Moab in Mid October--Trail Suggestions.

[DanW]

I posted this on the sister (JL) forum, but want to hear from friends on this one.....I´m pumped at the thought of getting this Gladiator on the trails.

I´m heading to Moab for my 5th time on the 17th of October for a fun week of wheeling. This will be my JLUR´s 4th trip and first with my son at the wheel. I´m taking my Gladiator on its first trip. We´ll be joined by my brother in his new Chevy Colorado Zr2 Bison, so we´re excited to see how it does.

Anyway, we´ve done a bunch of trails and have our favorites, but we want to do some new ones. One think we´re looking for is a good one to do at night. Here are some of our favs we have done before:

Hells Revenge (of course)
Fins & Things
SevenMile Rim
Gemini Towers
Elephant Hill (LOVE that one!)
White Rim

We´ve done a couple others that I cannot remember, as well.

What are some of your favs, and why?

The Jeeps are Rubicons and the Chevy has lockers F/R. We are all on 35´s with about 2.5 inches of lift.

We love challenging trails but don´t like breaking trucks. Not looking for trails that are more for rigs brought in on a trailer. We want to do a mix including some a couple that are easier and scenic, like maybe Onion Creek. Haven´t been on that one but heard it is beautiful.

I´d love to hear your suggestions!

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[JTdiRtyD]

Are you camping out there or hotel staying in town?

 

[DanW]

Are you camping out there or hotel staying in town?

Got a condo, but there is talk in the group of camping one night.

 

[Yman70]

Dome Plateau
In Arches NP - Tower Arch, then Eye of the Whale route

 

[OldNo7BoozeBag]

for easier and scenic, check out Potash Road in Moab and take that to the Shafer Switchbacks that comes out in Canyonlands... there's a book called FunTreks that has GREAT directions

 

[Pickle_Bill]

Come in North of Moab I-191 onto Salt Valley-Yellow Cat, then take a right over to Tower Arch, come back down to 10 Mile Valley, eye of the whale, then to Willow springs trail (see the dinosaur tracks), then head north up to Copper ridge. Its a beautiful loop, nothing that challenging (just a couple spots on the copper ridge section)

 

[LOL WUT]

Poison Spider is one of our favorites.

Top of the World is great trail with an absolutely amazing view at the top. We almost always run into traffic on this but it’s a ton of fun to watch others navigate the trail.

Metal Masher was great too, nice bypasses available for the harder obstacles.

Steel Bender was one of our favorites but it has some areas where the bypass shouldn’t even be considered a bypass lol. It can get challenging at the waterfall, not sure how the gladiators on 35s will do in that section. We were in a JLU on 40s and portions of the trail were still a little sketchy.

 

[dajudge]

Seven Mile Rim

Nevermind.....Missed it on your original list.

Both of these suggestions are great...
Tower Arch
Poison Spider

 

[DanW]

for easier and scenic, check out Potash Road in Moab and take that to the Shafer Switchbacks that comes out in Canyonlands... there's a book called FunTreks that has GREAT directions

We've done that one the last two trips and it was awesome! We did the whole White Rim, in fact. Last time, I stopped for a moment to mess with Gaia GPS and my son pointed and said, "Look, Dad!" I looked to my left and about 15 feet away was a huge male Big horn Sheep standing there chewing and looking at me. First and only time I've seen one out there. So cool!

We love that trail but I think we're going to pass on it this trip.

Thanks for the great suggestion! Keep them coming, please!

 

[RudeJeepin]

Gemini Bridges area and Long Canyon are easy, but very scenic.

 

[DanW]

Well, we arrived Sunday a bit late because we´re chasing an electrical gremlin with my 2018 JLUR and it cost us time. But that´s not all. My brother´s Colorado Bison had some even bigger issues....including going into limp mode and the instrument panel going blank. We rolled into a Chevy dealer Saturday somewhere in Kansas and of course the service department was closed. We popped the hood to check fuses and discovered the battery cables were loose! Champion Chevrolet in Danville wired up his lights and winch (they arrived long after the truck) and their tech did not tighten them. I named them because they deserve it. I have never been impressed with that dealership (long story) and this just adds to the reasons.

