Overlanding New Hampshire Deep water and Huge Rocks | JailBreak Overlander
Summary
Transcript
This week, we found ourselves trying to intentionally get the vehicle stuck to make a recovery video. We found ourselves a spot in a remote location in New Hampshire, nestled in the mountains next to a beaver pond. We broke down the tents, we put out the campfire, and we headed in. And we found granite boulders and water that made it look like the great flood had found its way back.
Again, we answered the question, can a truck without a snorkel still do three and four foot water crossings safely? So this week, I took my buddy Matt in his supercharged FZJ 80 Land cruiser that’s in pristine condition to a particular location in New Hampshire that is notorious for its never ending water crossings. I helped him dip his toe into it, literally by showing him how easy it was to simply drive right through the water.
You can see right here that the water is up over his bumper and over his winch. His truck is on a three and a half inch lift with 35 inch tires. I’m on a seven inch lift, six inch plus one inch body lift on 37 inch mud grapplers. I have a snorkel. He does not. For those with a keen ear, you can hear our brakes screaming due to all the water.
The thing is, is the water does give way eventually to numerous large granite rocks and boulders, which take a little bit of time to navigate. Doing this with wet breaks makes for a very noisy video. As you can probably hear, the water crossings got progressively deeper and the rock climbs got increasingly more technical. And again, doing it with wet brakes and no snorkel was basically to prove a point.
And remember, this entire trip, we were trying to get stuck. And this is as close as we could get. And just as soon as you finished a technical rock climb, there would be more water. Water everywhere. This is a pristine example of a Land Cruiser, yet Matt drives it as you should, as I do. I think way too many people decorate their trucks with rooftop tents and awnings and winches, and then don’t even drive them.
Jailbreak overlander is about driving your vehicle safely, not damaging the trails, and trying not to damage your vehicle. It can be done. After this particular climb, I’m dropping back into the water, much like a turtle, sloping, sliding off of a log. And as I navigated this, it got incredibly deep. Remember, I’m on 37 inch tires and I’m up to my rock sliders. Climbing out the other side, I discovered that my transfer case skid plate actually hit a large rock.
So I jumped out and let Matt know because we did not want to damage his vehicle. If at all possible. It made for a very interesting climb. And remember, his camera is 3ft off the ground right here. Window. I dragged. Can you. Can you get up here? Can you come up over. Can you come as close, close to me as you can? Because I dragged my transfer case over this rock.
You don’t want to do that. Right up. Passenger. Passenger. This is the deep one, right? Passenger. Careful. Careful, brother. Careful. It’s mud. Climb right up. Passenger. Passenger. Keep going. You got it. Hold on, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I’m watching you, brother. Come as close as you dare to this tree. And that’ll keep you away from that hole. I’ll keep you away from that hole. You’re good.
Nice and easy. Easy. Can you put your front locker on? You’re good, brother. Don’t stress it. You’re good. And stay, driver. Matty, stay driver. You don’t want to fall into that hole. Cause you’re gonna come right up on here and avoid that whole rock. Easy, easy. You’re good. You’re good. And now just crawl right out. You’re on solid ground. Crawl right out. Solid ground. Straighten it out. Go perfectly straight.
And when you get to that treat, cut it. You made it, dude. Beautiful. That was beautiful. The one thing the camera didn’t show is if anything went wrong with that maneuver, he was in jeopardy of sliding into a hole sideways, which would have been really bad. But he made it because it’s a Land cruiser. So we continued down the trail, and it was more of the same water.
Two foot, three foot, four foot deep water. But we pressed on. The Toyotas gave us absolutely no trouble whatsoever. You’re good. Little passenger. A little bit passenger, yeah. We continued down the path until we finally found a sign that was a warning. It’s right to my left hand side, and it says, extremely technical. Three black diamond trail. We’re driving down what is called the waterfall. And it was no joke.
You can hear the brakes screaming. Red brakes, baby. We’re going downhill the entire time, and we got the best possible footage that we could. And again, we still could not get intentionally stuck as hard as we tried it. When we got to the bottom of the trail, we collected our wits, checked the trucks for damage, and then we turned around and went back up. Last time we left you, we were just making our way down the waterfall, checking the trucks for damage.
