March 1, 2005    The Official Newsletter of the New Mexico 4-Wheelers    www.nm4w.org

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The meeting, at Heights Cumberland Church, was brought to order at 7:05 PM by President Leon Duggar.

Members Present: The following family units were represented by at least one member; Abbate, Brady (Pat & Sue), Bontly, Chapin, Cline, Duggar, Greven, Hurt, Markham, Meier, Miller (Bobby & Susan), Miller (Don), Ohnesorg, Peeples, Rector, Thompson, Trappett, Werkmeister (Mark), Whiston (Frank G), Wolf, and Woodard.  If I didn’t list you and you were there; you didn’t sign in.

Guests: The Guest list included Mary Turpin, Justin Simenson, Tony Roybal, Gary Markel, Dave Marks, Mark & Maria Berglund, and the Kiester Family (Michael, Kathryn, Beau & Mac).

The indefatigable Mr. Wolf made a motion to have the minutes of the last meeting read, but the required majority could not be found.  Once again.

The Sheriff and VP, Jeff explained the point system the NM4Wheelers utilize for assessing membership.  This was mainly for the edification of the attending guests, although the monthly recitation also helps Jeff keep things straight in his mind.  There were no fines of any consequence; Jeff did try to levy a fine against Leon for owning a Bronco and one for Glenn when he led the Rio Puerco trip through a large U-turn.  But the U-turn was to test the turning radius of the vehicles following him.

The Treasurer, Susan Miller reported the bank balance as $1,771.54.

The Historian, Rich Capener was absent.

Trip Chairman, Jason Lavy was absent.  Glenn made a brief report on the Rio Puerco trip; 26 vehicles arrived to take part.  Great turnout!  Chuck Peeples reported on the upcoming Auge Brothers Jeep 4x4 101 event, scheduled to take place April 16.  He asked for volunteers to assist with building a bigger, longer, and more difficult course.  Call Chuck.

Program Chairman Jerry Marx was absent.

Director of Environmental Affairs, Bob Norton was absent (wheeling in AZ).

Secretary Don Miller recorded the meeting.

Old Business:  Marcia informed us of a trip update, regarding a date change.  See the Members Only section on the website for details.

New Business:  Mark Werkmeister had exciting news connected with a BLM managed area near Socorro.  The easily accessible area has many trails in the process of being GPS’d and entered into the BLM database.  He asked for club volunteers to work with the BLM in this unparalleled opportunity.  The area is suitable for a mix of all off-highway use: motorcycles, ATV’s, Jeeps, and even other 4X4’s.  A club event is to be scheduled; see the Members Only website for details.  A motion was placed before the meeting to have interested members sign up on a BLM volunteer list; passed unanimously.

Leon informed us of a privately-owned Texas ranch that offers 4-wheeling events.  The Y.O. Ranch website (www.yoranch.com).  There are events scheduled for March 3-6 and July 1-3.  Details on their website.  Their website also offers cattle drives (to experience “what it was like to be a cowboy”) as well as wildlife hunting and a Texas Longhorn Cattle Auction.  Be a real cowboy, own your own!

The NM4Wheelers received a thank you letter from CYFC in connection with the Christmas club gifts to Valencia County Protective Services.  The letter will be placed in the club history archives.

Don Miller, returning to active club secretary duties, came armed with gifts as a bribe to let him back into the fold.  Actually the gifts were from Tom Woods Custom Drive Shafts.  Once again, Tom Woods generously donated three gift letters, one each for $50, $100, and $150 dollars, good for Tom Woods services/products.  This year Tom Woods also supplied hats, flashlights, and bumper stickers as well.

For the benefit of new members and guests, Tom Woods Custom Drive Shafts has a 4X4 Club Sponsorship program.  His company gives clubs the gifts as his way of giving something back to the 4X4 community.  He also gives discounts on purchases/services to the members of participating clubs.  Full details are available on the Tom Woods website  www.4xshaft.com 

Leon read the extensive list of merchandise and services donated for the Las Cruces Quarterly.  Leon made a motion to use the $150 and $100 gift letters for the Quarterly prizes and the other items for club member raffles/use.  Passed unanimously.

