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hawse-style used excellent cond $10
roller-style used good cond $20

both 10" bolt pattern

3/8"x100ft good condition $35

front/rear lower control arms good condition $30
front track bar good condition w/hardware  $40
front axle shafts (l-r-inner-outer) no u-joints $80 (I can set up w/u-joints if you bring parts and beer)
front axle shafts complete w/new-ish u-joints $100
rear D44 rotors used good condition $30 pair
front D30 calipers used high mileage but pretty good shape $40 pair w/banjo bolts
D30 housing w/open carrier 3.73 gears bad pinion bearing $100
tailgate tire carrier $free to good home
spare tire relocation bracket (1" up 2.25" out to fit 33 on tailgate) $20
YJ Bestop Supertop corner brackets for rear of tub $free
 
all prices negotiable

A guy in my Dad's MOPAR club is selling an 88 Ramcharger cheap - LE option package includes power windows, 360ci 4bbl, new rims, decent tires, 144k miles, decent shape (currently DD) for $850.  Dad says he will take less, he keeps dropping the price but no go - it has some front end issues that are scaring away the young guys that have come to look at it, but Dad says he has wheeled and/towed a trailer with me and my Jeep making worse sounds.  If you are interested or know someone who might be let me know and we'll make the connection.  Sounds like a great build project for a trail beater, especially with a 360 under the hood.

As my son gets older, it gets harder to disguise the fact that my wife and I always piggy-back our only summer get-together with friends and family on his birthday.  This year he is on to us - I was only able to get away with mailing invitations to those of you with kids that he knows.  Fortunately, he does not visit our website, so I can invite the rest of you without getting in too much trouble.  

He picked pizza and hot wings this year, we are probably going to eat around 1pm.  We will have all of the usual stuff - munchies, pop, water, beer, squirt guns, etc, so bring a bathing suit, towel and a chair for the yard if you come, I think we have everything else covered.

Rode the trail system on Drummond Island most of the day Saturday - small group of Carl (H3), Pat B (XJ), Doug (WJ), Bill (JK4Dr) and us.  Got to see a lot of the trail system including a number of spots we didn't get to (or were not allowed to) in 2006.  We had a ton of rain Friday night, but even Connor's Hole was manageable.  Dipstick hole was not passable but I gather it rarely is.

Got to meet Steve Walker in person finally, had breakfast at the Bear Track Inn.  We had been extended an offer to camp at Pat Kelly's new campground, but they were still working on it and we would have been the only ones there, so we opted for the nearby Wa Wen Resort.  Great place to stay (they have cabins too) and really nice amenities - pool, canoes to borrow, fishing boats to rent, power washer, compressor and fortunately a shop with welding gear if you break your hitch/bumper.

Started to notice some odd noises after Marble Head.  By the time we got to Traverse City there was obviously something wrong, so I took it to a repair garage this morning.  Diagnosis is a dead Aussie.  I packed lots of spare parts but not my original side gears and spider gears.  Tim Tull (GLFWDA member, from the Venture Offroad Video collection) found me a set in his garage tonight.  Still attached to the carrier, but dug them out tonight under the camper awning listening to the rain.  Tomorrow I will pull the front shafts and see if the noise goes away, and if we have time we can pull the carrier and reinstall open diff gears so we at least have partial 4wd for Canada at the end of the week.

AGM is going well - if we had planned ahead we could have sent me as an official WLB delegate to get an extra vote but I think all of the delegates and other members in attendance are in general agreement about what we want to get done.

When I was in the Scouts as a kid, we always had a rule about items left behind at the campsite.  I found as I got older that a lot of other kids had grown up with the same rule or tradition.  I was pleased to find out that when my son joined the Cub Scouts a couple of years ago that the tradition still continues.

Someone from the group on Site #1 at Clear Lake State Park this past weekend should have been assigned the task of policing the area for trash etc as you all left.  Jonathon did it for you, and found a brightly colored towel hanging to dry.  Jonathon will be bringing the towel to our next meeting, because he is anxious to see who claims it and sings for the pleasure of the rest of the club to get it back.  

Our tradition in the Scouts has always been "I'm a Little Tea Pot", complete with all of the body language, I see no reason to change this magnificent tradition.  

See you June 6!

I won't copy the whole thing here, but recently 4 related bills were introduced in the MI House - HB 6159-6162.  These are the bills we have been working on for a couple of years, and for the most part we got what we wanted.  At least the stuff we reasonably expected to get.  

If you call the MI House 50th District home, send an e-mail to Rep. Slezak and let him know this is legislation you are interested in, he sits on the committee that gets this first.  If you live in the right District of Flint, let Rep. Stanley know you are interested.  Heck if you have time, let all of the members of the committee know!  

http://www.glfwda.org/showthread.php?t=10434

Time is running out to get your hotel room at the group rate,  May 17 is the last day to get your discount.  The last day to register for AGM is June 1, all UFWDA members are welcome.

