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2-2-08: Aaron's new rear resi'd shocks from All-Pro finally got dropped off by the man in brown. However, the springs and adjustable lower links are still missing in action. Isn't that how it always works? Maybe next weekend. 1-26-08: No doubt you've seen our tribute to Dan's ZJ on the homepage. On Wednesday, January 23rd, the ZJ was involved in an accident. The ZJ's frame is bent and will be totaled by the insurance company. The bumper from Nates4x4, however, held up like a champ and can likely be salvaged, along with Dan's new winch. We think there'll be another ZJ in Dan's future, so don't worry about that. Josh, John and Tony went to the dunes in Florence over MLK weekend. There was a new vehicle along on this trip. We might have to give it it's own page on "Rigs" page. Here's a hint (you Toyota guys might figure it out);  Apparently the boys found a new play area close to Tony and Roxanne's beach house. We added a couple of John stuck pics from this trip to his "Oops" page. Check it out. Aaron (What? FJ news?) spent about $1200 at All-Pro Offroad on some new rear springs, shocks and adjustable control arms. Maybe we'll get those on next weekend. 1-16-08: Dan got his new bumper from Nates 4x4 mounted after he had it powdered (textured black). Haven't seen it in person yet, but the cell phone pics look pretty sweet. We've also added a link to Nates4x4.com on our links page. Dan's also got a Mile Marker winch on the way. Just don't tell Mandy... Tony, Josh & John should be hitting the dunes in Florence this weekend. Hopefully we'll get some pics up. 1-04-08: Here we go... first post of the new year. Last weekend Dan had a bent axle housing and some leaky brake calipers taken care of. Actually he had a bunch more crap fixed but I can't remember. More importantly, he upgraded his all-terrains to some 32" Maxxis Bighorns. Tony and Josh also helped him wire up a CB and some new lights he got for Christmas. MOAB '08 COUNTDOWN: 141 DAYS!! I know a few the Ike crew are probably slightly suspicious of the Moab condo Shawn rented because of the last reservation we made for a big out-of-state trail run. If you need me to jog your memory, here ya go;  (NOTE: For those of you who know where this picture came from, don't be upset. We had the time of our lives at Robb's and hope to make it back someday. We just thought the website was a little misleading.) In an attempt to cure any doubts, here's a link to the condo we reserved...  12-24-07: Alright, so I was wrong. One more post before the end of the year. If anybody wants to know what the new BFGoodrich M/T KM2 looks like well then here ya go;   12-22-07: Christmas is only 3 days away!!! You would think that with everyone trying to get their gift shopping done and the madness of the holidays in general, that the rigs would be put on the back burner for a while. To the contrary, several of our members have been busy ordering presents for themselves. Tony has already received his new Mile Marker 8Klb winch from 4wheelparts.com. Unfortunately, he's still waiting on the mounting plate to be shipped. Dan ordered a front winch bumper from Nates4x4.com. Andy's been doing some side work at MHW Fab and Mike has been nice enough to give Andy some scrap square tubing so that he can start on his custom rock sliders. John got a $75 gift card from 4 Wheel Drive Hardware. We're trying to make sure he puts it toward something good, and not a bunch of small worthless crap. Shawn has a few things in the works as well. Shawn had some Evil Ike's Off Road hoodies printed up at Eugene Silkscreen and passed them out to everybody for Christmas. We actually have a couple left over. Maybe we'll post some pics of them. Sometime next month we'll start the Four-months-until-Moab countdown. I think May will be here sooner than we think. This may be our last post before the new year. So from the entire Evil Ike's crew, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! 11-24-07: The first snow run of the season is in the bag. Andy, Tony, Josh and Shawn headed up to Eagle Creek Rd about 4-5 miles east of Oakdridge. Along the way we ran into a nice guy with a decently built XJ. Told him to check out the site, maybe he'll head out for a run with us in the future. We never hit anything deeper than about 6-7 inches, but it was still good to get out. Josh almost killed Tony when he was falling a dead tree for firewood. Nobody was really all that surprised. Josh made it up to everbody by serving as the camp chef, serving up braut-dogs from the grill attached to his hitch rack. We'll probably head back up in a week or two to hit the ranger station and get our tree cutting permits. Christmas is almost here... Check out the photos from today's run in the "PHOTOS" section. 