Wow!

I am amazed at the "out of the box" performance and sure footed feeling. I was a little worried about how big and heavy it is but after a couple of easy trails, I was ready to start trying some more difficult terrain.

A friend in a Nissan Hardbody Xcab 4x4 and I went to the Hungry Valley/ Gorman park this morning for a few hours. His first time really out wheeling, so we hit the training area. I decided to try the stair-climb, but about 1/3 of the way up it became apperant that I was going to be doing body work if I continued, so I exited to the right which was fun in itself. The Montero was having no problems at all traversing the stairs but the aero-flap stuff was hanging down too far, and with less than 900 miles on the odo, I whimped out.

The rest of the day, just hitting all the designated trails we could before noon, showed that the CG of the Montero is actually pretty low, a couple of times I got that "tingly belly-button" sensation <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="images/icons/shocked.gif" /> you get when you know you just blew-it, but then nothing happened. I did have on small bump going around a turn in a ridgeline where the 2 wheelers had worn a huge burm, right rearmost window met with mountain! Very scary, but no breakage.

Just one more note, this thing can flat out hall buns on the open desert with a ride like a Cadilac, but easy to control. You should have seen the look on the Cycle rider's face when I caught air going down the East Freeman trail, he actually stopped and starred at the back of my Montero as I continued down the trail.

I know this is no rock crawling, super truck, but it gives me great confidence that I will be able to mildly mod it and have a very capable rig.

First thing to change is going to be those mud flap thingy's. But they look so cool.
<img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

<small>[ November 28, 2002, 11:54 PM: Message edited by: Lygriek ]</small>

glad to hear you're wheeling it!

Lygriek;
Great Job!!! I have a little story to share too. Close to where I leave I saw this little but wide enough entrance to some woods, well in fact a new subdivision still not developed, just the entrance and the first couple of streets but because of the rain and being not fully developed they were the perfect ground to test the newly acquired GEN III. First I took my 88 GEN I to compare the difference, I did the first run and my GEN I managed the grouts and bumps like expected, it dove into the deep grunts and managed to lift its nose out of them with no problem, it was a bumpy ride but nothing it couldn't handle, at the end I made a tight U turn and it was now the GEN II chance to prove its heritage. As with GEN I, I put GEN III it in low gear and ahead we went, where are the deep grunts? what happened to that bumpy ride? who flattened everything while I went home for GEN III? well at least that is how it felt like!!! and the tight U turn? Who enlarged the area? These GEN III are awesome, the ride is so smooth, forget about that body lean when taking a curve that is not existent in the GEN III, one thing that really impressed me is the tight turn radius, it turn in a smaller radius than the Eclipse that I traded in for it. IÆM IN LOVE! I donÆt care about what people say about independent suspension, I love it, this past Saturday me and my wife were invited to dinner at the local Olive Garden, such was the demand for parking space that the only spot available was this one at this open lot where they improvised to cover the dirt with a couple of loads of thick but very loose gravel and there it was, an open spot right next to the soon to be sidewalk. There was two ways the easy way and the fun way, which one I took? you guessed right, the fun one where I had to climb the side walk which is all covered of gravel, so I put it in low gear (Can you tell I love the powerful feeling and the "get out of my way" attitude of low gearing) and in reverse I went, behind me a guy in his spotless Infinity looking at me like <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" /> "Why am I driving a boring family single terrain vehicle while this guy is driving that spotless all terrain, adventure seeking, all family carrying and yes still a grocery getting, all season fun peace of fine machinery like that Mitsubishi Montero" I know that deep inside he felt like crying <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="images/icons/frown.gif" /> and for me I had the biggest smile that my face can achieve. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[Drunk]" title="" src="graemlins/drunk.gif" /> With the IFS/IRS I couldn't even feel that one tire was up on top of the sidewalk and the other on the street below. I do not see myself doing any hardcore wheeling with in the near future but in the meantime I will still have fun climbing sidewalks and carefully hand picking the trails because this GEN III is still to young for that "Body damage is cool" right Phil? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />