Events/Trails 200's in Breckenridge - Summer 2017

[TexAZ]

I have also been back and forth about the RTT vs. standard tent vs. trailer. One member that attended the Ouray trip last year camped in a RTT so we asked about what they thought of it. It rained just about every day there, and they had to try to dry the tent as much as possible prior to folding it up and heading out for the day. Really seemed like a lot of work for that type of trip. A true base camp would have been more user friendly, especially if you are in a place where you are reserving/paying for a camping spot anyway.

 

[TRD Burglar]

I have found that there is no single tent that's perfect in all situations.

I had a RTT on my FJ Cruiser and it was great most of the time, but there were issues like what were stated above and there's also issues with storage, installation and removal. My girlfriend and I could install and remove it by ourselves, but it was a major pain. At one point in order to make it easier, I built an A-frame and used my winch and snatch block to install it, but that kind of sucked too. Usually, I just relied on friends to help me.

Then I got my 200, and since it's a much bigger vehicle, it made everything with RTT much much harder. There was no way we could install it by ourselves. Even folding it up was harder. After one trip to Overland Expo West last year I decided that was enough and sold it. In my opinion, RTTs work best on trailers. You can leave it on the trailer all the time and you can easily setup a base camp with it.

I don't have room to store a trailer, so in place of the RTT, I bought an Oztent RV-5 and a couple of Oztent cots. I used this setup as our base camp for 5 days on our Ouray trip in August and it worked great! The setup and break down is as fast as the RTT, but it's a lot easier to live with. It's a big tent, so I still have to carry it on the roof rack, but I can easily handle that myself.

In addition to the big Oztent, I also carry a small 2-man pup tent for those nights when we aren't staying long and it doesn't make since to set everything up.

 

[TRD Burglar]

I just found this website where you download all of the GPS tracks for all of the trails in the Breckenridge area in a single download (very easy). They have other areas such as Ouray and Moab as well.

Breckenridge Jeep trails with gpx tracks

 

[bperz]

new to the crew, but count me in!

 

[LALC]

Reading the comments regarding upgrades to a stock LC, do we expect to hit a lot of rocks? That's generally what you need sliders for right? Reason I ask is I assume you guys are hitting a lot of rock trails, but we don't see a lot of that in Louisiana or the surrounding area. I almost never see anyone running sliders here. I want them on my list of upgrades, just not sure if they should be at the top considering my area?

 

[ethernectar]

Reading the comments regarding upgrades to a stock LC, do we expect to hit a lot of rocks? That's generally what you need sliders for right? Reason I ask is I assume you guys are hitting a lot of rock trails, but we don't see a lot of that in Louisiana or the surrounding area. I almost never see anyone running sliders here. I want them on my list of upgrades, just not sure if they should be at the top considering my area?

Ouray made the decision for me, but we do see a lot of rock here in CA as well.

StepNotSlider_3 by Matt Frederick, on Flickr

StepNotSlider_1 by Matt Frederick, on Flickr

All those aluminum parts are supposed to be straight. A couple of the mounting rivets even pulled out of the metal, the one big hit pushed the whole step back almost 2"

 

[Markuson]

Reading the comments regarding upgrades to a stock LC, do we expect to hit a lot of rocks? That's generally what you need sliders for right? Reason I ask is I assume you guys are hitting a lot of rock trails, but we don't see a lot of that in Louisiana or the surrounding area. I almost never see anyone running sliders here. I want them on my list of upgrades, just not sure if they should be at the top considering my area?

Tight turns around straight tree trunks or stumps too...

 

[kevinfoutch]

Also gives you a lot more jack point options, is wider step for passengers to climb in and out, and look darn fine! More than just rock protection

 

[codyaustin5]

Reading the comments regarding upgrades to a stock LC, do we expect to hit a lot of rocks? That's generally what you need sliders for right? Reason I ask is I assume you guys are hitting a lot of rock trails, but we don't see a lot of that in Louisiana or the surrounding area. I almost never see anyone running sliders here. I want them on my list of upgrades, just not sure if they should be at the top considering my area?

At least for CO trails your priorities should be tires and sliders. Most everything else can wait.

 

[BTUMAN]

Reading the comments regarding upgrades to a stock LC, do we expect to hit a lot of rocks? That's generally what you need sliders for right? Reason I ask is I assume you guys are hitting a lot of rock trails, but we don't see a lot of that in Louisiana or the surrounding area. I almost never see anyone running sliders here. I want them on my list of upgrades, just not sure if they should be at the top considering my area?

Sliders are the single best investement- especially if you plan to go to Ark, Tx, etc to some off road parks outside it LA I can personally highly recommend the @sleeoffroad sliders as they have been absorbing impacts for years and are well designed beefy to take the weight of the 200 resting on them.

Before I had a lift or tires - I had sliders and they paid for themselves the first trip- without them I would have damaged my quarter panels.

In fact- before damaging your factory steps- you can sell them to offset the cost of the sliders. I think I got 250 for the set on mine. Anyway- my thoughts. Sorry to ramble on...

