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Thread: ATV's and landscape photography?

  1. #11

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    Dec 2001
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    ATV's and landscape photography?

    A fellow I know who tows stock trailers likes the Chevy with the vortec as getting the best milage for towing. There is also the no longer made Ford 460 engine that gets a consistant 8mpg, whether you're towing a house trailer, gardeners trailer, or no trailer at all either up hill or on flat ground. Imagine how easy it would be to know how much your trip is going to cost you in feul before you leave the gate?

    Don't skimp on GRVW on your tow vehicle---make sure it at least matches or even better exceeds the required recomendation. As far as fuel economy goes, I doubt if there is a truly satisfactory solution other than maybe a team of Clyesdales. We get 23mpg not towing and about 13mpg with a small loaded stock trailer when using the 'buran but it is seldom used as a tow vehicle (it's real purpose in life is serving as a Girl Scout Troop hauler arounder.)

    An older. smallish diesel firetruck would make quite a statement. You could gear an empty tanker like that so that you would probably get excellent milage with something as light as an airstream in tow(I'm talking cruising the interstate with the engine at idle)---plus the red truck with gold pinstripe against the polished. aluminium airstream----wow!
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Jul 2000
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    471

    ATV's and landscape photography?

    Buy a horse and a good pack mule. Also in a lot of areas I'm sure you could contact an outfitter and rent what you need.

  3. #13

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    ATV's and landscape photography?

    I think you can get into a lot of really good, remote areas with a straight 4x4 truck or Jeep by using logging roads and 4x4 tracks, which might save you the hassle of carting, maintaining, and protecting an ATV. Ansel Adms wasn't noted for backpacking, but he got his old Caddie up and down a lot of western mountains. I got my 2 wheel drive F-100 up into the mining towns over Telluride - I doubt you could find a better photo location. I drove it from Alta to Park City in the summer too. It's fun.

    Living in rural Upstate New York, I notice that many of the swampers tend to have ATVs, snowmobiles, and watercraft in their yards. In pieces, because they are always working on them. Even the new $15K jobbers seem to need much more frequent work than a typical car or truck.

    Plus the fact that a lot of people are maimed or killed on ATVs - from tipping over or finding ditches - or more frequently from collisions with other ATV drivers, whom you can't control and are often crazed teenagers.

    Noise and environmental issues are certainly valid concerns (I hate jet skis) but there is enough room for responsible riders. But I am not sure you will get better photos from using an ATV. Simply getting into some remote place doesn't guarantee a good photo - and often the work it takes to get there introduces you to better photos along the way. And frankly, America is a big place with a lot of roads to some really neat places - I bet you could spend an entire season within 100 yards of the Glacier Nat'l Park or Joshua Tree or ? parking lots and it would still look like you packed in for days.

  4. #14

    Join Date
    Feb 2002
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    ATV's and landscape photography?

    Jack, I sure can appreciate the benefit of getting to the destination without the agony of the travel. However, before you buy one, I would strongly consider renting or borrowing one. My experience has been, they are not allowed at many places, I am not sure if there is ONE policy for national parks, but I rarely see them used, I am sure there is a reason for such. More importantly, it is truly remarkable how many places ATV's can not travel to. If you have a long hike on a small trail which a vehicle can not travel, it is ideal, however, if it's foot trail, there is often a few places in the trail whereas the ATV can not make it through.... fallen trees, huge boulders, creeks with only a 2x8 board for people to walk over, wheras an ATV would often get stuck. I too thought about this, but the limitations are so great, I canned the idea, and my body would have sure bennefitted from one. But if you have the funds, consider one of these, it will get you to more places than a basic ATV and fits in the bed of a pick up truck.......

    http://www.ridgerunner.biz/

    I will second Franks comments about risk.... its amazing the things we will try when confronted with what seems like only a slightly risky situation....then, before you know it, the ATV tips over. If you are out solo, you got a huge problem on your hands. The injuries are often so bad, you can't walk, and you certainly can not flip an 800 lb rig back on its wheels. The statistics of serious injuries and death on ATV's is staggering, an issue that is often burried by the industry. I just always assumed this was from wild teenagers, however, I have learned that even trained Forrest Fighters have a very high casualty rate using them to fight fires. Being cautious is helpful, but the dirt under your wheels is not always cooperative.



