What's Happened To Rockcrawling?
Call me crazy. Call me a caveman. Call me whatever you want. I still don't get what's happening with rockcrawling these days. I must be missing something.
Open the pages of this, or just about any 4x4 magazine on the rack, and you'll see them: weird looking contraptions that are more moon buggy than Jeep. Or Suzuki, or Land Cruiser, or whatever they used to be. That's part of the problem. There's been so much bodywork done on some of these rigs-or sheetmetal taken off, more likely-that you can't recognize what the heck they are. Or were. These buggies have so much articulation that sometimes it looks like their axles aren't even attached anymore. They steer at both ends. Their tires are hugely out of proportion with the rest of the truck. They've got transfer cases geared so low they'll walk right up your garage door.
And cost? Good Lord. These guys are spending thousands of dollars just to have a good time at Moab.
What the heck is happening? Have rocks changed somehow when I wasn't looking? It wasn't all that long ago that we were driving over the Rubicon in stock Jeeps. We had to. There wasn't much out there in the way of modifications. So we learned how to make those old Jeeps work. We taught ourselves how to use all three pedals at once. We figured out where to put what would now be considered ridiculously small tires. We saw how gravity affects float bowls. We learned, sometimes the hard way, to keep our thumbs away from the steering wheel's spokes. We were really 'wheeling, we had a ball, and we felt like we had achieved something special when it came dinner time at the Springs.
Cross the Rubicon in a stock 4x4 and you've accomplished something. Cross the Rubicon in one of these rigs with 37-inch tires, coil springs, and ungodly wheel travel and what have you done? Taken a nap, probably. It seems like driving one of these purpose-built rock buggies would be almost too easy. Me? I'm a driver, not a builder. I'd rather spend my time out on the trail than in the shop trying to get another inch of clearance or another foot of travel.
I guess I just can't relate to these buggy rigs. I know what it's like to take a CJ down the Big Sluice, so I can appreciate the skill and concentration you need to make it through. It's sort of like the difference between high-school football and the NFL. Or seeing two kids in a Mustang and a Camaro square off on grudge night compared to paying big bucks to watch the circus that the NHRA has turned into. Sure, amateur night is full of screw-ups. The balls aren't thrown as well, the cars don't go as fast. Our old Jeeps couldn't possibly go where these pro-built rigs can. But we all had a helluva good time anyway. Still do, for that matter.
And let me ask you: Am I really missing anything by not crawling up a sheer rock face? By not having to get out every hundred feet or so to spool out a winch cable? By not rolling my rig and having to deal with the mess afterwards? What's the point?