Vermont Overland Rally

"Eberle-Hills-Cop" (Eberle-Hills-Cop) 10/05/2016 at 14:08 • Filed to: None

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Spent this past weekend at the Vermont Overland Rally, and being back to work this week has sucked. I just want to go back and keep exploring as we didn’t get to hit even half of the class IV roads (unmaintained roads/trails) that were mapped out for attendees. My Nissan is stock, aside from the necessary armoring for this kind of thing. And the lack of suspension lift became apparent as I frequently tested the durability of my radiator skidplate.

My buddy came out with his lifted Forester XT as well. I honestly thought we’d be pulling him out of trails, but it was a beast even without low range gearing:

Ended up running with lots of folks that came up from CT, a pretty diverse group experience wise too so it was great to see people get their first real taste of off-road driving.

Tons of awesome campers and trailers too at the headquarters.

If you’re remotely interested in this kinda stuff I totally recommend attending next year, tons of fun. And we got a Subaru through, so don’t make excuses!

HammerheadFistpunch > Eberle-Hills-Cop 10/05/2016 at 14:21

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Digging the awning lights? what are they?

HammerheadFistpunch > Eberle-Hills-Cop 10/05/2016 at 14:23

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You know, I had a year older FXT and while I can saw that I’m not surprised that it could do it, Im amazed anyone would want to. Every time I did even moderate offroading or even corrugated roads I could hear the sound of my wallet emptying for new lateral control arm bushings, swaybar end links and strut tops.

vicali > HammerheadFistpunch 10/05/2016 at 14:32

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Oh you..

We rally our 2008 with stock suspension.. then my wife daily drives it during the week.. Believe me I will hear about anything making strange new noises, still good after 7 years..

We have LED awning lights, they run on AAA batteries and have lasted many camping trips so far.. ours are blue though;

HammerheadFistpunch > vicali 10/05/2016 at 14:34

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I went through 3 sets of sway bar end links, 1 lateral control arm bushing and 2 top hats...

I owned the car for 3 years.

Eberle-Hills-Cop > HammerheadFistpunch 10/05/2016 at 14:36

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Well. this one has no swaybars, so that’s not an issue haha. No issues with control arm bushings though. Not yet anyway.

Eberle-Hills-Cop > HammerheadFistpunch 10/05/2016 at 14:38

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They’re just two lengths of LED christmas lights with a 12 volt cig lighter plug. Come to think of it, I think they’re literally what i got as a recommendation from you?

HammerheadFistpunch > Eberle-Hills-Cop 10/05/2016 at 14:41

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ha! thats what I was wondering. I couldn’t recall. They are nice right? Just enough light at night to be useful but not enough to be annoying.

Eberle-Hills-Cop > HammerheadFistpunch 10/05/2016 at 14:45

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Yeah they’re really great. I much prefer them to a lantern or blinding everyone with the bigger LED flood lights on the back of the roof rack.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > HammerheadFistpunch 10/05/2016 at 15:44

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What is your definition of moderate offroading? I know people who beat the shit out of their Subarus and didn’t have as many issues as you did. Is it stock ride height?

HammerheadFistpunch > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 10/05/2016 at 15:46

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Washboard roads, camping in Moab, nothing really intense. Low miles stock height. Basically the kind of roads I did on the Kaiporowits

Cooperd0g > Eberle-Hills-Cop 10/07/2016 at 03:55

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A stock 4x4 Xterra is pretty capable. I used to roam all over the mountains out west in my stock Off Road model.

BJ > Eberle-Hills-Cop 10/09/2016 at 19:23

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I figured there must have been other Opponauts there, but I guess with the lack of network coverage it was hard to live blog/stream/tweet the weekend’s activities. Maybe we’ll see each other next time!

http://overland.kinja.com/vor-2016-micro-report-1787338772