A backcountry trip to Utah sells the wife on overlanding!

[BigSwede]

Good call to back off of Elephant Hill. While you don't need lockers for it, you really do need low range. Thanks for the pics.

[angryscot]

nice report!

[montypower]

Good call to back off of Elephant Hill. While you don't need lockers for it, you really do need low range. Thanks for the pics.

The Montero has low range w/ center diff lock. Plus, many of the 2001s had front/rear factory limited slips. Those trucks are built for the outback. I've seen them go to some incredible places. Many make the mistake of thinking you need 33+ in tires to do remote travel. In reality, it's only certain trails and obstacles that warrant large tires. Awesome trip report guys!!! Moab is on my list for exploring.

[BigSwede]

The Montero has low range w/ center diff lock.

Yes, but maybe you missed this in the trip report:

Many of you are undoubtedly familiar with Elephant Hill, which is described in the guidebook as "extremely challenging, technical and difficult." The ranger emphasized the need for a lifted vehicle with lockers. We didn't have our hearts set on making it, but we wanted to at least experience trying. Well, the Montero didn't have much problem with the ledges, but we learned at this point that the transfer case electrics had packed up, something that I had fixed before leaving but which had reared its head again. This left us with no low range and no transfer case lock.

[Imnosaint]

I'll echo here, great trip report. Nice to see another Gen III in action.

[Sabre]

I'll echo here, great trip report. Nice to see another Gen III in action.

Thanks very much. May I say that I've enjoyed your Cornering Consciousness blog since I first ran across it. It was nice to go back and have another look now that we've been down to the red rock country.

We debated whether this trip would be on the bike or in the Montero. As much as we like to travel on the bike, we most definitely made the right choice here. "Grown up camping gear" indeed!

[stioc]

Really nice and captivating trip report!

What made it special for me was the fact that you did it in a stock SUV. I'm curious about both the trip planning (what did you use to plan out the route etc) and the Montero; how many miles, what preps did you do prior to the trip, what did you bring along for self-recovery etc?

[Sabre]

Really nice and captivating trip report!

What made it special for me was the fact that you did it in a stock SUV. I'm curious about both the trip planning (what did you use to plan out the route etc) and the Montero; how many miles, what preps did you do prior to the trip, what did you bring along for self-recovery etc?

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It was our bible.
51ZBncmYCLL._SX270_.jpg

Combined with the Benchmark Atlas, which is by far the best series of maps I've seen, it was a simple matter to read up on what others had reported on various online sites, watch some Youtube vids, and decide what things we wanted to see. Oh, and we had downloaded the Utah topo map to the GPS as well as a few tracks of Moab-area trails. The only hard plan we had was the White Rim trail, because we had made a reservation in advance for our backcountry permit. Everything else was left absolutely flexible. It was important to me that I didn't put too much pressure on SabreWife; if she had wanted to take a day off, it would have been fine. As it was, she only asked for a couple of hours in Moab to shop for souvenirs.

The GPS showed the shortest distance was 954 miles each way, but we put 3,500 miles on the truck in ten days. It's a stock 2001 Montero Limited with just over 100K on the clock. The only vehicle prep was a set of slightly upsized tires and the roof rack, which I adapted with custom mounts to fit the Montero's curved load bars. For ourselves we took 3 20-liter Rhino water containers and a 2-gallon dispenser to keep on the folding camp table for daily use. We went through a LOT of water, but never came close to running low. We also had a micropore filter pump in the event that we ran low and had to draw river water, just in case. We bought an 80-liter Engel DeepBlue cooler and were extremely happy with it, enjoying fresh food throughout the trip. High quality block ice (the larger size) that's clear (no bubbles) lasts the longest. We carried a 3-burner propane stove.

For the vehicle, we carried 2 20-liter fuel cans on the roof, but never needed them. We carried two full-size spares (also never needed), a high-lift jack with a Lift Mate and wide base, a shovel, heavy-duty RUD Grip 4x4 tire chains, a high-volume Q Industries MV-50 compressor, a jerk strap, a tow strap, a variety of shackles, and a pretty healthy assortment of tools.

We're novices and overpacked, but pretty much nailed the equipment the first time. Although we never needed any recovery gear, we felt pretty good about what we'd brought.

We did decide upon the following mods before returning to Utah: a 2" lift, sliders, and underbody armor. Although it has a very good approach angle, I'd like to put a winch bumper up front because of the recovery usefulness. The Montero really would benefit from a custom rear bumper to help with the rather limited departure angle. I was very happy with the limited slip rear diff, and wouldn't jump to a rear locker even if I could afford it. Perhaps one for the front if I win the lottery, but the truck really does well as-is. It's NOT a serious crawler, after all...it's the family truck/vacation car/soccer team hauler/grocery wagon. We don't want to compromise the excellent on-road manners that the thing has, and just a bit more ground clearance and trail armor would have seen us go exactly where we wanted without hesitation.

[stioc]

Thanks for the detailed response. What size/type of tire are you running on the Montero? I'm in the same boat as you with a stock SUV and feel that unlike my previous cars, motorcycles and trucks I should leave this one as stock as possible- spend more time outdoors than wrenching. Other than perhaps a taller tire and maaaaybe a small lift. With most mods there are trade-offs and I don't want to give up the reliability for the perceived capability. I've seen good drivers in stock SUVs/cars/bikes drive better than me in my modified rigs because they spent more time/money being behind the wheel than under the truck.

Looking forward to your round two report.

[Sabre]

Thanks for the detailed response. What size/type of tire are you running on the Montero? I'm in the same boat as you with a stock SUV and feel that unlike my previous cars, motorcycles and trucks I should leave this one as stock as possible- spend more time outdoors than wrenching. Other than perhaps a taller tire and maaaaybe a small lift. With most mods there are trade-offs and I don't want to give up the reliability for the perceived capability. I've seen good drivers in stock SUVs/cars/bikes drive better than me in my modified rigs because they spent more time/money being behind the wheel than under the truck.

Looking forward to your round two report.

The stock tires were Yokohama Geolanders. I know that people like them, and I know that Mitsubishi specified this as the OEM tire, but for the life of me I can't understand why such a wimpy tire was fitted to such a heavy truck. When I first bought the Montero and drove it home from Las Vegas to Washington, I kept pulling over to check the tire pressure because the pig wallowed back and forth like a drunk weaving his way home. No sidewall support whatsoever; as far as I'm concerned, a terrible error to mount those tires on this vehicle.

I put on a set of Les Schwab's Wildcat A/Ts, going up a size to 265/75 in load range C. The handling on pavement was transformed, now confident and stable yet not in any way harsh and still a very comfortable family car. Very slight increase in road noise from the tread pattern, not even enough for the wife to comment on. When winter came and the snow and ice arrived, I was extremely pleased with this choice. When I ventured to the local off road park and played around with the guys in their tricked-out Toyota mudders and big, jacked-up Super Swamper rigs, I was blown away by how well this thing did. It's the truck and the driver, NOT the tires that determine how well you do.

This tire bought us a bump in undercarriage clearance that saw us doing very well in Moab, rarely scraping anything at all. Of course, when we aired down we lost that extra clearance and it's then that we realized (the wife said it out loud first!) that a little lift and some slider rails would be a nice thing to have.