DrPep
Well-Known Member
Samoa Dunes along the Northern California coast. Not too hard but a lot of fun driving on the beach.
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Man! I bet you are glad you opted for the larger winch!!!!Here we are winching our HQ15 out of the Eel River in Northern California a couple of weeks back. We were with a group (Overland Bound) of fairly capable vehicles so decided to test out whether the Ranger/HQ15 could make it across and up the bank of loose water smoothed cobblestones (about 1-2 inches in diameter, maybe 3/4 inch thick). Nope! That trailer is very heavy (6K lbs) on a single "axle" (actually, timbren-style suspension), so it sunk in pretty good once we lost traction coming up the bank and it took a healthy dose of our winch to pull us up onto the level.
Winch setup is a Warn 12K Zeon in a Shrockworks bumper. Very happy with both. We ran a soft shackle/snatch block on the front of the jeep and secured the synthetic line with a Factor 55 Prolink to the bumper with a hard shackle. The winch handled the load (about 12K total, maybe a bit less) fairly well, but I'd run a second snatch block next time if the bank were mud instead of those cobbles.
No damage near as we can tell - we got stopped with the engine and front suspension out of the water, and only the bottom of the rear diff was in water while we were stopped. I pulled the rear diff cover off when we got home and no water or discoloration (indeed, it the fluid looked new, but I replaced anyway).
Anyway, now we have a good reference point for the capability of the rig. I don't typically take on unnecessary water crossings, but the mood to play struck us and gave us a good story to tell.
TAFFR!![]()
April 24 will now be known as Ranger Day. 8 Rangers, no Toyotas or Jeeps. It was a glorious day.
Also, today marked 1 year since I picked up my Ranger.
this was a great run, looking forward to the next one![]()
April 24 will now be known as Ranger Day. 8 Rangers, no Toyotas or Jeeps. It was a glorious day.
Also, today marked 1 year since I picked up my Ranger.
Robert is this you, what's up bro? Nice rig, brother.Went camping this past wknd up in Big Bear, CA. The rig easily handled a few different forest service roads with some decent sized ruts & moderate rock crawling? Good times with beautiful drop-off views & meadows!!
Going from a 3rd gen TRD Tacoma to a 5th gen Ram Rebel & now to this guy in the past 4 1/2 yrs......finally got it right & we're lov'n the Ranger!!
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Whas up Blad!! Good talk catch'n up yesterday & comparing the mods on our rigs side by side yesterday lol =]Robert is this you, what's up bro? Nice rig, brother.
@Brett Fields where'd you go?![]()
Can't wait to get back upstate this year. Next week it'll be in some new shoes!
Very cool pics… I know I’m late to the party but love that.I think we’d all like to appreciate some pictures of where our trucks have been.
Big Bear Ca, got snowed on a little. Ranger exceeded my expectations for comfort off-road.
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This is actually an off roading school in the Catskill mountains of upstate New York. Northeast Offroad Adventures. 72 acres of joy.@Brett Fields where'd you go?
HI klay,Put together a little compilation of water crossings.