Walkabout Colorado: Help me get accesss to the outdoors for people who are Developmentally Disabled

You all know me as Skully or Matt, one little thing you might not know about me is I work in the human services field, specifically with people who are diagnosed with developmental disabilities.

During the last eight years of time in this field I came up with an idea which started as a pet project, but turned in to a much bigger project.

I had several opportunities to combine my love of Traildriven Jeeps with my work in the human services field by taking people into the back country exploring the Colorado Outdoors. What I found is this demographic of individuals loved exploring the back country, but outside of what I did, there was not much opportunity for them. The programs I did see where very expensive and not everyone had the funds available either through there own very low income or through their services provided.

The idea for Walkabout Colorado was born!

However in this lame economy it is hard to start a project on the budget I got and not a lot of people are just giving away funds for projects.

Pepsi Refresh Project. Giving away grants to ideas and projects that better the community and people.

So at the end of all of this I need your help to win a grant. You must vote everyday on my project to move me up the ranking. I have to be in the top 10 to win a grant.You get 10 votes a day to vote on the 10 ideas you like the best including me of course.

Pepsi Refresh Grant help people with developmental disabilities experience the outdoors.

Trailhead Tire Deflators

For the longest time I have had on my key a set of the basic plain old tire deflators. Screw them on and monitor there pressure in intervals until I am at the desired tire pressure. Did not think to much of it until now, Then I got a set of Trailhead Automatic Tire Deflators for a gift.

WOW! What have I been missing with the extra time? These things are amazing and took me getting a gift to realize, DOH!

Before it would take 15 minutes on average to air down and monitor all four tires. This [Read more...]

Iron Rock Off Road HD Track Bar Cherokee / XJ review

When I started with my XJ I had a Rusty’s Off-Road Track bar which used a standard Tie Rod End that you could get off any auto parts store shelf. I found that setup just did not work well with an XJ over 3″ of lift as I was replacing Tie Rod Ends every 6-8 months, typically after a summer of wheeling trips.

Then I went to the Rubicon Express Track bar, RE1600 that utilizes a Rod End. Worked much better and only replaced the Rod End once in a little over a year of owning it. Couple weeks ago I came across some noise from my front end only to discover my OE track bar bracket had cracked and the bolt wobbled out.

Alright time to try something different I say and started to look around at all the many setups available. I had a wish list: I wanted it beefy, would use poly bushings that would be cheaper to replace than Rod Ends, or flex joints, and of course included a new double sheer bracket for the frame end.

I came across this company, Iron Rock Off Road. A fairly new company to me, I had not heard a whole lot about them, other than me searching on the net finding posts on some forums criticizing them for being so new and different. However they had some pretty interesting products on their web page for many a Jeep model, including a HD track bar for $189 for my XJ.

“Interesting” as I thought to myself, every company had a starting point sometime in there development right?

[Read more...]

JCR Offroad Cherokee/XJ upper 1/4 panel armor

On my quest for something to protect my upper quarter panels and to match my lower quarter panel armor. I came across a company that appears to be improving on others ideas, JCR off-road.

There have been other companies who have made upper quarter panel armor and seeing them in person I found they looked good on the vehicle, but either very expensive, or the use of thin material and not quite the fit I was looking for.

JCR Off-road had started to make their own version for XJ’s a year or so ago and I waited a while to here some feedback on them.  Hearing some good feedback from fellow XJ owners about them I decided to move on them and ordered me up a set.  For $170 for a set with tail-light protectors plus $30+ shipping they were around $200. They also offer for another $110 full tail-lights as well, but I wanted to keep the electrical and lighting OE and simpler.

They have a couple weeks fabrication delay as they make them on the spot. Two weeks after I ordered them they arrived on my doorstep. Very impressed!

Looking at their pictures on there website they changed the top part of the guard by adding another 1″ of material bent in to match the curve of the XJ body. That is a BIG bonus as working with fabrication in the past this adds structural strength to the guard. Now why they do not update the pictures of their product on the web-page I do not know, because it is an improvement over other brands and a good selling point.

[Read more...]

Quick Oil Change @FastTraxx 23,908 miles

Mileage: 23,908

Having a blog sure does make it easy to track your vehicles maintenance.

The folks at NAXJA ColoradoFest will get some goodies tomorrow

I’ll be heading out late morning to Buena Vista, Colorado to drop off some product to the ColoradoFest Group.  They are using the UBADGEs to identify trail worthy XJs.  Using the badges as a sign the vehicle has been inspected was Tom’s idea, brilliant.  I will also be delivering the long and shirt sleeve shirts that were ordered by attending members.  See you soon.

Do you need magnetic badges for an event you have coming up?  —-> drop us a line

TripCast by Jeep© – a trail mapping app of the iPhone

tripcast-web

Have any of you seen TripCast by Jeep© yet?  I friend of mine, who knows I love to wheel, asked me on FaceBook this morning if I had seen it.  If you haven’t checked it out, you should.  Thanks Kim for the info.

Hit the road with the free iPhone app that tracks the progress of your driving adventures and lets your friends follow along and enjoy your photos, videos and notes in real time.

The user can also use it as a mapping software.  TripCast will put things on your map for you, like Beaches, Camping Areas, Hike and Bike Trails, Off-road trails, and many other points of interest.

Once you get your friends using the app there are some more great features.  It will even notify you when a friend is in your vicinity.  Great for a meet up and maybe even a last minute wheeling trip.

Enjoy your tunes while still mapping your trip.  The ipod overlay feature lets you listen and control music right inside the app.

Our user ID is TrailDriven, of course.  Friend us up.  We would love to see your wheeling trips.

Our first UBADGE is here

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The boys over at NAXJA ordered some UBADGEs for their ColoradoFest 2010 Event next week.  Their order was our first.  A UBADGE is a 3″ round magnetic badge.  So if you’re one of the lucky few that will attending the event…you’ll be getting a first of something.

The forum is back up

That’s right folks after a better part of the morning the forum is up and running.  I spent most of that time tricking my SQL database into thinking I was another forum admin.  I did this long enough to change the password on the main admin account.  Moved the forum software, upload the old database, tweet some admin and moderator setting and ..blah blah.  None of you care right?  The forum is back up.

This comes off the news that the site was redesigned also.  It now incorporates all old LUVMYJP.com content also.  Maintaining both with fresh content was a PITA.  Ok not really that much of a PITA.  I didn’t actually do it most of the time.

Welcome to TrailDriven.com

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