If you’re into preparedness, you probably drive a 4x4, either a pickup or sport-utility vehicle of some sort. You’ve also probably had experience driving on back roads, getting stuck in mud and snow, and negotiating rocky rutted trails. You’ve learned these skills through your own experience and from tips and tricks you’ve gleaned from your friends and family. You’ve gotten pretty good at ‘wheelin’.

What would you think about kicking your skills up another notch? What if there came a time when you had to escape a civil emergency - hurricane, flood, earthquake, widespread civil disturbance - by driving you and your family over an impossibly rough, boulder-strewn trail. Could you do it? Would you be able to make it through, keeping your family safe and your rig operational?

We’re talking professional level 4-wheeling here. Climbing over boulders as tall as your hood, straddling ravines deep enough to swallow your rig, and working your way up rocky steps and ledges requires experience and training that it’s hard to get on your own. Where do you go to learn this stuff? One place is Moab, Utah.

The Moab Experience

Moab, Utah, has one of the finest collections of rocky trails available anywhere, trails with names like Metal Masher, Steel Bender, Poison Spider Mesa, and Cliff Hanger, winding through rugged canyons and across the rims of starkly beautiful cliffs. It’s a Mecca for off-road recreationists, and a lot of mountain bikers, hikers, and 4x4 clubs make Moab the destination for many of their outings.

The town’s strung out along Route 191, south of I-70 near the Colorado border, a collection of tourist-oriented establishments with motels and restaurants alternating with 4x4 repair shops and Jeep rental agencies.

If you live in that section of the country, you can join a 4by club, and let the experienced rock crawlers in the group show you the ropes. Make sure you choose a club that knows what they’re doing, or you may all end up stranded a long way from your motel or campsite with a bunch of broken axles, twisted driveshafts, bent wheel rims, and ripped sidewalls.

I decided to go the professional route. I signed on with Bill Burke, a world-class off-road instructor, who runs 4-Wheeling America, headquartered in Denver. Bill organizes off-road training expeditions, and also makes himself available for customized sessions with individuals or small groups. I had just finished some business in Denver, and Bill swung by my motel. We loaded my camping gear into his Land Rover Defender 90. I didn’t have to bring much - Bill furnishes almost everything except your toothbrush. It was a sunny spring morning, making for a pleasant trip on I-70 to Moab. We cut down route 128 near Cisco, just past the border, arriving at Bill’s campsite south of town midafternoon.

We set up camp, then set up the Defender for some serious off-roading, which occupied most of the daylight hours for the next three days. Bill’s Defender 90 is a ’94 model with a manual transmission, lifted 2½ inches with the Old Man Emu suspension lift. He’s got ARB air locking differentials both front and back, a 9000 pound Superwinch on the front, and light truck tires. He carries a HiLift jack, a Pull Pal ground anchor, and various winching accessories - D-shackles, pulley blocks, and nylon tree straps and tow straps. He also brings along a variety of tools and spare parts, just in case.

The Tires

When you’re traveling in rough country, it’s important to use light truck tires. The passenger car tires that a lot of sport-utes come with these days just aren’t heavy enough to stand up to the punishment or rocks, sticks, and ruts. It’s a long hike back into town when you get your second sidewall rip of the day. Bill uses BF Goodrich Radials, Mud-Terrain T/A LT285/75R16. These stand close to 33 inches on Bill’s Defender and have very strong three ply sidewalls.

The last thing we did before leaving camp was air down the tires. This softens the ride over rough roads, and more importantly increases the traction considerably. With a radial light truck tire, you can air down to about ¼ the maximum rated load. Each of the BFGs is rated at 3305 pounds at 65 pounds, so we aired down to 15 pounds. Don’t forget, though, with aired-down tires you lose a little ground clearance. You also have to decrease the load you carry.

Strike Ravine - The Basics

We started out with the Strike Ravine Trail. From this point on, until we broke camp in three days and headed back for Denver, the driver’s seat was mine. Bill emphasized the Tread Lightly! principles: Travel on established trails, Respect the rights of others - hikers, bikers, campers, Educate yourself by obtaining appropriate maps and copies of local regulations, Avoid sensitive areas like stream banks, meadows, wildlife areas, and Drive responsibly to protect the environment.

Then he went over the basics of rock crawling, starting with the primary rule: Go slow, easing your way over the rough trails with finesse, protecting your tires and the drivetrain. Stay in 4-wheel Lo, shifting up and down through the gears as required to adjust your speed. Be careful about downshifting, though, and slow down before you get into a lower gear. Downshifting from 3^rd to 2^nd or from 2^nd to 1^st in Lo range can be like hitting a stone wall.

Keep your thumbs out of the center of the steering wheel. Sudden turning of the front wheels as they come down off a large rock can jerk the steering wheel around, even with power steering, spraining or even fracturing your thumbs and wrists if you’ve got a death grip on the wheel.

Climb over sizable rocks, putting one front wheel or the other directly on the rock. Don’t pass over rocks by straddling them. If you misjudge the clearance, you can put a hole in the oil pan, differential cover, transmission, or transfer case. You can also damage the steering linkage and suspension. Put your wheel squarely on the rock. Avoid too small a bite with your tire, or your wheel may slip off to the side, tearing the sidewall on a jagged edge.