Leon told a story about some Bronco owner and his trials and tribulations centered around an aftermarket axle housing.

Jeff led us in inducting Mary Turpin into the club.  She had earned the points and we all agreed if she could put up with us we’d put up with her.  All kidding aside Mary, a warm welcome to our club!  A motion was also made to vote former member Miche Bove’ back to the club as an associate member.

Leon adjourned the meeting at 7:48 PM.  We enjoyed drinks and treats provided by the Thompsons.  Many thanks to Paul and Mary!

I am planning two work days, 2 April and 9 April (both Saturdays), from 9 am till 3-4ish.  This should allow us to enough time to build a track that will stand up to more than just one weekend of use.  As usual, bring the tools needed -- shovels, hammers, drills, gloves . . . whatever.  I will be surveying the area to generate some plans for groups to work on.  I need everyone to be at both work days and at the event to pull this off.  Thanks for your help.

For many, winter is the perfect time to tackle all those vehicle repairs and modifications you didn’t get around to during the busy summer months.  As for me, I finally decided to fix my ailing front track bar.  I especially wanted to get it done before the Chile Challenge, which for most of us is the big kickoff of the upcoming riding season.  Of course, no one wants to get all the way down to Las Cruces only to find out that something isn’t working just right.  So a bunch of us headed out to the Rio Puerco on Saturday, 5 Feb, to test out our rigs before the big event.  And I was happy to discover that the modification I make to my track bar solved the steering problems that had been plaguing me for so long!

Even though the weather was forecasted to be cold and raining, 26 vehicles met at the Walgreen’s on the west side that morning.  Member families included Bontly, Cox, Greven, Kausche, Kraushaar, Meier, Orban, Patrick, Sierra, Thompson, and Whiston (“G”).  The guests slightly out numbered us, with Jerod DeLong (ZJ), Gary Markel (CJ-7), Phil Rodacy (TJ Rubicon), Mark Berglund (TJ), Jay Miles (Yukon), Justin Simenson (TJ Rubicon), Ryan Lovenstein (ZJ), Phillip Torrez (Toyota), Mary Turpin (TJ Rubicon), Gerard Hersch (Tacoma), Michael Kiester (K5 Blazer), and 4 others who didn’t sign in (I hope I spelled everyone’s name right).

About a quarter of the way into the trail, one of the vehicles near the rear blew a heater hose and turned back with three others.  That left 22 vehicles for the remainder of the ride; still a pretty large group.  This was especially evident during that section of the trail that I got lost and had to turn everybody around!  (Please don’t anyone tell Sheriff Rector that I got lost, even with my GPS!)  One of the obstacles we conquered was the big sand hill; the one that requires lots of speed and momentum.  The hill seemed particularly “sticky” this day and the majority of people made it up without much trouble. 

We stopped for lunch at Snoopy Rock, and some of us “twisted up” our vehicles in the surrounding ditches to check things out.  The climb up the nearby hill on the way out provided us with a few challenges, but everyone got through okay.  We ended up back at the air-up spot at a very reasonable 2:45 that afternoon; not bad for such a large group.  Not only did it NOT rain, but the sun peeked out early in the afternoon and warmed us up nicely.  It was a good ride.

For nearly a year, I’ve been plagued by a “wobbly” front track bar in my Jeep.  The symptoms included knocking sounds on the trail, and very sloppy steering on the highway, which resulted in butt-clenching, hair-raising, white-knuckled drives to and from the trailhead!  Leon told me it was probably my front track bar, and he was exactly right.  After removing the track bar, I realized I could “wiggle” the bolts in their respective mounting holes.  And even though I had previously tried to tighten them up really good, the track bar was still shifting under the load of the vehicle.  I never realized that a perfectly precise fit of the track bar was so critical to the stability of the vehicle, but it is!  There can’t be ANY play in the system.  On the axle side of the track bar, I tried to drill out the sleeve in the rubber bushing in order to use a larger bolt.  But all I succeeded in doing was to heat up the sleeve to the point that the bushing was starting to melt.  So instead, I welded a washer on either side of the axle mounting bracket in order to fit the existing bolt.  This solved the problem on the axle side.

