I got the beat on the truck this weekend!

[Darrin Tosh]

And it took it! With Lori and the kids gone I decided to take a weekend and camp up at Silver Lake Sand dunes. My buddy has his camper there all summer, so with the 5Ver and Jeep Cherokee/Dune Runner in tow, Scotty, my nephew Brad, and I headed out on Friday Morning. We met up with Corky and his Jeep CJ5 and a couple of Honda Oddeseys. then on Saturday my brother Dave came up with My 1977 Bronco, his kids and friends and his dune ready RC Cars.

A great time was had by all, and yes I did get some air with Big Ed. the truck took a beating, with no problems at all. It is actually faster on the drags and climbing the hills than the Cherokee!

Here are some pics, I will add a few more of in the next day or so. There is some cool stuff that runs around on the dunes!

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

Crap, that looked fun. Sure wished I could have made it. Not 1 callout all weekend. Wonder if they even knew I was on call.
Tis good to see ya get Big Ed dirty. I was wondering bout that.

 

[typ4]

Darrin I am glad to see you do that because I need to pull my rail and trailer into the sand to camp in a few weeks. Did the front end feel heavy or did it stay on top? I have duned everything except a diesel truck. Looks like the dunes there are pretty nice might have to come check it out some time!!

 

[funnyman06]

Darrin, i was sure if you posted any pictures of the newly completed Big Ed. Glad to hear it works well. i didnt even know there were sand dunes in michigan.

 

[sle2115]

Ok, so I'm stupid, but what's with the flags on the front? That would drive me CRAZY! I could see having them, but I'd prefer on the rear, out of site while driving. I did see a guy tie a helium baloon on the front of his crawler one time, when asked about it, he said it gave him a good idea of the incline he was on as no matter how far the vehicle leaned to one side, the baloon was always straight up, a level so to speak!

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

Ok, so I'm stupid, but what's with the flags on the front? That would drive me CRAZY! I could see having them, but I'd prefer on the rear, out of site while driving.

Safety for approaching the peak of the dunes for others attempting to make a run down the hills to lets others know where ya are to avoid fender benders.

 

[sle2115]

Safety for approaching the peak of the dunes for others attempting to make a run down the hills to lets others know where ya are to avoid fender benders.

Ok, I get that, but does it have to be on the front, not that it matters, I'll probably never see sand, but that would distract the heck out of me! I'd rather run one 10 feet taller but on the rear!

 

[tractorman86]

looks like a lot of fun!!! i'm with russ how did the front feel? are the dunes real fine sand or more grainey?

 

[Darrin Tosh]

Yup The flags have to be on the front, You play by there rules or you don't play. The first time we brought the Honda Odyesys up we put the flags on the factry holder in the top of the cage, they wouldn't let us on the dunes till we moved them to the front of the buggy.

Darrin I am glad to see you do that because I need to pull my rail and trailer into the sand to camp in a few weeks. Did the front end feel heavy or did it stay on top? I have duned everything except a diesel truck. Looks like the dunes there are pretty nice might have to come check it out some time!!

You can show up anytime and be my guest, I will give you the guided tour!

You won't have any problem, the weight bias is not really an issue, just air the tires down to about 12 PSI and you wil be good.

The dunes are great I will post some better pics of the dunes themselves later tonight, but people come from all over the US to go dunning. I talked to a guy from Atlanta Georiga, he keeps his dune buggy stored here in MI and flys in just to go to the dunes for the weekend. Half of the fun is seeing all of the other rigs that are there.

Crap, that looked fun. Sure wished I could have made it. Not 1 callout all weekend. Wonder if they even knew I was on call.
Tis good to see ya get Big Ed dirty. I was wondering bout that

Yea it was fun, wish you could have made it also. The truck did get dirty, there was a lot of huge puddles from previous rain, so it was not going to stay clean.

 

[Darrin Tosh]

looks like a lot of fun!!! i'm with russ how did the front feel? are the dunes real fine sand or more grainey?

I would say that the sand leans more to the fine side than the grainey side.
It does get everywhere!

 

[frdtrckmnrich]

I was up there thurs-mon. I looked for you but never found you.
Looks like you had a blast.

 

[Russ]

That looks like a blast. I like the new shinny spare tire.

 

[Ironman03R]

Cool, I went up there when I was 16, we went on the Jeep tour. I had only had my license for 2-3 months and I was runnin on the dunes, needless to say it was one hell of a learnin experiance! I'd love to go back some day, my daughter would have a blast there.

 

[69oiler]

looks like a lot of fun.

 

[Cat_Rebel]

Good to see it's all bolted up & running good. I need to get over to Silver Lake one of these days yet.