Adventure Raid 2020

The Sonora Rally’s guided trek through Mexico’s Gran Desierto de Altar

A true Dakar-style adventure, the Yokohama Sonora Rally has emerged as the premier cross-country rally venue in North America. This multi-day event provides the ultimate challenge between competitor, machine, and terrain, testing navigation and off-road racing skills while being immersed into the unique Sonoran landscape and culture. It is also North America’s the only “Road to Dakar” event (the winner of the class receives a free entry into the world-famous Dakar Rally) giving it global prestige and coverage.

While the rally is a full-on competition (motorcycles, UTVs, and four-wheel vehicles), the Adventure Raid Class is crafted for those that want to experience rally raid and navigation without the stresses of racing. This guided tour, which traces many of the competition routes, provides participants a sampling of the vast landscapes and natural beauty of Sonora.

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Exploring Fraser Island With The MAXTRAX Land Cruisers

There’s few who know Fraser Island better than the inventor of MAXTRAX, Brad McCarthy—he literally wrote the Dirty Weekends guidebook to exploring the island, so it’s no coincidence that the 4WD paradise is the spiritual home of MAXTRAX.  The 75-mile long sand island sits off the coast of Queensland, a few hours north of Brisbane, and there isn’t a single foot of pavement on the entire island. If you want to explore here—you’re going to need 4WD, and eventually you’re going to get stuck in the island’s infamously soft sand. Aside from areas shut down for conservation on the island’s Western beaches, you can drive from the very southernmost point all the way around the northernmost point at Sandy Cape, all the way up the east coast—and you can check out the island’s rainforest center on the sandy interior tracks that often lead to pristine freshwater lakes.

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Metal-Tech 4×4 Announces First Designed, Engineered, Hand Built in the USA 200 Series Toyota Land Cruiser Front Bumper

Introducing the Ghost Rider Front Bumper for the 2008-2014 Toyota 200 Series Land Cruiser

The Ghost Rider front bumper for the 200 Series Toyota Land Cruiser is the first full bull bar designed, engineered, and hand built in the USA. 
It provides excellent approach angle and critical head light protection giving you confidence while out in the back country. From the driver’s position you are able to just see the outermost corners of the hoop giving you confidence on where the outer edge of the bumper is for tight trails. 
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REVIEW: YOKOHAMA GEOLANDAR M/T G003

Review of the new YOKOHAMA GEOLANDAR M/T G003 launch in Gateway, Colorado
https://www.yokohamatire.com/tires/geolandar-m-t-g003

Released May 18, 2017 Yokohama’s newest mud terrain, the Geolander M/T G003™, definitely caught my eye. Being personally plagued with less than desirable mud terrains, and the many problems associated with them, I felt the market was ready for a new offering. The last three sets of tires I went through left me wondering if I could find a tire that fit my needs. I’m pretty sure the current set I run has at least thirty plugs in the tires on the ground and desperately need to be retired. The spare has fifteen plugs alone and a bulge in the sidewall rendering it completely useless at this point. The joke in camp is that I may be the only person to have a tire failure from a bunny rabbit. Somehow my tire met its match when it encountered a fluffy cottontail. I assure you that it was not intentional and I felt really bad if that helps anyone sleep at night. Continue reading →

Pig Party 2017

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It never fails, work will be dead and boring until I need to leave and Wednesday June 21 was no exception.  I had a 7 hour drive ahead of me and hoped to bug out by 2 or so to get the majority of the trip covered before the critters came down from the mountains…but here I was pulling out at almost 4, right when rush hour was beginning to ramp up.  Fortunately, traffic wasn’t near as bad as it could’ve been and with it being the middle of the week campers wouldn’t be an issue, it was just the locals dead set on doing no less than 5 mph under the speed limit.  I finally made the turnoff outside Telluride around 10pm and traffic was very light and I missed all the construction mess, so I fired up the Rigid LEDs and tried to make up some time.  

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Black Hills Cruiser Classic 2016

The Author collected as much common sense as he could muster – and broke out the winch.

The Author collected as much common sense as he could muster – and broke out the winch.

Reunions come in all shapes and sizes. Family reunions bringing large families together to, in some cases, meet and reconnect with distance relatives. High-school and college graduation reunions often accompanied by reuniting of cliques and offering an opportunity to compare job titles and baby pictures. And who doesn’t get a bit excited when their favorite band from their childhood puts aside differences and brings the original lineup back to the stage?

The Minnesota Toyx4’s, the brain child of a few Toyota pickup lovers in the late 80’s, was once the nation’s largest Toyota mini-truck off-road club lead out of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota. Lasting over 20 years, members of the club, as is often the case, grew up, moved away, got married, had children, and generally lost track of each other as four wheeling took a back seat to adulthood. Club members moved to other clubs, onto other projects and hobbies – from muscle cars to camping to children’s soccer clubs and the like. But club stickers still survived. Members occasionally ran across 90’s copies of the ToyxTabloid – the official newsletter of the once busy club – or entertaining pictures of “what we did then” and “can you remember when?” Continue reading →