Mileage: 23,908
Having a blog sure does make it easy to track your vehicles maintenance.
lots of mouth'in off, more wheel'in and some wrench"in
Jon Bowman from Fox31 News here in Denver stopped by today. Jon and I had been playing phone tag for awhile. You see Jon was doing a piece on personalized plates and as far as plates go there is a pretty famous one in my driveway.
The plate was lost while on a trail in Moab Utah in 2004. He’s been traveling the world since then.
Facebook page with all the pictures
The NAXJA Forum that started the whole thing
UPDATE: Link to the Story
Since the boys from White Roof Radio took out Friday morning I decided to walk Central Hall again. Yesterday the Central Hall tour was a little rushed. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see everything.
Here is a link to the pictures from Friday. In there you’ll find a video of a sweet sounding BMW. Another video that’ll tease you with a movie from my new car mounted camera. That’s gonna be a toy I’ll be using a lot.
I saw some more celebs, some more booth babes and some epic cars.




– “Very Steve McQueen” db
Thursday morning was rough. I caught what I call “The SEMA Flu”. There is no vaccination for this strain. However, there is a cure. Advil, lots of water, maybe a chili dog for breakfast. I’ll have to try the chili dog thing next time.
Other than being hung, Thursday was pretty awesome. I spent the day with the guys from White Roof Radio. We saw new products, Minis, old friends, new friends, and of course booth babes. If you don’t know about White Roof Radio click on over to iTunes. In the podcast catagory “Automobile”…their show is consistently top 10 in the US. Todd and db(Don Burnside) are great down to earth dudes.
The three of us spent the day meandered our way through North Hall, Central Hall, and Wheels and Tires. <placing tongue in cheek> The booth babes were clamoring Todd all day. “Todd can I have a picture with you?” Todd was a good guy about it, but I could tell by the end of the day it was wearing on him. Folks, celebrity status is not all it cracked up to be. db on the other hand did a nice job of “dressing himself down”. A few recognized him, and he was gracious to those fans.
Seriously fellas thanks for hangin with me. I feel like I made some life long friends yesterday.
Matt Adir(Master-Pull) got me trashed Wednesday night…sorry no updates yesterday. Well other than the headache lasted all day, and my inner thighs are raw(from the walking to perverts)
I am uploading some more pictures now. Some of the photos are a buddy who has a podcast about Mini Coopers called “White Roof Radio”. Consistently in the top 10 in the Auto category in iTunes. He has a thing about pictures with the booth babes. You guys don’t mind, right?
I’ll be reviewing a new product just released this week called GoPro. Full 1080P resolution sport camera. LINK
There are some pictures in my photo galleries. That thing is almost as cool as boobies.
Day one of my SEMA trip was filled with luck, good friends and a sweet hotel.
I rolled out of Denver about 4:30 am and arrived in Las Vegas about 3:00 pm. Before checking in the hotel I stopped at the show. I wanted to get my Press Pass before the rush in the morning. Parking is a nightmare. While trying to get some information a nice, female, security guard said I could leave my car parked back by the dock area while I ran in and picked up my badge. She agreed to keep an eye on the Mini. I think she wanted me to leave her the keys so she could take it for a spin.
Weaving in about of shuttle buses I made my way to the Central Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Suddenly my phone rings. It’s Matt Adir from Master-Pull. Matt and I spent a few days in Moab wheeling a few year ago. After that Matt and I have kept in touch via Facebook. It being my first SEMA I had a ton of questions and Matt agreed to help. We chatted while he showed me where to pick up my Press Pass. There is no way I would found it by myself. Hey thanks Matt. So with Press Pass in hand I got my car and headed to the hotel.
Another special thanks goes out to the Grandview at Las Vegas. This hotel is amazing. It’s very hard to find a non-casino hotel in Vegas these days. The Grandview hooked us up with three nights. You’ll need to be a member of a vacation club to get in. If you are, choose the Grandview at Las Vegas next time you’re here. The rooms have recently been remolded and are stunning. Here are a few photos.


