[lupinsea]

Originally Posted by WK5.7VIRGIN

Nice pictures. Now, a noob question. Is there anything on that trip that an '07 WK Ltd couldn't handle? Thanks.
Kevin

It could probably handle the ups and downs. However, there are times where it's extremely tight amoung the trees on some trails and a lot of body damage could result.

We had a few times where the Jeep in front of me was rubbing both tire sidewalls trying to squeeze between trees.

Other times the Jeep is off camber a lot and tends to slide down hill as you go forward. It can suck you into a tree growing straight up. One of the reasons that I dropped my top and removed the plastic upper door surrounds. I didn't want to crack them, again. Did that on my first trip down there.

Otherwise, it's not too bad.

[WKTrailRunner]

Thanks Jay,
I don't think I'm ready to smash it up yet.
Kevin

[ianftlew03]

great pictures! i live in tacoma, wa but have been deployed for the past year so i havent been able to enjoy the trails at home. my fav spot so far is evan's creek, but i am looking to explore more when i come home. i cant wait!

[grogie]

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing.

[ianftlew03]

lupinsea, i was wondering how you like the performance aspects of front and rear truetracs offroad. also, do you notice it in the front onroad whithout locking hubs?

[lupinsea]

Evan's Creek is an awesome ORV park. Nice that it's close too. The trails are a lot of fun and the lush Pacific NW evergreen forest is wonderful to wheel in and it's especially at its best in the fall or early spring when it's dumping down rain. But it just doesn't offer the sense of wonder and the feeling like you're on top of the world that the eastern Washington trails do. You'll never get a vista like the ones in the picks in this thread from Evan's Creek. One of the reasons I've been enjoying the trails over east of the mountains even though it takes 2 hrs + to drive there.


Ian, I've found the Truetracs to be great for Washington trails. For the NW they're a great balance between a lot of off-road traction and very very good on-road manners. So good, in fact, that you do not notice any difference in handling on the street. And they work so smooth on the trails it took me 3 off-roading excursion before I could recognize how they were working. Even now after 18+ months it's hard to notice on the trail. The Jeep just keeps going.

They work great in the occasional snow we get around town, to. I live in a steep, hilly area and simply could not break traction during the 2 weeks of snow we got this winter (driving resonsibly, of course).

I really appreciate the simplicity of the Trutracs. Once installed just forget them. No switches to flip, no air solenoids or pumps to fail on you (which I've see with ARB setups). Also, turning radius on the trail is not affected at all. Unlike lockers which can push you out of the turns the Truetracs let you cut the turns tight.

The Truetracs' performance stumbles a bit for rock crawling or other times when you're liable to have tires lifted in the air a lot. In these cases applying a touch of the brake while on the trottle is usually enough to "fool" the Truetrac into engaging and shunting power to the wheel on the ground with traction. For rock crawling a full-on locker is best. But there's not too much rock crawling in Washington state.

There have been a few times I've needed to winch through something that lockered rigs can make it through. But not often. About 80-90% of the time, if I'm having problems making it, so are the locked rigs. I'll take those trade offs for the handling, smoothness, and other benefits of the Truetracs.

Over all, they're great for NW trails.