SandBlasted

Are there any members of the TRT that are on the DDR site or a way to contact them? I'm interested in discussing the new location of vendors row, or the silt highway as I call it. Thank you

The 1st time I went to Dumont I was on my sportsman 700. I had seen maps I knedw there was a wilderness area somewhere around there. Anyway I was down in the wash riding and went thru the washed out road into the wilderness area. no signs no nothing. I was not in very far and noticed a lack of trails and other riders and decided I better get out of there. I took a road to the top of the other side of the road and a ranger was driving up. While I was there 20 or 30 min getting my 100.00 ticket, he asked if anyone else was back there. I said no as when I was there no one else was there. As I was getting my ticket, about 5 other people popped up 1 or 2 at a time to get their ticket from the same location. I was pissed and told the ranger we are not all criminals. I explained there were no signs but that was like talking to a rock. I came back later and took pictures. No signs, broken signs, and confusing signs that on one end of the road said no OHV's and on the other said open to OHV's. I took this to the head ranger and and showed him the photos. He informed me that by law they are only required to have a sign at 3 mile intervals. I said if it is worth protecting, then protect it. Right now it seems like your more interested in making money from tickets than preserving the land. He got pissed about my accusation. I explained right or wrong that is what the appearance is. If you are really interested in protecting it in a high interface area you would protect it. As far as I'm concerned you just want the money from the fines. Well I paid the ticket as it would cost more to fight it, but the next time I came out and looked the signs were fixed. Many OHV riders tear down the signs. We have a BLM guy here around our town, we call him the turtle cop, and he says as fast as he puts them up they tear them down. The rule here is if there is not a sign, then it is closed. IMHO they need a fence or they need good signage.

And you! I'm pissed at you :hug: I have been making b and g for 23 years at the fire station, and most think it is to die for. 2 pounds of hot sausage, a tub of flakey bisquets served with a side of thick cut bacon and you never came by. We finally cooked it up Sunday. It was good. a heart attack on a plate and you missed it. Maybe next time.

Thank you. We have never made money vending at the dunes when you figure in all the costs. We do this more to support and promote our business. On that aspect we make customers and good friends. I can understand why some charge what they do. They do it fulltime every weekend when there are not as many buyers out there, but their costs remain the same I don't know, it's a fine line.

Someone will always come to your rescue sooner or later. I think someone who will not help someone else has either not broken down or will get theirs in the end from the karma god. One of the problems with doing this at Dumont is the costs involved. You just can't go home at the end of the day to Havasue. As a vendor you have all the same cost as someone who is there to play plus the added costs of fees and insurance you have to pay to do business out there. So you bring out a "recovery vehicle" you now have to have a place to stay, fuel to get it all there, pay the entrance fees, the 35.00 per day or 3% whichever is greater and the 100,000.00 liability insurance to do business out there. With most people being willing and able to help you, how much would you have to charge to tow a quad in just to break even?

I bought a little portable ice maker from camping world for about 350.00 when we bought our RV. My wife was complaining about the cost. 3 years later it is still making 28 pounds of ice per day. I saw them at costco a few times for under 300.00. Every 12 min the little bugger will drop 12 ice cubes. It uses only 2.3 amps so it will run off the inverter.

I have been reading what people want at the dunes from vendors and would like to add my 2 cents. We really stepped up what we carried this year. We have always carried bolts nuts jets lugs chains sprockets handle bars fuel filters oil o-rings, hose clamps electrical items such as terminals, solder, wire etc. Items like nuts bolts and electrical items are losers. We have to have a whole bunch to sell a few. We bring these so people can hopefully get their stuff working. If I charged 10.00 per bolt or nut we would not have come close to recovering our costs. If we sold them for 5.00 per, it would be far cheaper to buy them at that price than run 100 miles round trip into town unless they brought the hybrid. This year we brought in some castle nuts from the OEMS. I bought about $100.00 in different castle nuts from the OEM's to sell 1 at 10.00 What is troubling for me as a business person, is trying to find the right balance of items people need, and at a fair price. Fair price does not always mean a cheap price. What a lot of people want is a fully stocked hardware store, auto parts store, atv shop and department store all at k-mart prices. Our customer of the weekend was a guy with a brand new, fully accessorized, genuine illuminated lighted whip and no fuse holder. We had one (I remember buying them at retail a few years ago) but could not find it. I took a blade fuse, soldered 2 wires to it, covered it in heat shrink and handed it to him. I had at least 20 minutes of my time getting everything together and building it. When it was time for payment I said 5 or 10 bucks whatever you think. He hands me a whole 5.00 and walks off. Since I did not even get a thank you for what I thought was going the extra mile I, can only assume he thought he paid too much. One of the "old timers" who has an idea what it costs to do business out there, said "If it was me I would of handed his 5.00 back and said it's obvious you need this more than me" One guy who’s CDI went out on his Honda explained to me that the 199.00 Dynatek CDI I was selling that retails for 209.00 he could get off of eBay for 150.00. Thank god we sold most of our 10.00 and 15.00 high priced flags. At a gross profit of 5 to 7 dollars per flag we were laughing all the way to the bank! We were celebrating until we figured out it we paid over 500.00 in fuel costs. We cannot sell beer or dispense fuel out on the dunes. The stripper pole was at the dunes, but since mike got busted a year or so ago at comp, it sits un-used at his camp with the disco ball lights going over it. I’m not complaining we have a lot of great customers who know the value of the items we bring. We have many when you ask a 1.00 for a fuse, who hand you 2.00 or more and say thank you for bringing them. For those who did not bring everything they could possibly need, think what it would cost for you to return to town in fuel costs, and them come by and tell me how high our prices are.

