MaBell
April 17, 2010
by Evan Silverman
The off road season is flying by. I can't believe we have
completed over 25 percent of the runs for the year. For our April ride
we went to Ma Bell. Joe, my father and I met and left at 5:00 am on
the dot from Stony Brook. We met Dimitri at the Throgs Neck Bridge
with almost perfect timing and then we ran into Glen on 95. Things
were going extremely smoothly.
We got to Northamton before 8:30 where
Ted was waiting for us. He got there a few minutes before us. Bill,
his son Mat and Brian were at the parking lot a few minutes later. Our
timing seemed to be impeccable. We all ate at the Blue Bonnet dinner
and had a nice breakfast and some much needed coffee.
Besides the less than stellar weather, everything was going
without a hitch. We actually got to the trail head, aired down and
were on the trail right on schedule. All this made me nervous. Things
were going too smoothly and Ma Bell and the Silverman family have been at
odds with each other for over a decade. My father and I have had 6
roll overs of different extremes over the years from flops to wild end
overs.
This trail is not even close to the same trail it was in the
late 90's. Heavy use and tough weather have made Ma Bell a place to be
reckoned with. Some obstacles are suited for purpose-built buggies as
well as obstacles for trucks like the ones in our club, built street
legal rigs. I would really think twice about bringing a truck with
less than 33's through this trail. The wet weather made for some real
lack of traction, at least for me in E Rex. Since we had a total of
eight trucks, which to me is the perfect number for a club trail ride,
we were all able to get out of our rigs and watch each other wheel. I
wish we could do that more often because spectating is just as fun as
actually wheeling and we also get to shoot the sh-t and have some
laughs.
Due to the greasy conditions wheel speed was the order of the day.
Good tires were definitely an asset on this run. Although at lot of
fun to watch, nothing really exciting to write about was happening.
All the trucks were staying together(meaning not breaking parts) and
every one was making the obstacles. E Rex was putting on a hell of a
show. I don't know how many of you have seen E Rex in action but she
is a bit of a bucking bronco. Well, my 10 year old Swampers did not
seem to have much traction so it was throttle time.
I also had one of
JC's friends in my jeep (did you know that all New England hillbillys
look like brothers. They all have goatees, they have the same work
boots and dirty ripped jeans and they sound the same. The only
difference is that they seem to gain a lot of weight as they age, then
again that sounds like the same description as a Long Island redneck.)
and I am always one to try to entertain others. Well we were popping
wheelies and jumping all fours off the ground popping side ways' but
thanks to my new wide rims from Bob Blair she did not go over.
Now
JC's friend was not a good influence. He kept telling me to pull
another gear and kept telling me to hammer it. Well my mom always
taught me to be a good host so I had to oblige my passenger. All
was well until we hit this one obstacle. I was up to my old games
beating the hell out of my poor old truck and she was up to her old
games jumping and bucking. Well between my heavy throttle and E Rex's
athleticism, we jumped off the ground . Can you guys guess what the
outcome was? Did I make the obstacle? Did I break an axle (Mike
Barbara says E Rex would not stay together for half hour if I wheeled
with his Jersey boys)? Well I told you that Ma Bell and I are not the
best of friends and as history seems to repeats itself, E Rex ended up
on her side. As I said I like to put on a show.
I have to say that our club has really matured and hardened over
the years. When our club experienced it's first roll over in I believe
1997 everyone was a little panicky. Jim had rolled his mint early
Bronco and we were shocked, running to the truck with fire
extinguishers in hand fearing the worse. Well now people just start
snapping pictures and posing by the vehicle while I am jammed in my rig.
Jammed between my steering wheel, seat and a huge rock formation that
would have crushed me if not for my cage.
I have to say that the roll
did not even make me flinch but the fact that I was trapped in the rig
started to freak me out. Thanks to JC and Glenn I was out of my jeep
before I tore my steering wheel off. They pulled off my bikini top and
pulled me out of the jeep but not before I made sure that the jeep was
in gear. Well after the photo session was over, E Rex was back on her
feet in about 5 seconds thanks to the recovery shackles that are welded
to her frame.
All being said, E Rex did not get one new scratch on
her. I missed the windshield by a 1/32 of an inch. The boulder ended
up on the cage and in between the door opening.
After the excitement of the roll over, we continued to the end of
the trail and had lunch. After an quick lunch with dessert provided by
Stephanie and Dimitri(brownies and blondies) we headed out. We came
to a hill climb with some large boulders. Now with Glenn in front he
attempts the climb. The next thing we know he is very, very, very high
on the right side and if JC was younger there might not have been
enough counterweight to keep Glenn upright, but lucky for Glenn Ma
Bell does not hate him and with some help from Harbor freight and their
cheap 10000 winch Glenn was much more level and drove the rest of the
way up the hill.
Next E Rex, my hillbilly passenger and I try the
hill. With a hard lean the the left we kept trying to wiggle past the
first big bolder. Of course I am still beating the old girl. Glenn
and Dimitri gave me the sign to pull cable when Mat and Ted said lets
stack some rocks. Can you guys guess what happened next? Did I make
the obstacle, break something or roll? No I did not roll again, but we
did hear Ka-bang. Left front broken U joint. (At least it took more
than a half hour. Actually I have not broken the truck in a couple of
years.) Well we winch up the hill to change the axle.
Wonder Boy
tries the hill but amazingly enough he did not make it as well. My
father in Snow White tries the hill but had to winch as well.
We changed my axle in about 20 minutes (we were looking for a
dropped socket for five of them) and lucky for us special agent
Ted was supervising from his lounge chair. The rest of the ride
out was without incident and we were out of the trail in like 40
minutes.
Back on schedule, we leave at 4:30 and head to the Harbor (Harbor
Freight). Joe and my dad head home and Ted was going back to PA so the
Harbor was out of his way so we are down to Glenn, Dimitri, Stephanie,
Bill, Mat, Brian and I. Going to the Harbor with a bunch of friends is
as much fun as wheeling. We had a ton of laughs and bought 2 Viair
knock-off air compressors. They are $79, on sale for $59 minus 20% off
means they were almost free. The good thing about the Harbor is their
return policy. The bad thing is we live far away so in typical LIOR
fashion, we went out to the parking lot and proceeded to test my new
air compressor to see if it was worth keeping.
We proceeded to air
down all of dimitri's 35 inch MTRs and do an air compressor comparison.
We tested a real Viair provided by Bill and Mat, it is over 6 years
old, a Masterflow 1050 provided by Glenn, it is over 2 years old, an
ARB compressor provided by Dimitri which is about a year old and my new
Harbor compressor. Each compressor was hooked to a different truck to
keep the voltage consistent and we started all compressors at the same
time and shut them all off in exactly 2.5 minutes. The tires started
at 9 psi. After a grueling 2.5 minutes the winning compressor had
reached a pressure of over 28 psi. Can use guess the order that the
compressors came in? The winner by a whole 1/2 psi was (drum roll) the
Viair knock-off from the Harbor. Second place goes to ARB,
third goes to Viair and the Masterflow came in a pitiful last place.
The big question is what will my compressor do when it gets old. Time
will tell. My Masterflow lasted less than 3 years but it was used a
lot, between wheeling, the beach and odd jobs around the house. For
the price even if my new compressor only lasts 3 years it is still a
good deal.
The last leg of our journey ended at Jacoby's steak house where we
had a great dinner and more laughs. This was a perfect day even if the
weather was not the best. I was home at 11:00 pm. What a great 19
hours.
Until next month, Evan