This is a 4 wheelin'/working with your Dak/getting ready for hunting season
kinda report so if your not interested, see ya :-)
OK, now that only the interested parties are here, THESE TRUCKS KICK-ASS! I was
up in Vermont getting things ready for rifle season and I helped a buddy clear
an old logging trail of all the blow-downs from last winters ice storm. I got
the Dak and chainsaw, while he rode up on his four wheeler. It was kinda funny
'cause I had the Dak in 4low when things got vertical...just crawling along as
easy as you please...while he was revving, spinning, bouncing his 'wheeler all
over the place. He finally said screw-it, dumped the 'wheeler and jumped in the
Dak (he was really pissed :-)!
The really nice thing about having a pickup that can really go places is I
needed some firewood for home and a nice oak had blown down across the road as
well as some white birches. A little side note here, birch makes a really nice
blue flame when it burns & don't ask me why but it, uhhh, has an effect on women
if you know what I mean ;-) This may be country legend, but you bachelors or
married types may want to keep it in mind for a romantic evening :-)
Anyway, I loaded up the oak rounds and as much birch as I could find. The
suspension didn't seem to flex too severely with maybe 15-20 oak rounds stacked
in the bed and I didn't drag anything on the way out... I was impressed!
In conclusion, I was generally pleased with the Kota's performance on what I
would rate as a "medium" off-road trail. What concerns me is the pivot point
between the front and rear ends (what's that called??... Breakover angle?) on
the club cabs. Angles of approach and departure were good to excellent (as long
as you've got a flat spot between grades!). Another concern is the body and
undercarriage... Quite frequently I could put a tire on a rock or tree to save
the diffs, tcase and suspension, but what a God awful racquet when they hit the
frame or even worse the body! I gotta' find a lift of some sort! Lastly, if
someone reading this hasn't got a dak yet or your about to trade-in for a new
model, make sure you spend the money for a V8 if your gonna' put your Kota to
the test... With the verticals I had to climb, especially after I put the wood
in, the extra power was extremely important!
Oh yeah, I left with 4 and came back with 4 mud flaps (a couple of creases in
'em though)! What a blast!!!
L8r,
T.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:10:47 EDT