Here's a few pics from our first ride with the new rig. Started out in the early afternoon on Saturday and reached our campsite that night around 10 f'n p.m.!!! Did it all over again Sunday after camping out Saturday night. Got to ride through several different types of terrain from some minor rock crawling to winching out of mud holes and a little night riding. Very happy with how the rig handled, not so happy about cleaning off all the mud, I HATE mud!!!
That was my wife's synopsis. She was not happy about the mud, nor was I. I hate mud with a passion. Now you guys out west are probably sitting there wondering what the problem is. WOW, a little mud. NEGATIVE. We are talking about a lot of mud and not that candy assed mud you guys have out there. I am talking about clay mixed with Elmer's glue. The stuff so thick a normal pressure washer won't touch it. I spent four hours Sunday after the ride cleaning out from under this truck. The mud was so packed into the wheels they were self steering and the brakes were worse than how bad they were before. And that was only a few mud holes. The trail was fairly dry otherwise, but those few holes required winching out.
Did learn a few things out there and they will be fixed next time. The frame mounted trailer hitch will really screw up the break over angle. That thing has to go next time. My new bumper will have the receiver welded into the bumper to eliminate the ground clearance issue. Couple that with the rear tire carrier and that should solve one of the problems I ran into this weekend. Skid plates need to be added. I didn't really bottom anything out but some of the mud holes had me worried about the AC dryer and I don't like the lack of plating under the front of the bumper and around the transfer case.
The truck needs lockers in a bad way. Had to winch some sections that I shouldn't have had to, but because I was lifting a wheel the truck would stop moving. I did have the front sway bar disconnected, but not the rear. The front springs were making a bunch of noise, popping and such. The rear was silent.
I think a set of front and rear lockers, CDL and pin & mod should round out the truck nicely. I will probably not get to the lockers right away, but the rest should get taken care of before next month.
The truck performed marvelously, didn't over heat, stumble or stutter. Yes we had our snags and hold ups, but nothing we couldn't recover from ourselves. Being independent was nice. Several of our riding mates had problems. One really built Jeep keep stalling and failing to restart. It was having fuel delivery problems and one of the four wheelers was also having a hard time restarting. But we couldn't be stopped and no one did anything we couldn't do.
I was very happy with the truck. Can't wait to finish out the mods and plan a trip outwest where they don't have mud. LOL.