marshal
New member
well, here we go:
went on a trip with a buddy of mine. I've been a Jeep person all my life and I've built Jeeps to suit the terrain - with the 4Runner its not quite as easy due to the limited wheel travel in the rear, the IFS and the generally lumbering body.
Morgan has a 4 door rubicon on 37's with beadlocks and a suspension that i custom built for him. he has 12" of vertical travel in each corner. needless to say he can show me up easily. as we were rolling through the trails, i had been following him and based my trail running on the level of difficulty he was facing and how far his suspension was articulating. we had stopped for a breather after him laying his jeep into the side of a tree and we checked for damage.
upon me announcing that it'd buff out, i took point and found ourselves going down a pretty good trail. it didn't look too bad, till you got all the way to the bottom. at the bottom of the trail was the final 50 feet of elevation back to the creek bed. now the 50 feet doesn't sound bad until you realize this is like a 38-45* grade. i didn't really have a choice on this one, there wasn't any room for me to 3 point and turn around, and going down was having me negotiate a massive rut and a 90 degree turn, while facing the serious grade. i picked my line, without a spotter - and proceeded slowly.
while I'm navigating I'm running through my check list:
aired down? yep - 10PSI
4 low? obviously
rear locker? turned off
i decided i was going to hug the outside of the rut with my driver tire, try to chase the edges of it till the ass end of my truck came around and i could make a straight shot for the bottom. it hadnt rained in 2 weeks so clay gumming up my tires wouldn't be a problem. or would it?
turns out it would. my inexperience with all terrain tires proved to be the ultimate issue and putting me in a precarious situation. just a few feet into the move, the driver tire lost lateral traction and slipped down into the rut. i felt the rear of the truck start to lose stability and down i went. I've flipped my vehicles on the trail before, so i was going through this moment of hystaria relatively calm, all things considering. i shifted my foot immediately to the brake, cut the wheel straight and leaned to the passenger side out of the way of my window.
thud
i cracked my right eye. i was looking straight down and my seatbelt was letting me dangle, however all the trees were growing in the direction they should be.
"well shit"
i looked over my shoulder to try and see how far away morgan was, he was on his heels down the hill side to the mini ravine. we discussed how we were going to get myself out of the situation and agreed to wrap his winch cable around my axle tube on the passenger side (no passenger side recovery points) as a safety precaution.
i went through my checklist again, and locked the rear axle and hoped this would work. i had my left foot on the brake and my right on the gas. i slowly brought the engine up to 1500rpm and eased on the brake. the locker caught and engaged itself and i started to reverse out of the mess i got myself into. the rear end came down and we laid my maxtrax down, let some more air out of the tire and again attempted to navigate through, this time with success.
my 6'3 friend adam for reference
went on a trip with a buddy of mine. I've been a Jeep person all my life and I've built Jeeps to suit the terrain - with the 4Runner its not quite as easy due to the limited wheel travel in the rear, the IFS and the generally lumbering body.
Morgan has a 4 door rubicon on 37's with beadlocks and a suspension that i custom built for him. he has 12" of vertical travel in each corner. needless to say he can show me up easily. as we were rolling through the trails, i had been following him and based my trail running on the level of difficulty he was facing and how far his suspension was articulating. we had stopped for a breather after him laying his jeep into the side of a tree and we checked for damage.
upon me announcing that it'd buff out, i took point and found ourselves going down a pretty good trail. it didn't look too bad, till you got all the way to the bottom. at the bottom of the trail was the final 50 feet of elevation back to the creek bed. now the 50 feet doesn't sound bad until you realize this is like a 38-45* grade. i didn't really have a choice on this one, there wasn't any room for me to 3 point and turn around, and going down was having me negotiate a massive rut and a 90 degree turn, while facing the serious grade. i picked my line, without a spotter - and proceeded slowly.
while I'm navigating I'm running through my check list:
aired down? yep - 10PSI
4 low? obviously
rear locker? turned off
i decided i was going to hug the outside of the rut with my driver tire, try to chase the edges of it till the ass end of my truck came around and i could make a straight shot for the bottom. it hadnt rained in 2 weeks so clay gumming up my tires wouldn't be a problem. or would it?
turns out it would. my inexperience with all terrain tires proved to be the ultimate issue and putting me in a precarious situation. just a few feet into the move, the driver tire lost lateral traction and slipped down into the rut. i felt the rear of the truck start to lose stability and down i went. I've flipped my vehicles on the trail before, so i was going through this moment of hystaria relatively calm, all things considering. i shifted my foot immediately to the brake, cut the wheel straight and leaned to the passenger side out of the way of my window.
thud
i cracked my right eye. i was looking straight down and my seatbelt was letting me dangle, however all the trees were growing in the direction they should be.
"well shit"
i looked over my shoulder to try and see how far away morgan was, he was on his heels down the hill side to the mini ravine. we discussed how we were going to get myself out of the situation and agreed to wrap his winch cable around my axle tube on the passenger side (no passenger side recovery points) as a safety precaution.
i went through my checklist again, and locked the rear axle and hoped this would work. i had my left foot on the brake and my right on the gas. i slowly brought the engine up to 1500rpm and eased on the brake. the locker caught and engaged itself and i started to reverse out of the mess i got myself into. the rear end came down and we laid my maxtrax down, let some more air out of the tire and again attempted to navigate through, this time with success.
my 6'3 friend adam for reference
