Alex Fleming

Owner at Sherpa Equipment Co.
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
159
Age
25
Location
Fort Collins, CO
The Sherpa Motorsports Team had another amazing trip out to an Ultra4 event, this time at Area BFE in Moab, Utah. Having been here many years ago it was fun to go back and race here.

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The car did amazing but we have found a consistent weak point we will soon be upgrading!

Prerunning we ran the qualifying course twice and felt good about it and headed out to run a lap of the main course. This course was ROUGH. We pushed the car through some stuff we honestly weren't sure how it would handle. With some spotting and trying a few things, we found clean lines for most of the obstacles on course except for one double waterfall at the back. The truck just kept bellying out on it and it would pivot us sideways. The first time this happened we got a bit of grip and started moving forward but had to punch it to keep from rolling over. This smashed the front left hard into the ground under power and the CV gave out immediately.

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We limped it back to pits not running the final 2 miles of the course and had to run that section blind on race day.

We managed to rebuild the CV the night before race day but this caused us to miss qualifying which was a bummer as we had planned to qualify for this race.

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On race day we were up around 6 am to get the car and pits ready as we were off the line at 8 am!

Fighting the morning sun we had a great start but in dead last (9th). We had some ground to makeup and a lot of dust to push through. Lap one, we made a great time on positions 8 and 7 and ended up passing Amber Turner in her Sami, and soon into lap 2 we passed the other Sami driven by Anthony Hadsall as well as Albert in his LJ. Lap 2 went flawless for us, we even could have pushed harder but managed a lap time of 33:53 which was only about 3 minutes off the fastest lap time in our class. Starting into lap 3 we noticed the steering felt oddly easy and the rear end was getting squirrelly under power. Started to think it was the CV but in denial, we pushed on. We ended up hitting this small outcropping and it totally took the wheel from me. Then couldn't back up and noticed we had no front drive. We winched off of it and made our way further but ultimately called it a day and knew we had no chance to finish the lap in 2wd.

Here is where we ultimately ended our race on lap 3. Such a silly spot but where we noticed we had lost the front drive. Not entirely sure where we actually broke the CV's though.

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Here are some photos from the short course during the race from Drew Walsh.
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Will and I had a blast and we can't thank our team, sponsors, friends, and family enough for all the help and support for 4628 and Sherpa Motorsports.
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4runner DOA

Hold my beer
Staff member
Joined
Oct 2, 2018
Messages
15,882
Location
OC
The Sherpa Motorsports Team had another amazing trip out to an Ultra4 event, this time at Area BFE in Moab, Utah. Having been here many years ago it was fun to go back and race here.

51097340437_b4a80298d9_z.jpg


The car did amazing but we have found a consistent weak point we will soon be upgrading!

Prerunning we ran the qualifying course twice and felt good about it and headed out to run a lap of the main course. This course was ROUGH. We pushed the car through some stuff we honestly weren't sure how it would handle. With some spotting and trying a few things, we found clean lines for most of the obstacles on course except for one double waterfall at the back. The truck just kept bellying out on it and it would pivot us sideways. The first time this happened we got a bit of grip and started moving forward but had to punch it to keep from rolling over. This smashed the front left hard into the ground under power and the CV gave out immediately.

51097785633_d22470f638_z.jpg


We limped it back to pits not running the final 2 miles of the course and had to run that section blind on race day.

We managed to rebuild the CV the night before race day but this caused us to miss qualifying which was a bummer as we had planned to qualify for this race.

51097105561_0cc143eabb_z.jpg

51097200832_143600af57_z.jpg

51097105956_0254a9d793_z.jpg


On race day we were up around 6 am to get the car and pits ready as we were off the line at 8 am!

Fighting the morning sun we had a great start but in dead last (9th). We had some ground to makeup and a lot of dust to push through. Lap one, we made a great time on positions 8 and 7 and ended up passing Amber Turner in her Sami, and soon into lap 2 we passed the other Sami driven by Anthony Hadsall as well as Albert in his LJ. Lap 2 went flawless for us, we even could have pushed harder but managed a lap time of 33:53 which was only about 3 minutes off the fastest lap time in our class. Starting into lap 3 we noticed the steering felt oddly easy and the rear end was getting squirrelly under power. Started to think it was the CV but in denial, we pushed on. We ended up hitting this small outcropping and it totally took the wheel from me. Then couldn't back up and noticed we had no front drive. We winched off of it and made our way further but ultimately called it a day and knew we had no chance to finish the lap in 2wd.

Here is where we ultimately ended our race on lap 3. Such a silly spot but where we noticed we had lost the front drive. Not entirely sure where we actually broke the CV's though.

