Man... I have so many comments and things to say, I don't know where to start. I can only imagine doing parts of the trail in snow, looks like and an awesome job getting out, congrats.
JamesWyatt said:
Is this the same trail the manufacturers run the stock Jeep Rubicons and the FJ Cruisers through as a proving ground? Do they just do part of the trail?
This is not a myth, I have seen them roll through with about 20 or 25 trucks filled with engineers and people who had never driven off road before. They do the trail, but the trucks are absolutely beat to shit.
As far as my opinion as to what you need to do the trail, I would say it all depend on time and experience. My friend did it on 32"s with a 2" lift and Detroit locker. He was definitely the slowest person in our group and getting him through was always a challenge. However, he did do the entire trail with only minor damage (2" dent) behind the rear tire. With that said, Harold did it in an ML320, so I would definitely say that is a very subjective question.
Now onto rock sliders, we had one D90 and two Disco Is in our group. Neither Discovery had any damage to or from the rock sliders. I remember back in the day Kyle and Axel talking about this when they did the trail and I fully expected to come back with some serious damage. This wasn't the case; we both had Rockware sliders, one with nerf bars and mine without. I would say that the nerf bars, or "knee bangers" as I remember Kyle calling them, really helped protect the lower body. I think it all goes back to time. We took our time with three trucks, and that dent previously mentioned and another on the D90 were the only notable damage any of us received. Of course we had our 3,000 mile drive home in the back of our minds the entire time so we really didn't want to break anything we didn?t have spares for. I used my winch twice, once on the 90 when it was first and we spotted him on a bad line, and one of the other Disco. The D90 used his winch twice on the other Disco and that was all the winching we did.
Looks like you guys had an awesome trip. I really makes sad that I don't know if I will ever have the time again to drive out there. I would absolutely love to go back and do Fordyce. My only regret is that I didn?t take nearly as make photos as you did.
-Matt