11-10-07: Things have been pretty slow around the neighborhood. It's hard to get any Ikers to do any weekend wrenching during college football season, especially when the Ducks are doing so well (#3!!). Shawn was able to get a U-bolt flip kit from Rock Equipment installed on the X. John picked up a pair of ZJ springs from Dan to try and cure the sagging problem in the rear end of his TJ. If anybody sees Aaron walking around they need to punch him in the spot where his n%*s used to be because he actually said that he's given some thought to selling the FJ. Please feel free to post up your thoughts on that issue on our guestbook. I'm sure Aaron will appreciate it ;). Also... we're still waiting for John to fork over the rest of his Tillamook pics so that we can post 'em up. 10-21-07: We're back!! I know, it's been a while. Even though you haven't heard much lately, there's still a lot going on. John made a quick trip to the Tillamook OHV area with some non-Evil Ikers. He had trouble e-mailing all of his photos, but here's a little teaser (notice the monster XJ on 37s). We'll try to get more photos up soon.  We can't really keep the cat in the bag any longer. Tammy is in Utah as you read this, having recently taken a re-assignment at work. More pay and 3.5 hours away from Moab... who could say no to that? Larraine will be following shortly. Their place will serve as a home base of sorts when we make our run to Moab next year. It's been scheduled for the last week in May. We hope to have a final headcount in a few days and rental reservations by the end of November. Speaking of Tammy, we finally posted a few pics from the install of her Poison Spyder Ricochet Rocker guards. Just click on the "Installs" link on her rig page. Shawn paid a visit to MWH Fabrication yesterday to have some old stuff torched off and new shock mount tabs welded to his rear axle. Big thanks to Mike. You can check out the pics on his "Install" page. It looks awesome, and is definitely a big improvement over the OEM setup. Shawn has Mike working on some other little projects that you'll hear about later. 9-25-07: Sorry for the lack of updates in the last couple weeks. Everybody has been pretty busy with birthday parties, football games, going-away parties, baby showers (Congrats to Andy & Val!). What's that you say? Going Away parties? That's right, we're losing a couple of members. Not really losing them, per say, but they are going to be moving to a different state. More on that later. We've still got some photos to upload. Shawn should be paying a visit to MWH Fab in the next 2 weeks for some work on his rear axle. He should also be getting his new rear shocks delivered by UPS any day now. Roche ordered a new t/c skid plate from a local Jeep dealership and got that bolted up. I know that Andy has been leaving Ike stickers on random (well built) Jeeps. Not sure if we've had any extra hits as a result of that. Larraine has graduated from a full cast to a walking boot. Thank you, Rubicon. There's been talk of a Evil Ike's Moab run sometime next summer. We haven't nailed down a date yet, but it's gonna happen. Another Rubicon run, maybe? We'll see how many upgrades happen in the next 11 months... 9-07-07: Well... things are starting to get back to normal. We spent last Sunday in Tony's garage installing Tammy's new Poison Spyder "Ricochet Rocker" rails. They're actually pretty beefy. And despite some early skepticism after reading the instructions, they mounted up pretty well. Pics coming soon. Replacement parts are being ordered... slowly. I think we have a couple things to add to the Rubicon Carnage List, including a new Jeep tailgate. Good Lord. John's got a replacement T/C skid on the way. Shawn ordered some new shocks and will have Mike at MWH Fabrication do a little work on the rear axle. More on that later. 8-21-07: We've been back from the Lake Tahoe area for a few days now. How was the Rubicon Trail, you ask? I'm not sure that words can describe it. Relentless, maybe. It never lets up. It took us a lot longer than we thought, and quite a few spirits were broken in the process (and maybe Larraine's ankle too, still waiting on the final word from the doctor). We've got most of the pics posted. The rest, including the bottom of Big Sluice, Rubicon Springs and the climb up Cadillac Hill, should be posted later tonight. Enjoy.  7-29-07: There's a lot of stuff going on right now. Larraine's Shrockworks bumper/tire carrier was mounted yesterday. The thing is top notch. Of course, after waiting nearly 6 months it better be. We'll try to get some pics up soon. She also installed a Skid Row steering box skid. Tony's page has been updated to reflect his new lift and armor goodies. Josh still has the Gen-Right corner guards sitting in his garage. It's almost crunch time (no pun intended) and he's hoping he can get them on before we leave. Speaking of Gen-Right, Shawn installed one of their hood louvers on his Xterra. He also threw in a AFE intake kit... 7-22-07: We need some sort of fancy countdown clock until the Rubicon trip. We're all starting to get a little anxious. Larraine's bumper has been shipped from Shrockworks, and according to Fed-Ex package tracking, is in the Eugene/Springfield area. She should get it on Monday, we're guessing... Josh and Shawn are having some custom interior cargo nets being made. Josh also has Mike out at MWH Fabrication (in his new shop, apparently) working on some custom bumpstop brackets. Josh picked up some new Energy Suspension bumpstops to go with. He still has quite a few "to do" items left on his list though. Shawn is expecting a couple more packages as well... 7-16-07: I know, I know. I've been slacking on