I'm thinking we to get out and do a lil trail run get back in the swing of things, I know I need to get out. Was thinking a EZ run along the White Tanks on Sunday starting around 10am. meet at the Riverboat Resturant parking lot on Bell Road W of cotton. If anyone is interested in joining me please post up, I would hate to go it alone
Hope to see you there.
Mike

Ok, so I'm dumb, directions to the meeting spot on Sunday? I'm in the east valley, so I don't know the area. I'm also a bit of a slow reader, so please type slowly. I'll make sure I fill my tank up this time before I show up:freak: I rode the short bus when I was little.

Now I will be there but please tell me where the RiverBoat Restaurant is.

Any chance a 2WD could tag along?

I have a 7.2Mp Digital Camera and a nice camcorder. Call me the Photo bitch for the day?

The lollipop guild called Scott, they need you back ASAP.

The "riverboat's" on Bell road at around 200th ave. Come West on Bell and keep driving until you get to it on the right (north) side. Rinky, you should be fine in 2WD for 98% of the trail.. There is one small wash you may need a strap to get through. You do have a factory tow point on the front, right?

Roger- Here's a link w/ pics of some of the trail. CLICKY

Hmmm...that looks like a great trail.

Is this said wash?



I have a factory tow hook up under the front fender. I did have a CB, but it was tucked in the center console and was stolen when my Stereo got stolen a few months ago. So I'd be without any form of communication. Unless you guys use those 2 way radios? Then I can pickup a cheap one from Best Buy.

I'll be heading out there from this side of town. I figure to get there by 10am we'd need to leave at around 9:15 at the very latest. Probably around 9. You are welcome to get lost following me if you like!

Hey Roger,
I have extra FRS radios if you want to borrow one for the day. Also If you are coming up the US-10 exit at the Cotton Ln. turn right after exit and Follow it all the way to Bell Rd. the road you will be on is the 303, turn left on Bell and follow it up to the riverboat resturant. Per Dbax instructions. Real EZ.

Yep, that's the ravine you may need assistance with. If you don't have FRS, perhaps get some or post you need them. Most every member has some, with a few to spare. They're great both on the trail and while en route somewhere with others. We (AZXC) typically use FRS channel 14-0.

Cotton Lane = 303.

OOPS!Didn't mean to do that.

Thanks Rinky, sounds like a plan.

Thanks, that would be awesome. I'll be there, really looking forward to it. Hoping to get some good photos.

If'n I can scrape up the gas money, I'll be there to test out the El Crusher... it has one of those funny second levers and I'm curious to see what it's so bloody good for. And since that's an easy area that I'm familiar with...

Just a reminder, join us for the white tanks tomarrow (Sunday) ez run but very nice. Roger you may want to grab som AA batteries for the radios , Ill check condition on them but never know.

SEE YOU ALL THERE

Ya mo be there. Look for the guy sleep driving in a black X.

Hey Rinky, are we still on to meet by 900 tomorrow or did we want to start out earlier? Sounds like a long way out there.

Assembled by 10 at the riverboat, and waited until 10:30 for Gabe and Johnny. They were no-shows We (Conundrum, DBAX, Defibvt, GRN-X, Rinky, Soldier-X, and TremorX) headed west for 10 miles to the trailhead. Well, it was a trailhead for the days trip anyways :rolleyes: , not sure if it was the one we started out looking for.. I figured there's a mountain range runnin' 20-25 miles north to south. If we just travel parallel going south, we'll be alright. And indeed we were. The first part of the trail led us across hardly used old tracks in the now dry desert, which'd been green and fragrant with wildflowers only two weeks before. Eventually, we spilled out onto the proper trailand continued moving south. We stopped to look at the big, bald rock, than continued on. I think it was shortly after that Rinky need the first strap. Only part of the trail really to give a 2wd fits. Up and over he came and the train kept rolling. We drove along high ridges , travelling to their ends and crossing over now dry again streambeds and washes. The scenery is great west of the Tanks, still totally raw and very primitive. We eventually stopped for lunch in a deep wash, and sat about in what little shade the Palo Verdes provide. A nice breeze kept things comfortable, and we enjoyed our time.. We came througha series of fence gates and followed a property line a good ways coming to a hill. Without flogging his truck too hard, Rinky worked his open 2wd X up a decent sized hill to cheers and applause. From there we got to a couple of hills I couldn't pass up, so I led the way up and around a series of steep climbs. I think everyone enjoyed themselves there as well At the end of one particularily steep/sharp hilltop turn, somehow Tremor had a small problem getting up, than around the corner. Luckily, Georgie (AZXC's newest female driver) was there to show Tremor how to do it. She tugged him up like it was something she did all the time. We began to near the southern end of the range and slowly headed down to flat ground. We met the powerline trail and ran that the remaining 1/3 of the way. From there, it was a quick sprint(well, I hit 65 ) down the flat wide wash to the exit/entrance. We all said our goodbyes and hit the hi-way for the ride home. Fun trail, great for 2wd club Xcursions. We began around 10:50, ended back on pavement around 3:30. Not a bad day at all. Thanks to all who showed up for a good time.

