Hi Richard, I thought I would send you this story of my first
Argo trip after purchasing it new in 2002. I bought the 8x8
Conquest and installed the super tracks. We lived in Cordova
Alaska at the time and were looking forward to adventuring
across the many miles of sandbars to the Coast in the Copper
River Delta. I am 6'3 310lbs my wife is 200lbs my Malamute
200lbs and Chow 70lbs plus lots of beer in cooler and lots
of barbeque gear, we were loaded! We headed out across the
flats really enjoying the beauty and came to our first water
crossing, nervously easing in and WOW this thing is cool as
it was really pushing a wall of water in front of us, we were
really cruising and I was really enjoying this. We crossed
about 30 or so water crossings and were real close to the
beach as we could hear the surf. We got a late start and we
decided to stop and have lunch. We messed around for awhile
and I got to noticing that the waterway we just crossed was
looking a good bit wider. So we thought the tide was coming
back in, It was and it was coming in real quick, I tried to
act pretty calm but actually I was sweating bullets! I eased
up to the waters edge and nosed in and we had 1 or 2 inches
free board and were slowly rotating slowly in circles heading
towards SEA! I had thought earlier that I was floating not
realizing that it was still touching bottom, we had no propulsion
whatsoever. I was freaking out (were going die) my wife was
pissed and said I thought you read the manual? I had not,
I never do. I do now! We had one small square seat pad we
used as a paddle and one arm and were just barely able to
get the tracks to take a bite and pull us up on the bank then
it was hauling ass as fast as it would go till we ran out
of sand then the same process all over again and each time
the waterways were wider and deeper, we finally found a long
skinny pole and I used that for pushing and it worked better.
But our problems were just beginning, we now had to take a
different route because of the water and for awhile now I
couldn't see our previous tracks in the sand we left. We were
really coming across allot of huge bear tracks but didn't
have time to enjoy them, we were just glad they were not in
our direction, we finally got out of the canal systems but
the tide was rolling behind us at an ever increasing speed,
we could see the frothy roll of sea water rolling along behind
us at a pretty good clip but fortunately not as fast as the
Argo could go. Going full speed all of a sudden we really
started to slow down fast and were sinking quick 6 or more
inches into the sand, we stopped from lack of power and I
quickly shifted into low and it was all I could do to get
it to barely move and we were probably sunk 10 inches then
it barely climbed out, terror set in and I looked over my
shoulder and the tide was right behind us, cracking the throttle
full on we were moving along top speed again then wham we
were thrown against the dash again and at a crawl, then shifting
into low again grinding gears, no time for finesse, we just
climbed out of our second quicksand pit. This time I was frantically
looking for clues on the sand to alert me of the quick sand
pits as we were approaching them at 20 mph. I spotted them,
they were a circular wet looking reflective spots over a dryer
overall sand, some 60 feet to 5 feet diameter in size and
I was able to dodge 95% of them, I was finally able to see
our motor home on the one road to the Million Dollar Bridge,
we arrived and unloaded quickly and within seconds our 200lb
Malamute sunk up to her shoulders in a 3' foot quick sand
pit, it was all we could do to get her out! I forgot to add
When we reached the RV I looked back and our dogs looked nothing
like dogs, they looked like ALIENS!!!!! they were covered
completely in a very thick layer of sand, all you could see
was barely their eye's. This quick paced trek was full of
flying wet sand that passed our Argo at 20 mph, but we didn't
have time to contemplate this, our backs were covered in wet
sand! ( let me add that my wife is an ex homicide detective
and undercover agent for mafia and is still in law enforcement
at 60 years of age) and I a (Vietnam Era Veteran) who lived
in the rice paddies with the 2nd Inf Div and the 9 Inf Div
who lived with Artillery Shellings and Small Arm Fire, and
who enjoyed crossing through mine fields at 19 yrs. I cant
cross a Copper River Delta without frequent out at 55 yrs
of age. I never really considered myself a religious person
but I sure said alot of prayers that day! When we started
loading the stuff into our RV we noticed that our dogs were
really wagging their tails, as we realized that they really
enjoyed their trek! All we could do is laugh with shaky knees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
since then we have more bear tales with the Argo and we swear
by the tracks as you could not pull this off without them,
do not try this without them!! I have abused this Argo tremendously
with the tracks on, they will get you into big trouble without
them, I am telling you the gospel truth!!! The Argo sales
videos do not tell the truth! Trust Me as I will prove this.
Bruce Flint 1615 3rd Ave Kenai Alaska 99611 lillibruce@gci.net
Thank you
PS: Hi Richard I reread the Argo story I sent you about the
trip I took with my wife and dogs to the Copper River Delta
in Cordova Alaska, and at the end of the story It sounded
like I was putting down the Argo, I was not what I mean is
these things do much more than the video shows them to do!
I have over 200 hours on it and the super wide tracks have
not been off of it. Even over rough rocks, logs swamp, eight
foot tall bear grass, lots of gravel and I made 30 or more
trips hauling over 1,300 pounds of steel pipe 21 feet long
on a pretty heavy trailer thru 12 miles of mud trail thru
the Alaskan wilderness to our steel cabin. I have hauled so
much heavy gear on it you would not believe it!!! I had made
30 or more trips with each load weighing at about 1,600 lbs
and that Argo would drag that trailer axle thru the mud and
muck. I always am ahead of schedule on the vehicles maintenance.
Anyhow I wanted to share this with you. Bruce
