Arizona Rock Crawling Daily Driver

Wheelin today with my dad. This will be his maiden voyage since the auto swap and I am dying to see what he thinks. I’m also excited to get some more seat time in my rig! Something I’ve been working on in my driving skill is the art of bumping up steeper stuff and knowing when you need to. I’ve been finding more situations lately where I’ll try crawling something a bunch of times and fail, and then remember I can bump it and it makes things so much easier and I wonder why I didn’t do that to begin with. My style has always been a conservative one in regards to skinny pedal which is one reason I don’t break stuff as much as other guys out here. But there’s a time and place for a healthy dose of throttle and momentum.

For example, the “up and over” climb on Elvis trail. This trail gets used as our shakeout run a lot after big changes or just a warm up trail on the way to bigger ones. Done it many times and have always crawled this waterfall. Usually have to spin a little bit and scrub for traction and catch a little edge that gets you over. Some days it can be difficult and others not. The other day I tried bumping it for the first time and it was so damn easy it made me hate myself for wasting so much time scrubbing for traction all these years.
8F79A1E8-B4DD-4DFD-AC4F-6949B99EC21D.jpeg


6DBF5DF3-F1B0-40AD-A013-B42B2B45EBE4.jpeg
 
Wheelin today with my dad. This will be his maiden voyage since the auto swap and I am dying to see what he thinks. I’m also excited to get some more seat time in my rig! Something I’ve been working on in my driving skill is the art of bumping up steeper stuff and knowing when you need to. I’ve been finding more situations lately where I’ll try crawling something a bunch of times and fail, and then remember I can bump it and it makes things so much easier and I wonder why I didn’t do that to begin with. My style has always been a conservative one in regards to skinny pedal which is one reason I don’t break stuff as much as other guys out here. But there’s a time and place for a healthy dose of throttle and momentum.

For example, the “up and over” climb on Elvis trail. This trail gets used as our shakeout run a lot after big changes or just a warm up trail on the way to bigger ones. Done it many times and have always crawled this waterfall. Usually have to spin a little bit and scrub for traction and catch a little edge that gets you over. Some days it can be difficult and others not. The other day I tried bumping it for the first time and it was so damn easy it made me hate myself for wasting so much time scrubbing for traction all these years.
View attachment 371675

View attachment 371677

I have spent countless hours trying to teach folks how to "bump it". 99 times out of 100, they give it some throttle and when the back tires hit what they need to go up, they let off the throttle. I explain that they need to do it like leaving a stop sign normally. You give it enough throttle to get it moving and keep it there. Don't give it more, don't give it less, just keep the moderate amount you gave it to get moving well. Sometimes that works after 70-80 tries.
 
Last edited:
I have spent countless hours trying to teach folks how to "bump it". 99 times out of 100, they give it some throttle and when the back tires hit what they need to go up, they let off the throttle. I explain that they need to do it like leaving a stop sign normally. You give it enough throttle to get it moving and keep it there. Do give it more, don't give it less, just keep the moderate amount you gave it to get moving well. Sometimes that works after 70-80 tries.

I've been watching Cobra Kai recently. One of the training orders that gets shouted often to the students is to punch through the target.
 
  • USA Proud
Reactions: Apparition
I have spent countless hours trying to teach folks how to "bump it". 99 times out of 100, they give it some throttle and when the back tires hit what they need to go up, they let off the throttle. I explain that they need to do it like leaving a stop sign normally. You give it enough throttle to get it moving and keep it there. Do give it more, don't give it less, just keep the moderate amount you gave it to get moving well. Sometimes that works after 70-80 tries.

That’s a great explanation. I’ll try picturing that today and relay it to my dad if we need to bump something
 
Wheelin today with my dad. This will be his maiden voyage since the auto swap and I am dying to see what he thinks. I’m also excited to get some more seat time in my rig! Something I’ve been working on in my driving skill is the art of bumping up steeper stuff and knowing when you need to. I’ve been finding more situations lately where I’ll try crawling something a bunch of times and fail, and then remember I can bump it and it makes things so much easier and I wonder why I didn’t do that to begin with. My style has always been a conservative one in regards to skinny pedal which is one reason I don’t break stuff as much as other guys out here. But there’s a time and place for a healthy dose of throttle and momentum.

