Vintage 4wd Talk

[farmall]

In Dallas it was Mike Burkhart's Auxillary Gas Tanks, Bud Ogle's Dallas West Four Wheel Drive, and Larry Ladue's Mini Truck Specialtys in the mid 70s. They were all drag or road racers. I worked for two of them. We ran Desert Dogs., then RTs, XTs, and Monster Mudders starting with the 33s.

I ran RTs then XTs, progressing to 38s and finally 40 Mudders on my Blazer. I had a tan Kayline top, Smittybuilt Tubes, Rancho dual shocks, Hickey trusses and diff covers.

Flash Gordon Mineo opened a shop in the far NE Dallas area latter, also a drag racer.

There was Wolverine, doing 4x4 conversions on Datsuns in the SW or Denver.

We went four wheeling in the creek along Preston Rd and FM544, Pipeline in the Trinity River bottoms, and the Spillway at the Lake Dallas Dam.

A typical Sunday would involve detailing our trucks and then going out and getting stuck in TX black gumbo clay and braking things. The rest of the week would be replacing axles and U joints. Your tire dia. could grow by 6 inches with that stickey mud and the extra weight took its toll.

As Dallas grew north, farmland became subdivisions so there were always new places to go wheeling.

I still run XTs on my Jeeps.