A Photo Thread

[Russinator]

In this picture we were on a 4x4 van rally near Moab, Utah.

There were over 100 vans at the 4 day rally.

Most of the vans had the pop up top [like ours].

Russ

[Funrover]

Sweet van!!  I have nothing but respect for the 4x4 van community!

[Russinator]

Thanks Funrover. They won't go places that jeeps will go, but they will go places that motor homes can't go.

Here's another picture from that rally.

Russ

[Funrover]

Hey Russ... do you ever take it out and 4-wheel it on moderate trails?

[Russinator]

Funrover, when I bought it my plan was to take it off road, at least, once a month. That never came to be, I just can't tear myself away for the beach and surfing. I've been thinking of doing Baja, that way I could do some off roading on the way to the beach.

The only time I've had it in anything challenging was the first time, and that was a mistake. With it being our first time off road [in the van] we took a trail that was rated as easy and 90 minutes from start to finish.

I figured 90 minutes I'd be able to make it with 12 gallons of gas easy, 12 gallons of gas is 1/4 tank, I have a 46 gallon tank. We took off on this trail and 5 hours later we were still on it. When the sun started to go down we decided to park and camp for the night.

As we were setting up our camp the ranger just happened to drive by. He stopped to see who we were and if we were okay. I asked him how much further the trail went. He figured we'd come up from the south [wrong, we came from the north]. He said the road north of us had been washed out from the last rain storm and I'd never make it in the van. When I told him that's the way we got to where we were he couldn't believe it.

Anyway, we spent the night there, it was beautiful, over looking the Pacific Ocean with a full moon. In the morning we packed up and 20 minutes later we were in Santa Barbara getting some gas.

Below is a picture of an easy section of the trail that took us to our campsite. The lower picture is where we spent the night.

[Funrover]

alright man.... all these 4x4 pics are gonna make me post a few of my adventures..LOL

[austinado16]

Man, that's some hard core Rovage right there!  Great photos!  My brother goes up to Moab every year with the K5 Blazer crowd and they get their rigs all bent out of shape like that. Crazy stuff.

[Russinator]

The photos below are Fred and his van. Fred works for Sportsmobile, designed our 4x4 system and does a lot of off roading, including rock climbing. If you ask me, this type of thing is too dangerous [for an expensive van].

[Funrover]

AWSOME!! That'd be me if I had one of those vans...LOL.....  

Austin - any pics? the full sizers are hard core to wheel... I go with quite a few and grew up in one!  I hope to get to moab soon!

[austinado16]

Holy Cow that Van is crazy doing all that!

Sorry, no pics of the K5 crew, but looks just like the above with the Rovers, 'cept Moab looks like the surface of the moon.  They've got one member who's built such a big website that he finally quit his job, and the website has become both his hobby and his income!

Here's the one shot I've got of his rig.  His roommate builds these sliders that you see mounted, and they've become sort of an industry standard.

[austinado16]

Here's a little somethin' different.....

I'm into vintage watercraft (//www.dynafoil.com & //www.vintageseadoo.com are my websites).  This is my 1977 Dynafoil, one of only about 530 built in Newport Beach, CA and one of only about 5 that are currenly "flying."  As you can see, it ain't no "couch."

[Funrover]

I'm not a watersport person   but sure looks fun!

[Russinator]

Here's a photo I took a few months ago when we were in Colorado

[Russinator]

I've been scanning my collections of slides so they will not deteriorate any more than they already have. About 20 years ago I took this picture of the Huntington Beach pier at sunset.

[austinado16]

Wow!!!!  Great shot!