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On 19 June 04 I joined Michael (ahriman from yotatech) and Kyle at Hollister Hills to play around a little and see how well the mods and tires work. I have 265/70/17 Revos with a 2.5” Daystar kit, he had 285/75/16 Destinations and 3” Revtek kit with NE front spacers.
We aired down at 9am at the ranger station and waited till 9:30 to see if anybody else will join. First we headed to the obstacle course to see what it looked like now and do some obstacles. We played a little at the stair step, where Michael did a little sideways slide and started his honking habit on obstacles :) . We did some of the small hills and decided to maybe try out some of the obstacle courses later in the day. The mud pit looked interesting and we thought Michael’s mud tires might do the trick, but decided later in the day would be better (it turned out a good decision as we were told some guys drowned 33 tires and couldn’t get out). Here is a video clip of the stair steps, a full edited video is at the bottom of the page.
We then headed for the quarry where I gave Bliksem some rest and water as he was not feeling to good. Michael played on some of the hills at the quarry. I then did the climb up the quarry and had to do it twice as I slipped of the rut the firs time. Kyle and Michael did it as well with his truck. Video clip of the quarry.
I then went up to Hector heights for some lunch and some Jeep Rubicons arrived while we were there. Some were stock and some were built up really sweetly, unfortunately I don’t have pics at this point in time. After lunch we went down to do Truck Hill, as I have not yet attempted it.
While I was setting up the tripod an old beater Chevy went up, adn did some sideways sliding up the hill which can be dangerous. Michael then went up and got caught badly by some of the ruts and went sideways pretty badly, fortunately he was able to catch it before it got out of hand. I then took a different line which avoided some the ruts and made it easier. Michael did it again and took a similar line to mine, but again went sideways but only slightly. And guess what...... he honked for us again. So now we need to figure out if we will call him Sideways Mike or Honky. A real funny guy with a stock Rubicon was there and he was a real sport. He knew Hollister pretty well, so he was able to reverse his Rubicon up the hill. Some other vehicles went up as well, but guys in a pickup truck had a real hard time making it. As the guy with the Rubicon referred to their BFG T/A KO’s as glazed donuts. While we were there we went through an interesting rut that showed some good flex on the Runners, see pics on right. Video clip1 of Truck Hill. Clip2 Clip3
While at Truck Hill we were informed the mud pit would be a bad idea, but that some mud is available in an area below the obstacle course. So we proceeded back to the obstacle course. We found a couple of small mud pits that looked interesting, they weren’t big but small and deep which proved difficult for me. I battled to get through the first time and bend my exhaust pipe pretty badly in the process. A guy in a Chevy helped us bend it back to where it hooked back in the bracket again ( I removed the resonator at the back today and had it bend to the side with a new chrome tip, as this was the second time I messed it up). Michael then proceeded through the same obstacle with far greater success, in part to better driving and also better setup (mud tires and higher lift). He then played a while. I then tried to go through a second time, but got stuck as I didn’t want to risk messing up the exhaust any further. Michael the towed me out. As we were ready to leave some guys came through with build up pickups, a Chevy and a couple of Toyotas. The first Toyota got stuck and in the process of the Chevy towing it out, they ripped off its front bumper. Unfortunately no pics or video, but it was funny as hell. A monster Taco then went through and an older Toy pickup tried to follow but didn’t make it. The guy in the big Taco then looked like he will run over the hood of the pickup. The big Taco the proceeded to back into the mud to kick some mud on the stuck pickup. In the process he almost got stuck. While he was trying to get out Bliksem decided to join the fun and I had to call him back. So here are the vids. Clip1 Clip2 Clip3 Clip4
We then headed Foothill Road to check out Tank Trap, which looked intimidating as always. As we drove around we drove through some of the big holes next to Foothill. There was however one big badass hole, which I really didn’t feel up to given my lack in confidence after the mud episode. Michael was up for the challenge and did extremely well, although he slid into a rut on his way down and HONKED again :). The whole crowd was impressed and cheered him. He was definitely on a high after that. Video clip of the hole.
We headed back to the obstacle course to go play some more. Once we were there we found out that when he slipped the bead opened a little bit on the tire and dirt came into the seal, so he was loosing air on his right front quickly. The wheel also looked very slightly bend, but barely noticeable to anybody but the owner of the vehicle. He still helped to pull out a stuck truck, but we needed to fix the leaking tire as his spare is still on the todo list. At the rest area we let all the air out and he washed the bead a number of times. Luckily it seemed fine after that when we aired it up again. It was pretty late so we called it the day and went to the Ranger station to properly air up and wash some mud of the wheels so at least we can drive on the highway back.
All in all this was a great day and shows the 4th Gens do rock!!
Full video (Save target before playing)
Small version Windows Media 7MB
Large version MPEG 50MB
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