New Year’s Eve snow run

[DirtyLarry]

A few of us took a trip up to the mountains today to play in the snow and do a shakedown run on some freashly installed equipment on our trucks. This will be the first snow run for the Ram Charger with front and rear ARB air lockers, mine has a fresh rear gear set (replaced the noisy Genuine Gear set with a Yukon Gear set) plus the added weight of the new Phoenix camper and one buddy wanted to break in his new 500 mile old 2012 Dozer yellow Jeep Rubicon (DI 3.6L w/6 speed manual...saw wheat rig!) the right way. Also a perfect time to try out the GoPro Hero2 camera I got for Christmas.

The snow wasn’t all that deep but the main road is lower than the terrain around it so all of the snow had displaced a couple feet of snow in the trail. One item you cannot easily spot in these pictures and videos are the steep grades we are pulling. It was also an extremely windy day here in Colorado. So much so, some highways in the lower elevations were closed. In fact, the exact highway I took to get to this area got closed while I was gone and reopened by the time I got home.

I didn’t get many pictures as I was busy playing with the GoPro camera.

My buddy snapped this one somewhere along the way. You can slightly see the GoPro stuck to the door.


Lunch in the wind! The yellow 2012 Jeep only had 507 miles in it at this time. There is another Jeep Rubicon behind the Ram Charger.


GoPro Hero 2 camera mounted to the vent wing. In the first few video’s had I had mounted to the driver’s door, which gave better exhaust sound but not much trail view. Moving it to the vent wing gives a better view but less sound but I can more easily toggle it on and off and keep my eye on it.


View on the way back down







First GoPro video. GoPro Take 1.....Not that great but still kind of neat. The GoPro has a sealed cover so the sounds is muffled. Sounds much better if you hook up your iPod ear phones to your computer then you can almost smell the exhaust fumes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzzZR703Ys8&feature...

[Zoomad75]

Both videos up so far look good. Sounds good with my earbuds plugged in too. I was pretty bummed sitting at work today, but I guess it's better to at least be employed!

The wind flat stunk today. That was a 11-12 car pileup on hwy 50 around noon that closed the road. Zero visibility with dirt blowing across the road.

I can't wait to take a snow run. The k5 is running sweet and after driving it back and forth to work last week in the snow just gave me more of an itch to go play.

Looking forward to more videos!

[DirtyLarry]

These are taking forever to upload to YouTube!

Here is GoPro attempt 2. Moved the camera to the vent wing at this point. I think this one is the longest GoPro video shot today. The Jeeps were struggling in the deep stuff and they found it easier to crawl up on the grass to travel uphill. Out of sure curiosity I wanted to see how much the weight of the camper took away from Big Blue's deep snow abilty. Apparently, not much this day. I pass them! Hauling azz and sucking gas in at least 2+ft of frozen snow uphill. Jeeps are light but this day big power and heavy traction was the ticket to the top quickest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sxVUeyB4bk&feature...

[DirtyLarry]

Tailboss Bill worked at this spot for a while (Ya, he took the high portion of the trail to get up there) and said the hole in front was brutal. Time to let the new yellow Jeep try to live up to its Dozer color name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=horAyUV8wio&feature...

[DirtyLarry]

It did indeed start to get deeper in the trail itself as all of the snow had bown over the trail.......and it is a steep climb.

At the end of this video I grew tired of waiting for the Dozer Jeep so I blasted passed him on the left. We sat here for so long I forgot to turn on the GoPro before the pass. A new Jeep getting passed by a 34 year 7700lb old Chevy. Dang it! That would have been a great video to post on the Jeep Facebook page!

I honestly didn't think I would make it around the Yellow Jeep but felt comfortable trying anyway knowing trailboss Bill was behind me to yank Big Blue out if we got stuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NkbGnhnZM&feature...

[DirtyLarry]

Remembered to turn on the GoPro after passing the 2012 Dozer Jeep. This video ends where we landed to eat lunch. After adding the heavy Phoenix camper I really didn’t think Big Blue would still be the trail breaker in the snow.

The RV chassis spec fan clutch sure makes the engine sound loud…but keeps it cool! We’re not really spinning that high of RPM from what it sounds like in the videos. The fan just roars like it. Most was at 3,000 to 3,500 RPM with a few blibs to 5,500 in earlier videos. One thing about big blocks is you don't want to spin them very high. The rev limiter is set too high on this ECM calibration for my comfort level. I would like to see fuel cut off at 5,700 but it is set at 6,500 (not sure why Howell would do that. Who spins a BB that high!!??) You can hear when the 8.1L gets pissed as it sounds like a weed whacker on steroids. It looks like we are going fast but the speedo never came above 5 MPH. Watching these now makes things look and sound so much different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOMXtZLjMLg&feature...

[DirtyLarry]

This one is from real video camera of Bill’s big bad Dodge on the way down the mountain. Sometimes you have to go up to go down. Bill’s Ram Charger sounds the BOSS on this video! Saw Wheat! I would like to tell you he has a 6.1L Hemi under the hood, but nope... a EFI 318 Kicks butt in 4low with ARB air lockers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXOewua0Odw&feature...

[DirtyLarry]

Next up is Trailboss Bill’s sisters turn in her Rubicon. The only thing that hold this rig back is the street tires. Sure is a quiet rig though. No Deer or Elk where scared of this ride

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ-BVYtiE9Q&feature...

[DirtyLarry]

Being I was the guy busting trail up hill, I was last going downhill (uphill to go downhill in this video). This spot is pretty greasy as it never gets any sunshine. We are well out of the deep stuff at this point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBPG8oCE5Xw&feature...

That's all Folks!

Happy New Year!!

[jrdv]

Larry,
Looks like fun. I really like your new camera!
That crusty old snow can be tough to get through!
We've been pushing snow for the last two weeks, but it wasn't that much fun!

[DirtyLarry]

Originally Posted by jrdv

Larry,
Looks like fun. I really like your new camera!
That crusty old snow can be tough to get through!
We've been pushing snow for the last two weeks, but it wasn't that much fun!

Yeah, I saw where you guys got hammered with snow down there! Much more so than we did here. I bet that Unimog is a blast to drive even if that does mean work is involved. It looks like it would plow through anything.

[1leglance]

Great videos Larry and they really make me want to get a GoPro HD setup.
Both your rig & Bill's look really good out in the white stuff.

[special-K]

That '78 does a great job "forging ahead" in the snow. I could see when the front end starting riding up on the snow just before it bogged you down.

[Greenlee]

Man, that looks like fun! Your truck is one of my favorites on these forums.
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[coyote72]

That looks like a fun trip Larry. I would love to tag alog if you make another trip, I am a few hours north of you. I love reading your posts, you always have great pictures!

[Hoods69BadBowTie]

Sweet videos that new cameras pretty cool! Looks like everyone had a blast. Always enjoying seeing pictures or videos or your truck in action keep up the good work Damn wish we had more snow I want to take my snowmobile out so bad not much snow anywhere. You all are welcome to send some up my way haha.