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Hunting Rig
- Thread starter John
- Start date
My Taco frame rusted out pretty bad too so I've moved on from it. It was only an '09. Happened fast when I moved back to the NE. I'm going to be doing annual oil spray on the new ride. Corrosion Free. I have Krown here too.
Mine went through 2 frames… I do a ton of dirt road driving. The combo of dirt and salt is a frame killer. No matter what I did to the outside of the frame I couldn’t keep the inside of the frame clean. Muddy salt inside the frame just chews through the steel.
That's all superduty running gear? Unit bearings on the front axle with leaf spring suspension
Electro magnetic radiation cured venison? Is this the secret sauce?!
Yep. 4x4, lift all done by Ujoint Offroad in NC.
We started with a worn out painter's van - now everything from the diesel tank to the radiator is new. It's been to SD,Moab, Florida Keys, Mexican border a few times, just got back from the Grand Canyon. Believe it or not it's really mostly the wife's deal. We've both done a ton of work on it, but I'd probably never got into a van if not for her. Kind of a mini-RV.
I've always wanted a truck for my hunting trips, but being young, poor and with a family I've been giving deer rides in SUV's for the last decade. Here is a photo of this year's buck in the back of a 2011 Kia Sorento. She's got 231k miles, so we'll see if I'm still stuffing deer in the back later this year or if I finally upgrade to a truck.
Fun tip:
If you shoot a deer or pig you can't get loaded in there, attach your game hoist pulley to a shoulder belt or seat belt buckle. Get the head hoisted up in a bit, and you'll be able to get the rest of it in easily.
(used to use Ford Explorer as my truck)
That's a heck of a tip! I was lucky to have a couple of guys grab a corner and heave him up in there, but I've done a couple bear hug deadlifts in my day loading deer into the back of my old Ford Escape before I had my hitch mounted cargo rack on that car.
I once had to jam a doe into the back of a VW Jetta. That seat belt trick would have come in handy. The first two attempts I put her half in, as soon as I lifted the other half she’d fall out. Attempt 3: I had to dead lift her alone and slide her in. It was no fun.
Yup.
I shot a beast of a buck and couldn't get him in the Explorer to save my life. (I'd manhandled many deer and pigs in to it prior to that day)
I saw my game hoist lying there and a light bulb went off.
About a year later I shot a hog that I didn't even attempt to lift. Went straight to the seatbelt trick and was on my way. It's a whole different level of difficulty without a truck.
I've always been a pickup guy... but I could do a lot with a decent AWD or 4x4 van with ground clearance...
That's rough. I replaced my F150 when the body started to rust out. It was a 2000, with a rebuilt motor. I replaced it with a 2002, and promptly blew that motor, so I swapped the motor out of the old truck into the new one. Sounds like those frames are a bit notoriously vulnerable to corrosion otherwise it might be worth an engine swap into another truck.