Dale Keller's Offroad Vehicles

Current on/off-road vehicle, a 2005 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited with a 4.0L inline six and a 6-speed manual tranny. I liked the previous Tacomas, but I have wanted to get my second Jeep for a very long time. This is almost the last year for this body style, before Wranglers became huge monsters.

Previous pickup truck, a 2004 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 Extended Cab with a 3.4L V6 and 5-speed. My previous truck was great, and I would have kept it forever, but now we need to pull a trailer, so I upgraded to this truck with a more powerful engine. This is the last year with this body style, before Toyota turned the Taco into a great fat cow, wider and longer and lower and heavier, too big for some of the narrow shelf trails we like to take.

Previous pickup truck, a 2000 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 Extended Cab with a 2.7L inline 4-banger and 5-speed and low miles. I specifically wanted this engine for good gas mileage, instead of the V6. I like getting 25 MPG on the highway to the trails. It's kind of wimpy on the highway, but offroad gearing is excellent. And this engine is expected to go 200K to 300K miles. We drove this one for years, and only sold it when we needed a truck with more power to pull a trailer.

Previous pickup, a 1994 Toyota 4x4 with a 2.4L inline 4-cylinder engine and 5-speed tranny. Kind of wimpy, but not bad, until some knucklehead totalled it in a head-on collision.

Before the Toyota, a 2001 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4. A very good truck, but kind of big for some of the trails.

First pickup, a 1997 Dodge Dakota 4x4.

And before that, about a million years ago, a 1974 Jeep CJ5.

And several Volkswagon Bugs: stock and Baja and sand-rail.

And a whole bunch of motorcycles: Honda 500, Honda 350, Honda 250, Yamaha 250, Suzuki 175, Honda 150, mini-bikes.


Offroad Video Camera



Video system: A GoPro HD Hero 2 video camera.


For rough offroad use, the suction cup mount just won't do the job. So the camera is mounted on a custom mount. The base is a 5" diameter magnet for a ham radio antenna (made by MFJ). A 1.5" diameter, 4" long aluminum post is bolted to the magnet. An HD Hero flat adhesive mount is attached to the top of the post.

This mount is rock solid, and works well on top of the cab, or on the hood. You'll have to make your own. For the paranoid, there is a 3-magnet mount for ham radio antennas.




Videos

(these links will take you to YouTube)


Governor Basin Cliffhanger video     (3min 11sec)

Camp Bird Road Overhang video     (1min 35sec)

Governor Basin Uphill video     (22min 39sec)

Upper Yankee Boy Basin video     (18min 57sec)

Imogene Pass Up (from Telluride) video     (41min 42sec)

Imogene Pass Down (toward Ouray) video     (44min 3sec)