It was two more mild easy peasy hours to Candlestick and we arrived right at dark. Not much to the campsite other than a vault toilet, but we did wake up to an unreal sunrise.
In all fairness, I'm an OK welder. I can get the job done, but it isn't always pretty. The riser that the tent is mounted on was a big concern for me on this shakedown trip. When you mount a 150lb tent 6'3” off the ground it becomes quite the moment arm swinging all that weight around and bouncing down the trail. I wasn't sure how good of an idea that was to build the riser that tall. Ultimately, I built it that tall for two reasons: I'd like to get the annex for the tent, and I didn't want to limit my cargo hauling options. I spent quite a bit of time examining my welds that night and I didn't find any issues. I think I braced everything well enough and the riser stayed strong for the whole trip. Nothing was bent, nothing twisted, and Everything held up well. It's something else to watch that tent swing side to side in the rear view mirror. There are some large forces at work here....
After we got up, I knew it was 2ish more hours to the next “intermediate” obstacle Hardscrabble Hill, and oh so many more tight switchbacks. The trip there was uneventful, with more beautiful scenery along the way, especially as we got down closer to the river.
I don't think Hardscrabble Hill would even qualify as an intermediate obstacle in an SUV or a Jeep, but for the big long pig, it was a challenge. We made all of the switchbacks without backing up except one, and lucky for me, there was enough room for me to maneuver my way around. The climb out was awesome, and it was really cool, aside from constantly worrying worrying about the next tight switchback. Driving along the shelf was a lot of fun, and I wasn't very good about taking pictures.
There was one place, right up next to the river on the way out, that proved to be an issue for the height of the tent on top of the riser. I had to get uncomfortably close to tires off the road on the river side to get around one piece of rock jutting out from the side of the cliff. I could tell that quite few people had scraped something on that same rock, and judging by the amount of broken glass on the ground under the rock, it didn't end well for the last guy. There was quite a bit of deep sand on the way out. It didn't prove to be an issue at all.
So what did I learn?
1. (Obviously) the M1101 probably isn't the ideal adventure trailer if switchbacks and narrow shelf roads are on the agenda, but you gotta dance with the one that brought ya. If you don't have a full-size pickup or full-size SUV, this thing is way too big for your rig.
2. The M1101 is ************. It's big, it's heavy duty, it has big tires that roll over obstacles with ease, and it's payload capacity is awesome. The rear departure angle is a huge plus. In a pinch you can back this thing up and over some pretty big/steep stuff to aid in maneuvering out of tight spots.
3. The riser is sufficiently braced to handle off road conditions, and it held up fantastically.
4. The KTM needs a better tie down system in the rear. On day one it bounced around way too much. By day two the issue was resolved with more tie downs, but I think I can do better.
5. My tote system for the gear sucks. More to come.
6. I brought way too much crap I didn't use. Aside from tools and emergency/recovery gear, I need to pair down.
7. The water system is going to take some thought. I abhor adding more weight to the trailer, but a water system is a necessity and I got sick of water jugs and bottles bouncing around everywhere.
8. The inexpensive implement LED flood lights I wired up work really well. There's a fine line between lighting up the darkness and flooding the world with blinding light around camp.
9. Electrical system as a whole performed well.
10. 12V electric blankets are awesome!!! The reviews sucked, but I bought it anyway. I'm sure if you use it as a cover up, it probably does suck, it if you put it underneath your sleeping bag and block the heat in, it's amazing! Power consumption was not an issue.
11. The tent on top of the riser might as well be a sail. Coming home across northern Colorado, I was bucking 40 mph gusty headwinds. It wasn't a problem per se, but I sure could tell it was back there.
12. I have to get the annex. Not having a place to stand up and change clothes is a PITA.
13. The pintle is not loud. After reading so much about how noisy they are, I thought it was going to be obnoxious off-road. I had it loaded down enough that it was pretty quiet.
14. The M1101 tows well in the Rockies, and it tows well in the snow over the Rockies!
15. The Freespirit High Country tent is awesome. On the last night camping outside of Moab we were dealing with 40 mph wind gusts. The tent handled the wind very well and it didn't get real flappy even in that kind of wind.
Anyone have any insight as to tire pressure for the M1101 off road? The TP is already absurdly low at 17psi fully loaded, but it liked to bounce over rocks a little more than i'd Like it to. Lowering the TP with run flats installed made me hesitate. What's the conventional wisdom?
Fun trip!!