Moab 2008

Moab was an absolute blast this year. This is the most fun Mike & I have had in years! Below is a summary of the trip (sorry it's kinda long, but it was a week long trip!).

Monday, Superior Axle and Gear Trail Ride. The group met at Area BFE at 9:00 AM for continental breakfast and to run the Green Day Trail. Green Day is a good trail for the mixed group we had of mostly stock to wild vehicles we had at the trail head. We had only one roll over which occurred after some serious effort at one of the more difficult obstacles. Superior also held a BBQ lunch and small rock race at the end of the day that was fun!

Tuesday, Pritchett Canyon with Rock Krawler Suspension and a few friends. Jeremy of Rock Krawler has a really nice JK that did the entire trail with his new JK lift system. This JK is one of the best looking vehicles in Moab and made the trip unscathed and went into the arena show the next day!

Wednesday, the action really picked up at Area BFE. Mike & I did the Britney Spears trail with some new friends that we met from Washington. We were all curious at the trail head as to why this route was named Britney Spears (the answer is obvious when you complete the trail). Keith (Washington guy) drives a cool Toyota buggy and has no fear! His main concern is keeping the BBQ lashed to the top intact. It’s a good thing he removed it to cook lunch before doing Britney, because he did an end over end roll and landed on the top which would have crushed the BBQ. I also managed to wipe out all my side panels and rear panel on the trail which is only a block or two long.

The next trail was Upper Helldorado. We all drove the first part of the trail easily. Near the end of the route is an impassable waterfall that is winched. After several unsuccessful attempts, I finally winched the waterfall at dusk. The next vehicle up was Jason in his highly modified Bronco II (another Washington guy). His full throttle charge ended up being a moon shot as he launched vertically straight up and over backward. That is the highest I have ever seen a Bronco fly through the air vertically! We winched the vehicle over and were unable to get the full hydraulic steering to work. It was getting late and we finally winched the Bronco up the waterfall and he limped out in the dark with no steering.

Thursday, today we checked out the action at the arena and looked at all the vendor booths and talked to our friends about the Old School Charity Rock Crawl in Delta Utah. There were some really good vendor
displays and all the vendors were interested in the rock crawl Memorial weekend. Later that day we went back onto the rocks and did the Coyote trail which was littered with broken vehicles, flat tires and lots of friendly people. We always talk to all the people on the trails and answer their questions about the buggy and our sponsor’s parts on the vehicle.

Friday, WOW, that describes the action on Friday. After a brief stop at the arena, we headed back to BFE to try the waterfall at the end of Helldorado again. At the trail head we met Ron Pryczynski from KC Highlites and Scott Tugel from Severe Racing. They were out shooting the KC Highlight sponsored off road video and wanted some rock crawling footage. We did the Helldorado trail again and this time we made the
waterfall! After two wheels up, tire smoking attempts, I put the Commando in high gear, low range at 15 lbs. of boost for the final attempt. At 15 lbs., the Echotec makes about 350-400 HP. When you let it go it’s like being in a rail at the drag strip. This time the buggy shot over the top in an amazing fashion and almost completely cleared the top of the obstacle before it touched down.

It took me about 30 minutes to calm down and it reminded me why rock crawling is cool and I love it so much!

The video will be out for the 2008 SEMA show and will contain segments from all types of off road action. Thanks Ron and Steve for providing the motivation to show what the buggy can do! I will have high resolution still shots from Ron at KC Highlites available for anybody that wants them.
Phone 435 864 6548

Thanks,
Craig Stumph