After the niners shanked one to the Falcons, and not getting much
sympathy from my Georgia Peach of a wife, I decided to go try my hand
and four-wheeling. And, I figured the DML would understand...
I drove down to the Hollister Hills state vehicular recreation area (see
http://cal-parks.ca.gov/DISTRICTS/OHMVR/hhohv551.htm) to see what the
Dakota would do in the dirt.
In short...IT WAS GREAT! HH has three grades of trails -- green = easy,
blue = medium, and black = hard. I stuck to the green trails, since
this was my first 4WD adventure. At least I thought I did. I didn't
feel the need to put it into 4H until I started spinning my stock
Goodyear 31x10.5 RT/S's up a hill climb, so I shifted (effortlessly and
silently, I might add) into 4H and just motored on up the hill. It
started getting kind of muddy, so I thought I'd try out 4L. Man...what
a clang! I did it according to the manual, as best I could, shifting
into neutral, then a fluid motion from 4H to 4L, but I guess that's what
it's supposed to sound like. No detectable wheelspin, but fairly high
RPMs. When I got to the top of the hill, there were three guys hanging
out on an old International Scout with big ol' tires, taking pictures,
when they all looked at me. I pulled over and chatted for a minute.
They were surprised to see a stock Dak there, because that was a blue
trail. Wow...that had me beaming! Didn't seem very difficult to me.
The Dakota just felt like it belonged there.
Later on up the same trail, I noticed two guys jumping up and down on
the back bumper of a relatively stock looking CJ Jeep. I guess it had
gotten stuck on a rock in it's midsection and all four wheels were
spinning. I asked if they needed help, and they just waved me off.
Funny...I saw them in the same place, doing the same thing on the way
back down the hill.
No problems at all, even though I checked out a mudflat area that was
posted "Impassable when wet". I didnt' go into the deep stuff, but I
get a feeling with some cheap wheels and mudder tires, this Dak would be
able to handle just about anything. I even tested the front skid plate
(oops). Sure am glad I opted for them.
What a blast. I can't wait to go back. Maybe try some of the blue
trails (on purpose this time), but try not to scratch my beautiful
bright white Dak. So, maybe my 4x4 ain't the fasted Dak on the street,
but I'd like to see an R/T go where I went today ;-)
Cheers and have a great weekend!
fish@ihot.com
'99 CC SLT+ 5.2 4x4
ps. football? what football...the season's over :(
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:11:55 EDT