chasvs
Well-Known Member
Not mine, and No, this was the Florida Ranger Group so only Rangers travelling together!Please tell me that wasn't a Tacoma pulling you out? lol
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Not mine, and No, this was the Florida Ranger Group so only Rangers travelling together!Please tell me that wasn't a Tacoma pulling you out? lol
I think we crossed paths at Canyonlands!Black Hills, SD. Will be in Moab tomorrow for some more action!
Sick Pics!Eglin AFB just north of Destin Fl. Love this Ranger!!
I bet that was a seriously butt puckering moment. How did you get out of that??Eglin AFB just north of Destin Fl. Love this Ranger!!
black bear pass, colorado.
hit it just right this weekend for perfect temps and the aspens turning fall colors
us and a boatload of jeeps at the pass. of dozens of vehicles out there, it was all jeep. i saw two tacomas and no rangers.
the views were incredible. our first time in the colorado peaks
the iconic waterfall house shot, and the aspens turning above telluride
This is awesome, great pics!Imogene Pass, CO
perched on the pass
big sky country
leaving telluride behind
we have a stock fx4 ranger, stock tires. we ran our tires at 28 psi and went carefully. imogene was straightforward, in the telluride>ouray direction. i got out of the car a couple times to look at stuff but never had my wife spotting etc. of the two, imogene in my opinion is the money shot because it is longer, bigger expanses, more varied terrain. but black bear is clearly more difficult and if you want bragging points with the jeep crowd probably the way to go. imogene, felt more fun, and that may be because it is easier and perhaps better suited to a stock truck, or perhaps because compared to black bear it seemed so straightforward. the downside of imogene was that it was way way busier, and had two way traffic which meant we did a lot of weird off camber pull offs and backing up to let people by.This is awesome, great pics!
I'd like to do these passes, so I'm curious how the experience was and what setup you have on the Ranger (any mods like lift/level kits, tires, etc.)? Any areas where the truck struggled or you thought you may have bitten off a bit much? How were "The Steps"?
I believe the drives aren't super technical, they're just a bit nerve racking...but any info would be appreciated!
Ohhh for sure it was. I had my son come around on the opposite side and I connected a chain to the passenger front hook and pulled it at an angle to get it off the embankment. I could have pulled out under power. I was unsure at the time if I would have crushed the drivers side had I done so. Popped it in neutral and my other son and I stood on the passenger side step rail and bounced it down until the front tire made contact. I got really lucky with this one.I bet that was a seriously butt puckering moment. How did you get out of that??
Good job saving her!Ohhh for sure it was. I had my son come around on the opposite side and I connected a chain to the passenger front hook and pulled it at an angle to get it off the embankment. I could have pulled out under power. I was unsure at the time if I would have crushed the drivers side had I done so. Popped it in neutral and my other son and I stood on the passenger side step rail and bounced it down until the front tire made contact. I got really lucky with this one.
Great info, thanks for taking the time to share. And great news to hear the truck handled each.we have a stock fx4 ranger, stock tires. we ran our tires at 28 psi and went carefully. imogene was straightforward, in the telluride>ouray direction. i got out of the car a couple times to look at stuff but never had my wife spotting etc. of the two, imogene in my opinion is the money shot because it is longer, bigger expanses, more varied terrain. but black bear is clearly more difficult and if you want bragging points with the jeep crowd probably the way to go. imogene, felt more fun, and that may be because it is easier and perhaps better suited to a stock truck, or perhaps because compared to black bear it seemed so straightforward. the downside of imogene was that it was way way busier, and had two way traffic which meant we did a lot of weird off camber pull offs and backing up to let people by.
doing what we did, black bear > imogene > ophir pass in a big circle was a really nice link up and we were camping along the way.
black bear was way more difficult. technical spots and steep drops. im sure i got out of the car a dozen times to check things out, skipped two of the more technical drops in the area i suspect is called the steps (there are established bypasses for several of the really gnarly obstacles), and i definitely whacked the skid plates multiple times on black bear. halfway through the difficult stuff it was not obvious to me we were going to get through without damage. i kept thinking "well this is going well, but if it gets a lot harder..."
i had my wife spot two drops on black bear- for when i wanted to place the passenger wheel in an exact way. it was certainly the most stimulating road we've been on though and the combination of steep drop offs to the side and technical terrain in a stock car with little clearance margin made us feel like we'd definitely earned our keep when we rolled into telluride. no damage that matters though- just skid hits.
the size of the truck, the handling, etc felt fine. there was one spot where i definitely wish i had more articulation, and lifted wheels off the ground a few times. i also now have more respect for why people like rock sliders.
doing some of the tricky descent obstacles while looking down into the valley on a 60% grade to drivers side, or doing some gnarly off camber driving to pick a line that worked with our truck was occasionally frankly butt puckering. we also had to do some three point turns to make the tighter hairpin turns, but so did the jeeps when we could see them.
for what its worth though, we are not experienced offroad folks. we've only done a handful of trails that are really technical or require significant crawling.
in terms of the social experience, we were doing about the same pace as the jeeps, which makes me feel like we weren't obviously out of place. perhaps they were all first timers too. we passed a couple jeeps, were passed by one jeep. we saw two tacomas on the road same day (of probably fifteen jeeps or more) and no other vehicles other than some dirt bikes on the first/easy half. both tacomas had what appeared to be relatively moderate mods. we definitely were the only folks running 31" tires that i could see. the tacomas were all stopped at a view point together and were running 33" tires.
anyways it was super fun and we would do it again, but i'd ask someone who has more experience than us for an opinion as well
that will be fun. post photosGreat info, thanks for taking the time to share. And great news to hear the truck handled each.
Only thing I've changed out is adding the bigger BFG KO2s, otherwise I'm running the stock FX4 crew cab. I knew it could handle Ophir (did that in my ex's jeep a couple years back), but I really want to do Imogene next summer, so this is great to hear. I'm in no hurry to do Black Bear, but it's good to hear that the truck can do it...so maybe down the road. I had watched Jeep videos doing those two passes on Youtube and thought I'd be fine, but it's great to get some first hand info!
Ouray is probably my favorite Colorado town, so with this info, next summer I'll definitely be doing a trip from Ouray > Telluride using Imogene, then take Ophir back over to Silverton.
Will definitely post pics. Going to Moab this coming weekend, so maybe some pics from that if we do anything cool.that will be fun. post photos
if folks are reading this and wondering where they stand, i think it would be reasonable to proceed from ophir > imogene > black bear. if ophir gives you even a moment of pause, you will feel taxed on imogene but you will be fine. if imogene makes you even slightly uncomfortable, you will be very uncomfortable on black bear.