We went out over the holiday weekend with my 4x4 club for the annual Dakota Territory Challenge. There were a lot of firsts this weekend - trailering to and from every trail, leading several trails that I have never run in their entirety, and taking some lines that I would have avoided before or at least needed to winch through. Probably meaningless to those of you unfamiliar with the Black Hills but we ran Cheerios, Calamity, Fruity Pebbles, Got Milk, Iceman, and 2/3's of Jake. Fullsize and Kong were on the agenda with Calamity that day but others broke down and we called it a day.
Overall I am just super happy with how the truck worked. The front suspension did exactly what I wanted it to do and the limited slip works way better than any I've used before - still going to put a selectable locker in it but it is really good for the time being. I like that I have *almost* all the traction I need but I'm not fighting to steer. I do need to do something with the rear suspension though, it is pretty stiff. On the fence about gearing - 95% of the time, it was perfect and the remaining 5% felt like I should have just a little more (doubler or something like that.) I am at 5.38 in the axles so I can't improve that, which means I am left with finding an Atlas t-case or doing a doubler/Behemoth box or something like that. Probably going to just run it as-is for now.
Very happy with the tires, I ran 8psi all weekend but probably could have gone down to 5 or lower. They are still very stiff. They will need more break in time for sure. I also swapped out the locking hubs with drive flanges as I mentioned before - no regrets on that, the steering is a little weird at dirt road speed but it's a good trade off instead of having hubs that stick out and grab every rock.
Taking the rear glass out was a good call on my part, I rubbed the passenger side on a tree pretty hard on Cheerios. There are two trees that are hard to sneak past - the second one gets into your front driver fender and the first one will get your B pillar unless you have a 2 door Wrangler size vehicle. I haven't figured out how to avoid them, it's in a weird off camber spot so you're also focused on not tipping over.
I also ran into this group from Nebraska, super cool dudes who had a 4 door Explorer on one tons and a bobbed 1st gen Ranger. Imagine my excitement when I was coming out of a trail and saw my people... lol.... it's not every day that you see honest budget builds in the Black Hills. Seems like most people are just buying expensive Jeeps or SxS's now.
Didn't get much for video but here was one my wife took, right after the tree rub:
