BruteForce

Sourced this USMC M1123 Troop Carrier from a private seller in Virgin, Utah. At the time, it had ~3000 miles on it.

Decided that it needed a winch, so I sourced a Mile Marker 15,000 pound winch and got it installed. Most everything on this rig is 24v, so you can’t just put anything electrical on the rig. To get the winch in place, we had to cut away quite a bit of structural steel under the bumper. Off to R&R Welding to reinforce.

Soon after the winch, I decided it was time for a brush guard to move animals and trees out of the way. Once those were both installed, it was time to wheel this beast.

I aired down to 12PSI and off we went. We discovered quite quickly that this rig is pretty wide for your average non-50” trail.

All in all, once I figured out the BRAKE THROTTLE MODULATION trick (BTM), essentially riding the brake and throttle at the same time, we learned that this thing would walk through any terrain.

On Sunday, 10 July 2022, 4 of us departed Panguitch town, due west along the Sawmill road area en route to Circleville.

We’d run a good section of the southern most Brian Head burn scar (M18, M23, etc) before crossing SR20 at Buckskin area.

As we’ve had no rain for months, trail conditions were unreal dusty, but especially the last turn on the Color Country before we connected to the Paiute.

Two weekends in a row, we attempted to run both South and North from our ranch near Panguitch. The South route was passable, but only after much winching the Wolverine (though my Polaris XP 1000 made short work of the snow).

The following weekend, a few of us attempted to head North toward Circleville. We got about 1 mile to the top (around 9100’) before the snow was just too deep to complete the ride. We backtracked, ran up Horse Valley and attempted to come down from the top. Again, we likely got to within 1 mile of our prior backtrack. Much winching was done by the Highlifter ATV’s..

Great days!

At first glance, and laying on the ground, I thought this was thong underwear (because there were a ton of alcohol bottles nearby too), but NOPE - COVID mask way up here on the trail. COME ON, PEOPLE!!

Garmin tracks below..

Hog-PeekaBoo.gdb