Moab trails first time

[SolarWizard]

I was surprised reading the damage you took while on 37s and 4.5” lift till I realized yer in a gladiator. Those can sure drag belly.

JTs need antirocks in the rear. The design of the rear suspension causes a ton of stress on the swaybar tabs

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[3TV]

Thanks for the well written write up. Sounds like you had a great time in Moab. We were there the week after you were, for the Labor Day Campout hosted by the Red Rock 4-Wheelers. Our main objective was to do trails we hadn't done before. Since I've done all the 6 and higher rated trails, we did Backwards Bill (5) on Saturday, Jax Trax (5) on Sunday, and Dome Plateau (4) on Monday. Guess what, we still had a great time. I would recommend any of these trails for your next trip. We had 6 Gladiators in the group on Saturday and they all did fine.

Here is a picture my wife took on Monday, at the Colorado River overlook on Dome Plateau. She's pretty good with that cell phone camera.

 

[Camaroboi13]

JTs need antirocks in the rear. The design of the rear suspension causes a ton of stress on the swaybar tabs

Agreed! Luckily Metalcloak makes some pretty good alternatives that will be here tomorrow so I can stop driving around feeling like my bed is falling off

 

[JesseT]

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Post trip write up, lots to say. If you're not a reader then skip to the videos lol. We arrived on Monday, a day after a crazy monsoon rolled through. The town was under water. Mud, dirt, sand bags, clean up crews, the works. I thought it was a wasted trip, but the trails clear out quickly.

We ran Fins N Things first. First ever Moab trail by ourselves. I rolled up to the kiosk to pay and asked the guy how many people were out there, thinking we could meet up with some people for the trails. He said we were the first ones in, but maybe some more people would be along shortly. Ok great, by ourselves. So we aired down and waited at the trail head for about half hour. Nobody came. We said screw it, just me and the Mrs hit the trails with the help of Trails Offroad app and the 40 dollar book that everyone should own if hitting Moab (I'll let you rent it for $10/week )

First obstacle I come to, I hop out to check out my line. Turns out I was a lot higher off the ground that I anticipated, and sprained my ankle jumping out of the Jeep. 5 minutes in... great. Oh well, keep pushing, it was only the left ankle lol. We hit a few obstacles by ourselves and finally saw a lone Wrangler coming up behind us. So we stopped and waited. Very cool guy by the name of Anthony with his 60 year old mom riding shotgun. Coolest people ever. He's from back east somewhere and rented a Rubicon so naturally we let him lead the way. The video below shows quite a bit of what's to be expected out there. You can watch all the videos online you want, it doesn't compare to actually being there. So much missed content that I've never seen before.

Fast forward to roughly 3/4 into the trail. I missed a ledge going down an obstacle and actually bounced so hard I was on one tire for a second. Kinda freaked me out, but I have the wheelbase of a limo so I kept pushing. Wifey comes in right behind me and misses the same ledge (you can't see crap in front of you, can't wait for a front trail cam lol) she puts her Jeep on 2 wheels rocking back and forth off camber, super tippy. Her radio falls to the floor and she has no choice but to scream for me. Luckily I could hear her, jumped out of my Gladiator and rolled my ankle again

We got her back on track and finished the trail. Little did I know my SD card ran out because of some issue with class or speed or something I still know nothing about. I was recording 30 seconds to a couple minutes at a time. When I got home there were only about 12 videos on there, and they were all 4 minutes and 24 seconds long. Apparently that's the most content I can record at one time, but I was starting and stopping much quicker than that so I don't know what happened.



Hell's Revenge. Great trail, awesome scenery. I was in so much pain, had no camera equipment, and my wife was still shaking from her near rollover. Sad as it sounds, I did not get to enjoy the trail. And for that reason, I can't wait to go back and do it again. We took just about every bypass we could, and it really didn't do any justice. We honestly should have just licked our wounds and came back the next day instead of shoving both trails into an already long day.

Poison Spider. OMG I'm infatuated with this trail! I can't wait to do the trifecta some day! We met up with @Murphydog and @fastguy at 9am on the trailhead. If you ever get the chance to meet up with these two gentlemen and their families, you're in for a great day. Both stand up gentlemen and I wouldn't hesitate to wheel with them again.

This trail does not give you any chance to take a breath. It's obstacle after obstacle right from the start. I'm still gathering and editing footage so give me a couple days on the video. Fins and Things probably has 8 or so good obstacles, I thinkg Poison has about 40. And then you have to turn around and do those 40 in the opposite direction. Even with 4.5" lift and 37s, I bottomed out hard enough to separate two of my skid plates, bend one of them, shaved roughly 1/4" aluminum off my rear hitch slider, bent my tie rod, destroyed my license plate bracket, and broke both the frame mounted brackets on my rear sway bar end link mounts. So I have a few things to straighten out, and the truck has a permanent pull to the left for the time being lol.

