Should we bring a trailer and atv/utv?

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A couple friends and myself are planning our first elk hunt in southwestern Colorado. We have a couple areas picked out already and few of them do have atv trails. My question is, is it worth hauling a trailer from south Louisiana? My plan has always been to load up the truck and head out, and best case scenario we all tag out and have to rent a uhaul to bring the meat home. But it seems that having the trailer as a base camp and having an atv there just in case may not be a bad idea. Opinions please?. Almost forgot, this will be archery hunt.
 

jmez

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I would take it along. If there are open trails will save you some walking. The other place they come in real handy is running around the mountain roads from your base camp. A lot of the roads are narrow and ROUGH. You have to just move at a crawl in a pickup. You can buzz around on them with an ATV. They can save a lot of time and wear and tear on the pickup going to different drainage's from your basecamp.
 
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We've never used them but a lot of guys do. Depends on how capable your truck is if you want to skip it. Only you can really answer if it is worth it or not.

I will use the caveat that I do drive a Jeep Wrangler. That gets me in a lot of spots.

We do hunt a lot of wilderness and roadless areas, but I can see the advantage to get to secluded trailheads.
 

SWOHTR

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Bring it. I can't imagine how expensive a one-way u-haul trailer would be. Also, it would suck to get there and go "man, we should have brought that..."
 
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Send me a pm with where you're going down here in SW Colorado and I might be able to tell you what the trail conditions are like.
 

Marshmstr

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I’m from south Louisiana too and I’m constantly looking at long term forecast for where I’ll be in Montana next month.....if I see any somewhat large amount of rain/snow forecast for the week I’ll be there or the week before, I’m hauling my four wheeler.


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Rdog

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Better to have and not need than need and not have.. At least that's what I tell myself every time I buy new hunting gear that I think I need.
 

Tony Trietch

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I have not been out west on a hunting trip yet where I didn't say at least once "I wish I had brought that damn SxS."
last year in Northern AZ, I did 5k worth of damage to my truck from the "roads".
Save the wear on your truck and bring it.
 
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I agree with the before mentioned thought of saving the wear on your truck. I'll also add bring layers for driving, it's cold on morning and evening rides.
 

AdamW

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An ATV to get you further down some poorly maintained roads, jeep trails, etc. was a great asset on our first hunt last year. I had planned to just find a place to pull the truck off the road and head out on foot from there. The reality was we'd have likely torn up a lot of stuff on a stock truck getting down those FS roads to where we left the ATV that my hunting partner ended up buying right before the hunt. It was a lifesaver. "Just park the truck and walk" sounds good, but when you're packing in camp and an ATV gets you 4 miles closer to where you are going, it's a huge deal. If I hunt solo in the future I'll be looking hard at a cheap ATV that I can load in the bed of the truck. I'm just leery of trashing my truck and having to figure out a solution to get it fixed to get back home.
 

dotman

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An ATV to get you further down some poorly maintained roads, jeep trails, etc. was a great asset on our first hunt last year. I had planned to just find a place to pull the truck off the road and head out on foot from there. The reality was we'd have likely torn up a lot of stuff on a stock truck getting down those FS roads to where we left the ATV that my hunting partner ended up buying right before the hunt. It was a lifesaver. "Just park the truck and walk" sounds good, but when you're packing in camp and an ATV gets you 4 miles closer to where you are going, it's a huge deal. If I hunt solo in the future I'll be looking hard at a cheap ATV that I can load in the bed of the truck. I'm just leery of trashing my truck and having to figure out a solution to get it fixed to get back home.

Exactly, it isn't for just using atv trails. Where I hunt you can go back 12 miles on a 4x4 road, it will destroy anything but a Jeep and no way my long diesel could get through some of the narrow sections or tight turns. It is a valuable tool to get to where you want to start and get there safely without damaging an expensive truck, atv' are cheap in comparison.
 
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S
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Thanks for all the responses. That makes the decision very easy. So the next question is, UTV or ATV? I would think the UTV would be more comfortable, but the ATV easier to maneuver and easier to haul around.
 

rbljack

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I'm fairly new to the atv game, but here is something that steered me to the ATV vs UTV. In NM where we have looked at hunting, we discovered they have (and probably other states as well) have some trail restrictions. A lot of the trails are limited to less than 50" wide, which rules out a lot of UTV's unless you get one of the smaller ones. Id say check a few areas/states that you plan to hunt, and then determine what restrictions they have on the trails. The ATV was a cheaper option for me as well, so those 2 reasons steered me in that direction. Hope that helps a little. good luck! If you are planning to stick to the forest roads, the UTV might be a better choice for 2 people, plus gear to get back to a base camp area.

Thanks for all the responses. That makes the decision very easy. So the next question is, UTV or ATV? I would think the UTV would be more comfortable, but the ATV easier to maneuver and easier to haul around.
 

xziang

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This will all depend on where you plan to hunt and the available trails/roads around the area. If there are a bunch of ATV roads and trails that are open to ATV's UTVs and you plan to hunt from base camp I say bring it. If you don't end up using it for hunting heaven for bid you use it for fun and just explore. :)

As for ATV/UTV I've never used a UTV in Colorado but if the UTV has a roof and windshield I might opt for that for expect rain at some point in time. Just realize that it may not be able to go everywhere an ATV can, plus they aren't easy to get unstuck can't jump off and just push them. (Then again some ATV's are monsters now and pushing them is also no bueno)

Good luck and have fun.
 
OP
S
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That is pretty cool, but I am not looking to buy. Between the guys in our group we have utility trailers, cargo trailers, atvs and utvs. I'm leaning on bringing 2 atvs versus 1 utv.
 

xziang

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That is pretty cool, but I am not looking to buy. Between the guys in our group we have utility trailers, cargo trailers, atvs and utvs. I'm leaning on bringing 2 atvs versus 1 utv.

Good Idea. Able to go in different directions if needed plus in backcountry 2 vehicles are always better imo.
 

kicker338

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Give me an ATV over a UTV any day, but with that said you gotta look close at the size. A big ATV falls in the same category as a UTV, stick to an ATV that's no bigger than a 500. My ATV ia a 2002 Yamaha kodack 400 which is a smaller frame than the big ones, lighter, narrower, and shorter. It's a lot easier to use in tight situations and a lot easier to get unstuck which I've done a few times than a full size one. It handles an elk with ease, drug a gutted out bull down a ATV trail with no problems a few yrs. ago.
 

jmez

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Colorado you will have to buy an ATV permit once you get there to use it on the roads and trails.
 
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