93flatbed

You'll be ok. They consider a turbo a muffling device here. All of my piles have stright pipes and my buddies with 24valves and common rails all have stright pipes also. We fly through emissions each year! If you truck smokes real bad just make sure not to hold it to the floor like they tell you to. I put a can of Copenhagen under the floor mat and that works for my truck.

Fred Swanson

Goodyear, like Estrella Mountain area?
If this is the cat on your new 06, you don't have to deal with it until the truck is over 5 years old.
So being here 6 weeks now, its been a very wet Winter/Spring, its not that way typically. May is when the heat typically come rolling in.

BTW, I'm just a little farther west of you off of the 303/Bethany Home area.

LOWTYD

Yes. Estrella Mountain. I dont think I'll be able to hide up here. Seemed like the best place to start out for now. We'll see how we like it. There seems to be plenty to do around here if you like the outdoors. I'd love to live up toward's flagstaff eventually, but may be a little far until I get things settled down here.

Buffalo

Personally, I think living close to work is a good idea, as others have said. Then, on the weekends, you can drive to the recreation areas.

We have a lot of man-made lakes in the vicinity of the valley. They are all dammed-up canyons. Roosevelt Lake is on the far east side of the valley & is a large lake. To the NE of Scottsdale, you have Bartlett Lake & Horseshoe Lake, both of which are beautiful lakes. All the lakes are beautiful & can be used year around. There are a huge number of boats registered, here, because of the year around use. Same thing with motorcycles.

There is a lot of off-roading available, also. The Imperial Sand Dunes, just W of Yuma are fantastic. Like riding in the Sahara.

There is a lot of government owned land in AZ & a lot of it is available for recreation. In the summer, when it is really hot, here in the valley, you can go up to the mountains, especially, in E AZ & camp in the woods. It's free to camp in the forests, also. Lots of elk running around up there. I've seen herds of hundreds of them. There are smaller fishing lakes up north, also. Trout, etc. Lots of tall pine trees & aspen in the higher elevations. I usually camp in the 9200-9500' elevation. At the hottest time of the year in the valley, up north, it will be in the 70's during the day & 45-50* at night. So, you can get away from the heat by driving a bit over 200 miles. I'm from Detroit & there was nowhere you could drive, on a week-end to get that dramatic a change in temps. Because of the mountains, here, you can.

The only thing that we don't have, here, is the ocean & you are an easy days drive to that.

Enjoy your stay, here.

Joe F.

Load Hauler 04

My wife and I have lived in Az. all of our lives. I have seen many changes in the last 50 years. We have had a wet winter this year and a unusually cool spring. When the heat gets here , it will happen overnight. one day it will be 75 then the next 90 and then 100+.
The biggest change I have seen in the past 20 years is the lack of respect for Private Property. I live about 50 miles east of Mesa and have 20 acers about a mile off of the main highway. A forest service road used to run thru my property. I let people go thru my property until about 15 years ago. A hotshot on a 4 wheeler decided he could ride allover my fields and tear stuff up, yell at my kids,chase my cattle, then confront me and tell me that he could do what he wanted. When on thru my property and up on the mountian behind it. What I wanted to do I did'nt, instead I called the Sheriff Dept. The waited for him to come down off the mountian. The EDIT got up on the side of the mountian, rolled his 4 wheeler, broke his leg and back. We found him the next day when we were riding to check cattle. Called the rescue crew, flew him out on Air evac, we even got his 4 wheeler out and back to the house where he could pick it up.
He filed a lawsuit on me saying I should not have let him go thru my property and that we had stolen his 4 wheeler and that it was my fault that he was stupid and he broke his leg and back.
Cost me 15,000 in fees to fight the suit. Now, Nobody goes thru my property.
So when you come up on a property owner that won't let you thur, now you know why. It takes one to ruin it for everyone.......

madhat

That sucks. Shoulda shot him.

Load Hauler 04

That's what I wanted to do, but in Az you cannot deadly force to protect personal property,unless deadly force is used to take it,or you are threatened with it.....

BroncoAZ

I am not happy living in the Phoenix area. The heat is coming and it sucks the life and motivation out of me. I don't get into the mountains nearly as much as I'd like. I lived in Tucson and Flagstaff previously. Flagstaff is great as long as you find work. Tucson is more tolerable than Phx, much smaller and a little cooler.

Working all over the valley I chose to live north central, off the SR-51 and Thunderbird. It's a 20 minute commute downtown for the woman, and my drive varies from 5 to 35 miles, but living in the middle of the city I'm usually going to opposite of traffic. I couldn't imagine living outside the city core and commuting in daily. I've had to make afternoon trips to the east and west valleys, the traffic is terrible and everything is spread out. People I work with report daily commutes of over an hour each way from places like Gilbert and Surprise.

I agree about the idiots not respecting property, private or public. I was out shooting recently and some people on quads were trying to make us leave by doing donuts repeatedly upwind of our spot. They would stop and watch to see our reaction when the dust cloud enveloped us. There was a great temptation to throw a few strays their way, but in the end they won, we left after about 30 minutes of taunting. Any time you have 4+ million occupying one area the ******** are bound to float to the surface.

