ramajama
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Showoff Your LR4
- Thread starter Finlayforprez
- Start date
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GreeN YarN
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Which rack of theirs did you get?
Uh...WOW!
Thats one damn nice looking rig sir!
Thanks!
Just their standard one. The one that is for rear rails will work with full ones if you take off the front two legs.
cperez
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Looks great! Ready for action.
danrhiggins
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I did something stupid today...
Last August my wife and I visited Arches National Park and I was tempted to try the trail to Tower Arch - a "moderate" trail in the Funtreks books. But with no experience and stock wheels/tires I chose not to. Wise choice.
Today I was back and couldn't resist going for it this tie. That was stupid because I didn't know the trail, I was alone and it was already 1PM when I started (sunset at 5:30).
Far more rock obstacles than I ever imagined. No spotter. Stupid. It took me 2 hours to go three miles.
And my first significant damage on my LR4. Pic on the damage to follow but its not a huge deal. Just caught the right, rear bumper climbing up one obstacle in it pulled the right end of the bumper loose from the fender and the body. Darn. But it will heal with a money and/or elbow grease.
The fun part of the drive was about 10 miles of mostly sandy and sometimes a bit muddy trail with less challenging rock obstacles. Wow did this truck handle well! Much of the trail was through deepish gullies with one rut or the other much lower thus making the truck lean like a sailboat. Except for one very intimidating section where the left hand rut was so deep the tracks ran along the right side of the gully. But that side was only wide enough for the LR and about 2' to spare and it was leaning at about 30 degrees and it was a bit slick and muddy. So not only was I leaning crazily to the left, I could feel the truck beginning to lose its track and slip to the left would would have spelled disaster. But the truck held its line and we got through.
I finished about 30 minutes after sunset.
Anyway, here are a couple pics going over a couple of the rock obstacles. I have some GoPro vids as well but you can't always see from the videos how challenging the obstacles appeared to me. And I'll post a pic of the "damage" tomorrow.
BTW, if you have a spotter and your "lifted a couple inches and have good tires (my tires were fine but I could have used 2 more inches) it would be a great trail. Well, except for that one gully!
Last August my wife and I visited Arches National Park and I was tempted to try the trail to Tower Arch - a "moderate" trail in the Funtreks books. But with no experience and stock wheels/tires I chose not to. Wise choice.
Today I was back and couldn't resist going for it this tie. That was stupid because I didn't know the trail, I was alone and it was already 1PM when I started (sunset at 5:30).
Far more rock obstacles than I ever imagined. No spotter. Stupid. It took me 2 hours to go three miles.
And my first significant damage on my LR4. Pic on the damage to follow but its not a huge deal. Just caught the right, rear bumper climbing up one obstacle in it pulled the right end of the bumper loose from the fender and the body. Darn. But it will heal with a money and/or elbow grease.
The fun part of the drive was about 10 miles of mostly sandy and sometimes a bit muddy trail with less challenging rock obstacles. Wow did this truck handle well! Much of the trail was through deepish gullies with one rut or the other much lower thus making the truck lean like a sailboat. Except for one very intimidating section where the left hand rut was so deep the tracks ran along the right side of the gully. But that side was only wide enough for the LR and about 2' to spare and it was leaning at about 30 degrees and it was a bit slick and muddy. So not only was I leaning crazily to the left, I could feel the truck beginning to lose its track and slip to the left would would have spelled disaster. But the truck held its line and we got through.
I finished about 30 minutes after sunset.
Anyway, here are a couple pics going over a couple of the rock obstacles. I have some GoPro vids as well but you can't always see from the videos how challenging the obstacles appeared to me. And I'll post a pic of the "damage" tomorrow.
BTW, if you have a spotter and your "lifted a couple inches and have good tires (my tires were fine but I could have used 2 more inches) it would be a great trail. Well, except for that one gully!
AxelR
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Nice pictures. I did the same trail a few months ago without problems coming from Eye of the Whale Arch. On my own (so of course no spotter) at regular off-road height. My favorite part was the rock crawling part that takes you back to Salt Valley Rd. According to the signs it's a hiking trail but the map shows it as a 4wd trail.
cperez
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Great trip report, Dan. Sorry to hear about the trail rash (or worse) but enjoyed the spirit of the tale.
danrhiggins
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Nice job, Axel. The trail isn't "difficult". It just took more time than I had planned for and with my lack of experience I was being extra careful. So my poor planning left me racing back (in the opposite direction you did it as I was passing Eye of the Whale at sunset) to have as much light as possible. It was during that poor light period that I didn't notice a somewhat higher spot in the middle of the trail and was going fast enough that I bounced. The rear bumper damage was on the second rock crawl claiming section coming up from Salt Valley Rd. I simply chose a line that didn't give my right rear enough clearance as my front end lifted up. I was too far to the right. I backed up, shifted left and I was fine.
danrhiggins
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Hmmm. Not sure which section you did from Tower Arch to Salt Valley Rd. There is both a hiking trail and a 4x4 trail. The hiking trail runs straight from the Tower Arch to Salt Vally Rd. and goes down to a parking area of the hikers. It is just a bit easy of the 4x4 "road" which is 3 mile section that goes up over a ridge and then rock crawls down to Salt Valley Rd. with no parking area at the bottom. The road to the hiking trail and the 4x4 road intersect Salt Valley Rd about 100 yards apart. The ranger at the visitor center suggested I simply driving to the hiking trail and that I would need at least 10" of clearance. Of course I said thanks but no thanks and did the 4x4 drive. ;-)
Again, the spotter wasn't necessary. It just would have save some time as I became very cautious with my lines after the mishap on the second rock crawl. (And, yes, I have that crawl on video to remind me!)
