fjc magazine july 2010

8/9/2019 FJC Magazine July 2010

1/32


2/32

Contents

On The Cover:Our new Nitto Trail

Grapplers on the trail.See page 4 or more

details.

Features

The BEST M/T Daily Driver?

Cruise Moab 2010

Spring MudFling

Expedition Wheeling: Ditch Bags

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge

The Rally is Reborn

4

6

8

10

14

20

O Road 101: 20 Minute Mounts

Clazzio Seat Cover Install

Dyna Beads or Balancing

Team Necessary: HOT FJ!

New Products

FJ Cruiser Groups & Clubs

Upcoming FJ Events

13

18

24

25

26

28

29

8

18

1


3/32
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Disabled-Expl.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/Organizations/Stay-The-Trail.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-1.html


4/32

Its already been an exciting year for

us at FJC Magazine. Just before the

April issue came out (on March 5th)

ur baby boy Brenden was born. Hes truly been a blessing to our

amily and were very excited to show him the world. At just about 4

months as this is written, hes a little young for much o road driving.

till, hes been with us on a few easy trails, and he LOVES bouncing

round in his BOB Stroller.

Were very excited that this issue of FJC Magazine has more event

overage than weve ever had. Our thanks go out to all the FJnthusiasts that attend these events, and especially those that help us

rovide coverage. Brad, Doug, Josh, Eric, and Xavier have really come

hrough for us in this issue. We look forward to working with you all

n the future!

nother exciting event that happened just before press time was the

elease of the iPhone 4 and iOS 4. These two, combined with the iPad

hat came out a few months ago, will most denitely change our

ndustry for ever. When we published the rst issue of FJC Magazine

n 2008, I told Angie that someday our publication would be read on

l kinds of handheld devices, and here we are. Its been possible to

ead PDFs on the iPhone before now, but it wasnt pretty. The real

em with these new releases is the iBooks application. With built inDF support, full text search, and bookmarking capabilities, and priced

ght (its FREE), iBooks has solved our portable device problems.

you havent tried FJC Magazine on your iDevice yet, follow these

mple steps to get it setup:

Download (or update) to the latest iBooks app on your device

Find & download the issue(s) you want to read at http://www.fjc-

mag.com

When the download is done, Safari will popup an add to iBooks

utton. Click it & youre all set!

Whats even better is that if you want to add your entire collection of

JC Magazine issues to the device at once, its very easy to do in iTunes

on your computer. Heres a great tutorial to help you out with tha

The last thing I want to mention is our forthcoming iPad/iPho

application: O Road Trail Maps. This eort has proven to be

little more time consuming that we initially though, so while we

progressing it has been slow progress. To help enhance our eort (a

provide a means to launch this application), weve started a Kickstar

project. Kickstarter is a system that allows projects to be funded

everyday people that really want to see it succeed. How it work

that you pledge a dollar amount to the project, and when its Fu

funded your pledge will be honored.

If our project doesnt meet our goal of $7,500 then your pledge

cancelled automatically. Depending on how much you pledge, w

hook you up with rewards ranging from free map sets in the

application to T-shirts and a listing in the app as an Ocial Back

You can pledge any amount over $5, but the rewards start kicking in

$10. Our time for pledges will expire at midnight on July 26th, the d

after the FJ Summit. So if youre interested in seeing this app relea

sooner rather than later, please consider pledging.

Until next time, Tread Lightly,

Stay the Trail, and HAVE FUN!

For FJ Cruiser Owners & Enthusiasts

Colorado Springs, CO 80923

www.fjc-mag.com

EDITORIAL

Publisher

Shane Williams

Photographer / Editor in Chief

Angie Williams

CONTRIBUTORS

Lance Blair

http://www.disabledexplorers.com

Doug Dobrynski

http://www.fjbruisers.org

Eric A. Howald

http://the-shiv.blogspot.com

Xavier Caminada

http://www.desertfj.com

"TOYOTA", "FJ CRUISER" are registered trademarks

of Toyota Motor Corporation. FJC Magazine is not

aliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or supported b

Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A

Inc. or any of Toyota's aliated companies. These

terms are used for descriptive purposes only, and no

to denote aliation or connection with Toyota Moto

Corporation.

All content in this magazine is licensed under the

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Work

License. For details, visit: http://creativecommons.or

licenses/by-nd/3.0/us

Reviews, opinions, comments, and ratings of any

product do not represent endorsement of said produ

by FJC Magazine, its editors, or publishers.

FROM THE STAFF
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/FJC-Magazine-on-MagCloud.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/ORTM-Kickstarter.html


5/32
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Toytec-Lifts.html


6/32

Our search or the best o road tire or our daily drier nally came to an end in May. We decided (againthe advice o everyone who voted on the poll, sorabout that) to go with the new Nitto Trail GrapplM/T tires. From what weve seen with these tires sar, they may be the best (but certainly not cheaest) M/T tire or daily driver FJs. Since we have th16 TRD rims, the only size available is the 285/70/1Without breaking down all the specics o tire sizeoverall this tire is almost the same size as our sto265/75/16s: just a hair taller and quite a bit wide

Tire installation is airly straight orward, so we woncover the specics o our install. We brought all 5 netires (which barely t in the back o the FJ) to the istall shop and they were mounted in a matter o miutes. We did decide to install a ull set o DynaBeathat Innovative Balancing LLC oered to let us teout on the new tires. Our shop had never installeDynaBeads beore, so we were all excited to see hothey work. Ater installing the beads and tire on thrst rim it balanced OK on the balancing machin

so we nished up mountinthe other our tires with thDynaBeads in short ordeFor our initial thoughts othe DynaBead product, sthe ull article on page 2

Once the tires were amounted and our FJ Cruiswas out o the shop, the rthing we noticed is that thtires ll the wheel wells sinicantly better. The largwidth and slightly taller tirreally round out the tru

nicely. The blackwall desigalso matches the TRD pai

scheme well. These tires have a very aggressive tread pattern whicis quite the contrast rom our previous BFG All Terrain K/O set. Iteasy to tell that these tires are meant or serious o road drivin

The ride rom the shop to FJC Magazine world headquarters is abo20 minutes on various roads, so we were quickly able to get a eor how these tires perorm on several types o pavement. Ive riden in FJs with mud terrains beore and you can always tell whe

Trail

Grappler

SOURCE

Whether youre buying theTrail Grapplers or another off

road tire, Discount Tire Direct

will take great care of you!
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Discount-Tire-Direct.html


7/32

M/Ts are under you, the hum is quite noticeable. While the TrailGrapplers are louder than our previous A/T tires, they seem a bit

quieter than others. When we had the FJ on the interstate aew days later, it wasnt dicult to talk over the hum at all.

One thing we did notice immedi-ately is that these larger tires oaton the road a little more than ourold A/Ts. At speeds over 45mph weexperience a drit when adjust-

ing the steering slightly right or let.It seems that the truck responds to

the steering input about 1/4 second a-ter we turn the wheel. Again, as a newdriver to M/Ts I think this is airly nor-mal and nothing to be worried about,just something that should be noted.

