After being babied the last few weekends I was home (coats of wax, interior detailing, short, easy drives to the auto supply shop, etc), I finally put this truck to the test. I've had it in the high country before, but just after I bought it, so I was going pretty easy. Yesterday the Forest Service opened up a trail that's normally only for their use. They had thinned some trees and piled them up along the trail. For nine hours, it was open to the public for firewood collection. Now I've just been itching to buy a new Stihl chainsaw, so this was my excuse.

A lot of folks in the high country heat their houses exclusively with wood. Plus, they didn't have to drive as far as I did, as it's in their back yards. I showed up probably an hour and a half after opening time. Thus, I had to drive all the way to the end of the trail (~4 mi) before I could find a pile that wasn't already being worked. It wasn't "technical" in the sense of a die-hard 4WD enthusiast's trail, but it was definitely "high clearance 4WD-only" territory. The slash piles weren't that well put together. Mostly, the wood that most folks would be interested in burning was at the very bottom (it seemed they would fell a big tree, let that serve as the foundation of the pile, and then layer on several feet of still fully-needled smaller trees that nobody would bother to limb, cut, and pile for serious heating). Thus, after I finished with my sorry pile at the end of the trail (several hours of work for little gain), and folks started thinning out as the day wore on, I reworked their piles by strapping onto the valuable trees at the bottom, hooking up to a tow point on the truck (front or back, depending on the situation), and dragging them out from the bottom of the piles to be more easily sectioned up and loaded into the bed. I had to drop 'er into 4LO a couple of times, but man did she pull some big trees out from the bottom of some big, heavy piles! I was impressed.

Then I had to climb up out of the valley with a very heavy load. The long wheel base of a SuperCrew can leave a little to be desired on a tightly winding trail at times, but overall, I WAS IMPRESSED. I never once hit the upper limit of the power of this truck. And man does something that heavy, powerful, and well-built smooth out the trail. I've never driven anything quite like it.

Of course, I had a good washing and vacuuming waiting for me today (after a good three hours of blocking and stacking), but it was worth it. I got lots of free wood for next season (this stuff needs to dry), a new chainsaw, and a great day behind the wheel in the mountains of Colorado. And did I mention those blazing yellow and orange fall aspen trees carpeting the hillsides? Breathtaking. Absolutely breathtaking. I took the long way home.

 

wish i was there help out yea, these truck have alot of pullin power because of their weight, swap an excal 2 in there and youll have enough torque to make the world stop spinnin

 

Me too!!

I've been really tempted to do just that but have been holding off to judge how close this new factory reflash is to the XCal2 improvement in performance. I'm not even sure the reflash even applies to my truck, but given how sluggish it is acceleration-wise, I'm guessing that it does. I'm also thinking about a new intake system. Just haven't had time to visit the local 4WD shop yet...

 

What a badass story You should have taken video of you pulling them out in 2wd and then the difference in 4lo!

 

Thanks! I did mean to post a pic of the load so folks could get an idea, but I was half way through unloading it this morning before I remembered. No chance I was about to throw it all back up there! I mostly cut into 4-foot sections, which were pretty darned heavy (very moist, sappy, heavy wood right now). The really big diameter stuff was cut into probably 16" lengths (I couldn't lift the big diameter stuff into the bed by myself in very much length, so I decided on one row of short, bigger diameter stuff and one row of longer, relatively smaller-diameter stuff). The shorter stuff made up the first row against the cab and the longer sections filled out the remainder of the length of the bed. All told I know it was more than 1,000 lbs, but probably quite a bit less than 1,500 (hey, I was alone or this could have been an even bigger load). Either way, a pretty good load for uphill, 4WD climbing. All she ever asked for was more. I loved it.