6gun
Full Access Member
Well... took the truck to Silver Lake dunes in MI this past weekend. Truck was awesome...driver needed more refresher experience in the dunes, however, once I got dialed in the truck just ate the dunes in awesome fashion. Tips would be as follows:
1. I started with 20lbs in the tires which was 10lbs too much. Once I aired them down to 10lbs, the difference was incredible. I didn't do any doughnuts as I was afraid to roll one of the tires off the rim, but 10lbs was the ticket for digging and hill climbs.
2. Stayed in 4H/Locked rears all the time, 4L just overdug.
3. Tried D, M and shifting manually from 2nd to 1st. The last worked better by a long shot, In either D or M, I would start up the test hill, the largest dune climb there, it would refuse to downshift into 1st until too late...resulting in having back down and try again, quite humiliating. Finally started up in 2nd and then when it started to bog would pull it back into 1st, and would just power over.
4. Be sure the entry point up a dune doesn't have a big whoopteedoo right at the base...otherwise the front skidplate will get a pretty good jolt...see below. We hit one dune at a pretty good clip and my back molars are still loose. Bent the living shit out of the skidplate, but nothing else remarkably. As you can see, even as hard as we hit there was zero damage to the bumper or to anything else except the soft aluminum skidplate, we all were amazed. When driving home, no tracking or wierd steering behavior.
As you can see, my son and I are working on straightening the plate using the latest high tech "autoforming" methods, as well as beating the shit out of it with a small sledge and wood scraps. I avoided hammering directly on the metal as this tends to cause more dimpling than actual benefit. After a couple of ours of annoying the neighbors, I have to say it looks pretty damn good...more pics to come. Also, sanding it down and painting black with bedliner, again, pics to come.
All in all, a great time, although the Silver Lake voucher system for entering the park is idiotic.
1. I started with 20lbs in the tires which was 10lbs too much. Once I aired them down to 10lbs, the difference was incredible. I didn't do any doughnuts as I was afraid to roll one of the tires off the rim, but 10lbs was the ticket for digging and hill climbs.
2. Stayed in 4H/Locked rears all the time, 4L just overdug.
3. Tried D, M and shifting manually from 2nd to 1st. The last worked better by a long shot, In either D or M, I would start up the test hill, the largest dune climb there, it would refuse to downshift into 1st until too late...resulting in having back down and try again, quite humiliating. Finally started up in 2nd and then when it started to bog would pull it back into 1st, and would just power over.
4. Be sure the entry point up a dune doesn't have a big whoopteedoo right at the base...otherwise the front skidplate will get a pretty good jolt...see below. We hit one dune at a pretty good clip and my back molars are still loose. Bent the living shit out of the skidplate, but nothing else remarkably. As you can see, even as hard as we hit there was zero damage to the bumper or to anything else except the soft aluminum skidplate, we all were amazed. When driving home, no tracking or wierd steering behavior.
As you can see, my son and I are working on straightening the plate using the latest high tech "autoforming" methods, as well as beating the shit out of it with a small sledge and wood scraps. I avoided hammering directly on the metal as this tends to cause more dimpling than actual benefit. After a couple of ours of annoying the neighbors, I have to say it looks pretty damn good...more pics to come. Also, sanding it down and painting black with bedliner, again, pics to come.
All in all, a great time, although the Silver Lake voucher system for entering the park is idiotic.
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