Hello everyone,
I just got back from my first ever Thrill on the Hill (and first ever FJ rally). It was an amazing time! I met so many awesome Toyota owners from all over the southern United States. The runs were an excellent combination of scenic and challenging.
I want to thank everyone involved with the event: Desert Sun Toyota and all of the sponsors, all of the trail leaders and event staff that made this thing happen. Truly an amazing event, I plan on coming next year for sure.
For everyone else, I tried to meet most all of you. If I didn't, I'll meet you next year! Send me a PM with contact info if you want to stay in touch!
Everyone post up your thanks, stories, funny moments, and overall good memories of this year's Thrill on the Hill in this thread.
Thanks to Brandon and Rachel from Desert Sun Motors for you hard work at making this a great 3rd Thrill of the Hill.
also thanks to David and Chris for leading the trails I was on the last two days
All of the event staff , were awesome worked hard and long hours to make sure we all had a good time.
had an awesome time great wheeling with every one
Had a great time and nice to meet some new friends. Texas had a lot of FJ's at the event! The drive from Dallas was not bad at all. Wish I could have stayed the extra day (left Sunday morning) Here's a link to some photos
This was my first TOTH and a good one it was. Meet some nice people, run some fun trails, and enjoyed the scenery. Thanks to Brandon and all the other people who put this together, it's a lot of hard work.
I hope to make the next one.
Since I'm not on here much you will remember me as the owner of the Ti FJ
with the roof top tent.
Thanks Brandon, and every one else that put on the 3rd TOTH! This was the best event I have attended by far! I would also like to thank every one who helped Sarah surprise me Saturday evening for my birthday, and all who joined us down by the fire, except for the green guy that tried to crash the party!
For those of you who don't know I snapped my rear drive shaft yesterday....as we like to say....playing on the rocks. With the help of Chris Adams and Jake Quiniones I was able to limp the truck back to my hotel using only front wheel drive where it got parked. With more help from Chris's friend Bill....no, a different Chris....stay with me now....I was able to secure a slip yoke, here after referred to as "the golden slip yoke" to replace my broken one. I was under the impression that the spare u-joint I carried would fit the yoke...just put the parts together and I'm in the wind.....note to myself...never assume stuff.
I started working on the truck this morning @ 0800 in the parking lot of The Lodge. It only took one look at my spare u-joint to tell it wasn't going to work. My spare was for the other end of the drive shaft. The "the golden yoke" that I had gotten from Bill(kool guy, I even got a tour of his round house!) had a u-joint in it....It looked close to what I needed. It was missing two caps however and the stems were a bit rusted but the part mounted in "the golden yoke" was solid...no play. I did retrieve two and only two caps from my broken joint and they were the right two. In this particular configuration two caps have internal lock rings and two external lock rings. I tested the caps on the rusted stems and I figured I could live with the fit. I cleaned up the stems the best I could and started assembly. I tried twice but the u-joint was a little too long....I just couldn't get the second lock ring to snap in. It was not going to work.
I was prepared to stay another day to wait for a shop to open half way down the mountain in High Rolls....it turns out that would have been the wrong move....I found out later that they wouldn't have had what I needed. I thought about it and decided that I would have a better chance of getting what I needed in Alamagordo so I went back to the room, packed up, checked out and rolled the truck down the hill to town....I figured if I had to I could spend the night there. There were only two auto parts stores open in Alamagordo today, Autozone and O'reilys and of course neither of them had the right u-joint. Eventually I had to buy parts from each of the two stores and create a 'frankenstein' part that would do the job. Both of the parts stores were great....letting me into the back rooms to look through boxes and boxes of different u-joints to find just the right pieces to marry into a "frankenjoint"! Once I got the parts it took about 3 hours in the O'reily parking lot to put everything together, reinstall the driveshaft, and test it out....and yes...duct tape did play a minor roll. Of course it had to rain during the repair....do they really think their going to stop me with water? Please...I've been wet before! I was under the truck anyway right....no big deal!
Many, many thanks to all who stepped up to help and lend their moral support....especially the two Chris's, Jake and....Bill, who supplied the "golden slip yoke"....so what if it was a chevy part!
Brandon...your a Prince, and your whole crew is beyond compare.....That's the way we do it here in New Mexico! Well Done!
Landy 
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