Loved your drive and the views, gives us an understanding of why you enjoy doing that. So funny that you addressed the helmets because I had just said to Mike, I don't know how I would like a helmet. Lol, I can see the benefits 😊 Enjoy your summer, Candy and Mike 🤗❤️
I hope you get a chance to take a ride up to Mount two tops some time. As I mentioned to you a couple weeks ago, we ride snowmobiles up there in the winter. We leave out of West Yellowstone and go out through the national forest. The views are amazing. Two tops is in Idaho, but when you get there you have views to the west of Idaho and to the east Montana and Wyoming. I believe you can camp at Henry Lake State Park and take the side by side from there. I’m sure y’all can check it out to see if there’s a good route on your navigation to get there if you ever get the chance to go. Safe travels and may GOD bless you.
It's so nice to be able to talk to everyone on the ride. Since we ride quite a bit in Arizona and Utah we have the Rugged Radio VHF. That's what all our riding friends in the SW use.
This was a write up I did for some Shyrock brothers. OK, a few people found out about my quest for SxS radios and Comms on rides. If you don't have a SXS or jeep trust me your eyes will gloss over from geeking, Read at your own risk. WHAT CAMP ARE YOU IN? When it comes to SxS and Jeep radios for rides there are really two camps to investigate. GMRS (walkie talkies & Mobile radios) and VHF Business band (Rugged Radio & PCI). This is like the old debate of Beta and VHS (Yes I just dated us all!!) Both were video tapes, but they were not compatible players. Both had advantages and disadvantages and in the long run both went the way of the dinosaur. These both won’t go away as they both serve a growing need. Rugged Radio (RR) Rugged radio uses frequencies from 150.00 Mhz to 160.000Mhz with dedicated names/channels. There are about 150 total frequencies that RR uses, some that are nationwide and others that are licensed regionally. These were developed for off road racing, open buggy, desert truck and SxS where the environment was loud and dusty. Their strengths were the headsets that allowed driver and co driver to communicate with each other and adding a radio allowed them to talk to the pits, or chase vehicles. As Rugged, PCI and the recreational SxS community grew, so did the market for personal comms. These are still loud and environmentally harsh environments for talking, music and equipment. Rugged developed more family/recreational equipment for personal use (not full-blown race teams). If you go to the desert SW (AZ, NV and SoCal) you will find a high percentage are RR. I am not sure how the Utah area would be as you have a mix of SxS (RR) and Jeepers more to the GMRS I would imagine as they are a closed environment or slow moving vehicle. (See blow for advantage of GMRS and Jeeps) No license is needed if you stay on the RR channels. You can program other frequencies into the radio but you would then need a Ham radio technical license to talk. Listening is free. Wattage: 5-60 watts allowed GMRS GMRS radios run in a different frequency ban than that of RR/PCI radios. They have the UHF band from 460.00 Mhz to 470.000 Mhz. These are divided up into 22 channels and 8 repeater channels. (I’m not going to go into repeaters as that is a whole next level of geeking) With in the 22 channels you can have “sub channels” or “privacy channels”. These channels are not private they just use the same channel frequency but add a thing called tone quelch that both receiver and transmitter radio need to know to be able to communicate. If you and your buddy are talking on channel 3-25 and I happen to have the same tone squelch setting on my radio for 3-25 I can hear too. But if my radio is just set to channel 3, I will not pick up the conversation. Now to muddy the waters a bit more. Within the 22 channels, channel 8-14 are FRS (Family Radio Service) channels. These are the typical bubble 2 pack of radios you get at Walmart or Best buy. They are limited to .5watts and I would say you almost have to see the person to communicate. GMRS channels 1-7 have a max of 5 ish watts and 15-22 can have up to 50 watts. Now dose that mean if you have a radio that does 25 watts you can’t talk on channel 3, no it means you are just doing a no-no but no harm no foul. You will find more GMRS usage as you get away from the SW and SxS environments. A couple of reasons for this. These radios are simple to use, you don’t talk frequencies just channels. Unlike RR and PCI who have a niche market and are AMAZING at what they do and who they do it for. They get a premium for their equipment. GMRS you can buy just about anywhere almost, and the range of quality and options are endless. This makes it appealing to recreational drivers who are not in a loud environment. I talked above that Jeep clubs and drivers leaning more to GMRS radios. The reason is you can have a GMRS mobile