Burt, The Old Man With friends Daryl and Donna

I am going with the usual 2000lbs vertical latches, I have had good luck in the past and they aren't super pricey. I am thinking they will pull at a 45 both down and back against the bumper. and have a cradle the arm sits in. But I like the dual swing outs, after having a failure of a single long arm swing out I much prefer the dual units.

That nice you got 5, I think I might buy on off Ebay to get a spare, they are around $115 on there. Are you coming back to Colorado later in the year or just back in AZ now permanently?

 

I will be back in August and again in September.

 

bruh no way lmao im running those on my 2nd gen now


also you can run a bit wider of a tire on these. ive seen someone run 35s on them without to much of an issue.

i have 275/70/17s and have no issues with mine but they are not super wide either lol

 

Went out for a fishing Paddle Boarding adventure Yesterday to a few lakes up above Red Feather. Got chased off the lake after about an hour by a storm the rolled in faster than expected. So we just wheeled around and looked at places to camp if we are board one weekend. Messed around in this ditch to check clearances.
I am looking forward to getting the armor on this truck and wheeling a few trails I haven't been to in years.
This truck is so much better to drive with the 4.88s and I really want to finally get on a trail to need the rear locker. most of the time its keeps the tires one the ground enough to keep going.



Fishing was actually successful this time.

 

So I had this happen a couple of times on mine, Usually its after the truck has sat in ACC, which makes the 12V outlet hot. But then when you start the truck it kills the outlet for a second or so, which is enough time for the mirror to turn off but not turn back on, Unplugging and replugging the outlet to kick it back on.

 

Got my Laser cut pieces in for my Dual Swing out build.
Build a dual Jerry holder that it wide enough to Nato Style, Scepter Style, Water cans, ECT. I plan to use a dense foam to take up any additional space and use a ratchet strap to hold them in place.
The CAn Holder is .12" and I plan to Tig it together to practice.

1/4 Cut and Bent bracket that Keys into the back plate that will get welded to the bumper.
7" 1.25" Grade 8 Bolt, 1.5" OD Bushings, that will go into 2" .25" wall DOM Tube to make the hinge. I expect these to wear out about every 2-3 years.

All the 1/4" Steel will be MIG welded


Woke up early and Got my 4xInovations Skid Plate on Plus my 290,000 Oil Change.
Got the Front on, Transmission skid will be on tonight. As well as swapping over from Soft Topper to RTT for camping this weekend.

 

Some More Progress this morning before work.
Got the can holder almost completely welded. Its all tac'd but I have about 3 sides done before I ran out of time and unfortunately Argon. Its at my house and the only 110v welder I have is a Tig, so its a little slower than if I had my Mig and 220v set up here. But Overall happy with the progress.


I have everything set to weld the Slider mounts and sliders together tonight at work.
Last night I got the Transmission Skid plate on from 4xInnovations, It fit my 3rz single cab perfectly which was great.
Once Sliders are on Armor will be complete. Eventually I will build my own transfer case skid but until then I hope the short wheelbase helps keep the belly off the rocks.

 

Worked more on the sliders tonight, Got the Mounts welded and the sliders tacked into place on them to unfortunately run out of Wire on the Mig. Just my luck yesterday. I designed them to be able be able to adjust to the width of the frome in any location that they would fit. I have 3 frame mounts on each side, the front being much wider then the rear two and the middle one being a hair widers that the rear most. So I mocked them up, clamped them in place and welded them up to fit the frame. It works pretty well.

 

Grabbed my Mig this morning and brought it to work. Been a couple years since I used that being without 220v at my current house.
But I was able to knock out the sliders at lunch, slap a coat of paint on them at work and once again at home.
They will cure tonight and be ready to go on tomorrow and hopefully hit the first rocks tomorrow afternoon.
I'm very pleased with how they came out.
They clamp the frame using 1/2 grade 8 flange bolts and nylock flange nuts.

 

I'm heading back up the first half of August. Any cool trails in the area?

 

We are going out tonight to run a couple trails in northern Colorado to check out. But when your here it will be prime Ouray season.

 

We got out Friday and Saturday in Northern Colorado to a local spot. It was supposed to be 102 at the house so the mountains and 87 sounded much better.
I woke up early to get the grass watered and to finish the install of my rock sliders that I had finished on Thursday and painted for Fridays install. The Cradle Mounted worked perfectly and the sliders are super stout, I can also pull them off in about 45 minutes to repaint them.


They fit right up thankfully.


The Nice Black Paint Lasted all off 4 hours before we were on the trail sitting on the sliders.