[o Drummond Island, Mich.]

BF Goodrich, United Four Wheel Drive Associations and Tread Lightly! announced the winners of their 2010 Outstanding Trails Program

o Rausch Creek, Pa.
o Drummond Island, Mich.
o Yacolt, Wash.
o Johnson Valley, Calif.
o Holy Cross, Colo.

Congrats to all the GLFWDA Members and their hard work over the last few years getting the trail system on Drummond Island developed. All your hard work has paid off.
Read the Press Release here:

//www.ufwda.org/news_view.php?id=169

Seems like no matter what dates we pick for trail maintenance, and how far in advance we plan it, something always comes up in my schedule that makes it a challenge to get to one or the other of our trail maintenance dates.  Looks like I already have a GLFWDA scheduling conflict with our late summer maintenance date, and will not be able to make it.  Cody recently posted the open executive board positions, as well as some new possible committee positions.  If you are interested in becoming the WLB Trail Maintenance Coordinator, please feel free to contact me - there is a free Trail Maintenance Workshop scheduled for next Thursday in Lansing that I will be attending, and I would love to take along someone willing to learn enough about the specs and rules with an eye towards filling this committee spot for the club.  Trail Maintenance Handbooks are available for free download from the DNR webpage if you are unable to make the workshop.  90% of the job is common sense, the other 10% is covered in the handbook.  Becoming the club's coordinator does not commit you to making evey cleanup - you as the Coordinator would be the head of a committee of at least one more volunteer - me!

Ever wanted to make a trip to Canada to wheel but didn't know how/where to get started?  Jim Mazzola is organizing a couple of days of casual trail riding for the weekend after AGM - we will travel 6/17 to Blueberry Hill campground, between Pancake Bay and the Batchawana Provincial Park, and spend 6/18-6/19 exploring the region.  This will generally be a Class 2- Class 3 (on a scale of 1-5, 5 meaning bring your own pit crew and rescur vehicle) ride, 31-33" tires will be sufficient for what Jim is planning.  Also, if there is enough interest there may be an opportunity for a more aggressive trail option, possibly including a trip to Trestle Park for those interested in mofiying their sheet metal and bringing a few parts home strapped to the roof.  For more information, watch this thread:

http://www.ufwda.org/smf/index.php?topic=3114.0

As you have probably already heard, UFWDA is coming to Traverse City June 15-16 for their Annual General Meeting (AGM).  This annual gathering of delegates, members and other interested folks moves back and forth across the Mississippi every year - two years ago in New Hampshire, last year in Texas.  All of you as UFWDA members are invited, plus we have the option of sending a delegate to vote for our club, since we are also a "club" member of UFWDA (our delegate could therefore cast 2 votes, one for him/herself, one for the club).  

The itinerary is posted both on GLFWDA website and UFWDA website, and is sandwiched in between the GLFWDA Quarterly meeting on DI, and the post-AGM trail ride in Ontario.

http://www.ufwda.org/smf/index.php?topic=3055.0

My right ball joints sound like micowave popcorn.  heading to AA this week for parts and tools.  Tips, tricks, words of wisdom and offers of help (Sunday) will be warmly welcomed.

I went by there tonight and everything was dark - no bar, no pizzaria, nothing.  Are they just closed during the week, or are they gone?

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/885 ... 8859a72f/1

If you are not receiving direct e-mail notices from UFWDA with e-News and the latest edition of the Voice, please send an e-mail to mailto:info@ufwda.org">mailto:info@ufwda.org to get added to the list.  Sorry guys, no stickers to give away this time.

If you are patient, the digital copy is downloadable as a PDF (42MB!) if you need a copy for the reading room.

I figure by the end of February I will have earned a day off.  Me and my GPS are heading to WB for the day to poke around on a soon-to-be section of re-routed ORV route, and to do some poking around in general.  The DNR still owes the off road community a couple hundred miles of trail/route, I have been talking to Paige (DNR Trail Tech) about getting some of it in the WB/St Helen area to connect some of the existing route sections or possible getting some new ones designated.  I can't promise you anything other than a day in the woods, but if the snow is fresh it could make for an interesting trip.

If you are interested in tagging along, send me a PM

These are the pics from my little camera, I can't find the super-special USB cable for Deb's fancy-schmancy camera tonight.

I don't remember who handed out the free tokens at one of our meetings, but I finally got around to using mine tonight in an effort to scrub 2 West Branch trips off of my Jeep...and fully ascertain the damage from those two trips.  Those 2 tokens bought me about 10 minutes of wash time, the place was clean, all of the equipment was working, and they even have a stall with a cc reader in case you forget your bag of quarters.  

The downside is now I can see what was under the salt, snow, tree sap and scrapes.  Looks like 2 broken KC covers, broken license plate bracket/mount and a couple of new creases that will need to be pounded out in the spring.

Congratulations Ed on you appointment to fill the vacant Tread Lighly! Coordinator position at GLFWDA.