The Z turns and waterfalls were amazing on this trail. I'd seen several videos online about some of the more harrier obstacles, and I was ready for them when I got there. My confidence didn't go unnoticed, as I became the guinnea pig for most situations

By the time we got to the loop, I was pretty much over it. Wondering where the closest freeway was so I could get the heck off the trails. I thought the loop was just a turn around and come back. Nope, the loop is another 90 minutes of obstacles before you start heading back down the trail. I went from being over it, to just embracing it, and found another love for the trail again. Going down all those waterfalls was much easier and less stressful than going up. I think it took us 2 hours to get through the first part of the trail to where it opens up, and just 24 minutes to get back down. All in all we were out there for about 6-7 hours. I couldn't imagine the trifecta at this point but we were taking lots of breaks and just soaking it all in. I can't wait to go back, Poison Spider has become my all time favorite trail and I learned so much about my rig out there. The technical spots combined with the scenery were amazing.



I couldn't find anyone to run up the Top of the World with me, and we were hearing in town that it was washed out pretty bad due to the storm. Either we spent half the day trying to stack rocks, or we skip it this time around. So we skipped it. I'm not happy with our decision, but it was the smart thing to do.

Onion Creek. This was a last minute, we are broke down and tired but let's get one more trail in kind of day. Onion Creek doesn't disappoint as far as scenery goes. It took an hour to go out, and an hour to go back. But I can see how you could spend some time on the trail just taking in the views. I thought with the recent storms that this trail would be under water, but the streams were all very small. I'd recommend if you have a couple hours to spare then take the time to hit this little gem.



Overall I am happy with our trip, and it leaves just enough for me to want to go back again. For anyone wondering, we spent 332 dollars in gas from Southern California to Moab, driving both Jeeps, and 277 dollars on the way back. You couldn't fly there and rent a Jeep for 600 bucks, so I feel like we did well. I averaged about 23mpg and my wife was close to 17. Moab, you will be missed. Till next time.

Trip looks fantastic!

On a tech support front, is it possible your SD card is formatted as a FAT32 file system? That file system type has a file size limit of 4 GB. Are your 4:24 videos 4 GB? A lot of SD cards come formatted to FAT32 just because it's an older format and basically everything is compatible with it.

There are other file systems that don't have that limit, that your camera and computer are probably compatible with. What camera are you running? What operating system on your computer?

 

[Camaroboi13]

Trip looks fantastic!

On a tech support front, is it possible your SD card is formatted as a FAT32 file system? That file system type has a file size limit of 4 GB. Are your 4:24 videos 4 GB? A lot of SD cards come formatted to FAT32 just because it's an older format and basically everything is compatible with it.

There are other file systems that don't have that limit, that your camera and computer are probably compatible with. What camera are you running? What operating system on your computer?

That’s very possible, it’s an older sd card running on a dji 3 (the GoPro looking one) and using 2020 MacBook Air all up to date.

 

[JesseT]

That’s very possible, it’s an older sd card running on a dji 3 (the GoPro looking one) and using 2020 MacBook Air all up to date.

Looks like both of those should be fine with an exFAT formatted SD card, which doesn't have the same file size limit as FAT32. You might be able to reformat the SD card right on the camera (this will delete all data on the card, so make sure everything you want from it is backed up).

 

[HeN2O2]

I was in Moab last week and had a great time. Hells Revenge, Fins and Things, Behind the Rocks and Poison Spider. However, the highlight of the trip was lunch and watching others…

 

[Camaroboi13]

I was in Moab last week and had a great time. Hells Revenge, Fins and Things, Behind the Rocks and Poison Spider. However, the highlight of the trip was lunch and watching others…

lol yeah that video has been floating around online, driver had 4 days to hit the brakes but didn’t.

 

[CO2Wrangler]

That’s very possible, it’s an older sd card running on a dji 3 (the GoPro looking one) and using 2020 MacBook Air all up to date.

Get yourself a Max Endurance card. Drones, dash cams, security cameras, trail cams all overwrite data frequently enough that they'll wear out a regular card. Ask me how I know...

My entire Moab trip was lost from my dash cam. Swapped to a Max Endurance and no issues.

 

[Camaroboi13]

Get yourself a Max Endurance card. Drones, dash cams, security cameras, trail cams all overwrite data frequently enough that they'll wear out a regular card. Ask me how I know...

My entire Moab trip was lost from my dash cam. Swapped to a Max Endurance and no issues.

I’ll definitely have to look into that. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[runningshoes]

Just wrapped up our first Jeep trip to Moab, had a blast other than the drive from the Chicago area. Have gone five years without damage to the windshield, got hit in the middle of Nebraska and am now the proud owner of a starred windshield right in front of the driver’s face. And for those coming from the East/eastern Midwest - Iowa with some hills is practice for the boredom of Nebraska, all flat and straight (no offense to any forum members from either State, it’s not like Illinois is any better of a drive ).

Thanks to all the forum members for the great advice on trail selection, food advice (the Desert Bistro is one awesome and expensive restaurant), and alternate entry points to Arches!

Forgot to add obligatory trail picture

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