unit in your Jeep and if you are in a tight situation or have a spotter, they can hop out with the walkie talkie GMRS and guide you over an obstacle. Simple, effective and good communication with other Jeeps or SxS’s. License needed through the FCC (Yes even for those cheap GMRS walkie talkies) It is 35.00 for 10 years and covers you and your immediate family. Wattage: .5 to 50 watts CROSS OVER/HYBRIDS Ok that talked about GMRS vs Business band, VHF or Rugged whatever you want to call it. Rugged and PCI saw the GMRS growth and decided to capitalize on that too. They developed GMRS radios that hooked to their intercoms (inside the buggy communication for Driver and passengers) so they could still talk and then communicate with other GMRS’ers. HERE IS WHERE THE PROBLEM STARTS What should I get? Look at our little camp. We have 5-6 people who spend a lot of time in the SW in the winter riding with many MANY more SxS riders from all over who use RR UHF. Then there is probably 10+ people here who use GMRS with handheld to mounted mobile radios. Neither the two shall meet?!?! That is where my quest took off. I ride with both groups at different and same times and how do I communicate with both. I started off with a well-known handheld radio. I learned how to unlock it so that I could listen to all frequencies and yes transmit. (This is FCC illegal if you don’t have a license to talk on that frequency.) I was happy when I could tune into CHECKERS / 151.925mhz and pick up a RR friend and then go to GMRS 1 / 462.5625MHz and get my other friend that was running GMRS. Now I wanted to take it to the next level both in wattage and comms. We have headphones and love them on a ride for communication. I used the handheld tied to my comms box and it worked good I just wanted more power. I have found a RR GMRS radio that can do all frequencies once I was able to unlock it and reinstall the original firmware from the manufacturer. This was no easy task, all in all it was about 4 days’ worth of research. Then there was getting it to work and dialed in. Once that was done, I had to manually input about 155 frequencies and channels and upload them to the radio. Then set up the user interface. RR puts their own firmware on the radio to limit it to GMRS channels only. Now I have both UHV Business band and GMRS on the same radio. Also, my radio will allow me to listen to both at the same time. So I can set CHECKERS on A and GMRS 1 on B and if someone talks I hear. To transmit I must make sure I’m on the correct A or B but what a game changer for group rides. If you got this far I am happy to talk what I did. Just did not want to make this post longer. Hit me up.
Love the riding videos. Are you running Rugged or PCI radios? We will be in Shy Rock at the end of Aug on our way back from Alaska to look at properties again. We hope to see you or go out for a ride.
Thanks Darrin. We have the Rugged VHF. Most of the folks we ride with the the desert use the Rugged, so it works well. Hope we get a chance to say hello.
Hi guys!! Beautiful scenery on your ride!! We got home Tuesday from our road trip. Enjoying the cooler weather here. So hot in Idaho and Montana!! Hubby has some Dr appointments, and then we're hitting the road again in a couple weeks. Thanks for bringing us along on the ride, so pretty!! 💜
That's some rugged terrain. Was writing just as the momma and baby moose appeared. Did you say hello to the boondockers? How far can you travel on a tank of gas?
It's beautiful country and we get out as much as possible while here. No, we didn't say hello. We just waved and continued on our ride. If I keep my foot off the gas pedal we can go over 120 miles on one tank...we did carry 4 extra gallons on this trip just in case!
Hey you 2, on of your HDT friends is camping beside us in Illinois, they have a Horizon red white and blue 5 th wheel, beautiful blue Kenworth semi truck, white smart car. They say they know you, forgot their names but will ask again
This makes me want to ride this area. Soo we are planning on going to Cabin City Campground week of August 7th with a CanAm Maverick X3 Smart Shok. Thanks for sharing this riding area. Looks like 45 minutes to Shyrock. We may need to say hi 😊
That will be fun...we haven't been in the Cabin City area yet, but the riding looks good. We've ridden west of there and obviously east of there. Most of the roads are good for 72" cars. There are some restrictions up higher for smaller machines and some are for foot and horse traffic only. Most of them are marked. We've never had a problem while riding on USFS roads and we're not aware of any speed restrictions, however, it's been very dry here and the USFS could put restrictions on riding in some areas due to fire danger. Also, some of the roads are narrow, so we take it easy around the corners. As far as riding on Montana roads, they allow a licensed car on everything but the interstate and you must have liability insurance.
