Please visit our Sponsor, CLICK on the Banner above
Ole Trigger
“That ‘97 Trooper is, without a doubt, the most capable 4Wheeling vehicle I’ve ever driven!”
I
named it Trigger, and I’ll admit, I didn’t cut it any slack. Together, we
did all the most difficult VDL (vehicle damage likely) trails I’ve found
during the past thirteen years. There was Holy Cross City, Hole in the Rock,
Back way to Jamestown, Family Fun, Kelly Flats, and many more. Until about half
way through the year, every time I pointed ole Trigger at a nasty spot, I
expected him to fail. To my surprise, he not only didn’t fail, he conquered
every one them with less effort than any stock vehicle I’ve ever driven.
During, the last three months of the season, I had developed such confidence it
its capabilities, I started doing trails I had avoided during the past few years
just because I had come to believe those trails were too difficult for a stock
vehicle. I became a little too overconfident a few times but that’s why I have
that Warn 8,000 winch bolted up front.
So what was Trigger’s secret? It just may be the best kept secret in the world of 4wheeling. The only other person I found who already knew it was my friend Moses Ludel who writes the “Holy Moses” column for Off Road Magazine.
The secret is in the suspension. It is designed in such a way that enables a Trooper to keep all four wheels planted firmly on the ground in situations where other vehicles pop a wheel in the air. We all know that air makes for poor traction and Isuzu designed the Trooper to avoid going there.
Still have doubts? Don’t feel bad if you do. If someone had said this to me last year at this time, I wouldn’t have believed it either. The Trooper’s capabilities are the best kept secrets in the 4wheeling world. Time and again, I would meet folks on the trail who would actually laugh at me for being there in what most of them called, “A doctor’s toy car.” That laugh quickly faded when Trigger outperformed them. In many cases, the vehicles he outperformed were modified. Some fella even asked me if Isuzu had given me a specially modified truck and one fella even accused me of having lockers front and rear because Trigger was climbing stuff without spinning a wheel. To convince him, I had to purposely put the truck in a severe off-camber situation to such an extreme that a tire came up off the ground. Sure enough, the left rear was spinning and the right rear was standing still. No lockers!
Isuzu released the current Trooper design in 1992. In other words, it’s been out a long time. In all that time, I’ve never heard anyone talk about how well that design does 4wheeling. Maybe that’s because people who buy them never push them to their limits. It is possible that, until I got my hands on ole Trigger, a Trooper had never been pushed to its limits. If that’s the case, I am proud to have been the first one to do it.
So, you ask, what does Isuzu need to do to improve the Trooper? The top of the list is a bigger motor. The 3.2 liter has all it can handle to maintain 65 mph going up Vail Pass. I am told the ‘98 model has an improved 3.2 motor that will do much better, but I haven’t tested one yet. I did test the new motor in a Rodeo and it had lots of zip but a Rodeo is lighter than a Trooper.
Another thing is gas mileage. Not that the Trooper is any worse than most other 4X4s. It averaged about 16 mpg during the 40,000 miles I drove it. I was told it would do better if I ran something besides the cheapest fuel I could find, but I didn’t test that theory. Very few 4X4s on the market do better than that, but it sure would be nice if they did. The new Rodeo we tested on a trip to California managed to get 20 mpg so Isuzu is headed in the right direction.
Maintenance cost on Trigger was almost non-extent other than oil changes. During the 40,000 miles I drove it, the only time it went to the mechanic was when the exhaust pipe broke. The mechanic couldn’t find any evidence that it broke due to anything I did, but then he hadn’t seen where Trigger had been.
That’s not a bad record. Although I drive between 40,000 and 50,000 miles every year, most people don’t. In fact, most people don’t drive that far in three years so if you consider the average person could have driven Trigger for three years and only gone to the garage for repairs once, that ain’t bad! No other vehicle I’ve driven has come close to that kind of reliability.
