5th Annual Topless for TATAs Wheeling Event

A few pics...

Sweet buggy

A little off camber


Lunch break

Patty...

I made it up Pizza rock...

Great time...

I got a few of Billy attempting to roll on tombstone.

That doesn't look nearly as bad as it felt. :o For the record, the winch ended up being a safety precaution. It did drive out luckily.

I had a great weekend with everyone. We jammed a lot of good wheeling into a short period of time Sunday morning. It was one of the better rides I've had at RC.

I can't believe how easy you made shoot the moon look. I've seen some huge jeeps struggle on there.

We had a great time as always.Randy did av great job as TG. The only casulty so far is a broken rear upper shock mount. But need to crawl under to check. Kiwi and Bob had a great time. . And they are already discussing mods to the JKU Rubicon!

Hey deadfeat did you touch the new skids?

Quote from Spedly

I can't believe how easy you made shoot the moon look. I've seen some huge jeeps struggle on there.

Yeah, that was pretty sick. I don't know what Knox is talking about, the winch line held him stable for just long enough to be able to drive out. I'll post the gps info from My Tracks later but we seriously covered some ground on Sunday. I think it was 7 or 8 miles in just under 3 hours. Other than hanging out in the quarry for literally a few minutes and that little incident on Tombstone we didn't stop at all.

Just noticed I bent a rim on the outer bead edge, it'll need to get pulled off and hammered back. Luckily still holding air.

Quote from astape

Hey deadfeat did you touch the new skids?

For sure.. I know the Barns skids took a few, dont think the upper oil pan skid got hit... My rear end does most of the scraping... Scrambler departure angles suck.

Had a blast guys. Randy did a great job avoiding the crowds both days, Steves mighty scrambler was a blast to watch (as we all held the strap to prevent a roll over) and as always it was fun watching Freddy demolish his JK short bus. No trail damage to report here . It's amazing what a difference lockers and decent tires can make. Can't wait til the next ride.

wow, unusual to see Billy needing a strap? must have been worse than it looked? also Billy did shoot the moon?

Quote from trikpony

wow, unusual to see Billy needing a strap? must have been worse than it looked? also Billy did shoot the moon?

It was bad. Both passenger tires were actually off the ground. The only thing holding it from going over was the drivers front was wedged against a rock. He did and he made it look easy.

Quote from trikpony

wow, unusual to see Billy needing a strap? must have been worse than it looked? also Billy did shoot the moon?

Funny how pictures seem to make things look less impressive than they really are.

To chime in for the easy group... the day went without any real problems, just slow going. We went down around the old office and ended up catching the exodus on B. Then for some reason got behind a Blue group on 1a that only ran the green sections and stopped for anything that looked interesting to give advice. Seriously, the smallest tires in that group were 33s and they stopped for everything. Once we lost them on the Pole Line, things went a little smoother, we took 1b around to B/D to the 101 trail and somewhere along the way Neill lost most of the pressure in his right front tire. He lost the rest on the 101 trail and the hills. We stopped at the hilly play area at the top of the Power Line trail for lunch and used my little Viair compressor to put some life back into the tire. It had lost the bead, but using the factory YJ jack, he got the tire off the ground to relieve pressure and all was good.

After lunch we took a shortcut across to H and took 11 down to 14, which almost everybody thought was the best trail of the day. A new JK Rubi with t-tags christened their front bumper by kissing the right corner into the dirt at a stream crossing. Excuse to upgrade! After that we started heading back, and took the group up to the blue section of the Pole Line with no issues, even from the small XJ. The XJ did very well all day, even though a few people seemed to doubt it could keep up. We did stick to Greens the entire day, as it didn't have the ground clearance for Blues. I wanted to run half of trail 2 but there was too much traffic to attempt it.

We finished back at the office around 3:30 and split up to either play on the comp course or pack up. I aired up and set up chairs in the shade under the Ripp tent then under the shade of Chantells massive JK for the raffles. Which, it seemed that DEJA didn't have much luck for. I think Steve scored a driveshaft and that was it.

Half of my group wasn't from DEJA, I'm not sure if the others signed up intentionally or were moved into the group due to the registration limit. But, it was cool... a H2 from Coatsville, a TJ from Easton MD and a JK from DC. The TJ was my tailgunner since he had a CB (thanks Jay if you ever see this!) and was helpful through the day. Also, thanks to Neill for joining the group to help out if needed.