The short version: "Not enough speed, loss of traction, and engine stalled."

I had a blast.. used 4WD for the first time ever; still trying to adjust to the difference between the peppy X and this big, slow hog. Hopefully I can make it out to more stuff, now that I have a bit more capable rig (now, if my schedule could just improve)! It was fun getting a 20-something-year-old beast to flex again after a few years of sitting in someone's driveway.

Fantastic experience, my first off road in the X. Thank you all for the help, expecially DBax for the tow up the hill. Unfortunately it seems that my camera was in the wrong mode for most of the day, so all of the photos taken until we got to the last big hill are overXposed I'll try and salvage some of them in Photoshop. The others can be found at: http://www.rinky.us/coppermine/



Big files, so they'll take the rest of the evening to upload all of them.

Note to self. If you don't want to look stupid for the next few days, don't hang your left arm out of the Window all day. Sun burn sucks.

Well,
DBAX sums it quite well, I appreciate all that showed up to do the trail and Had a great lil drive there. The hills were fun. In honor of Rinky we all did it in 2wd also. Our lunch spot was nice and was good to see everyone again and just get out. Rinky did some really good driving today. That is an awesome trail for the 2WD xterras. I believe that area at the end would be a great place to do some driver training should any of the newer offroad drivers want to get some experience. Well gang, Ill get my pics up here soon, and gfet a link up although I didnt really take that many today, thanks again all for coming. It wouldn't have been the same without you all.

I had a great time everyone. Thanks for letting me tag along. The '05 did very well and I was impressed with it.

Thanks SolderX for the chicken and other food. Pilar says thanks for the fish (no indigestion yet).

Thanks DBAX for the chips and a great trail.

Conundrum thanks for the conversation and for putting up with following me even when I killed it. Sorry about the rocks.

TremorX good to see that 'yota working a bit.

Thanks Grn-X for the sun tea. It was excellent.

Tnanks to the whole group for the great day and the pictures.

Rinky great job offroading. You really showed how it could be done in 2 wheel drive. The pics are great. Thank you for spending the time on getting them to look so good.

Thanks everyone for a very enjoyable impromptu outing that Grn-X talked me into.
We had a great time seeing everyone and their machines in action. Thanks Rinky for posting the great pics and also to DBAX for being a great leader and having the nice writeup.
See ya all Friday.

I cropped some of the photos so everyone had a nice closeup. That is the beauty of that 7.2Mp Cannon camera, it takes photos in such Hi-Resolution you can easily crop the photos down and still capture the detail. This one of DBAX is my personal favourite.



That rig just looks bad ass from that angle. Shame the ones earlier in the day weren't taken in the same mode. Only got the Camera for Christmas, so still figuring it out

I'm considering the Shackles / T-Bar crank to help a little next time. Plus maybe some better tires This might get expensive! lol.

Why, Yes, yes it does.

Why, Yes, yes it does.

It does look good.

Are the Calamini Shackles from Xterraparts.com the way to go, or is there a better option out there? I need an alignment, so may as well get that done before I take it in for the alignment

I gotta crawl under sometime and see if I have the LSD. I'm about 10k miles overdue to replace the fluid in there, so had better get that done real soon. It didn't feel like it was pulling particularly to one side when it was wheel spinning. Without the LSD, wouldn't one side spin more than the other? It felt pretty stable when it was struggling / spinning up that steep dusty incline.

Couldn't help myself. Took a torch and went out to look for the 'Use LSD Oil' sticker and it has one.

Rinky I have a set of Calmini shackles that I don't think I will be using. They are used from my old Xterra but I still have all the parts, and they are in fine working order. Drop me a PM if this is something that interests you. They of course would be discounted from the Xterraparts.com price.