    Keep us posted !

  5. #15
    Photographer, Machinist, etc. Jeffrey Sipress's Avatar
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    ATV's and landscape photography?

    ATV's don't tear up the environment. Reckless and stupid ATV drivers do. And no, I don't own one. But my Land Rover stays on established trails and gets me to many wonderful photo locations.

  6. #16

    ATV's and landscape photography?

    I have been seriously thinking about getting a dual-sport motorcycle set up for photographing. I don't necessarily want to go off-road but the BLM roads in New Mexico are very rough and will easily overwhelm a car. I have also noticed that I 'see more' on a motorcycle than in a car.
    I have been desert racing motorcycles the last couple years so I have plenty of skill, learning to ride a motorcyle safely (especially on dirt) is not trivial.

  7. #17
    Geos
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
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    ATV's and landscape photography?

    Here's (http://www.longwayround.com/intro.htm) a fantastic motorcycle adventure that might have been good from the LF perspective. I think that some type of off-raod or enduro cycle would allow one to get around both on and off road. a quad I don't think is usable on road. In otherwords, how would one get to the trailhead?

  8. #18

    ATV's and landscape photography?

    All motorized and non-motorized mechanical conveyances are banned from all designated US Wilderness Areas. So, not only can you not use an ATV in a designated Wilderness Area, you also cannot use a mountain bike or hang glider.

    In National Parks, it varies a bit from park to park, but in general, all (or at least most) trails are closed to ATVs and most are closed to mountain bikes. Motorized vehicles are limited to park roads, and then whatever you're driving must be street legal and properly licensed.

    So, if National Parks and Wilderness Areas make up the majority of the places you plan to visit/photograph, an ATV is pretty much useless.

    There are certain Forest Service and BLM areas that have looser restrictions for ATV use, but they vary widely from location to location. In many of the places ATVs are allowed, the intended use is "recreational riding" (aka - tearing up sand dunes). The more remote, pristine (photogenic) areas are usually off limits to ATVs (they remain pristine, or nearly so, for this very reason).

    In addition to the very real safety issue, ATVs cause air and noise pollution, erosion and trail damage - and that's if they are ridden responsibility.

    Walking is great exercise and it's never too late to start. 59 is young. I've been on six day backpacking trips with people far older than you and have encountered people in their 80s and 90s in remote Wilderness Areas. Start slow and work your way up. If you have a physical disability that makes walking difficult or impossible, most Wilderness Areas and many National Parks are open to pack stock. Again, regulations vary from location to location. In many places that means hiring the services of a commercial outfitter. This can mean anything from a full service guided pack trip where the outfitter supplies all the gear and cooks all the meals, to llama rental where you do all the work, but the llamas carry the weight. It all depends on where you want to go, your own abilities and how much you want to spend.

    There are more environmentally-friendly alternatives to ATVs. As a society we seem joined at the hip to the internal combustion engine. You'd be amazed how liberating and exhilarating it can be to get away from that dependency if even just for a day or two.

    Kerry

  9. #19
    Moderator Ralph Barker's Avatar
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    ATV's and landscape photography?

    Personally, I rather like the idea of hiring the Swedish Bikini Team as porters, and just walking in at a leisurely pace. In this case, ATV means Absolutely Terrific Va-va-voom. ;-)

  10. #20

    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    ATV's and landscape photography?

    there are a couple of Middle aged gents in colorado who bounce around the mountain forest roads on these with LF gear. Cool set up. They have custom made camera boxes on the back.
    Their reasons for owning them made me think

    1-Cheaper than a 4wd (where we were it was necessary)
    2-Better gas milage than a 4wd
    3-neither needs a 4wd to drive around the city
    4-can be towed on a trailer by a car to the bottom of the mountain.

    I think they were Yamahas, and they had a reverse gear.

    They were able to get where we could not in our 4wd and we were mighty envious.

    I would agree that the drivers tear up the environment not the vehicle.

    Have fun with the Airstream and the ATV. If I could afford one I would do it in a second after seeing those two guys.

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