Its a good feeling to have a truck that takes abuse like a shrug of the
shoulders. One thing to watch out for if you go through the jeep
trails..Make sure there is room to turn around :) I drove bacwards on the
trail for 15 min to the last fork because it was impossible to turn around
because our daks are real big on the small trails. It did great though,
especailly having LSD leading through the washouts etc.. It would be great
to have LSD in the front!
Joel
http://www.zracer.com/dakota.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Bleazard [mailto:jbleazard@home.com]
Well, I know Norah filled you in on the last event of the Central Ontario
4x4 club. It's my turn to talk about the one that we did make it to today.
There was a great turnout -- 35 trucks (I think they had 6 last year). We
were unfortunately the only Dodge. In the parking lot I suddenly started
feeling quite short. Many of these guys had tires around 33-38 inches tall,
with many other modifications. But there were a couple of other stock
vehicles there, and I figured if they can do it, so can we.
I'm from the desert of Utah and always avoided going four wheeling during
the spring runoff when I knew the ground would be muddy. In Ontario,
there's no such thing as four wheeling without getting into mud and water
holes. Some of them well over our 31" tires.
For a shakedown cruise in the new Dak, I feel we did pretty well. We did
get stuck once, but I saw a full sized chevy and a stock cherokee get stuck
in the same spot. We made it through the same spot on the way out, but not
the Cherokee. We pulled him out.
Before we entered that hole, we saw other vehicles stuck in it and also saw
that they were really tearing up the exit for us. We put the tow strap on
the hook before entering the hole and put it through Norah's window to keep
it up out of the tires. It was a good thing, because the hooks were pretty
caked with mud by the time we needed the strap.
We tried the first time, got nowhere. So we backed up a bit, and got
nowhere. Beth (wife of the trail leader, drives a Lada of all things) was
on the side yelling at us that we almost had it, back up more and try again.
We got the front tires out, but the rears weren't following.
Coming back was another story. I felt it hit bottom on the way in (it was
dug out pretty well), and on the way back out I thought the hole had us
again. I gave it more throttle and started turning the steering wheel to
get a bite. It worked, and the Dak pulled itself up out of the mud. What a
great feeling!
We did manage to put a nice arch in the bottom of the transfer case skid
plate (THANK GOODNESS FOR SKID PLATES!!!!!!!) We had a couple of bottom
outs, and one rock in particular (the first big one) scared me so much that
I dropped the truck right on it and had to slide over it. I got the hang of
the Dak shortly after that.
Then after the trail we turned up the road where there was supposed to be a
big rock that's fun to climb. This was not only a big but a steep b*st*rd
of a rock. We wimped out, as did the rest of the stock vehicles. We did
see one guy in a Samurai get about halfway up, lose momentum, and stall out.
Before he started he warned us that his brakes weren't working very well.
We scattered, his wife panicked, he came back down backwards and hit bottom
hard. He was okay, but managed to bend his exhaust pipe and trailer hitch
rather well. His wife started breathing again and helped survey the damage.
They drove it home, but I understand it wasn't 100%.
All in all, it was a great day. Our previously all-black Dakota now has a
wonderful two-tone black and mud scheme, especially on the passenger side.
Nothing broken on the Dak, only a slightly warped skid plate. I'd say we
were the best of the stock trucks there. The other stock guys we talked to
had a worse time of it than we did.
Of course, Norah now wants a lift, big mud tires and a winch for the black
truck more than ever. This is in addition to our plans to do the same to
the white Dak. Exactly what *have* I gotten myself into here?
Pictures to follow soon.
--------------------------------------------------------
Jason Bleazard
current: '95 Dakota Sport white 4x4 Reg Cab V6/3.9L/5spd
current: '98 Dakota Sport black 4x4 CC V8/5.2L/Auto
RIP: '95 Dakota Sport black 4x2 CC V6/3.9L/Auto
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:13:41 EDT