the updates. Things have been busy lately. We've got less than 4 weeks before we bail for Rubicon and people are starting to get a little panicked (Ok, maybe just me). Here's the skinny; Tony's lift is DONE. He got it aligned and has been putting some street miles on it. Looks pretty good. We're hoping to get out somewhere and flex it out a little bit before we head to Tahoe, but who knows. Josh was cutting holes in his hood earlier this afternoon to fit his hood louvers in. We should have pics up pretty soon. Larraine's rear bumper shipped TODAY. Not sure what was going on at Shrockworks (she ordered it in February!) but she'll be happy to finally have it on. Our club Rubicon shirts might be done at the end of the week. Speaking of, here's the final driver roster; Josh Tony Shawn John Larraine There has been some additional last minute parts orders and I'm sure there will be a couple more in the coming weeks. We'll be sure to keep you posted... 7-01-07: Tony's suspension is lying in pieces all over his garage floor. Most of the new stuff is on the front axle. Josh (w/ a little help from Andy) tore out the transfer case and was able to get the fixed yoke output shaft installed. Tony strained a back muscle so we called it an early night. But rest assured, he'll be back at it tomorrow morning. Pics on the way. The crew made a trip up to the Bohemia Mining District on Saturday. Our good friend John H. brought out his full-size Bronco for the day. We need to get a vehicle page up for that guy. Pictures have been added to the PHOTOS page. Here's a sneak peak from our lunch stop...  John, Josh and Shawn stuck around a little later than everybody else and ran the Noonday Wagon Trail. Major disappointment. The trail is very narrow and fairly uneventful. The last 2 miles are extremely dense with foliage. Paint scratch city. There are a couple of play areas up there (not off the wagon trail) that we couldn't find. We did find a log at the entrance of an ATV/MX trail to play around on a little bit. 6-25-07: Updated everyone's vehicle pages... 6-24-07: Shawn spent about 5 hours today mounting up his new 10 lb Powertank bottle. You can see some pics by going to his vehicle page and clicking on the "INSTALLS" link at the bottom. This thing is dead solid. He may do a more detailed how-to write up down the road for the Xterra owners out there. Next Saturday is the planned Bohemia run and Tony will be tearing into his lift as soon as we get back. Should be an interesting weekend. Oh yeah... Tammy got an Infinity Basslink for her TJ. Heard it last night, those things are pretty nice. 6-23-07: Change of plans. Tony is going to wait until next weekend to tackle his rig. He has a 5 day weekend between some vacation days and the 4th, so he can take his time. And finally, the ELEPHANT HILL pics are up on the GONE MOAB photo page. Enjoy... 6-21-07: Added a few pics to the Hell's Revenge section of the GONE MOAB pics, as well as some captions. Had to throw in a few more "Rubble Trouble" shots for Josh, who seemed to think that it looked like a cakewalk on the video we posted. I promise that the Elephant Hill trail pics are coming... I think Tony is going to be tearing into his lift and SYE this weekend. Pics coming. Also, Shawn plans to fab up his new Powertank mount on Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed. 6-19-07: It seems like I'm getting a new text message from Tony every 30 minutes or so about some box that just got delivered by the UPS guy. What a lucky b@st@rd. Everyone seems to be in a rush to get their rigs dialed in w/ new gear before we hit the road for Rubicon in mid August. I'll do my best to summarize what everyone has in there hands or on order. Here goes; TONY: 3.5 inch Rubicon Express Lift, diff skids, Warn rocker guards, SYE kit, new driveshaft (and god knows what else). JOSH: Still has Gen-Right corner guards and hood louvers waiting to go in. He also has a guy lined up to do a stroker motor rebuild for him, but he's trying to decide if he wants to do it before or after we run the trail. He also has a list of maintenance and repairs he wants to get done before hand. I've seen it. It's long... LARRAINE: Waiting on her Shrockworks rear bumper and tire carrier to be delivered. TAMMY: Her Poison Spyder rocker guards are on a bit of a back order. She also bought a CB and a steering box skid. She also might be picking up Shawn's old 5 lb Powertank. SHAWN: Has a new 10 lb Powertank bottle being delivered this week. The 5lb bottle wasn't cutting it anymore. AARON: Got in on a Powertank 10 lb bottle (package) group buy over on the FJ Cruiser Forum. That covers it. I think. 6-15-07: Added NORTHRIDGE 4X4 to the links page. Tony ordered his lift components from this outfit. Figured we should show 'em some love since they're a pacific NW company. Looks like we're going to try to run the Bohemia Mining Trail on Saturday, June 30th. So if anybody who's local wants to go just drop us a line. 6-08-07: Just found out that Tammy ordered some Poison Spyder "Ricochet" rocker guards for her TJ. I'm starting to wonder if she's planning to take her rig down to the Rubicon and just isn't telling anybody yet... Also, found this video of Shawn and some other Nissan boys climbing up Rubble Trouble on Hell's Revenge in Moab during the recent GONE MOAB Nissan event. Check it out. 6-02-07: Andy organized a quick little trip up shotgun today w/ Shawn and Tony. Apparently, he hadn't hit the trail in a while and was starting to go through withdrawals. Tony is planning an all-out installation assault on his TJ in the remaining weeks before the planned Rubicon run. Rubicon Express 3.5 inch kit, SYE and new driveshaft, armor and maybe even some 32's. He's going to have to lock himself in his garage for a 3-day weekend. Should be cool, though. 