Island Wheelin

Small Island wheelin in the Mog-Stang

Craig called me up with the plan to hop a ferry and go for some small island wheelin with the MogStang buggy so of course I had to say YES!

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$140 in ferry fees later and we were on the 45min long boatride to go meet up with Rohan and Sam to check out a new trail they’ve been clearing. With some super slippery wet climbs up some huge rock waterfalls deep in the rainforest the trail sounded like it should be a good test for some well built rigs.

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Mog-Stang

As we unloaded the rigs in the woods I snapped a few shots of Craig’s Mog-Stang buggy. I call it the Mog-Stang as it has a Ford 302 engine and Mercedes 404 Uni-mog axles with 4 wheel steering. The power runs thru the C4 tranny and into a twin sticked Dana300. Massive portal boxes on the ends of the axles lead to huge ground clearance but also difficulty fitting them inside a 17″ rim. The rig is WIDE but traction galore out of the Interco 43″ SX Sticky tires help it climb up the steepest and slipperiest slopes. Joining us wheeling were the built Suzuki buggy of Rohan and the low buck but SUPER capable Toyota 4Runner rig of Sam’s.

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First Trail

With a short drive from the trailers to the trailhead we got right into the nasty bit right away with a big lower gate keeper climb. This is a new trail that has been under work for a while heads up some slippery slimy rocks that never really dry out, even in the late spring. Sam’s long wheel base and well broken in Trepador tires made short work of the first few big climbs. Craig lined up next but with his much wider track width some of the climbs were a whole different animal as this trail is tight through the rocks and the trees. With some spinning tires to heat up the rubber he got the Mog-Stang thru the first steep section of trail.

Next up was Rohan in his much shorter wheelbase Suzuki buggy, while it’s a lot less weight than Sam’s rig, and a lot newer Trepadors on it these were some big climbs for a short rig so it took some fancy driving to find the line and keep all 4 tires on the ground and crawling the Zook up the rocks.

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Second Trail

The second trail we ran was very much like the first, big slippery climbs and tight pinch points thru the trees and rocks. Much like the first trail, every rig had things that made it easier than the others, and also had things that made it harder than the others!

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Third Trail

Maybe its not a full different trail but the scenery definitely changes as we come up off the waterfalls and into a plateau area with some big drops and some tight turns thru some smaller trees. A loose rocky hillclimb for some full throttle launches and some exposed rock made for some good crawling without much wheel spin.