Cruise Moab Buggy Pre-Run

[wngrog]

Well, most of you that care about Cruise Moab have found all the info on the runs on the threads on the other Cruiser sites, but I have yet to see anything here on Pirate posted from the bunch of bad ass rigs I saw.

Medusa's Crew, Proffitt's Crew, HomeGrown Crew and others were all out hitting the nasty stuff all week.

For me, my part of the Pre-Run started on Sunday morning at the trailhead for Coyote South of town near Area BFE and Upper Helldorado.

Jim and I drove in (15 hours) from Ft Worth on Saturday. Being that we planned on starting with the hardest trails and working our way down we chose to camp out in the mountains near Coyote.

We pulled in just as dark was settling in and set up temporary camp in the parking area next to Coyote. This is a super neat trail on the road about 1/2 way between the highway and Area BFE.

We started in at about 7:00 am on Coyote on Sunday morning.



The trail is a pretty technical run about 1/2 mile up and 1/2 mile down the side of a mountain. Keeping in the trail, the difficulty rating is about a 4 out of 6.






There are two pretty mean options 1/2 way up on the right. I remember reading about the options on Pirate before I went and was looking very forward to hitting them.

Sorry about the blurry ass picture, but those of you that have been in this spot can appreciate the fact that I somehow managed to drive out of it. It is one nasty, nasty spot 6+ of 6 option here. Jim got so off camber he ended up sucking air in his Power Steering system and opted to back out.

[wngrog]

The way down is pretty hairy with some nice drops. Probably the hardest section of the trail unless you take the second optional line on the uphill portion.

[wngrog]

We finished up Coyote in about an hour. We took plenty of time at the two optional lines shooting some great video and enjoying ourselves.

Next, we took off for Upper Helldorado.

With the opening of Area BFE this trail has gotten much more use since I had last seen it in 2001. There are 2-3 optional ways to get in the trail, but Jim and I took the original line right up this crack.



The next obstical is the huge boulder that gives lots of long rigs a hard time. Jimbro picked a killer line and snuck through without spinning a tire.



My line was a little hairy and stupid (of course) but my complete lack of concern with scaping the paint and skins was evident as I squeezed the Bash buggy through the crack.....



Next came the waterfall. After watching numerous videos of rigs spanking the waterfall, I was completely confident that mine and Jim's rigs would walk this with little difficulty.

Boy was I wrong. Jim and I both gave the waterfall 7-8 tried each and neither of us made it. We both came very close at times, but neither broke the top.

I flopped twice and broke a driveshaft before calling it quits. Video clips to come

[wngrog]

Jim's buggy fit nicely in the mine on the way out

[wngrog]

We then ran around the Test areas in BFE for a while climbing some awesome slickrock ledges.








From there, we ran back to Suicidal Tendencies. This trail is a little offshoot to the right after the entrance to Upper Helldorado. Jim and I found a way around the first ledge and both made it to within a car's length of making out to the top of the canyon. We each had to winch out at the very top as it was just too loose up there and too steep. It was kinda scary once when Jim knocked down a boulder 1/2 the size of the Bash Buggy and it missed me by a hair as it crashed down the mountain side.

Finally, we went over to Britney Spears and like a couple of dumbasses, went in the first road we found. This turned out to be the "exit" of the trail. When we made it to the top I had no choice but to back down or go DOWN the UP part of this insane trail.

I sucked in the rear winch and Jim spotted me down the worst ledges I have ever driven down before. On the last one, a rock came up and smacked my oil pan so hard, it drove my pickup into the engine. It was clacking and banging, but we did drive it out and to the trailer. Jim wisely chose to back down the way we came up. Again, great video, but no pics of this section.

[wngrog]

It was about noon at this time so we went back and loaded my banged up buggy and packed the camp to head into town.

We ended up camping at Kane Creek campgounds at the mouth of Pritchett Canyon.

After setting up camp, we headed into town to get some stuff to fix my rig. We dropped the pan and bent the oil pickup and pan back and resealed all of that and also I swapped out a leaking front D60 pinion seal.

That afternoon we started up Moab Rim at about 5:30.




We caught up with Medusa near the end of the trail that day after passing the larger, less hardcore group fixing a pinion on the first big ledge on the river-view portion of the trail.







The sign to the sand hill was more than I could stand, so we cut the corner on the way home and drove down the sand hill. I was VERY dissapointed in the performance of the Bash Buggy in the steep sand. I could not make it up 1/3 of the way back up the hill.

Jim's buggy was amazing and spanked the hill like it was a purpose built sand car. I gotta get a clip of that thing spitting sand!

[wngrog]

Our busy first day was done and we settled in with good food and sleep in preparation for Pritchett in the morning.