Since we installed our new rubber solate in the spring, we havent yet had theopportunity to test them in snow. Weshould be able to report on snow andice perormance in the Jan 2011 issue.We have had a ew decent rainstorms and ater a ew brakechecks and puddle splashes we can report that they seem tohandle the water very well. Well also be looking orward to arain storm on the highway to see i there are any hydroplaning

issues, but Ill be surprised i we see any o that. One other nis that on our TRD wheels and with 3 o lit we havent sany rubbing at all, which is always a question with 285 ti

We know everyone REALLY wants to know how these tperorm on the tHonestly, weve ohad them on or a lover a month so dont have much t

data to report yet. have been on a couo easier trails have had no issuesall, but we haventally tested them Well be at the FJ Smit in a ew weeksthese Trail Grappwill be getting ull workout. Chour site, Faceboand Twitter eeds

updates rom the feld during the FJ Summit. O course whave a ull on-trail review coming in the October issue as w
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/FJC-Magazine-Store.html


8/32

Cruise Moab 2010

Editors Note:We were not able to attend the Cruise Moab event this year

due to our new addition to the family. Brad Pugmire from

Ricochet Offroad Armor was kind enough to send a few pics

over for us to run in this issue. For full Cruise Moab 2010

coverage, we invite you to check out the following links:

Rising Sun Thread 1

Rising Sun Thread 2

IH8MUD Thread 1

IH8MUD Thread 2
http://www.risingsun4x4club.org/forum2/showthread.php?t=12963http://www.risingsun4x4club.org/forum2/showthread.php?t=13015http://forum.ih8mud.com/ks-mo-tornado-alley-cruisers/388026-cruise-moab-pics.htmlhttp://forum.ih8mud.com/az-copper-state-cruisers/380518-cruise-moab-2010-pictures.htmlhttp://forum.ih8mud.com/az-copper-state-cruisers/380518-cruise-moab-2010-pictures.htmlhttp://forum.ih8mud.com/ks-mo-tornado-alley-cruisers/388026-cruise-moab-pics.htmlhttp://www.risingsun4x4club.org/forum2/showthread.php?t=13015http://www.risingsun4x4club.org/forum2/showthread.php?t=12963


9/32
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Ricochet-Offroad-Armor.html


10/32

ByDougDobrynski

New Venue.New Obstacles.

New Challenges.No Rain?

It was my ourth time out with the Bruisers or their annual Me-morial Day weekend Muding event. This is their main evento the year, and every previous Muding has had its share orain somewhere during the event. This year was no exception.We encountered a ew showers on the drive out to Gore, VAand the campground on Friday. Once we got to the campsitethat aternoon though, the rain had stopped or the weekend.

Upon arriving at the campsite, we pitched our tent andmade our way around the campground to greet everyone.

There were a air amount o FJ Cruisers and some rela-tives: FJ40s, FJ60s, FJ80s, 4 Runners, other Toyota am-ily members, custom rock crawlers, Jeeps, and a our-wheel-steer rock crawling Suzuki. People arrived throughout thenight rom various locations and several hours drive away.

The sun greeted us the next morning with clear skies and weheaded over to registration to check in and then down to the

staging area to lineup or the varioustrail runs o the

day. My son andI ended up in agroup led by JohnHunt o Big Dogs.We departed andheaded or thetrail. John was rid-ing shotgun in thelead FJ Cruiser. Weencountered ourrst mini-obstacle right ater a mud puddle, and the letruck just couldnt make it up and through the obstaclequickly became apparent that a gremlin was plaguing that

Cruiser and it was only operating in two-wheel drive. We companied the handicapped rig back to the campsite and tdriver joined us in our truck. John relocated to a Jeep in ogroup. We headed back out on the trails and were soon wiing and twisting our way down narrow trails and new trathat had been recently planned or our arrival. The narr

trails through the trees proved to be a dicult tor drivers and their depth perception. Maneuving these obstacles took a lot o time and plannon the drivers part. We snaked our way throuthe trees and over stumps and came to a steep scent that pegged out the inclinometer in the

The previous days rain provided us with a little mhere and there that made some o the trails a more challenging than i they had been dry. At oslight downhill rutted descent, the Jeep that wleading our group could not get out o the rutsbypass a deep muddy water obstacle. Ater pting some logs and rocks in the way, he was ato climb out o the rut and take the bypass to avthe sticky mess. The rest o us knew to stay oo the rut and proceeded down without incideLater in the morning, we came to a steep, long climb. The Jeep that was leading our group pceeded up and then the rest o us tried. We w

only able to get about a third o the way up ollowing t

MUDFLING IV SPONSORS
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/FJ-Bruisers.html


11/32

Jeeps line beore we lost all traction. We tried and tried butsimply couldnt conquer the obstacle. Finally, an FJ that hadall the stability controls deactivated was able to make it up.

That evening back at the campsite, the Bruisers provided ev-eryone with a dinner o hot dogs and burgers and a cou-ple o event attendees provided various desserts. Most othe ood was consumed while the Bruisers had their rae

o various git certicates, FJ accessories, and other inter-esting items, including the now inamous Fuzzy Duds.

Sunday we awoke once again to blue skies and the sun shining.We joined a group that was led by Eugene o Big Dogs and head-ed out on the trails and also to watch Woody and his Suzuki at

one o the various rock crawling locations at Big Dogs. A couo other trail groups were there as well and we clamored roboulder to boulder as Woody worked the Suzuki up, dowaround and in and out o the large rocks. When Woody nishwe gathered our group and proceeded up a trail to an overloor lunch. The view was spectacularwe could see or miles. ter enjoying lunch and the gorgeous view, we proceeded dowto enjoy the rest o the day, testing the limits o our vehicles aenjoying a Memorial Day weekend that wont soon be orgott
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Paladin-Auto.html


12/32

0

Pilots & boaters call them Ditch Bags,survivalist might call them Flee Bags,

and those o us who are all about beingprepared call them Bug Out Bags. Nomatter what you call them the name is

both the denition o why you need itand an explanation o what it is. Some-thing very bad has happened and youhave to ditch, ee or bug out rom yourvehicle and whatever is in your grab bagis all you have until help arrives.

Lets put on our pretending caps andimagine we are out alone in the wildand suer a complete and total vehicleailure (Editor Note: This scenario is ocourse very hypothetical in an FJ Cruis-er). This ailure could range rom water

in your engine during a creek crossing,to a broken axle, to a slide down a shelroad that just lets us crawl out o thepassenger side. No matter the reasonwe now have just a moment to grab ourkit bag and get away rom the vehicle.

Stay in PlaceShort o your rig being at the bottomo a ravine and you somehow jumpedto saety, or watching your FJ Cruiser

transorm into a river runner in a ashood there really isnt a good reason

to leave yourvehicle, even iit just burnedto the ground.Keep in mindthat in almostall survival sce-narios the ve-hicle is oundrst. O coursethere mightbe a reasonto leave, butit better besuch a goodone that evena small childwould agreewith you. Thevehicle canbe a source oshelter, raw

materials, signal and more, so whyleave all that behind just because in themovies the Hero

always walks totown?

