Nothing Special's Moab trip, 2019

Bob - I found a Wrangler Power Products kit for dual batteries, but it is a bit pricey at $630.  I plan to upgrade to the later style battery carrier and may see if I can figure out how to use two of them side-by-side.  But I'll keep the other in mind.  Thanks.

Glad to know the biker wasn't hurt.  (I'm remembering European Vacation right now.)

And, glad to know that it wasn't crowded but also that there were a few others - just in case.

I'd wondered about the temps at that time of year.  But, having been on Powell at roughly the same time a few years ago I kinda knew.  However, others might not know about the temps there, nor how dry it is.  We always packed a rather large cooler for our outings in the SeaRay - and frequently found our way to Dangling Rope Marina and its ice cream.  

I'm not taking the time to look it up, but might it be possible to get just the tray and not the entire kit?  If you already have a dual battery setup you probably don't need the rest.  Or maybe just take the idea and see if you can make your own dual battery tray?  Just suggestions...

We are thinking alike.  I'm changing to the later tray, and I think there's a chance of getting two of them in since I'll also be running a 3G alternator, which won't need a regulator on the fender.  So maybe.  But if not then I can contact them to see if I can get the trays themselves.

Plus, placing both batteries there would simplify the wiring as there's no need for the long yellow feed across the firewall to the relay and then forward to the battery.  Put the relay by the two batteries.

Saturday, Sep 21 - Sevenmile Rim
I had planned to take a look at Moab Rim, Metal Masher or Behind the Rocks on this last day.  But Lesley wanted to do a "nice" trail that we could actually finish rather than start a harder trail and maybe get turned back again.  Plus with it being our last day it would be good to finish up earlier so we could get the Bronco hooked up to be towed home.  Trying one or two harder trails didn't seem like the best way to do that.  So Friday evening I looked through the guidebook I referenced before and found Sevenmile Rim toward the easier end of the "difficult" classification.  It had two warnings: that there was a steep off-camber pitch near the south end of the loop and that there were a lot of criss-crossing trails that made it easy to get lost.  Criss-crossing trails sounded like the perfect solution to the problem of a steep off-camber pitch, so I opened up my mapping program and found a way we could do the first half of Sevenmile rim, then hop over to a "moderate" trail, Courthouse Rock.  After getting the route loaded into my GPS we were ready to explore!

There was a BIG group of mostly newer Jeeps in the staging area on the west side of highway 191 about 9 miles north of town.  Turns out the Red Rock Fourwheelers were having their monthly club run there.  After finding out that they weren't going to be on the same trail we aired down and headed out.

It took about 10 minutes to go 2 miles up Cotter Mine Road to the trailhead.  Then it took about 2 hours to go 4 miles to where we ate lunch, another hour to go 2.5 miles to where we broke off of the Sevenmile Rim trail and another hour to go the 6.5 miles back to the staging area via the Courthouse Rock trail and Cotter Mine Road.

This did end up being a nice trail.  It wasn't as distinctively "Moab" as the other trails, with more white / gray rocks and not the incredible traction of slickrock all of the time.  There were still stretches of that, but if you are going for a "quintessential Moab trail", this isn't it.  There were a lot of sections just difficult enough to be fun, but nothing that should scare off more novice drivers.  And while there were some places where you could see a long way, a lot of the time it was more the scrub pines again.  While I'd say I preferred the other three trails we ran to this one, this trail was still a winner.  All in all not bad for a last trail day.

Here's sort of a typical view with a fun-but-not-difficult part of the trail (and some of the less red rock)


Here's a descent that gets your attention (and back into the red rock)


Another red rock section that was difficult enough to make me scout it (no stills of this obstacle because Lesley was taking video).  This was the 4th and last place I used the front locker.  I wouldn't have needed to, but it was a little off-camber and it would have been a little more exciting if I had slipped the back tires and dropped to the left off those steps.


Another couple of interesting parts.  The second picture below sort of shows one of the vistas.




The trail gets you  to Uranium Arch,  This was a really nice place for lunch, with shade and a lot of greenery to keep it cooler.  There were also some petroglyphs here, but since they included the symbols "2015" I think they mostly would be categorized as graffiti .  Anyway, here's the picture of Uranium Arch


Two different side-by-sides showed up while we were eating lunch.  Otherwise we didn't see any other vehicles on this trail.  But it's not very remote.  At times we were up to a few miles off Cotter Mine Road, but it had a little traffic.  And the staging area was right on highway 191.  So worst case is wasn't that long of a walk for help.

