June trip to Silver Lake

[dsrace]

I went and met Doug today at the Dunes. He was already there with another buddy who was having a lot of bad buggy luck.

Doug was doing his best to help the buddy get going. The first buggy the friend had suffered damage and the second did not have spark arrestors (among some loose parts that were a bear to get to) so the FUZZ would not let it in due to no spark arrestors. After getting some spark arrestors it refused to start. Fun day for him it was not. Better luck tommorrow.

Then I went out into the dunes and watched for a bit and finally decided to take a buzz on one of my quads. I chased Doug around for a bit and I thought I was pretty impressed by watching the thing deal with the dunes.

The reason I say thought I was impressed was after a bit we were back in the parking lot helping another mini buggy person who twisted a micro stub and I made a joke about driving Dougs buggy. I was literally kidding. Doug however took me up on it and let me go for a nice lap around the Dunes!

Unforgettable!!  I had fun with it but did not run it super hard as its not my machine nor was I familiar with it. Still I aint had that much fun in the dunes in years. Things that would test my ability to hang on to the bars of my quad this thing would go over and you barely knew it. Stable is an understatement. I made the mistake of thinking sunglasses would be fine to keep the wind out of my but I wish I had wore my helmet or at least my helmets goggles. Not even pushing it hard I was going fast enough I had to slow down due to wind and a bit of sand (mostly wind surprisingly) was making my water.  Too much fun. The only real changes I could see I would want were due to the fact I am a lil taller than Doug and thus would have different positions for things were it my daily driver. Fun and impressive. Me likey!       

It was probably the best inspiration I have had in a LONG time to get off my tail with piddly shit I have been doing and get to working on something of my own (buggywise). 
 
I took some video with my camrea but it only takes little 15 second bursts and to be mild they aint the best quality. I NEED a new camera. This ones fine for still pics but its older. I am trying to figure out how to clean them up and make them bigger. Plus I have dialup so if I can get them presentable I might upload them at the library with the highspeed there. 

I may go out again tommorrow. I have a guy who is supposed to some and buy both my quads and if he does that I will have some money to buy a another motor and another set of shocks. If the guy DOES come I may not be going out. (Might still take my truck out for fun) 

So had a good time. Was great to meet Doug and see his work. Was reallllllllllly cool he let me test it first hand. Hopefulley I will get a chance to see him again tommorrow. If not next time hes this way to the dunes. Thanx Doug!                              Bill     

sounds like a good time! I know when doug met us down at LS oklahoma we all had a great time. that is one hell of a revue too! what damage did the other buggy suffer? did he hit something or jump a little too high or what?       hope that guy buys your quads so you can build yourself a rail, I am sure you won't be disappointed in the least bit!!

[Nutz4sand]

The friends buggy that got damaged cause he hit some driftwood out in the dunes and bent a suspension arm. DOug mentioned he had brought some uppers for the spares but this was a lower (or vice versa) so he did not have one handy. Doug travels a long way so he travels kinda light. Don't we only wish we could all bring everything? 

Yah I hope the guy buys these quads too. He was trying to get here today and maybe tommorrow. He has a near two hour trip (I know thats nothing but he has family to deal with)  He just left me a message that if he cannot come tommorrow then next weekend as then his parents will be there and his mom can help wit hthe kids while his dad comes along to scrutinize. Hes either serious or the best leader-onner I have delt with too date.

I am headed back out to the garage now. My buggy aint gonna build itself. I got a carb to clean on a street bike then back to my bender stand which I soooo need to finish!     Laterz Bill 

[Doug Heim]

I made it back lastnight. Everyones Else's stuff broke and weather started to turn to shit. All an all I got 3 Long days of riding in and it was more than enough. I beat the living hell out of the cuda unlike I ever have before. I didn't break one thing on the buggy and all I needed to even service was tighten one of the CVs to the flange. Nutz actually pointed it out. Thanks bud. It was great to meet you and I am already looking forward to going back. Wife and Kids are already driving me up the wall this morning!

I have tons and tons of pics and video. I would have double the video but I lost my dash cam yesterday. Broke off when I had it mounted to the rear lower chassis. I spent about 1 hour looking for it but I have no clue where it would have come off. I was running a teather strap on it everywhere else I mounted it. I wont make that mistake again. In the future I will also mount an orange flag to it. Good thing is it was not an expensive one and that's really the worst thing that happened to me. There were many others with worse luck than myself. All I even cared about was the footage. I only lost the footage from yesterday as my customer (who I now consider a good friend) I met up with brought his laptop and I was able to transfer the videos off from the days before. Thanks John!

