[creed82]

Howdy Honda friends,

Last week I saw a mountain plateau I wanted to climb to on my 2016 Honda Rancher 4x4 DCT EPS. The entire creek bottom below and mountainside to reach the top are on private/open land. There is not trail leading to the top, so I rode through some of the roughest terrain I've attempted on my Rancher. I made it! This hill was one of those points along the way where I had to pause and decided, do I have the skill, and does my quad have the capability to get up this? In this case I decided to continue, and placed my iPhone at the bottom, filming whatever happened. Here's how it went:

 

[alloutdoors]

creed, greatly enjoy the videos and a friendly comment and is my opinion only, so take it for what is or isn't worth. I noticed at around the 1:20 mark you stop and get started again near the top. Personally, I would keep that momentum up vs. stopping and trying to get it going again.

 

[mrbb]

HAHA< I agree with Alloutdors, the key to a lot of these hills like that is momentum, you want to keep it going, and also, if it was me, I would have gone up the right side, that long smooth like rock, over all the smaller round one's

about 50% of the hills here look like that, only many are a 1/4 or longer and steep as can be compared to this LOL old power lines and from all the ATV's going up and down, erosion has made them crazy rocky and steep.
I bene climbing then for 30+ yrs, never even thought about taking any pic's

Next time I get out , I
ll try and remember to take a camera!

as some of the hills here if you stop, you better be fast to JUMP off and HOLD the atv where it is, IF you even can!
cannot tell you hope many atv's I seen do cart wheels and ended up in bad shape ,
but here is a video of a local one, has a super cool old railroad tunnel at the top, about a 1/4 mile tunnel, filled with 1-4 ft water holes and its COLD In side it even in summer time

and here is the tunnel

 

[mrbb]

and here is some hills I grew up climbing as a kid LOL
and there still climbing them today, ATV's hopwever have made many a lot LESS steep than they used to be, they move a lot of material when they climb, pushing back from the top, taking the HILL out
but there still steep suckers

I had many KX 500's
and they all cliombed like goats if you had the ball's to aim them up hills LOL
and sorry watch the F bomb in this one at the end?

 

[mrbb]

and sorry to post hog here
but here is a view of thinsg of this place, all the trails you can see the walls on the sides how tall they are, well they Used to be at that grade, its these ATV"S and not bashing, than have cut them down so much, for 20+ yrs we rode them on bike sand didn;t do a fraction of damage, cutting down, as atv's did in a few weeks>
and MOST of these riders in places like this are all tresoassing to ride LOL
n this one you also get to see a pretty cool rollover LOL at about 8;40 climb then roll?
you get to see how steep these hills are LOL


also you will seldom see any 4x4 atv's on these hills, there TOO heavy, and top heavy, might have more HP< but HP to weight ratio's don't get them very far up these hills, they run out of steam too fast!
sport atv's and MX bikes rule these types of hills! and you will alsop note, MOST of all these riders WEAR helmets and other safety gear, where as well?? 4x4 atv guys seem to not!

and another one with more of the area and different hills
you can also get to hear the difference between a 4t and a 2 t climbing hills
I still don't get how folks say a 4t sounds better??
sound like a farting cow climbing a hill, over a high rpm screaming two stroke to me LOL


I guess growing up on 2 strokes ruined me LOL

 

[creed82]

Oh yes, I've watched all of these Trevorton videos over the years. Looks like an awesome place for the hi-power Banshees, 450s and Raptors.

 

[creed82]

creed, greatly enjoy the videos and a friendly comment and is my opinion only, so take it for what is or isn't worth. I noticed at around the 1:20 mark you stop and get started again near the top. Personally, I would keep that momentum up vs. stopping and trying to get it going again.

Yes, agreed. The stops were never intentional. I have found momentum to be key as well, to a degree. Cameras don't do justice, it's always hard to tell how tall/steep a hill is on video.

 

[SamUK]

creed, greatly enjoy the videos and a friendly comment and is my opinion only, so take it for what is or isn't worth. I noticed at around the 1:20 mark you stop and get started again near the top. Personally, I would keep that momentum up vs. stopping and trying to get it going again.

Yes, agreed. The stops were never intentional. I have found momentum to be key as well, to a degree. Cameras don't do justice, it's always hard to tell how tall/steep a hill is on video.

I've got a few pictures of me riding steep climbs and never posted them because they don't look as severe as they are, photos/videos don't do justice sometimes.

 

[fishfiles]

cool ! --- I did 3 weeks in the hospital , 3 operations , 7 broken bones , 145 stitches doing the same thing on mud , I bet them rocks would hurt even more !

 

[mrbb]

Oh yes, I've watched all of these Trevorton videos over the years. Looks like an awesome place for the hi-power Banshees, 450s and Raptors.