The frame side was a little more complex.  After purchasing a new greasable bolt (the treads on the old one were all chewed up from the movement), I bought a short section of brass pipe at the hardware store.  I drilled out the inside of the pipe so that the mounting bolt fit snugly within.  Then I enlarged the hole in the frame mount to just barely accommodate the new brass “sleeve”.  After cutting the sleeve to the appropriate length, I carefully tapped it into the mounting hole in the frame.  Finally, I put everything back together and torqued down the fasteners.  Viola, no more wobbling!  The big test was my drive across town to and from the Rio Puerco trail.  I was able to comfortably drive at interstate speeds without any problems.  And on the trail, the knocking sounds were gone.

Unfortunately, I missed the action at Las Cruces this year.  The past week was just too busy catching up at work and at home after taking vacation at week earlier.  New Mexico 4-Wheeler Dr. Bob Telepak and myself had traveled to southwestern Arizona for some 4-wheeling adventures.  While there, my father joined us a couple of days with his Chevy 4x4 pick-up truck on some easy/moderate trails.  The desert mountains were amazingly green, with many wild flowers already in bloom!  Of course, the wettest winter in decades may have some influence on that.

Check out the New Mexico BLM Recreation Website for some interesting browsing: www.nm.blm.gov/recreation/recreation_home.htm

Perhaps you may be wondering how you might support 4x4 recreation.  Have you considered serving on a Board of Director's position with the New Mexico 4-Wheelers, the Southwest Four Wheel Drive Association, or even the United Four Wheel Drive Association?  Each will have opportunities to serve as elections come up.  Following is the announcement of positions to be voted on at the Annual Meeting.  BTW, as the SWFWDA Delegate to United FWDAs, I plan to attend the event in Montana this summer.

UNITED FWDA ANNOUNCES BOARD OF DIRECTORS POSITIONS AVAILABLE

The United Four Wheel Drive Associations, an International Organization, announces that several positions on its Board of Directors will be voted on at this year's Annual Meeting held in Big Sky, Montana, July 18-20, 2005.  Those positions up for election are: Vice President, International Vice President, and Treasurer.  Each of these positions is a two-year term.

"ELECTION OF OFFICERS - Nominees for office must have submitted a signed letter of interest and qualification to the current Board of Directors, sixty (60) days prior to an election or be present or accept a nomination from the floor at the meeting where the election is being held.  Newly elected officers shall begin their term at the fall of the gavel ending the Annual Meeting at which they were elected."  UFWDA S.O.P. Article V, Section 1. (This year 60 days prior to the Annual Meeting is May 19, 2005.)

Nominees shall be members in good standing of a good standing member State/Regional Association. (UFWDA Bylaws, Article 11, Section 1)

Anyone interested in running for office is strongly urged to send a Candidate's Statement for publication in the VOICE.  You should list your qualifications, goals, ideas for that office, and what your direction of United would be.  This will give the voting delegates and their member associations an opportunity to learn about the candidates before leaving for the Annual Meeting.  All such statements should be sent to the United Office, 7135 S. PR Royal Springs Dr., Shelbyville, IN 46176.

NOW IS THE TIME to starting considering one of these positions!

