The Crawl Chronicles

[Xraycer]

Tesoro Viejo, Madera CA 10-10 21

Well today was a bust....

Today we took a half hour drive to Madera, and went to a new area that I was sure would have some decent crawling spots, but it wasn't meant to be. I found some nice looking dirt embankments that were about 7 feet high and leveled off, but the dirt was so loose I couldn't get more than 2 feet up after trying for 15 minutes.

There were also some rock formations that looked promising, but they ended up being very sharp jaggy rocks with no climbable surfaces once you got close to them. Was kind of a bummer because I got the wife to come along, and then there was no place to play. At least the weather was nice and it felt good to get outdoors.
Heck she was even climbing hills looking for places to try.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, but just nothing interesting to shoot today.

Like you said, at least you got to get outdoors and spend some quality time with the wife. Yesterday, I had the fun task of digging up the lawn to replace a septic tank riser. Of the digging wasn't fun enough, part of the task required me having to work with the tank exposed
There are 2 of these risers to replace. I'd decided to just do one for now.
Then I switched gear and tackled another project. I have 5 staying dead trees that needs to be cut down. 3 of which could reach the house if they fall in the right direction. I have no idea what kind of trees these are. They are only about 12"-15" on diameter, but are over 50' tall!
My plan for the tree closest, the could reach the house, is to get about 2/3 up, and cut off the top 1/3 first. Once that's down, I can cut it at the base.
The plan to get up that high is to utilize my climber hunting tree stand. Which I haven't used for nearly 15 years! Falling a the, and being basically stuck where you are is very, very hairy. Luckily the top has a noticeable lean, but still... After pruning my way up, I finally reached the spot where I wanted to be. After making an assessment, I'd decided it was a go. I went back down, got my chainsaw, and went back up. As I'm making my way back up, 2 distant neighbors decided to come out and do stuff in their backyard. I did not want an audience, so I decided to start with one of the trees that I could fall from the base.
Even though this tree was only 12" in diameter, the process was very slow going. I am using an electric chainsaw, and I was carefully cutting and axe chopping to ensure it fell in the direction I wanted it to. Mostly away from me! 1 down, 4 to go.
I would have much rathered played with my rc

 

[WickedFog]

Like you said, at least you got to get outdoors and spend some quality time with the wife. Yesterday, I had the fun task of digging up the lawn to replace a septic tank riser. Of the digging wasn't fun enough, part of the task required me having to work with the tank exposed
There are 2 of these risers to replace. I'd decided to just do one for now.
Then I switched gear and tackled another project. I have 5 staying dead trees that needs to be cut down. 3 of which could reach the house if they fall in the right direction. I have no idea what kind of trees these are. They are only about 12"-15" on diameter, but are over 50' tall!
My plan for the tree closest, the could reach the house, is to get about 2/3 up, and cut off the top 1/3 first. Once that's down, I can cut it at the base.
The plan to get up that high is to utilize my climber hunting tree stand. Which I haven't used for nearly 15 years! Falling a the, and being basically stuck where you are is very, very hairy. Luckily the top has a noticeable lean, but still... After pruning my way up, I finally reached the spot where I wanted to be. After making an assessment, I'd decided it was a go. I went back down, got my chainsaw, and went back up. As I'm making my way back up, 2 distant neighbors decided to come out and do stuff in their backyard. I did not want an audience, so I decided to start with one of the trees that I could fall from the base.
Even though this tree was only 12" in diameter, the process was very slow going. I am using an electric chainsaw, and I was carefully cutting and axe chopping to ensure it fell in the direction I wanted it to. Mostly away from me! 1 down, 4 to go.
I would have much rathered played m with my rc

Falling a tree while hanging on the tree is very dangerous work man. Be careful. They can split and kick back and knock you off the tree. Good luck!

 

[Xraycer]

Falling a tree while hanging on the tree is very dangerous work man. Be careful. They can split and kick back and knock you off the tree. Good luck!

Yeah, I know it! From the ground and a distance away, it seems like nothing, but once you're up close and personal, you realize this thing is hundreds of pound and could easily crush you!
Luckily, it does have a significant lean. Like the first tree, I'll be driving an iron wedge to ensure it goes away from me.
Like I said, it is hairy!......but, so is driving on the freeway.