Rule o 3sSo why do weneed to have abag ull o goodieswhen there areplenty o TV epi-sodes ull o olkswho rip downtree limbs, makespears and soon

have a orest or-tress constructed.Well it all comesdown to the 3s:-Three minuteswithout air. Wewill skip past thatone since it willbe the rare one ous that has a ullSCUBA setup with-

in reach.-Three hours without shelter. O co

this implies extreme conditions blizzards, heatwaves, or rainstormthe century.-Three days without water. Nothun about this one, and we are ting about being healthy to start weven less time i you are working hinjured or have any medical conditi-Three weeks without ood. Thisally is why you can toss out the shlines, hunting knives and snare cor

youre looking to go all Wildman oForest then close this magazine nand go sharpen a knie. In reality are better o packing some emergerations than a kit to sh or snare w

Looking at the above time rames help you realize that what you reneed is some sort o shelter, watelter/purier, ood and medical kit most importantly a way to get obeore that three week window coaround.

Expedition Wheeling:

Ditch BagsArticle & Photos ByLance Blairwww.disabledexplorers.org

Many places get really cold and dark quick

Yes helicopters can come to the rescue
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Disabled-Expl.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Disabled-Expl.html


13/32

Dont PanicAh the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxysaid it best, Dont Panic, and thesewords are true in good times or bad. Youwant a ditch bag that is small enough tobe within reach, light enough that youcan carry it with one arm in case you areinjured and that lets you get some com-ort going quickly so you Dont Panic.

Personally mine includes my Spot Sat-ellite Messenger, as this little devicecan call in 10 ellow 4x4 buddies or thehelicopters, which goes a long way to-wards that comy eeling. In addition Ihave my Adventure Medical Kits PocketSurvival Pack which is small yet includesa wealth o supplies rom a signal mir-ror, to re starter, to a little instructionsheet that I can read. Which brings upa great point: STOP. Sit, read, think andDont Panic. The moments you take toassess your kit, look at your surrounding

resources and think might be what savesyour lie.

More o LessGetting down to the nitty gritty o whatshould be in a bag, really it should bemore o less, or in other words more owhat you need and less o what was coollooking online or at the gun show.

You need water, so make sure you al-ways have two 1L bottles in there. Two

because one couldbust and later they willbe part o your ltersetup. Nalgenes are

nice but anything willdo.You need shelter, andthree to ve o those3mil contractor bigblack (or better or-ange) garbage bagscan serve a world ouses. You can make aponcho, shade, watercatch, and give othersthe same. You can rap

yoursel in one like a

burrito, stu it withleaves or insulationand so much more.O course they arentas nity as some snaptogether, military sur-plus thing, but theyare cheap and easy touse.You need comort,and this is where atablet stove, stainlesscamping cup (com-

monly called a sierra cusome tea or coee packand emergency rations wcome in. No matter the coditions, the act o makinsnack will remind you tall is not lost in the worldYou need to take care injuries, so this is wher

decent rst aid kit will heBandages, some meditions i you need themsyringe or wound washitape (medical or duct) aelastic wrap is plenty.You need to signal, and tis where getting the gbage bags in orange is niChoosing any bright coor your bag is good, sowearing bright clothes. ally anything other th

starting some big orest to call or help is a grstart or signaling.

And the last thing migcause some olks some cocern, but you need a go

Just a small sample of what can

go in a back and yet keep it light

enough to grab in an emergency

Dont count on finding a beacon like this

very often, take a Spot instead
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TRD-Sparks-2-Parts.html


14/32

2

large xed blade knie and sharpening stone. Nothing crazy,just something that you can cut wood with, carve a bit or doother outdoors stu with easily. I personally avor a Leather-man WAVE as I get two

knives and a host o other items. But no matter what get some-thing in that pack. And please stay away rom hatchets, ma-chetes, shovels and such and they are too big or a bag thatseasily grabbed, too heavy to carry around and most important-ly too easy to cause yoursel injury with.

Practice Grass-hopper Practice

So now you havegone to the thritstore and ounda nice small day-pack or due. Youpacked it with someo the above men-tioned items andit is sitting in themiddle o the ooro the backseat. Youcan easily reach itand it also has some

Velcro straps to keepit in place in case oroll over but you cangrab it quickly wheneeing rom the rig.

Now what?

Well since every-thing in there issomething youbought and could

buy again, then get out there and practice with it.

Make a point to hit the trail on a Saturday. Set your alarm some random time (wristwatch or cellphone alarm preeraband when it goes o then that is where you pull over your r

jump out and now pretend to be stranded. This is your camsite or the night. Make due with your kit. Sure it wont completely comortable but you will learn and you will survivI this sounds too radical or you then at least pick a night to camping and pick your spot to try your kit, but no matter wh

try it all and learn to use it. And please dont orget to chanout the supplies in a timely matter, with the seasons is alwaa good rule but your climate and conditions will determine tbest timing or some items.

You will notice I let out things like a map, compass, gps, laspointer and all that. More oten than not i you are skilled wthese items then you will get more lost than ound. Remembi you told olks where you were going and when you should back then someone will start looking or you. And i you diddo those simple things then honestly you might just be beyothe help o any magazine article.

Lance Blair is an overlanding enthusiast, expedition leader, aTread Lightly trainer. Hes also the ounder o Disabled Exploers, a non-prot group dedicated to helping mobility impairoutdoor enthusiasts gain access to the backcountry. Hesregular contributor to FJCruiserForums.com, the ExpeditiPortal, and o course FJC Magazine. Lance can be contactthrough the Disabled Explorers website.

A flashing blue light in the desert often

means water or help

Make use of what you can find to help

conserve resources, then pack it out later
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Disabled-Explorers-Donation.html


15/32

OffR

oad1

01:

20 Minute MountsSince we started FJC Magazine, weve done a total o 10 articlesor O Road 101. These tips, tricks, and inormation have cov-ered the gamut rom tire options to trail armor, weve coverednearly everything a new FJ Cruiser owner would need to know.Thats why Ind it amaz-ing thatin all thattime, withall these ar-ticles, wevenever talkedabout how

to bestmount accessories to your roo rack. The reason we haventis actually pretty simple, up until now weve mounted our axe& shovel (the most popular accessories or your rack) withbungee cords. I know, thats not very exciting. In the pastwe only mounted those items when we were going on trailruns. Also, the act that most atermarket mounts are ratherexpensive has kept us rom making the jump on that mod.Ater owning our FJ or nearly 4 years we decided to get thissimple mod done. I say simple because while this method omounting your accessories isnt the sexiest, its one o theleast expensive. It literally only takes 20 minutes to nish onceyou have the supplies, and it works really well. I you have

one o the other solutions and youre happy with it, thatsgreat! I not, ollow along as we build the 20 minute mounts.The rst thing you need are supplies. Weve seen Quick Fistsused or shovel & axe mounts in dozens o dierent ways, butno matter how its done the Quick Fist is one o the best mountsto use. They hold the item tight and are easy to remove when

needed. Whatsmore, you donthave to worryabout the weath-er aecting themso its really a no

brainer. We or-dered our origi-nal size QuickFist Clamps (QF1)rom SierraE x p e d i -

tions. At $9.95 or two they have one o the best pricesaround. They were delivered quickly and without hassle.

The other parts you need or this project can all be oundat Lowes or under $20. That list includes: 4 X 5/8 Mending braces (or other suitable mountingplate) 8 total

M6-1.00 X 65mm bolts 4 total

M6-1.00 hex nuts 1 package

For the install ALL you need is two wrenches and/or socketsthat t the bolts & nuts you purchased.

Our total cost or this project was about $44. Thats $22 eaplus 10 minutes o labor or two highly unctional accessormounts.

