Good thing we didn’t bring our cristal champagne glasses to our camping adventure this weekend…
Extreme #vanlife with @t3tris and their all-terrain house/toy on wheels nerd friends.
It’s been almost a year since our last post! Dang.
Well here’s a video from a quick visit to the Tahuya ORV Park, about an hour west of Tacoma.
This almost made up for missing #mogfest 😆
Good opportunity to practice self-recovery, test out #t3technique’s heavy duty CV joints and the lovely added clearance in the rear from our recently upgraded engine mount from #smallcar.
Enjoy!
And thanks for the video footage Evan!
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Just a bunch of maniacs jumping their rigs in a #holeintheground at #descendonbend, that is all!
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Well, it doesn’t get much better than #glamping right by a gorgeous river with a hot tub setup for stargazing…
We’ve certainly camped in worse places!
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T3TRIS showing how a Syncro can flex with the grace and delicacy of a truck driver… #asflexibleasabroomstick
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No offense meant toward truck drivers by the way, they just aren’t your typical yogi 😇
If you can’t fit between the rocks, just go over!
Well… in this case we could actually fit between the rocks, but sometimes it’s just more fun to go over anyway.
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Slippery mess here! While we do love our new Hankook Dynapro AT2 tires, they aren’t the most aggressive all-terrain tires out there. Makes for much more enjoyable highway driving but a little less off-road performance. We simply couldn’t get enough grip to get over this log (a front locker probably would’ve helped) without approaching it at axle breaking speeds.
However, @nrwstr with his more capable Land Rover Discovery 2 and more aggressive tire tread also couldn’t defeat the slippery mud…
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Interesting little section that highlights the shortcomings of the larger less off-roady tires we installed on our Syncro: our granny gear is now faster and our tires are less grippy. The combo means that we either need a little more momentum, or lockers (or both). In this case, we could’ve passed through without the rear locker, sure, but that would’ve meant hitting these rocks with more speed, making things more bumpy and therefore more likely to get damaged. The rear locker comes in handy even if it’s just to smooth things down a little. On the other end, the wheels are still large and don’t allow the van to crawl as slowly, resulting in the couple stalls seen in this video. Ahhh the drawbacks of stick shift.
Swipe to the end to see our couple attempts without the locker, which just resulted in immediate slippage.
@williammariewines ’ Toyota FJ and @nrwstr ’s Land Rover had no issue of course, but their built-in kitchens suck compared to ours :P haha
@hiacethunderegg and @jeanclaudevandelica got through there without lockers in their Hiace and Delica with tougher off-road tires, better suspension flex and skilled driving (we don’t have vids though). I doubt they stalled their automatics 😂
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Some vehicles struggled a little more than others, but we all made it past this rock.
The rear locker would’ve made this flex a non-issue but it’s fun to see what the van can do without all the knobs activated!
Though not seen here, @nrwstr ’s Land Rover had no issue of course :P
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The last little obstacle we attempted on #archersfirebreak 28H was this little hill climb. It doesn’t look like much but provides a good challenge since you have the balance momentum with traction. Too much speed and you slam down into some logs waiting for you, to little speed and you loose momentum and traction before reaching the top, which is what happened on that first pass.
As always, this proved to be no challenge for @nrwstr . Yet somehow the tiny drop after the obstacle was too much for his departure angle and broke the little fairing above his brand new rear bumper. Can’t win them all…
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Another short downhill section on #archersfirebreak 28H. This one was pretty easy, you just have to mind the rocks for clearance. We did do this section uphill last year and it was actually a bit more gnarly (gravity is a BIG help downhill of course).
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Another challenging trail from #brownscamp and #jordancreek. Make sure you swipe, videos are a little long but that’s what it took to be careful!
This little section of #archersfirebreak 28H trail has a steep hillside with a deep rut in the middle just waiting to swallow either side of your vehicle, creating a serious tipping risk.
We walked the trail uphill to get a feel for it and we could see right away that there was little chance we would make the whole climb, mostly because of the slippery conditions. We tried anyway and neither of us could make it past a benign bump on the trail, let alone make it to the beginning of the V section! That slick clay-like mud was just too much for our tires.
So we went around to the top and @nrwstr decided to drive it down with the help of spotters to make sure his wheels were evenly spread atop the groove. It was reassuring to see that it could be done safely so T3TRIS gave it a shot.
Definitely one of the more interesting drives we’ve done so far. It certainly doesn’t look like much but making a mistake here could lead to the vehicle sliding into the rut and a potentially bad rest of the day. With spotters and careful driving, it’s actually quite safe and a great learning experience.
Here is how this section is described by the awesome @trailsoffroad database (it’s worth downloading the app if you off-road often):
“There is a challenging uphill section of trail here that photos cannot adequately describe. The deeply dug-out trail has a deep rut shaped like the letter V in the center. It is necessary to stay out of the center rut to ensure that a vehicle does not run the risk of tipping over onto its side into the dirt bank. In wet conditions (nine to ten months of the year), the dirt and mud becomes slick and traction is greatly reduced.”
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