Trigger was equipped with V-6, automatic, electric windows and locks, cruise, leather interior, sun roof, heated seats, stereo sound, remote swing away mirrors, and all the other necessities of life. Even though all that stuff was continuously packed in desert sand and dust, it all continued working flawlessly.
Check out the January issue of 4Wheel Drive & Sport Utility magazine for some really great shots of Trigger on the Hole in the Rock Road near Escalante. That TJM bumper supporting the Warn 8,000 winch attracted a lot of attention this year. It is made in Australia and distributed in the USA by Hella.
Trigger is gone now. The last I heard he was headed for Baja to use as an observer vehicle along the track. If it just had a bigger motor, it could have entered the race.
Isuzu has chosen to not provide me with another one to use in ‘98. Could be they don’t believe what I actually did with the first one. Somebody said every time it rains in California, the ground under Trigger turns Utah red from all the mud dripping out of Trigger’s private parts. I tried to explain that it don’t rain in Utah, so that’s just dust that blows out with the wind but they just looked at me like I was trying to sell them the Golden Gate bridge.
The most common question I’m getting from folks now is, “What will Outlaw be driving in ‘98?”
Well, I still have the ole Rocky. You remember the one we named, “Mighty Mouse.” I’ve also had some conversations with Land Rover but no commitments yet. I also got a few questions from Dodge but not from anyone with authority so far. In other words, I don’t know! That’s what’s so much fun about this business. The world can take another sudden turn every time the phone rings.
Happy Trails!
Open house at the hideout
Just in case some of you would like to see what the new Pass Patrol headquarters looks like, we’re gonna have an open house beginning at 2 pm on Sunday, December 28. We’ll call it a Grand Opening. Seems like everybody else gets to have one of those so it’s only fair that we get to have one too. We’ll have a limited supply of cake and ice cream and crank up a few videos. We can sit around and tell a few big ones, then when all the cake is gone, we can take up a collection for pizza and see how long it takes to get here.
Anybody who shows up will receive a coupon for $5 off any book or video.
You don’t have to be a club member to join us, but we do recommend you bring a lawn chair just in case there’s no more room on the tables.
To get here, take the 6th Ave. exit off I-225 in Aurora. Go east across Chambers and past Cub Foods and Comp USA. The next light is Laredo. Turn right on Laredo and go to the buildings on the right. Our shop faces Laredo and has a big sign for Outback Publications on the wall and a flag for Pass Patrol in the window. The address is 401-G Laredo Street.
303-341-5705
Outlaws on the run
It
was to be a top secret operation. No one, except for the entire world, knew
Outlaw and his band of desperados, operating under the code name of Pass Patrol,
were headed for Escalante, Utah. Under normal circumstances, such activities are
quietly ignored by everyone, sometimes even those who are on the trip, but there
was to be nothing normal about this activity.
Another band of desperados, referred to by Pass Patrol as Vironazis, were determined to catch Outlaw in the act and put an end to Pass Patrol once and for all time. Outlaw received a coded message by Pony Express on Tuesday from a contact in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, he pushed the wrong button, and it self destructed before playing the message. He called Gadget who brought over the DTD (Destructed Tape Decoder) and within minutes the message was retrieved. It read:
“Vironazis contacted all newspapers and TV stations in Salt Lake. (Stop) Wanted press coverage to make an example of the capture of Outlaw and Pass Patrol. (Stop) Press not interested. (Stop) Vironazis contacted all BLM offices warning them that 200 desperados were converging on Grand Staircase and must be stopped, (stopped, stopped)”
The message ended with a warning to watch out for a Vironazi ambush. Outlaw sent a carrier-pigeon-gram to Mr. & Mrs. South Paw in Ogden instructing them to rush to Escalante posing as a mild mannered couple on a camping trip. Outlaw then sent Sundance to set up a lookout at Crystal Geyser. The carrier pigeons were last seen heading for Hawaii.
