Airmapper
First Fill-Up (of many)
- Location
- Bowling Green, KY
Okay now I got a little bit of mud on the X, time for a place to put pics / video / comments.
Just got home from a 3 day camping trip at Land Between the Lakes. Kayak fishing and running a few roads defined as "not maintained for passenger cars" were the main activities.
It rained on Thursday and most of Friday morning, I got there Friday afternoon. Everything was pretty wet, I took a little trip down a road I have a Geocache on to fix it. (and nearly no one visits because the greater Geocacheing crowd are pansy's come out to the wilderness then wonder why they can't get their cute little Honda's down there.) Worked as a little warm up for the X, a deep rut and a downed treetop that was all crushed down into the road was about all I found.
For proper perspective on why this is significant, I have a video of me taking my Escape down that same hill, and it was a challenge, but I did take it down there and back. With the Xterra, a total cakewalk, no problem, no sweat, just goes over like nothing. The rear wheel lifts and the E-limited slip kicks in, this isn't time for a locker, save that for the real work.
[video=youtube;4z3BBMg9s14]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z3BBMg9s14&feature=share&list=UL4z3BBMg9s14[/video]
Sadly I did more wheeling the next day and didn't get any video or pic of that. Sorry. It was pretty muddy, but it's been so dry all year the bottoms of the puddles were solid, and that made me feel better going on as I do still have the junk stock tires on. Some of the crossings were 8-10 inches deep, I think a few were a shave deeper, but just wallowed out puddles not very long. I did hit the locker just as a precaution on one spot. I seen where I had a good chance of getting crossed and slip into some fairly deep ruts on an uphill section of trail, and I did. I didn't bottom out but it couldn't have been too far from it. The X powered on through, and when I got to the top straightened back out. I generally avoided obstacles if I could and took the easiest line, I didn't have a second rig with me so not looking to get stuck. Overall I'd say it was on the moderate side, but that is hard to define. The X never failed me in stock configuration, but it was enough to challenge me at times, I still consider myself a novice wheeler and picked a trail I'd been on before. (Took it earlier this year with a guy over on TNX.)
Ran into a few Jeeps along the way, I smiled and hollered a friendly hello as I went by, they managed to throw a half hearted wave at me as they kind of looked at me like I was an alien. I seen their tracks the rest of the way out till I hit pavement again. They were gunning it through all the puddles I seen later and I had to spot a few places to tell if it was actually deep or if they just dumped fresh mud on a dry rut, most places it was the latter.
My trips will probably be few and far between starting out, but until next time, thanks for looking.
Just got home from a 3 day camping trip at Land Between the Lakes. Kayak fishing and running a few roads defined as "not maintained for passenger cars" were the main activities.
It rained on Thursday and most of Friday morning, I got there Friday afternoon. Everything was pretty wet, I took a little trip down a road I have a Geocache on to fix it. (and nearly no one visits because the greater Geocacheing crowd are pansy's come out to the wilderness then wonder why they can't get their cute little Honda's down there.) Worked as a little warm up for the X, a deep rut and a downed treetop that was all crushed down into the road was about all I found.
For proper perspective on why this is significant, I have a video of me taking my Escape down that same hill, and it was a challenge, but I did take it down there and back. With the Xterra, a total cakewalk, no problem, no sweat, just goes over like nothing. The rear wheel lifts and the E-limited slip kicks in, this isn't time for a locker, save that for the real work.
[video=youtube;4z3BBMg9s14]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z3BBMg9s14&feature=share&list=UL4z3BBMg9s14[/video]
Sadly I did more wheeling the next day and didn't get any video or pic of that. Sorry. It was pretty muddy, but it's been so dry all year the bottoms of the puddles were solid, and that made me feel better going on as I do still have the junk stock tires on. Some of the crossings were 8-10 inches deep, I think a few were a shave deeper, but just wallowed out puddles not very long. I did hit the locker just as a precaution on one spot. I seen where I had a good chance of getting crossed and slip into some fairly deep ruts on an uphill section of trail, and I did. I didn't bottom out but it couldn't have been too far from it. The X powered on through, and when I got to the top straightened back out. I generally avoided obstacles if I could and took the easiest line, I didn't have a second rig with me so not looking to get stuck. Overall I'd say it was on the moderate side, but that is hard to define. The X never failed me in stock configuration, but it was enough to challenge me at times, I still consider myself a novice wheeler and picked a trail I'd been on before. (Took it earlier this year with a guy over on TNX.)
Ran into a few Jeeps along the way, I smiled and hollered a friendly hello as I went by, they managed to throw a half hearted wave at me as they kind of looked at me like I was an alien. I seen their tracks the rest of the way out till I hit pavement again. They were gunning it through all the puddles I seen later and I had to spot a few places to tell if it was actually deep or if they just dumped fresh mud on a dry rut, most places it was the latter.
My trips will probably be few and far between starting out, but until next time, thanks for looking.
