Active wheeling or no rig/ working on a project?

Always have had to work my rigs between rides to upgrade stuff. I get to ride about once every 3 months due to all the stuff I have on my plate. I love to ride and have fun every time I go, but if I plan to go once or twice a month something that is more important comes up. In fact this just pisses me off, the one hobby I have, and spend a ton of money on, I rarely ever get to do. I don't even have kids!

I'm active...when my junk isn't being fixed/upgraded. Like 1tonyj said in his earlier post, I wheel with that clown, egarner, lightbndr and a few others on this board. We are spread all over the south so we only get to meet up a few times a year.

I Currently have my front axle out of the rig in my avatar, for full hydro upgrade and regear front and rear. After that (and after Dixie Run) I plan on doing a back half and rear 4 link.

Over the past not quite a year of working on this rig, I have learned a TON!!! From welding to minor fab skills, to motor swap and "mechanicin". This board has been awesome for tech knowledge...and the humorous "drama", and of course parts. I have also met some cool peeps in person from this board as well.

I generally really like projects, so working on my rig is a big part of the fun in wheeling. I will be up and running this fall....hoping to wheel 1-2 times/month.

My stuff sits in the shop most of the time. We are very active with a church plant (Baptist word for new church) and both work full time so finding time to go is the hardest part for us. It is 3 hours from our driveway to being unloaded and heading down Big Hill at HPO. If we could, we would be out a whole lot more. I personally like going to big rides because we only have a couple of friends who have a rig comparable to ours, and it is fun to be around a bunch of rigs (I am a people person). I love to go because it is my stress relief and lets me hang out with my family, in the middle of the woods away from everything that is truly stressful. To me, my sons will never remember soccer games and birthday parties they go to, but they will never forget the things we see and do together on the trail! (Modified because the lack of punctuation made it more difficult to read than a Kush rant)

I say "active wheeling/working on a project". Could go, just choose to keep working on my junk to make it better and only make a few big trips a year. Harlan was a few months ago, probably do Dixie Run then planning on KOH. I'm 5-7hours away from quality/challenging wheeling unless one of the local private parks has an open ride, so I spend more of my time riding dirtbikes and began racing Hare Scrambles. Still enjoy wheelin, but its not in the budget to blow $300 in diesel every other weekend towing to TN or KY like I used to be able to do for much cheaper when I lived in western NC.

My rig is also my daily driver. I haven't "wheeled" in over a year due to family stuff, other hobbies and then loosing my wheeling group. In fact, I'm pretty burned out on the Jeep and would rather be driving my 77 Silverado that I'm STILL trying to build the engine for. Never enough time to get everything done.

I started on the buggy thinking I would be able to put the time into building it like I did the rigs before it. life got in the way, kid , divorce, different job. Now I don't have enough time. I keep debating on whether I should buy something to wheel or finish the buggy. So far I have chosen to still focus on finishing the buggy, but I am definitely tired of not wheeling.

I would call myself an 'active wheeler', but not very active the past few years due to life getting very busy. We sold our old house, moved into a rental house, had a new house built, then moved into it about 1.5 yrs ago. While living in the rental house, my wife had three vertebrae in her neck fused together. She can no longer go wheeling due to her neck. Our son was two when we sold the first house, and is now 4.5 yrs old. Anyone with kids knows how much time they consume. The wife and I both work full time too. Again, those with a spouse who works full time knows what that is like too. Basically spare time to wheel and work on rigs is limited. I have had two wheeling rigs for the past 10 years. That allowed me to never not be able to go wheeling if the desire hit me. My primary wheeling rig was a Ranger cab truck on 1 tons, 42's with a 5.0HO and Atlas 4spd. I bought a stock Samurai to wheel when the cab truck was down. The Samurai quickly became modified with a 1.6 16v motor swap, TC gears, locker/welded, winch, YJ springs, 34" LTB's etc. A funny thing happened though that I enjoy wheeling the Samurai more, so I quit wheeling the cab truck a few years ago and started taking it apart 6 months ago to part it out.

I've got a decent set up TJ with way to much money in built jeep axles and drivetrain on 35's that I take out whenever I can but I've been three times so far this year.

I've also got a high pinion 60 and a 14 bolt sitting in the corner of the shop waiting for a home, my jeep is still to nice for me to commit to hacking it up and I don't have the funds for a full blown build right now after buying a tow rig and gooseneck in the last month to finally make it on more trips.

