Moab, Utah
Cliff Hanger
| The Red Rock 4-Wheelers held a Labor Day camp out over the 1999 Labor Day weekend. There were quite a few jeeps out there and a few other vehicles to join make the trip interesting. Roger Bunch and his crew along with Steve & Carole Hunt represented the Sandia Jeep Club in this labor day weekend. The weather was perfect, I would say low 90s, not a cloud in the sky and just an occasional breeze. Perfect weather!On the first day, Steve and Carole lined up for the Cliff Hanger run. Guy, from the NM 4-wheelers out of Albuquerque was leading this run. This trail is rated a 4, which means lockers are at the least highly recommended. There was several vehicle that were stock trying this run. At the first obstacle, there was a jeep with very small tires that just couldn't get up and over. |
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The gray jeep to the right was the one going nowhere. The white jeep to the left was the one trying to strap out the small gray one. After a few tries, Nothing. So another jeep was strapped up to the white jeep. With the trail being at an angle, and the way the straps were setup, and the positions of the vehicles, the white pulling jeep ended up on its side. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. After this, the stuck jeep decided to call it the day and turn his rig around. After this little incident, there was 7 other vehicles that turned around and looked for easier trails. It was a real bummer that somebody went over on their side trying to help somebody else. The problem was, the positions of the vehicles strapping the stuck jeep. They were at bad angles, and the straps were at bad angles, so over he went. The gray Jeep is the one that was really stuck. I guess nobody told him that disconnecting his sway bar might help just a little. The gentleman in the white jeep was the one that went on his side. The damage consisted of a cracked window and body damage on every panel on the drivers side. Bummer, not a good way to start off a trip. |  |
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In our rig, an '86 4Runner, Carole did the driving when it came to the somewhat difficult trails. I would get out and stop her, and she would walk right up these spots. It was a lot of fun working as a team, husband and wife. We did quite well, in fact, it was kind of funny, people would get real quite and just watch us work the line. I think they were quite surprised to see a woman doing so well at the wheel. Most wheelers are men, and to see a woman wheeling with the best of em, was a real thrill for the other women. They were really happy to see Carole at the wheel. |  |
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So on we went towards the Z turn on Cliff Hanger trail. To the left here, Dave and Dierdra were riding a new Jeep Wrangler. Talk about flex. David was running a 4" Rubicon express lift and 33" tires. Of course he had sway bar disconnects too. The flex was so good, he didn't even need lockers! He did really well with open diffs in this jeep. I imagine with harder trials, such as 4+ and up, he might get into situations were lockers would really come in handy. However on this trial, he did really well keeping the rubber down. Then to the right here, we have an old relic. This old willys jeep appeared to have a limited slip or locker in the front. Talk about a stiff ride! I watched this thing bounce along and get pretty close to rolling. I was scared just watching! However, he did make it through the trail.... |
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Here the views of Moab are really quite breathtaking. If you haven't been to moab, this is one place you just have to visit. Even if it's just a hike, this place is really amazing. There are lots of bicycle riders on the trail, they are often amazed at the ability of these 4 wheeling rigs and how they can often walk up these stair steps. Given the condition of some of these rigs, I was also amazed some made it. |
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The Z turn was pretty neat going up, lots of wheels spinning
and some vehicles hitting it pretty hard to try and get up and over.
The next obstacle was the Cliff Hanger itself. This one wasn't too bad,
it just seemed bad because of the angle of descent. But, if one takes
it slow, it's really not to bad. Here to the right a really nice jeep
was taking its time, going very very very slow down the Cliff Hanger.
The had a pretty nice setup and were able to take it slow and easy.
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Following David and Dierdra, Carole came on down. She did really well. I was surprised how well the IFS handled on the trail. We got quite a bit of flex out of the Sway-A-Way torsion bars. I don't know how much travel we were getting, but when the front tires were stuffing into the fender wells, I was happy. The rear tires were getting a real impressive amount of travel. I had recently purchased a set of 4.5" SkyJacker springs for the rear. They were a bit on the stiff side, so I opted to remove the main load leaf, thus giving the springs more flex. And flex they did, by the end of this first run, the rear diff was sliding into the gas tank. When the right rear tire was being stuffed into the fender well, and the left rear tire was hanging, the diff would move into the gas tank. Not good. I do have a fix for that coming up in a few weeks. When I put a 2" body lift on, I will also raise the gas tank, this should give me more room to flex those springs. To the left Carole is dropping down into the Cliff Hanger. She is doing really well. To the right in the white wrangler, Brad and Missy have a really nicely setup. These folks did really well, until they took the advice of the trail leader. That is when they got stuck, and who had to strap em out? Well, it wasn't a Jeep. It was the Tow-yota, the RKCRWLR Toyota. Talk about embarrassing. |  |
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This jeep's rear diff got hung up on a rock, so forward
progress was stopped. The left rear tire was also wedged into a rock,
so rearward progress was also stopped. I wish I had that picture, but
I was more concerned about getting him unstuck. So after a little pulling,
he was free. As we turned around and started back, going up Cliff Hanger was pretty easy. What a view! You can see to the right on this pic just how high the cliffs are. As Terry Rust put it, its a 3 screamer! It is a very long way down. After everybody got over the Cliff Hanger, it was the Z turn (to the left) In my opinion, this descent was scarier then Cliff Hanger. I was driving this one, and the pucker factor was very high. I couldn't see over the right corner of the hood. So I didn't know how close I was to the edge. Plus the rear end seemed to be going higher and higher. You can see how the left front tire was dropping pretty low, and it just seemed like the truck was ready to roll to the left at any time. A little further down, the suspension really started to flex. At this point, I was really getting worried, I felt really unstable, and didn't know how close to the edge my right front tire was. The pucker factor was really high! Were talking sweaty palms, twitchy eyes, clenched teeth, and a death grip on the steering wheel. After taking it very slowly, I finally made it, whew! What a day of wheeling, Of course it wasn't over here. We went on to the last obstacle, getting out of the canyon. Getting out is where I pulled the white jeep out. Bummer, I didn't get any pics. Well, maybe next time. |
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