Sunday 9/20 - Sucker Pond Trail, Bennington VT

That pretty much sums the entire day up perfectly.

 

well put!

 

You should post a pic of that valve stem.
I can't believe it pinched itself off like that and held air

 

Alright, I'm going on record and saying I will not invite stock trucks out if I've never driven the trail myself regardless of what other people tell me.

That said, everyone should feel really good about what we got those stock trucks through. Fantastic time with you all, thanks again for putting your trust in me.

I didn't take many pictures on the trail, but here's what I've got along with some scenes from my camp last night. The battery died overnight, so no daytime pictures of camp, but I was at Somerset Airfield in the GMNF and it was FROSTY this morning.

 

It's nice to wake up and dive right under the truck and find no damage and nothing leaking
I know had had my far share of knocks, bangs, and screeching going on yesterday
Just one hell of a muddy truck!

 

Yeah I did my morning check and nothing leaking here either, bombed it down 87 the whole way and drove straight as an arrow, no new noises, not bad lmao. I won't be able to get to the pictures I took til later in the week but ill put em up eventually

 

I can't wait to see your pics. You had your camera out a lot. Great driving on the trails sir. You did have a good share of the metal "slamming and scraping" noises, (especially going down that crazy hill) but you sir are a trooper that I would go riding with any day.

 

If any of the info I supplied about this trail was less than accurate, I sincerely apologize! Having grown up running this trail on everything from dirt bikes and 3 wheelers in the early 80's, to stock and modified rigs, even snow mobiles in the winter.... I obviously took the familiarity and driving experience with it for granted. An old friend of mine calls this a bumpy road through the woods.

With the above said, you guys now have an experience that will not soon be forgotten... cherish it!

 

I don't think muddy is a strong enough word that encapsulates what your truck ended up looking like, you should post a pic. It looked like it was painted by Jackson Pollack. I went through the outside of my truck and the only thing I found was that I lost a wheel weight. I haven't had the time to go underneath yet though. I really wish I was able to get a pic of Tyler (@NorthEastTacoma ) on three wheels with his rear passenger tire up in the air about three feet going down that hill.

 

Truck skipping comes to mind hahaha

 

Damn that looks like a pretty dope spot....heads to Gaia to locate it.

Edit, just googled it. Looks like one of the sports I bookmarked as we were going down FS 71 on the VT trip. Were there a lot of people there like when we drove by a few weeks ago?

 

In all seriousness Brian, it was a great trail. I would go back in a second. We did prove that stock trucks can do it........just at a reallllllllly slow pace and a lot of spotting. Obviously, we all know that over the years, trails get washed out, beat up, and big storms happen that change the landscape all of the time. This is true of all trails. If I were to give a decent assessment for riding the trail with a Tacoma I would say these things are highly recommended:
1. Rear diff breather (a must)
2. 2 inch lift (highly recommended)
3. 32" tires or higher
4. IFS skid and sliders (not necessary but really recommended)
5. Recovery points on the front and back of the vehicle (we did not need to get anyone out but it was a very dry summer and if it was a rainy summer the water crossings would have been a lot worse.)

 

Wow wish I had enough balls to take my rig ( Pavement Princess ) out on these outings.

 

The day before...

The aftermath...

 

I wish you could have been there!
Any time your ready, I know that truck is more than capable

 

Yes but I believe it's allergic to dirt, mud, fun etc.

 

Oh my Goodness guys that was exhausting. Thank you so much for everyone's help! I feel like I learned a ton, simply from following people's lines. Thank goodness I had at least a front skid, and sliders, I came down hard on the side many many times. But every time I asked for a spotter, someone was there for me. I got to drive 2nd in line for a bit behind Eammon and it was such a cool feeling getting to get out and have him explain what we were looking for, and how to cross it. At one point we came to a broken down old bridge, at first I thought "What's the problem? That looks easy" and then he told me we were looking for nails sticking up that could puncture a tire.

As we were leaving, I kept seeing mud bogs in small offshoots I wanted to hit but thought "If I get stuck at 6pm when everyone is trying to leave, they'll kill me"

I had such a great time though, thank you everyone so much. This was my first 'real' trail and holy cow was it rough

 

Agreed. My truck with a 2” lift and 32s felt like the bare minimum for getting over the worst of it. Going back again I would want a better than stock skid plate as I had some nice impacts even with the lift.

If we do this again, maybe we have the stock trucks turn around at that power line mud hole and loop around to meet back up at the pond. NOTHING AT ALL AGAINST the stock people. We were all stock at one point. But 9 hours to get over that was a long, long day.

Another reminder when you crawl under the truck to check for leaks: Check your dif fluid! If you don’t have a breather, plan on swapping the fluid asap. We crossed a lot of water that was door deep.

 

I'm so glad I was behind you because I have a 2" lift and 32s (Ehh, 31.7s) so following your lines was so helpful.

Completely agree about the stock trucks. They did AWESOME but it was definitely a long day. Especially when it more than doubled, actually almost tripled (Lowest estimated was 3 hours) our original time.

I had a blast though

 

Alright everyone,

Here is a massive dump of stuff we took. I don't know if it's in order, most of the horizontal videos are sideways, and because of Snapchat they're in 10 second clips. Sorry...

I had a knock off GoPro that recorded a bunch but I have not uploaded that yet, and have no idea if it's any good because I've never used that camera before. But at the very least, there's footage of @Skierrichy going through that mud pit

https://photos.app.goo.gl/avM5YeHM7qqSLsTb8