The Hill
Well, as the Gwagen driver in the video, I thought I'd chime in.
I agree that it would have better to descend at a lower speed. I was already in 4-low, so lifting my foot off the brake wouldn't have gotten me anything other than a quicker descent. For me 1st gear is 4.043, the R&P's are 4.9, X-fer case low is 2.14, so with 32 inch tires I get something like a 45 to 1 engine RPM to tire RPM. It's not a dedicated buggy running 100 to 1 or better, so in this case all you can do is play the hand dealt 'ya.
Likewise, I had aired down to 30 psi (I normally run 45-50 on the street). OK, so maybe I should have dropped another 5-10 psi, but I doubt it would have made much of a difference with my skinny-ass 235 85 16's. My truck weighs 6,200 pounds, so at 20 psi, I loose almost two inches of ground clearance. I could have been more conservative with tire pressure, but I've wheeled Hidden Falls before, so at the staging area prior to the start, I simply chose the settings that served me well previously.
With all that said, I wasn't worried about breaking the front axle, I've had the truck twisted up with the full weight on either front wheel at full lock in both directions on numerous occasions in the past (with no damage). I was however somewhat worried about keeping the truck pointed downhill because I didn't want to roll. I haven't done a lot of hard off-camber wheeling since I installed the roof rack last fall and I wasn't sure how far my center of gravity had risen. There was certainly a pucker-factor involved but after driving the "Bronco" trail, I wasn't worried at all.
But back to the hill... Chalk up my performance to laziness and arrogance. it was the first obstacle of the day and as the outsider in the group I felt like I had something to prove with my cavalier descent. I didn't walk the obstacle to scout the appropriate line for MY truck. I hadn't watched the guide descend in the buggy. The result was that my [aftermarket] swing-away tire carrier got smacked on a ledge and broke off. In doing so it banged the left taillight (for which I happened to have a replacement). And through my own clumsiness I cracked the factory license-plate holder when I dropped the (now disconnected) spare tire to which it was attached. In any case the damages were minor and pretty much par-for-the course in a roadworthy truck on a "Level 4" obstacle.
The biggest take-away from this (at least for me) is ALWAYS scout your lines, especially if you're going first!
I'm looking forward to driving that hill again next time I go to HF. I'd also like to try and climb it.
I had a great time hanging out with y'all and hope to do so again. Maybe next time I won't be the only Gwagen in the group.
Regards,
-BRAH
I hope to run that in my 4runner eventually when it gets a diesel