Ok, or the install there are 5 easy steps:1. Assemble 1 Quick Fist, 2 plates, the bolt nut as shown inpicture #12. Slide the assembly between two o the rack tubes (on thstock rack)

3. Tighten the assembly down. We tightened it enough tobend the plates in justa little, but dont overtighten.4. Repeat steps 1-3 withthe second mount5. Install your accessory.

That entire processshould take less than 20minutes and youre allset. The only thing wemay add in the uture is

painting the hardwareblack to match the roo, but we want to masure this holds up OK beore we worry about thSo ar the mounts are holding up very well. Weve had theon a couple o runs and the items havent moved or shitat all. The Quick Fists hold things together nicely so we doexpect any problems. I you do this mount, or have anothgreat quick, easy, and inexpensive mount to show o pleae-mail us at [email protected] & lets us know. I you inclupics well add them to this article at www.fc-mag.co

SOURCESierra Expeditionsh t t p : / / w w w . s i e r r a e x p e d i t i o n s . c o
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Sierra-Expeditions.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Sierra-Expeditions.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Sierra-Expeditions.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Sierra-Expeditions.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Sierra-Expeditions.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Sierra-Expeditions.html


16/32

4

Dubai 17th April 2010:Organised by the Automobile andTouring Club o the UAE (ATCUAE),the event was the season-openinground o both the FIA Cross Coun-try Rally World Cup and the FIM CrossCountry Rallies World Championship

Entry to the 2010 Abu Dhabi Desert Chal-lenge was open to cars and trucks com-plying with FIA T1, T2 and T4 technicalregulations, as well as motorcyclistsand quads running under FIM auspices.

This year, and to mark the 20th edi-tion, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challengesaw record level o competitors thiswith 44 entrants in the car categoryand more than 100 competitors in total.

The sunset start in the shadow o the

Grand Mosque agged o a non-compet-itive liaison section that guided the driv-ers and bikers to the rst overnight haltat Moreeb Hill, near Liwa, where the ral-ly would be based or the next our daysat a specially-prepared desert bivouac.Moreeb is part o the Empty Quarter, theworlds largest uninterrupted sand mass.

Legs two, three and our eatured de-manding loop stages around MoreebHill, across somewhat challenginggatch tracks, winding desert trails

and the regions notorious tower-ing sand dunes, considered to be thehighest dunes in the Empty Quarter.The th and nal leg took place onThursday, April 1, with teams tack-ling a desert section between Liwa tothe events nish in Abu Dhabi city.

TEAM X-RAID SEALED SUPERBVICTORY!X-Raid took home the Abu Dhabi DesertChallenge over-all, team and T1 titles or

the third consecutive year, this time with

Russian Leonid Novitskiy at the whand German Andy Schulz by his sid

Team X-Raids Tina Thorner navigated sucessully or Qatari Nasser Al Attiyah 2008 and Frenchman Guerlain Chechin 2009, while Andy Schulz co-drove

Novitskiy this year. While Novitskieventual triumph in the cars categowas predictable ater he took a comoable lead at the end o the rst staitsel, the bikes saw ortunes uctuing all through the nal day today givthat only minutes separated the top

Laurent Rosso played it sae or the sond day running to ensure that his TeaFitech Nissan Patrol crossed the nline to earn him a second place, whEmirati Abdul Bari Bin Sugat was pleas

with his third place on the podiu

Bin Sugats late charge in the Chlenge saw him eventually drivipast Yannick Comagnac on a nday that could have gone either wbut driver acumen and Nissan endance ensured the Emirati stood wNovitskiy and Rosso on the podiu

TEAM FJ STILL ON THE LEARNINCURVE

The Challenge never ails to surpr

ABU DHABI DESERT C

By Xavier Caminadawww.desertf.com
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Team-FJ.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Team-FJ.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Team-FJ.html


17/32

and stretch race teams to their lim-its, this years Abu Dhabi Desert Chal-lenge one o the worlds toughest des-ert races was no exception or Team FJ.

In September 2008 when the ex-Baja 500class winning Toyota FJ cruiser was im-

ported rom the US into the UAE by DavidMabbs, a veteran o desert racing, TeamFJ was established as one o the MiddleEasts premier rally sports teams withits goals rmly set on showing the highbudget actory race teams how to com-pete in the unorgiving desert terrain.

The car was originally built by Dona-hoe Racing (now Icon Vehicle Dynam-ics) in the United States at the requesto Toyota North America to challengeor victory in the Score Stock Mini Se-

ries. In addition to victory in the Baja500 it also nished second in class atthe world amous Baja 1000 beoremaking its way to the Middle East.

The Toyota FJ Cruiser which was devel-oped throughout 2007, appears to benear standard to the untrained eye, saveor a lit kit, but the development put intoperecting the suspension or all-terrainracing is the key to the cars success! The

ront endhas suspen-sion armsbuilt by To-tal ChaosFabricationand eatures

twin IconVehicle Dy-namics 2.5-inch bypassd a m p e r swith remote reservoirs and coil-oversprings. An additional Light Racing

Jounce shock was also tted to eachcorner to cushion heavy landings andharsh impacts. In the desert, suspen-sion is king, says Mabbs. No matterhow powerul the engine and how astthe driver, weak suspension will break

within hours and wed have no chanceo competing with the works teamswithout attention to detail in this area.

Team FJs preparations or the 2010Challenge started in earnest in earlyFebruary when they returned rom theSaudi Arabian Hail Baja, a 1000km racein the north o the Kingdom. The carwas ully serviced and race prepared a-ter this grueling event and all logistics

put in place or the 6 days o compltion in the emirate o Abu Dhabi, thalso included the arrival o 4 mechaics rom the United Kingdom as weas a press ocer / photographer anall o the Teams supporters (12 in ttal) who make this event possibl

Following the technical and administr

tion ormalities, this year held in thgrand settings o the Yas Marine Formla 1 race track, the team was ready othe opening stage o the event, a quaying run where competitors get to stheir astest race times over a purposbuilt short desert race course. This yearstage was unique or the Middle East ait comprised a head to head courwhere two competitors get to ght out at the same time, crossing past eac

ALLENGE 2010


18/32

6

other halway through the stage. TheTeams FJ is great on these stages as itsnimble and easy to control and despitebeing one o the last cars to start due tothe ocial ranking ormat, the Team took5th placeo v e r a l l .

Racing in

the AbuDhabi des-ert chal-enge con-

sists 5 dayso toughdesert ter-rain whichsees allo the 100plus teams cover more than 2000kmthrough the empty quarter region othe emirate. The harsh and unorgiv-

ng landscape make this an ideal placeor desert racing with the majority othe time being spent crossing the opendesert landscape or high dune sectionswithout tracks or well dened routes.

