What/who got you into wheeling?

[Coyote Red]

One thing that was mentioned to me when I asked Phittie what I could do to get more involved was that the Facebook and website are slow and boring. I offered to update them with stories, jokes, open discussion, and anything else to get people posting and checking regularly.

I want to know what or who got you involved in wheeling? If you feel like dating yourself when as well. I know the running joke is that whiterhino is older than the sand we wheel on. It might be interesting to hear how long you have been active in the sport.


I got into wheel through my dad who was part of the late 70's crowd with 2wd trucks and bias plies playing in the legal state land around Chelsea. He moved from trucks to Jeeps and attended several Jeep Jamborees. Some how he ended up in Peterson's when they featured the Snow Blind. I heard stories about the trips, places, and people that they meet and saw. Sadly he got out when trips to Maine were pushing $1000 weekends. I started to take interest when I turned 16 and would make trips up to the cabin in Luther and run the seasonal and forest roads. My interest grew from that point on. I wanted to push farther each time I went. I started to build my F-150 when the transmission went into self destruct. I towed the truck home and left it for dead in the fence row. Back in my mind I wanted to build the truck. I planned to start out with swapping from EFI that had issues to a carb that is simpler. With that idea it went from a stock rebuild to a performance cam, manifold, carb, over bore, and ignition system. The drive train was going to be rock solid so in slid the NP435/205. Currently I sit with a 205 case and a set of 60s waiting for the truggy build to take form. This money pit of an idea started in 2009

So what is your story?

[oz97tj]

I grew up on a farm, which in a way is like wheeling for a job, constantly playing in the dirt. Always had 4wheelers and dirt bikes too. At about 12 yrs old, my dad bought a CJ7. I learned to drive in that old heep and spent far too much time driving it through the woods at the farm in low range. Things just snowballed, and I've always had jeeps in one form or another since.

[phittie1100]

An argument over our next vehicle when my wife was 5 months pregnant is to blame. My wife wanted another truck (we had recently sold a Ranger and a D100) I thought we needed a station wagon with a kid on the way. We compromised on a Jeep Cherokee. Neither one of us had owned a 4x4 vehicle before. A few years later the family truck had grown into a Durango (too big and pretty for hunting and picking berries) so we picked up a well-used YJ, and discovered the wonderful world of web-wheeling on michiganjeepers.com. Now you are stuck with me.

[Alboy79]

My old man wheeled with my mom back before they were married, and through her pregnancy. We've got pics of his stuck while she's 9months along, and the look on her face tells the rest of that story. He got out of it while I was growing up, blaming me for his having to stop the life he loved. I bought a(read 6 different in that year)79 bronco when I turned 20, and made a decent wheeler/dd out of it, then I got in an accident one winter and the cop asked if I needed a police report for my insurance, I told him "hell no, now it just gets better from here". After that I ragged on that old bronco. Me and the one other guy I wheeled with at the time called ourselves the "Square Peg Round Hole 4x4 CLub". That rig got rode hard and put away wet more times than not.
During that time I got more involved with organized wheeling and doing things right. My wife and I honeymooned on Drummond Island, and from that point I fell in love with that place. I joined Cheap Thrills Off Road club, then GLFWDA, and now I'm stuck and can't get away.

As for the old man blaming me for his loss of wheeling, he now lives iny basement and is a member of the two trackers, cheap thrills, GLFWDA, and UFWDA. he now has me to thank for the connection to the real wheeling world.

[Renegade II]

I couldn't rent a hotel room when I was in my teens but I could take a date out to the Turtle Ponds for, um, star gazing. Long since married I now only have the wheeling to look forward to.

[hemrides]

Motorcycles when I was in 7th grade. Road with my Dad off road, and on my grandparents property north of Oxford on the weekends. Built dunebuggies with my Dad in the mid 70s. Spent many hours @ Silver Lake during those times. Attended the 1st Mount Baldy hill climb. Also did a lot of 2 track riding @ Oscoda. You could run from Oscoda almost to Mio on the trails.

