Who Really Wheels....

Do you really wheel?

  • yes

    Votes: 55 79.7%

  • no

    Votes: 14 20.3%
  • Total voters
    69
  • Poll closed .
I wheel when possible and when my rig is in one piece. Mostly softcore. I follow the hard core guys around as a fluffer.
 
Loaded up and ready for Windrock Saturday!

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Ive got hardcore passion for wheeling. Worked outside on my rig for 10 months went out wheeling and broke an axle. I seem to be 95% work 5% play, but I can't stop doing it either!
 
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redneckcj5guy said:
Watched you slay Superman @ the flats. i backed out.
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I must have caught a lucky bounce because I've been a one hit wonder on that trail ever since.
 
Great thread here! Paul you are one of my hero's brother! As far as wheelin for me, i try to go as often life allows and it is defenently one of my greatest passions along with being the best father and husband i can. I always try to go once a month or at least average 10-12 trips a year so i want to beat on my rig hard every chance i get. Trail riding is ok for a while but give me a nasty mountain side full of huge rocks and im happy as a mule eating briars!!
 
I started wheeling ten years ago after mildly building my Frontier with sliders, skids, locker, and low-range. Then I spent seven years learning how to finesse it over everything I could get a tire on. And then sometimes just dropping the hammer to see where it fell. I wheeled in TX (while I still lived there), GA, TN, KY, and NC (when I moved here) and took a one-week trip to AZ in 2009 to do an overland wheeling trip out there. I never went more than a couple months without a wheeling trip for years. Along the way all my friends rigs kept getting bigger, mine just kept collecting more dents trying to keep up. Then in 2011 I tore the truck down and just spent three plus years getting it to where I feel like I can keep up (on an equipment level) again and sadly most all my wheeling friends are out of the sport, moved away, or too broke to take a trip. It has been out to Windrock once so far, Uwharrie planned for end of this month and the NOAS Club does a Harlan trip every February. I am excited to just be back in it, but do wish my old friends were still around!
 
Man...I used to wheel so much. The places I've wheeled, the people I've met, the situations I've been in...I'd like to say I'll never forget. But fact is, I've probably forgotten more than I know. I love threads like these. Brings back memories that I have not recalled in years. I guess I could write a thick book, and seems like now a days I'd have time to write a book, since I have not been wheeling in quite some time. I used to go more than once a month with CTB. ( trail scouting trips, then the actual club rides, and probably once a week at private places.) Some of you folks may only know me at ECORS races, but I'm sure there are several folks on here that could attest to my trail riding times, as I have logged in more trail hours than anything.

Yep...wife and I used to go wheeling all the time, then kids came along and it started to slow. Terrible housing market, high gas prices, closed wheeling spots, all combined to really put a damper on my wheeling. Sold my tow rig and my TJ and built a sweet cherokee for the family to wheel in. IDK what happened next, all I know is that the family didn't wanna go much anymore so I turned a perfectly good trail jeep into a two bit race car and proceeded to smash the life out of it for the last 4 or 5 years. But it's been a blast.

Cut to the now....
useless jeep in the yard...good jeep behind the building. About to start moving parts from the ecors heep to the next family wheeler!

And lets not forget...I am building a 2wd bro-lite race truck that will probably be more fun to thrash than anything thus far.

So the future WAS starting to look bright until I got the call from Social Service telling me I need to come and pick up my sister's 5 month old baby girl and her 11 year old son. So POW...BOOOOOM... feels like I have been blind sided. We have had them for nearly 2 months now, and it looks like we will be raising her kids for some time to come. This has been the most difficult time of my life, these past 2 months and no help in sight.( but that's another sad story I'll save you all from hearing)


But yeah @redneckcj5guy I wheel, err, at least I used too. Now , I am just a depressed web wheeler. I miss alot of people out there on the trails, and you sir, are one of them ,among many good friends I miss wheeling with.

and @BIGWOODY I will have a bike again soon. I've missed that since I was 25 years old.
 
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shawn said:
Sheee.... Paul, I wish you could keep up with me. I had to go buy a stock TJ just to keep things interesting.
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Break big or go home!
Changed this bitch Friday in a frozen creek bed when it was 20 degrees. Ha!
Glad i have some DAMN good friends to ride with.
 
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Hmmmm....

I dont like the whole idea of "hardcore wheeler". Any one that addresses the challenge of both the obstacle and the level of their build is a wheeler, in my opinion. Take what you have built, you can afford to break, and you have the time to repair, and wheel it all you can. The Big Dixie Boggers mantra "Go Big or Go Home" had nothing to do with the size of your tires or your motor. It was about how much heart you put into your wheeling! (you know...not the size of the dog in the fight, but...) When the BDB accepted me as one of theirs, I was wheeling a 1967, 70 HP, 4 cylinder Jeep CJ5 on 33s! No big motor. No big tires. Just a big desire to make that Jeep go places that exceed its design capabilities. And I beat the daylights out of it! Because I could afford to own and maintain that level of Rig. Now my rig is a bit bigger for the bigger challenges. But the "Heart" is the same size!