 

[Mogwai]

Sliders are the single best investement- especially if you plan to go to Ark, Tx, etc to some off road parks outside it LA I can personally highly recommend the @sleeoffroad sliders as they have been absorbing impacts for years and are well designed beefy to take the weight of the 200 resting on them.

Before I had a lift or tires - I had sliders and they paid for themselves the first trip- without them I would have damaged my quarter panels.

In fact- before damaging your factory steps- you can sell them to offset the cost of the sliders. I think I got 250 for the set on mine. Anyway- my thoughts. Sorry to ramble on...

Damn too bad I screwed mine up before I got me Sleeders.

 

[Dan Higgins]

First, congrats to @kreiten and @MScruiser! Our 2nd granddaughter is expected to arrive in March.

As for the Breck trip, like @Canyonero, I live in the Denver area (probably only 5-6 miles SW of @Canyonero) and would be willing to help out however I can - if the schedule line up. I haven't done any wheeling in the Breck area per se but have done some easy to moderate stuff near Leadville and Buena Vista. I'm not as hard core as some of you but at a minimum I would love to get up and meet you all.

 

[Dan Higgins]

Reading the comments regarding upgrades to a stock LC, do we expect to hit a lot of rocks? That's generally what you need sliders for right? Reason I ask is I assume you guys are hitting a lot of rock trails, but we don't see a lot of that in Louisiana or the surrounding area. I almost never see anyone running sliders here. I want them on my list of upgrades, just not sure if they should be at the top considering my area?

Rocks? Definitely! I don't have sliders on yet (our LC is only 5 months old and we generally don't do or plan to do the types of trails that are difficult because I'm nearly always going out alone). But I added them to my previous vehicle (LR4) and loved them. The other hard lesson we learned driving on these rocky trails is the importance of tires with thicker sidewalls. When we had our LR4 we lost two tires on an "easy" trail. They were P-rated so we replaced them with E-rated KO2s. One of the first things I did with our new LC was switch to E-rated 285/65R18 KO2s as many on this forum use.

So, yeah, we don't typically see the type of mud you do in Lousiana, but we have rocks.

We also have shelf roads. I hate shelf roads! Which routes I do with you all will probably have more to do with the shelf roads than anything - which is why I wouldn't do Red Cone.

 

[Dan Higgins]

I just found this website where you download all of the GPS tracks for all of the trails in the Breckenridge area in a single download (very easy). They have other areas such as Ouray and Moab as well.

Breckenridge Jeep trails with gpx tracks

For those of you who are coming and want to do some research, the books from Funtreks are practically the gold standard. There are two Colorado books. One is labeled "Northern" Colorado and it covers trails north of I-70. Breck is south of I-70 so I don't know how much we'll be doing North of I70. You can also download GPX tracks from Funtreks that correspond to the books (waypoints, etc.). I upload the GPX tracks into my Delorme (er, Garmin) Inreach which is connected to my iPhone or iPad. Funtreks does update their books from time to time.

FunTreks Guidebooks - Site Content - FunTreks Guidebooks, GPS Data, & Maps

There is another set of books we like because they offer more historical and area background on some of the trails but we find them a bit dated.

Colorado Trails Central Region: Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails: Peter Massey, Angela Titus, Jeanne Wilson: 9781930193512: Amazon.com: Books

We use both as well as the TrailDamage website to try to get current conditions on trails.

TrailDamage.com

BTW, for those of you with families there is a ton of stuff to do in the Summit County area (Breckenridge, Frisco, Dillon, Silverthorne, Keystone) area in the Summer. The town of Breck is great and a great place for families to hang out. But this also means that it is crowded on weekends. Also, camping in Summit County is limited.

 

[mcgaskins]

Red Cone is not worth it IMO. I've done it in my 200 and the narrow shelf road is worse than Black Bear Pass. The view is good at the top, but the same is true for almost every trail in Colorado.

We also have shelf roads. I hate shelf roads! Which routes I do with you all will probably have more to do with the shelf roads than anything - which is why I wouldn't do Red Cone.

I also hate shelf roads, and the one coming down Red Cone heading back to 285 to the beginning of Webster Pass does suck (ran it probably 5x probably in the past). I ran Red Cone last 4th of July, and that shelf road was totally blocked by snow, so we had to go to the right at the bottom of the last descent to complete Webster Pass into the town of Montezuma and exited right by Keystone and the base of Loveland Pass. That route was sooooo much better with great scenery a small water crossing or two, and we liked it a lot more than the traditional way to run Red Cone. I'd highly suggest we do Red Cone in this fashion because it's easy to get back to Breck from the exit from Keystone.

 

[FDMD]

Stack 1!

 

[BTUMAN]

I keep coming back to the thread and all I see is talk on Tents. I'm not the moderator- but I'll be that guy who says let's stay on topic for this thread as there will be a lot of important information from the folks organizing. I know I am guilty also at times chasing squirrels on threads.

Now- Cody- give us the some meat on more details.

 

[codyaustin5]

Dates should be finalized by this Friday! I will always update post #1 with newest info.

 

[Taco2Cruiser]

I'm really pushing to see if I can get the days off from work. I'm already taking off for Vermont overland rally and expo east, just need the stars to align for this one.

 

[steenh]

Wake up Cody... it's Friday!