UTV Touring
Hi everyone,
I have been following the Portal for quite some time and reading the Overland Journal when I can find it on the news stand and finally decided to join today as saw this post on ATVs / UTVs.
I have been riding and racing ATVs for over 31 years and they are a passion of mine but in my late teens I bought my first Jeep and that little rig on 32's started a love affair that lasted over 25 years and 7 modified vehicles with my last rig being a AEV equipped Unlimited on 37's.
But then I started to pay attention to the surge in the UTV marketplace and the capabilities of these vehicles astounded me. I formed my own training and design company in 2011 and have developed several military and law enforcement ATV and UTV prototypes for OEM manufactures and most recently two projects for Dirt Trax Television.
All I can say is don't sell these vehicles short as they make a great platform for exploration and can go to a lot of places that larger vehicles can not or are not allowed.
We recently returned from a 2 week vacation with our Terra Tech Off Road "Scorpion" border patrol prototype and had an amazing time! 101 hp and 14 inches of suspension travel allows you to coast over the rough stuff and power up hills that would be daunting in a full size rig.
We hit the 1000 mile Ride the Wilds trail system in New Hampshire, the Lanaudiere region of Quebec and the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance in Ontario Canada. All of these systems are UTV friendly and offer legal road travel to access accommodations, food and fuel along the way. The interesting thing is that without an ATV or UTV you would never be able to experience any of these trails as they have a 65 inch wide width restriction.
We toured for 5 days straight in New Hampshire and even took in a white water rafting trip. It wasn't the Silk Road but it sure was an adventure for a family of 4 on our two week vacation.
We are currently building a new vehicle with Dirt Trax that is called the "Expedition" and its goal is to be self sufficient for 48-72 hours and features parts from many in the expedition marketplace such as - AT, ARB, Warn, Lowrance, Rigid, Overboard, Power Tank etc.
Looking for to reading more posts on UTV trips and getting some more ideas for Gen 2 of our current build where we are considering a RTT.
Mike