I talked to Don (camp host) and he said they will be grading the road thursday. It sounded to me like the BLM was ot going to do it. Don said are you nuts? Your going to rasie the fees and not grade the road? I guess someone was listening.

It seemed to me there was a lot of trash all over the dunes. More than I've ever seen for this time of year. Jim (I just met him with a red rzr) was just driving around picking it up.

I know how everone just hates virgin sand, so I'm doing my best to make it just like we like it. I know I know, I'm just doing my small part for the good of the community.

We just delivered it. I'll get some photos. We are out at vendor's row. Come on by!

The hog is here!

Say you'll show up for breakfast and I'll make ya some. (I'll have to have my son pick up the stuff when he comes out thrusday)

I don't know if Verizon is fast enough for the live cam, one nice thing about the new vendor row I have 3 bars on the verizon air card!

Thank you for the kind words, (quietly) now where do i send the check? And who is this? lol

No hog yet. But don't worry, Sheri makes a mean omelet and I make the world’s best firehouse biscuits and gravy! It's soooo good to the taste buds and the leftovers can be used to patch your stucco

Mikey is here, and a lot of unmanned trailers on venders row. I expect more here today. As far as the duners, there is not many. From here I can only see 4 camps. We are delivering the "Rescue Rhino" to Don today. I need to take a few photos as we just got it done. It's not super pretty, but it has some power under the hood to get him where he needs to be when someone has to be transported out. ITP donated the sand tires and wheels for this project. Let hope no one has to use it this year!! Pete, on a side note, bring us your Halloween tees, we will get rid of them for ya

Hello everyone! We just pulled in and what a nice night. No wind, full moon and a nice 75 degrees outside. We are out in the nose bleed section of vendor’s row. The road is wash boarded pretty good. I hope they grade it before everyone arrives. I'll see if I can find out anything tomorrow. We arrived about 8pm and no one was at the permit area, so I don't know if they will be selling permits this weekend or not. No sand report as I have not been out there yet. Hope everyone has a great evening and to all our California friends we hope you are safe and your homes as well.

Thats good to know. I always told them to see you, but some have said only thing you stocked was VW. I'll send'em your way

Ah Submariners, O2 gets a little lean and they will try anything! You Rock!

We have thought about the CV Joints and boots, I just don't know exactly what to carry. I asked one of my suppliers and he told me everything is different. If someone lets me know what is needed I'll try and get some stock.

I just talked to Larry over at the BLM about the passes, their goal is to have no on site sales of the passes at some point at Dumont. We are going to get setup with them for our store sometime after the 26th of October. We will be offering them on line mail order as well. (we have to complete a trainign class) I assume we are going to be selling them when we vend, but when no venders are around I can see this being a problem for those who don't know to go to the Valaro, or where ever they are going to sell them from in baker. Oh I can see the traffic jam now in baker. :angry2:

When we 1st opened our store, one of our distributers talked us into carrying his "Die Faster" line of clothing. Well lets just say it was NOT a real big hit. Our 1st year out at dumont we took what we had left. On the front of the thong was "die faster" Buy a spark plug get a free thong or t-shirt or... Everyone makes business mistakes, right? :mc_smiley:

I'm trying to get out there, not to vend but to test and play. It is not looking good however, my friggn job is getting in the way of my fun. We will be out there for halloween. We are shooting to be out on the 23rd of october, so I can play before we get busy. When are you going?

I liked it also. It was nice being close so when we get a little break I can say to the ol' lady... be right back gotta take a ride. We'll be happy in the back country I'm sure.