Sportsmobile - Mudmobile

[Explorer 1]

Recent trip to Cottonwood Canyon, Southern Utah, when the weather turned bad and the road turned with it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNaRCxeJkZk

Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1 & 2

 

[hikingff77]

Man, now that's how you romp in the van!

 

[Brian McVickers]

Nicely done, that piece of mud that fell off after you were through was bigger than a basketball!:Wow1:

 

[dsw4x4]

Man I totally feel for you we got stuck in it to last week on our trip we started out in wyoming got stuck in Steamboat at 10:00 pm and finally got out at 6:00 am after diverting a creek so it would stop flowing down the trail. It was a long night here are some pics. After that we spent a day at the hot springs recovering then went to Dinasour nat park barely mad it out of the bottom the mud was so deep on the road. then took a trail from dinasour to fruita it was pretty much lock to lock steering the whole way with my foot to the floor scared I would have a steamboat repeat. So we ended up in Moab with nothing but mud and flash floods. 30 dollars at the car wash and there is still hunks of mud under my van.
Derek

Home made dam to divert the water flow off the road!!

 

[Stumpalump]

Looked like the front locker was doing it's job.

 

[Scott Brady]

Great video. I love the big clump of mud that fell off at the end.

 

[adventureduo]

That's like the only way to get a 10k lbs rig through mud like that, womp it. You need all the momentum you can get. Cool vid.

 

[kcowyo]

I just ran Cottonwood Canyon last month, the same weekend of the Overland Expo. The books all said it was a 50 mile 2wd trail that should take 2 hrs to run.

Not hardly....

But it was scenic. I recall that stretch you hit as a rutted out, shock absorber destroying, mess. Looks like you were running north to south. We came up the other way and it was no easier.

Cool place though -

 

[Cabrito]

Sick!

 

[Scott Brady]

I love that photo KC. Can we use it on the home page?

 

[Explorer 1]

Write up on Cottonwood Canyon trip in MMB

Here is the link to the write-up and more pics on the Mudmobile trip in Cottonwood Canyon.

http://www.4wdtrips.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5519

Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1 & 2

 

[matt s]

Anyone else get nervous watching him back that rig up right next to that drop off. It was like a movie, you know the good guy is gonna be alright, but you still worry. Impressive job by the van and driver.

 

[rctr03]

i was nervous just watching!

jimmy

 

[spencyg]

Seriously...that was frightening. You running open diffs or lockers? Very nice driving.

Spence

 

[Explorer 1]

Open or locked diffs?

Spence,

I have ARB's both front and rear and in the movie they were both locked.

The whole story is as follows:

The road was really bad and as we came to this hill, the one in the movie, I could tell by the angle and the rutts that this was the mother of all the hills on this road. I decided to change the transfer case into the low setting, With the Atlas II transfer case it takes moving two levers forward to place both axles in low. I then proceeded to lock both axles. What I didn't know was that I hadn't move the front axle lever enough, therefore my first attempt was with a locked rear axle only. In the starting of the movie you can see how far down the rear right went into the mud while the fronts were staying fairly on top because they had no power. Once I figured out the problem, you see the front bear down and fortunately, I was able to back down and make another run at it with all 4 wheels doing their part. :smiley_drive:

Another benefit to my error was that my wife bailed and captured the moment on film for all of us to enjoy.

As for the fear factor, :Wow1: She didn't want to be in the vehicle for obvious reasons. She also took this clip which I've called, "Mudmobile, The Aftermath"



Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1 & 2