5-26-07: Shawn is back from Moab, having survived the FINS 'N THINGS, ELEPHANT HILL and HELL'S REVENGE trails. Thanks in part to some help from Aaron (who served as navigator and photographer), a ton of pics have been posted on the PICS page. ELEPHANT HILL pics will be coming soon. Look closely on the HELLS REVENGE page and you will see evidence of what surely was a Moab first; a lifted Nissan Armada going through the infamous "Squeeze." 5-03-07: Check out the "MWH Fabrication" link (on Andy's page or the "LINKS" page) for a couple smaller pics of Andy's new bumper. 4-30-07: Time for a correction. Josh wasn't the first guy to have anything on his installs page because we already posted some photos of John's SYE install. I'm a dumb@ss and this site is getting too big to manage. We posted a link to "MWH Fabrication" on Andy's vehicle page and our LINKS page. This is the outfit that built the front bumper on Andy's rig, that we still haven't posted any pictures of. Shawn and Aaron went to Denver over the weekend to watch the Braves vs. Rockies series. While they were gone, John, Josh, Tony and Larraine bolted up the steering components that John ordered for his TJ. Larraine has the pictures, apparently, so I need to get those from her. Shawn takes off for Moab in about 3 weeks. The spring packs from Alcan and new resevoired Radflo shocks from PRG should be arriving at the end of the week. Still have some skid plates and braided stainless steel brake lines to install. A lot left to do and very little time. Hopefully we'll have some of the completed lift pics up Sunday night. 4-23-07: Josh gets to be the first guy with anything on his "Installs" page. We just uploaded some pictures of his new clutch master cylinder install, which happened about 3-4 weeks ago (that's how up to date we are with this friggin' thing). Yes... Andy's bumper is done. There's a couple of cell phone photos floating around, but nobody has anything hi-res enough to put on the website. John has some Rusty's Offroad heavy duty steering components sitting in a box somewhere. Josh has got some Gen-Right corner guards sitting in his garage. WTF is going on around here? It's like we all have jobs and not enough spare time. Yeah... that's really no excuse. Shawn got his Total Chaos UCAs and front Radflo coilovers from PRG Suspension installed. However, he's still waiting on his new rear spring packs from Alcan, so right now the Xterra looks like a low-rent trophy truck with it's jacked up stance. He just wants to get everything bolted in before his Moab trip at the end of May. We'll see what happens.... 4-7-07: The WJ sustained a bit of front bumper damage last week when Andy tagged a deer. The good news is that M.W.H. Fabrication in Elmira, Oregon, will be doing some custom front bumper fabrica... err, I mean, installing nothing but factory jeep parts since they're getting the insurance check. Hopefully we'll have some new and improved WJ shots up next weekend. Tammy ordered a ceiling mounted TJ hardtop hoist system. We'll see if we can get that in sometime today. Also... it's official. Shawn has become fed up with the customer service at Calmini and cancelled his order for their 5" kit. It was originally supposed to ship at the End of February. And here we are in April and still no lift. Bottom line is that there was no way he was going to get it before taking off for Moab, Utah in May. Instead he's going to deal with the good people at PRG Suspension in California to get a super-flexy 3" kit with Radflo shocks, Total Chaos upper control arms and some other goodies. 3-31-07: Hey everyone, Mr. John Here. Yes thats right, I managed to creep in at the keyboard while Shawn is currently busy working on Aaron's FJ taking my turn at adjusting the front suspension height on the Walker Evans install we are doing out at the Monster Garage (Aaron's vehicle page updated as a result). Pretty sure the only support I gave with my presence was a new equipment purchase to upgrade the front steering (John's vehicle page updated as a result) which is due in about 2 weeks to excite everyone, and my mysterious smells generated as a result of the bounty of Taco Bell provided for todays build and whatever it is I drank last night. No excursions planned for the immediate future, however we are all gathering later for another of our movie themed events, this one in honor of Kurt Russel properly named "Russel and Flow". Rubicon draws ever so closer as everyone is generating talk about how we may prepare with additional add-ons for the trail to hopefully return without boosting the local body shop business (I think I smell another game of credit card roulette comin' on! Any takers...Shawn?). Larraine's Shrockworks tire carrier should be here soon within the next two weeks, and Shawn will have additional news later about his suspension woes. Well, till next time. It may be a while before Shawn lets me pilot the keyboard again. And as I finish this sentence Aaron has entered the room with news about the remainder of the work on his vehicle that may have us miss out on the first film, and "Tango and Cash" is my favorite (Damn you Walker Evans!). 