Out of my group of friends 4 of us are actually going wheeling regularly the others maybe once a year. Two of us are in our mid 20's with no kids though and the third makes enough to wheel while still raising his daughter and she's big enough to go now. Biggest issue we have is everywhere shut down and it's 150 miles one way to the closest parks.

Moved away from my wheeling friends and got swamped with work. Hell I lost interest in my rig but also fell out of touch with my friends at the same time. Finally broke down and sold my rig to pay for home improvements.

I mainly miss bombing around on the local dirt roads and the leaf looker trails so I'm working on a baja bug now to get back at it and keep it relatively cheap.

Re: Re: Active wheeling or no rig/ working on a project?

Mongo44 said:

Moved away from my wheeling friends and got swamped with work. Hell I lost interest in my rig but also fell out of touch with my friends at the same time. Finally broke down and sold my rig to pay for home improvements.

I mainly miss bombing around on the local dirt roads and the leaf looker trails so I'm working on a baja bug now to get back at it and keep it relatively cheap.

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Sounds like a blackhouse rig to me!

Re: Re: Active wheeling or no rig/ working on a project?

TBItoy said:

Sounds like a blackhouse rig to me!

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Bingo!

I ride a good bit. I havent stopped working on my rig since I got it. It's mh first one. Wanted one since I was a kid. When I go ride I like to ride with folks with the same riding style .. John G is one of my favorites to ride with. We can ride for hours and not stop. Well ok, he may stop Waitin on me, but not every few minutes. Ya know, it's weird.. I had a riding buddy, we would go once a month or so. I kept on upgrading and upgrading and I guess I'm no fun to ride with anymore. I can see how it would be frustrating though .. The one thing I will say is, if it wasn't for HL, I could see me Gettin burned out .. Cause It's just me, no help, no one with lots of knowledge to lend a hand when i have a problem on rig . Just me, by myself, workin on my ****, doing things to my rig I never in a million years thought I would be doing. And I love every second of it. keeps my ADD ass focused on somthing that doesn't land me in jail. I have to have Somthing to keep me busy. I'll never get rid of my rig. Means to much to me. Wish i could ride more. But it's always somthing.. And dam this sport, I mean hobby is expensive. I aLso can say I have never seen any other hobby where everyone helps any chance they get. That's how it should be! It still amazes me EVERYTIME I see it. That's the biggest part I like, everyone has been so cool to meet and get to know. Have made some really good buddies through riding. Wouldn't change anything. Except my rambling and punctuation.

I usually go wheeling about twice a month. Since I'm in South Carolina I have to travel a good ways but that dont stop us.

Re: Active wheeling or no rig/ working on a project?

I try to go once a month but my work schedule is pretty crazy. I work in a plant that never shuts down so I'm used to working multiple weekends in a row, holidays, and 9-10 days in a row to get a weekend off.

I love wheeling but I'm getting tired of not having anyone to ride with.

Re: Active wheeling or no rig/ working on a project?

94xjsport94 said:

I try to go once a month but my work schedule is pretty crazy. I work in a plant that never shuts down so I'm used to working multiple weekends in a row, holidays, and 9-10 days in a row to get a weekend off.

I love wheeling but I'm getting tired of not having anyone to ride with.

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Where do you live/wheel?

Re: Active wheeling or no rig/ working on a project?

94xjsport94 said:

I try to go once a month but my work schedule is pretty crazy. I work in a plant that never shuts down so I'm used to working multiple weekends in a row, holidays, and 9-10 days in a row to get a weekend off.

I love wheeling but I'm getting tired of not having anyone to ride with.

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Got any set weekends off? Let's get some dates together, you're more than welcome to come with us.

Re: Active wheeling or no rig/ working on a project?

muddinmetal said:

Where do you live/wheel?

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Live in Carrollton, GA, wheel Chocco and Morris a lot. Been to Gulches 4 times, AOP once, Harlan once, GMP once. I don't mind a drive.

01tj said:

Got any set weekends off? Let's get some dates together, you're more than welcome to come with us.

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I'm sure I've used up a lot of my favorability with they way I got my schedule and vacation done this week. After Harlan on the 4th I don't have anything set up until September 3-6. Last Sunday in July I'm trying to go see a friend preform at the GA dome but other than that I'd like to do a trip or two.