Jeep Cherokee Blog

Some friends and I went down to Moab this last weekend.  It was a great weekend. The sun was shining and there wasn't much of a crowd. The camping up on slickrock filled up but the trails weren't packed with people.

We arrived Thursday night. Too late to do any trails. We had a CJ, a TJ and my XJ.  I think the CJ only had bigger tires(33 inch), maybe a body lift and lunchbox lockers in the front and rear. It did really well with only that setup until parts began to break. The TJ had a suspension lift, bigger tires(33 inch) and OX lockers in the front and rear and it did really well. Mine did pretty well too with only the 4.5 inch lift and 31 inch tires. It just took a little more finesse in some places.

The next day we headed out for a good short trail to test our rigs and did 'Fins and Things'. It was close to camp so if we had any trouble we could get back to camp pretty quick. We didn't have any trouble so we headed for a more difficult trail.

We then headed for 'Cliff Hanger'. The decent from the road down into the trail is a series of drop-offs. Going down wasn't a problem but I questioned whether I was going to make it back up in my Cherokee.  This trail had some good obstacles.  I made it all the way to the last obstacle without any trouble.  I was really impressed at how well my Cherokee did without lockers. We decided to turn around before doing the last obstacle which was hairier than anything I had done yet so I don't know if I would have been able to do it or not. The way out went pretty well except the CJ broke a front manual hub lock which made things a little more interesting for him. We made it to the entrance to the trail pretty easily. My friend's TJ went right up without any problems. My XJ made it up without any problems, but our other friend's CJ got half way up and busted a u-joint strap to the rear differential. He wasn't going to make it without the rear wheels and one front wheel not locked in. We pulled him the rest of the way with a tow rope.  It was a fun day and my XJ impressed us all.  I thought I was going to have much more trouble than I did.

The next day my friend with the CJ left because he couldn't get the broken parts fixed.  The rest of us decided to do a long trail, actually three trails.  We headed for Poison Spider Mesa, Golden Spike, and Gold Bar Rim trails.  The three together make kind of a loop.  It starts down Potash road and ends on the highway coming into Moab.  These trails have some really good obstacles. The toughest one for my Cherokee was probably the Golden Crack. It took a little help keeping the rear wheels on the ground long enough to get across.  That and using some finesse with the brakes to simulate lockers helped me get across.  It would have been easier with some larger tires. This loop took us about 7 and a half hours to complete. My jeep made it through all the obstacles. It took a little more work than my buddy's TJ but I made it without the use of recovery gear.  The only damage I sustained from the trip was a dent to my rear bumper corner and my transfer case linkage got disconnected somehow.  It was a great trip.

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