3-25-07: Alright... a few changes. Tony, John, Dan, Shawn & Andy made a quick trip to Shotgun OHV yesterday to try and tackle what we have appropriately named "mud-butt." Take a look at the link on the photos page and you'll understand. More importantly, we were able to snap a few picks of the WJ so that we could get rid of Andy's driveway-poser-pic on his vehicle page, which has been bothering him for quite some time. Also, this Wednesday is Josh's birthday, so if you see him, wish him well. We won't say how old he's going to be. 3-23-07: Well, it's been a while. The crew has been pretty busy lately. A bunch of us went to Boston for St. Paddy's day. Somehow we all made it back alive. Aaron just ordered the adjustable Walker Evans coilovers for his FJ from All-Pro Offroad. Those should be here sometime next week, and hopefully go on that weekend. We're talking about heading down to the Noonday trail tomorrow to try and get some good shots of Dan and Andy's Cherokees... 3-03-07: The long wait is over. Andy's vehicle page is finally up and running. So far the only good post-lift picture we have is a driveway shot, but that should change pretty soon. We also posted some pictures of his Rocky Road lift install. Just go to his vehicle page and click on the "INSTALLS" link. Someone on the guestbook suggested that we do a tech forum. That's not a half bad idea. We ran into a few snags (and problems with missing hardware) with the WJ lift install that would probably be helpful to other people wanting to run this same kit. We'll try to do that in the future. The Xterra lift might be the first to include tech stuff. Josh, Tony, Shawn, Larraine, Tammy, and Andy all headed up to the top of Shotgun OHV park last night and found a lot of fresh deep snow. Unfortunately, it was so dark that none of the pictures really turned out all that well. 2-27-07: Saturday was very productive for the crew. We were able to get Andy's 3.5 lift on, and he had his Nitto All-Terrains, mounted and balanced, in addition to an alignment before the day was over. Andy officially dubbed the WJ "The Money Shot" just a few minutes after a not-so-formal Evil Ike sticker presentation ceremony. I have to admit, the thing looks pretty nice. We should have pics and Andy's own vehicle page up this weekend. Also, the content on this news page was starting to get a little out of control. So, I created a "News Archive" page, for which their is a link to at the bottom of this page. And no, the picture of John getting ready to demolish a rack of ribs has not been removed. It's still there ;) Remember, he's huge in Japan. Until next time... 2-21-07: In honor of President's Day, Josh, Tony and Shawn spent a few hours uploading photos (yeah... I guess there's no real connection there). We started the ball rolling on a bit of a website expansion. Soon everyone will have 3 more photo links at the bottom of their vehicle pages; "OOPS," "INSTALLS" and "RANDOM." "OOPS" is any trail carnage, body, mechanical or otherwise. "INSTALLS" is for upgrades/mods, and "RANDOM" is for whatever. Pics on the "RANDOM" pages don't have to be wheelin' related, so click away at your own risk. This will be an on-going project. After a little bit of trial-and-error (like re-painting his antenna bracket after he got mad and spiked it off the ground), advice from a CB shop and some help from his friends, Aaron finally got his CB up and running on Monday. Despite the headache, the "Bandi" mount and black Firestik antenna combo looks pretty darn good. Keep an eye out for it in some future photos. The much anticipated WJ lift install is scheduled for this Saturday, assuming that Andy gets in the last few parts that were supposed to ship out on Monday. Tony's garage. 0800 hours (seriously?). We'll definitely have some pics up later that day.... 2-17-07: Shawn and Larraine installed her Cobra CB last night. This was yet another one of the two-hour-projects that turned into quite a bit more. Despite a few small setbacks, she is on the air and ready to go. Dan picked up some sliders for his ZJ from Rocky Road Outfitters. He will probably try and get those on this weekend. He also took the time to spray all of his faded plastic siding with black truck bed coating. It should look pretty good. We'll try to get some pictures up pretty soon. Dan picked up a CB as well. Aaron finally got his antenna bracket from All-Pro Offroad. I think he was planning to take a crack at bolting that up and wiring his new Cobra 75 in sometime today. P.S. I spent some time updating the vehicle pages. People keep buying more crap and it's hard to keep them current. 