three weeks since a blog post... and what a tiring three weeks it has been! Temperatures have been between 110 and 140 degrees inside the shop this month making 8 hours of work take about 12. Krawltex has six race cars in the stable and all of them are racing in the next few weeks. Jeremy's WEROC buggy is competing in Tennessee this weekend. Our 7S Tacoma and 5 Unlimited VW are heading to Texoma for a night race on Labor Day weekend. Our Lemons racer will beheading to Angeleton, TX for a September 11th race. we are shooting to have Tony's Rock buggy ready for a debut at trees on Labor day and a race at canyons on the 18th of September. We also hope to have Ted's YJ linked in the front so he can defend his crown at the same race at canyons. It's going to be a rough few weeks of late nights... the 7S truck needs front fenders and a rear bypass shock rebuild. Ted's YJ needs an entire front end suspension overhaul. The 5 car needs better lighting. The Lemons car lacks an interior cage and seat mounts. tony's buggy is still in pieces... although we have the whole front suspension mocked up. chris and I finished the motor mounts and tranny mount last night.

Over the past few weeks we have finished a lift kit and power brake conversion on Jarrett's early Bronco. A highlander had a 100K maintenance and timing belt/water pump. Several strand vans have come through and one is getting a new tranny this week. Jeremy's buggy received some tube repair. We have lifted a few JK's for Cecil Atkins Jeep. The Tahoe is now regeared with a new 241 t-case and driveshafts are expected any day now. dan's CJ has been revamped with a corrected drive line mounts, skid plate, motor mounts, electric fan, dash, gauges, and a host of other odds and ends. and Tony's buggy evolves every day.

Get your 2010 EDR Firecracker 250 Race DVD at the shop for $12.99 plus tax! It's a very well produced motor sports action film covering all the trucks and race cars at the event... including our own 7S truck. Also included is a bonus footage of the Extreme Outlaws 200 race.

Shop Banter

We have been extremely busy with the day to day operations here at the shop, especially with all the planning it takes to run the 7S truck. Krawltex has also teamed up witha WEROC competitor new to the area. The shop will be sponsoring Jeremy Dickinson with his unlimited class rear steer buggy for the rest of this year as well as 2011 in the WEROC East series. All of us are looking forward to his success. Jeremy currently works for Michelin tires and formerly was an XRRA course builder.

As far as shop work goes... We have done a slew of Strand vans, finishing odds and ends on two TJ's that received AW4 transmission swaps, Andrew's SAS 1 ton Tahoe now moves under its own power, an Jason's early Bronco is getting a cage, Austin's 4runner has an LC Engineering 22RE about to be swapped in, while Rob's 4runner just received a 56" spring conversion with a rear bumper and sliders awaiting installation. We are also doing maintenance to Andrew's Chevy 2500 HD, and a small lift on a JK for a Jeep dealership in Burnet.

Next week will be a disc brake conversion on another ealry Bronco, wrapping up the Tahoe and an AW4 TJ, starting on the 4-link, full hydro and 5.3L Chevy conversion in tony's YJ buggy, hopefully making some head way on the FJ Cruiser supercharger upgrade, and the 5.3L swap and cage work on Mack's CJ7

Here's a few pics of the 4runner and Bronco cage

4th of July Parade in Round Rock!!!

the Round Rock 4th of July Parade is tomorrow at noon. We will be driving the Krawltex race truck and throwing candy out to the kids if you want to co

Firecracker 250 Race Report

We had a blast at the Firecracker 250! EDR and Rock and Roll put on a great event in Odessa. Jeremy, Becca, Ben and I rolled out with the 5 Unlimited around 4PM. Matt Schwoerer and Matt "Goosette" Little were in the long travel Tacoma. We got to Odessa just after the sun set, made camp and called it a night. Tony, Ted and Chris brought the 7S truck and showed up at 5AM.

Friday morning we teched and registered at the Holiday Inn, picked up Phil, then headed to the track. Ted and Matt took the first lap in the race truck. That's when we found our GPS was no longer with us. We even tried to upload the course from another racer. We made the call to have every driver take a lap to get familiar with the course. Chris and Goosette took it out. That's about when Jeremy came back with Will and Eliot from the airport. Ben and I drove the truck to finish the day out. Somewhere in that time, Oren and Natalia showed up. Andy and Dave took the 5 car and did one lap with some minor electrical hiccups.

