I've made numerous tows pulling a flat bed and loads of Concrete Blankets or wood window bucks. But this weekend decided I was getting cabin fever and needed to get out with the horses. So I hooked up my 4H GN trailer and threw some horses in it and hauled to St George Utah from Northern Utah.

Round trip was 850 miles and I got 11.0 mpg for the trip. Ran mostly 70 mph going down with some rain and slush on the trip south Thursday. Held 75 mph on the trip home with clear skies and warmer temps yesterday.

Truck had 4400 miles on it when we hooked up. Ran great other than the Collision Avoidence and ACC both shutting down several times with slush build up on the front of the truck during the trip south. Trip put me over 5000 miles, So I am getting an oil change on Monday. After this first change, I'll follow the prompts from the Oil Life Monitor.

In driving out to some of the trailheads we rode that were located at the ends of windy narrow roads. Truck warned me that Driver Rest was needed. I guess it thought I was crossing the lines to much and falling asleep at the wheel. When in fact there were no painted lines on the pavement and I was cutting corners a little to straight out the curves to minimize the horses getting thrown around in the trailer.

I have the ultimate Camera system and was excited to see how well I could see the GN ball when I was hooking up the trailer. Tonneau cover blocked the view of the ball. So that hook up will still have to be an "EyeBall" over the shoulder guess. I may have to get a Pool Noodle and stick it on my GN to help know when the hitch is in place.

Red Sand and Blue Skies cured my Cabin Fever and now I'm excited for springtime rides. Truck is flithy. Needs a trip to car wash, But we are supposed to get 5-6" of snow tonight, So I might just wait for after the storm

 

That's some beautiful rugged country. Makes me want to throw my hiking boots in the truck and take a road trip.

 

Jealous. My wife and I love southern Utah. We go there every year and are over due now.

 

I feel your pain. I'm heading to Texas in March to go ride and I'm so ready to get on the road!!! Beautiful scenery you have!

 

awesome pics

 

Nice report. How heavy do you think you were?

 

Trailer with horses is 13,000 lbs. Haven't weighed my new truck yet. but I suspect it's in the 8,000 range

So about 21,000 lbs
I really did mean to get a picture of my truck with the trailer hooked up. Just was waiting for scenic back drop to take a photo.

did take one in the parking lot of one of the trail heads.

 

You just posted this to make us jealous, didn't you?
Well, it worked.
Great photos.

 

Painted horse, I have a CCLB 6.7 Lariat Ultimate SRW that weighed out on the truck scales at 8900 lbs. Just an FYI.

 

That would be considerable heavier than what my 2011 and 2015 CCLWB trucks weighed. They were in the 8200 to 8400 lbs range depend on how full the fuel tank was

I'd hope the 2017 cut a little weight with the Aluminum body

 

My 2012 was 9300 lbs, both trucks weighed with full fuel, DEF and me on board. Breathtaking scenery BTW. We're shooting for a motorcycle trip out that way this summer. Not on those trails of course!! LOL. I'd love to do a horseback trip someday though.

 

Absolutely I posted those to make you jealous.

I was just lucky to get down and spend 3 days riding before heading home. Weather turned really nasty yesterday and lots of reports of freeway closures and accidents today. Glad I'm not white knuckle driving home on a holiday.

I'll head down again in a week or two. This time of year I get cabin fever and even the $250 fuel bill is not enough to scare me away from making the trip.

 

Nice.. can't wait to be able to saddle up again this year and get to riding.. If this lovely weather doesn't turn cold and snowy and stay that way long enough to get some good snowmobiling in, it may as well just turn to spring and be done with.

The 2 horses on the string just along for training purposes? Or were you riding far enough you wanted to switch mounts?

 

Great picsd and write-up, Jon...........as usual!! Yup. I have wheeled a bit in the St.George area; plan to go back before too long!! That is the trouble with retirement..........too many good places to go ride!! Thank for sharing.

 

They just ran loose most of the day. We would switch the saddle over to the next in line after 3-4 miles. So they all got rode. We had a bunch of 3 coming 4 year olds with us. So it was chance to get them easy trail miles with out wearing out their joints

I used to have 3 daughters at home to help exercise horses. Now days, It seems I get to do all the exercise. So I often take two horses and let one run loose. Brad was a little more daring to bring 3 and let two run loose.