Avenger Bison Scouting Video

[DerekF]

Took a morning this week and went into an area scouting for Bison. It is a natural grassy area that moose and bison use. Didn't see any but the fog rolled in so thick by 9:30am that we ended up going home at noon. Just couldn't see more than 100ft.

I did get to finally try out the swamper tires in non-frozen conditions. They worked great. I got stuck twice in the first 10 minutes and then not again once I got used to driving them. I my opinion those types of tire are the next best thing to tracks. We were fooling around with a go-pro camera, we took some great footage of going through a really bad mud hole. Some quads had tried to get in there and had gotten stuck to the racks. They made some big holes but we were able to drive right through them by turning and getting one tire on the far side and 'pulling' ourselves out with that tire. Unfortunately, we later realized the camera was not recording. Duh! Anyway, I threw together some of the footage. Hopefully I can get back out there next week and take some more.

Derek

[spookum]

Holy freaking wow, that is an awesome vid. I have mudlites on my argo, but havent had to use them in the mud yet. Those look similar.... but arnt you running them in reverse rotation?

In other news, i assume you are the guy that had the 60" moose recovery video? Last year this time i was drooling over that video, and now because of you and RD on you tube, i skipped four wheelers and went to argos. Thank you for inspiring me, and countless others!!!

[Rock Doctor]

LOL, your thread title got me so wound up I had to jump in my company truck and head out in search of Cell Coverage. Finally found a Cutline that headed up a hill fairly close by. Almost got stuck a couple times on the way up (Woke up to a couple inches of Snow this morning), but managed to find a spot where I could upload your vid.

First off, HOLY CRAP, I would not want to tip a Bison over in that soup, you must be headed to or from a place with a little less water?
Second, you have the same GPS as I have, Awesome little units. I completely wore out the screen and buttons on my first one, but liked it so much that I bought the same one to replace it.

Not much to do at work right now, thanks for the fix

RD

[Mike]

That was some nasty stuff. I liked the camera angle where you had it hanging off to the left side so that you could see the tires.

[DerekF]

Spookum, Yep, that is me. The reason I ended up buying another Argo (I had a couple before years ago) was because I was forced to stare at those 60+ moose for two years in a row in areas I couldn't get to with a Quad. Yes, the tires are in reverse rotation. I had them the other way and guys kept telling me they are supposed to be reversed on an Argo. Don't know why that is exactly, maybe swimming? The guy at the tire shop told me that the way they are now pushes the mud to the center, doesn't dig down and therefore lifts the argo up when going through swamp. Don't know if it makes much different but I do know I can back out of absolutely anything I get into.

RD, I would have tip a bison down if we had seen one, but I would prefer to wait a couple of weeks until things freeze up. Makes it a whole lot easier. We got a couple last year there in the winter with snowmobiles. As for the GPS. Love the unit. Bulletproof and easy to use.

Mike, We tried a bunch of angles with the Go Pro. Ended up knocking a few mounts off the machine. In the end, just holding the unit was the easiest. But i am working on a spring loaded mount and will be testing it on the next hunting trip.

Derek

[Rock Doctor]

Yes, the tires are in reverse rotation. I had them the other way and guys kept telling me they are supposed to be reversed on an Argo. Don't know why that is exactly, maybe swimming? The guy at the tire shop told me that the way they are now pushes the mud to the center, doesn't dig down and therefore lifts the argo up when going through swamp. Don't know if it makes much different but I do know I can back out of absolutely anything I get into.



Derek

Something to think about. I think the reason for running the tires backward IS in fact to make then swimm better, but they DO work better in the mud when on in the forward direction.
Personally, I have been running all mine in the "reversed direction" except for the 3rd tire on each side. Reason: With all tires reversed, the machine swimms good in Forward, but not at all in reverse. My solution was to run the 3rd tire in the forward direction, this actually allows me to swim in reverse now.
Now, for the second part of my learning experience, I blew out a sidewall on one of my front tires, and had to run my spare. The spare was mounted on the rim the wrong way for that side, meaning that the treads were facing "forward". I noticed that with that tire facing "forward", that I had more traction on that side of the machine. So much more that the machine wants to turn in the really mucky stuff, due to increased traction on the one side. Now, I'm thinking that I will run my 1st and 3rd tires in the forward direction, OR maybe I will get even better traction with all of the first 3 tires on each side in the forward direction. The problem I might run into with that idea is that I don't think I will be able to back out of ANYTHING that I get stuck in while driving down the trail.

Have you considered mixing up your tire directions in any way?

RD