51097340557_46a89a4303_z.jpg

51098049335_8a6c390a0c_z.jpg



Here are some photos from the short course during the race from Drew Walsh.
51097265558_030898d1c1_z.jpg

51097365018_e45b89f651_z.jpg

51097623930_2c9cf8197e_z.jpg

51097359048_c5f3d099bd_z.jpg

51097356273_e200228a7e_z.jpg

51096810151_95ced6ee7a_z.jpg

51097347668_b71e2d5ea8_z.jpg



Will and I had a blast and we can't thank our team, sponsors, friends, and family enough for all the help and support for 4628 and Sherpa Motorsports.
51097258859_969e199d47_z.jpg

51097244591_b4b3a06f7e_z.jpg

That roof rack needs some ifsoffroad stickers. :rofl:
 

Dukestaco

Stirring the pot 24/7
Joined
Oct 3, 2018
Messages
7,472
Location
Tucson
Seriously guys. Enjoining the race recaps and carnage porn. Definitely finding out the weaknesses in the rig and pushing the limits. Stay safe and have fun.
 
Joined
Oct 6, 2018
Messages
549
Age
93
Tonight is the last night before the 4runner is loaded up and headed out to California to get wrapped, fiberglass installed and buttoning up a few loose ends.

Here is what we have finished.

First, the front suspension, steering, front diff, and everything that goes along with that.

The arms are from Total Chaos, it is their +3.5 kit. We ended up having to run the 8" Coilover again as we couldn't really get the 10" to work without need a coil compressor to install and uninstall and we did not want to deal with that on the lake bed if we had to pull it out for some reason. The 8" will still work amazing but hope to get the 10" to work with maybe a shorter shaft down the road.

We made our double sheer steering and hiem setup, this was hard as the misalignments we got were not right and we had to get creative to get our travel back without binding the hiem. This isn't ideal yet and definitely stole some down travel from us. Still way stronger and will work. Also, drilling out spindles suuuuuuucks. We upsized to a 3/4" bolt which was awful. We may end up sleeving this and running a smaller bolt to get more misalignment in the future.

The front diff, steering rack and oil pan are all really tightly packed now. It's extremely tight with the 200 series rack in there but it works.

We also swapped the studs on the front to match the rear axle.

Here it all is together.

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Its wide...

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But, all the wiring is finished, diffs are in, the rear axle is done, custom brake lines are all done (that was a big project), new window nets, new limit straps front and rear, intake is in, new radiator and hoses, fluids changed and a good bit more of random things.

We have a decent list of things to knock out tonight then it's off to Beyond Wraps for some tasty vinyl goodness.
You may have already thought of this, but can you think of any issues of running a longer shock body with the internals of a shorter shock..........like take the guts and parts out of a 8" long travel shock and put them into the body of a 10" shock? that *should* eliminate the issues with suspension reassembly and still be able to use the longer cylinder body with the benefits they provide.
 

Alex Fleming

Owner at Sherpa Equipment Co.
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
159
Age
25
Location
Fort Collins, CO
So this is actually kind of what we have at the moment. We are using our 8" coil overs from the stock arm setup that have 7" shafts in them. So we have mulled over the idea of doing that with the 10" but worried we will not have enough up travel with that larger shock body as we use all of it on these 8".
 

Alex Fleming

Owner at Sherpa Equipment Co.
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
159
Age
25
Location
Fort Collins, CO
The High Desert 100 w/ Yellowstone Off-road Racing

This race was a total blast, located in Powell, Wyoming it wasn't too far from home and boasted an awesome race course for 4628.

We showed up Thursday evening giving us all day Friday to pre-run, and get the car dialed in for the 3.5-mile course we had to do 10 laps on.

This course was fast with big g-outs, whoops, banking turns, and a few tabletop jumps. Basically what our car is more suited for.









Pre running went well, we started off easy but by about lap 4 of pre-running, we were finding a good fast pace. The car was doing well but the front definitely did not have enough dampening in the shocks, felt super soft and the rebound was super fast. I was worried we blew them and lost shock fluid and pressure.





After pre-running we checked over the car, noticed the front two coilovers had small leaks and our suspicions were correct. They were still working ok but definitely not near as good as they could. Figures, after 3 hard races on the most recent rebuild it was bound to happen. We also bled all the brakes as we were having crazy rear brake bias and this helped a lot.

That night we were hit with crazy winds, up to 65-70mph gusts that made good night's sleep hard to get but the campers all survived and nothing blew away so all was good!

We lined up to race at around 1:30 pm and were off the line at 1:45 and we pushed HARD all 10 laps with zero issues. Pacing the green Boyds truck most of the race, losing about 5-10 seconds a lap on them. We couldn't keep up suspension or engine wise but we did our best. Lapped a few cars in our class and finished 2nd overall











We were also greeted with snow in the middle of our race... that was a first for us!





Overall, really fun race, and we are stoked for the U4 Race in Broadview, MT in June!

Video coming soon!
 

AssBurns

will wheel for beer
Staff member
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
Messages
7,959
Age
31
Location
Yucaipa, CA
The High Desert 100 w/ Yellowstone Off-road Racing

This race was a total blast, located in Powell, Wyoming it wasn't too far from home and boasted an awesome race course for 4628.

We showed up Thursday evening giving us all day Friday to pre-run, and get the car dialed in for the 3.5-mile course we had to do 10 laps on.

This course was fast with big g-outs, whoops, banking turns, and a few tabletop jumps. Basically what our car is more suited for.









Pre running went well, we started off easy but by about lap 4 of pre-running, we were finding a good fast pace. The car was doing well but the front definitely did not have enough dampening in the shocks, felt super soft and the rebound was super fast. I was worried we blew them and lost shock fluid and pressure.





