Sadly, no bumper yet. Still rocking the ARB for now.
Okay, so I decided to escape to the mountains for a few hours of wheeling on Sunday. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera with me, but I was able to snap a couple of phone pics, which I unfortunately can't upload due to the fact that I'm essentially in a brick bunker with god-awful cell reception and terrible wifi.
But what I can tell you is I had a lot of fun. I once again tried to make my way up Hellroaring Road outside Red Lodge, MT:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=hellroaring+road+montana&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb&ie=UTF-8&ei=Gd2UUoSRNYn5oASMkYGoBA&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg
I tried going up a couple of months ago, but I turned around near the half way mark because I had forgotten to grab a tire iron. Well, I figured another try was in order. I knew there would be snow, I just didn't really know how much. I was interested to see how much there was and how well my tires did in actual deep snow. I actually made it a little farther up the road this time than I did a couple of months ago when it was dry! About a foot of snow pack halted my forward progress, though. I think I'm going to order some chains and try again later, see how much farther I can go. I did learn a couple things.
1) My tires work fantastically in deeper snow. However, when it gets to be more densely packed, they keep digging through the snow, not floating, which would be ideal. In powder, soft snow, or slush, they are great pretty much up to the bumper. In packed snow, about 12 inches is the limit. In that situation a wider tire would be much more effective. I think chains would go a long way towards fixing this, as well as the locker I plan for later on. If I could bomb through about 15-18 inches of packed snow without too much of a problem, I'd be really happy.
2) I have these tracks that I made from PSP (pierced steel plank) about a year ago. I chopped them down to a better size and then had them powder coated bright orange. They work alright, but once I got into snow deeper than a foot, I started needing to take a run at them to make it work. The problem is they're too smooth. I literally did burnouts on them trying to grab some traction. Plus, they're heavy to move and get really cold after being in the snow. I'm thinking I need to invest in some MaxTrax. Yes, they're expensive, but how quickly they can get you out of a sticky situation makes them worth their weight in gold to me.
Other than that, the truck performed flawlessly. It was a lot of fun. The mountains are beautiful in the winter. Getting up into that area is just a blast. My GF and I plan to give it another go later on this winter. We're going to drive as far as we can, then strap on some snowshoes and finish walking to the top.
Pics to come soon!