We got started early on Pritchett and were at Rocker Knocker in about 45 minutes. We played on Rocker Knocker taking multiple lines for about 30 minutes. It is amazing how thatplace can just kick your ass.

The coolest line is through the rocks to the left of the obstical, between Rocker Knocker and the Bypass.

It was amazing how the buggy's would walk up these lines without spinning a tire.....





The fun line is over the rock that is on the left-hand side of Jim's buggy in this picture. Try it next time. Again, no pics but a great video.

Jim and I both nosed up to the Rockpile and crawled it without slipping a tire. It is the first time I have ever seen the rockpile without a single rock stacked at the bottom.







We made it up to the top with all the playing on the ledges and Rocker Knocker in 2 hours flat. The return trip down (not around the Hwy) was very nice and the first time I had done it. We did it in 45 minutes with a side-trip to run that wicked line on Rocker Knocker for some Pilgrims from Montana on ATVs.

[RustyNailJustin]

Awesome! I was wating for some pics from you guys. Area BFE is wheelers dream location.
Dont be upset you did not drive the waterfall its no joke, I personally have seen 1 rig make it, I have seen several videos but only one in real life, most people flip over backwards or in the crack on the left. I still to this day have not driven the waterfall, always had to winch.
I was thinking Medusa would post some pics from Montrose as well???

[wngrog]

Originally Posted by RustyNailJustin

Awesome! I was wating for some pics from you guys. Area BFE is wheelers dream location.
Dont be upset you did not drive the waterfall its no joke, I personally have seen 1 rig make it, I have seen several videos but only one in real life, most people flip over backwards or in the crack on the left. I still to this day have not driven the waterfall, always had to winch.
I was thinking Medusa would post some pics from Montrose as well???

It felt damn good on my last try until I flipped into the hole

Anyway, great video of that to come. I am only on 1/2 of day 2. Still have a ways to go

[TxCruzr]

Sounds like you flopped more this one trip than in your entire history of off road..."Rolling Nolen" having a comeback tour?
Those must be two of the nicest buggies. They're a good comparison on how a high tech comp rig and a quality home built buggy can do the same stuff.
Driver skill helps but I don't know if it applies in your case
More pics/video please

[wngrog]

Originally Posted by TxCruzr

Sounds like you flopped more this one trip than in your entire history of off road..."Rolling Nolen" having a comeback tour?
Those must be two of the nicest buggies. They're a good comparison on how a high tech comp rig and a quality home built buggy can do the same stuff.
Driver skill helps but I don't know if it applies in your case
More pics/video please

I only flopped it twice on Upper Helldorado and drove it on its side once on Coyote and once on Upper Helldorado in the picture above. I am still only up to 4 flopps on this rig to date

Yeah, on anything but sand this little buggy will hang with Jimbros buggy. The Sunray buggy smoked my ass on the sand. Bad. I mean really bad.

[wngrog]

The above picture is one of the only one I took on Hell's Revenge. We shots some killer Video of me scooting out of the deep hot tub (Mickey's?) and I got some of Jim walking out of the smaller one on the left of the trail just as you are about to come down off the steep cliff pictured above.

Hell's Revenge is one of my favorite spots in Moab. Beautiful Mtn views and awesome crawling. I cannot tell you what a rush it is to drive in that deep ass Hot Tub, put your tires up on the wall and fucking FLOOR it and pray for the best.

It was the wheeling highlight of my trip.


We ran in to Gary Cobberly, Jason Harsh and Rick Delisle from Lone Star at the point of the pictures taken here. Jason's wife Margaret jumped in the Bash Buggy for a quick trip up the Escalator and a signature baja run back to the parking area below. It was great.

Jim also walked the escalator with no problems and stayed around at the top and watched an interesting group of rigs (and rental Jeeps) make it or fall in the hole. It is an amazing obstical in that one inch in either direction and you are carrying a tire 8' in the air or you are making it without slipping a tire.

We ended out the day with a Baja run down the gravel road to Potato Salad hill. I had much higher expectations.

I am sure that place gets plenty roundy and would be much more difficult with 200 spectators and a few beers in the sytem.

Lacking both of those, we packed up and headed back out to Kane Creek for a dinner of Chili Relanos and a great night's sleep.

[wngrog]

The next morning we got an early start on our epic adventure. We parked at Poison Spider Mesa and departed the parking lot next to the river at 8:00 am.

Moving fast, we bounced up to the top of the plateau in record (for me) time.

For those of you that have never been on PSM, this is the grave of a your girl that supposedly died from a Poison Spider bite in the late 1800's. Can you imagine living in this country in the late 19th century?



At the grave, I traded vehicles with Jimbro so he could drive something with 1/2 of an engine for a while. I really enjoyed the engine in his buggy on the high speed mesa sand run. The buggy is tight as hell and super powerful. I cannot wait for him to get rid of those seats though. My ass was ready for my suspension seats in no time.