I spent 30 years in professional racing. Both racing my own and building and crewing for ARCA and NASCAR Teams. Sadly, That's all I did. No hobbies. No relaxation. Just a constant "how we gonna beat those guys next week". I have an ingrained competitiveness that has always driven me to want to "win". After retiring from racing, I got back into Jeepin' (I hadn't had a Jeep since 1979.) And, there, I found an outlet for that competitiveness. Except this time it was the "mountain" that was my competitor. Not other racers. And I loved it, There is no cheating. No motives. No politics. Just mud and stone and my desire to overcome them! So I built to that level of competition that I could afford to build. And I enjoy every minute of it. (So much, I guess, I went into business building them!)

Now, Im 58. It hurts like hell for me to go wheeling. But I will do it as long as I can get up in my junk and reach the pedals. (Thank God for Goodys and Corbeau!)

I like to quote my flying instructor on these matters of growing old. He said "you always fly the plane all the way to the crash. You never stop flying the plane, no matter what".
So, Im gonna keep 'flying' all the way to the crash!:driver:

And oh...BTW...Harlan was an awesome trip last weekend, as always!
 
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Let's see, I used to really wheel, I really miss wheeling, I really really miss all the folks I wheeled with, I really wish I could wheel now and I am really trying to get a rig to wheel with come this spring. Like some others, the expense involved go the best of me, mainly because of the level of rig I was trying to keep up. Once my daughters started college, that was the start of the end of my regular wheeling trips and the beginning of the downsizing. (selling a lot of my crap). I have managed to keep the YJ, although now with smaller tires, smaller axles it is still in need of some work to be trail worthy/dependable again. With three daughters through college and the last one a sophomore, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I plan on getting it back to trail ready by spring (light duty) so I can get back out in the woods ride some trails, do some camping and BS around the fires in the evenings. Not being able to wheel has been a rough, but also has made me realize that I did actually have as much fun with a stockish Jeep as I had with a built one. Also I now have a grandson I hope to have out on the trails with me in a couple of years to start him out early with off road bug!
This thread got me thinking too about all the memories and builds over the years. Here his is my first Jeep I built back in 1979. A 1973 CJ5, 304, 3spd/d300,d44/d30 (ha ha), SOA conversion(no kits back then), full cage, 39" Gumbo Monster Mudders!! It was huge back in the day.
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Come on Steve...you know how we roll.We'll guide ourselves around stealthily through the tough areas and rest under the trees at the end of the day.
 
This was the original hardcore rig yes it was a death trap but it did go
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Now move on to the rock bouncer world that is awesome fun very much sketchy at times but none the less fun. What most people do not realize when all the big names race they pretty much load up and go home. No says I it isn't broke yet and still day light so I am going to wheel call it hardcore or not
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@89wrangler your name came up this past weekend. Your buddy Carter was there and telling about what you and he did to Matt. We do miss you out with us! you were great entertainment around the fire for sure. And, yeah I guess you wheeled ....OK
 
upnover said:
@89wrangler your name came up this past weekend. Your buddy Carter was there and telling about what you and he did to Matt. We do miss you out with us! you were great entertainment around the fire for sure. And, yeah I guess you wheeled ....OK
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Carter is a cool kid! Yea we had a blast that night and I am surprised he remembers. Oh and I just happen to have some proof....LOL
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and just to keep peace in the family, Matt was not passed out drunk, just sleeping by the fire. Carter and I set up the scene and took the picture.
 
Used to do a lot more wheeling in college and right after college. Shoot, barely have time to log on these days, much less do anything fun. I got out to URE once this year, beyond that...I'll have fun in the flood plane on my property after a hard rain...and go out and have some parking lot fun if it snows/ices.
 
As long as it's not cold, rainy, wet, muddy, chilly, dirty, dusty, or damp, I'm about as hardcore as it gets. :D



I made it to 10 events this year in 10 months, 4 being races and the other 6 being local parks (The Flats, DPG, URE, etc). For me though, it's about enjoying the social aspect of wheeling as much as any other part. Getting to see friends and other wheelers that share the same interests always highlights my trips out.
 
89wrangler said:
Carter is a cool kid! Yea we had a blast that night and I am surprised he remembers. Oh and I just happen to have some proof....LOL
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and just to keep peace in the family, Matt was not passed out drunk, just sleeping by the fire. Carter and I set up the scene and took the picture.
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That pic is awesome!!! Lol
 
I still have my cj on tons. It's somewhere up in surry county. Prolly full of leaves, water, and bees. lol ask mcutler about that one!! Honestly my best times wheeling was def courtesy of mcutler. When I was broke and had plenty of time he made sure my junk was patched together and on his trailer going along. I got to wheel golden mountain and Harlan because of Matt. That's a debt I'll always owe to him. I'm slowly piecing parts together to get my rig a lil more reliable and plan to make a few trips a year.
 
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