The rst day consisted some 300km ocompetitive stage rom the outskirts othe capital city through to the eventsmain camp and service point in the oa-

sis town o Liwa, thecamp is set up at thebase o the worldslargest sand dune,

Moreeb hill, and oerscompetitors and spec-tators an unprecedent-ed eel o the enormityand power o the des-ert. The day got under-way at approximately10.30am and proceededon ast owing tracksinterspersed with

tricky dune sections; these are oten theworst as you can easily be caught out byterrain that looks so easy to pass thor-

ough! Within the rst 70kms the Teamhad passed 2 vehicles and was ocusedon a good rst day o hunting, howev-er as they say in racing nothing goes toplan! Unortunately ater about 100km

the FJs gearbox just stuck in neutand the crew had to spend almost 1 1hours repairing the ault. Following trustrating stop the car was back on way, picking o some o those who hpassed to nish up the day 18th overa

Some might say that the events o done were a warning sign that this yea

event was not going to be a repeat o 20where the team took rst in class and 5overall, the ollowing days certainly ected that by pushing both the car, mchanics, driver and co-driver to the limi

Day 2 saw the team back in action athey soon started to recover the placthat had been lost on the previous day,the rst check point the team had pass7 cars and had number 8 already in thsights. Day 2 however was once again be slowed, this time by a drive shat ailu

which cost the team nearly 2 hours at tdays only service point halway throuthe stage. This also meant that the Teahad to traverse over 30km o high dunin 2 wheel drive, not an easy task in
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/BudBuilt.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/BudBuilt.html


19/32

car that weighs in excess o 2 tons. De-spite this the team still made it backwith the 7th astest time o the day justshowing how tough this event really is.

The overnight service periods at theMoreeb camp were now becoming aritual o how to ully rebuild a race car,the mechanic were on average work-ing over 10 hours a night to prepare the

car or the ollowing days torture, somenights they never slept at all and wereound tightening the last bolts right upuntil the point where the car was driveno to the start line. Despite this valianteort day 3 and to some extent day 4

were to get the better o thecar and the team. On the 70kmroad section to the start o day3 the ront dierential fnallysaid enough and seized orc-ing the team to retire shortlyater taking the start line, thiswas subsequently fxed only orthe same to happen towardsthe closing section o day 4,

the resulting time penaltiesput the team out o conten-tion or a top 5 overall placingbut on the up side they were

still in the race and by no way deeated.

The fnal, and much awaited last stage othe event saw the teams leave Liwa andhead back to Abu Dhabi through another300km o desert stage, with the car ully

repaired the team had an excellent once we orget the act that there no clutch or most o it, and fnishedstage with the 6th astest time. Oback at Yas Marina the team gathand pondered over the trials and clenges o the past week and all agrthat this has to be one o the greaand toughest desert races in the wo

And that everyone cant waittil next year to do it all ag

So where do we go rom here. intend to replace the engine witsingle turbo 4.5-litre diesel version up-rated transmission. Then, we be back with a vengeance to prove the Toyota FJ is capable o matchthe actory teams concludes Ma

Final positions after Leg 5

01) Leonid Novitskiy (RUS) / Andy Schulz (GER), X-Raid (BMW)02) Laurent Rosso (FRA) / Francois Borsotto (FRA), Fitech (NISSA

03) Abdul Bari-Bin Sugat (UAE) / Ali Mirza (UAE), Sugat (NISSAN

...

12) David Mabbs (ENG) / Xavier Caminada (FRA), FJ (TOYOTA)
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/AI-July-2010.html


20/32

8

For this installment o our seat cover reviews,we contacted TRD Sparks about a set o ClazzioSeat Covers. The great thing about Clazzio cov-

ers is that they are very customizable. The outermaterial is made o a quality PVC product andis available in 4 colors. Next, the inner materialcan be PVC, Leather, or suede in many dierentcolors. Finally you can choose a custom stitchingcolor to complete your customization. Fully cus-tomized covers take a little longer to arrive since

theyre madei n d i v i d u a l l yat the actory,but or a truly cus-tom seat cover theyrewell worth the wait!

The install took a littleless than two hours,thanks in large part tothe amazing instruc-tions that came withthe covers. Some man-uacturers only pro-vide generic instruc-

tions or their covers,but this Clazzio set rom TRD Sparks comes completewith custom directions or the FJ Cruiser. They include

ull color photos with captions that detaexactly how to do each step. The grammar is a little o sometimes, but itvery easy to see what needs to be don

The most dicult part o the job is instaing the covers on the ront head restSince these covers t so tightly on everything, getting them around the headreis basically a two person job. You havto push in on the sides o the headreto slip the cover on. Its a small price tpay though or such a great end resul

I mentioned these covers t tight, anthat may be an understatement. Sincthey are PVC & leather, theres very littstretch involved so they are manuactureto airly tight tolerances. The covers aattached with straps, Velcro, and strin

to cinch everthing dowThe result is

very OEM looThe instructionalso includa method omassaging thmaterial to ensure everythints as tighand smootas possibl

The look is also amazing. While the outer paels are PVC, they look very close to the leather in

INSTALL

SOURCEIn addition to Clazzio Seat Covers

for your FJ Cruiser, TRD Sparks

offers great deals on Toyota OEM

parts, TRD Parts, and many other F

Cruiser Accessories.

www.trdsparks.com
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Clazzio-TRD-Sparks.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Clazzio-TRD-Sparks.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Clazzio-TRD-Sparks.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Clazzio-TRD-Sparks.html


21/32

ner panels. The white stitching really accents the seatsand gives a custom look. Clazzio has taken every detailinto account to make sure nothing intereres with thet, and that really shows once everything is installed.

The naltwo detailsI want totouch onor these

covers arethe driversseat andthe rear60 benchseat. First,since thedrivers seati n c l u d e san adjust-ment knob& lever,those itemshave to bedealt withe e c t i v e -

ly. The install instructions are very clear on how to removeeach o these so you can install the cover correctly, and

they even include a black install tool so youre not pushingon your new covers with a screwdriver. Finally, the rear 60bench seat is an issue with other seat covers because o theseatbelt running down the middle o it. Again, Clazzio hasgreat instructions that detail how to remove the top plastic seatbelt cover, unzip the seat cover, and slide it aroundthe seat. It takes a little work to get things aligned, but once

youve got that gured out the covers zip up and look great

Another aspect o the install that Id like to mention involves

the armrests. Theyve done a great job on these as well byincluding a zipper at the rear o the armrest so you caninstall the bolt & zip up the rear part o it. To save manuacturing time and keep the cost low, Clazzio doesnt shipront seat covers with holes pre-cut or the arm rests. Thismeans youll need to cut this hole yoursel i youre installing armrests. Its really not dicult, just be careul to cutout a small area, you dont need much o a hole to instalthe armrests & you denitely dont want to cut too much

So the install went airly well, they look GREAT, and soar theyre very unctional. Well be throwing everythingwe can at this set o covers over the next ew monthsso well report back on how they hold up. Were expecting that theyll do very well despite our abuse. Checkback in the October issue (and online) or more updates
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Thrill-on-the-Hill.html


22/32

0

We pass a white checkpoint sign lessthan hal a mile rom the starting line. Forme, its an omen that were on the righttrack. For my cousin and driver, DougDobrynski, its cause or uncertainty.

They wouldnt put a sign thatclose to the start, he says.

Yeah, they would, I reply more harsh-

ly than intended. They dont expectus to be looking or one this early on.Theyre hoping we blow right by it.

Three minutes into the rst ever FJBruiser Tri-State Rally and weve al-ready had two reasons to doubt eachother. At the starting line, I conusedthe area code and the zip code on theGreen Ridge State Forest data sheet andnow we cant agree on the validity o acheckpoint thats sitting in ront o us asplain as day. Theres brilliance at work inthe set-up, but its hard to see past theinhuman cruelty o making us questioneach others judgment at such an early

stage in the game.

