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Greenblade -> first offroad expedition of the serious sort (5/22/2006 11:50:45 AM)
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pictures removed. :)
Well i took the H2 back to the family ranch/farm over the weekend, and tried to take it to task.
We tracked down all of the hils that we'd never been able to scale with the family jeeps (army issue jeeps, not modern wrangers) and pickups (all 4wd chevy 3/4 tons, the best of which was a 1977 which we suspect had some type of locking function, but don't know as we wouldn't have paid attentiont o such things back in those days).
And we took what pains we could to identify other obstacles that couldn't be scaled with the pickups. Now, i know these aftermarket jeeps with Chevy 350s and lift kits, and tires larger than the H2s, and mileage 1/2 of the H2s, and comfort 1/2 of a 1984 cavalier, and safety easily better than an open-cab go-kart have a pretty zealous following, and i'm sure its for good reason. But the pickups are hugely, hugely better for the real-life off-roading we had to do growing up in the wilderness (snow, muddy trails, take parts out into a field, etc.), and also better at things like scaling high hills and all of that.
We started by tackling a slough/swamp (clal it what you wish), and the hummer easily went farther into that than the pickups could, at at far lower speeds. We parked it in the swamp, and it sank to the point where it was supported by the nerf bars and got stuck. I guess thats a case of silly driver, never stop a vehicle over soddy mud. Basically, this is sod with nothing udner it but squishy mud. A pickup pulling from dry land couldn't get it out, and broke a tow rope in the process of trying, so we had to get an old john deere tractor. Now, if you think hummers are good in mud, or jacked up non-jeeps with 350s and all, you don't know squat. The heirarchy of mud-bogging in this universe goes: big tractor, big tractor with 4 big driven wheels, big tractor with 8 big driven wheels, caterpillar (tractor with tracks, not wheels), and even the Cats get stuck sometimes. No 4wd street vehicle can do anything next to a tractor in mud.
with some hills, finding ones that the jeeps or pickups would just run out of traction trying to scale, and slide back down, and moving on to some that would challenge the jeeps ability to not-tip. The H2 motored its way up the least of this previously un-conquered hills casually. Watching from outside, the big trucks 'puter-controlled 4wd system was cool to behold. Tires woudl spin slightly, then stop, then drive, repeat. But up it went with no drama at all. We estimated one of the hills at about 40 degrees, or well beyond the rated 60% grade capacity of the H2. More like an 80% grade. This is the one that just slides things back down once you get to the really steep parts. We locked the H2s rear diff, put it in low-range, and just motored up with the big V8 growling and snarling.
From there we drove around and tried to find some challenges. We tipped al usty eye towards some of the huge rockpiles that litter our farm, but for safety's sake we started smaller & tackled some cattled-induced ridges on steep hills. In winter storms, cattle tend to huddle on the steeper hills (good wind-shields), and they wear through the grass milling around, and then rain wears down the exposed dirty even more, repeat. The result are 12-24 inch fairly sharp ridges in the side of hills, we found a couple of nice ones, one that was about 18" of basically straight dirt at its center on a ~40-50% grade hill (just one big rock in the middle), and another that was 12-18", but the rim was lined with large rocks raising the overall height to 20-24" at points. That hill was steeper, at maybe 50+% grade (eyeball estimate) as far as we could tell, with large 6-10" rocks poking out of the ground the whole way.
Anyway, the pickups couldn't navigate over thes ridges (the nose just rams into the ridge), and they couldn't attempt the one hill (the other side of that hill is almost sheer) at all for fear of the protr
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