LOWTYD

[QUOTE=DREDnot;2691534]The west side is booming. Everything you need is here and its all relatively new.
Only a short drive to any trees or seasons you would miss.

DREDnot,
A while back, you posted some Mountain camping pics in my "moving to AZ" thread. If you dont mind me asking, where were those pics taken. We have been doing some exploring, looking for some out of the way places to camp or take the boat. I'd also like to find somewhere to do some scouting for hunting season. Drove up to Roosevelt last week, and have been out to Pleasant and Sequaro. To be honest, I would rather pull it to San Diego to enjoy it. I appreciate the help. I'm the one living up in Estrella by the way. Thanks in advance.

Buffalo

The tree line seems to start at about 5000', here in AZ. Most of the forests will be found to the N, N/E & E of Phoenix. From where you're at, forests will be found about 130 miles in those directions. Prescott, AZ., Payson, AZ. etc. About 120 miles N. on I-17 will get you into the forests S of Flagstaff, AZ.

Personally, I like going towards Payson (N/E). In Payson, you can continue N or at Hwy. 260 (the MacDonalds is on the corner), head E towards Show Low, AZ., Springerville, Eagar, Greer, Alpine (appropriately named), & on into N/Mex. The White Mountains, between Show Low & Springerville, Eagar is very nice, to me. You can camp at over 9000' elevations & it will be cool no matter what the temps. are down here in the desert. I live near I-17 & the 101 & the trip to the White Mtns. is about 230 miles. The lakes in the White Mtns. are small, trout fishing lakes that only allow small (8 HP motors) boats or elec. motors. You can camp anywhere in the forests, for free, for up to two weeks. There are a lot of thick forests with an abundance of meadows. I try to camp at the edge of the forest so that you can see the elk come out, at sundown, to graze. Just be careful of the wolf packs that were released, up there, a number of years ago. They are protected unless they attack YOU. They can kill your dog & you can't do anything about it but, report the event. I've never seen one but, know folks that have had them around their trailers.

This is great country for RV's. There is not much land available for cottages or cabins but, there is a lot of government land which is available for your use & pleasure. My home state of MI had lots of lakes with cabin/cottage sites around the lakes & that was very popular, there. Not so, here.

You're a days drive from places like Durango, Silverton & Ouray, CO. Amazingly beautiful country. Actually, there is very little UGLY in the mountainous West. You should have a great time, out West, as long as you have the desire & time to see everything. I love it here & would not want to go back to MI or back East.

Enjoy your stay.

BTW, have you looked at Wickenburg, AZ. It's about 45 miles to the N/W on Hwy. 60 (Grand Ave., here in town.). I think that's a beautiful town, hilly terrain & not far from the big city.

Joe F.

BroncoAZ

The wife and I just got back from a camping trip north of Sedona. Great terrain up north on I-17, and plenty of good places to camp. Check out some of the lakes just south of Flagstaff for some out of the way fishing.

LOWTYD

Thanks Guys. Looks like I'll be heading north.

5POINT9

I guess lots of traffic is relative? Living near Chicago previously, I think traffic here moves great and is MUCH better. If you can get out by 6am (wake up!) and beat the morning traffic, I can drive from south Gilbert to central Tempe in 20 minutes.
AZ is not perfect, but you need to learn how to enjoy it. I dont miss the rain and HUMIDITY! Intense heat is only from June-Sep, the rest of the year is great. People are not as open as the midwest, but not bad.
Enjoy the sun, brave the heat (ie, pool!), and run to the mountains occasionally.

BroncoAZ

I agree with 5POINT9 on some things. If you work a 6 to 3 schedule you can avoid traffic, if you keep normal 8 to 5 hours forget it depending on where you are trying to go. I live in the north center part of the city, so my commuting generally isn't too bad, but those times I've had to go out to Gilbert in the evening are terrible, 90 minutes to go 40 miles. There are way too many people who live on the outskirts and clog the inadequate freeways. Not as bad as east coast traffic, but it still sucks.

As for the intense heat, it's here today and it's supposed to be 111 degrees tomorrow. I work outside most of the time, I hate life in the summer. As for humidity, it was a lot lower when I was a kid, there are many summer days that are approaching 50% and combined with 110+ temps are truely miserable.

I don't see how saying people aren't as open as the midwest is anywhere close to reality. People in Phoenix close their garage door before they get out of their cars. I live in an established 30 year old neighborhood. I spend lots of time outside working on trucks and maintaining my yard, I can count on one hand how many neighbors have ever waved while driving up the street in 4 years. People definately keep to themselves here.

I generally hate the sun, I brave the heat daily but I don't have a pool, and I work too much to escape to the mountains with any regularity. Yep, I hate Phoenix.

trucntryman23

Is anyone in here going to UTI? i am in the Army right now stationed in AK but am moving down there in SEPT to start UTI auto/diesel/industrial.