6x6 Ride at the 2014 Texas Mud Nationals!

[George]

Looks like a great place and a good time.

[foxvalley]

Thanks Dan for setting up the vids right.
The HDI does have a big advantage with the high center issue,much easier to slide over obstacles. It does help to have the extra weight and the ability to "rock the boat."

As far as the tranny goes, we never used "low" gear exept to pull people out. The low gear will give you the ability to stop one side, and actually runs the one side in reverse,creating an extremly aggressive gearing. Lots of times we were already stuck,where some of this couldn't come into play.
Also, technique had a lot to do with some of the situations where our units were getting stuck.The ruts were so deep,that if you followed them in the hole,it was almost inevitable that you would have an issue getting out, as you were high centered.Running a track on either side of the rut,and letting the other side run the rut would help from getting high centered. This also can create a different situation,but I believe it is easier to get out this way.

[mudbug3]

Here is a video of the sand pit on Friday afternoon. It was already getting crowded and people were showing off.

That Panasonic video camera you have shoots some REALLY GOOD video Brandon. I love watching your Mud Nationals video's in 1080p and full screen because your video's are so clear. What model Panasonic video camera did you use to shoot these video's?

[mudbug3]

This is a helicopter view of the 2014, atv mud national event. This let's you see how big this event was.

[trevorakm1]

I wish I had an area that! big close to home. Very cool view for a change gives insight and perspective.

[rodp]

You've got off road sites bigger than our country ???

[mudbug3]

You've got off road sites bigger than our country ???

River Run atv park is really close to this off road atv park, and it's even bigger.

[rodp]

Thanks Mudbug, that's really cheered me up

[MaxRules]

That Panasonic video camera you have shoots some REALLY GOOD video Brandon. I love watching your Mud Nationals video's in 1080p and full screen because your video's are so clear. What model Panasonic video camera did you use to shoot these video's?

Its a Panasonic HC-V201. Next time the videos will actually be better because I'll have the optical image stabilizer on. That feature smooths out the video and it's the main reason I bought that camcorder. It somehow got turned off and I didn't know it until the ride was over and I was home. Oh well better next time.

[Bud]

Noel, thanks for the comments. I also love the sound of the water cooled engine in the HDI,but I have noticed that under certain trail and swamp conditions it is very advantageous to have the low 3.3 transmission to be able to completely lock down one side to get over a root or tree stump under the water, under these conditions some times the admiral transmission will push you where you really don't want to go. I have also noted that in the water being able to lock down one side will give you an advantage when you are trying to get a better line in a mud lane with high centers, trees and roots. I understand that you can use the low range in the Admiral to counter rotate under these conditions but I still like the lock down ability of the old transmission, I wish Mike or Bud or anyone else who has been around both types of 8x8s in extreme conditions would comment on this.

I cut my amphib teeth on a MaxII that I bought new from Brandon in 2003, and when I upgraded to my 2011 Frontier 8x8 from Tim @ Adair Argo I got some sound advice from him before he built it.

My primary goal was to be able to access the most remote swamps and marshes for waterfowl hunting, with little worry about getting stuck in the mud. I also wanted it to swim well, including areas with sunken logs and stumps. Tim recommended the 8x8 Frontier with the 3.3 low geared transmission and his Adair tracks. It is lighter than the HDI, swims great, and as mentioned the transmission allows me to easily cut power to one side to facilitate easier navigation over sunken obstacles under the water that the tracks will try to climb. I love the longer wheelbase for general offroading, fording ditches and climbing logs. The extra cargo capacity for decoys, people and gear is just a bonus. I got the 4k winch just to look like a badass. I have yet to need the winch for any self recovery.

[Obsessed]

This is a helicopter view of the 2014, atv mud national event. This let's you see how big this event was.

That video really let's you see how much of the park we don't have enough time to explore. I think that some of our best riding this year was Saturday night right after the big thunder storm most of our group rode until almost 2am. The heavy downpour made the mud really soft and brought the water level up in the park really quick and it was easy to see that it caught a lot of the quads and side by sides off guard and there were a ton of them that we helped pull out of the really muddy areas.

We missed seeing you at this years event David. I hope that you and Bud can both come join in the fun next year. It was great seeing how the group of AATV's has grown down there, and it was so cool to see people's reactions when a big convoy of amphibious machines came through the swamps and sometimes just seemed to appear out of nowhere! There were some pretty big smiles when we would wonder up on a group of stuck ATV's that sometimes needed the help :-)

tim

[Noel Woods]

Shock and awe was visible on many faces.