After lunch the trail continued as before to where we turned off Sevenmile Rim.  Then it was a pretty fast (by 'wheeling standards) sandy two-track over to the Courthouse Rock trail, which was rougher, but still went pretty quickly.  And just like that our Moab vacation was over (well, after one more trip downtown and another stop at the diner for shakes!).

edit to add in December 2021:  Here's the video from this day



We both really enjoyed this trip (Lesley is asking if we can go back next year!).  Moab is so different from the other places we've 'wheeled!  It was fun just to experience the differences.  I do hope to get a chance to do some of the harder trails on future trips.  That might require a few upgrades to my Bronco (new tires for sure, and probably doing something about the dropped radius arm brackets that act as grappling hooks on breakovers).  And it will definitely require some more support, at least a spotter and preferably another vehicle (or more).

But now all I have of this trip is the memories (and still some red dust!).  Thanks to all of you who have read my ramblings, letting me relive the trip with you!

What a good way to end your trip!  And Lesley wants to go back next year!  That says bunches.  

I think this trail, or combo thereof, might be the perfect warm up to Moab.  By then my son should have the manual tranny figured out, assuming he flies here and drives with me, and then both of us can get used to driving on the rough stuff, slowly.

As for the upgrades, what tires would you be considering?  And how do you fix the radius arm brackets - that I see hanging down in the breeze?

I haven't decided on tires for sure yet.  It'll be some sort of mud-terrain, possibly BFG KM3, or maybe Nitto Grappler, or maybe....  And in something like a 35/12.50 size.  I want tires that stick out a little past the sheetmetal to provide a little protection.  One problem is that it's hard to find load range C tires, and I don't really want to go with Es on a Bronco.

Not sure about the radius arms yet either.  The simplest would be to get some long arms, cut off the dropped mounts and put some "normal" mounts farther back on the frame.  But a link suspension would be cool...

Also you can see in some of the side views that the radius arms are protecting my transfer case, so if I raise them I really should clock the transfer case up higher.  But there's no room for that between the frame rails, so I'd need to notch the frame (and all the reinforcing that would require).  Plus the U-joint at my front diff is at about the max angle it can be at now, so if I clock the transfer case up I'll need to turn my axle to raise the pinion and get that angle down.  But that means cutting the knuckles off so I can rotate them back to keep my caster where it belongs...

This is what they call "scope creep."  I'm sure it's nothing you've ever had to deal with

Me?  Scope creep?  Where would I be without it?  Done maybe?  

If you like videos, here's a recently posted one of Top of the World.  NotaRubicon Productions is a mix of very well built Jeeps with very experienced drivers and closer to stock Jeeps with less experienced drivers, so they have good videos for showing how you might do a trail and how others might take some of the harder lines!

In this video the hardest ledge is from 2:00 - 4:00 where the more stock Jeeps took the easier right side that I took on the way down.  From 4:00 to about 6:30 a couple other Jeeps make it up the harder left route that I took up (at 5:00 the first one is driving up the place where I had to winch).
Top of the World

They also have a video of Hell's revenge.  This one doesn't do as good a job of showing how "real people" do the trail.  From about 5:30 on they really only show optional harder lines and obstacles.  But the first 5:30 pretty much show you what you can expect (with a couple hard lines thrown in).
Hell's Revenge

The Top Of The World one is interesting.  I see the two routes you are talking about, and why you winched when you did.  But I think I'd take the easy road.  

But the one on Hell's Revenge is scary.  No way I'm going to get into that kind of climb - in anything.  That rollover was awful to watch.  And his position didn't seem that bad until it rolled.  So the others may have been close to rolling as well.  

Gary Lewis wrote

....  But the one on Hell's Revenge is scary.  No way I'm going to get into that kind of climb - in anything.  That rollover was awful to watch.  And his position didn't seem that bad until it rolled.  So the others may have been close to rolling as well.  

Did I miss something?  I don't recall a rollover in the Hell's Revenge video I linked.  And I just scanned through it again and didn't see a rollover.  At what point in the video did you see it?  Or are you thinking back to the "Heart Attack Hill" video I linked earlier?

  Apparently I let it roll over, pun intended, to Heart Attack Hill as I just watched Hell's Revenge again and it isn't there.

What I saw was an orange jeep with a good-sized guy go over in the background of a video.  They'd put a bright spot on him in the background so your attention was taken there.  And then they used one Jeep below to pull him back over and three above to stead him.

So, Hell's Revenge isn't too bad.  I think I could do that.

Gary Lewis wrote

....  So, Hell's Revenge isn't too bad.  I think I could do that.

It looks like the Hell's Revenge video "rolls over" (groan) to a NotaRubicon video of a trail called "Hammer Down" in the Johnson Valley OHV area in California.  I haven't watched that video recently, but I took a quick look now and it does have the orange Jeep, highlighted, rolling in the background.

I've never been to Johnson Valley, but I've read about it in magazines pretty frequently, and have watched videos (but not recently).  My impression is that most, if not all of the trails there are well above my pay grade!  So no, I'm not recommending that for you!