All over PA in the coal mined area's we have had them big piles of slate to play on, there all over my area, Not as many as there used to be, local Power plants now burn the stuff and have used up most of them state wide!
for yrs folks used to call them eye sores
but to guys that ride off road, there a blast to play on
I grew up climbing them on foot before I even had a bike to ride! LOL
there a lot steeper in person too than in video's

the Tunnel in the Lofty vid, is pretty cool too, there are many others like it where I ride in PA, but that one has the most water in it
before atv's were common, it was used by mostly only trucks and jeeps, , and there were and still are, so many BIG rocks under the water you don't see till you hit them, seen many trans pans and rear ends get busted open hitting them, plus all them rocks came from falling off the ceiling/roof of the tunnels, so never knew when more would fall
the sides closest to the walls are the deepest, some spots are over 5 ft deep, and its all running spring water in it, and dripping from above, and even on the hottest summer day, that water is COLD when it runs down your back driving thru HAHA!
sad part is, when riding these places, its again 99% all done by trespassing
many yrs back, it was open to the public, but then too much trash and safety issue's they closed it off, ATVer's still get past the blockades top ride thru tunnel and on most of the hills
no shortage of vid's on youtube of riding in these area's and again, illegally 99% to?
just how it is here I guess, folks ride and HOPE they don't get caught! zero respect for most land owners in PA

 

[dr. feelgood]

Cool vids. I've climbed some pretty steep hills on my sport quads over the years. The problem with them is the front end is so light so it can tend to lift. There was one where I started bouncing on some rocks and roots and didn't let off the gas quick enough and flipped the damn thing over backwards. Luckily it was pretty lightweight and didn't crunch me too bad, and it came through with hardly a scratch.

Rob

 

[creed82]

Cool vids. I've climbed some pretty steep hills on my sport quads over the years. The problem with them is the front end is so light so it can tend to lift. There was one where I started bouncing on some rocks and roots and didn't let off the gas quick enough and flipped the damn thing over backwards. Luckily it was pretty lightweight and didn't crunch me too bad, and it came through with hardly a scratch.

Rob

Yes, most of my experience has been on sport quads and they scare me more climbing hills because of that very reason. This Rancher has always done very well climbing hills, it's heavy, stays planted, and the 4wd just keeps it going.

 

[SamUK]

Cool vids. I've climbed some pretty steep hills on my sport quads over the years. The problem with them is the front end is so light so it can tend to lift. There was one where I started bouncing on some rocks and roots and didn't let off the gas quick enough and flipped the damn thing over backwards. Luckily it was pretty lightweight and didn't crunch me too bad, and it came through with hardly a scratch.

Rob

Yes, most of my experience has been on sport quads and they scare me more climbing hills because of that very reason. This Rancher has always done very well climbing hills, it's heavy, stays planted, and the 4wd just keeps it going.

I find you can feel the terrain (if that makes sense) better with a utility ATV.

 

[mrbb]

a lot depends on the type of hill your on and what its made out of
sport atv's do better on long rather smooth hills, as they can use speed to get up and over
where a 4x4 atv will honestly run out of power, even the big HP one's
gravity fights them spending too much time on the hills with all there weight, going against them
like they say, 2x4's rely on speed to get up and thru things
a 4x4 can many times just crawl thru same thing
until gravity really gets involved
same goes for motorcycles
they rely more on momentum to keep them going forward, why they tend to ride faster on trails than atv's, well 4x4 atv's
I also hate to say it, but I truly think it takes more skill to ride a 2x4 or a bike on same hills as a 4x4 atv, due to you need to have better handling experience and reaction time
but there all fun LOL

just enjoy what you like, and be safe!
can get hurt on any of these things
I know I have seen some deaths on all 3 types over the yrs, and a lot of broken bones on all 3 types too!

 

[creed82]

a lot depends on the type of hill your on and what its made out of
sport atv's do better on long rather smooth hills, as they can use speed to get up and over
where a 4x4 atv will honestly run out of power, even the big HP one's
gravity fights them spending too much time on the hills with all there weight, going against them
like they say, 2x4's rely on speed to get up and thru things
a 4x4 can many times just crawl thru same thing
until gravity really gets involved
same goes for motorcycles
they rely more on momentum to keep them going forward, why they tend to ride faster on trails than atv's, well 4x4 atv's
I also hate to say it, but I truly think it takes more skill to ride a 2x4 or a bike on same hills as a 4x4 atv, due to you need to have better handling experience and reaction time
but there all fun LOL

just enjoy what you like, and be safe!
can get hurt on any of these things
I know I have seen some deaths on all 3 types over the yrs, and a lot of broken bones on all 3 types too!

I agree, and I believe the years I spent on a 110cc ATC made a better rider in many ways.