Northern Colorado spring wheeling? | Page 3 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Northern Colorado spring wheeling?

If anyone else is coming we are meeting at the trail head at 10:00a.m. Link for trail and its location is in post #35. Hope this wheeling trip goes better than the rest of my week has.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Here are a few pics of last weekends trip. Was muddy but that made it fun. Unfortunately Stang5lgt couldn't make the whole trip but we saw him and wheeled for a little bit. Good to see forum friends. nssj2 and I wheeled all day and had a blast. For anyone that hasn't seen his rig it is a work of art. Did a great job putting it all together. It's well built and looks great. It wheeled just as well to! Anyways for anyone that's interested here are some pics and since I was in my truck don't have a ton of pictures of it on the obstacles but you'll get the idea. The trail was super slick so made for some good throttle moves :) I did have a the GoPro running so when i get a chance I'll post the vids on youtube.

100_1053.JPG

100_1064.JPG

100_1066.JPG

100_1067.JPG
 
























100_1146.JPG

100_1156.JPG


That's my wife riding with nssj2, she rode all the way up Big Mamma Hill and back down. We had a blast! Pictures don't do it justice, as always. This spot was brutal. Did well but is one of those spots where if you don't have a spotter and aren't careful it could end with you rolling several hundred feet down. Almost watched two others roll at this spot. One Rubicon trying to climb it, front wheels way in the air looked about to go over backwards. Other was a jack*** kid just full throttle whole why up and turned around on the side hill. Almost rolled and would have hit the J**P that you see in the pics and nssj2's Merc. People like that kid are the ones getting all the trails closed. kinda wanted him to lay it on its side, could have waved and just gone right by, let him figure out how to get it back up. If you look at the hole nssj2 is straddling it would swallow 35's, would end badly if you drop a tire in that hole. And being muddy and slick just adds to it! :)
100_1158.JPG
 






Here are a few pics of last weekends trip. Was muddy but that made it fun. Unfortunately Stang5lgt couldn't make the whole trip but we saw him and wheeled for a little bit. Good to see forum friends.

Yeah my wife is not a heights person and she was getting verbal with me and kept telling me I wish you would have left me at home. LOL She is fine on trails like Chinaman Gulch which on the worst part you might fall 50 foot. She was not diggin the 200 foot drops and then being muddy on top of that. I had the Merc in 2 wheel drive all the way to 5 corners. But didn't matter to her. :p: All I have to say is 4.88s rock! I used 4 low on the way down so I didn't have to use the brakes. All the way down the Merc in first gear held 2-3 mph. Never used brakes once couple times had to give it some throttle to speed up. Nice meeting you guys. Sorry I didn't get to finish trail with you guys. But having a happy wife was more important. ;)
 






Thanks for the great pictures!! I would have taken some more in return, but I was a bit busy behind the wheel haha. The trip was great regardless of crap weather. Good people, good rigs, and some fresh air, what more could you want? I even got to pull out a stuck j**p muahaha. Sadly though I have some carnage to report. I'm pretty sure my lower steering column grenaded, as calling it sloppy is an understatement. Otherwise, I was thrilled with the setup for the first time really putting it through its paces. Enough babbling, picture time!

011-1.jpg


The squeeze
010-2.jpg


part 2
009-3.jpg


007-4.jpg


Flexy flex
006-3.jpg
 






You got a few good ones of my rig! That's part of the benefit of having the wife come is some great pictures! I didn't get any of mine through the squeeze, which is where my only carnage of the trip came from. Scratched slider, scratched rim and center cap. (scratches also on T-Case skid plate, under side of sliders, tiny bump on the diff, and one spot on the right LCA, all small scratches) I love being armored makes wheeling so much more fun when I don't have to worry about the body or undercarriage. Where i scratched my rear rim is the same spot nssj2 got both his front and rear rims a little. For everyone else running 35+ tires and no sway bars, my stock IFS rig with front and rear sway bars hooked up, 31's, and no locker at all, it held its own well.

That's the first time you have run it that hard since SAS? It did well, only part that was funny was when we went through that really narrow spot that leaned the rigs towards falling off a 300+ ft cliff, :), I didn't get a pic but your rig with the full width was almost rubbing the rock wall on the right and left tires 1 inch or so off the edge. Was a small pucker factor when it put us at a 15-20* lean while that close to the ledge, and trail was covered in snow and slick mud.

When did your steering column decide to hate you? I didn't notice you having any issues when we ran Big Mamma Hill?

My Carnage!
Side of my Drivers slider.
2011-04-25_15-01-29_748.jpg


My scratched rim and weight.
2011-04-25_15-33-56_392.jpg


And you can see there are two spots on the center cap missing its chrome. One was from an earlier trip other was from this trip.
2011-04-25_15-34-16_647.jpg


In Hind-site we should have both gone over that rock and stump instead of trying to go around it. with it muddy we both slid into it and got the rims. My idea would have worked for mine if I was taller, i couldn't get the rear to come over the rock because it was sitting against the slider.
 






That's the first time you have run it that hard since SAS? It did well, only part that was funny was when we went through that really narrow spot that leaned the rigs towards falling off a 300+ ft cliff, :), I didn't get a pic but your rig with the full width was almost rubbing the rock wall on the right and left tires 1 inch or so off the edge. Was a small pucker factor when it put us at a 15-20* lean while that close to the ledge, and trail was covered in snow and slick mud.

Wow glad didn't go through that spot wife would have had a cow. LOL
That was first time I ever drove my truck to the trail and back home. I was happy for that part even though I missed a lot of fun looks like.

My buddy took his YJ up there today. Him and his wife went. They were going up big momma and found this guy trapped under this atv.
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_17924395
 






Wow. At least he was able to get medical attention.

I didn't even realize it was that far down! I try to just keep my eyes on the horizon lol. And again, mad props on the driving skill. Not a lot of people can put that truck through what you did. It's nice to have the armor to slide over everything you can't clear :D. I noticed it as soon as I hit pavement, I had about 1/4 to 1/2 turn of nothing, then it would catch. Thought it was the gearbox until I checked the intermediate steering shaft for play. Turns out I can move it a few inches in any direction right from the firewall :eek:. Made for a hell of a drive home lol. Something to do when the weather warms up.
 






O man that would have been an interesting drive home. That sucks, wonder what gave out under there. So when we saw you where you just getting back into town? We took the long and VERY pretty way home, we saw tons 20+ elk, and big horned sheep right on the side of the road. Was a great day, until we go back to WY and there is snow everywhere, blah. Haha, hope to get a job soon so the wife doesn't have to make all the money and will give us some extra money to make some more trips. Would love to get through fireman's hill and Big Mamma Hill when its dry. I know we could get it through both. But even the rock my tires where one where slick couldn't quite get enough to get through was close though.
 






K the videos are done and are up on youtube! It is the first time I have ever tried to edit videos, but i think it turned out great. Next time will have to take the GoPro off the truck and record the rigs going through the obstacles from the outside. But turned out good to for snowing and low light from being up in the clouds all day. Anyways check them out, if you have the bandwidth you can go to full HD. Anyways enjoy and let me know what you think!

Part 1
turboexplorer & nssj2 on Left Hand Canyon Part 1

Part 2
turboexplorer & nssj2 on Left Hand Canyon Part 2
 






Back
Top