We took one last look at the road. We just came down and decided it was time to go back up. In the rain, in the water, up the rocks. We headed back in. So tighten up your seat belts and hold on. For those of you that didn’t see part one, we already came down this road. Part one will be linked in the comment section below. We made pretty decent time for the first, I don’t know, quarter mile or so, and then things started to get hectic.
For those of you that have done trails, coming down is one thing entirely, but going up, especially after deep water crossings, mud and granite rocks, is an entirely different game. The water crossings were so deep, we were knocking out the cameras, but we kept pushing forward, checked the vehicles were damaged, and headed up the waterfall. I don’t use my lockers, if ever. My truck basically walks up pretty much anything, even in the rain.
Being a master Toyota technician, Matt takes a slightly different approach than I do. He does engage his front and rear lockers. He told me he doesn’t like wheel spin, and that makes perfect sense. Again, this is what he’s looking at. And I guess engaging your front locker seems like a pretty damn good idea. It is what it is. I did double duty, running the camera and spotting him, his truck being slightly lower than mine.
There were a lot of vulnerable places, and we did not want to damage this truck. The obstacles were just one after another after another. Huge granite boulders covered with wet leaves. And it was raining up. Driver, a touch. Just a touch. You got it. Straight up, straight up, straight up. You’re going to walk on top of that rock right there. Other side’s gonna do the same. You’re up.
Easy, easy. You got it. You’re clear. Bad. You’re good to go. You danced right around that rock again. And where Matt struck, dances. My truck just uses brute force and climbs. Both of us have king shocks. I have Davidson Springs. But the trucks are very, very simple, and both did equally well, even with the superior engineering hyperplane gun. I would pick a wheel or carry a wheel every now and again, but for the most part, my truck articulates like a spider and climbs right over the boulders like that.
You’re good. Straight, straight. You’re good, you’re good. Totally clear. Passenger, a little, a little bit. Just passenger. Straighten your tires out right there and then straight up. There you go. Right up, brother. Right up. There you go. You’re climbing. Coming down. Easy, easy. Slow it down just a touch, Matt. All right, driver, a little bit. You’re going to ride that rock right up like I did. Straight up.
Whoa. You got your. Clear is a bell. Clear is a bell. Nothing can hit you. Good. Stay straight. Good. You’re tucked. You’re good, you’re good. So after scratching, flooring, spotting and locking, we made our way up the waterfall back onto the road that was never ending water crossings. But this time we noticed a sign that we had not seen before. It was an innocuous left turn. The sign said the trail was under heavy damage and needed repair.
Experienced drivers only after discussing it with Matt, it seemed like a good way to get around all those incredibly deep water crossings. Little did we know we just went out of the frying pan straight into the fire. It was a beautiful mountaintop view, but it was an old logging road and the sign made itself evident almost immediately. The water crossings were deep, muddy, and full of tree stumps.
The technical level just went up exponentially. We were slinging mud. Oh, she’s a fucking beast. Beast. Dodging tree stumps and the occasional large black moose standing directly in the trailer. These water crossings were serious and we weren’t exactly sure where we were. We were having a difficult time moving forward simply on flat ground. The trail was about as wide as a snowmobile or an atv, yet the Land cruisers just pushed forward.
After about a mile or so, I started to realize I thought I knew where I was. I wasn’t positive, but I thought I knew where I was. So I pulled over and gave Matt the option of either turning around or pressing forward. I do know where. I’m almost positive. How’s that for confidence? We slogged on. We pushed on. We lost camera after camera. The water crossings at the top of the mountain were just as bad, if not worse.
We are slugging it out as the ones down the bottom. But finally we came to a spot that I recognized as a camping spot. So we figured out a place to park the trucks, level off the tents, and set up camp for the night. Heavy rain was heading in and we wanted to be set up before nightfall. We set up the trucks, we set up the fire pit, and that was it.
After eight grueling hours, we made it to our campsite. If you enjoyed this video, make sure you hit the like share and subscribe and leave it in the comment section below. .
See more of JailBreak Overlander on their Public Channel and the MPN JailBreak Overlander channel.