Hey guys...we have the Rugged Radio pumper and are very happy with it. We ordered it with the variable speed control, but never used it below full power, so we just connected it to the Mictuning power switch. Hope that helps!
OK, a few people found out about my quest for SxS radios and Comms on rides. If you don't have a SXS or jeep trust me your eyes will gloss over from geeking, Read at your own risk. WHAT CAMP ARE YOU IN? When it comes to SxS and Jeep radios for rides there are really two camps to investigate. GMRS (walkie talkies & Mobile radios) and VHF Business band (Rugged Radio & PCI). This is like the old debate of Beta and VHS (Yes I just dated us all!!) Both were video tapes, but they were not compatible players. Both had advantages and disadvantages and in the long run both went the way of the dinosaur. These both won’t go away as they both serve a growing need. Rugged Radio (RR) Rugged radio uses frequencies from 150.00 Mhz to 160.000Mhz with dedicated names/channels. There are about 150 total frequencies that RR uses, some that are nationwide and others that are licensed regionally. These were developed for off road racing, open buggy, desert truck and SxS where the environment was loud and dusty. Their strengths were the headsets that allowed driver and co driver to communicate with each other and adding a radio allowed them to talk to the pits, or chase vehicles. As Rugged, PCI and the recreational SxS community grew, so did the market for personal comms. These are still loud and environmentally harsh environments for talking, music and equipment. Rugged developed more family/recreational equipment for personal use (not full-blown race teams). If you go to the desert SW (AZ, NV and SoCal) you will find a high percentage are RR. I am not sure how the Utah area would be as you have a mix of SxS (RR) and Jeepers more to the GMRS I would imagine as they are a closed environment or slow moving vehicle. (See blow for advantage of GMRS and Jeeps) No license is needed if you stay on the RR channels. You can program other frequencies into the radio but you would then need a Ham radio technical license to talk. Listening is free. Wattage: 5-60 watts allowed GMRS GMRS radios run in a different frequency ban than that of RR/PCI radios. They have the UHF band from 460.00 Mhz to 470.000 Mhz. These are divided up into 22 channels and 8 repeater channels. (I’m not going to go into repeaters as that is a whole next level of geeking) With in the 22 channels you can have “sub channels” or “privacy channels”. These channels are not private they just use the same channel frequency but add a thing called tone quelch that both receiver and transmitter radio need to know to be able to communicate. If you and your buddy are talking on channel 3-25 and I happen to have the same tone squelch setting on my radio for 3-25 I can hear too. But if my radio is just set to channel 3, I will not pick up the conversation. Now to muddy the waters a bit more. Within the 22 channels, channel 8-14 are FRS (Family Radio Service) channels. These are the typical bubble 2 pack of radios you get at Walmart or Best buy. They are limited to .5watts and I would say you almost have to see the person to communicate. GMRS channels 1-7 have a max of 5 ish watts and 15-22 can have up to 50 watts. Now dose that mean if you have a radio that does 25 watts you can’t talk on channel 3, no it means you are just doing a no-no but no harm no foul. You will find more GMRS usage as you get away from the SW and SxS environments. A couple of reasons for this. These radios are simple to use, you don’t talk frequencies just channels. Unlike RR and PCI who have a niche market and are AMAZING at what they do and who they do it for. They get a premium for their equipment. GMRS you can buy just about anywhere almost, and the range of quality and options are endless. This makes it appealing to recreational drivers who are not in a loud environment. I talked above that Jeep clubs and drivers leaning more to GMRS radios. The reason is you can have a GMRS mobile unit in your Jeep and if you are in a tight situation or have a spotter, they can hop out with the walkie talkie GMRS and guide you over an obstacle. Simple, effective and good communication with other Jeeps or SxS’s. License needed through the FCC (Yes even for those cheap GMRS walkie talkies) It is 35.00 for 10 years and covers you and your immediate family. Wattage: .5 to 50 watts CROSS OVER/HYBRIDS Ok that talked about GMRS vs Business band, VHF or