John was the other guy with the Barracuda that I met up with. He purchased the buggy off of the guy I built it for. What ended up happening was he nailed a piece of drift wood that was over a hill. I believe he was going about 50 -60 and landed on it with his right front suspension arms. He was quite lucky and it too could have been allot worse. He bent the upper and lower arms, a rod end, and the nerf bar. I had everything to fix it but the lower A-arms and that suffered the worst damage. I even thought to bring an extra set. I usually bring damn near everything with me. He purchased a complete PIRCV so I didn't see a need to bring those parts, and he also purchase the upper updated arms. The front lowers seem so well built that I figured... Naahhhh. I don't need those. Well everything has its limits. No welds broke or even moved. Twisted every piece of bar work on the arm though. The cuda was still drivable but why possibly make it worse right? He did bring his Piranha so we went back to the lot to get it going. He didn't have a flag mount so that was intresting to rig up as the Piranha has been modified from the plans extensively, there was also so much body work that you really could not just put it anywhere. He had the flag for the rear but silver lake requires it on the front. Damn DNR! OK so I got that worked out and during backing it off the trailer he noticed the rack was loose. The get the the bolts I had to bend down his bash plate. Could not unbolt the bash plate as the body work prevented you from accessing the nuts on the backside. Could not remove the bodywork as the headlights were in the way. could not remove the headlights due to riveted panels. A prybar, hammer, and a jack worked just fine  . Thanks for the jack Nutz!

DNR does not always check for spark arrestors but they were that day, Poor bastard! He spent $80-on arrestors just to have them flood his motor and not work.

Damn the bad luck.
I let him take my Cuda out the next day.

Ill post up pics soon 

[Doug Heim]

Here is John's Cuda along with mine...

[Doug Heim]

Here is the damage of John's Cuda....

He is sending pics from his camera. He seemed to have a better shot showing the extent of the damage on that lower arm...








On this Picture, what looks like a crack is just the powder coating allong with anything that looks like cracks in other pics.










On the below picture you can see how far out the castor is. Thw front of the buggy is to the left...

[Doug Heim]

[Doug Heim]

Here is a pic of the Busa powered 2 seater that a guy I met up with had. Its a brand new machine. This was its first weekend out. Needless to say he was quite easy on it. Built by Sand Fever. Good looking car but I would do a few things different ofcourse.



He twisted the micro stub just driving out to the dunes at 15 mph. Of course it was twisted from before but it finally let go driving through the entrance. What a shame. No one had a spare part either. I did my best to help him and get it apart.









And you know me... I always have to find some type of decrepency in other manufacturer's work.. Especially if it is purchased. I can understand from the home builder but this is a $30,000.00 car. 

[Doug Heim]

Here is the cottage I stayed at. Right on a lake! Beautiful! 

There was a pool table and full bar in the basment. I honestly was more intrested in the warm bed and the nice shower. Thanks alot John!

John also cooked up some mean burgers!  Good eatin! Could not ask for better hospitality!

[SPEC]

Looks to me like you just had WAY TOO MUCH FUN

[Doug Heim]

Sorry about all the different posts  :P. I figure I am breaking up the subjects... in each post.

Here is the flag mount that I rigged up for john on his Piranha. Seeing he didnt get out to the dunes it really was for nothing. Oh well cant win them all! 

[SPEC]

That's a good idea...I got a box of mangled off heim ends...I'll toss a few in the box for trips

[Doug Heim]

Yeah Spec I did have alot of fun. Those were brand new rod ends. I had to unwrap them they were so new. Those are the same rod ends Bug sells. I want to go again next month already. With the weather being crap toward yesterday late afternoon I decided to head back. this way Ill go into work on Mon. and save tha vacation for another weekend.

Here are a couple shots I took of the Cuda after 2 days of beat down. Notice its prime condition  :P 

[dsrace]

ok where's the video? coming soon I hope?

[dsrace]

they look like nice dunes! looks like a blast!!  looks like you had waaaaaaaay more fun than I did at the kansas park

[SPEC]