My vehicle history has been dominated by SUVs and trucks primarily because of my love of motorcycles and wanting to be able to tow it and other gear on my many moves. I have been in the military for 22 years and have moved 10 times. I have owned a ’98 TJ Wrangler, ’02 F150 FX4, ’04 Grand Cherokee Laredo, and an ’08 Nissan Xterra Off-Road. I admit that there were a few times when “practicality” won out and I had a commuter car. My current rig is the 2012 Nissan Titan SL as I mentioned in my previous article. Having said that I have taken all of these vehicles on some type of off road excursion during my time with them, some more than others. I also didn’t take many pictures on these trips so today all you get is a few old pics from part of the Pony Express Trail in Nevada that I did back in 2009. I’m not sure why I didn’t as I always took a ton on my motorcycle trips.
With the TJ it was mostly beach day trips on South Padre Island in Texas because that was pretty much all there was when I lived in South Texas. Sorry Texas people, but you have crap for public land. The F-150 saw many days exploring the western Sierra Nevada dirt roads and I admit to getting good and stuck one day in a mud bog (that’s how I learned to recognize what a Sierra mud bog looked like though). The Grand Cherokee and the Xterra both saw action primarily in the northern Sierra and the deserts and mountains of western Nevada.
For every vehicle I have had I created a long list of planned modifications: suspension, bumpers, winch, etc … and I never did any of them. There are several reasons for this to include time, money, money, money, and need. My work kept me fairly busy and I have (mostly) always tried to prioritize saving and investing for the future. As many of you are aware, these types of upgrades can be very spendy. But most importantly I never seemed to have the need. I don’t like to get stuck, I don’t like to rock crawl and I don’t like doing field repairs. I just want to explore. All of these rigs in base from took me nearly everywhere I wanted to go. I was frequently running around solo too. If trails looked bad, I just didn’t take them.
Given all that, it has shaped my approach to recovery gear. I think a shovel is the single best thing you can take on the trail. A high lift jack seemed to be considered essential as well back in the day, but they were big and unwieldy so I never got one. A winch just got all kinds of expensive, but clearly works for solo or assisted recovery. The limitation on solo work with a winch is your terrain and available anchors. To be honest it seemed like if the shovel couldn’t get me out then I needed a second vehicle.
Over the years I lost, sold, traded and replaced several pieces of gear. Before testing out the Titan I wanted to make sure I had what I needed. Given that I had only actually been stuck once before to the point of needing help I had a decent idea of what I wanted. I also wasn’t ready to make any modifications to the truck itself. Despite intending to keep all my previous vehicles, circumstances always dictated a change and you never get your money back out of vehicle mods. Because of that I try to keep everything as transportable as possible.
My current recovery gear includes the shovel, a pair of Bubba Rope soft shackles, an ARB recovery strap, an ARB X-Jack, a tire puncture repair kit, and a MV50 12 volt air compressor. The truck still has the factory bottle jack as well. So far I haven’t needed to use anything except for the air compressor to re-inflate after airing down. I have a few more things on my list I want sooner rather than later, specifically some MaxTrax. I also wouldn’t mind getting some organizational items like some quick fists to mount things to the factory bedrail system, but those aren’t huge priorities. Beyond the MaxTrax the major thing left is the winch. If I were going to do that it might be time for an ARB Bull Bar and air lockers and now you are talking pricey vehicle modifications.