Overland Expo, Tim Scully and Multipoint Winch "Cradle"s

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danrhiggins

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Just arrive home from Overland Expo. What a mess! Seriously, it was a good event but the weather definitely put the damper (or simply the "damp") on it. Thursday and Friday rain turned the open air event into a muddy, slippery bog with many people (not me fortunately) camping. I had gone specifically to spend some time on the Land Rover obstacle course with one of their professional trainers. Never happened as they had to close the course after the first morning.

But, since I had my own truck there and because they took pity on me (and because they were bored) Tim Scully (LR trainer from Sacramento) offered to spend a couple of hours with me. It turned out great! Not only did a learn a lot more about the truck, and a lot more about how to trust it, we also took about a 90 minute drive out a muddy, slick, waterlogged forest road with lots of training and tips on how to drive in mud and ruts. (We don't get much of that in Colorado.) Awesome experience. Made the trip worthwhile.

While talking with Tim about winches he mentioned he had just fabricated a system that puts a "hidden" trailer hitch receiver on the front of the truck. He then pointed out what I will call a "cradle" that mounts into a trailer hitch and that can carry a winch (the one he showed me was on display at the WARN booth). The benefit to all of this is the ability to temporarily mount a winch and to be able to mount it on or move it to both the front and the back of the vehicle (using the trailer hitch mounts). What do you all think about this?

And a couple iPhone pics from the trip.
1 - Onion Creek Canyon. I drove this and the connecting Thompson Canyon on my way through Moab. Great drives. Highly recommend.
2 - Camping at Muley Point 1,000' above the San Juan River area below.
3 - Moki Dugway. 3 miles, 1,000'. Fortunately I did this early in the morning and no one was coming the other way.
4 - After wheeling in the mud with Tim Scully.
 

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Finlayforprez

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Hey Dan,

I have been looking at photos of the Overland Expo and looked like a mess. I knew a few folks who went there and it was tough weather. My friend Mike and his wife who run Overland Bound were there in their awesome FJ80.

What route did you take from CO to AZ? I love your pictures, looks like you had a great session with the LR expert. Very cool!

Regards, David
 

Surfrider77

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Beautiful pics Dan! Glad you were able to make the most out of it. As someone who lives in the Middle East desert, appreciate the rain when you have it!! We get rain less than half a dozen times a year, all within a couple month window. The other 10 months of dust, heat, and misery! Trade you in a heartbeat! lol
 

DonMitsu

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I would love to see how the receiver is mounted and hidden on the front and how the winch cradle impacts approach angle. Could the winch cradle be left on for offroading and removed the remainder of the time.
 

cperez

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Great trip- and mini-trail reports, Dan! I would love to hear some bullet points on the tips that Tim gave you for mud/ruts and other pointers.

The winch solution sounds interesting not only for flexibility and utility in actual use, but also for mounting only as needed. The obvious question is strength but I'm guessing they thought that through!

Had been looking forward to your report especially after seeing the article about LR closing down the course because it was "too muddy". Must've been a real slopfest. :argh:
 

Lgibson

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Did Scully say anything about tire pressures? Any airing-down required on your Moab canyons?
 

danrhiggins

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Hey Dan,

I have been looking at photos of the Overland Expo and looked like a mess. I knew a few folks who went there and it was tough weather. My friend Mike and his wife who run Overland Bound were there in their awesome FJ80.

What route did you take from CO to AZ? I love your pictures, looks like you had a great session with the LR expert. Very cool!

Regards, David

OK, David's question first. ;-) My route was as follows:
  • Left Denver Tuesday PM and drove to the Dewey Bridge campsite along Highway 128 and the Colorado River NE of Moab.
  • Wednesday morning I drove the Onion Creek Canyon trail and connected to the Thompson Canyon trail. I highly recommend these for anyone in the Moab area. Then headed south towards the Moki Dugway and Muley Point. My plan was to check out Muley Point, drive down the Moki Dugway and camp at Gouldings near Monument Valley. But Muley Point was so impressive I decided to spend the night there near the edge of the cliff. Very cool. There were a handful of other folks near by.
  • The next morning I could see a storm heading towards Monument Valley so I packed up, drove down the Moki Dugway and headed south toward the storm. (Pics below.)
  • Arrived at the Expo early afternoon to register then headed to Flagstaff where I had reserved a hotel. Am I glad I chose the hotel route given how the weather turned out that weekend!
  • I passed on the 3rd day of the Expo (Sunday) and headed north planning to visit the Valley of the Gods area near Bluff, UT. But I missed the turn. So kept going and eventually camped at the Windwhistle campground in the southern part of Canyonlands. Spent the late afternoon/evening exploring the Needles and Anticline overlooks.
  • Next morning was home to Denver as weather was moving into the mountains that afternoon.

The first two pics are from Muley Point out towards Monument Valley on the horizon to the south. The next three are of the storm rolling across Monument Valley as I drove towards it the next morning. Very cool.
 

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danrhiggins

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Beautiful pics Dan! Glad you were able to make the most out of it. As someone who lives in the Middle East desert, appreciate the rain when you have it!! We get rain less than half a dozen times a year, all within a couple month window. The other 10 months of dust, heat, and misery! Trade you in a heartbeat! lol

The funny thing was (OK, not necessarily funny) that the usual weather problem at the Expo is apparently blowing dust due to the typically very dry weather in Arizona that time of year. The rain (and overnight snow) caught everyone off guard.
 

danrhiggins

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I would love to see how the receiver is mounted and hidden on the front and how the winch cradle impacts approach angle. Could the winch cradle be left on for offroading and removed the remainder of the time.

I've asked Tim if he could provide some pictures. He assured me that it won't impact the approach angle but I want to see it. You do need to remove the front bumper to install it. I'll tell Tim I'm getting questions which may motivate him even more to send pics.
 

tucsontom

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Dan - those storm cloud pictures are stunning! The Muley Point ones make you want to set up camp right there. Thanks for sharing the route as I plan to be heading from Tucson thru Flag thru Moab then east to the San Juan's late September. We only have one night near Moab so a scenic off-pavement route that has good camping is at the top of the ticket before we hit the passes around Silverton Etc. Share more photos!
 

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