2-13-07: Well, what's new in the realm of Evil Ike? Shawn, Tony and Larraine were able to get her new rear upper adjustable control arms in over the weekend, and in the process, remove her skid plate spacers and get everything back up to stock height. Now Larraine has an improved breakover angle and no more shifter-hitting-the-center-console problems, thanks to the control arms, SYE and a new CV style driveshaft. We removed a makeshift T/C shifter bracket that was put in by a local shop and returned the linkage to it's stock position. We might have adjust the linkage a little more, but we'll see how it goes when she gets "Haggis" back on the trail for the first time. Let's see, weekend projects... Larraine's CB goes in on Friday. Shawn will be cutting up his stock airbox this weekend in an effort to make it a little more water resistant. We'll see how that goes. It might not happen this weekend, but Andy ordered his lift kit and tires (went with Nitto All-Terrains). Hopefully it won't take too long for those to ship. Oh yeah... John told me that he is going to forego his gears and lockers and pony up for a heavy duty locking center console and an alarm instaed. B@stard thieves. 2-08-07: After a little bit of "I'll-do-it-if-you-do-it" peer pressure, Larraine and Aaron have decided to order up CBs. Aaron called up All-Pro Offroad in California and ordered up their very slick "Bandi" antenna mount. Aaron hasn't decided yet, but may end up going with Cobra 75 unit for ease of install. Larraine will be ordering the typical Jeep hood channel mount hardware and also stated that she'll probably pick up an entry level Cobra unit somewhere in town tonight. This probably should have been posted yesterday, but I didn't get around to it. The "I'll-do-it-if-you-do-it" game (which was actually pioneered by John and Shawn many months back) was played on Wednesday as well. Aaron has been complaining for quite some time about how his springs are sagging in the front due to his winch/bumper, and even with the Revtek spacers, it looks like it's sitting at stock height. Shawn was able to convince Aaron that he should buy All-Pro's "Walker Evans" front adjustable coilovers w/ A-arms, and in return, Shawn would orders some new shocks and start to piece together a 5" lift. Aaron agreed to order the All-Pro setup by 3/20/07. Aaron also agreed to get All-Pro's rear shocks and some skid plates prior to our Rubicon trip. Purchase dates were established for those items as well. If Aaron fails to follow through with any of the established purchase dates then he has to buy Shawn four cases of Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil. I think there's even a signed contract floating around somewhere, unless Aaron found a way to steal it and shred it already. Anyway... the not-so-clever gimmick was that Shawn had already purchased the shocks before the negotiations started. It's been a full 24 hours since the big reveal and Aaron is still griping about being "scammed." And in some sick, twisted, evil-ike'ish way, Shawn just feels a little bit better about not being the only one who's dumping more money into a fairly new vehicle that's just going to get abused on some trail, mudhole or sand dune. Oh yeah... and he likes helping his friends install stuff. Don't hold your breath for pictures of the X with a 5" lift. It's going to be a few months. That stuff takes time to pay for. Aaron's new lift, however, should be coming in just a little over a month ;) 2-07-07: The members of Evil Ike's would like to give a collective one-finger wave to the a-holes who did a quick smash and grab on John's TJ (one in a string of nine vehicles, apparently) last night. Your mothers would be proud. Next time you get the urge to get close to a vehicle that isn't yours, try stepping out into traffic. On to a bit of good news... Tony's TJ made the "Reader's Rigs" section of the newest issue of 4 Wheel Drive & Sport Utility, just like we promised. I'm going to go home and see if my issue hit the mailbox yet. 2-04-07: Superbowl Sunday. 1:53 pm. John has "officially committed" to buying new R&P gears and an ARB air locker for his front axle. 2-03-07: Somehow Larraine's rear control arms got "delayed" (aka "temporarily lost") by UPS, so she won't get them until the middle of next week. Not much we can do, I guess. The #1 topic of conversation last night was the Rubicon trip that we have planned for August (which I don't think I've mentioned on here before). Everyone seems to have a "Rubicon Parts Wish List." John was talking about getting an air locker for his front axle. We'll see if he gets it, but I don't think that anyone is holding their breath. Aaron's factory sub box finally showed up, but it was only the face piece. Apparently, Toyota considers the subwoofer and the back of the box all one part, which costs over $600! (WTF is that about!?). He's currently mulling over his options. Josh received his rocker guards and louvers from Gen-Right Offroad. I think he's going to Harbor Freight today to pick up a cheap-o rivet gun. He also said something about trying to get his rocker gaurds on tomorrow morning before the Superbowl kick off. We'll see... 1-28-07: The big news of the day is that we got John's SYE kit installed, and yes, we got a few pictures up. Go to the "PHOTOS" page and click on the link. Also... Dan showed up for a few minutes and I managed to snap a quick picture of his rig with the new lift. Here goes;  Anway... we're at Tony's garage as I type this. I better go see how the control arm install is going. See ya... 1-27-07: Word on the street is that Dan finally got his 4.5" Rusty's Offroad lift kit in and installed on his ZJ. Josh is the only one who has seen it thus far. Need to get some pics of that thing. Aaron ended up ordering a factory sub enclosure from Toyota. Instead of going with the crap-tastic factory 8" subwoofer, he's going to find something on the aftermarket (as well as a small amp). Should sound pretty good when he gets it wired up. John's install is still scheduled for tomorrow morning. Had to borrow a couple tools from the Monster Garage, but we should be good to go... 1-26-07: It looks like UPS is going to be making a lot of deliveries to the Eugene area in the next few weeks. Josh called up the people at Gen-Right (www.genright.com) and ordered up some rocker guards, corner guards and hood louvers (sweet...). It also looks like Josh was also bitten by the fender modification bug, and is talking (again) about doing a TJ fender flare conversion. Can't wait to see that. Larraine ordered up some adjustable rear lower control arms from Rusty's Offroad that should be here next week. I'm trying to talk Aaron into ordering the new JL Audio subwoofer enclosure for his FJ, as he has been complaining about the lack of bass. We'll see how that goes. John just got his R.E. control arms in. Install time is scheduled for 1100 hours on Sunday... 1-23-07: Well... It looks like Tammy and Larraine had matching Sony head units and Polk Audio speakers installed in their TJ's over the weekend without telling anybody (WTF?). One of those spur-of-the-moment purchases, I guess. Speaking of impulse shopping, John just ordered some Rubicon Express rear lower (adjustable) control arms to add to his weekend SYE install. I'm pretty sure we'll have some pics posted by the end of the weekend. I've also updated his vehicle page to include his Warn diff skid plates. 1-20-07: Tony, Josh, John and Shawn headed up to Shotgun OHV late last night looking for any snow that might be left over. A pair of headlights that followed us for an uncomfortable amount of time turned out to be our old friend, Todd (aka "Rodney"), in his '05 Nissan Xterra SE. Despite being completely stock (even tires), Todd managed to go wherever he wanted. Shawn was just happy to have another import brother on the trail. Todd was given an Evil Ike sticker, which makes him an official "minion" as well. Looks like he'll be getting his own vehicle page in the near future. While the convoy was heading off the trail we encountered a full-size blazer with a broken front drive shaft (guess he didn't have an Ike sticker) that managed to lose control and slide partly off the road. Josh put in his good deed for the year with a quick recovery. The pictures are more impressive than the story. We should have those up soon. Earlier today, Shawn went to work cutting out some of his front fenders. You may remember a reference to body damage when reading about our last dunes trip. Shawn spent 15 minutes in the sand that day with a pair of pliers, bending sheet metal that was distorted by the lugs on his tires when his suspension fully compressed. Needless to say, he wasn't happy. His adapters and new wheels have changed the position of his tires within the wheel well. Taller bumpstops didn't do the trick, but the fender trimming should. You can check out some pics by clicking on the "fender hack job" link on the "PHOTOS" page. He isn't quite done yet, but the pictures give you a pretty good idea of how it will look in the end. Oh yeah... John is set to install his shorty SYE kit next Sunday. He's found a local driveshaft guy who will be awaiting the measurements on Monday morning, so hopefully his TJ (aka "Yellow B@stard") will be back on the road that evening. Be on the lookout for some install pics and keep your fingers crossed... 1-18-07: Larraine got her TJ out of the shop. There might be one or two more small things that we need to tweak, but she appears to be trail-ready again. Her vehicle page has been updated. We should have a new picture coming soon to show off her new Shrockworks rock rails... 1-15-07: Alright, we've got a lot of stuff to cover today so let's get started. You may remember my announcement about a lifted ZJ joining the group. That turned out to be less of an error and more of a premonition. Our long lost buddy Dan brought his '95 Cherokee Laredo out to the dunes this weekend. Now that he's "official," he gets his own vehicle page. You can now link to it on the "RIGS" page (check out the big black Evil Ike magnet). Andy's WJ is still on it's way, don't worry. We ended up hitting the dunes on both Saturday and Sunday. Aaron, Larraine & Tammy made it out on Saturday. The "Air Ike" award for the entire weekend goes to Dan, without a doubt. Every time we turned around that crazy @sshole was jumping over something. Aaron and John caught the hang-time bug and decided to give it a try as well. Make sure you check out the new pics on the "PHOTOS" page. Evil Ike always seems to be a clear skies good luck charm, and Saturday was no different. The temperature was in the 30's, but