F4WDA annual meeting and ride.

[Nullifier]

Well 2 weeks ago I went to the annual Florida 4 wheel drive association meeting in Ocala N.F. There was plenty of scandal with the O.N.F. annoucing the closure of over 1100 miles of OHV trails. The Park manager made the annoucement and high tailed it before he was drawn and quatered. The United 4WDA is filing suite since the route they took on the closures is against the N.F. federal standards. we'll see what happens. Scary thing is that he said this was only phase one. they would release the plans for phase 2 early next year after the biologists were done making a plan. Guess this is yet another reason to leave this state. the last good ohv area will be gone in about 3 years as they post install tank traps and fences.

On a high note the trip was fun. There were about 30 4x4 clubs from all over the state camping for the weekend. Got to meet alot of people from several clubs, some were impresive clubs other were not. There was a clean up scheduled for the Rodman play area after the meating. The weid thing is that they set it to be a brown bottle pick up only. I guess the clean up people are only interested in stuff they can get paid to recycle instead of pay to take to the dump. I on the other hand took full advantage of the truck and in doing to got the Florida Toyta territory guys to the same. We got a tun of trash. this is a pick of my truck about half full with "greggs boat" in it. an old fiberglass boat sitting in the the middle of a sand pit miles from the water LOL!

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The wether was nice in the day but cold at night with temps in the high 20's the camp fire was big needless to say

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Fortunetly I was in my dad's rv with the heater running lol!

 

[Nullifier]

We had a great trail ride on some mild trail. Only real obsticle of the day was a tree that fell across the trail we had to travers. It got interesting to say the least, and you really got to how well people could drive. Proud to say that even with a truck full of garbage piled cab high I made it over the log on 31" and open diffs. Other were not so fortunate.

This is my good friend Damon who couldn't make it over despite 39 iroks and f&r lockers. He broke a passebgers front hub ended up cought strateling the tree and it took a bit of creative winching to get him over it.

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This is my friend Matt. great uy had a x series and just traded it for a rubicon with a lift. he couldn't make it either. The ribbing got really bad with commentary such as as you sure thatt jeep doesn't just have the ribicon decals etc. Matt over the years has taken a beating cause he is the only guy I have ever met that had to actally winch down hill. You had to be there for this raosting it was clasic. I actually have about 10 minutes of video of both these guys but do not know how to post that.

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Here are some othe shots to show the area it was real pretty but no challenges at all. Being more expedition junkies you guys will appreciate these pics more then most sice extreme trails are not the be all for us.

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[Nullifier]

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Here are some cool rigs at the event

This is Tony Hoyt's rig. He owns a 4x4 shop here in tampa. This his mudding scrambler. He has another one for rock crawling at tellico.

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This is my friend Chris's grand Cherokee cplete with trail rady rear bumper dual dana 60's lockers and all. ************** rig with heated leather seats LOL!

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This is my friend Dans jeep. He is a local Cert & SAR member who also has the trained blood hounds.

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[Nullifier]

This would make an awesome expedition rig. A local shop here in Tampa builds these.

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All in all an outstanding week end. Not to much wheeling but 3 good days with friends "camping" and hanging out.

 

[Scenic WonderRunner]

I LOVE that 4DOOR!!!!!!!!!!!! That's Awesome!:victory:

 

[Brian McVickers]

Great write up and pictures!

What made that log so difficult to get over? I would think it would be fairly straight forward and not too hard.

 

[Nullifier]

well I think it was mostly the drivers in the begining. Then after the about the 6th rig the sand got so broken up on both sides of it there was no traction. Plus the log was old and do to rains it was saturated with water and slippery. All I know is open diffs, 31"s, and a laoded truck made it LOL! Mainly I'm just giving my buddies a hard time.To many peloel jsut didn't stay in the throttle once there front tires came up over it. They stopped and then tried to go again. It's one of those stay in it obsticles. Only 4 out of16 rigs made it over with out a strap.

 

[erin]

Very cool post, I to like that 4door. I guess that extra wheelbase people always say is a hinderence can be useful at times.

 

[datrupr]

Great posst and pics! Thanks for sharing, it is really beautiful countyr there. Too bad they are closing the trails, that really sucks! And that 4 door does look pretty cool, bit the wheelbase looks very long.