Ease up onto the rock, leaving the clutch all the way out. Use the throttle to control your speed in 4-wheel Lo. You can burn out the clutch very quickly if you use it control your speed on and off rocks. Ease down gently off the face of the rock, again with the clutch out. Use engine compression to slow you down, and stay off the brakes. If you must use the brakes, feather them gently to keep your speed even. Don’t pump them.

Avoid wheel spin when easing up onto a rock or step. As well as being very hard on the tires, spinning is also hard on the environment, and it can break a hub, axle, differential, U-joint, or driveshaft if the spinning wheel suddenly grabs traction and sends a sudden jolt into the drivetrain.

Pick your line through a field of rocks strewn along a rough trail. Look far ahead down the trail, and decide exactly what track you need to take to clear all the obstacles along the path.

The trail to Strike Ravine starts out with a long, uphill V-shaped gully containing a continuous floor of irregular suitcase-sized rocks. Bill used the terrain to bring home another principle - keep the rig as level as possible by straddling the gully and easing over the rocks as they came. Always avoid "sidehill" positions, with one side of the vehicle a lot lower than the other, which could lead to a disastrous rollover.

Travel straight uphill and straight downhill. If you get stuck going uphill, get into reverse quickly and back straight down. Don’t ever try to turn around so you can go down frontwards. If you do, you’ll take a big chance on rolling over as you come around sidehill.

Use engine compression and lower gears to keep your speed under control when traveling downhill. Absolutely keep off the clutch and stay off the brakes as much as possible.

Cross gullies or logs at an angle, bringing one wheel at a time across the obstacle.

Prichett Canyon - Winching

4-Wheeling America provides all meals and equipment necessary for a great and comfortable off-road training experience. Bill fixes a hot breakfast and hot dinner every day, with sandwiches and juice for trailside lunches.

I woke up the next morning to the smell of a hot breakfast cooking on the campstove. Bill furnishes all meals for his clients, hot breakfasts and dinners, with trailside sandwiches and juice for the lunch break. Bill and his wife, Rachel, pride themselves on the nutritious and delicious meals they provide, packed in the cooler for easy and efficient campsite preparation.

A Jeep club works their way over the Rocker Knocker on the Prichett Canyon Trail.

The morning was sunny and fresh as we headed out to Prichett Canyon Trail, to go beyond basic rock crawling. The first major challenge was the Rocker Knocker, a rock formation with a double step, each about a yard high. The trick is to creep the front wheels up the first step, then change direction and take the second step without hanging your frame up as your rear wheels clear the first one. All this, of course, without spinning the wheels. I managed to slip the left rear wheel into a crack, hanging us up and giving us the opportunity for some winching experience.

Free-spooling the cable, Bill hauled out the line and attached it to the Pull Pal ground anchor, but the hard-packed earth wouldn’t let the blade sink in far enough to hold. We used his massive six inch nylon tow strap to secure the cable to a huge boulder, and I drove the Defender up over the second step, aided by the power of the winch. Bill’s a master of vehicle recovery techniques, and his video, "Unstuck," is a must-see for all off-road drivers. He emphasized that as a general rule, you should use a chain, not a nylon strap, to secure the winch cable to a boulder, because the rock will fray nylon in short order. But if you’re willing to invest in the huge six inch wide strap, you can get away with using it instead.

We winched up the next major obstacle, too, called "The Rockpile." It offers a four foot step that was more than I could get up unaided. Bill probably could have made it by judiciously using a little momentum and gently bumping the front wheels up the face of the mini-cliff.

The value of finesse and conservatively using the winch for difficult spots soon became apparent. From a high vantage point farther along the trail, we took a break and looked back down at a Jeep club attacking the Rockpile with various degrees of aggression. About half a dozen rigs bounced their way up, one aided by a tow strap, with the whine of spinning tires almost drowning out the engine noise. We watched the last Jeep try to claw his way up, with clouds of rancid smoke from the tires almost obscuring him from our view. All of a sudden we heard a sound like a rifle shot. He stopped his engine, and hung there, front wheels over the step as everyone gathered round.

A couple of mountain bikers passed them by, and caught up with us a few minutes later. They confirmed what we suspected. "Rear driveshaft," one of them commented. "A long way from town," the other observed. "He’s got to drag himself over some rough trail with just his front wheels pullin’."

Bill sees off-roading as a means to the end. You use your expertise to get you, your family, and your vehicle to your destination all in one piece. You do what you need to do to protect you and your equipment. If that means using a winch instead of trying to bounce and spin your way up, leaving half your tire tread on the rocks, then so be it.

The Abyss - Lockers

The author inches his way down into the Abyss.

We passed by White Knuckle Hill, but left it for another trip, and had lunch on the canyon rim overlooking the town. That afternoon, Bill sought out one of his favorite spots - the Abyss (AKA High Dive and Upchuck on the Behind the Rocks Trail). This is a small canyon which he has his students drive across. Entering it involves driving down a steep pile of rocks, possible only if you pick the path for your wheels very carefully. You leave it via a rocky slope, filled with numerous irregular steps and ledges.