 

[Doom!]

@Xraycer nope! I'm done with trees! After the tailbone incident the wife won't even let me look at a tree. The bad thing is, I need to get on the roof and to some touch ups on the trim and clean out the gutters. We have an orchard across the street and the squirrels and crows fill our rain gutters with walnuts. The wife isn't sure she's going to let me go up there.

 

[Xraycer]

Peabody Town Forest 10/16/21

With a week off from work, I physically worked much harder than when I'm at my occupation. However, today I'm chilling out and having some fun time.
Took out Habanero to test out the new wheels and the additional weight gain. I wasn't sure if the additional weight would hinder climbing performance.
Heck, no! It was an improvement! There is a decrease in acceleration, and the battery drained slightly quicker. No biggie! Still not crazy about the looks of the wheels, but very happy with the performance improvement.

 

[Doom!]

@Xraycer These shots really show off the headlight louveres well.

 

[Xraycer]

@Xraycer These shots really show off the headlight louveres well.

Thanks, D! I really like the look with these things as well, especially when the lights on. Just a cool effect!

I forgot to give credits to those Canyon Trail tires. Now that those CT are on heavy, metal wheels, I'm going to see if Jalapeno will like 'em.

 

[Xraycer]

Peabody Town Forest 10/17/21

Swapped out wheel/tire from Habanero over onto Jalapeno this morning. I had also removed the battery tray and mounted the battery to the right side of the rig. This mod lowered the lcg by nearly 1", and Jalapeno lost 1.5oz of weight.
Definite improvement running the Canyon Trail tires. I don't know how much the battery mod help though.

 

[Tunedfrog]

It never gets old seeing the Jalapeno @Xraycer

 

[Doom!]

It never gets old seeing the Jalepino @Xraycer

This is 100% true.

 

[Xraycer]

It never gets old seeing the Jalapeno @Xraycer

Thank you, Sir!

After about 45min into our trek, Jalapeno sustained a breakage. So, I had to carry, for about a mile, it's heavy 9.5lb arse out!

 

[Doom!]

@Xraycer be thankful it wasn't the 25+lb. SCX6!!!

 

[Xraycer]

@Xraycer be thankful it wasn't the 25+lb. SCX6!!!

No worries there. I'm not even remotely interested in that behemoth.

 

[Xraycer]

Home 10/24/21

The weekend, while doing yard work, I discovered another crawling section on my property. I cleaned out the area yesterday, and looks like it's going to be another small, but fun mini course. It's at home, so that's always a huge plus!
I'll be tweaking it as I go. There's no rush to get it all done right away.
It's just a bit undersized for 1/10, and a bit oversized for the 1/24. Which just means it's challenging for my scale crawlers. It's still unrefined, but so far, it's been a blast! I think I'll polish this into more of a 1/24 course.

 

[Tunedfrog]

Awesome spot...

 

[Doom!]

@Xraycer Dang you and your perfect crawl spaces. Very cool spot!

 

[Xraycer]

@Xraycer Dang you and your perfect crawl spaces. Very cool spot!

These boulders and rocks are part of a retaining wall/structure that was made to level off my property. I live on the side of a hill. Even though this spot is only about 15ft from my house, I had totally forgot about it since it's typically covered in undergrowth and foliage. I've also thrown yard waste into this area as well.
BTW, those 2 round cement disks were my old septic tank covers.

 

[Xraycer]

Home 11/07/21

First run with the FMS 1/18 Atlas 6X6. It's small and toy-like, but, Man, can it crawl! I first went to the new home crawl section, where my SCX24 Deadbolt and my three 1/10 really struggles. The Atlas was a total beast on this course!
After it rather quickly worked through the challenging new section, we headed over to the original course. Not too much issue here either.
I have to say I am very impressed with the ability of this small crawler. I honestly didn't think it would be able to perform as well it does.

 

[Tunedfrog]

That looks great man.

 

[Doom!]

@Xraycer Good stuff! It looked pretty good in the reviews I've seen. I was so close to pulling the trigger on one of these, but then decided I need to finish what I have before I grab anything else. I'm glad you picked one up!