Colorado Land Cruisers is a four-wheel drive club based out of Colorado
Springs, Colorado, and sanctioned by Toyota Land
Cruisers Association. We are organized to bring together Toyota owning
families and individuals interested in exploring Colorado four-wheel drive
trails.
Some of the highlights of last year are: Colorado Land Cruisers officially signed a volunteer agreement with Pike National Forest to clean and maintain FR 370D (Reynolds Wrap) and had our first clean up/maintenance day. There was a poor turnout for "Brighten the Sangres" this year. Lets try to remember that this is the Saturday before Fathers day in June. This is a great event. Lets have a huge turnout this year. Andrew nearly rolled off of Jaws 2 on Blanca. Charlie Stevens set up a guest speaker from Colorado Parks to speak at one of the club meetings about getting funding for trail maintenance and cleanup. We had good turnout for all of the Christmas Tree cutting days.
Hey all, it's the beginning of a new year. We had our first meeting this year and elected new officers. I am still the President, John VanVueren is now the Vice President, Andrew Gzybowski is now the Secretary, David Hayes is now the Treasurer and Joel Beerer is now our TLCA Delegate.
We had a great trip to Shubarth Trail on Rampart Range. We had 8 member rigs and 1 guest. It was good to see Chuck Terrell back on the trails. There was a little snow and some fun trails. In February we have a trip scheduled to China Wall. This trail is very fun. It can be done in a stocker, but has some optional rocks to play on if you want. It is a very nice area and makes a great day trip. Lets have a good turnout.
Kendall Carlton
President
The other day I was out in my driveway working on something, when I noticed a sound of a vehicle coming up my street. Now you know in this age of mass produced computer controlled, efficient mufflered, automatic transmissions, front wheel drive vehicles, both cars and trucks or “SUV’s”, one vehicle sounds a lot like all the other vehicles. The sound is usually like a “Singer Sewing Machine” for the case of small fuel-efficient domestic/import roller skates to the sound of what could be a V-8 for the case of a new Sport Utility Vehicle, SUV, or even full size Sport Luxury Utility Truck, with a V-8. With the only characteristic sounds to set one vehicle type from another limited to sewing machine sounds to maybe a V-6 or V-8 to the differences between Cummins diesels vs. the other V-8 diesels, this sound coming up the street was totally unique. The sound was completely different. A sound that is easy to identify. It was the sound of a stock 6-cylinder FJ40, complete with the gentle, soft whine of the transmission and transfer case gears. It took me maybe about ¼ of a heartbeat to realize what was coming up the street, and to turn and watch a fine, red FJ40, with Montana plates, go past my house. I have a new neighbor who moved in up the street, I haven’t met him yet, but I plan to introduce CLC and myself to him/her.
Stock 4-cylinder Minitoys also have this unique sound, which is a combination of the fan and the induction system as well as the transmission and transfer case. I remember many times in the past while out camping listening for that sound which meant one of my sons was about to join us at our camp site. It was always a thrill to realize that they were about there, and mom could then relax.
Now for the point of all this, with sounds which vehicles make: We all drive our rigs, and very quickly know and understand what sounds are good and what sounds are not. The good sounds are an indication of overall vehicle health, and we should know what they are. My FJ40 has been trying to tell me for about 6 months that it just wasn’t feeling well. I have noticed the sounds, but passed them off on the fact that my FJ is, after all 31 years old, and it sounds like the 31-year-old Asian carb is having problems. Then to we started with the alcohol in the gas, the last part of October, and that was the cause of the problems. It had to be a carb problem, because after all, with the alcohol, and it being winter and cold, 10 mpg was about all it would do this year. Yeah, Right. In all of this driving down the analysis street, I had entirely missed the point in what my FJ was telling me.
The point turned out to be very simple. My ’72 FJ40 still uses points in the distributor. Part of normal maintenance with ignition points, is to check the gap and or dwell angle. This is something that used to be done at regular intervals, like in the fall when it starts to get cold, and again in the spring before the weather starts to get hot. When I checked the points, they were barely opening, and the dwell angle was about 49 degrees. As a tutorial, when the ignition points open, it causes the field of the coil to collapse, which in turn causes the plugs to fire. A simple adjustment of the points completely cured the problem. My FJ40 is once again happy, and sounds like it.
There are other sounds that you don’t want to hear, and those with you on the trail can usually hear them too. These are the horrible sounds of a Birfield, differential pinion or other large, hardened steel part suffering fatal distress. Hardened steel part distress sounds = large $$$ to fix.
Learn to listen to your rig. Know its characteristic sounds when everything is working properly. You will be glad you did, and your overall 4WDing will be more enjoyable
Trail Run – China Wall - February 16th
Scheduled meet time is 7:30am at the Western Station, just east of Woodland Park. Leave time is 8:00am. Kendall will be the trip leader. Take pictures and get them to me at the meeting, on a CD – or forward them via Webmaster on the web page.
Next Meeting – Feb 18,
2003 – 7:30pm
Plan on attending CLC’s next meeting. We are meeting at Western Sizzlin’, corner of 8th St and Cimarron – 221 S. 8th. Come early and join us, and if you are hungry, Western Sizzlin’ can fix that, and they want us to have them be our place to eat on meeting nights.
http://www.rockcrawler.com/features/newsshorts/03january/fj_cruiser.asp
http://www.toyota.com/about/news/product/2003/01/07-2-fjcruiser.html
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