Would the auto manufacturer that received a bailout from the government please stop with the capitalist advertising slogan?
During the beginning of 2009 General Motors was one of the largest recipients of the government auto bailout. This bailout saved GM from certain bankruptcy. They explained to us how an out of control, ever expanding dealer base was draining the car company. GM told us how many UAW workers would laid off if the company was left to fail. They worried us with the thought of an “American Icon” closing it doors.
The past few weeks have seen General Motors vehicles advertised on TV under the slogan “May the Best Car Win”™. How ironic? A slogan that asks for competition. It asks for a fair fight. The TV ads pit GM cars against imports from Toyota, Honda, even Mini. More ironic is the fact that these manufactures did not take or even need any of the bailout money. Why did they not need bail out money? They were already winning.
The key to capitalism is competition. The product that most people judge as the best will “win”. If we had let “the Best Car Win” eight months ago General Motors would have lost.

Tonight I’m prepping the blog and some photo galleries for next weeks SEMA show coverage. Many of you know, I was the owner of an internet based off road parts company. During those 8 years I could never find the time to make it to SEMA. This year is different. I want to make sure I save every memory.
Lucky for you I’ll be sharing my coverage with you right here on my blog. Before I leave for Las Vegas I am turning on the feed from my Twitter ID to post here. This will post everything I Tweet about right here on the blog. During the day I’ll be blogging and uploading pictures to these four main galleries. So bookmark them.
Strap yourselves in it’s going to be a great week. Special thanks goes out to Aaron Storms, Editor of The Weekly Register-Call. I should have a great article for publishing when I get back.
When: Saturday April 18th 9:00am
Where: Chinamen Gulch (Buena Vista, Colorado Area)
The LUVMJP and TrailDriven Team will be hitting the trail with The Colorado Chapter that day.
Here is the TrailDamage Link for that trail.
Mopar did us a great service and disservice by allowing DVD audio from their 6 Disc/DVD radios. It’s fun to listen to the King of the Hammers Video but it’s quite another thing to watch it!
If you have the 6 disc/DVD radio from Mopar your now in luck. I have access to the cable you see below. No more soldering that left over Christmas video cable. Just buy this production unit. Connect this cable to the back side of your radio. PIN 6 and PIN 7 slots allow video to be seen via an LCD. It’s that easy.
SPECS:



They sell for $49.95 and will be shipped free via USPS. I will have some in stock after the first of the year.
(The later production units will only have a two prong, flat, radio end. Current unit has a blank third slot. Only two of the current prongs are live.)

I finally got the call that my JK bumper was in. I payed for this thing back in August. Fabtech was having some production issues…blah, blah. All I can say is Troy at BIGoffroad was wonderful through the whole process. I got a smoking deal. If you have any interest in Fabtech, or anything else for that matter don’t hesitate to call Troy.
The bumper came in plain back powder coating. I was tossing around the idea of coating it in the Jeep’s Red Rock color. The plan right now is to install it and see how it looks in black.
The other thing I was confused about was the factory fog lamps. I was not sure what to do with them. Then I found the picture below. This guy used some 3″ PVC to make “cans” to hold the factory lights. Awesome idea! I sure wish I could find a picture of how he closed off the back of the light. I will mount my lights a little closer to the front, but I sure love the idea.
I don’t ask for much from any of you. I’m not asking to support me, maybe a click on a google ad from time time. Maybe a request to order some stuff through my Amazon link.
Now I ask for a small favor. My boys are selling Boy Scout Popcorn this year. 33% of the money you spend goes directly to their Pack. 33% goes to popcorn costs. The rest is used to buy prizes and promo stuff used to get the boys excited about selling.
By the way, the popcorn is pretty tasty too.
Jacob = last name A-L Use Code: TEMD2TZ
Trevor = last name M-Z Use Code: TEMD2SU
JohnJohn started TrailDriven 2 years ago. After replacing his heavily modified XJ with a new 4dr JK Rubicon he was troubled by the Jeep's TrailRated badge. Every Jeep might be trail rated, but not every Jeep is TrailDriven.
He's had 8 previous Jeeps; a TJ or two, a few XJs, a KJ, and even a Commando. [Read More…]
Call us social, call us douche-bags, but yeah we do all that social networking stuff. Once our shirt store is up you'll actually want to start following us. Facebook and Twitter will actually be the main way we'll communicate sales to customers. Follow and you'll save some money on TrailDriven shirt designs.