I arrived home from work on Thursday evening and found a note on the table from Stephen.  “Dad, we don’t have any water”, it said.  Not again, I thought.  So I jumped in the Jeep and headed down to our well house, which is clearly visible from our rear deck.  But it takes about 15 minutes to drive down from our ridge, out to the service road, then east a few miles, and finally back north and further down into Sunset canyon.  The well house is at the lower edge of our property line, perhaps 200 feet or so below the elevation of our house, sitting on the side of the hill.  In order to drive right up to the well house, first the ground must be dry.  And then I have to cross a 2-foot-deep by 4-foot-wide drainage ditch.  The remainder of the slightly off-camber climb up the hill is gradual, but virtually impossible if it’s wet.  And this evening, it was wet!  In fact, it was raining, and had been raining off and on for several days.  In further fact, I later learned that this has been the most rainfall we’ve received during Jan/Feb in the past 70 years!

So I donned my hiking boots and grabbed my well-troubleshooting equipment, which consists of a portable air tank, an adjustable wrench, an air pressure gauge, and an electrical test meter.  Under these conditions, hiking boots are critical to a successful operation.  Cuz if your shoes aren’t securely fastened, the sticky muck will suck them right off of your feet!  This wasn’t the first time I’d had to go down to service our 20-year-old well.  But unlike previous service calls, the prognosis this time wasn’t good.  My tests had revealed that the pump had finally failed.  I had a perfect opportunity to have the pump replaced the previous summer, but in my stubbornness, I wanted to get every last drop of water that pump could deliver before having to pluck down the big bucks it was going to cost to replace it. 

The first “well” guy we called that evening said he wouldn’t be able to come out for a week, maybe two.  The second guy said maybe next week.  We finally found someone who could come out the next day.  So I took the day off of work on Friday and met with the repair crew late that morning, in the rain.  As suspected, there was no way we were going to get their F-350 dually 4x4, with their well servicing crane, through that ditch and up the side of the hill that day and under these conditions.  So after apologizing for not being able to help me, he slapped me with a $75 service call!

By the way, did I happen to mention that I was planning to leave for the Chile Challenge on Tuesday?  I had been looking forward to this trip for months!  So I evaluated my options.  (1) I could stay home and take care of business while everyone else was having fun in Las Cruces.  Nah, that idea sucked.  (2) I could go have fun in Las Cruces and let SUSAN take care of business!  We all know how well THAT would have gone over!  (3) I could put Susan & Stephen up in a hotel for a week and take care of business AFTER the Chile Challenge.  That would have been expensive, and I would have been thinking about it the whole time.  (4) The only option I felt comfortable with was to take care of business before Tuesday!

Even if it had been dry and sunny during the middle of summer, the only way we were going to get that truck across the ditch and up to the well house was to build a road!  So the first thing I did was to purchase a 20-foot section of culvert pipe in order to maintain proper drainage in the ditch.  We then hooked up our little utility trailer to the Jeep and headed out to the rock and gravel yard in Edgewood.  The Jeep/trailer combo will safely handle only one ton of cargo at a time, so we got our first load of crusher-fine and headed back to the construction site.  That first ton of gravel barely put a dent in the project.  I didn’t want to chance getting the big white truck and the Jeep hauler trailer stuck on the narrow access road, so we kept using the Jeep and the small trailer.  After only three more trips to the gravel yard, we had ourselves a pretty stable surface across the ditch.  Before all was said and done, Susan, Stephen, and I threw 8,000 pounds of rock and gravel . . . one shovel at a time! 

Unfortunately, the forecast was calling for more rain over the next several days, which still left us with the problem of getting the well truck (albeit a 4x4, but with street tires, of course) up the muddy hillside.  Have you ever tried to live without water for just a couple of days?  How ‘bout a week?  Or longer!?  I’m not talking about drinking water; that’s the easy part.  But without water, you can’t flush your toilets, take a shower, wash your dishes or clothes, and maybe not even heat your house!  Our heating system used a boiler, and with no water to heat . . . well, you get the picture!  The thought of this situation motivated us to come up with a quick solution.  We ended up purchasing 9 sheets of particle board and proceeded to cut them long-ways.  We used them to build two tracks up the 50 foot path to the well house.

