Community Forums

FatDog · 07-07-2005, 08:18 AM

There certainly is a diverse type of toys being ˜hauled.
They range from the simple auto-tranny quads to the long-reach $50,000+ sand rails.
There also is a very strong Jeep contingency.

I started thinking about this after I read in another thread here:
Melon (Rod) said:
"...I love to ride my quad. Not only is it fun, but its fairly small, and easy to maintain. I don't own a Jeep or a sandrail, because I don't want to work on them all weekend. The bigger the toy, the bigger the hassle. ..."
and also:
Jamman Jay mentioned once he has favored 2-stroke bikes, and mentioned how simple and cheap they are to rebuild. (I would guess someone who rides as hard as he does is pretty good at engine building by now too.

)

So we got:

Quads
light and small, easy to work on, tiny little beasts of burden, everyone has ridden on one, you can pack them into ANY toyhauler irregardless of how many gel-coats, slides and other options you have signed up for on your 'hauler

Jeeps
heavy, street legal, and you can bring riders along with you, heavy, longer range then those teeny quads, unlimited ability to alter them.
My CJ-7 was more at home in the snow and mud then a polar bear. Sold it. MISS IT!! messed up by selling it.
Can sometimes be hard to put them into a ˜hauler that any ol' truck can then haul.

SandRails
more specialized, and the homemades can be more temperamental. All are Things of Beauty!
High tech = high dollar = HIGH FUN !!
Still though, you're riding in a cage.
Gotta big ToyHauler for some of them do ya?
A guy I used to go to Pismo with, who made a few Corvair engine powered sandrails, told me in a moment of weakness while we were out at Pis that he kinda regretted ever switching from quads to his rails. Those ol' Red-colored quads run forever and are pretty darn fun he said.
There is no doubt though, that those rails do indeed give you a rush that is hard to beat! We flew over the top of one of those peaks in his rail out at Pismo and came down a loooooong ways down the other side of the dune, and he then rode a wheelie for a couple hundred feet at 50 mph before his front wheels ever toughed the ground! AMAZING! ....... but then later that day I was towing his rail thru the dunes back to camp behind my 4x4 truck (no dually need apply with that task

) because he snapped a tie-rod. That's when he kinda offhandidly mentioned to me his regret at having moved away from quads. Then again, in the back of his ToyHauler, he had a 110 welder, airtools, roll-away tool chest,... and used every one of them. And was good with those tools.

Canoes
Yea, I guess, why not. We have one

BarStool Racers
sort of obvious

So, what is the individual allure to such diverse toys?

FatDog · 07-07-2005, 08:18 AM

There certainly is a diverse type of toys being ˜hauled.
They range from the simple auto-tranny quads to the long-reach $50,000+ sand rails.
There also is a very strong Jeep contingency.

I started thinking about this after I read in another thread here:
Melon (Rod) said:
"...I love to ride my quad. Not only is it fun, but its fairly small, and easy to maintain. I don't own a Jeep or a sandrail, because I don't want to work on them all weekend. The bigger the toy, the bigger the hassle. ..."
and also:
Jamman Jay mentioned once he has favored 2-stroke bikes, and mentioned how simple and cheap they are to rebuild. (I would guess someone who rides as hard as he does is pretty good at engine building by now too.

)

So we got:

Quads
light and small, easy to work on, tiny little beasts of burden, everyone has ridden on one, you can pack them into ANY toyhauler irregardless of how many gel-coats, slides and other options you have signed up for on your 'hauler

Jeeps
heavy, street legal, and you can bring riders along with you, heavy, longer range then those teeny quads, unlimited ability to alter them.
My CJ-7 was more at home in the snow and mud then a polar bear. Sold it. MISS IT!! messed up by selling it.
Can sometimes be hard to put them into a ˜hauler that any ol' truck can then haul.

SandRails
more specialized, and the homemades can be more temperamental. All are Things of Beauty!
High tech = high dollar = HIGH FUN !!
Still though, you're riding in a cage.
Gotta big ToyHauler for some of them do ya?
A guy I used to go to Pismo with, who made a few Corvair engine powered sandrails, told me in a moment of weakness while we were out at Pis that he kinda regretted ever switching from quads to his rails. Those ol' Red-colored quads run forever and are pretty darn fun he said.
There is no doubt though, that those rails do indeed give you a rush that is hard to beat! We flew over the top of one of those peaks in his rail out at Pismo and came down a loooooong ways down the other side of the dune, and he then rode a wheelie for a couple hundred feet at 50 mph before his front wheels ever toughed the ground! AMAZING! ....... but then later that day I was towing his rail thru the dunes back to camp behind my 4x4 truck (no dually need apply with that task

) because he snapped a tie-rod. That's when he kinda offhandidly mentioned to me his regret at having moved away from quads. Then again, in the back of his ToyHauler, he had a 110 welder, airtools, roll-away tool chest,... and used every one of them. And was good with those tools.