Upon arrival, Sundance and South Paw sent messages to Outlaw encoded within satellite TV signals of the X-files. Unfortunately, Outlaw had fallen asleep during the Simpsons and missed that episode of the X-files. Sundance sent for Alien Brat to zip over to Pass Patrol’s hideout and zap Outlaw with the following message.
“Vironazis behind every bush. (Over) Aborting the trip is the only logical action. (Over) Don’t come over!"
Unfortunately, Alien Brat stopped at Venus for gas and once he found out about all the women there, he never made it back.
Outlaw had only one thing to do before heading for Utah. Vironazis were expecting two hundred Pass Patrol vehicles. Outlaw only had six signed up. It was easily resolved. Outlaw simply signed up 194 imaginary vehicles and instructed them to enter Grand Staircase from Page, Arizona.
On Saturday night, Outlaw and Slow Poke pulled into the Crystal Geyser hideout where Sundance was waiting. By sticking to back roads, the journey to Crystal Geyser had been undetected by Vironazis. The three desperados spent a quiet evening watching the geyser put on a show, sipping sodas, and beginning the long process of dreaming up this campfire tale. The truth is out there and all lies lead to it, but our heroes have never been interested in the truth. Only in getting a good laugh, sitting next to an eye-level fire, and pigging out on Cherry cobbler cooked in a Dutch oven.
Sunday morning, the trio left the hideout and pulled into Green River for fuel. There was no sign of the Vironazis. The trio flipped on CB 13 for communications knowing the Vironazis would be monitoring it. The scripts for the day had already been written.
The trio headed west on I-70 to the exit for Hanksville. Three Vironazi vehicles were waiting at the off ramp. Outlaw’s scanner picked up the transmission. “Outlaw and two bandits just passed checkpoint one. No sign of the rest of the patrol.”
The three vehicles followed the trio to Hanksville. At that point the trio gave them the slip by turning onto a narrow side trail and hiding in the brush until they passed. The trio managed to avoid detection for nearly two hours but as they approached a pass in the Dixie Forest, the scanner came alive.
“Bandits approaching check point two. Will engage.”
As Outlaw approached, one truck pulled out in front of him and the other pulled in behind him. They slowed down to 45 mph. A huge unmarked bus load of Vironazi protestors pulled in behind Slow Poke and Sundance.
Outlaw picked up the cell phone and used a secured channel to call Trapdoor at DOD (Department of Defense). “We need two black helicopters out of Area 51, fully armed to take out the two trucks.”
Trapdoor pushed a button on the computer and terminated the call. A few minutes later two black F-4 planes zoomed by.
“Darn,” Outlaw grumbled. “Trapdoor pushed the wrong button again. Outlaw decided not to call him again. He might push another wrong button and send two missiles. It was time to play the script. Outlaw made a sudden turn onto the Great Western Trail. Taken by surprise, the trucks and bus zipped on by.
“What’s up?” Sundance transmitted as he and Slow Poke followed Outlaw. The trio turned around and backtracked to a rest area.
“I just got an imaginary encoded message from the imaginary main group. 168 imaginary vehicles have arrived in Page and will begin converging on Grand Staircase at daybreak. We’ll take the Great Western Trail and go the back way to Escalante.”
The trio pulled into the rest area and hid in the outhouses. Sure enough, the black bus had turned around and passed the rest area going the other way headed for Page, AZ. The two trucks had also turned around and headed up the Great Western Trail in a hurry. They disappeared in the trees trying to catch the trio, unaware that the trio was hiding out at the rest area.
TO BE CONTINUED!
By now, you may have figured out that this story has been slightly exaggerated. In other words, it is a campfire tale that will grow each time it is told. If you really want to read the rest of it, let us know and we’ll finish it in another issue. As promised, there is a spark of truth in every campfire tale. The preceding story grew from the following sparks of truth.