Getting ready to winch over one of the steps at the top of the Abyss.

I got hung up about two-thirds of the way up, and we winched the rest of the way. Many of the trails in that area have steep ledges running across them, and we got experience using Bill’s ARB lockers.

The are several different types of locking and limited-slip differentials available. I favor the ARB, and Bill does, too, because it gives you positive on/off locking. It also uses an under-the-hood air compressor, which is handy for airing your tires back up at the end of the trip. Switches on the dash or the center console lock the differentials, and totally prevent one wheel spinning helplessly while the wheel with traction goes nowhere. There is a separate switch for the front and rear diffs, so they can be locked individually, or together. Automatic lockers and limited-slip differentials aren’t as positive - you can’t be sure exactly when they’re on and when they’re off. I’ve got ARB lockers on the rear diff of my ’94 K-Blazer (they don’t make one for the front), and on the front and rear diffs of my ’87 Wrangler.

The advantage of lockers is that as long as one wheel on an axle has traction, it will drive you ahead. There are three disadvantages:

The torque of the engine is concentrated on the wheel or wheels with traction. It’s possible for only one wheel of the four to be driving the vehicle forward, if the other three are all slipping. That greatly increases the likelihood of breaking something in the drivetrain, like the axle or U-joint belonging to the driving wheel. With lockers engaged, it’s more important than ever to use finesse to get over obstacles.

The second disadvantages of lockers is the tendency of a locked differential to drive the vehicle straight ahead, even if you’re trying to turn. It’s especially difficult to turn if you have the front differential locked, but even with an open front diff, the rig will tend to go straight if the rear diff is locked. So lockers decrease the maneuverability of a vehicle.

The third problem that lockers present is the tendency to drive the rig sideways if you’re traveling across a slanted surface, especially if the surface is slippery. Gravity is pulling the rig sideways down the slope, and the two locked wheels rotating together act like a giant corkscrew, driving the end that’s locked down the hill. If you must travel sidehill on a loose or slippery surface don’t use lockers.

A related problem is having a locked front end kick you to one side or the other when you’re traveling uphill. The weight is on the rear end, and the front end is light. If the locked front wheels catch the edge of a ledge, or hit a patch of loose dirt, they can kick the rig sideways. When using lockers to get up a difficult hill, Bill likes to start out the rear locker engaged and the front diff open. Once he’s into the hill and feels the front wheels biting well, he’ll kick in the front locker as well.

Later, after we’d enjoyed another one of the great meals Bill prepares so efficiently, we sat around our campfire in the crisp high desert air, watching the scrub cypress, pinion pine, and sagebrush around our tents fade with the evening light. What did we talk about? What else - 4-wheeling, of course, with Bill sharing even more of his extensive knowledge and experience with me until we turned in, tired from the day’s demands.

Finding Our Way

The rest of the time, Bill helped me fine-tune these skills, and added a few more. Moab is known for its slick rock, and some of the trails cross acres and acres of featureless flat slabs. Bill gave me plenty of practice trying to figure out where the trail went as we crossed these areas. Sometimes, previous travelers had placed small cairns of rocks to mark the trail. That helped. Other times, you could pick out faint tire tracks marking the way. All else failing, I guessed, realizing that a wrong decision could get us decidedly lost.

We also used Bill’s Trimble GPS a lot, correlating our position on the map with GPS coordinates.

Mirror Gulch and Widow Maker

The author, swinging Bill’s Defender 90 into Mirror Gulch.

We explored a number of other trails, including a narrow chute called "Mirror Gulch" because your rig may not have any when you reach the other end. We traveled Widow Maker and drove across the Gemini Bridges, massive rock bridges crossing a deep canyon. We investigated some narrow trails around the rock formation called Two Tortoises, including another narrow double-step obstacle which reminded me of a rerun of the Rocker Knocker.

The End of the Trail

Before breaking camp on the last day, we took time out for some target practice. I had a .22mag Grendel P-30 I was breaking in, and Bill was shooting his 9mm Ruger P89. Between rounds, we talked about preparedness and how 4-wheeling fits into the big picture of honing one’s survival skills. Even those of us living comfortably in urban environments right now, may one day find ourselves unexpectedly setting up new communities far from urban centers. 4x4s will be the only practical vehicles to use for reaching these new areas and for traveling between them.

Honing our off-road skills not only gets us ready for unexpected events. It also increases our enjoyment of the great outdoors through off-road recreation - camping, exploring scenic trails, accessing remote areas for hunting and fishing, and accessing solitary trails for hiking and mountain biking.

There’s no substitute for a few days of hands-on training with someone like Bill Burke.

---

Originally published in the American Survival Guide magazine. Republished with the author's permission.

Resources

Bill Burke; 4-Wheeling America; (970) 858-3468. Email bill@bb4wa.com

Bill Burke’s video, Unstuck, on vehicle recovery and winching.

4-Wheeling how to books and videos.

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