Canoes
Yea, I guess, why not. We have one

BarStool Racers
sort of obvious

So, what is the individual allure to such diverse toys?

C.CARNEY · 07-07-2005, 10:06 AM

Mike,

We started off with two quads, my banshee and a Suzuki 80 for the kids. We then added a sand buggy which was fun, but it was a hastle to load everything into the WW as we collected more. We got rid of the buggy and added two more quads, a Warrior 350 for Robin and another Suzuki 80.

That suited us perfect for many years. We eventually got rid of an 80 and added a Blaster and a Suzuki 250R.

We then got rid of the other 80 and sold the Warrior to good friends just after doing a complete rebuild. So I still have my shee, the 250R and the Blaster. I can't seem to get rid of them... I even went out last Sunday and fired them up after sitting for the last year. (they all started on or about the 5th kick)

With our ability to transport them right now changed with no TH'er, we are refiguring our situation and possibly getting a truck for my son with a small flat trailer.

Quads are my preference, easy and relatively cheap to maintain. ****, not using them only costs me $25.00 every two years each.

The only thing I need to do now is figure if they meet the noise standards (I don't think so)

Clark

TH_NOOB · 07-07-2005, 10:18 AM

We are in a very similar situation... Got tired of sitting around on weekends and the kids expressed interest in MX.. I used to ride a little (street and dirt) so we bit the bullet (a big one too!) and aquired the WW 5'th and we now have a 05 Suzuki LT-Z400 and LT-50 and a 03 XR-50.. We have plans to add (before the riding season begins) a LT-Z250 and a Yamaha Raptor 80... Since my kids are all small (6, 4, 2) this should keep us entertained for a good while... I would like a good dirtbike to supplement the quads but that will have to wait.....
\Bob

Aviator · 07-07-2005, 12:42 PM

I started out with the 3 wheelers and then Quads. Moved up to Trucks (toyota's) and ran them into and way over the ground. I'm back to quads and really like the Polaris's. I like the auto part of them because that makes them great for hill climbing and the kids can run them just as easy. If a belt goes bad, 30 minites and I'm back in the game.
Broke too many bones with my YZ-250 back in the day so I try and leave the Dirt Bikes to the younger studs.

Stay Safe Ya'll

high desert · 07-07-2005, 02:16 PM

When Sue and I went on our honeymoon 23 years ago, the first day we stopped at a dealer and purchased a new Toyota 4x4 pickup. That was the beginning of our off-road adventure.

When the family out grew the Toyota, we moved to quads. I love the electric shift on our foremans and the kids are having a ball with theirs.

And......like you Mike, I'm in the process of building a barstool racer to haul around in the TH.

Wes

WWFan · 07-07-2005, 02:40 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">
Broke too many bones with my YZ-250 back in the day so I try and leave the Dirt Bikes to the younger studs.

Stay Safe Ya'll

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Boy oh boy Del...I haven't myself, but I've seen enough carnage with my best friend being a Honda Dealer...had to go that same route...

I started back in 1980 with a Yami 650 Thumper (uyou know- the kind you wondered why they put mirros on 'em because you couldn't see outta 'em because of the viration!), which quickly turned into used CX500, 10 months later a CB750F, and two months after that, a CX500 Turbo. Then everyone went to 3-wheelers and Glamis, so I traded by 82 CX500 for a 85 350X which I still have but never ride anymore (need to get that thing on e-Bay). My son has gone the PW50, XR80, XR100, YZ80, and now a XR400 route. I had a 96 XR250, but only rode it for 3 years until I saw all that carnage (more than some of your smaller hospitals)- sold it and got our $2800 sandrail. 4 months ago got the Jeep TJ, and that's where we're at right now.

Opps..also forgot to mention had a 71 VW that I used off-road a bit (it was ALL street, but that darn 151 would get to me ever so often), and can remember hanging off a cliff one night out in the canyon about 10:30pm...got my friend, went down to our local watering hole and got some more friends, and we lifted that darn thing back on the dirt road...those were the days!

