IdahoDoug said:
If the photographer's camera was accurately straight up and down, it honestly looks like you're well beyond 33 degrees. From the looks of it, a person could walk up and pull the truck over.
DougM
The photog might have imbellished the angle, the protractor gave me a solid 33*. I had an adult passenger and a 10 year old in the rear passenger-side. They both wanted to touch the ground, when they did the truck rocked. The boy's father (in the truck ahead of us) quickly gave the amusement ride speech (All hands and feet INSIDE the vehicle).
Junk said:
1st set doesn't look bad at all because if it did go, even though it doesn't look close, all you're going to do is softly lay over against the berm. Not downplaying it, just know from doing that stuff myself.
How'd you end up in the situation in the 2nd set? Would appear if you merely turned the front tires right you'd be fine. Were you intentionally trying to traverse it or what am I missing?
In the first set, I knew I couldn't really hurt myself and wanted to get a feeling for a known amount of off-camber. I didn't realize it would end up being quite that off-camber, but I accomplished what I intended- now I know 33* is pretty much the limit, and what it looks like before actually being in it.
The second set of pics was just dumb. I saw a really steep hillclimb, so I went up it, thinking I would back down. I got to the top and the group watching suggested (taunted) that I turn right and traverse the ridge. They couldn't see that the other side of the ridge was a cliff. I took the challenge (with my wife laying down on the back seat), and made the 3 point right turn to line up along the ridge. At that point there was no turning back. The path was more tilted than I thought, and barely wide enough. Just to the right the angle actually increased, which is hard to see in the pic (you can see that the dirt changes texture there, where runoff has eroded it- it was probably past 40* there), and the hill was probably 30 feet high. I creeped along, figuring if I started to slide I'd crank the wheel right and gun it. The wife at this point is noticing she's sliding into the passenger door head-first and starts moving around (why I have passengers in these situations I don't know). I was able to follow the ridge to a place where the angle on my right wasn't quite as steep before the truck started sliding and I had to gun it. It was a religious experience.
clownmidget said:
Are your springs retained?
Yeah, by the shocks. I don't think the axles can articulate enough to require spring retention due to the shock length. Nothing else though.
Clarkrw3, I saw you on the Crown King run (I was in the purple Nissan at the time), you were planning a diesel swap. How's that going? Haven't seen you on a trail since, figured you might be wrenching on that thing.
-Spike
:hillbilly
