Big Plans

Contest FREE Original Stinger!

Something we would like to do more of is contests! It is fun for everyone and we love making our customers happy so it is a win, win situation!

We will draw a winner on October 31st! You can enter up to three times if you utilize all three of our social media outlets. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! 

14th Annual 4WD Hardware Jamboree

     This past weekend we were welcomed out to the 14th annual Jamboree at 4WD Hardware in Columbiana, Ohio. It was a great time of making new contacts, seeing new and old customers, winning prizes, getting great bargains, Show and Shine, a Little Jeepers area, and of course playing on the obstacle course. Did we mention this event is FREE?!?!?!

     This company has gone through a great deal of effort to cover all the bases of providing a fabulous show. Masses of people sit on the grass, bleachers and bright yellow straw bales while watching Jeeps of all kinds fly, or try to fly, through the murky mud pit, over logs, cars and twisty mounds of hills and rocks. 

     Over the weekend we made one new contact and made a deeper friendship from another small business we previously met in York, Pa at the All Breeds Jeep Show. We can't wait to tell you about these companies because not only do they have a corner in their markets, but they are friendly, hard working, intelligent individuals whom anyone would be pleased to deal with. Their names are Azzy's Design Works and Built By Potsy. Azzy's makes all sorts of printed material such as stickers, wooden puzzle Jeeps, and most importantly CUSTOM GUAGES FOR XJs!!!! The TrailTubes' pink XJ will be sporting a new gauge cluster with an awesome design in the very near future!!! The other company, Built by Potsy, makes a product you will never see anywhere else, and especially not with the quality and art that are in every piece that they make. It is impossible to get a picture that captures the amazing detail and quality in every flower, butterfly and dragonfly that they make. They are all different, unique, hand signed and numbered, and will never fade since they are powder coated with high end, brilliant colors! Who knew you could make something so unique and decorative from channelock pieces and old recycled junk scraps?!?!?!
     

     If you ask Rick what the highlight of his weekend was he would probably say it was winning a BUBBA ROPE by being the first Jeep to make it through the mud pit Saturday morning! Prizes and giveaways went on all weekend.

All Breeds Jeep Show

     We love, love, love this event. It is a great one for us because it is not only is this a profitable and relaxed event, but it is reasonably close to home!!! Woot! This year we got to take the pink XJ with tube doors along with our good ol' CJ.

     In York there are a ton of vendors, along with a kick butt obstacle course! 

     Of course we spend almost as much as we make here but you can't beat a weekend with friends, sun, Jeeps, and a few beers. 

     The best part is knowing that we made some really fantastic contacts this year that should help us expand our line of products immensely. Wish us luck! 

Flashback Friday

     I was making our Weekend Whopper Newsletter this morning and I came across an older picture of our friend, Steve's,  Rear Stinger and Tire Carrier. 

     What makes these memories so fond? Was it the great area to wheel and camp in- Scrubgrass? Or was it the fun of trying to keep a this 16 on it's rim? After all we did get to find out the difference between ether and brake cleaner when it comes to getting that tire back on the rim... never mind the ear drums we may have sacrificed to for this education. Why is it so fun to know you came close to getting hurt but didn't? Hey, why are my ears ringing? 

Jeep Beach

Rausch Creek Rock Crawl

In exactly one week we will be running in the race at Rausch Creek. We have never been there before and are excited to see what this park holds. 

So what happened in just over a week before we are suppose to race? The cage got cut out of the Jeep of course!

Here comes the hard part- designing the new cage. We would like to integrate our logo into our cage, while making a cage that is reproducable for our loyal customers. Some ideas are-

Time will tell what idea worked, and what didn't. Actually, in less than a week we will know! Keep an eye on us because we might just have that roll cage kit available that you have been waiting for!

Plans

We have big plans for additions to our website. We are working hard to add a page just about "How To". How to weld. How to assemble the products. We would like to help ANYONE be able to do-it-yourself. 

Another great idea we have is adding a page called the "Swap Meet". We often have parts or seconds on tubing. A stinger will get changed on our rig and what do we do with the old one? Well, we will, in the near future, put it on this page so someone can buy or offer us a TRADE on it. How fun could that get?

If you have any great ideas on what we could do differently or change just let us know.

The Event After the Event

Over this last weekend we attended the ECORS race near Dayton, Tennessee. The event was fun and full of excitement! There were a few roll overs, a wheel that came off the bead, causing the rig to barely be able to stay on the rock cliff it was driving on, the lost steering that caused one rig to slam into rocks and more....

What we didn't know, was that the morning after the event would be just as fun for us since the rain had turned the pits into a slippery, slimy mud that even the biggest trucks were getting stuck in. 

We tried to back our Suburban up to our trailer, and slid into it instead, denting our tailgate and knocking the trailer off the blocks. Even after the trailer was hitched to our diesel Suburban we knew we were stuck. What to do, oh, what to do? GET THE JEEP! The TrailTubes CJ Jeep pulled our Suburban, and the trailer, out of the pit and camping area; however, there were a lot more people stuck!

After we were out Rick pulled out a motorhome (pictured), the motorhome's trailer with it's rig on it, and three big, diesel, dually trucks with giant tri-axle trailers. Twice our Jeep also had to winch to another truck from the front to help pull. 

This "after event" was just as much fun for some men as the regular event!

Improvements to the TrailTubes' Jeep

 Just like everyone else right now, our Jeep has been torn apart. Bigger, better, faster, stronger, nicer and whatever else you can think of to describe improvements.

In the last few months, in order to get ready to offroad race with ECORS, TrailTubes has replaced the driveshaft, installed an onboard air system, got a decent winch, put in an ARB air locker in the front, reversed the shackles, designed shock hoops and installed them, bought new tires to put on , just to find out that the tires are going to rub on the fenders- so we need to design another set of fenders in less than 3 days before we leave for Tennessee where our first race is. 

There are all the little things too... changing the door latches, getting a new radiator, adding air horns, and more...

Now we just have to test everything out!