The course was pretty fast and had a ton of silt. 50 mile laps of loose sand, wash outs, tight trails lined with cedar and a sprinkling of football sized rocks made up the course. We somehow missed the pre-race dinner, but made the driver meeting an hour before the race. Unfortunately, there were no other class 7S (V6 mini trucks) besides us. So we went up a class and raced against the full size V8 trucks in class 8.

I took the first lap with Matt S. We started towards the end of the 8 truck lineup. I drove a bit aggressively to get through the traffic and out of all the dust. After landing hard on a jump, part of the lower hood mount broke and held on for dear life until we pitted. By mile 20, we were in third. After mile 35, we had first place by a good lead. In to the pits we went, after I blew a big turn where there were a ton of spectators. The hood was removed and our pit was pretty clean... Just a minute and a half for a full driver change and look over the truck. A Bronco and an Ultra 4 passed us in the pits.

Ted jumped in and Matt S stayed in the co-driver seat for lap 2. Around mile 3, the truck dug deep in to the silt and buried itself to the frame. The crew team jumped in to Tony's F350, raced across the mid field and extracted the Tacoma. Onward they went. On lap 3, they blew a tire. It was completely shredded. There was a problem with the jack that put the car down for 15 minutes before the spare was swapped. Around mile 34, the brakes went to the floor. Ted and Matt pulled off the course, and pinched off the broken stainless brake line. We scrounged up the parts to make the repair and they limped it back.

The truck came back in to the pits and the crew went to it. Gas, driver change, front end shake down and lug nut torquing. I dove under the truck and swapped out the stainless line. Tony bled the brakes. Off they went... another 15 minute delay in the pits. Despite our hardships, Chris and Goosette powered through and had a flawless 2 laps. They closed the gap between us and first place down to 15 minutes when the Krawltex Tacoma crossed the finished line. Second place finish. Not too shabby for a V6 truck running in class 8!

Unfortunately, our 5 car had a slew of problems that couldn't be fixed out on the course. At mile 5 of lap 1, the ignition system shit the bed. After changing plugs, wires, cap , rotor, and an ignition computer chip, the 5 car finally got back on course. After the first pite, we splashed it with gas and sent them on their way. 20 miles later, the nut holding the alternator pulley decided to fly off in to the woods, shredding the belt and taking the pulley with it. Dave managed to find the pulley but we had to source another nut. The correct fastener is a conical 14mm. All we could find was a non-tapered nut. After an hour of figuring out how to get to the 5 car, the crew patched the car and limped it back to the pits. Back to repair and prep work for both vehicles.

Krawltex is planning to run the Best in the Desert Series Vegas to Reno race in August. In the coming months, we will be doing a full prep, swapping glass, rewiring, and freshening up the interior. The 5 car will be going under prep for the Texoma day/night race in September.

Krawltex 4th Anniversary Party June 12th

It's that time of year again. Thanks to every one that has helped us along the way! Krawltex is very excited to be in our 4th year of business. Come by the shop on saturday, June 12th for some free BBQ, refreshments and live music. Festivities start at 11:30am. Check out the new digs if you haven't made it over to the new shop yet. We will have a great rockabilly band named the Tyburn Jig playing around 1PM. Think Johnny Cash meets Dick Dale and Punk Rock all in one. They even have a lap steel in their company. We will have the race car on display as well as other project vehicles. You may want to bring a folding chair. Other than that, please join us in celebrating 4 great years in the off road community!

Ed's Long Travel 4runner pics

On Ed's 05 Toyota 4runnner: 3" Stage 5 Icon long travel suspension... adjustable coilovers with remote reservoirs, billet aluminum upper control arms with heimed ends, All-pro heimed swaybar links and tie rod ends, Light Racing Jounce air bumps, Total Chaos lower control arm skid plates, 3" rear Icon coil springs, remote reservoir shocks, lower shock mount skids