Jimbro hauling ass on the High Speed Mesa......



We split off on Golden Spike and hit the first of many "Launching Pads" Jim throttled this one out pretty good. Being his first time in a manual crawler he did not wait to get the geears working, he dropped it in 2nd and thumped it.

You don't really think about it since 99% of folks never turn around and come down this, but on the return trip, my rig's check engine light came on coming down this since it is so steep and long my engine was starving oil

[wngrog]

We took our first break at the first overloop on Golden Spike about 8 miles in. This was Jimbro's first indication of how high we had climbed and he DID NOT like the edge of this cliff. He grabbed up a case of vertigo from getting a little too close and never quite got over it the rest of the day. I don't blame him, that is one STEEP ass hairy cliff.





The crack was fun, but mearly a speedbump for the buggies. I wanted to get a poser shot or two from inside the crack.....



"Cruiser Arch" in the background.......

[wngrog]

Double Whammy was funny. Not a slipped tire from either. I tried to run Jim up the hardest line I could find on the obstical and he did not spin or slow down.

We hit Gold Bar rim at 12:00 and turned downhill for the entrance of Rusty Nail.

We jumped on Rusty Nail (both our first times) at 1:00 after taking a nice lunch break at the trailhead. It is 14 miles from the parking area on the Colorado River to the Rusty Nail turnout off Gold Bar Rim. We were 5 hours into our journey, tired but looking forward to Rusty Nail as we had both heard a ton about it.

After snaking out way to the real start of the trail, it is a series of two difficult rock sections followed by a short off-camber downhill that is next to a 100' drop.

Neither of us was feeling too adventurous, so we hit the obvious lines on both falls and walked right up. At the off-camber drop off, we ran into the same group of rental jeeps ( ) that we met on Hell's Revenge the day before. After they cleared the downhill, we popped right through and headed uphill to join up with Golden Spike and the way home.

At the Golden Crack, we did not even get out or slow down. There were 25 or so Jeeps in all manner of crossing on the crack and we just ran the line opposite of the pictures above but straight on over the gap.

The guys in the Heeps just stopped and stared as we crossed the hardest point on the Crack without stopping, slowing, or spotting. It was a funny moment.

The way back was fun but long. We had to take a breif intermission in a cave to wait out a thunderstorm. After that, we took off at a high rate of speed towards the trucks.





We ran into our first "Cruise Moab" guys as they were finishing their PSM pre-run just past the wedgie. We followed them down the hill to the parking area. Hatfield was out in front in his trusty Pig and Gary Cobberly was also there in his kick ass 45/80 combo.

Final tally........17.5 miles in 7.5 hours. Rusty Nail in 4.5 hours and back in 3. That is one LONG FAWKING day, but very, very rewarding.

[bkfj55]

nice pictures and great writing....almost feels like we're there with you on each of your flops - but then again, we know better

bk

[katesoffspring]

great thread and pics can't wait for the video JT

[wngrog]

OK, back to the trip report.

After Jim left on Wed am, I headed over to the CM HQ for tech inspection and to install my tires on my UZJ-100 tow rig/family hauler.

I towed my rig out on the stock tires and was increadibly pleased with its performance overall towing. Ride was fantastic and towing power was acceptable. Mileage was horrible, but that is expected.



In the afternoon I ran up to Grand Junction to pick up my family at the airport.

The next day we ran Fins and Things.

Fins and Things is a relatively easy trail at Moab. I think CM rates it a 3+ Plus meaning there are some optional lines that make it as hard as you want.

The first place I ran into a little difficulty was on the sand hill at the beginning of the trail.

I am running Nitto Terra Grapplers. 33 x 13.50 x 18 and the rears I dropped to 20# and the fronts to 25#. They bulged nicely at that pressure and conformed to the rocks well. I could have gone lower, but I am not sure that would have helped anything.

I was following a Supercharged FZJ-80 with 33's and NO LOCKERS with very mold AT's on it. The 80 went right up the sand hill and I saw no reason to do anything but crawl it.

I engaged my rear ARB and eased up the hill. The 100 stopped dead. I backed up and floored it. The TRAC went nuts and the front felt like it was gonna rip out of the Cruiser but I struggled over.

After that, I decided it was Julie's turn to drive the whale and I walked and took pictures.

[wngrog]

Moab Rim is one of the most scenic trails in Moab in the first mile along the river.

As we pulled into the parking area at the bottom, be fell in behind 2 jeeps and a Sammi headed up. They looked at us in the family hauler a little stangely, but they said nothing.

I was sticking close because there is a pretty nasty set of ledges 3/4 of the way up and I wanted these guys around when I tried it.

We made very quick work of everything up to the ledges. The Heeps in front beat and banged away and we just took it all in. I had picked out a nice line right of center.

