Size matter? Western Washington Worry

nonhog

Observer
Pulled the trigger on this tonight. All stock for now.
 

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Paddy

Adventurer
The biggest limitation in off road in the PNW is turning radius. Next would be wheelbase (which relates to turn radius)

When you have trees everywhere and tight spaces the turn circle is very important. My latest truck is a leaf sprung diesel ford and it has truly horrible turning radius. It's an issue even in town, so on the trail it will be a major factor.

I had a Suzuki x90 for many years. It had 27" tires, open diffs and not much else and it would embarrass larger rigs on the trail because it was short, light, and maneuverable. But, if you brought a friend and lunch, it was full to the brim.

So if you want good off road ability in this region, make sure you buy a coil spring suspended front end truck and check turn circles. You can always add ground clearance.
 

Bella PSD

Explorer
Pulled the trigger on this tonight. All stock for now.

I had a 2001 GMC Safari van and it was one of the best trucks I have ever had. Never had any trouble out of it! Was used as a family van but because of the AWD and the BFG A/T tires I put on it, the van was just about unstoppable in the snow. Mine was even the same color combo as yours pictured above.
 

rayra

Expedition Leader
Kind of ironic query by the OP as those trails are closing up because of a dearth of full size traffic. Somebody has to beat that stuff back.
 

cdthiker

Meandering Idaho
At the end of the day, I am almost always more stoked to have a smaller truck off road.
Short, Light, and if all else fails I can do a 57 point turn in the middle of most trails to get out of there as needed.
Even better, I can get my regular cab taco and a small wood trailer down all of the over grown trails the full sizes wont touch for easy fire wood picking.
however, here in Idaho even that truck is too big in a lot of spaces. Hence the pinstripping. The real problem I have run into with some of the trails is not the brush, but the drop off on one side of the road. The smaller truck has gotten me some pretty great spots that would be pretty dicy for a full size.
When I lived on the boarder of east WA and north ID the trails seemed to be a bit wider.
As some one stated, a lot of these roads were made for logging. I guess it really just depends on where you want to go.
 

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