Offroad Trip with pics

John Harden · 09-12-2006, 09:10 AM

Took another offroading class on Saturday the 9th. This one was called Rocks, Ruts and Ridges and was up near Silverwood Lake area here in SoCal. Trail is rated most difficult (5 out of 6) and we had about 11 vehicles.

Lot's of very narrow paths, deep ruts and very steep climbs. Some in soft sand and others up granite and slick rock.

I'm happy to say that the Titan did outstanding on the trip. It powered up the hills and made the climbs with no problem whatsoever. Eveyone commented on how it made everything look so easy. There was a nice lifted Rubicon with 33" A/T's that did just as well as the Titan, but other than that, the Titan really stood out. In this particular terrain with steep rocks/boulders and walls to climb, the long wheelbase and relatively low center of gravity (compared to an SUV) really helped.

I say the Titan stood out cause it was really the truck that did the work. Yours truly just piloted it. None of us needed to lock up the entire day, except right at the end. Had one obstacle that was optional and extremely narrow and steep. You had to crawl up boulders and two of the 11 vehicles went through. Both were narrow Jeeps and both left lots of paint behind and received a few new dents. The fit through was so tight, you had to crawl up slowly using only your sidewalls against the boulders. Bottoms of the tires touched very little. Me and the other 8 vehicles skipped this and used the go around.

The pics below were taken at the end of the run, when I was tired and made a mental mistake. Started down the hill straddling ruts to the left, then tried to switch to the right side of the hill. In hindsight, I should have either crossed over at a sharper angle, or just stayed on the left.

Fortunately, I remembered the old rule of offroading where if something goes wrong, just stop everything!!! They strapped me back about 5 feet and I was able to crawl back up the rut to the left, get level and continue on. Never got a scratch.

The trip was great!!! I'll post more pics when I get home tonight. A couple of the vehicles got cross-axled and stuck, but we always got them out and continued on. The 6" lift and 35" tires on my truck definitely helped out. There were some loop-d-loops where I would have gotten high sided without the lift.

PRG's rear traction bars took one heck of a beating on some boulders but never even got dented and held up well.

Regards,

John

**Titan1080** · 09-12-2006, 09:15 AM

Awesome pics John!! Looked like a ton of fun for all.

**gadget74** · 09-12-2006, 09:19 AM

Good to see someone using their truck! Looks like you had some fun. I want to eventually do some stuff like this, but untill i can afford a good lift i will just have the little fun that i can.

I did have mine on the river with less than 3000 miles on it. I wasn't too rough on it, but didn't take it easy either.

kman · 09-12-2006, 11:54 AM

Great pictures!

maybe it is not a concern, but at those kind of angles are you worried about oil pressure drops? Do you ever see the gage drop below the normal pressure range?

John Harden · 09-12-2006, 12:06 PM

Not worried about oil pressure. Frankly angles like that are not that common and even when they are, they don't last for long. The goal is to just get through them and back to level.

Never looked at the oil gauge or really any gauge much the whole trip. The only time I ever looked away from the trail was to confirm my shifts back and forth between 1st and 2nd gear. Usually I was in 1st, but occasionally needed to go into 2nd if I needed some additional speed and momentum for loose sand or something.

This was a pretty intense trail so I wanted my focus to be on the trail so things wouldn't get out of control.

Regards,

John

kman · 09-12-2006, 03:19 PM

yeah, i can imagine in those situations you wouldn't be to focused on the gages!

StuntDriver06 · 09-12-2006, 03:34 PM

totally awesome, exactly the reason my next titan will be a 4x4!!!

Yellomantis · 09-12-2006, 05:39 PM

Damn man! You be hardcore!!! Glad I'll be wheelin with you this weekend! I have to interrogate you about something though.... Where did you get your rock sliders from?!?!?! I have been looking for a set ever since I got the truck! I finally got fed up and started making a set at home.

SoCalCheez · 09-12-2006, 06:44 PM

who do you take the 4x4 classes from?

Sounds like a cool experience, how much does it cost?

John Harden · 09-12-2006, 07:22 PM

Classes are put on by Badlands Offroad Adventures. Link is here:

http://www.4x4training.com/

They have a variety of classes. Most cost $150. I took the beginner and this most recent Rocks and Ruts class. I'll be taking the winching clinic in early October too. They have lot's of other classes and they're very professionally done.

Yellowmantis, yeah, this weekend should be a blast. If there are some enticing spur trails off the Rincon fire road, we'll have to check them out.

I also got tired of waiting on someone to make rock sliders, so I had them fabbed up by Baja Motorsports in Orange. Talk to AJ. Mine are prototypes and still need a little work on them. They're plenty strong to act as rock sliders, but need some more bracing and weld points to the frame to act as solid lifting points for a high lift jack. I had him make them for the rear too. You can see them under the bumper. They're welded right to the factory hitch. The ones on the sides are welded right to the frame. I've got some good ideas of how to make them a lot stronger, so we can talk this weekend.

Here's more pics of the trip. Not too many more of me as I was second in line behind the instructor/guide. I would go park after clearing the obstacle and head back to take pics of the other folks.

Hope you guys enjoy!!!!

Regards,

John

**walleeme** · 09-12-2006, 08:40 PM

Do you think the locking rear diff could have got you out of that first set of pics?

John Harden · 09-12-2006, 08:50 PM

The locker would probably have worked had I turned it on. The risk though wasn't in being able to back up dur to lack of traction or power. Our trucks have tons of power, so I wasn't worried about that as much as I was just rolling over onto the left side or top.

You can't see it in the pic, but I could reach out the drivers window and touch the wall of the rut. I was that close to having some damage done to the left side of the truck.

By just holding tight until they could get a strap on me and put it under tension, the risk of rolling over or damaging the left side of the truck all but went away. They had me stear hard to the right and put it in reverse while they strapped me back about 5 feet. That got my left front up onto the side of the ridge, where I could then just put it into 1st gear and continue on down the hill like nothing happened.

That's the nice thing about going on these trips where you're guided by experts. They know exactly what to do when stuff happens. The trick is to just stop everything, call for help on your radio (we all carried CB's), let them come evaluate the situation, then take action.

What you also don't see is we stopped short of at least 5 or 6 obstacles that day, all got out of our vehicles, walked the scene and had a drivers meeting to discuss the obstacle, pick our lines and share thoughts. The goal was to learn. All in all, it was a great class.

Regards,

John

Chris93Si · 09-13-2006, 03:55 AM

Looks like a blast, thanks for sharing

**gadget74** · 09-13-2006, 08:19 AM

Yeah, that sounds awesome. I wonder if they have somethin like that around here.

gyrate · 09-13-2006, 08:44 AM

you tried to capsize the poor baby

btw, why not go forward? you had front wheel traction