Rugged whatever you want to call it. Rugged and PCI saw the GMRS growth and decided to capitalize on that too. They developed GMRS radios that hooked to their intercoms (inside the buggy communication for Driver and passengers) so they could still talk and then communicate with other GMRS’ers. HERE IS WHERE THE PROBLEM STARTS What should I get? Look at our little camp. We have 5-6 people who spend a lot of time in the SW in the winter riding with many MANY more SxS riders from all over who use RR UHF. Then there is probably 10+ people here who use GMRS with handheld to mounted mobile radios. Neither the two shall meet?!?! That is where my quest took off. I ride with both groups at different and same times and how do I communicate with both. I started off with a well-known handheld radio. I learned how to unlock it so that I could listen to all frequencies and yes transmit. (This is FCC illegal if you don’t have a license to talk on that frequency.) I was happy when I could tune into CHECKERS / 151.925mhz and pick up a RR friend and then go to GMRS 1 / 462.5625MHz and get my other friend that was running GMRS. Now I wanted to take it to the next level both in wattage and comms. We have headphones and love them on a ride for communication. I used the handheld tied to my comms box and it worked good I just wanted more power. I have found a RR GMRS radio that can do all frequencies once I was able to unlock it and reinstall the original firmware from the manufacturer. This was no easy task, all in all it was about 4 days’ worth of research. Then there was getting it to work and dialed in. Once that was done, I had to manually input about 155 frequencies and channels and upload them to the radio. Then set up the user interface. RR puts their own firmware on the radio to limit it to GMRS channels only. Now I have both UHV Business band and GMRS on the same radio. Also, my radio will allow me to listen to both at the same time. So I can set CHECKERS on A and GMRS 1 on B and if someone talks I hear. To transmit I must make sure I’m on the correct A or B but what a game changer for group rides. If you got this far I am happy to talk what I did. Just did not want to make this post longer. Hit me up.
We have the Garmin Tread XL Overland Edition with the 10" screen. It's an amazing GPS and we're amazed at how much data is displayed. It's a little expensive but would do it again!
You’re right. As you get older we worry less about style and how we look. It’s about comfort and safety now.
LOL...so true!
Enjoyed the views. But the history of the fire towers was amazing.
Glad you enjoyed it Roy.
RU you guys & RV ok after Wed's high winds. Praying for you!
Yes we are Randy....we didn't get winds as bad as Missoula did - but we did loose power for about 24 hours....
Glad you're safe!
love TO RIDE ALONG THANKS FOR TAKING US
Thanks Audie...we love having you along!
Awesome video
Thank you....we appreciate you coming along!
Loved your drive and the views, gives us an understanding of why you enjoy doing that. So funny that you addressed the helmets because I had just said to Mike, I don't know how I would like a helmet. Lol, I can see the benefits 😊 Enjoy your summer, Candy and Mike 🤗❤️
Thanks Candy...we're so glad you enjoyed it! Yes, the helmets can be a pain, but when it's dusty they are awesome...
Hello Jim and Kellie
Hello Stephen!
Looks like another great ride! So glad you both had a wonderful time! That’s what it’s all about 👍🏼 Be safe out there!❤️~W
Thanks Wendy. This is what life is all about...memories!
Absolutely!!
Looks amazing! Thanks for the content
Thanks for coming along Kevin...glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for taking us along guys. God bless you. Can’t wait to be able to get out there and do some rides like this one.
We appreciate you coming along. There is so much to see on these rides...we really enjoy them - MEMORIES!
I hope you get a chance to take a ride up to Mount two tops some time. As I mentioned to you a couple weeks ago, we ride snowmobiles up there in the winter. We leave out of West Yellowstone and go out through the national forest. The views are amazing. Two tops is in Idaho, but when you get there you have views to the west of Idaho and to the east Montana and Wyoming. I believe you can camp at Henry Lake State Park and take the side by side from there. I’m sure y’all can check it out to see if there’s a good route on your navigation to get there if you ever get the chance to go. Safe travels and may GOD bless you.