Truth be told, its

not only each oth-ers skill we arequestioning, itswho we have be-

come. This is the rst time weve beenalone together in nearly 12 years. Dougwas the best man at my wedding in St.Louis, MO. Four days later, I moved toOregon and he ew home to Virginia. Inthe interim he got married and had twokids, I had one. Last year, his motherlost a long-term battle with cancer andwe werent able to connect in the ater-

m a t h .E v e no u rt e a mn a m e , T h eD u d eand the

J o u r -nal is t( h o m -ages to

The BigL e b -o w s k ia n dF e a ra n dL o a t h -ing inLas Ve-g a s ) ,

seemed to indicate some o the dis-tance between us. Since I acceptedthe invitation to be his navigator,

I knew this rally would determinei we could navigate the time andmiles that separated us or so long.

As I hop out o the Cruiser and try togure out how to get up to the check-point sitting on the crest o a short,steep embankment, I swear I can hearthe laughter back at the starting line.

Resurrecting the rallyFor some, the victory o a Shelby DaytoCobra Coupe in the World ManuactureCup was the beginning o the rallys en

That race ushered in the era o heametal and the European two-sesports car the car that made the r

ly an event became a novelty, saRick Franz, a ounding member o tFJ Bruisers and ormer owner o seeral two-seat European sports coup

The rally is unique in several ways. It isrun on a circuit, but in a point-to-poormat in which participants and thco-drivers, or navigators, drive betweset control points leaving at regular tervals rom one or more start poinRallies may be won by pure speed witin the stages or alternatively by dr

ing to a predetermined location withan ideal journey time or each stag

As heavy metal solidied its tus as the new cool, the raltype race was dealt a atal blowith the onset o GPS navigatio

Navigation became too easy athere were rumors o drivers hing GPS devices in their cars. Sloly, no one was holding them an

more, Franz said. Now, people wdid want learn dead reckoning skhave to go out o their way to do so

Navigation was something o a hobor Franz, however, and he ound othways to pursue it rom sailing to ing. Then he bought his Toyota FJ Cruer and helped orm the Bruiser clu

The more I drove the Cruiser with tclub running trails, the more I realizedwould be a great truck or a rally, he sa

Slaying the digital Sherpa

A weekend with the FJ Bruisers

By Eric A. Howaldt h e - s h i v . b l o g s p o t . c o m
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/FJ-Bruisers.html


23/32

He oated the idea at one o the clubsmeetings and it wasnt long beorethey were in the planning stages. Butthe rally organizers wanted more than

a simple race. They wanted an eventwhere everyone could learn something.

Too many people are dependent onthe digital Sherpas, said Josh Kollin,one o Franzs co-conspirators, in re-erence to GPS units. Things like de-grees and latitude and longitude are

just numbers that we see on a device.

Franz, Kollin and others set to plan-ning a 70-mile route through Mary-

land, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.To help with scoring, they enlisted theassistance o ellow Bruiser and de-sign engineer Ryan Young, who hadto develop a unique scoring systemborrowing ideas rom other rallies.

Teams would receive a score based onhow close they came to the target timethat was determined during coursesetup and adjusted based on the peror-mance o the group, Young said. Inaddition to the time score, teams werealso given points based on the numbero checkpoint markers discovered andtheir participation in manned check-points with FJ trivia, marksmanship,and vehicle inspection challenges.

Franz and the others realized early in theplanning that they would have to rely onan honor system when it came to driversusing go to eatures on GPS devices.But they werent going to make it thateasy anyway. To make things more inter-

esting competitors would have to calcu-late degree headings and distances withinormation ound in the orest datasheet and FJ Cruiser owners manual.

Everyone wanted acourse that wouldchallenge novice andexperienced drivers,

but it was dicultor the more expe-rienced navigators,like Franz and Kollin,to let go o the nerpoints o the crat.Franz quickly realizedhow to gauge whentheyd made some-thing too complicated.

I could always tellwhen wed gone too

ar because one o ourguys eyes would glaze over. He was mycanary in the coal mine, Franz said.

WTH is a smidgeon?On the second turn in the rally direc-tions we get high centered with allour wheels rmly on the ground.It starts when I take a bad compassreading and send us west when weshould be going north, but our coursedirections complicate matters ur-ther with the phrase proceed northor a smidgeon less than a mile.

We decide that a smidgeon has to bemore than .7 miles and less than a ullmile, but that narrow window opens upmany wrong possibilities. We manageto nd a path at .7 miles and anotherone that shoots o and could pos-

sibly match the next turn, but a ehundred yards down that road and wrealize theres no possible way to cotinue on it or the required 2.3 mileDoug throws it in reverse and we begheading back to the last checkpoin

Cars are dispatched rom the startiline in our-minute intervals and as w

pull out onto the main road another passes us headed in the wrong directio

We head back to the checkpoint bcause it was the last time we knew wwere on the right track. We gure othat we were going the wrong way anturn north, but still miss the essentturn that will put us on the coursIn all, we burn more than 20 minutand pass another lost FJ beore realing the small dirt road we mistook a driveway is actually the course itse

Still, we arent completely certaiand by the time we nd anothcheckpoint 45 long minutes hapassed. Meanwhile, other teams aconronting problems o their ow

In car No. 01, driver Joe Mailano and navigator Christos Rouseas hit a hurdle that has nothito do with the course or direction

I would like to think that I norm

ly have a pretty strong stomach. Ibeen out on rough seas with no prolem so it took me by surprise, bas we were moving I kept trying read the directions and kept eeliprogressively worse, said Roussea

The wave o nausea soon reaches breaking point and they have to p

over and wait or Rousseto expel his morning coe

I denitely thought wed competitive. We took it sriously - had all the toospent time with the compasprepped the truck, watchTwo Roads to Baja - but whChristos got sick, I thougwe were done or as ar placing, said Maiellan

Ater our long detour, Doug anI are nally getting our condence back and we hit our r


24/32

2

time-speed-distance challenge. On thesesections o the course, the driver mustmaintain a certain speed or a certainlength o time overseen by the navigatoron a stop watch. At the end o the giventime, we should have reached our nextturn, but again theres brilliance at work.

One minute and 15 seconds into the chal-lenge, we come across a manned check-

point and suer rom a momentary reakout as we try to decide what to do. I stopthe clock as we pull o the road to ashooting range, Doug res 10 shots at atarget out o an AR-15, and I start up theclock again as we pull back on the course.It was a simple solution in retrospect,but Im certain a video o the momentsbeore we gured it out would go viral.

Back at the starting line Franz andYoung are, indeed, laughing. Heartily.

We watched three or our FJs go bythe starting point twice, Franz said.

At the rally meeting earlier that morning,Franz announced that vehicles wouldbe running the course in opposite di-rections. Some would go let and somewould go right. Many o us took that to

mean that cars would be alternating. Tomix it up, Franz occasionally sends twovehicles on the same route in succession,which threw o teams that either mis-calculated or werent paying attention.

I thought to mysel, God al-mighty, I just want one car on eachcourse to do it right so that I knowthe directions work, Franz said.

When watching the starting line lost itsappeal, Franz had his cell phone whichkept him busy as teams called in orhelp. He had seven calls total, but twoteams called in twice. One team getsso lost it takes getting latitude and lon-gitude to put them back on course.