And as I noted, 'most everything after about 5:30 in the Hell's Revenge video shows optional harder lines, or even side trails.  I didn't do any of them, and I'm not recommending them to you either!  But the first 5 minutes shows mostly what it's really like, and like you, I think you could do it.  But right away in the video is the fin that's right at the start of the trail.  That's the one that, from my trail report, you thought Janey might veto.  I think the video shows that pretty well.  It's not difficult, but there's definitely some "pucker factor" to it!

Yes, that's the one! (And for anyone else looking, I'm embedding it below and starting it at the point we are talking about.) That stuff is WELL above my or Big Blue's pay grade.

As for Hell's Revenge, the fin isn't quite so bad when you see it in the larger context. At least, it doesn't look so bad on a computer screen. But through the windshield.... Perhaps on Day 3 or so of a trip.

I finally started a YouTube channel so now I can post videos of the 'wheeling trips I've been taking.  I'll edit the videos in back in this thread where they fit for anyone going through the thread in the future, but I'll also post them here so people don't have to go back through the whole thread now to see them.

We didn't get any video of Hell's Revenge on day 1, or our brief attempt at Poison Spider on day 2.  But here's a little video of Fins N Things on day 2 (and here's the discussion of day 2 back in this thread)

It starts with a steep optional climb about halfway through the trail, and ends with what's probably the scariest part of the trail that doesn't have a bypass.  It's a steep descent that makes you drop one front tire well before the other, which feels really spooky.

About the hardest thing about 'wheeling on this trail is getting confidence in the traction you get on slickrock.  It seems like there's no way you could go up that hill, but when you actually do it turns out to be pretty easy.



Next is Top of the World.  This video starts with the hill that I ended up needing to winch on.  There's not a lot showing my trying to drive up it, but you can see that even with the front locker engaged it wasn't going to be easy.  Again, the steepness doesn't show very well, but when the Bronco started hopping it was pretty spooky, so I really didn't try too much before rigging the winch.

There are a number of places that show the value of a front locker.  One is at about 2:40 where I couldn't make it at first, but did get up with the locker engaged.  Shortly after that is a demonstration of the technique of "bumping it" to get the back tires up.  Interestingly, I had made it up that ledge easily just before when Lesley had the still camera.  Then I backed down to get video of going up.  I must have been on a slightly different line this time.

Then from about 6:45 to the end of the video I'm going down the alternative to the hill I winched on on the way up.  As you are coming up on this it looks like the left route is a bypass, but it's just easier at first with the steep climb with a ledge at the top.  When I did stop and winch I was pretty sure I'd have been able to make it up the side I eventually went down.  But I didn't really relish the idea of backing down from where I was, and I did have a winch...  (and here's the post on Top of the World from this thread)



This last video is from our last day, Sevenmile Rim.  This was a relatively easy trail.  I'm not saying it's just a dirt road, but we were ready to not be pushing ourselves now at the end of the trip.  The last scene in this video is driving down a steep hill to get to Uranium Arch where we had lunch.  In the still at the very end you can see the arch as we drive by above it.  (and here's the post on Sevenmile Rim)

I appreciate the videos on Moab.  I'm really interested in going there, and being able to watch your videos helps me a bunch.  

Fins N Things: You make it look easy!  Apparently it is steep, although not all that rocky, but the stone gives the tires plenty of traction?  Looking like something Big Blue could do?

Top Of The World: There are a number of steps in this that make it seem very hard.  You have enough approach angle to handle it, but it is still tough to get up over.  But even the down sections are STEEP.
 

Sevenmile Rim: No, that isn't a dirt road.  There are some really steep sections in there.  And several large steps.  But the Bronco just motors on up, or down as the case may be.

Fins N Things - For the most part this trail is pretty big and open and wouldn't be any trouble for Big Blue.  There are some places where break-over angle might bite you, and a lot of places where departure angle might.  But those aren't deal-breaking problems.  Not saying you'll definitely be able to get by everything, but keeping in mind my mantra of keeping it fun and living to 'wheel another day, I think it's a trail you could reliably get off in one piece.

It will be spooky at times though!  Especially the fins at the end.  Those are optional, you drive out into them a ways and then come back to where you started.  Also as you come off each fin you typically have the option of turning back at that point.  But there are a number of places there where you very well might decide to leave them for another trip.

Top of the World - I don't think Big Blue's approach angle will be a big hindrance here.  His approach angle isn't bad and I think most of the ledges are low enough his front bumper will clear anyway.  He might drag his tail a bit coming back down.  Anyway, look back in what I said about it earlier in this thread when it was still fresh in my mind.

Sevenmile Rim - This was definitely the easiest trail we were on, but it was still a legitimate trail.  However  it wasn't very tight so it would be easy to turn back any time you felt you should.  Maybe the biggest issue was that it was in a big maze of trails, so finding your way back out could be an issue.  Some sort of mapping GPS or app helps a lot here.