Hi Folks, I never was a hell raiser, but have any of you off-roaders done this? Spare Tire Fun Hey, I was 15! Sometime after I got the Stude dune buggy running, I took it out by the cement plant. There was an abandoned practice air strip, not paved, in a valley surrounded on three sides by steep hills maybe 200 feet high. They graded all the boulders off to the side all the way around. We would race around on it, as it was about a mile long and ¼ mile wide. If you went driving up one of the sides to the top, you could see for 20 miles out over the strip. Cool! We were up there one day admiring the view, when I got an idea. Uh Oh! I took the spare tire off the Stude and launched it down the slope towards the strip. Picking up speed, it would bounce way up in the air as it hit boulders and kept on going. We made a mental picture of where it stopped and retrieved it. We were still laughing like crazy. It had gone about 3/4 of a mile! The next day (of course) we went to Calvert’s Wrecking yard where you could buy a tire and wheel (still holding air) for $5.00 and bought a couple. (You could drive to Calvert’s from my house without a road). I pumped them up to about 50 PSI and headed back up to our launching pad. I think one of my friends brought a wheel, too. May have been his dad’s spare. We took turns throwing them off. Let me tell you, those ****ers must have been going 80 MPH. My spare hit a gigantic boulder the size of a house and launched up to the horizon! It landed straight down and didn’t bounce NO MORE. The rim was bent back to the bolt pattern on both sides! My Dad asked, “What heck did you hit?” “A boulder.” I'm 75 now and that was what we did living in the desert as kids. Bob
Just the other day I saw a video of some guys somewhere in Europe who rolled what looked like a semi truck tire down the side of a mountain. It was terrifying.
Wow, you have some real power compared to mine. Power brakes, too. I would like to have the un-cut Studie back, like your avatar, today. Mine is down in Mexico somewhere running on the beach. (I like the beer can on the floorboard).
My dad has a picture of him sitting on a Model A ch***is, engine, rear, end, and seat. That's it. First rat rod?!!!
Remember an episode of Monster Garage where they built a 'bike' using a diesel engine as the ch***is. https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/200135425/s03-e14-crazy-bike
My dad built a doodle bug from a derilect '53 Plymouth, body removed except w/s and cowl, shortened down to about 90" wb. We drove it around the property then gave it to the neighbor kids, whose family owned a saw mill. They mounted an old saw blade to the rear bumper area and used to back into saplings in their woods to chop them off. Crazy kids. What fun!
I learned to drive on what was left of a 46 Chevy pickup, it had been in a roll-over accident and the body was removed. A piece of plywood became the firewall and another became the floor that the seat was bolted to. We beat around on logging roads for a couple summers, did a bunch of really dumb stunts that we somehow survived. Ah, good times!!
Growing up, a good friends dad (a GM 'mechanic', 50s-60s) built a doodle-bug from an early Corvair shortened pan. He adapted an H-D (IIRC) trans to the trans axle for tractor-like gear reduction. Called it "Mighty Moe". Damn thing would climb a wall, but squirrelly as hell at speed! He sold it before we got too brave, (thankfully).
Anyone who wants to see this sort of buggy in action should watch the film "Eegah!". It's truly awful but entertaining in a campy way.
I nearly killed myself with one made out of a cut down 54 Buick in either 1965 or 66 right around Thanksgiving. I decided to run it over to my buddy's house and lost control on the then dirt road down from my house and went through a barb wire fence and got a cut on my neck that took 13 s***ches from the wire and one on my leg that took 12. I still have the scars that are listed as identifying marks on my military Records. Sold the brush buggy to the doctor who sewed me up.
The Jalopy Journal