Truth 1- Outlaw received a phone call from Salt Lake informing him that individuals who were introducing themselves as the Sierra Club were contacting the media in an attempt to get coverage of a protest against Pass Patrol driving into the Grand Staircase. We have no proof they were with the Sierra Club but there is no doubt they claimed they were.
Truth 2- Several individuals, claiming to be with the Sierra Club contacted several offices within the BLM insisting that rangers be sent to stop Pass Patrol from driving on established roads within Grand Staircase and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
Truth 3- Two individuals in a red truck stopped a vehicle in our group demanding information about where we were going. The people in our group simply laughed at them and drove away.
Summary - Grand Staircase is a virtual war zone. In his speech, Clinton promised that all existing forms of recreation would remain unchanged. But, groups calling themselves environmentalists deny that any roads exist within Grand Staircase and insist that the entire area must be closed to all motorized travel. Motorized recreation groups point to the many hundreds of dirt surface and two-tract roads within the monument and insist they are protected by RS2477 right of way.
Because
of this battle, the wilderness advocates don’t want Pass Patrol in Grand
Staircase. Books, videos, magazine stories, and campfire tales written about the
adventures of Pass Patrol traveling existing roads within Grand Staircase would
be very damaging to their claims that no roads exist. Especially with
photographs, maps, and GPS positions.
Pass Patrol is not interested in a fight with any special interest group, however, when they challenge our right to drive on open roads and exercise our first amendment right to free speech, we will not be intimidated.
So what does that mean? Nothing as far as we are concerned. We will go on doing what we do. We hope this failed effort to interrupt our weekend was an isolated incident. Actually, we found it to be rather entertaining. We also hope these fanatics were not connected with the Sierra Club, but if they were, we believe that organization owes us a big apology.
As
for the trail ride, it was great. The weather was perfect. Clear skies, warm
days, chilly nights, and a terrific group. Our trip began with a journey up
Collett Canyon. Due to recent rains, the road surface was a little rougher than
usual, however, shifting to 4wheel drive was not necessary.
From
the top of Collet Canyon, we took Croton Road east to the trail head for Grand
Bench. It was on this route that we met Ranger Jeff and his helper. They were
looking for us, due to the many phone calls they had received, but were
professional and friendly. They pointed out that the road we were headed for was
very difficult, however, it was an open route within the monument and we were
free to continue. Shortly after leaving the Rangers, we met the guys in the red
truck and ignored them.
When we arrived at Little Valley Canyon, the fun began. It took about an hour to get Outlaw’s Trooper across the canyon and by that time it was dark. Sundance was the only one who had followed Outlaw to the canyon floor. Outlaw returned to the canyon floor and joined Sundance to go back to the trailhead. By the time they returned to the rest of the group, the fire was going and the aroma of good cooking filled the air. That night, the campfire tales ran rampantly.
The next morning, the group voted to go to Crosby Canyon where the Maverick movie was filmed so we never did make it out to Grand Bench and the Trooper was the only vehicle to cross Little Valley Canyon. We spent two more terrific days within the monument, then the group split up.
Sundance and Outlaw went to Hole in the Rock on the east side of the lake. The others wandered off in various directions. So what of Grand Bench? As Arnold would say, “We’ll be back!”
Happy Trails
More Books & Videos
We-e-e-el-l-l-l-l.
I'm working on some new books and videos. If you order them for someone as a Christmas gift be sure to make it clear that they are gifts. They will receive a special Pass Patrol Christmas Card to acknowledge the order but they won’t be getting the gifts for a while. (Call or E-mail me for these as they aren't in the 4X4NOW Bookstore yet - expect to see them there as soon as they get them in stock) Hole in the Rock won’t be available until late January and Getaways will make its entrance in March.
The Adventures of Pass Patrol, Volume Six is titled “Hole in the Rock” and covers the entire San Juan Mission trail from Escalante to Bluff. The history of the trail is blended in with the usual Campfire Tales of Pass Patrol.
