The Colorado FJ’s first trip of the year was a great time! We went hit the trails outside of Idaho Springs (Thanks Bill & Athena!) to do a little recovery demo for the April issue of FJC Magazine.

We ended up with only 4 trucks going, this time of year is pretty busy for everyone so a few people that wanted to couldn’t make it. Still, four FJ’s was plenty to practice getting stuck (and unstuck). Our goal was to intentionally get stuck so we could practice & photograph some recovery techniques. Alan was kind enough to winch our TRD out of a snow bank with his aging MileMarker 9000lb winch. We were able to winch out OK, but in the process figured out that his winch motor was about dead. We weren’t able to get the cable re-wound on the drum, so his winch was out of commission for the rest of the day.
After our winch demo, we decided to practice a little Hi-Lift usage. Bill was kind enough to get hung up on his Rasta skid plates on a burm. I grabbed the 48’ Hi-Lift out of the truck & we went to work. First, we practiced using our Wab-Fab rock rail adapter. It worked beautifully! Using the adapter allowed us to lift safely from the OEM rock rails without the worry of the Hi-Lift slipping off. We even got to see the difference that the Off Road base makes in soft dirt (Thanks Alan!).  We ended up trying the Lift mate on a rear tire to get Fa-Jay-Jay off the ground enough to stuff some rocks under the tires. Adding that little bit of height got her up enough to drive right off the burm.

It was a great day & everyone had a wonderful time. It was great to see Mike again, he just got back from Iraq. We’ll get him stuck next time we go out <grin>. Beau Jo’s pizza after the run topped off an awesome first run of 2009. We’ve got several runs planned every month, and everyone is welcome! Check out the calendar link for details on our next outing.
See you on the trail!
Shane

More photos in the Gallery