Hello from Mindless - News from New York

Mr. Mindless · Hello from Mindless - News from New York

Hey all,

I got a PM on Pirate from 89lxstanger (is that your handle here too?) asking about what's going on over here in Rochester, and figured I'd post up here and let all of you know, too.... There's quite a bit going on, to be honest, but not a lot in the very short term hope of close wheeling.

Starting off with a little about myself first, I suppose, would be a geed place - My name is Mike, and I've been wheeling for about 5 years now, I guess. Maybe a bit longer.... I live in Livonia, NY, south of Rochester. I'm on the boards of Team Mud Nuts, a Rochester area 4x4 club, and of East Coast 4 Wheel Drive Region E. I work in IT at the University of Rochester.

I've got a '98 Dakota on 40s that I've had out to Colorado, down to Tellico, over to the dunes at Silver Lake MI, to Forbidden Zone in Ohio, Coy Hill in Mass, and all over Paragon (RIP) and Rausch Creek. I'm all over the rocks and trail riding, not so down with the mud bogging in spite of maybe having built a truck that would be better for the mud than the rocks Smile

I do all my own fab work, and the truck has treated me well. I've been driving it since it had about 25,000mi on it, and only screwed around with tires on it until I did the solid axle at about 112k in the summer of '04. It's now right around 155k mi on the clock with a different axle (started with a LP D44 and swapped to a HP D60), but the same suspension setup, and it works alright. Here's my build thread on Pirate and here's a semi-current pic (more body damage, MT/Rs on H2 wheels, some trimming, and few other things since).

I've been involved in the Dakota Mailing List since 2001, and that's what got me into four wheeling. I've been a member of Team Mud Nuts for three or four years now, and I'm now on the club's board as Member At Large.

That position is something we just created to be a sort of liaison to other clubs, and to larger 4x4 organizations. TMN just joined something called East Coast Four Wheel Drive, an association of many clubs in the northeast US. EC4WDA is divided up into 5 regions, A through E. I'm the vice chairman of Region E, which covers New York State from I-81 west - and if any clubs in your neck of the woods were interested in joining you'd be ours too, so to speak.

There are a lot of racing organizations that are a part of EC4WDA, and a common sanctioning body is a big part of why the organization exists. Up in the north in New England and NYS, offroad trail riding is a much larger part. Right now TMN is the only club in Region E (we just resurrected a dormant region), and Region D (Eastern NY up into Maine) is also made up of all offroaders, not racers. We're working on land access issues here, and we have gained access to quite a bit of land through our membership. We have yet to explore it, but seeing as Paragon has been closed, and Coy Hill has been closed, it's very nice to see a bit of land on the horizon when two of the three areas we most often visited are gone.

Speaking of things being gone, if any of you have participated in the Nor'Easter event that has been held the last two years I'm sure you heard that Jorgé is no longer going to be running it. Region E is planning to take that event over.

If you've read this far, thanks for listening to me ramble. I'm not sure if international cooperation is something that we're looking to get into as a region just yet, since we've only been feeling this out for 2 months now, but if you have any thoughts on that let me know. If there are any organizations on your side of the boarder that we may want to know about I'd love to hear of them.

89lxstanger

ya man thats me here has well

now to read that long assed post lol

ok read it, seems pm-ing you might have been a better idea than ithought lol
we are a new club of sorts our selves and always looking for new places to wheel!
i personally am very interested in getting involved with land issues and expanding our horizons!
i did not quite have time to go check out those pinks i got from you but i will make sure i do this weekend! i know there is a few of us that would HAPPILY
come over your way for some events. and even lend a hand where needed!
as for international we can work on that in the future:P

team haymaker

welcome from beyond the border

allan3306

Welcome aboard and that's one hell of a introduction!!!!

Mr. Mindless

Thanks.

Looks like you guys have a really active forum here. You do that much wheeling? TMN is quite slow, forum-wise (those of us that are actually active in the club BS on a forum at rockmodified.com all day), and there are no winter trips on the calendar right now Sad

Although I really need a driveshaft before I do any distances with my truck before I burn out some bearings. It's about 39 feet... er... 11 meters long Wink

and just a tiny bit tweaked.

allan3306

Man we wheel on every week end and some evening but where slow this winter

Mr. Mindless

must be nice to have places to go.... the only place within an hour of Rochester isn't a challenge for a stock Rubicon (Whispering Pines).

We're hoping to get a quarry nearby to agree to allow trucks in, but that's going to take some effort and some money. It was open (don't ask don't tell style) years ago but blocked off due to partying high schoolers.... all state land here is off limits, and we don't have too many friendly private parties with wheelable land other than Whispering Pines.

allan3306

That sucks our areas are as challenging as you want them to be it just depends on the route you take and who you follow

Mr. Mindless

It's been a while since I've crossed the boarder on 40s. The TDI flies under the radar nicely, how's the OPP like big trucks?

I heard from an Xterra driving friend that they got turned back at the boarder once for being too muddy, but that's the only 4x4 trouble I've heard of. You guys might actually be the closest wheeling for a lot of us in WNY.

do you guys have much of an official club? Or just a group of you who BS here and wrench and wheel together, and drink coffee on Monday nights?

lostsoul

WOW I got half way, so does that count LOL! Welcome aboard man, we are planning to get a few Road trips this year, how far away are your play areas, there are a few trucks up here that would have some fun playing there?

Mr. Mindless

halfway by a guy with half a rig.... hmm. that's either full credit or a quarter. I'll get back to ya Wink

All we've really got for certain right now is Rausch Creek. That's probably almost 7 hours for you guys. It's about 5 from Rochester.

The new potential areas are up in the Adirondaks. I'm not yet sure how far up, nor what they'll have to offer.

There's another potential place that the Erie (PA) Mud Mushers and a few other clubs are working on that's in NW PA, that should be around 3-4 hours for either of us. That's a developing situation with public land that is currently open as an ATV park and looking to expand into fullsize rigs. It's still up in the air but the pictures I've seen look a lot like Rausch and Paragon so I'm really hoping for that one to go through. We should know more on that later in '08. http://www.mudnuts.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=252&forum=5

lostsoul

LMAO less metal for me to mash. I am actually thinking about removing about 8" of rear over hang and J cutting the rear. Once I figure that out I can finish off the rest of the cage so when it plays dead it is better protected.

Mr. Mindless

There's most of a Zuk in our club too. Currently maroon & rust, but it's getting a new tub this winter. Yota axles and a 1Z VW turbodiesel in it. I love those little things.

Once I win the lottery, I'm going smaller yet. I want a street legal weathrproofable 1-2 seat TDI powered independent suspension buggy with at least 20" of tire travel on 33s-35s with a 24"+ belly.

I love my Dak, but it gets tiring threading it through trees, and I get tired of 12MPG... er... (thank you Google) about 20L/100km

89lxstanger

i owuldnt say we are an official club, mind you the sunject has been brought up on more than one occasion!

some of us are not afraid to drive(or trailer) to do some good wheeling
i know im not scared lol
a quarry could be alot of fun money to open you say? what kinda money we talking? attainable or jesus christ i need to win the lottery

lostsoul

Sounds like a nice machine, I thought about the Deisel conversion when I was doing mine, but at the time it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much money to do.

89lxstanger