Hey so finally got this thing off the pavement. Today I rolled about 80 miles to Woodstock, Virginia to meet up with Andy Thomas (who we've rallycrossed with for years) and a couple of his buddies to hit Peters Mill Run, an 8-mile (and 8 mile back) trail described online as "moderately rocky and linear." It is also apparently a "Jeep Badge of Honor" trail, which from what I gather seems to be some thing where Jeep guys get a bunch of badges that go on their vehicles for trails they've done, or something like that. I'm half tempted to register for whatever that is and just get their badges and put them somewhere they can't be seen, just for my own amusement......
In any case, we met up at the local walmart and rolled out a few miles to the trailhead. It was Andy in his GMC 2500 (?) with 34s and lockers, a friend of his in a Tacoma, and another guy with a Lexus GX470.
It's a nice, scenic trail and starts with an immediate pretty sizable climb over some pretty rocky (but not terribly loose) stuff for the first mile or so, with some switchbacks. Seems like there were some skidplates being hit here and there, but the Raider is so small and maneuverable it's easy to pick a good line. I ran pretty much the entire time in 4WD low and 2nd gear, only using first for a few places I had to stop to wait for the truck ahead of me to climb. All in all, it climbed very well, no slipping anywhere (I was aired down to about 20psi or a bit less).
After a while it leveled off and got a bit less rough and we stopped to take a group photo before a gaggle of people in late-model Jeeps showed up to do the same, on their way back out..
We proceeded on to the other end of the trail and had lunch...
Then headed back the other way. Apparently there are some stream crossings usually, and I figured with all the recent rain in the DC area they may be good, but they were only a bit damp. but there was a good amount of muddy areas on the trail and the Raider walked through them as if they were tarmac (no, these pics don't match up - the guys weren't really stopping for photo shots so I don't have any "action" lol)....
Anyhow, made it back the other way and off the trail. A couple of the guys rolled to another trail but I had to head back home to make dinner with the neighbors, so got aired back up and on the road
So, a few thoughts:
- The "bouncy" suspension seat base is awesome. After I got it dialed in to the right weight range and unlocked, basically I could lean forward a bit and move almost totally independent of the rig rocking back and forth (other than my foot and my hands).
- Short wheelbase does make for a bit of a choppy offroading, but this thing is like a Miata on the trail - small enough to fit anyplace and maneuver around anything - a big difference from Andy's truck, which is about twice the length and had some adventures trying to pull off for oncoming traffic in a few cases.
- In some review someplace the Gen1 is referred to as a "sure-footed donkey" and I think that's totally accurate. It never lost any lines I put it on, never lost grip anywhere, and was always unrefined enough to know it is, indeed, a utility donkey and not a fancy high-dollar trail buggy.
- Powertrain-wise, it had zero issue in any situation, even steep uphill starts. Of course running in low range, so not a real surprise, but the V6 has proven to be more torquey than I would expect based on its "on-paper" ratings. This being a Mitsubishi V6, I kept a close eye on the temp gauge, but it never went up (and it was in the 90s and extremely humid today). I did run my electric aux fan the whole time as well but did not run A/C until we were off the trail. Also cruises at 65-70 just fine on the 70 miles of highway home, though man this thing is all about wind noise, no matter what configuration you have the windows in, lol.
- A few squeaks and rattles to figure out, and I also would get an occasional "bang" from the front right when at certain uneven areas - I suspect swaybar bind, perhaps. Will have to take a look at things.
- I definitely have a slow leak from the rear main seal, as there is a bit of oil spray on the crossmembers. not enough to actually drip when parked, and no measurable loss on the dipstick after about 200 miles of driving today. So, I'll probably go with "not caring" as opposed to actually going through all the effort to put another new one in, unless it gets substantially worse. Otherwise, everything worked fine.
- The VIAIR pump I got is great. It took about 30 seconds to get each tire up 10psi to road pressures.
So anyhow, happy nothing broke and it is just as capable as I hoped it would be. I have some stuff to do (definitely need some skidplates to do any more substantial trails....).