We headed up Bald Mountain a 7/10 here and one I hadn't done before. But I figured I have new armor and a trail that's basically a boulder field would be a good test trail for them.




Not the first hit but a nice slide on the IFS Skid.


Then to a Ledge.



With a Hair of tire spin as the truck walked passenger as we went up.


Fresh Paint didn't last very long as we got a nice slide along this rock, a couple times.

Skids also got a few tags.

Even tapped the ARB on a steep climb.


Once we made it off the trail we hopped on some dirt roads and headed north. Our goal was to get to a lake that we wanted to Paddleboard and fish, when we got there there was a huge group of college kids "enjoying" the lake in a way that we didn't wanna stick around so we decided against camping there. We backtracked a few miles on some rougher roads and found a nice campsite on the edge of a meadow.
We had a Moose come and hang out across from us, we ate dinner of Spam Tacos and watch this moose that was soon joined by another one. They hung out till after dark and passed the time we went to bed, we tend to be quite campers, and go to bed early. They had moved along by the time we woke up.

 

On Bald Mountain we did end up getting a little close to a tree. A rock pitched us over to the passenger side and we tagged the snorkel, mirror and the side of the bed. Right in my newly repaired paint.
My Fiancée made it sound like I caved the entire bed in. Luckily that was just an illusion from dust. There is a tiny dent but its honestly not even the largest dent in that panel. A bummer, but I can repaint that side. It did bend the fender flare which made it look much worse.


On a better note, Here is the few from short trail the next day that leads to a firetower.

 

Ouch!

 

Its time once again for the annual trip up Old Fall River road in RMNP, its something I have done in burt for almost all 6 years of ownership. I think I missed 2020 cause you know, National parks were zoos for tourists.
But anyways I have been going up here each year as its the only dirt road really in the park and a nice road to make a sunset cruise out of. So we went up there last night and enjoyed the sunset after a thunderstorm rolled through a half hour before.
Its really amazing to live an hour from this place.

Its a fully graded and compacted road so its all for the views and wildlife.

Still some snow up towards 11,000 feet.

You end up just a hair under 12,000 feet up towards to top, but a little ways above treeline.

There are hikes that continue up to a hair under 13,000 but with more storms coming in and the sun setting it was time to head on to the top.

At the top you are met with some of the best views in the part and you connect back to trail ridge road at the top.

Of course we stopped to enjoy the sunset.


It soon was dark and raining so we headed down. Where Burt made it ever closer to the 300K Club.
Who knows if that will be hit this year or next year. I have been driving it a lot more lately, but it still sits out some of the longer trips.

 

Went up to the Snowy Range this weekend. Finally got to run a trail I have been wanting to. Unfortunately it is over run by side by sides, which I wasn't super surprised by but was disappointing nonetheless, but we were then able to get out on some named but not rated trails and see nearly no one, even running into some good rock gardens, door deep river crossings and a slider deep mud holes. One of which was too much with at least 2' of silt under the water, that the stick test showed me would shallow the truck, being alone we took the bypass.
Photos were limited but it was a great overnight and Laramie is a place we are now considering moving as Colorado is pricing us out.


Coming up to the Snowys is always worth it just for the views.

If only we hadn't come upon this lake spot at 2pm we would have camped here for sure.

We came up on lots of old cabins and even a water powered mill site.

This one was build right across the river so with a chute between it to divert water through the building. Likely to power a water wheel that isn't existing anymore.
a damn was build to the left of the building to change the course of the river towards the "mill" I couldn't find any info on it so the is just a guess based on what I found around the area.

With the wildfires that have popped up around the country we knew there would be a good sunset, one that we would observe through a burn area.


Burt needed a cleaning after the last few trips and to start off getting the under side with the sprinkler. Plus watering the grass.

 

Awesome rig and adventures man! I've thought about moving back to Laramie myself after graduating from UW in 2021. It too is becoming expensive though. I'll still end up in NOCO somewhere (fingers crossed) with my career. Hope to link up someday so we can go see more of NOCO/ SOWY together

 

We have been looking at Laramie cause equal houses around a solid 150-200K cheaper than here on the front range. Im form Longmont, my fiance is from FOCO, and both want to get out of here in the next 3-5 years.
But anytime you are in the area let me know we can go find some new trails to explore!

 

I hear ya! I love it up there as someone from SOCO haha. But i can definitely understand why you guys want out.

Will do!

 

Finally got some more progress on the rear bumper.
Got the hinges welded together, I need to weld the arms onto the Tube and the hinge to the at work but can then start mocking up things and tacking pieces together. for the swing arms.