I left immediately after the last raffle number was called (had parked my JK near the exit...) and got home around around 11pm. I'm not sure if I'll do TFT again, but if I do I'm either not doing the raffle or camping overnight. That was way too long of a day...

I heard that 500 Jeeps was just too much for the park to handle. Their "overflow" parking across the street is not ideal for trailers as it has rocks bigger than most of the green trails and isn't level.

Saturday report. The Blue/Black group pretty much stuck to my trail plan. We exited via the back of the staging area and picked up L3 behind the old registration building. We did various hills with the intention to go down Stairsteps. Wayne tried a badly rutted out section of one hill and finally had to resort to the winch. After the Stairstep descent we met up with Geoff near A and stopped for lunch at the Shortcut to C. We followed C to the Pole Line and picked up 5. This is where we saw the first traffic of the day. It was Spedly and his assorted truck group changing another Birfield joint/axle. They were on the top of the dropoff so they didn't affect our progress. We jumped off 5 and picked up the CV trail and then O then headed to 8. Next was the TaTas Trail. This is where we met the only real traffic of the day and while on it I was trying to talk Billy in. We left the TaTas Trail and headed back on D to Crawler Ridge, where Billy ran the hard stuff which motivated me to break an axle u joint. Gotta love peer pressure. We then proceeded back to the campsite where Spedly jumped in, pulled out my outer axle and stuck in my spare. Billy, Geoff, Steve (Spedly) and I opted for O'Neils and the campfire to end the day. Our group... John & John from Salisbury JKU open, the couple from Rochester TJ open, Skeets682, hookenonthebay TJ, Daddanelena YJ, Haugwild JK, deadfeat, Stafford, KnoxRents, and Me (Shorebird).

Sunday report to follow.

Did anyone catch numbers about how much they raised and how much the giveaways were worth?

Sunday's ride for Spedly, Knox and myself is below, we covered a lot of ground in 3 hours. Apple Pie moonshine is tasty but hurts in the morning. I don't think 500 rigs is too many for the park, I think 500 rigs of people who wheel infrequently is too much for the green and blue trails to handle. Also, showing up at 11AM was a power move as they kept everyone in the staging area forever and I only missed one trail and got to sleep in. If I go next year, which honestly is doubtful, I won't be there bright and early.

[url=https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=212560779247368446018.0004e3c43a74540d9ec9c&msa=0&ll=40.615451,-76.457033&spn=0.027169,0.055747]https://www.google.com/maps/ms…033&spn=0.027169,0.055747[/url]

Created by Google My Tracks on Android.Name: Tatas Sunday 2013
Activity type: driving
Description: -
Total distance: 11.25 km (7.0 mi)
Total time: 2:52:34
Moving time: 1:46:05
Average speed: 3.91 km/h (2.4 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 6.36 km/h (4.0 mi/h)
Max speed: 29.76 km/h (18.5 mi/h)
Average pace: 15:20 min/km (24:41 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 9:26 min/km (15:10 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 2:01 min/km (3:15 min/mi)
Max elevation: 485 m (1591 ft)
Min elevation: 433 m (1422 ft)
Elevation gain: 206 m (674 ft)
Max grade: 11 %
Min grade: -14 %
Recorded: 8/11/2013 9:27AM

Like any "Big Event" there's good and bad... The good, a worthy cause, lots of new people out wheeling, and hey, we're with other Jeep people! The"Bad?" Like most things, TFT may become a victim of their own success, The check in process on Saturday left something to be desired. Really? Everyone at the drivers meeting? I thought thats why we had TG's? Stick to the timeline!
Overall I thought for the type of event, it was pretty good, "Our Flow" was good, only a couple of bottlenecks. But I can see the "main" TFT groups having more issues.
Kiwi and Bob (our friends from MD) had a great time with Jerry on Saturday, and an even better time with Randy on Sunday.
The only casualty for me was a stolen Firestick Antenna, and broken upper rear shock mount,

Someone really stole your antenna or did it just get lost on the trail?

Stolen from the parking lot at the motel Saturday night. It was there Saturday night, missing Sunday morning.

Well Glen your in luck I found a firestick on green O on Sunday. You are more then welcome to have it since no one claimed it.