One of the local mud parks had an event weekend. I had a chance to meet up with a couple of fellow forum members, JRLoos and laytoncarrol, and do some riding. Before I get to a few pics that I took I wanted to say that these guys are top-notch fellows. Plus, just riding with them was a blast.
Here I was coming in the gate. I had never seen this place so packed. Mud Buddy's is only a couple of hundred acres, and I bet there were 200+ people out there. It was pretty epic.
The weather was pretty bad - there a few severe thunderstorms in the area, it was thundering, and light to moderate rain all day - IT WAS PERFECT WEATHER FOR TO GO MUDDIN'! The trails were a blast. Some parts of the trail were extremely slick. You could punch the gas in 2WD at 15MPH and just instantly get sideways. There were a few times I thought I'd plow into a tree going sideways on the trails because I was sliding all over the place. Note to others: lifted Rhino on stock wheels and Bighorns can get a little hairy on off camber sweeping curves! LoL
JRLoos had his son with him and he had a blast. His long-travel suspension and extra width was an animal out on the trails. I could not come close to keeping up with him even though I have a little more motor than he. His Rhino could power around corners and he could stay in the gas when I was gripping the steering wheel praying that I don't end up on my side when my back wheels finally decide to grab traction. Overall, we did all kinds of trails and rode in some water.
We had a chance to ride with some RZRs in the woods. Yall boys better listen to James when he says the RZR ain't all that in the woods; James is right. I had probably the worst handling UTV out of our group because I am still waiting on my new wheels and tires and I am too tall and too narrow for any hardcore trail riding. But even I was able to stay right with the 50" RZRs. JRLoos could have utterly blown them away as his Rhino runs good with the cam and throttle body and stock exhaust. The riding was just PURE AWESOMENESS!
The only time JRLoos go in a bind was when he came around a corner too hot. The trails were slick so I could see him overshoot the banked curve with the brakes locked up. He went sideways into this mud pit. The back tires were in a hole of bottomless silt and the fronts were up on the trail. But the trail was just to slick for the front Bighorns to drag the rest of the car up to more solid ground. I was able to easily winch him out with my Viper 5000.
Out in the river was whole new ball game. It is a minor river, more akin to a creek, with a coarse sandy bottom that is extremely loose. It's easy to mess up and spin down to the frame in, oh, about 2 seconds. One of the RZRs in our group spun down coming out of a deeper hole and got stuck. Another RZR tried to pull him out with a tow strap but ended up getting stuck, himself in the process. It was pretty cool. Luckily, I had a strong winch and was able to recover the RZR. Check out this pic I took of the front RZR attempting to tow out the first stuck RZR.
I also had a chance to ride with laytoncarrol and his group. Back out on the trails after the weather cleared up found lots more mud. One of the stock Rhino 700s found a hole and the stock tires could not claw their way out. This pic is of layton's 2013 Rhino 700 with a 3" catvos lift on 30" Zillas towing him out.
And finally, we found a huge group of riders out at the pond chilling out and driving through deep water. I was a little too late, but here you can see him coming out of the water. He was driving in water over the doors.
So, there you go. That's all the pics I have. I did want to say I had a chance to do some racing on the sand dragstrip. The 734 build in my Rhino did not disappoint. I beat a couple of RZR 800s easily. I also raced a Ranger 800 XP and beat him real bad. I raced two different Honda Rincons and beat them. The 734cc big bore kit runs extremely well, and I still have the stock head and stock valve springs and had the huge whisper cores in my Muzzys which do rob some power. I can only dream of trying out this build with a good ported head and some oversize valves.
Thanks for reading along.
Chris
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Wed Aug 16, 2023 1:17 pm by RADICAL RAM
Subject: Mud Buddy's Memorial Weekend Ride 
