Crusin’ Colorado

Located in the Heart of Pikes Peak Country

www.ColoradoLandCruisers.org

 


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.

 

Volume V Issue V                            May 9, 2003             Edited and Published by Darryl Price

 



President's Report  - May 2003

 

Hey all, we had a great turnout at the meeting last month.  There were several items of discussion.  First of all we finalized the next few trips on the trip schedule and Darryl has already updated the web page.  The next trip will be Carnage on 4/27.  This trip will be led by Paul and will meet at the North location (McDonalds on Hwy 83 and Academy). 
 
The annual trail cleanup of Reynolds Wrap will be on May 17.  We will meet at 8:00AM leave at 8:30 AM from the Safeway parking lot on Nevada and Cheyenne Rd.  Lets have a good turnout for this trip. 
 
In addition the 2nd Carnage trip date was finalized to be 5/24.
 
Brighten the Sangres is still on and will be held on 6/14.  I know that this is still a couple of months off, but this is a great event and I would like to see a big turnout this year.  This event works with the Forest Service and other volunteer organizations to clean up the trails, campsites, etc, in the Sangre de Cristo range.  There are several roads that go past the tree line.  If the turnout is good, several roads will be cleaned.  There has been lots of snow in the Sangre de Cristo range this winter, so there might be some snow still left.  Since there was a large amount of snowfall, there may also be downed trees to remove from the roads.  We have two different leave times for this event.  For those of you who want to camp, Andy is leading a group down on Friday night.
Meet at the Loaf ‘N’ Jug Total at Starr Ranch Road and Hwy 115 (South Nevada) at 7:00pm to leave at 7:30pm.  There is usually space available to camp at the Fairgrounds.  I will be leading a group up Saturday morning for those who don’t camp.  We will also meet at the Loaf ‘N’ Jug Total at Starr Ranch Road and Hwy 115 (South Nevada) at 6:00 AM leave at 6:30 AM.
 
Last month I talked about looking into the possibility of CLC being a four-wheel drive volunteer group with the El Paso County Office of Emergency Management to assist in the event of another blizzard.  I would like to thank Pete Van Vuren for doing the legwork on this.  He has already been involved with the OEM with his Colorado Wildland Protection group and knows the ropes.  Pete was able to get CLC set up as a volunteer group that could be called by the El Paso County and City of Colorado Springs.  There has been some discussion as to how communications would happen.  Pete and I will be the primary contacts.  From that point we will contact those people in the club who want to be involved with this community service.  It would be useful if some of the member have a HAM radio for communication with the authorities.  The next couple of months David will send a roster around for updates and a place to sign up for this community service.
 
Kendall Carlton
President CLC

 

Trip Report:  Carnage 4/27/03

We had a great run with 8 vehicles from CLC. The trail has changed some. More obstacles and some have become more challenging. Other than Andy losing the airlines on his lockers and shortage of brake fluid, there weren't any other mechanical failures in our group. We helped out another Toyota with parts and a welder.
 
We had a few new battle scars. Before noon I had already pushed in my front fender to the point of not being able to open my door. My back and shin were sore from climbing in and out of the window for the rest of the day. So, the tilt wheel became a nice trail accessory after that. Toward the end of the day, Mike Taylor rendered some assistance with a 4 way to allow the door to open again.
 
Mike Stevens had a good time in his almost stock 4 Runner. He consumed many miles off the clutch, lost the end cap to one of his bumpers, and adjusted the shape of the other. Chuck and Charlie were both there in the Yellow mini and it preformed well as usual. Charlie and Mike Taylor were kind enough to provide most of the spotting. Vic and Gary Clark were in Vic's 40 and managed to avoid the trees. Paul did a fine job leading. While he usually doesn't get stuck, this trip he did provide me an opportunity to use my high lift jack after he got high centered. John and his Yokohama's made it strap free open diffs, although it was close at one point.
 
We came across some vehicles that weren't prepared for the trail up at the squeeze. One was a Jeep on its side. The youngster had only owned it for two days. City tires no lift, and now one less window. Come to find out this is the third vehicle he has rolled. Maybe he should come up with a different recreation. The stock full size Chevy pick up with low hanging nerf bars decided it was time for both of them to turn around after the incident with his buddy's Jeep.
 
It was a longer day than usual for Carnage, but I think it was mostly due to the amount of fun we had on some of the optional obstacles early in the trail, and some waiting on others. I think everyone had a good day even though most of us were a little tired by the end.
 
David

 

Why is there no FJ50? From Rod Timby

The reason is because the final numeral digit in the Land cruiser designation denotes frame length. Usually 0 for short, 3 for middle and 5 for long wheelbase. A short wheel model was never mass-produced, hence there being no 50 series. Only the long wheelbase 5 was ever mass-produced, therefore all models are called the 55. If it came equipped with an F petrol engine, it was called the FJ55. Diesel engine models (if any existed) would have been called the BJ55. Later models, such as the 60, 80, 90 and 100 series, would drop the short, long frame designation, since all models were of the same frame length. Only the multiple variant 70 series would retain the frame denotation in the numeral designation.

 

(Rod said he got this from a pig web site, but didn’t include the site URL.)

 

Next Meeting: May 20, 2003

Liberty Toyota North – 7:30pm

 

CLC Merchandise

CLC has a few hats with logo, as well as stickers.  Hats are going for $13 and stickers are $4.  See David and he will fix you up!

 

CLC Dues: “To Due or not to Due…”

IF your CLC dues are due, then due(ly) see David in due time and do your duty by bringing your dues up to date.