Kewl video and Great Tshirt at 15:03.
Hahaha....thanks Nick. Have a great weekend!
Nice ride! Always fun to get out in nature.
There's a lot of beautiful country out there and we try to explore every chance we get! Have a great weekend...
I love those old lookout towers. I remember as a kid there was one not far from our families cabin south and west of Denver. Great video guys!
Thanks Kit...they are fun to tour and it makes a great ride! Hope you're doing well.
I agree about the radios. I installed a gmrs radio in my and makes it nice
It's so nice to be able to talk to everyone on the ride. Since we ride quite a bit in Arizona and Utah we have the Rugged Radio VHF. That's what all our riding friends in the SW use.
👍Would love to see a video on your radio, navigation, air pumper and anything else your carry on your rides. Nice video, beautiful area.
Thanks! We'll see what we can do...
This was a write up I did for some Shyrock brothers. OK, a few people found out about my quest for SxS radios and Comms on rides. If you don't have a SXS or jeep trust me your eyes will gloss over from geeking, Read at your own risk.
WHAT CAMP ARE YOU IN?
When it comes to SxS and Jeep radios for rides there are really two camps to investigate. GMRS (walkie talkies & Mobile radios) and VHF Business band (Rugged Radio & PCI). This is like the old debate of Beta and VHS (Yes I just dated us all!!) Both were video tapes, but they were not compatible players. Both had advantages and disadvantages and in the long run both went the way of the dinosaur. These both won’t go away as they both serve a growing need.
Rugged Radio (RR)
Rugged radio uses frequencies from 150.00 Mhz to 160.000Mhz with dedicated names/channels. There are about 150 total frequencies that RR uses, some that are nationwide and others that are licensed regionally. These were developed for off road racing, open buggy, desert truck and SxS where the environment was loud and dusty. Their strengths were the headsets that allowed driver and co driver to communicate with each other and adding a radio allowed them to talk to the pits, or chase vehicles.
As Rugged, PCI and the recreational SxS community grew, so did the market for personal comms. These are still loud and environmentally harsh environments for talking, music and equipment. Rugged developed more family/recreational equipment for personal use (not full-blown race teams). If you go to the desert SW (AZ, NV and SoCal) you will find a high percentage are RR. I am not sure how the Utah area would be as you have a mix of SxS (RR) and Jeepers more to the GMRS I would imagine as they are a closed environment or slow moving vehicle. (See blow for advantage of GMRS and Jeeps)
No license is needed if you stay on the RR channels. You can program other frequencies into the radio but you would then need a Ham radio technical license to talk. Listening is free.
Wattage: 5-60 watts allowed
GMRS
GMRS radios run in a different frequency ban than that of RR/PCI radios. They have the UHF band from 460.00 Mhz to 470.000 Mhz. These are divided up into 22 channels and 8 repeater channels. (I’m not going to go into repeaters as that is a whole next level of geeking) With in the 22 channels you can have “sub channels” or “privacy channels”. These channels are not private they just use the same channel frequency but add a thing called tone quelch that both receiver and transmitter radio need to know to be able to communicate. If you and your buddy are talking on channel 3-25 and I happen to have the same tone squelch setting on my radio for 3-25 I can hear too. But if my radio is just set to channel 3, I will not pick up the conversation. Now to muddy the waters a bit more. Within the 22 channels, channel 8-14 are FRS (Family Radio Service) channels. These are the typical bubble 2 pack of radios you get at Walmart or Best buy. They are limited to .5watts and I would say you almost have to see the person to communicate. GMRS channels 1-7 have a max of 5 ish watts and 15-22 can have up to 50 watts. Now dose that mean if you have a radio that does 25 watts you can’t talk on channel 3, no it means you are just doing a no-no but no harm no foul.
