Adventure Bent

Adventure Bent was a blog about enjoying the outdoors, exploring the wilderness and having a good time doing it. It covered hiking, exploring, 4x4 travel and other forms of outdoor lifestyle.

The blog was started in 2016 after reconnecting with my love for the outdoors. I'd grown up hiking and canoeing throughout Minnesota and North Dakota, and in many ways this blog was a return to my childhood roots.

During its two year run, I posted stories about my adventures, updates on projects and reviews of products.

The blog was discontinued in March 2018 after I lost my job at the River Valley Media Group in a mass layoff. While I quickly found work, I no longer had the time to maintain the site and the decision was made to abandon the project.

Today the blog is maintained in archive form.

Notable Posts

The following are a selection of notable posts from the Adventure Bent archive.

Overloaded: a dangerous oversight, or a necessary evil?

I’ve been thinking about weight a lot lately. No, not my body weight, though Icould gain to trade a few pounds of fat for muscle. I’m talking about vehicleweights, specifically gross vehicle weight ratings. > “The gross vehicle weight rating, or gross vehicle mass is the maximum operatingweight/…

Adventure BentTobias Mann

four-wheel drive the new vs. the old

In principle, four-wheel drive is a pretty simple concept. Power from the engineis sent through the transmission to a transfer case that sends power to thefront and rear wheels. In the last couple years, traction control, antilock brakes and stabilitycontrol programs have become integrated into …

Adventure BentTobias Mann

A wild welcome to New Orleans

It’s mating season at the New Orleans Audubon Zoo, as we and too many childrenso unfortunately discovered during our visit Monday, Aug. 14. A pair of particularly frisky baboons and hump happy otters either had parentsshielded their children’s eyes or pointing and laughing. I felt sorry for all …

Adventure BentTobias Mann

Nitto Terra Grappler 30k mile review

Nitto is well known for its wide variety of performance tires, with many cateredspecifically to off-road and race applications. One of Nitto’s earliest entriesinto the all-terrain segment was the venerable Terra Grappler. A seemingly endless supply of positive reviews led us to pick up a set of …

Adventure BentTobias Mann

Got air? Our review of the Viair 88P portable compressor

So you’re in the market for a new portable air compressor. Maybe you need something to air up your tires after a long day on the trails.Maybe you just need something to top up your tires every now and then. In eithercase, Viair’s 88P and 85P portable air compressors offer compelling performance,…

Adventure BentTobias Mann