Another team got stuck doinga 9-mile loop. They called to askabout the directions once and thencalled an hour and a hal later ask-ing about the same turn, Franz said.

At his manned checkpoint, Kollin makesa habit o asking the teams i theyre stilltalking to each other and a handul o driv-ers including a ew o the couples replyonly with cautionary shakes o the head.

Doug and I have allen into a rhythmwork out the directions a ew turns aho where we are in the moment and ka keen look out or checkpoints. Dkeeps his eye on the trail and odomeWe talk about the things we could domake things inside the car run easier ntime. We decide on a theme or the Crer in next years rally (and cross our

gers that theyll plan one). As we pulto the third manned checkpoint, wegreat news. Despite getting lost earlyour time is still good. We show up wiminutes o when we are expected. bump knuckles as Doug exits the trto take a vehicle inspection challen

As we climb back intotruck the questioner asks i know which way were go

Straight ahead? Doug a

Yep, straight ahe

A hal mile down the road, we starquestion ourselves. According to directions were supposed to turn theading o 150 degrees and travel tparticular lat/lon, but we orgot to ch
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Aluminess.html


25/32

the heading as we turned away rom thecheckpoint. We are more certain o ourroute than at any point in the race thus arand that makes us question it all the more.We turn back, get a bearing on the turnand discover that we were right all along.

Maiellano and Rousseas in CarRamrod suers through momentso doubt during the rally as well.

The hardest thing was trusting my navi-gator, Maiellano said. He did a abu-lous job, but Im just naturally skeptical,and having to blindly rely on his instruc-tions took some serious sel discipline.

He and Rousseas get turned aroundater their third checkpoint.

We went to a 24-degree heading in-stead o 240-degrees, due to my error, notChristos, and got pretty ar o track in

Pennsylvania arm country. We were ableto navigate back to the last checkpoint,double-check our calculations whichis when we ound where we messedup and get back on track, Maiellanosaid. There were denitely a ew risingwaves o panic, and the urge to pushon despite knowing something wasntright, but just like with completely trust-ing the navigator, I had to just take adeep breath and calmly talk it through.

We pull across the nish line 5 hours and 10minutes ater we let. Car Ramrod, whichstarted several vehicles and minutes be-hind us, arrives about hal an hour later.

The waitingA ew cars have beaten us back. Somebroke o early and turned back to camp.Two made it back in rocket-like ashion,but as we all begin to share inorma-tion my sense o how well we did be-gins to grow. Maiellano is eeling it, too.

When we got back to base camp, sawhow long it took everybody else to n-ish and started comparing the num-ber o checkpoints we ound, I startedto eel more and more like we couldpull out a trophy, Maiellano said.

Rousseas hopes sprung rom thenumber o checkpoints they ound.

Throughout that race I had this eel-ing that we were missing a lot o check-

points. When we nally made it back andrealized how ew people had done so Istarted to eel morecondent, he said.

I thought or cer-tain that Doug andI missed severalcheckpoints as well.My best guess was

that we ound be-tween 19-21 check-points, but thereis some conusionamong the competi-tors as to how manycheckpoints therewere. As teams keptarriving the aver-age number oundseems to be about 10.

Its still two hours

beore the end othe race. I spend thetime nursing a cigar and Coke, and listen-ing to other teams swap tales o ounderand triumph while dinner cooks. Whenno ones looking, I talk to my aunt tellingher how badly I want a trophy or Doug.

Once all the cars crossed the nish line,Youngs real work begins. While he hadsupreme condence in the original scor-ing ormulas he had worked up, it allwent out the window as teams hand-ed in their checkpoint sheets whichreported the number o checkpointsound and the time between each one.

The original timed scoring methodcalculated a time or each stage [be-tween checkpoints], Young said. Be-cause not all teams ound the check-point signaling the end o each stage,[that] method was no longer a validway o scoring all the teams equally.

The planning committee decided tolook at overall time instead and weightit against the number o checkpointseach team ound and how well eachperormed at the manned checkpoints.

It takes more than an hour to rehashthe scoring ormula and tabulate theresults. With the astest time, car No.3, Team Quacker, comprised o Timand Joanna Areson takes third. Dougand I take second and we were the onlyteam to nd every checkpoint. Maiel-

lano and Rousseas win by a single po

Trophies hanout, emotions camp settle int

jubilant ebb. ries and drinks traded, somepulls out a hal o peach mo

shine birthed ra still in operatsince just ater civil war and a o history is bibed as close ascan sit to a re tbarely beats bthe rigid night

Little victoriesThe wide ra

o skills and bagrounds that

teams brought to the table made orevent that was just as un or the plannto watch unold as it was or the teato navigate and drive, Young said in weeks ater the race. I cant think o other event where riends and spoucan drive around lost all day and be smiling when they pull into cam

Franz was delighted to see the psion o his youth take hold inwhole new generation o driv

It was like having a party ethough we were all o on own or much o the day, he s

For Doug and I, second place eels rst. And Im convinced it was a ping git rom his mom: a reasoncome back and do it again next y

Despite winning, Maiellano is still tr

bled by one o the rally experienOne o the checkpoint markers was near an old cemetery in the orest traipsing so close to it let him wmore than a case o the heebie-jeeb

My TVs been getting terrible ture ever since. And the trees oside my window have appeaquite ominous o late, he s


26/32

4

Since we upgraded our tireswe wanted to move awayrom classic weights or tirebalancing. The major ben-et o using a dynamic bal-ancing system such as DynaBeads is that you shouldnever have to have your tires

re-balanced again. This is especially helpul as your tire sizeincreases since larger amounts o rubber (especially in veryaggressive tires) can harbor more dense areas that are moredicult to balance. Also, many very large tires cannot be bal-anced on a traditional machine, so a dynamic solution is vital.

Innovative Balancing,LLC (the creators o

Dyna Beads) oered tosend us a set o beads orour ve new Nitto TrailGrapplers or testing. At285/70/16 our tires are onthe edge o benetingrom dynamic balanc-ing. You see, dynamicbalancing doesnt workextremely well as theonly solution or tradi-tional street tires. Short-er, wider tires usually

require some standardweights in addition todynamic balancing prod-ucts to adequately dealwith lateral imbalanceissues. Its only when

you get into the larger,more aggressive tiresthat the option o using

dynamic balancing alone is realistic. Still, we agreed to test themin this scenario to see i theyd be a good t or our upgraded tires.

So ar weve put about 1,500 miles on our new tires with the

Dyna Beads and theyve worked perectly or us. We did noticethat sometimes when we leave a trail the tires will shake a littleonce we hit the main road. This is caused by mud & dirt getting

jammed on the inside o the wheel and in the tire tread, whichcauses the beads to adjust appropriately. When that mud anddirt starts to y o at highway speeds the beads stay put, whichcauses some imbalance. The simple x is to stop the FJ or about5 seconds so the beads can reset. Once this is done and weget back up to highway speeds, the balancing works perectly.

Well update this report as we put more miles on these tires, butso ar were very impressed with the beads. It should be noted

once again that this product works best on larger, aggressive

tires. I yourerunning stocksize, you mayneed addi-tional stan-dard weightsto help withlateral imbal-ance issues.

Five bags of Dyna Beads for

our Nitto Trail Grapplers

Its best to install Dyna Beads with n

tires, but not required.