You will find more GMRS usage as you get away from the SW and SxS environments. A couple of reasons for this. These radios are simple to use, you don’t talk frequencies just channels. Unlike RR and PCI who have a niche market and are AMAZING at what they do and who they do it for. They get a premium for their equipment. GMRS you can buy just about anywhere almost, and the range of quality and options are endless. This makes it appealing to recreational drivers who are not in a loud environment. I talked above that Jeep clubs and drivers leaning more to GMRS radios. The reason is you can have a GMRS mobile unit in your Jeep and if you are in a tight situation or have a spotter, they can hop out with the walkie talkie GMRS and guide you over an obstacle. Simple, effective and good communication with other Jeeps or SxS’s.
License needed through the FCC (Yes even for those cheap GMRS walkie talkies) It is 35.00 for 10 years and covers you and your immediate family.
Wattage: .5 to 50 watts
CROSS OVER/HYBRIDS
Ok that talked about GMRS vs Business band, VHF or Rugged whatever you want to call it. Rugged and PCI saw the GMRS growth and decided to capitalize on that too. They developed GMRS radios that hooked to their intercoms (inside the buggy communication for Driver and passengers) so they could still talk and then communicate with other GMRS’ers.
HERE IS WHERE THE PROBLEM STARTS
What should I get? Look at our little camp. We have 5-6 people who spend a lot of time in the SW in the winter riding with many MANY more SxS riders from all over who use RR UHF. Then there is probably 10+ people here who use GMRS with handheld to mounted mobile radios. Neither the two shall meet?!?!
That is where my quest took off. I ride with both groups at different and same times and how do I communicate with both.
I started off with a well-known handheld radio. I learned how to unlock it so that I could listen to all frequencies and yes transmit. (This is FCC illegal if you don’t have a license to talk on that frequency.) I was happy when I could tune into CHECKERS / 151.925mhz and pick up a RR friend and then go to GMRS 1 / 462.5625MHz and get my other friend that was running GMRS.
Now I wanted to take it to the next level both in wattage and comms. We have headphones and love them on a ride for communication. I used the handheld tied to my comms box and it worked good I just wanted more power. I have found a RR GMRS radio that can do all frequencies once I was able to unlock it and reinstall the original firmware from the manufacturer. This was no easy task, all in all it was about 4 days’ worth of research. Then there was getting it to work and dialed in. Once that was done, I had to manually input about 155 frequencies and channels and upload them to the radio. Then set up the user interface. RR puts their own firmware on the radio to limit it to GMRS channels only. Now I have both UHV Business band and GMRS on the same radio. Also, my radio will allow me to listen to both at the same time. So I can set CHECKERS on A and GMRS 1 on B and if someone talks I hear. To transmit I must make sure I’m on the correct A or B but what a game changer for group rides.
If you got this far I am happy to talk what I did. Just did not want to make this post longer. Hit me up.
Love the riding videos. Are you running Rugged or PCI radios? We will be in Shy Rock at the end of Aug on our way back from Alaska to look at properties again. We hope to see you or go out for a ride.
Thanks Darrin. We have the Rugged VHF. Most of the folks we ride with the the desert use the Rugged, so it works well. Hope we get a chance to say hello.
Mike and Pam are my family!! Hello from Southern Alabama.
Hello from Montana! They are the BEST !
Loved the ride! Awesome views! Always a treat to see a new video from you! God bless❤
Thanks Elizabeth. It was a fun ride and we appreciate you coming along. Hope you have a great weekend!
How awesome!
It was a great ride DeeDee....we are so blessed!
Hi guys!! Beautiful scenery on your ride!! We got home Tuesday from our road trip. Enjoying the cooler weather here. So hot in Idaho and Montana!! Hubby has some Dr appointments, and then we're hitting the road again in a couple weeks. Thanks for bringing us along on the ride, so pretty!! 💜
Thanks Carol. Yes, it's been brutally hot! Hope you enjoyed your trip and have fun on the next adventure...
Keep being amazing guys! God’s blessings.
Thank you so much! We appreciate you coming along...
That was beautiful scenery on your ride thank you for taking us along 😎
We're so glad you enjoyed it Joyce. We love sharing and are happy to have you along!
❤❤❤❤❤wow wow👍👍👍👍👍💯💯💯💯💯
Wow, spectacular scenery! Jim, you look like you’re a just about a CanAm full. How tall are you?
LOL...yes I am Garry! I'm 6-4 and just fit...