After pre-running we checked over the car, noticed the front two coilovers had small leaks and our suspicions were correct. They were still working ok but definitely not near as good as they could. Figures, after 3 hard races on the most recent rebuild it was bound to happen. We also bled all the brakes as we were having crazy rear brake bias and this helped a lot.

That night we were hit with crazy winds, up to 65-70mph gusts that made good night's sleep hard to get but the campers all survived and nothing blew away so all was good!

We lined up to race at around 1:30 pm and were off the line at 1:45 and we pushed HARD all 10 laps with zero issues. Pacing the green Boyds truck most of the race, losing about 5-10 seconds a lap on them. We couldn't keep up suspension or engine wise but we did our best. Lapped a few cars in our class and finished 2nd overall











We were also greeted with snow in the middle of our race... that was a first for us!





Overall, really fun race, and we are stoked for the U4 Race in Broadview, MT in June!

Video coming soon!
Looks like a blast! Good to hear the truck is doing really well
 

PNW Pineapple

Slim-Whitey Official Fact Checker
Joined
Apr 23, 2019
Messages
3,875
Location
PNW
The High Desert 100 w/ Yellowstone Off-road Racing

This race was a total blast, located in Powell, Wyoming it wasn't too far from home and boasted an awesome race course for 4628.

We showed up Thursday evening giving us all day Friday to pre-run, and get the car dialed in for the 3.5-mile course we had to do 10 laps on.

This course was fast with big g-outs, whoops, banking turns, and a few tabletop jumps. Basically what our car is more suited for.









Pre running went well, we started off easy but by about lap 4 of pre-running, we were finding a good fast pace. The car was doing well but the front definitely did not have enough dampening in the shocks, felt super soft and the rebound was super fast. I was worried we blew them and lost shock fluid and pressure.





After pre-running we checked over the car, noticed the front two coilovers had small leaks and our suspicions were correct. They were still working ok but definitely not near as good as they could. Figures, after 3 hard races on the most recent rebuild it was bound to happen. We also bled all the brakes as we were having crazy rear brake bias and this helped a lot.

That night we were hit with crazy winds, up to 65-70mph gusts that made good night's sleep hard to get but the campers all survived and nothing blew away so all was good!

We lined up to race at around 1:30 pm and were off the line at 1:45 and we pushed HARD all 10 laps with zero issues. Pacing the green Boyds truck most of the race, losing about 5-10 seconds a lap on them. We couldn't keep up suspension or engine wise but we did our best. Lapped a few cars in our class and finished 2nd overall











We were also greeted with snow in the middle of our race... that was a first for us!





Overall, really fun race, and we are stoked for the U4 Race in Broadview, MT in June!

Video coming soon!
Awesome shots. Glad to see you guys holding your own
 

Alex Fleming

Owner at Sherpa Equipment Co.
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
159
Age
25
Location
Fort Collins, CO
Ready for the Big Sky 200 with Ultra4 and Yellow Stone Offroad Racing.

Shocks have been rebuilt and revalved by our friends at Rockware with the help of Locked Offroad. Fronts are back to 8" shafts and now on a 800lbs spring.

Really excited to see how it rides. We are now also able to run much lower pressures in the shocks. Used to be running around 250 psi and current setup we are at 100psi. Excited to see how it does pre-running and mess with it from there.

Here she sits after some tom foolery.

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Excited for this one, tune in this Saturday to The Big Sky 200 (Broadview, MT) North series | Ultra4 Racing to watch the race live!
 

AssBurns

will wheel for beer
Staff member
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
Messages
7,959
Age
31
Location
Yucaipa, CA
Exciting stuff!

What's the reason you guys are running lower PSI in the shocks? I've always heard that higher PSI means less cavitation, which means less heat and less shock fade.
 

Dukestaco

Stirring the pot 24/7
Joined
Oct 3, 2018
Messages
7,472
Location
Tucson
Ready for the Big Sky 200 with Ultra4 and Yellow Stone Offroad Racing.

Shocks have been rebuilt and revalved by our friends at Rockware with the help of Locked Offroad. Fronts are back to 8" shafts and now on a 800lbs spring.

Really excited to see how it rides. We are now also able to run much lower pressures in the shocks. Used to be running around 250 psi and current setup we are at 100psi. Excited to see how it does pre-running and mess with it from there.

Here she sits after some tom foolery.

51234687726_b5ae02e68d_z.jpg

51234898268_ee68910d33_z.jpg

51235752860_813e13d992_z.jpg

51235752940_79886e78f3_z.jpg

51234898348_73eb6fba26_z.jpg

51234687811_516b226502_z.jpg

51234687791_e5db92180d_z.jpg


Excited for this one, tune in this Saturday to The Big Sky 200 (Broadview, MT) North series | Ultra4 Racing to watch the race live!
God damn she looks good.
 

4runner DOA

Hold my beer
Staff member
Joined
Oct 2, 2018
Messages
15,882
Location
OC
Also where'd you get the rear axle hydro bump plates? Gonna need something like that when I deal with mine.
 
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