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| Avalanche Engineering busts snowdrifts near Durango | Short Cuts | ||||
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By: Joshua Lowenstein - 03/2000
Over the years, snow busts with my own club have been inclined to be busts. They included trips where the snow was too deep, chains lost forever in the snow, roadslides and body damage, filled boots and frozen feet, a tree branch through my soft top, nonfunctioning heaters, thermos breakage, and generally, not a great time had by all. ...Maybe this is why I have not been snow-busting in 6-7 years?
Knowing I was going to be in the area, Steve Rumore asked me to join their group for a snow run. I accepted...
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| John's competition Jeep romped through
the powder with power. Joshua Lowenstein |
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The turn-off for the Beaver Meadows Road is ix miles Northeast of Bayfield, CO on state highway 160. Combine the best and wildest rigs, the best drivers from extreme competitions, two feet of fresh powder, and sunny, warm weather (almost T-shirt temperatures!) and you have dream snow bust conditions.
My seat for the day was in John Gilleland's Avalanche-built competition CJ7. With no top, no heater, and no windshield, the only luxuries on this "Gilleland's Island" were the EFI crate small block ZZ4 Chevy, 38-inch Swampers, and ARB-equipped Dana 60s -- they made for snow-blasting rather than snow-busting. Was it a cold ride? Not even! Saaaweeeeet! Avalanche Engineering employee B.J. LaGrange drove most of the time, but when the snow was at the deepest near the top of the trail, I got a crack at driving the trail beast and winning rig of the ARCA 2000 season Farmington finale. Rooster tails of fresh powder... even when I buried the Jeep in the snow; I couldn't get it stuck. Grabbing reverse gear and taching up to 5K, and this rig would unbury itself and back right out.
Steve Rumore had his new Assassin and the old competition Sniper in pieces, so he drove his daily driver, a big-block Blazer with 38-inch Swampers and a Detroit-stuffed rear 14-bolt. What that open front end gave up, the EFI 454 more than made up for.
Mike Weaver and his blue and yellow Epic Avalanche Sniper had no trouble proving the Sniper's credentials as a snow-busting animal. That rig blasted through three and four-foot drifts like they were not even there.
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| Steve 'wheeled his daily driver and made the big block Chevy make up for the difference between the Blazer and his competition rig. | Mike surfed his Sniper through the
powder. That's a Sniper, not a hover-craft! Joshua Lowenstein |
Drew's big yellow Suburban was unstoppable - that much weight really got the traction to the ground. |
The most unstoppable mega-snow rig was Drew Barber's Cummins-powered Chevy Suburban. It had 40-inch Swampers and the weight to push those tires right down to where traction could be found. Drew was the trail tour bus, carrying his family and several friends up over through any snow drift or hill at little more than idle. Where others needed forward momentum to blast through the 2-3 foot deep snow, Drew's rig made it with downward pressure.
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| Jeff had the juice to move his tires, but the 33's were just a bit too small.... Joshua Lowenstein |
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| Full size iron held the majority. Joshua Lowenstein |
Five or six other local rigs joined in for the bust, including my cousin Jeff Wharton, from Aztec NM, driving my old CJ5. The CJ5's EFI 304 AMC had plenty of poop to keep up with the Avalanche rigs, but the 33-inch MTR tires fell victim to the depth of the snow. Fortunately Drew and his snow beast 'Burb were able to tow the Jeep out of trouble.
ARCA competitor Stevie Joe Richardson led the group with his 350 Chevy-powered Toyota pick-up truck. The Toyota met with the fate shared by many trucks with Birfields - a broken one. While the others ate lunch at the top of the trail, Stevie Joe and his co-pilot replaced the shattered joint.
At the end of the day, following our tracks back out was easy and a bit anticlimactic, but all in all, what a day! Sunny weather, good friends, visiting family, super rigs -- we turned snow-busting into snow-blasting!
Through all of that, did my boots fill with snow? Heck yes!
Would I do it all again?
Of course!
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