We rolled up and spanked the line with the Heepers watching, Julie was reading a magazine and the kids were watching Toy Story 2.

My confidence in the beast was slowly coming back up.

At this point, I am still trying to figure out the TRAC system and am wondering if the front end is going to explode every time I get into the gas in a low traction environment.

[wngrog]

The next day we lined up for Hell's Revenge. I was excited to show this tril to Julie as it is, in my opinion, the prettiest trail in Moab. It is "signature" Moab with the sheep drops nex to the trail, the steep climbs and the off-camber stuff.

Most of the day went off without a hitch. A guy from South Dakota was following me in a 98 with rear locker and no TRAC. After a couple of ledges I asked him how the locker was working and he said he had not used his yet.

I was still fooling with the Trac system and rear locker combo so I decided to stop using the Locker and let the TRAC system work alone.

It was amazing to me, and there is nothing scientific to back this up, but once I stopped using the ARB, the TRAC seemed to work much better. It seemed to me that the ARB in the rear was throwing off the computer and was overcompensating in the front since the rear was not slipping due to the locker being engaged.

After that, I pulled the ABS fuse and tried some stuff open and with ARB only.

I liked this a LOT better than with ARB and TRAC in combination.

I think (personal opinion again) that the TRAC would be great on snow or slippery roads, but in rockcrawling it seemed to be overworked, especially when the ARB was on.

Again, another caviat, I wheeled 2 days with the FJ Cruiser and the 2007 version of the TRAC seemed to work much better than my 2001 version.

Where my TRAC would let the tire slip 1/4 to 1/2 revolution before catching, the FJ's system would ony let it slip an inch or so. It seemed to be a much "smarter" TRAC system.

I think the BEST thing and the easiest thing on the drivetrain would be to ad another ARB to the mix. That would eliminate all the banging ang whacking the TRAC does in the front.

My 2001 has 4 spider gears (commonly refered to as 4 pinion design) and without that, the TRAC would rip the old 2 spider design to shreads. That is a lot of stress on the spider gears as the front locks and unlocks when a tire leaves the ground.

With IFS, the front leaves the ground A LOT. That said, the ARB would eliminate all that when engaged and you would not have to "pull the plug" on the TRAC.

I followed a locked 80 most of the day on Hells Revenge and by the end when I was running one locker and no TRAC I was doing stuff as easy or easier than the 80.





Mark Hawley from www.metaltech.com had a SWEET OEM Orange FZJ-80 on the trail testing his new bumpers and sliders. The rig was running 37" IROKs and kicked ass all day



The FJ Cruiser made this run look laughable. It is really a sweet rig and super capable.



Ross Miller got a little off line here and took some dopes on the rope to lower him back level so he could drive out.

The guy supervising on the left is Kaderabek

[wngrog]

We turned SE on Saturday and headed home on a trek through the national parks in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.

We spent more time at altitude cutting through SW Colorado to see Mesa Verde and ending up in Santa Fe on the first day. The Cruiser gets much better mileage when it is over 5000 ft sea level for some reason. With mixed OD and D driving around 70 mph, we got between 10 and 11.5 mpg on the leg to Santa Fe.

On the leg from Santa Fe to Carlsbad Caverns the next day I was driving faster, but I left the Cruiser in OD the entire time and let it shift itself. Mileage went back to 8.5 mpg for that leg of the trip.

The final leg from Carlsbad to Granbury Texas on Monday, I had the hammer down and ran 75-80 the entire time in "D" with a mixed headwind and mileage dripped to 7-7.5.

The trip home was a little longer in mileage, but I upped the average to 9.5 mpg and fuel costs were about the same at $500 for the return trip.

The overall mileage was 2700 miles, Cruiser towing Toyota Tacoma Buggy. There is no other rig out there that I know of that can tow a rig to Moab from Texas, change tires, wheel Hell's Revenge, Moab Rim and Fins and then load it all up with family and trailer and get you home in style and in one piece.

Overall, I am very pleased with the performance on road and off of the 100. It just takes some compromising on both fronts.

[DHONDAGOD]

nice writeup nolan... very enjoyable read and great pics... thank you for sharing and good to see you home safe...


looking forward to the videos!!!


chris

[Rat70FJ]

Nice thread, Nolen.

[Gunmetalcruz]

Good write up. Looks like a good time. How much water were you running when you tried the waterfall on heldo? I don't think it pullable without weight. The line is; pull up move the ass over left, square it up and get into it. I watched the climax guy from seattle do it after he drove down it. He tried for 10 plus times before Jason lined him out on the line. Big difference when your ass is were you dont' want to end up(rolled into the hole). Jason pulled it last year after the rock race when it snowed and cleaned it and it was wet!

[DSRTRDR]

nice write-up, cool pics thanks for sharing