How Dyna Beads Work

1 2

3 4

5

SOURCE

h t t p : / / w w w . i n n o v a t i v e b a l a n c i n g . c o m
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Dyna-Beads.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Dyna-Beads.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Dyna-Beads.html


27/32

Kevin Necessary sent us a few teaser shots of

his teams new FJ Cruiser Race truck. Look for

more details on this hot FJ in future issues of

FJC Magazine.
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Team-Necessary.html


28/32

6

N e w P r o d u c t s!Our new products this month are a little bit dierent. Instead o choosing products that are FJ Cruisespecic, weve ound a couple o really cool gadgets that well be testing out this summer. These devicescan be used by anyone, and are excellent options or those looking or an outdoor HD Camcorder and/or a cell phone signal booster.

The Wilson Sleek

Wilson Electronics has been in the cell phone boosterbusiness or years. In act, many expedition built FJCruisers include heavy duty systems with externalhigh-gain antennas and large ampliers. The problemwith larger systems or occasional use is that theyreexpensive and complicated to install. Luckily Wilsonhas addressed both o those issues with the inexpensive

and easy to use Sleek.

This device is simply a cradle or your cell phone thateectively boosts your signal up to 20 times (accordingto Wilson). It does this by creating a cloud aroundthe cradle using a built-in amplier that runs o ostandard 12v plug. A small magnet mount externalantenna then attaches to the cradle to provide anadditional signal boost rom outside the vehicle. Theresult is drastically increased signal strength or anycell phone that works in the 824-894 MHz or 1850-1990

MHz bands. Those requencies cover most cell phonesin the US, but youll want to check with your carrierbeore making the purchase.

The great thing about this system is instead o costing$300 or more, the Wilson Sleek can be ound online or $99. Thats a great price point or those o usthat spend some time in the woods, but dont really need a more heavy duty solution.

So does it work? Weve only had the device or a ew weeks, but so ar it does seems to increase signastrength in weak areas. Weve noticed that i there is absolutely NO signal, youre not likely to nd onewith the Sleek (at least not with the standard antenna). However, i youre in an area that has only 1 baror has spotty service, youre likely to get enough signal to put a call through. Were looking orward totesting the Sleek in Ouray at the FJ Summit. Were hoping to nd signal on the top o some o the passeswhere service is usually spotty.

SOURCE

http://www.wilsonelectronics.com
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Wilson-Sleek.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Wilson-Sleek.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Wilson-Sleek.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Wilson-Sleek.html


29/32

The ContourHD from VholdR

We began making short movies o events andinstalls last year, so this season we wanted tostep things up a notch. In addition to a pointand shoot Canon camera that also does HDvideo, we wanted something thats a littlemore rugged that can be mounted to the

FJ. We contacted VholdR and they sent us aContourHD wearable camcorder to test out.

This camera is primarily meant to be wornon a helmet or goggles (great or skydiving,climbing, and snow sports). The great thing

about it is that its mounting system allows it to be mounted almost anywhere and well be mountingit to our Aluminess front bumper and/or WAAG XS Basket. The key features of the ContourHD includeFULL 1080p video, a long battery lie, and one button record. Also, the lens will allow us to capturemore o the action since its has a 135 degree eld o view, which is just wide enough to get greatootage without too much distortion.

So ar weve only shot a ew test videos with the ContourHD, but were impressed with the imagequality. Although it can shoot 1080p video, well be shooting everything in 720p so its compatible

with our other cameras. Look or us on thetrail and make sure you smile or the camera!

SOURCE

http://www.vholdr.com
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/ContourHD.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/ContourHD.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/ContourHD.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/ContourHD.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Roll-Top-Cover-Industrial-Forming.html


30/32

8

702 FJ Crewhttp://702fcrew.net

ATL FJs

http://www.atlfc.com

AZ FJshttp://www.azf.org

Aloha FJshttp://s6.invisionree.com

Colorado FJshttp://www.coloradofs.com

SoCAL FJshttp://www.socalfcruisers.com

UAE FJ Grouphttp://www.uae-f.com

FJ Bruisershttp://www.fbruisers.org

Sin City Wicked FJs

http://www.sincitywickedfs.com

FJs Ontariohttp://www.fcruisersontario.com

FJs Quebechttp://www.fcruiserquebec.com

NWFJCChttp://www.nwfcc.com

FJ Northeastershttp://www.fnortheasters.org

NorCal FJs http://norcalfs.ning.com
http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TLCA.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/TLCA.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/FJ-Cruiser-Forums.html


31/32

Coal Mine Cruiser ClassicDates: July 8-10, 2010Location: Rausch Creek O-Road Park,

Joliett, PAContact: Gotham City Land Cruisers

Great Smoky Mountain Trail RideDates: July 7-13, 2010,Location: Golden Mountain ORV Park

Sparta, TennesseeContact: www.upstatecruisers.net/gsmtr

Black Hills Cruiser ClassicDates: July 14-17, 2010Location: Black Hills, South DakotaContact: Dakota Territory Cruisers

2010 FJ Summit

Dates: July 21-25 2010Location: Ouray, ColoradoContact: FJ Summit Website

Rising Sun RallyDate: August 7, 2010Location: Lakewood, COContact: Rising Sun 4x4 Club

Tall Corn Cruiser ClassicDates: August 27-29, 2010Location: Hamilton, IAContact: Tall Corn Cruisers

2010 Thrill on the HillDates: Sept 3-6 2010 (Labor Day Weekend)Location: Cloudcrot, NMContact: Thrill on the Hill Website

Cruisin the Woods 2010Dates: September 25, 2010Location: Browns Camp, OR

Contact: Cascade Cruisers

SMORR Fall CrawlN with TACDates: September 24-26, 2010Location: Seymour, MOContact: Tornado Alley Cruisers

Southern Cruiser CrawlDates: October 7-10, 2010Location: Hot Springs, ARContact: Cottonland Cruisers

9th Annual Sur N TurDates: November 5-7, 2010Location: Pismo Beach, CAContact: Sur N Tur Website

For the latest event news& coverage, visit FJC-Mag.com and click on EventCalendar

For the latest event news& coverage, visit

FJC-Mag.com and click

on Event Calendar
http://www.gclcny.com/http://www.upstatecruisers.net/gsmtrhttp://www.dakotacruisers.com/http://www.fjsummit.org/http://www.risingsun4x4club.org/http://tallcorncruisers.org/http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Thrill-on-the-Hill.htmlhttp://www.cascadecruisers.com/http://www.tornadoalleycruisers.org/http://www.cottonlandcruisers.com/http://realcruiser.com/surfnturf/http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/Organizations/Tread-Lightly.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/Organizations/Tread-Lightly.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/Organizations/Tread-Lightly.htmlhttp://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/Organizations/Tread-Lightly.htmlhttp://realcruiser.com/surfnturf/http://www.cottonlandcruisers.com/http://www.tornadoalleycruisers.org/http://www.cascadecruisers.com/http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/July-2010/Thrill-on-the-Hill.htmlhttp://tallcorncruisers.org/http://www.risingsun4x4club.org/http://www.fjsummit.org/http://www.dakotacruisers.com/http://www.upstatecruisers.net/gsmtrhttp://www.gclcny.com/http://www.fjc-mag.com/index.php/Resources-/-Links/Organizations/Tread-Lightly.html


32/32

fjc magazine july 2010

Documents