For example, the “up and over” climb on Elvis trail. This trail gets used as our shakeout run a lot after big changes or just a warm up trail on the way to bigger ones. Done it many times and have always crawled this waterfall. Usually have to spin a little bit and scrub for traction and catch a little edge that gets you over. Some days it can be difficult and others not. The other day I tried bumping it for the first time and it was so damn easy it made me hate myself for wasting so much time scrubbing for traction all these years.
View attachment 371675

View attachment 371677

Amazeballs…
 
  • Haha
Reactions: reddvltj
I have spent countless hours trying to teach folks how to "bump it". 99 times out of 100, they give it some throttle and when the back tires hit what they need to go up, they let off the throttle. I explain that they need to do it like leaving a stop sign normally. You give it enough throttle to get it moving and keep it there. Don't give it more, don't give it less, just keep the moderate amount you gave it to get moving well. Sometimes that works after 70-80 tries.

I also teach folks to drive with both feet in an auto, especially when doing a bump. Back up a foot and give it a bump usually results in drifting back onto the obstacle before they have a chance to get into the throttle. Left foot hard on the brake, right foot on the throttle to let the engine spin up a bit and the converter to engage, then let off the brake.

And yeah, then tell them again to stay in the throttle once they hit the obstacle…
 
I also teach folks to drive with both feet in an auto, especially when doing a bump. Back up a foot and give it a bump usually results in drifting back onto the obstacle before they have a chance to get into the throttle. Left foot hard on the brake, right foot on the throttle to let the engine spin up a bit and the converter to engage, then let off the brake.

And yeah, then tell them again to stay in the throttle once they hit the obstacle…

That's why I use the stop sign scenario. When one is at a stop sign waiting to go, foot is off the gas, other foot is on the brake holding the rig from going into the intersection. When you leave normally, foot off brake on other on gas to go almost at the same time, but you don't give it 1 second of throttle and then let off, you ease into it and scoot. The hard part is getting them to understand what they already do and just do it on the rocks.
 
Today was a success. We wheeled hard. My dad loved his new auto trans, and my Jeep worked perfectly. Very glad to have all the aluminum armor on the side. I even conquered a new obstacle I was unsure about trying in the past. The Jeep walked right up it. Basically a giant notch. Here’s the front of it.
1FE85D36-28DB-4DD6-AD67-755E139F2E04.jpeg

Here’s a vid of me coming up from the back

Some photos

1FE85D36-28DB-4DD6-AD67-755E139F2E04.jpeg


7152151C-CC4A-4445-A901-DDD56E551B25.jpeg


E29AB003-CF92-45BA-A148-1DC2188EB1CD.jpeg


0D44A852-209B-424B-B44F-1B5D3BEF4B08.jpeg


7DEE1E47-76E0-4E80-A5F2-D43EAF81D052.jpeg


1FE712A7-FD57-4F0E-B984-BFD69A1B7093.jpeg


C391E226-581E-4D4B-A98E-1529E7B50C76.jpeg


5BCB8620-5F02-4B14-9A0C-D78AA9D0C3E7.jpeg


3D318B93-2426-44E6-BE49-B9512640E2CF.jpeg


025814BA-2687-4B8E-9DF1-36F17AA43CD0.jpeg


07B6161B-EF6A-4EF2-AD8B-BC253610BD0C.jpeg
My dad is fuckin cool
81E536E0-731D-4A1A-9B47-6ADDA9F555DE.jpeg


96C069B9-B4FB-4700-B2CD-4C71E0D6C36C.jpeg


0A3986F5-10DC-4F7F-B955-2EF35AF0E4D5.jpeg


76F359B2-3602-4597-AF0A-6A0DA7CCF071.jpeg


63147E89-5957-4FDA-8E02-B71D01664004.jpeg


3B9B4916-3F07-43B9-AC33-0D094C9DF6FC.jpeg


175CB5F7-981B-4626-A833-DF3522A95960.jpeg
 
Nice new video, Garrett. More footage to come?

I really didn’t get much other footage today aside from a short little clip of the end of a climb. Since it was just my dad and my rig we moved pretty fast. I need to bring the tripod again next time.
 
I really didn’t get much other footage today aside from a short little clip of the end of a climb. Since it was just my dad and my rig we moved pretty fast. I need to bring the tripod again next time.
View attachment 371891

It's nice to see the small slow movements with an automatic pushing the 231.
 
  • Like
Reactions: starkey480