Someone needs to run ahead of the group with a water truck to knock down the dust. 🤷🏼♂️🙂
That would be awesome!
That's some rugged terrain. Was writing just as the momma and baby moose appeared. Did you say hello to the boondockers? How far can you travel on a tank of gas?
It's beautiful country and we get out as much as possible while here. No, we didn't say hello. We just waved and continued on our ride. If I keep my foot off the gas pedal we can go over 120 miles on one tank...we did carry 4 extra gallons on this trip just in case!
Hey you 2, on of your HDT friends is camping beside us in Illinois, they have a Horizon red white and blue 5 th wheel, beautiful blue Kenworth semi truck, white smart car.
They say they know you, forgot their names but will ask again
That sounds like Dan & Freda. Tell them Craig & Janelle says HI!
That's Dan and Freda. Great folks. If you get a chance say hello for us!
We will tell them hello for you, and yes very nice folks, they are working here at a campground we are staying at
This makes me want to ride this area. Soo we are planning on going to Cabin City Campground week of August 7th with a CanAm Maverick X3 Smart Shok. Thanks for sharing this riding area. Looks like 45 minutes to Shyrock. We may need to say hi 😊
Looking at Montana laws on side by sides and it’s not cut and dried. Are 72” SxS allowed in this area? What speed limit can you ride on?
That will be fun...we haven't been in the Cabin City area yet, but the riding looks good. We've ridden west of there and obviously east of there. Most of the roads are good for 72" cars. There are some restrictions up higher for smaller machines and some are for foot and horse traffic only. Most of them are marked. We've never had a problem while riding on USFS roads and we're not aware of any speed restrictions, however, it's been very dry here and the USFS could put restrictions on riding in some areas due to fire danger. Also, some of the roads are narrow, so we take it easy around the corners. As far as riding on Montana roads, they allow a licensed car on everything but the interstate and you must have liability insurance.
💖💖💖👍
Thanks. Wishing you were here!
Question, what brand Air Pumper do you use, we’ve been looking at getting one for our helmets… tired of eating dust.
Hey guys...we have the Rugged Radio pumper and are very happy with it. We ordered it with the variable speed control, but never used it below full power, so we just connected it to the Mictuning power switch. Hope that helps!
I would like to hear about the radios
We'll see what we can do!
OK, a few people found out about my quest for SxS radios and Comms on rides. If you don't have a SXS or jeep trust me your eyes will gloss over from geeking, Read at your own risk.
WHAT CAMP ARE YOU IN?
When it comes to SxS and Jeep radios for rides there are really two camps to investigate. GMRS (walkie talkies & Mobile radios) and VHF Business band (Rugged Radio & PCI). This is like the old debate of Beta and VHS (Yes I just dated us all!!) Both were video tapes, but they were not compatible players. Both had advantages and disadvantages and in the long run both went the way of the dinosaur. These both won’t go away as they both serve a growing need.
Rugged Radio (RR)
Rugged radio uses frequencies from 150.00 Mhz to 160.000Mhz with dedicated names/channels. There are about 150 total frequencies that RR uses, some that are nationwide and others that are licensed regionally. These were developed for off road racing, open buggy, desert truck and SxS where the environment was loud and dusty. Their strengths were the headsets that allowed driver and co driver to communicate with each other and adding a radio allowed them to talk to the pits, or chase vehicles.
As Rugged, PCI and the recreational SxS community grew, so did the market for personal comms. These are still loud and environmentally harsh environments for talking, music and equipment. Rugged developed more family/recreational equipment for personal use (not full-blown race teams). If you go to the desert SW (AZ, NV and SoCal) you will find a high percentage are RR. I am not sure how the Utah area would be as you have a mix of SxS (RR) and Jeepers more to the GMRS I would imagine as they are a closed environment or slow moving vehicle. (See blow for advantage of GMRS and Jeeps)
No license is needed if you stay on the RR channels. You can program other frequencies into the radio but you would then need a Ham radio technical license to talk. Listening is free.