there was no rain or snow. A lot of the untouched water holes were frozen over, so some of the vehicles were also part-time ice-breakers. Shawn managed to sustain a little bit of body damage (what's new) and Josh had a quick t-case shifer problem that was quickly fixed. Tony continued his personal "Get-Stuck Sundays" tradition. Funny thing is, you always find yourself trying to figure out how he made it as far as he did in the first place. Good times. We've decided to give Yahoo! Geocities a few bucks a month so that we can get rid of the ads and eliminate the limited bandwidth problems we were having. This also provides us with enough storage space to start posting VIDEO CLIPS! I'm going to post all the clips on each person's respective vehicle page. For starters, check out Shawn's "hill climb" and Aaron "catching air" (NOTE: The link for Shawn's video temporarily routes you to another website, but this should be corrected within the next week). We're hoping to have some of Dan's video footage up very soon. This is also the first update we've had since John's Birthday. He had previously told everyone that he was going to down three full racks of baby-back ribs (one for each decade of his life) for dinner on his birthday. This proclamation drew quite a few spectators. And even though it's not wheelin' related, the pictures are just too funny not to post.  He didn't quite make it through all three, but I think everyone appreciated the effort. Anyway, back to business. Larraine should be getting her TJ out of the shop sometime tomorrow. Tammy and Aaron's "RIGS" page pictures have been updated with better quality photos. If you look closely at Aaron's new pictures, you can see his Hi-Lift mounted wit his new Demello Off-Road jack clamps. I should also have stickers up for sale very soon. 1-12-07: Well, John made out pretty good on his b-day. Warn winch cover and front and rear diff skid plates. The front skid for the Dana 30 (that number is haunting him) didn't fit, however. It appears that a skid for a much larger axle was accidently packaged in the wrong box. John has another one on order from Warn. Keep your fingers crossed that Larraine gets her Jeep (aka "Haggis") back from the shop today. Apparently they had to overnight a new tranny mount and we're hoping it comes in today like it's supposed to. The crew heads out for Florence this evening. Rumor has it that Josh has been making some oversize Evil Ike magnets. We'll see how they stand up to the icy cold temperature. The weather reports from yesterday said that there was snow on the beach... 1-10-07: We've got big news (drum roll)... John turns 30 today! The rest of the Evil Ike crew was on around-the-clock suicide watch until he called up JB Conversions and ordered a shorty SYE kit as a personal birthday gift. That should help fend off the depression. All kidding aside... happy birthday big guy. Larraine should be getting her rig out of the shop tonight. It looks like everyone will be heading to the Florence dunes OHV park this weekend. Pics to follow (for real this time). On a side note, it appears that the announcement about Tony's Jeep being in the Reader's Rigs section of 4 WHEEL DRIVE AND SPORT UTILITY was a tad premature. We're keeping our fingers crossed for the next issue. I also want to make a correction. In December we announced that we might be adding a lifted ZJ to the group. It's still coming, but it's actually a WJ. I need to get my Cherokee vehicle codes straight before I go announcing them to the world. Sorry, Andy. 1-08-07: Good news. Larraine just ordered a shorty slip yoke eliminator kit from JB Conversions that showed up on her doorstep late last week. Her TJ is scheduled to go into the shop tomorrow for install of the kit and a longer driveshaft. The crew went up to Shotgun OHV park over the weekend and managed to find a little snow and a lot of mud. Hope to have some pictures up soon. Maybe Aaron's page will get an updated picture to show off his new rock rails... 1-03-07: Alright, the first update of 2007. Added a little bit of audio to Josh's page. Aaron received his Demello Off-Road rock sliders today. We're aiming for a Friday night install. Look for updated photos very soon... 12-29-06: We updated Josh's rig page to include his suspension mods (as if that list wasn't long enough already). Be sure to check out next month's issue of 4 WHEEL DRIVE AND SPORT UTILITY, as it appears that Tony's TJ will likely be in the Readers' Rigs section. Also, we may be adding a lifted ZJ to the group real soon. Ike's evil empire is slowly growing... 12-24-06: The "RIGS" page and each individual vehicle page are up and running with up-to-date equipment information. A "LINKS" page has been added as well. Hope to get some photos up on the "PICS" page later tonight. There has been some talk about setting up an on-line poll to see what the official slogan of "Evil Ike's Off-Road" should be. Stay tuned.... 12-22-06: Well... the site has been up for about a week now without much content. Most of the good stuff should be up by this weekend. Larraine had some stickers designed and printed up for us and is in the process of handing them out yet. I don't think that Josh has his yet so don't say anything to him... |