MiiisterAnderson
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2020
- Messages
- 30
- Reaction score
- 61
We went wheeling with a group of friends through NM and CO last week in the Ram (BH CC 6'4" ORP Locker Laramie wheels + Vice hidden winch. It did well and there were two occurrences that slowed us down, but neither were the trucks issue. The first was after a particularly muddy river crossing in NM where mud dried on the inside of the wheel. When we returned to the highway the imbalance was bad enough that we couldn't get above 60 mph without a severe shimmy and we stopped to scrape the mud out of the wheels. The second issue came after a day of trail climbing on Cinnamon Pass. A post-ride inspection showed that we'd cut a sidewall pretty deep on the front passenger tire. We were 50 miles from any reputable tire shop and no one had any of the Falken Wildpeaks in 275/55/20 in stock anyway much less anything comparable in the right size. With a well equipped group and a good spare, we opted to wheel on it through Imogene Pass the following day. We picked our lines carefully and while it was a bit dicey just short of the summit, we made it through unscathed. We swapped in the spare for the drive home and arrived without issue.
We spent the majority of the trip in 4 Low and the truck did well. It surprised and even impressed the Toyota and Raptor guys that were with us. While the trails are really "Jeep" trails and aren't designed for a full size truck, we didn't have any issues until it came to some of the tight switch backs. The worst of it was that we had to make two or three point turns. We used the locker twice, the first to climb up a fairly steep rock face on Imogene, and the second was further up on a steep and loose rock section near the top. In retrospect, I don't think 4 Low would have had any issues, but the 'Yota guys all locked in and recommended the same, so I didn't debate it. We didn't get stuck anywhere and unfortunately (fortunately?!) didn't get to use the @VICE design hidden winch setup, but at least it got some positive commentary by fellow wheelers.
We traded off using Hill Descent Control with running the transmission manually in 1st or 2nd gear. On long descents we got the scent of heated brakes, not to the point of failure, but certainly from ones that were working hard. Running in 1st gear was fast enough for the stuff we were decending, 2nd gear was too fast to be safely controlled. For sustained hill descending the jury is out for me on HDC. In the end, the truck performed as expected, if not better. Picking the right line was the key to success. Some photos from the trek:
We spent the majority of the trip in 4 Low and the truck did well. It surprised and even impressed the Toyota and Raptor guys that were with us. While the trails are really "Jeep" trails and aren't designed for a full size truck, we didn't have any issues until it came to some of the tight switch backs. The worst of it was that we had to make two or three point turns. We used the locker twice, the first to climb up a fairly steep rock face on Imogene, and the second was further up on a steep and loose rock section near the top. In retrospect, I don't think 4 Low would have had any issues, but the 'Yota guys all locked in and recommended the same, so I didn't debate it. We didn't get stuck anywhere and unfortunately (fortunately?!) didn't get to use the @VICE design hidden winch setup, but at least it got some positive commentary by fellow wheelers.
We traded off using Hill Descent Control with running the transmission manually in 1st or 2nd gear. On long descents we got the scent of heated brakes, not to the point of failure, but certainly from ones that were working hard. Running in 1st gear was fast enough for the stuff we were decending, 2nd gear was too fast to be safely controlled. For sustained hill descending the jury is out for me on HDC. In the end, the truck performed as expected, if not better. Picking the right line was the key to success. Some photos from the trek:
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