The repair crew arrived late Monday morning.  Just prior, I had positioned my Jeep at the top of the hill just in case we needed to use the winch.  The guys shifted their truck into 4 Lo and slowly backed up the path.  Some of the boards cracked from the weight and others started to slide out from underneath the wheels, but it worked!  The truck was in position and the crew began lifting the tired pump from the 300 foot deep well.  About 6 hours later, a new pump was transporting that precious liquid up from the ground and into our house.  The first thing I did when I got back home was to take a long, hot shower!  It’s incredible what we take for granted!  After dinner, I managed to get all my stuff packed and my equipment prepared for the long-awaited trip down to Las Cruces.

Schedule of Trips & Activities

SUNDAY MARCH 20 – The Early Bird Run leaves camp from registration.  Finish the day with the Sundowner Run.

MONDAY MARCH 21 – The Hassyampa Toad Run is a full day of family four wheeling to the river and back.  The run leaves early a.m. and returns around dinner time.  Monday evening is the Cactus Biter night run for the Can’t Get Enough four wheeler.

TUESDAY MARCH 22 – The Rugged Review is a great trip for checking out more hills and trails.  Join us Tuesday evening for the drive-in movie, cake walk, karaoke, and potluck supper.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 23 – Join us for the Heifer Trail where the women of our club lead this one for new, inexperienced, and experienced drivers.  Climb hills, waterfalls, and enjoy the view.  Wednesday evening is Ladies Nite Out.  The men of our club lead this one, with a surprise for all the women.

THURSDAY MARCH 24 – A day of chance is a hand for our Poker Run which leaves in the morning and Bingo Night in the evening.

FRIDAY MARCH 25 – Come participate in our Vehicle Games.  This is a whole day of competitive events for kids of all ages.  Vehicles must be registered to participate.  There are viewing areas for spectators.  Trophies are awarded Friday night to winners at the dance.

SATURDAY MARCH 26 – Today is your choice.  The ROUGH TRAIL leaves the camp early and comes in later afternoon.  Safety measures strongly enforced.  Not recommended for long wheel base vehicles.  The FAMILY TRAIL leaves the ranch after the “Rough Trail”.  Both are worth the trip.  Join us this evening for the Phoenix Four Wheelers BBQ followed by Big Drawing.

For more information contact:
Denis Young
623-297-2578
dc21163@cox.net

Aluminum Cans: Our club saves and recycles aluminum cans.  Money from the sale of cans goes into our club treasury.  Please bring your crushed aluminum cans to each meeting, and somebody will take them to the recycling center.

To Our Guests: If you attend a club meeting or event and provide us with your e-mail address, you will be added to our guest e-mail list, and will receive monthly notifications of when the Trail Tales newsletter is posted on our Club web site.  If you are interested in becoming a member of the New Mexico 4-Wheelers, please contact one of our officers for membership requirements, or visit our web site at www.nm4w.org/join-the-club.htm.

Trail Tales on the Web Site: In a continuing effort help save natural resources and to control costs, you are encouraged to read the Trail Tales newsletter on the Club Web Site in lieu of receiving a hard copy in the mail.  Around the first of each month, the current issue of Trail Tales is posted at www.nm4w.org/newsletters.htm and an e-mail notification is sent to all club members.  In addition, a minimum of 2 years of back issues of our newsletter is also available on the web site.  So if you want to help “save some trees”, please send an e-mail to TrailTales@nm4w.org stating that you do not need to receive the hard copy of the newsletter.  Thanks for your participation in this program.

Submission Due Date: The Trail Tales is published on the first of each month.  Submissions for each issue must be received by the Editor not later than the 25^th of the prior month.  Submissions can be sent to TrailTales@nm4w.org, or Trail Tales, 21 Rattlesnake Ridge, Tijeras, NM 87059.

Please see the Events Schedule Page

Trail Tales
21 Rattlesnake Ridge
Tijeras, NM 87059-7440

TrailTales@nm4w.org