nice to meet you Steve, Darla, and Fred (Wilfred) and see Horace again.
We had a great time even though we didn't make it all the way through. It was slow going with alot of spotting needed, and there was some serious carnage in the group ahead of us so we had to wait awhile for the trail to clear. It was about 4:30 pm once we got moving and we had 2.5 miles of really technical stuff ahead...after about 1/2 mile of near death we thought it smart to come back another day instead of risk being stranded in the dark if we broke something (very likely on John Bull).
Some parts were easier than I remember, other parts were harder. I'm still amazed how easy stuff looks in pictures (we had trouble walking up some of these spots we had to negotiate). I can say that we were the only stock trucks I saw on the trail.
Fred, in the yellow H2 did Gold Mnt with us in the morning, had lunch with us and called it a day. The first trail is a good warm-up, but in no way compares to the difficulty of John Bull. It's been a year since I've been there so my memory had faded a bit -- sorry Steve if I had given you the impression that it was easier than it turned out to be. You did great, though. Horace you did well also, but mother nature must have issues with your wheelbase/height/ground clearance/width...perhaps all three dimentions come out to 666 or something?
I think all of out trucks would be better served by another inch or two of lift with our longer wheel bases. The rear shock mounts on the H3 did quite a bit of rubbing as did the diff on the H2. We really bent the snot out of Horace's rock sliders (mine too!). I think the H2 is too heavy, but one and all should check out the Air-Rock system that Offroad-Only sells (
www.offroadonly.com ). Look under products, then under suspension to find info on the air rock systems.
Looking forward to the next time. I'd like to try again before I go back to work at the end of July.
Ron B