The Adventures of Pass Patrol, Volume Seven is titled, “4-Wheeling Getaways of Colorado” and covers a lot of territory. It contains Colorado’s two most notorious trails rated as extreme 4-wheeling: Mt. Blanca and Holy Cross City. You’ll also find lots of things to do near the Front Range such as Back way to Jamestown, Kingston Peak, Jenny Creek, Rollins Pass from both directions, Kelly Flats north of Ft. Collins.
A less traveled route is included connecting Glenwood Springs to Dinosaur National Monument. Roan Cliffs above Rifle and roads across the Flat Tops are easy but off the scale for scenery.
We expect the book to be about 100 pages and the video to be about two hours long. Both will be released in March long before the snow melts off the trails.
You may also have noticed the title of “In Search of the Outlaw Trail” has been inserted into the Adventures of Pass Patrol series as Volume Five. This change is in response to book stores and customers informing us that the original designation was confusing.
For more information, call us at 303-341-5705.
Barnes & Noble of the Rockies joins our long list of outlets
In the past, our books and videos have been available from Barnes & Noble on a special order basis only. As of the middle of November, all their stores in the Rocky Mountain states are stocking our titles on their shelves. For Outback Publications, this is a giant leap. The Barnes & Noble chain is not easily signed up.
A Few Days Late Again...
Those of you who are paying attention have noticed the newsletter is late this month. I’m sorry to say the December issue will probably be late too. There are lots of reasons for this but the only one that makes any sense is I’m getting old. I just can’t seem to keep up any longer. With the big five-o coming up in December, I will officially be over the hill. I’ve heard its easier on the downhill side so maybe after I get past this hump, I can get into a higher gear and keep up to the pace. Maybe I should change the name of Pass Patrol to the Over The Hill Gang.
Just in case you are wondering what I’ve been doing with all my time, don’t feel alone. I’ve been wondering the same thing. This whole year has gone by in a flash and I can’t remember making any significant contributions to history. I’m sure there were some. I just can’t remember them. I am told, the memory is the first to go. Let’s see ... why did I come into this room anyway. Maybe if I go back in the other room, I’ll remember why I came in this room, then I can come back in this room and do what I came here to do the first time.
Happy Trails!
Pass Patrol Books & Videos | Pass Patrol Campfire Tales
Colorado Trail Guidebooks, Trail Maps, and Trail Videos
Utah Trail Guidebooks, Trail Maps, and Trail Videos
| 4X4
BOOKS
.
com World's Best Selection of 4X4, Jeep, & Offroad Handbooks, Trail Guides, Videos, Maps, GPS and More |
4X4NOW
Feature Page
4X4NOW
Trail Reports | Moab
4WD Trails
4X4NOW
"How-To" | 4X4NOW
Buildups
4X4BOOKS
| MAPNOW
get Garmin at
GPSNOW
- Order by 5pm and have it Tomorrow!
Choosing |
for Laptop/Pocket PC | Basic
| Handheld Mapping | 2-way
Radio | Automotive | Motorcycle
| RV/Truck/Bus | Land & Water
Accessories
eTrex H | Legend
| Vista | Venture
HC | Summit HC | Legend
HCx | Vista HCx
GPS 18
DLX | 60
Mobile 10 | Mobile
10 for smartphones
GPSMAP 60 | 60Cx
| 60CSx | 76S
| 76Cx | 76CSx
| 276C | 376C
| 378 | 478
MapSource City Navigator
North America | US Topo | BlueChart
nüvi
200 | 270
| 350 | 360
| 370 | 650
| 660
| 670 | 680
Quest | Quest 2
Rino 110 | 120
| 130 | 520
| 530 | 520HCx
| 530HCx
StreetPilot 2820 | 7200/7500
| c330
| c340 | c530
| c550 | c580
Astro GPS dog tracking system
zūmo 450 / 550
© 4X4NOW