Today I took my new-to-me 1988 Toyota 4runner DLX up to Dumont, Colorado to meet up with Dan from the Rising Sun 4×4 Club to do a little 4x4ing and compare between my integrated front suspension and his solid front axle. This was my first time driving my 4runner on anything more than a gravel road or pavement. Huge thanks to Dan for taking me out and showing me the ropes.
We headed up the north side of the canyon to check out the 4×4 trails.
Dan took the lead in his 1985 4runner.
I gingerly followed behind. If it weren’t for Dan leading, I would not have thought that my 4runner could go over some of the terrain we did today. Especially since both of our 4runners are basically stock.
It looks much more mild in the photos than it felt when we were driving over everything.
We took a wrong turn onto a tight trail. This was probably a quad trail rather than a 4×4 jeep trail. Whoops! Good thing our 4runners are small vehicles and can squeeze through tight spaces.
It got a wee bit tight.
Back on the main road heading up the hill.
Looking out at all of the tailing piles across the hills. There was some snow/rain/mist falling a bit further to the west.
We walked down to an abandoned mine site. This area is full of old collapsed mine shafts and adits. Lots of equipment is scattered all over the place
The old compressor building was still partially standing.
Neat old compressor engine.
The old compressor tank.
This must have been the Big Horn Mine.
There’s an aspen tree growing through the roof of the compressor building.
Back on the trail. We went through a creek. My first water crossing in my 4runner! So exciting! (Even if it was only a couple inches deep)
And then Dan got stuck. Crossing over an area where a deeply rutted trail intersects two other trails, Dan took a fun line that ended up with his wheels spinning. He could have chosen a much easier line (that I later took uneventfully) but this path was way more fun.
A couple families in Cherokees came over to watch Dan and me try to shove rocks under Dan’s tires.
We ended up using the hi-lift jack that I had brought along to pick up the various corners of Dan’s 4runner to stuff rocks underneath. I’ve had that Hi-lift jack since the mid 2000s when someone in the mechanical engineering program at Oregon State University left it behind after a class project. The jack amazingly functioned fairly well.
Dan gets to get his wife a new bumper for her 4runner (he was borrowing her 4runner). I’m pretty sure this is a good thing 🙂 It’s a good excuse to make a nice sturdy tube bumper!
It took a little bit of effort but Dan got out of the hole.
Our two 4runners on the other side all safe and sound! We spent a little time practicing hi-lift jacking techniques since I had never done it before. During this time, the jack stopped functioning properly (it locked in place and wouldn’t move). I need to disassemble the jack, clean it out, and make sure that everything is as it should be before the next time I go 4x4ing.
Heading down the trail back toward Dumont.
On this section I couldn’t figure out why I was being bounced around so much compared to Dan. I figured it must be because he has a solid front axle while I have IFS. Nope. Turns out that I had the truck in 2nd gear by mistake. It’s MUCH easier to go down something like this in 1st gear and 4×4 low than 2nd gear 4×4 low. Whoops!
Sun’s out, top’s down!
This is such a gorgeous area.
After we got down off the hill, we went down to Idaho Springs for lunch and to review what I learned about solid front axles versus integrated front suspension. I’m pretty sold on getting a solid front axle someday. For now though the IFS will be just fine to get me through a fun summer of wheeling. I already have sliders, tube doors, and a tube front bumper with winch mounting point on order. Next will be a winch and dual batteries for the truck.
Thanks a bunch for all the pointers today, Dan! I’m really looking forward to the next time out on the trail.
If you have a can of wd40 which if you are crossing water you should have a long and just spray down the mech of the handiman and if it isn’t worn it will work like new . But if it is worn they sell rebuild kits for them at most any farm supply type store around here and they haven’t changed in like 50 years ,I keep an extra kit on hand . I carry 2 50′ ropes and about another 30 ft of heavy chain, I made the ropes out of some 1 1/4 rope they used to sell and a saddle a rope store . I kind of didn’t do it the safest way as I used cable clamps but I have been using them for 20 years and last week I pulled a spray truck with a full 500 gal tank out of a deep raven and I needed everything I had to reach him , I got about 15 feet of slack and took off pulled him right out and all then all the way to a road, I have some safety cables built in in case a loop breaks in the rope .
Hi Scott,
Thanks for the tip! I’m still building up my recovery kit and my trail maintenance kit. I’ll be sure to throw a can of WD40 into the box.
We were having problems with the Hi-Lift not wanting to go down. Then it locked completely in place. I’m going to open it up just to check the internals. I didn’t buy it originally so I am not sure of what all happened to it between new and now. I know that one of the bolts was replaced with a cheap bolt. I’m going to replace that bolt with something that matches the rest of the bolts on the hi-lift.
I’ve got a couple of 30 foot snatch straps in my kit. Dan had some with him, too. If we hadn’t had success with putting rocks under Dan’s tires, we would have used my truck to pull him out. Or the guys with the Cherokees were happy to winch him out, too. Was a fun challenge to do it with rocks though 🙂
Cheers!
Douglas
OK. You are set. You have a 4 x 4, you have off-road experience under your belt. Now it’s time to come on to Georgia to complete your training Young Skywalker. We gotta get you a few things. First, fuzzy tiger tail for your antenna. Next, chop the sleeves off your t-shirt. Camouflage baseball cap. And the one thing that you must have…a pinch of dip between the cheek and gum. And when we say pinch, that’s a 5 finger grab. Of course, the spitting and back of hand wiping lessons are free. And the phrases you can start practicing now…yeah son, heck yeah, yeeehaw, dig in boy. And contrary to popular belief, we don’t say Git Er Done. It is sufficient to say Git it son. Long as it’s followed up with Yeeeehaaawwww!
Awesome good times Uncle Doug and the old mine compressor was pretty darn awesome. Heck Yeah. Yeehaw.
Ting
I was with you right up until the dip part. Ewwwww!
Now that I can get to the interesting sites, I’ll be sure to get some interesting mining photos. It’s amazing how many abandoned sites there are in this state.