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Those Hustlers are pretty cool.
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George ,
You got that right !
Boncrshr and I were at a section of River Run park that had a BAD mud hole called " suicide hole " . This mud hole was filled with " pudding mud " . This is the kind of mud thats EXTREMELY hard to drive through , because it has very little water on top of the mud . Just as soon as you drive in you high center , and then your tires struggle to find traction while pushing the weight of the tub and driver foward. I was totally unaware of this when I drove my Max IV down a hill about 40 degrees and straight into the large mud hole . Just as soon as my Max IV had all six wheels in the muddy water , I knew I was in for a struggle ! I then started rocking my Max IV side to side , and this got me about 2 feet from where I first entered in . I then tried hanging off the right side and then the left side of my Max IV , with a zip tie holding my throttle partially open . This got me almost half way across . By this time I had a crowd of about fifteen 4-wheelers watching me struggle trying to make it to the other side .
When I had reached the point that I could no longer make any forward momentum , I knew then it was time to abandon ship , and start pushing my Max IV for all I was worth .
When I had "almost" made it to the other side by pushing the Max IV hard as I could ,while keeping the throttle on with a zip tie , an atv rider watching me yelled out " you need me to help " ?
I said sure ,I,m not proud , " come on down " ! I hung off one side of the Max IV and the atv rider helping me hung off the other side . We then got ourselves synchronized in our rocking from side to side . This got me almost to the point of driving out , but an arm size tree limb near the waters edge prevented me . At this point I got out of the Max IV and removed what was preventing me from driving out . By now I had an even larger crowd of atv riders who were gathered around this mud hole watching me . Some of them had video camera,s shooting the action .
At this point another atv rider asked me if I had any thing that he could pull me out with , when he saw I was not using my winch . It was not working that day so I had to resort to a long rope . The rider of this BIG tire 4-wheeler managed to pull me about a foot out of the water while I worked the throttle of my Max . This was right before the rope snaped , that had been tied to the front of my roll bar.
After boncrshr and I had answered many curious questions about our amphibs and what they could do , boncrshr decides to drive his Hustler back the way I,d first come across , and up the same steep hill that I came down . I thought to myself , if he can do this I,ll be VERY impressed .
This particular mud pit is shaped like a large bowl ,and boncrshr takes a line that is different from the one I drove up , but the drive down is almost as steep . Every one that is gathered around this mud pit watches as Boncrshr drives his Hustler half way across , while sitting down and rocking side to side with no problem. When boncrshr got to the place where I,d first drove in , I was VERY SURE he would,nt make it any further . All of the mud before he made his steep climb out , had been churned up really good when I,d first entered the mud pit . At this point Boncrshr starts rocking his Hustler side to side , while sitting down working the throttle , and then drives up the steep embankment I,d first drove down . VERY IMPRESSIVE !
This mud hole was so bad that none of the atv riders that were watching us , would even attempt to cross .
The light psi of Boncrshr,s Hustler 950 , combined with the exellent traction and self cleaning ability of the 13.5 inch vampire tires on it , put my Max IV to shame that day . His Hustler has less ground clearance and he has a Honda 20 hp vs my 25 hp Kolier .