Wattage: 5-60 watts allowed
GMRS
GMRS radios run in a different frequency ban than that of RR/PCI radios. They have the UHF band from 460.00 Mhz to 470.000 Mhz. These are divided up into 22 channels and 8 repeater channels. (I’m not going to go into repeaters as that is a whole next level of geeking) With in the 22 channels you can have “sub channels” or “privacy channels”. These channels are not private they just use the same channel frequency but add a thing called tone quelch that both receiver and transmitter radio need to know to be able to communicate. If you and your buddy are talking on channel 3-25 and I happen to have the same tone squelch setting on my radio for 3-25 I can hear too. But if my radio is just set to channel 3, I will not pick up the conversation. Now to muddy the waters a bit more. Within the 22 channels, channel 8-14 are FRS (Family Radio Service) channels. These are the typical bubble 2 pack of radios you get at Walmart or Best buy. They are limited to .5watts and I would say you almost have to see the person to communicate. GMRS channels 1-7 have a max of 5 ish watts and 15-22 can have up to 50 watts. Now dose that mean if you have a radio that does 25 watts you can’t talk on channel 3, no it means you are just doing a no-no but no harm no foul.
You will find more GMRS usage as you get away from the SW and SxS environments. A couple of reasons for this. These radios are simple to use, you don’t talk frequencies just channels. Unlike RR and PCI who have a niche market and are AMAZING at what they do and who they do it for. They get a premium for their equipment. GMRS you can buy just about anywhere almost, and the range of quality and options are endless. This makes it appealing to recreational drivers who are not in a loud environment. I talked above that Jeep clubs and drivers leaning more to GMRS radios. The reason is you can have a GMRS mobile unit in your Jeep and if you are in a tight situation or have a spotter, they can hop out with the walkie talkie GMRS and guide you over an obstacle. Simple, effective and good communication with other Jeeps or SxS’s.
License needed through the FCC (Yes even for those cheap GMRS walkie talkies) It is 35.00 for 10 years and covers you and your immediate family.
Wattage: .5 to 50 watts
CROSS OVER/HYBRIDS
Ok that talked about GMRS vs Business band, VHF or Rugged whatever you want to call it. Rugged and PCI saw the GMRS growth and decided to capitalize on that too. They developed GMRS radios that hooked to their intercoms (inside the buggy communication for Driver and passengers) so they could still talk and then communicate with other GMRS’ers.
HERE IS WHERE THE PROBLEM STARTS
What should I get? Look at our little camp. We have 5-6 people who spend a lot of time in the SW in the winter riding with many MANY more SxS riders from all over who use RR UHF. Then there is probably 10+ people here who use GMRS with handheld to mounted mobile radios. Neither the two shall meet?!?!
That is where my quest took off. I ride with both groups at different and same times and how do I communicate with both.
I started off with a well-known handheld radio. I learned how to unlock it so that I could listen to all frequencies and yes transmit. (This is FCC illegal if you don’t have a license to talk on that frequency.) I was happy when I could tune into CHECKERS / 151.925mhz and pick up a RR friend and then go to GMRS 1 / 462.5625MHz and get my other friend that was running GMRS.
Now I wanted to take it to the next level both in wattage and comms. We have headphones and love them on a ride for communication. I used the handheld tied to my comms box and it worked good I just wanted more power. I have found a RR GMRS radio that can do all frequencies once I was able to unlock it and reinstall the original firmware from the manufacturer. This was no easy task, all in all it was about 4 days’ worth of research. Then there was getting it to work and dialed in. Once that was done, I had to manually input about 155 frequencies and channels and upload them to the radio. Then set up the user interface. RR puts their own firmware on the radio to limit it to GMRS channels only. Now I have both UHV Business band and GMRS on the same radio. Also, my radio will allow me to listen to both at the same time. So I can set CHECKERS on A and GMRS 1 on B and if someone talks I hear. To transmit I must make sure I’m on the correct A or B but what a game changer for group rides.
If you got this far I am happy to talk what I did. Just did not want to make this post longer. Hit me up.
Do guys open carry for bears
Yes we do...also carry spray just in case!
What number of garmin is that
We have the Garmin Tread XL Overland Edition with the 10" screen. It's an amazing GPS and we're amazed at how much data is displayed. It's a little expensive but would do it again!