[CheapthrillB2]

Ridin shotty in my dads f150/bronco and uncles eb's through yankee springs back in the day before everything got closed off (in all reality they helped contribute to the closing as they didn't know what you could and couldn't do as it was never enforced back then). And many summer weekends up at Silver Lake. About 1990 my parents split and there was no wheeling taken place till about 2002 or so when I jumped back into it, dabbled with fast cars during the wheeling break. Now I am president of Cheapthrills, Vice president of Two trackers and a member of GLFWDA and United.

[WhiteRhino]

Although some consider me older than dirt, I on the other hand consider myself like an old bottle of whiskey that gets better with age. And for the record, kb8ymf is exactly 7 days my junior, so please remind him to always respect his elders.

I grew up riding go karts, motorcycles and sleds in an area where I could go out my driveway and ride for miles. Plus my folks had 38 acres that butted up to the Huron National Forest outside of Rose City and NFS land was wide open back then. So it was sort of a natural progression that I got a truck when I could afford it. It just sort of happened that a whole group of us all jumped into the sport at the same time. I bought a brand new 1976 long box half ton stick shift GMC when I was 19. No lift kits were available back then so I built my own from dump truck springs and lift blocks. (yeah, I know LOL) Even had to have the u-bolts custom made. That was when Gumbo Mudders first came out and 35" was the biggest tire available so I had to have them to be cool. I sold it a year later and bought a 77 shortbed stepside and used the same wheels,tires & lift. Then I got a little smarter and realized I didn't have the right gearing and actually went down to 32" tires. (armstrong maxitracs for those who remember) (still one of the best sand tires I have ever run)

I started running with the guys from Traverse City (yes, they were the front runners even back then) from the Wildwood 4x4 club. They put on an event called Onion Run (now still done at Twisted Trails but changed dramatically) and that was what got me into GLFWDA as you had to be a member to attend the run. A little back history on finding them. I was young and dumb and went up to TC with a buddy looking to do some wheeling. I was on the CB looking for someone and this gal comes back and says I have a truck and my husband has a jeep and there is a group going out tonight. I hooked up with this group that Saturday night for some trail riding & then ended up on the bank of the Boardman river for a cookout and they did this almost every weekend!!!! I was hooked!!!! What great people.

So, 1980 rolls around and I sell my truck and do a body off, SBC, muncie 4spd, fiberglass body, SOA, 36" Ground Hawgs, full cage build on a 1955 Willy's CJ5.

Now here I am 32 years later still fooling around.

One final note, I too feel I contributed to land closures. Those were times where you went where you wanted on state land and power lines and if there was a hill to be climbed or a muddy spot to cross, well, have at it. It was fun and harmless but it gave ammunition to the greenies. Look at stuff that has been closed for 10 - 15 years and it looks no different than where there was logging. But, that's how people reacted.

[Creative Fab]

I grew up two tracking with my family every fall revolving around the deer seasons. Back then, 70's, all we drove were two wheel drive trucks so we learned to be really good drivers and how to find the guy with the tractor to pull us out in case our driving skills ever failed us. When I first got my drivers license I decided that I wasn't going to rely on that tractor owner any longer and my first vehicle was a 73 Scout II. Being young and dumb I managed to get that stuck worse than any of those two wheel drive trucks ever did.

Jumping ahead a few years I was daily driving an 86 Chevy short box with 4" lift and 33's which I used for hunting and took to car shows (a lot of washing and waxing) the shows became rather boring! Happened to be at an art show sitting at my fathers booth when I read the back of a guys jacket, it read "Delta Fourwheelers" so I struck up a conversation with him. He invited my wife and I to a Delta meeting and our first organized trail ride, Grayling on the Delta Fourhweelers annual labor day campout/trail ride. That had us hooked on the family and group wheeling experience. Just a few short weeks after that trip we attended our first GLFWDA quarterly meeting. That meeting the BOD was looking for nominees for recording secretary and I through my hat in the ring. Turns out mine was the only hat lol, that was 1997 and I sat on the BOD of GLFWDA for the next 10 years in one capacity or another.

I don't wheel as much as I would like so I make sure it is always with a group, that is what has kept me in this sport.

[timbercruiser]

I liked driving on back roads as a teen. We had an 82 Toyota 4x4 (wish I still had it!). A friend and I went up a muddy skidder trail and I was hooked!
Now that I'm a forester, I get to wheel at work!