Flyguy you can do it
Nick,
1) You asked about putting tow hooks and other things pertaining to your early model. I am not qualified to answer that; I own a '99 Eddie Bauer, so I'll leave that to someone else. I will offer info that I know from firsthand experience, though. These are not opinions, they are facts.
2) The "shields" you asked about are skidplates. If you want to run offroad, put some under your vehicle. I do not consider these an option: do you really want to run your 2.5 ton vehicle scraping across trail rocks with your gas tank?
3) Mandatory equipment is covered on this website's main page at
http://www.explorer4x4.com/trail_equip.html written by yours truly
. Read the whole article and bring the required items. For beginners, others will supply the rest of the stuff on a big outting like Truckhaven.
4) If you plan
any offroad trips, forget the Long Trails and get the BFG AT ko's. In every way, in every circumstance, the AT ko's are
astronomically superior to the Firestones that came on your SUV: road noise comparable (except for maybe between 20-30 mph while turning or braking; then only negligible difference), they do not hydroplane AT ALL, they last a heckuva lot longer (ask Ray Lobato who has I think 70-80,000 on his older pre-ko tires), and the offroad difference is alike to comparing crossing wet ice in tennis shoes and then glueing sandpaper on the bottoms of them. I have 11,000 city commuting Dallas miles on my AT's with NO complaints, and only halleluhahs for dumping the Firestones. I can simply look at the Long Trail tread and tell that they will never take me where mine has gone before on my AT's. Buy the AT's and don't think twice. Period. The agressive tread design that scares you actually looks a heckuva lot neater too
. Think about it: you get a much better tire, much safer on the street, incomparably better offroad, longer lasting, and it looks boss too. HELLO???
5) Running boards. This will be your judgement call, but listen to me. My experience is directly pocketbook valid and learned the very hard way. With a stock vehicle, you will be concerned with losing valuable ground clearance. I lose 3", and that's a lot on the trail. There is the very real possibility that you will bang up the bottoms of them if they hang too low on the trail. Bummer, and it costs you money.
I did that, and rebent the running board framework myself and bought the painted replacement plastic for a couple hundred bucks and decided I would take them off next time.
My last wheelin'trip, I demolished my lower door panels on one side in a mishap. If I had the running boards on, I would had to yet again buy another running board. For a couple of hundred dollars. Instead, I've got body damage, paint matching, etc. For $1500. Those running boards stick out over half a foot and that is a LOT of protection to your body.
Now, if we meet next year at Truckhaven, take a wild guess whether I will be wearing my $200 running boards or exposing my $1500 rocker panels.
Now I don't want to turn you off to trying this sport. I take trails and lines reserved for more extreme fourwheeling beyond what probably any other '99 Eddie Bauer in this country does. But the point is that something COULD happen even if you are careful, so why bother, just keep the protection on, ok? And that brings us to the fun part...
6) You will be VERY surprised what your vehicle can do. It's been alluded to already in this thread, and I mention it in the Trail Equipment article. Lay aside what you think you can do until you've been on a run with us. It's a LOT more than you think, and you will shock yourself concerning what you accomplish. This is really, really, fun. And you are the final judge, you don't have to follow me. Just have fun without excess risk to your baby, and go home grinning ear-to-ear after the experience!
I cannot tell you the supreme fun it was to show up for a J**p run with my way-too-pretty new Explorer, be made fun of by all those J**pers who wondered what in the heck I was doing out there with them, and then being christened "Jeepeater" by those same people when I made it through trails that required them to constantly get straps and winches.
Hope to See you there.
[Edited by GJarrett on 07-09-2000 at 11:51 AM]
