Jul 22

I’m so addicted I may need psychological help.  Off roading, Wheelin’, rock crawling, rock racing…or what ever you might call it, I have the bug so bad, I don’t have time for anything else, nor do I want to do anything else. Luckily my family likes it, or they’d just have to go! Haha I’ve been wheelin Jeeps for over 20 years now and that type of dirt sports just never gets old and it’s one reason I have always helped to push the sport into the radio controlled world. 

 

While I’ve been on a whirlwind tour for my job, which included seeing almost 15 different cities in 60 days, I’ve also been tearing up the rocks in my Jeep JK Rubicon. We’ve been out to California, Utah, and New Mexico during those 60 days as well. It’s been non stop traveling and fun…. but I think I’m ready to sit back and start building a new RC Rock Crawler to get ready for the National finals in Moab Utah, coming up in September. All the parts are starting to arrive and I now have the time to get moving on building a super capable rig. It’s so nice to not have to fabricate most parts used to build a crawler anymore. A guy like me can build a comp worthy crawler in about six hours. The first crawler I ever built was a work in progress for several years and could never even crawl that well, by today’s standards. I’ll keep you all posted as this new build progresses, as it will be using some new and unique parts that everyone will be interested in.

 In the mean time, a couple of photos of the Jeeps getting prepped for the rocks: These things have been unstoppable on each trail we’ve hit. Truly awesome rigs!

pbach.JPG  pbach2.JPG  pbach3.JPG

Posted by Pete Bach in Factory Team | Comments Off
May 7

With the popularity of “Rat Rods”, I figured that I’d combine the looks of the Rat with the functionality of a crawler. Ken Lochel turned me onto this look with one of his crawlers and I think it came out really nice! 

pb3.JPG 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Pete Bach in Factory Team | Comments Off
May 1

 I started prepping the Jeeps a little early this year.  We have a ton of wheeling to do during the spring, summer and fall and I want both of the rigs to be ready and to work flawlessly this year.  For off road duties, both my wife and I have Jeep Unlimited Rubicon’s. One is built more extreme for the toughest trails and the other is more mild mannered for less severe trails. Mine runs with 5 inches of lift and 37 inch tires. The wife’s sits 2.5 inches taller than stock and runs 35-inch tires.  We typically leave the smaller “street” tires on until we hit the trails. 

pete10.JPG    pete2.JPG    pete4.JPG 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Pete Bach in Factory Team | Comments Off
Apr 28

Radio controlled rock crawling might just be the fastest growing niche out there.  Looking at all the new products recently released from Proline, as well as many other manufacturers, tells us that 10th scale crawling is really HOT! With five different Proline tires to choose from to clad your crawler with, each in two different rubber compounds, the venerable M2 and the super soft M3, I decided that an intra-company 2.2 tire test was a must. The line up consisted of the new Flat Iron, Hammer and Badlands, accompanied by the legendary Moab and Masher 2000. It took me about 40 hours to compile results from the intense testing I did, along with a couple of hard-core crawling buddies.  Requests and demand for detailed information about Proline tires throughout the RC crawling community was eating at me and I wanted to deliver what the enthusiasts wanted. 

petebach1.JPG

Finally, a choice of more than two crawling tires, that actually work!

  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Pete Bach in Factory Team | Comments Off
Mar 27

Everything starts to turn green, the sky is as blue as you can imagine and if there is still snow on the ground, you get contrasts that are truly impossible! Out here in the very small town of Black Forest, there isn’t very much to do unless you have horses. Everyone in our little rural area has many animals, from chickens and geese, to horses, cows and alpaca. One guy who lives a few miles from us even has a giraffe. As soon as the weather warms up around here, at 8,000 feet elevation, it is time to get the horses groomed and ready for the trail rides of summer through the vastness of the Rocky Mountains. Winter takes its toll on animals that live in this environment, even when they are put away in barns.  This year, in preparation for spring and summer, I bought a new Nikon…… a really kick @$$ 10.2 Mega Pixel camera that will hopefully capture all the beauty of Colorado and other places I plan to travel over the next few months. Of course, it will be used for photo shoots as Project Jeep JK goes through its hardcore transformation for Advanstar Communications, as well.  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Pete Bach in Factory Team | Comments Off
Feb 28

Returned from the Orlando Florida area late last night! I have to admit, Florida is one cool place with a ton of stuff to do. I went there on business and wound up having way more fun than doing any type of business. Nice! You have to squeeze in some business once in a while, especially if there is a $70 Porterhouse steak to be had. 

A buddy of mine who lives just outside of Orlando, picked me up and took me on a Gator Hunt on a river fed by crystal clear spring water. The small river led to the St. Johns river where huge fish and Manatee were everywhere to be seen. However, we were there to see some Gators!…and Gators were a-plenty! The area was a complete Rain Forest type jungle with four to eight foot alligators on the banks, as well as swimming freely in the glowing water. I grabbed a few by the tail, from the small canoe we were in and the gators would pull the boat along the river before wiggling free. There were very few people in the area but we did witness two locals that were in the water, actually wrestling the alligators but in no way hurting them!

  dsc07694.JPG

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Pete Bach in Factory Team | Comments Off
Feb 18

My name is Pete Bach and what I find interesting will likely and hopefully, interest you too. I’m fortunate enough to have a life where I get to play more than I work so I hope to share many interesting stories and events as they unfold. My fun jobs are what I like to do most of the time, which include off road adventures, then writing about them, as well as testing off road products and reviewing them for manufacturers and readers. I have also had the opportunity to work with Pro-Line Racing helping shape the new RC sport of competitive rock crawling. I grew up around dirt bikes and most types off road machines so expect to see a lot of that from me, as well as other unexpected hobbies.

petebach.jpg

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Pete Bach in Factory Team | Comments Off