Anyway, that fixed it. I put a new battery and aux battery in the JL and it seemed to improve things, but now it appears they were not the culprit. The alternator also tested as good. Stay tuned on the JL saga. The canbus wire block behind the glove box is the next item up for replacement. The good news is that it resets itself when you shut it off and codes are cleared by the Tazer.

I did have one issue with the JT. We had a 40-45mph sustained crosswind from the north all across Texas. My steering wheel was slightly maladjusted to the right and when I had to steer into that terrible wind (we were doing 75 to 80) it triggered codes and disabled the stability control and traction control. 5 minutes to stop and straighten it did the trick.

So Monday morning we warmed up on Fins N Things (LOVE that trail!) and then hit Sevenmile Rim, which ended with some night wheeling. Yesterday we tackled Poison Spider, which had a couple really gnarly obstacles and climbs.

So far, the Bison has shown up well and had no trouble hanging with the Jeeps. Surprisingly given what appears to be a superior breakover angle to the Gladiator, he´s rubbed the heck out of his rock rails. I have not touched mine. I have, however, come down a couple times on the AEV Geometry Correction Brackets (rear of the lower), but they´ve held up well to it, so far. And both trucks have given the hitch skidplates a workout. We are running the same one and purchased them from Amazon. They are worth their weight in gold. Interestingly, I seem to have not hit mine as much as he has hit his, but I think I choose better lines than him.

The Gladiator has a massive advantage in visibility, especially over the nose. But that Bison makes up for it with a nose camera that can see six inches in front of the bumper. His side cameras help a ton, too. So a front camera is on the short list of upgrades I will pursue.

The Gladiator keeps its tires on the ground much better, thanks to the solid front axle, but we knew that going in. However, the Bison has a little bit more travel than I expected up front and the rear flexes as well as my two Jeeps. So while there has been a tire in the air a few times, the Bison still made it over the obstacles. He did have to engage lockers a couple times, but that´s why they are there.

The Bison absolutely destroys the Jeeps on the fast sandy trails with whoops. That´s its element. But I don´t run those at speed, anyway. Not my kind of 4 wheeling. But it is impressive how that thing glides over stuff with some speed on it. The Manumatic shocks are impressive. And i have heard they are well north of $1,000 each to replace, if that were needed. OUCH! Hopefully he won´t have to replace one.

The taller gearing hasn´t seemed to hamper the Bison. The power of that big turbo 4 seems to make up for it.

On the highway at 75-80mph, the Gladiator gets a little better mileage than the Bison. If we went 70mph, the difference is much greater. When we filled up, I consistently used 1 to 3 fewer gallons of gas. Interestingly, at 80mph my Wrangler (manual, 4.56 gears) was able to match the Gladiator´s mileage within a couple tenths of a gallon at every fill-up. When in the 45mph crosswinds, it became the mileage champ, using 1 to 2 gallons less than the JT and the Bison. Of course, the bison is far quieter and easier to drive on the highway. It has better seats, but I am never sore or cramped after 10 hours in the saddle of either of the Jeeps.

We´ll be hitting more trails today, so stay tuned for more updates. But as of right now, I´m thoroughly impressed with the Bison. But I´m also impressed with the Gladiator. It climbs like a mountain goat and seems to do it with less effort than the Bison and with knuckles not quite as white as in the Wrangler, which also seems to do it with less effort than the Bison. (Meaning better traction and less throttle required.)

 

[DanW]

Some pics.....

 

[DanW]

Note on the Bison....WTF was Chevy thinking when they put all the headlight controls in the menu on the infotainment screen? Ridiculous. It took my brother 5 minutes to figure out how to turn on the fog lights. Some things need to be controlled with buttons and switches. Headlights are one of them. That way, you can still turn them on if the infotainment center craps out.

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