HELLO MY NAME IS: John

Hey All,

John here, read about the forum a few times on FJCF and noticed some familiar local faces so I thought it time to join. Between my Girlfriend (Chrissy) and I, we have 3 girls (16,15,12) and 1 boy ( 8 ). Took the FJ on a few trips last year but no where near as many as I wanted too. So the plan is to get out a lot more this year Looking forward to making new friends and trying new trails.

John [i]

Welcome John.

These guys will get you out that's for sure.

Yeah, thats what i figured. Already met FlyJester, KBJames and MoabRat and they are great.

It's funny I haven't met anyone on a trail yet that I did not want to repeat hanging out with. I've made some wonderful friends here. It puts a smile on my face to see someone else jump in here.

Right on Brother Well I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any runs, just keep me off that road from your avatar

Welcome!

We are trying to put together a trip to Moab for the weekend of 6 April. You in?

Hmmm, mid week trip eh That may be a tough one for me. Kids have spring break April 11-15 & April 18-22 and were debating which week to head to Zions (National Park Free days 4/16-4/24).

Whoops! Wrong date! I meant the weekend of 1 April! Sorry for the confussion. There is a thread in the trail runs section.

Hey John,

Welcome to the club. I try to go out most weekends.

Great, I'm down for some local fun too. It's a lot easier to get out for a Saturday or Sunday.

Welcome John.

Hi John,

Welcome aboard! It's nice to have another one of us here, even though you spell it the long way.

-Jon

Thanks guys. John what happened to your TT to make you trade up to a newer model?

Kind of a funny and stupid story actually. I shopped and shopped wanting to get the perfect FJ. I was waiting for like 5 years to get a Voodoo Blue (from the day I saw the prototype). Then I finally am in a position to buy one and I shop forever looking at 2007 leftovers (as I waited for the initial like $40,000 prices to drop as it was CRAZY when they first came out).

So...... after a couple of failed purchases I put in for a price on one in Bountiful and I see they have a Trail Teams and it was also the month gas was like $5 a gallon. They offer it to me for quite a bit less than invoice. I think it's a mistake. I call. They say no mistake. I go in they say "It's a mistake, we calculated wrong" and I'm ready to storm out and they say "the taxes were actually $22.50 higher. I don't know why we keyed it in wrong". We had a good laugh and I bought it.

Backtracking a bit.... my Dad had a right leg that had no knee so he could never drive a stick shift, but we used to talk about how much we'd love to get an FJ40 when I was a kid and drive from our home in Seattle up to Alaska on the gravel roads (lots of people did it and it was quite the popular father/son adventure where I grew up... Chevy guys would take their Blazers, Ford guys would take the Broncos, etc., but we had Chevys and they always broke down, our only reliable vehicle we ever owned was a Toyota Corona Wagon!). But I was always bummed out that he couldn't drive one and he was too, so we rented an SUV once and drove from here back up to Seattle through a blizzard and had a blast. Then the FJ came out and I knew I had to have one and we were finally going to get to make that whole trip.

He was 69 years old and I bought the FJ and started retrofitting it for some serious long distance travel. I added a Gobi rack first, a hitch setup, a GPS, additional offroad lighting, and was going to add either an additional gas tank or some external cans for extra fuel, an additional spare to put on the Gobi. A CB setup. You know... the whole poser who is going offroad for the first time.

My big surprise was that I was going to show my Dad the truck which I bought in late May and tell him that we were going to take off in July and do the trip. My back went haywire and I didn't ever make the 15 mile drive out to even show him the FJ. I was going to drive out at least 15 times and take him to dinner and take him for a ride in my new truck and show him how cool it was and he was always excited to see it. I never would tell him what I bought, just that I got a new SUV and was excited to show it to him.

So at this point I am pushing the whole thing back a year and will take him the next summer to Seattle and then to Alaska. Just the two of us, for his 70th birthday. He was in good spirits and good health and I hadn't spent a lot of time with him due to my back surgeries. So what do you know? He up and drops dead at the beginning of August. Just for no reason at all he gets a stupid pulmonary embolism and that's it. I was devastated. Every time I looked at the FJ I got sick in my stomach because it reminded me of him.

One day I just up and sold it to a guy that had totaled his. Five minutes after I handed him the keys and he drove off I expected to feel this rush of relief and like I was happy again and somehow I'd be over losing my Dad. Tying my feelings to the truck was the dumbest thing ever. It was a reminder of him. I took that as a bad thing. I bought the 4Runner and realized it was way less comfortable on my back than the FJ and then I am talking to my doctor and griping about how I blew it and will never get to take this trip with my Dad now that he's dead and he goes "So are you going to sit around and gripe about it the rest of your life? Or are you going to do something about it?" I ask what I can do about it and he goes, "Uhhhh, take your OWN son on the trip and do it in the memory of your Dad. How's that for an idea?" I sold the 4Runner literally the next day and went without a car for a bit as I recovered from another back surgery. Then I found a deal in Carson City on this Trail Teams (I'd rather have a 2008 white one again, but there's no way I'd find another as nice as the one I sold. I sold it at 2 years old and it had 5,008 miles on it. Literally. I had only gassed the thing up like once a month it seems).

So now I have a 2010 FJ Trail Teams and I like it. I don't love it as much as my original one. That one was cooler in some ways. Mainly the color. The 2010 has some new features which I really like (backup camera, better gas mileage, map lights, more power seems a bit quieter, the seats are actually pretty cool). Other features are things I miss. Like it didn't come with the aluminum shifters (which I added), no skid plates (even though they were cheap, they were better than nothing), the 2008 had the bumper mounted off-road lights which were really cool and bright. Overall the 2010 is a nicer vehicle though just in some small ways. However.... now that you've listened to the longest and perhaps dumbest story ever, if I could find somebody that would trade me a 2008 for my 2010 I'd do it in a heartbeat just to be back to zero. I know that there are probably no 2008's out there with under 10,000 miles on them though and if there are I am sure the owner isn't real keen on trading for a 2010 with 1,500 miles on it from some random dude. They'd probably be real happy with their '08 or such a deal would take place at a dealership. The odds are against me. So I'll enjoy the 2010 and my son and I will drive to Alaska as soon as I feel he's ready (he's 7 now, maybe another year).

Wow, wish I had a story half way as special as that about my rig. Your past and present FJ's are truely more than just a car. Oh yeah, and sorry about the delay in responding. Between work and family I haven't been able to get back on. Sometimes I wish I had a newer model but then again I like having a TRD instead of a TT even if they have pretty much the same options.

John,

The TRD is incredible. The coolest part is that it is essentially a 2008 since it was a later model and most of the kinks had been worked out (like the A-Trac and Diff lock thing and such). And they will NEVER make an all black model again. Even if you decide to get another FJ someday you should do everything you can to keep the current one. If you don't you'll regret it. Trust me on this one. I would have had my 2008 paid off by the time I bought the 2010, so I should have kept it and just parked it and had one of each. Being out of work now though I'd have to drop one of them, and may still have to get rid of the 2010. Oh well. It will suck if it ever comes to that, but it will keep me going for 6 months if I get close to book out of it considering what I put down.