Barstool racer may be an option, but not for some time- too many other projects that have waited a lifetime!

Sean

Vette Racer · 07-07-2005, 03:10 PM

Well, is this before toyhauler or after?

Anyway, did my share of dirt bike riding but gave all that up after deciding that if I had anymore "fun" I couldn't stand it. I think the bike rode me more than I rode it. I was one of those that had two speeds, full throttle, or full brake. I broke, bruised,and damaged my body in ways that let me remember them every morning when I try to move. So, gave that up and got into racing Corvettes,did that since 77. Bought the toyhauler to carry all the vettes and the jeep, depending on where we were going and what we were doing, just load the right vehicle in, kind of a one trailer fits all deal. Now I'm pretty much down to going camping and taking the Jeep for trail riding and sight seeing.

FatDog · 07-07-2005, 03:19 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">And......like you Mike, I'm in the process of building a barstool racer to haul around in the TH.
Wes </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wes !!!
right on guy!
i got some ideas sketched out, some frame tacked in, an engine on my kitchen table, and ramblin' ramblin' on,...

lets compare ideas
I am stoked to hear that you are a BarStoolRacer!!!!
There are so many different ways to do it, and the beauty is, they all make you look immature, and yet at the same time you are flying down the road at 50mph sitting on top of a barstool!! You just cannot go wrong!

I'm going to PM you later

Mike

FatDog · 07-07-2005, 03:27 PM

and I am surprised and happy to hear of all the 3-wheelers that have been ridden here. I had kinda forgotten about them. They were certainly the mainstay for so very very long, before they were ruled too dangerous for our own good and sent to the wayside. We were made to ride quads, which oddly enough are a heck of a lot more comforatable anyway now that i think of it.

And Tom, your Vettes, are probably the 'haulers dream vehicle. I guess that goes without saying. I could probably give up getting sand and mud on my boots for quite a while if I had a drag-ready Vette sittin in my garage. I think I'd go out to the garage every night and pat it on the 'glass and make sure it was alright.

C.CARNEY · 07-07-2005, 04:41 PM

And I forgot, I'm having the most fun right now cruising the local canyons on my Honda Davidson with Kev on his rice rocket. Went for a short cruise today, weather was nice and warm and almost no one on the road.

I still can't believe that I'm riding on the street after saying no for so long!!!

Lastly we have our ski boat that we don't take out enough, but we try.

Clark

melon · 07-07-2005, 07:05 PM

You all sort of know where I stand on this. I bought my first quad (Suzuki 250R) about 6 years ago, rode that into a ditch, spent the next three days in the hospital, slowed down for a couple months, bought another 250R for the wife, sold them both to get the Raptor, bought two Odysse's and a flat trailer, sold one and the trailer to pay for the one I still have. Did I leave anything out?
I love the Odysse. I went through the whole thing from top to bottom. Changed the pipe, intake, shock, seat, lights. It is a lot of fun. So it's kind of like the best of both worlds. Small like a quad, but drives like a sandrail or buggy, although not as fast. I think about selling it just about once a month these days because it's almost just too big (5 feet wide in the rear), but I talk myself out of it every time.

Rod

high desert · 07-07-2005, 07:46 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by FatDog

Wes !!!
right on guy!
i got some ideas sketched out, some frame tacked in, an engine on my kitchen table, and ramblin' ramblin' on,...

lets compare ideas
I am stoked to hear that you are a BarStoolRacer!!!!
There are so many different ways to do it, and the beauty is, they all make you look immature, and yet at the same time you are flying down the road at 50mph sitting on top of a barstool!! You just cannot go wrong!

I'm going to PM you later

Mike </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Mike,

I'm just in the beginning stages so far. I've got the engine and a flamed barstool. Just starting on the actual plans. Can't wait to hear your ideas.

This is going to be great fun.

Wes

WWFan · 07-07-2005, 07:59 PM

Rod:

Nuttin like tradin' in some of the toys to have a rolling home...I understand! And Odesseys are great in the dunes, are you kiddin? Wow...wish I had one!

Mikey and Wes: I will be watching vewrwrry closely to you building your BarstoolRacers...you better have a pic-fest here so we can gleam some insight and built upon it! (Hummm...some of the other projects may STILL hafta wait!).

Eh..hum...now just where do you "race" these things...I have yet to see any BSRacer courses in my local phonebook (I've already looked!)....hummmm.....

Sean